Lei Peng Wang was the absolute authority on Yu Liu Island, even with Yu Ke Wei now serving as the City Lord.
Within half an hour of his departure, he had brought back thirty-eight jade slips for Yu Ke Wei.
These slips contained rudimentary knowledge of formations, with the best being no more than a second-tier formation.
While Yu Liu Island did possess more advanced formation jade slips and books, Lei Peng Wang was no fool; he would never reveal them.
Yu Ke Wei had her suspicions upon receiving the jade slips but said nothing. Instead, she praised Lei Peng Wang’s efforts.
As she watched Lei Peng Wang depart, her expression turned grim.
"This Lei Peng Wang is truly humble on the surface, yet insidious in his methods."
"However, I’ve never studied formations before, and these low-level ones are perfect for me."
Yu Ke Wei was self-aware and did not disdain the simplicity of the formations she had. She began to study them diligently.
For the next month and more, she dedicated herself to learning these formations.
Although the jade slips could be read in a single day, mastering them required continuous practice and experimentation.
Even Yang Hong, with his cheat-like abilities, could grasp the general layout of a formation after a single read, but understanding and mastering it still demanded considerable practice time.
Once she had a basic grasp of the thirty-eight formations, Yu Ke Wei began practicing in the central plaza outside the City Lord’s mansion.
She first used spirit stones to recruit a group of demonic beasts, who helped her craft tens of thousands of flowerpots. She also enlisted demonic beasts skilled in cultivating spiritual plants to nurture a batch of young spiritual plants.
She paid no mind to the quality or variety of the plants; as long as they survived, it was sufficient.
After all, these spiritual plants were merely a facade, a superficial cover for her true intentions.
Once the plants in the flowerpots sprouted, Yu Ke Wei spent her days arranging them, setting up various formations.
These included auxiliary formations like the Spirit Gathering Formation and Qi Guiding Formation, defensive formations such as the Turtle Shell Formation and Spirit Transformation Defense Formation, and even killing formations like the Three Powers Tribulation Killing Formation and Five Elements Spirit Annihilation Formation.
All the formation setups and demonstrations were performed openly, visible to all.
She also invited demonic beasts within the city who understood formations to join her in research and discussion. Those who lacked knowledge but wished to learn were also welcomed, and they all studied together.
For a time, Yu Liu City was swept by a fervor for learning formations.
This enthusiasm also extended to over a dozen surrounding islands, large and small, which began researching formations. Many Demon Kings from other islands even came to Yu Liu City to collaborate with this generous, foolish City Lord.
Demonic beasts, due to their innate bloodline inheritance after shapeshifting, were more possessive of their knowledge than humans. They rarely shared their cultivation techniques and knowledge with others, especially those outside their close circles.
Situations like Yu Ke Wei's earlier method of "spending money" to buy cultivation techniques, or Lei Peng Wang's use of raw power to seize them, were exceptions.
Thus, the news of a foolishly generous City Lord in Yu Liu City spread throughout all the islands within a three-thousand-mile radius within a month.
Any demonic beast eager to learn formations sought ways to travel to Yu Liu Island to "discuss" with Yu Ke Wei.
However, most of the time, it was Yu Ke Wei who spoke, and the demonic beasts who listened.
To truly elicit formations from them required a significant price.
But these prices were the least valuable to Yu Ke Wei, be it spirit stones, spiritual medicine, or magical artifacts; she gave them whatever was requested.
After all, they were all plundered from Yu Liu City.
Lei Peng Wang, in particular, watched with a darkening complexion, his heart bleeding.
Those were his riches!
Furthermore, cultivation techniques were the most sought after, especially the demonic cultivation techniques synthesized by Yang Hong.
A Yellow-tier mid-grade cultivation technique could be exchanged for a second-tier formation, or ten first-tier formations;
A Yellow-tier high-grade cultivation technique could fetch a third-tier formation.
Almost all fifth-tier demonic beasts opted for cultivation techniques. There were even a few demonic beasts who pooled their resources to exchange ten first-tier formations for a cultivation technique.
