Alex waited for the old man to explain just what was going on.

"Remember how I said there was something else that I was planning with the formation?" the old man asked. "This is it."

"Okay..." Alex said. "And just what is it?"

"A bunch of formations mashed into a single one."

The old man’s answer left Alex even more perplexed. "What do you mean?"

"Alright, here’s the issue I saw you having. The two trees are very important to you, aren’t they? And they’re not just important, but also big secrets. Whenever someone comes in here, they immediately see the massive trees. So, I thought it would be a good idea to hide the trees. That was when I had the idea to create an illusory formation."

Alex narrowed his eyes on the outside, slowly nodding as he somewhat understood what the old man meant. "I get what you mean, but this feels different. More than just an illusory formation."

"Of course," the old man said. "Creating an illusory formation was just the beginning of my idea for this formation. I realized that I could just create barriers that could hide the trees, which made the need for the formation nonexistent. At that point, you revealed to me the Azure Dragon scales, which brought forth a new idea. Instead of an illusory formation, I wanted to create a formation that used spatial manipulation to mess around with a person’s sense of direction. Even when using their spiritual or Divine sense, they would forever be unable to realize where they were going."

Alex sensed the fog and realized that he did notice a strong spatial aura about it. In a way, this was an inferior version of the Void, which constantly churned, moving around to make it impossible to tell what the real direction was. Only a person capable of understanding Space dao could likely make their way to the center.

"This way, you can forever keep your secrets safe from anyone you wish to let enter your Soul Space."

Alex was rather surprised to hear all that.

"It can really do that, huh?" he asked. "But I’m sure I can sense something else too."

"Of course," the old man continued. "As I said, it’s a mash of many formations. Once I figured out the main formation I wanted, I designed many different formations into that one, so they could all work together. Aside from just the fog that messes with your directions, there’s also a formation to gather life aura from all around and pour it into specific locations. I’ve chosen the locations to be places where you are bound to grow the important plants."

"There’s also one specific location that Whisker tells me you will need. Something to do with pouring life aura into beast cores or blood. I’m not entirely sure what he was talking about, but I helped with that as well."

"And finally, there’s a formation to keep the Qi from the World Tree from escaping out of the local region, which I’m sure you will want."

Once the old man stopped speaking, Alex remained silent for a brief moment.

"These are incredible. Truly ingenious," he finally said. All this time, he had only thought about a formation to help with manipulating time, but the old man had gone further and beyond, helping Alex do much more.

"So, just to confirm, there is a formation to mess with directions, a formation to create a fog around the place, a formation to gather life aura, and a formation to keep the World Qi at bay. Is that all?"

"Yes, and another small formation to make you immune to the main formation," the old man said. "Show him."

Whisker brought out something from his Soul Space, showing it to Alex. It was a piece of an Azure Dragon’s scale, which was carved with very fine runes.

"This is a token of access for this formation," the old man said. "Anyone who holds this token will not be affected by the formation at all. This includes not just the fog, but also the time manipulation. If you don’t want time to speed up or slow down, you can use the token."

"Ah!" Alex finally realized why he couldn’t see through the fog, but Whisker could. It was because Whisker had the token, making him exempt from the formation’s effect.

"I think everything is working fine," the old man said, looking around. "We’ll stay around here for some time and see how things work out, but there should be no issue. So, if you want to do something right away, you can."

"Thank you. I do have some things in mind," Alex said, and immediately brought over the cauldron with the pillbugs inside into the center. "Whisker, you can cultivate for the time being and keep an eye on the bugs. The moment they lay eggs, immediately let me know."

"Okay, brother!"

After that, Alex searched for one of the few places around the islands where large lakes lay, filled with water from the First Scar of the Twin Scar realm.

With the temporal formations active, it was now time to place the Sacred Jade Lotus seeds he had brought back in there as well. So long as just a single one of them germinated, it would be an incredible boon to everyone with access to his Soul realm.

Whisker sat down and started cultivating in the sped-up time, and meanwhile Alex went around his Soul Space, gathering items to be kept in separate locations.

All of the Sunhearts were brought out of the central area and placed at the far edges, where the rate of aura they lost was massively diminished. At the same time, he carried over large chunks of plants to replant in the central area.

It took Alex a decent few days to go through the whole thing before he was finally done moving everything around. Once it was done, his Soul Space was finally open once again for other people to enter and enjoy its services.