"Alright, then I'll give it a try."
After saying that, Ethan drew the Godslayer Sword.
He thought it over for a moment and decided not to use his strongest move right away. After all, who knew whether these formation lines would rebound attacks?
So, he decided to test the waters with the Strange Sword Style first.
For now, he couldn't think of a safer sword technique. First, it could attack from a location far away from him. Second... the moment he launched the Strange Sword Style, he could immediately close the spatial gate used to cast it.
That meant the rebound path would be erased. Even if the formation lines wanted to rebound the attack, they wouldn't have a route back.
How safe was that?
"Go ahead."
After saying that, Saint of Formation stepped aside.
On the surface, it looked like he was giving Ethan room.
But Ethan suspected the old man was actually sneaking farther away to avoid getting caught in the blast.
'What a crafty old fox.'
Fortunately...
He had already prepared for that.
"Strange Sword Style!"
Ethan swung the Godslayer Sword and slashed toward the flickering formation lines.
One moment, the Strange Sword Style appeared before Ethan and Saint of Formation.
The next, it appeared directly at the edge of the Gray Space and slashed toward the lowest of the flickering formation lines.
BANG!
The result was like chopping a live electrical wire with a cleaver.
A massive burst of energy exploded instantly, then immediately sent Ethan's sword strike flying back.
However, Ethan had already closed off its return path.
With nowhere to rebound to, the sword strike lost its direction, veered off to the side, and slammed into a nearby tree.
Instantly...
BOOM!
The tree looked as though it had been struck by lightning.
It wasn't merely split apart.
It exploded into pieces.
You had to know, this was an Ironsword tree over fifteen meters tall, with a trunk more than three meters thick.
It was one of the finest timber trees. Even with a refined steel axe, it would take three days and three nights to chop one down.
But now, it had been blown into splinters.
Ethan was almost certain that if his Strange Sword Style had struck it directly, it would have done no more than cut the tree down.
Blowing it to pieces was absolutely impossible.
"Oh?"
Saint of Formation looked a little surprised.
"I didn't expect you to have a technique like that."
"I thought I'd at least teach you a small lesson."
"Sorry to disappoint you, Master."
Ethan didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Saint of Formation raised an eyebrow and said indifferently, "Now that you've experienced it yourself, you should understand how powerful these formation lines are."
"If you can't cut one apart in a single strike, then you'll suffer its backlash."
"This is the backlash of the formation lines."
With that, whether to demonstrate or simply to show off, Saint of Formation swung his sword.
A crescent-shaped sword aura about one meter long shot across the ground toward the formation lines.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Although, Saint of Formation's crescent sword aura wasn't large, the moment it flew out, it was like a mad bull dragging a plow across the earth at full speed.
It carved a deep, narrow trench over a distance of a hundred meters.
Finally, the crescent sword aura struck the formation line.
There was no earth-shattering explosion.
No rebound.
There wasn't even a particularly loud sound.
Only a crisp, clear snap rang out from the formation line.
Snap!
The formation line broke instantly.
After fluttering in the air a few times, the broken line completely disappeared.
Once the first formation line anchoring the Gray Mine snapped, the remaining lines seemed to come under greater strain. The white light of the minor formation cores dimmed noticeably, and they began flashing more rapidly.
"Amazing!"
Ethan applauded Saint of Formation before asking, "Master, these minor formation cores connected to the formation lines keep flashing. Is that because the increased pressure means they're about to reach their limit?"
"You could say that, but not exactly," Saint of Formation replied, "No matter how much they flash, they'll still hold for another three to five hundred years."
"Three to five hundred years? Heh!"
Ethan laughed helplessly.
If he didn't deal with the Gray Mine, the source of all this flooding, soon, District A7 probably wouldn't survive another three to five days.
Three to five hundred years?
"I've already explained the principles," Saint of Formation turned and smiled at Ethan, "Want to try again?"
Ethan understood.
The old man was obviously unhappy that he hadn't managed to prank him just now.
Now he wanted Ethan to try again, and he definitely wasn't up to anything good.
Still, Ethan wasn't afraid.
After all, who said the Strange Sword Style was his only sword technique?
Not to mention the Moon-Slaying Style, the strongest technique he currently possessed, even the Crescent Style was far more powerful than the Strange Sword Style.
Ethan quickly calculated the explosive force from the rebounded strike that had hit the Ironwood tree.
From that, he roughly estimated the durability of each formation line.
It looked like, he could only use the Moon-Slaying Style.