The cultivation techniques provided by Yu Ke Wei were universally praised by demonic beasts who practiced them, being far superior to their own innate techniques.
This was also one of the disadvantages of demonic beast cultivators.
Despite possessing inherited memories, their innate cultivation techniques were extremely rudimentary, mostly Yellow-tier, with only their innate magical abilities being of higher grade.
Even if they managed to acquire some cultivation techniques, most were unusable due to racial differences.
The cultivation techniques Yang Hong provided to Yu Ke Wei were synthesized by the system, only differentiating between animals and plants,
at most further categorizing them into fur, scales, horns, feathers, and shells.
In this wave of exchanges, Yu Ke Wei naturally amassed a large number of Yellow-tier demonic cultivation techniques.
To avoid misunderstandings and disrupting her grand plan, she refrained from purchasing magical abilities this time, focusing solely on formations and exchanging for low-level cultivation techniques.
This solidified her reputation as a "great fool" even further.
What the demonic beasts didn't know was that during Yu Ke Wei's daily formation demonstrations, the "Sweet Rain Technique" used to accelerate spiritual plant growth was powered by the "Great Radiant Buddhist Scripture."
The demonic beasts who came to discuss were, unknowingly, developing a strong sense of goodwill towards her. Some of the less intelligent ones had even begun to see Yu Ke Wei as their leader after a month.
This was the subtle brilliance of influence.
After a month of discussions, under Yu Ke Wei's controlled pacing, nearly three thousand demonic beasts of fourth-tier or higher finally gained a clear understanding of formations from first to third tier, specifically the Spirit Gathering Formation.
"Brothers and sisters, I have finally learned my first formation. I've decided to spend the next while establishing Spirit Gathering Formations throughout Yu Liu City.
During this period, any fellow cultivators who haven't learned the Spirit Gathering Formation can follow along and learn."
With the first step of her plan successful, Yu Ke Wei immediately announced the wonderful news.
"City Lord Yu is mighty!"
"City Lord Yu is domineering!"
"Long live City Lord Yu!"
Her decision was met with loud cheers from all the demonic beasts, who enthusiastically supported her plan.
Only Lei Peng Wang and his loyal followers felt a deep sense of unease.
Yu Ke Wei's prestige in Yu Liu City now surpassed Lei Peng Wang's.
This was something Lei Peng Wang could not tolerate, so he braced himself and stepped forward to object.
"City Lord, please reconsider."
"Oh? Why?"
Under the hostile gazes of the surrounding demonic beasts, Lei Peng Wang continued.
"City Lord, you should recall that Yu Liu City has a city-protecting formation, and it is a very powerful one.
If your deployment of Spirit Gathering Formations interferes with the city-protecting formation, the losses would outweigh any gains."
Hearing Lei Peng Wang’s words, not only did the native residents of Yu Liu City nod in agreement, but even the demonic beasts from other islands turned to support him.
They had lived in the Myriad Demon Archipelago for hundreds or thousands of years and understood the significance of a city-protecting formation to an island.
It was their final line of defense.
"Heh heh~ Lei Peng Wang's concerns are valid. I have also taken that into consideration."
Yu Ke Wei smiled. She had been waiting for Lei Peng Wang to say exactly this.
She patted the potted spiritual plants beside her and continued.
"My intention in setting up formations is to bring benefits to everyone, not to harm them.
That is why I had the demonic beasts craft these flowerpots and cultivate a large number of spiritual plants. I intend to use these potted spiritual plants for the formations,
which will not affect the city-protecting formation."
"But... but..."
Lei Peng Wang was certain that Yu Ke Wei had an ulterior motive and that her claims of benefiting everyone were false, but he couldn't pinpoint the problem and was at a loss for how to refute her.
"No more 'buts'. You can observe the entire process. If any issues arise, you can stop me."
Yu Ke Wei waved her hand, interrupting Lei Peng Wang, and led a throng of demonic beasts in a grand procession to set up formations using the spiritual plants.
Lei Peng Wang could only follow Yu Ke Wei with a worried expression, hoping to find some flaw.