Chapter 97: Chapter 80: Setting Up
Li Qian knew the method for setting up the Frostfire Array and all its crucial details by heart.
He had practiced a few times before, but always under the guidance of Niu Fenjin.
But setting it up alone this time was different. Li Qian hoped to succeed on his first attempt, and he was confident he would.
The first step in setting up an Array was to outline the Array Patterns. This was the foundation of the Array, analogous to the meridians in a human body.
Li Qian began to outline the Array Patterns. He took out the Jade Talismans he had already polished into rectangles and began carving on them with a sharp tool.
The shape he needed to carve was already etched into his mind; it was one of the fifteen Array Patterns for the Blazing Fire Array.
Before long, the Energy Jade Talisman was carved. The flamboyant, dance-like patterns on it gave it an air of mystery.
Initially, Li Qian had been very curious about the origin of these Runes.
After Niu Fenjin’s explanation, he gained a general understanding.
It was just as he had suspected: the Runes had indeed originated from Dimensional Rifts.
Archaeologists had risked their lives to excavate them from ruins found within.
They deciphered these Runes, which gave rise to the very first Arrays.
To this day, this remains the largest source for all kinds of Arrays.
The other source for Arrays was Array Masters themselves.
By building upon previous Arrays, some Array Masters were able to innovate and create new ones.
The Frostfire Array was one such creation. Back then, it had taken Niu Fenjin a great deal of effort to master this Array.
With one Energy Jade Talisman complete, Li Qian used his Spiritual Power to connect with the Array Pattern within it.
As the connection was established, a faint halo of light immediately appeared on the Energy Jade Talisman.
This halo was proof that the Jade Talisman met the required standard.
If there had been a problem with the Array Pattern, causing the Energy flow to be obstructed, the Energy Jade Talisman wouldn’t have produced a halo, or the halo would have been dim.
A good start. The very first Energy Jade Talisman had been successfully carved. Seeing this, Li Qian nodded in satisfaction.
Having carved the first Energy Jade Talisman, he continued without pausing, immediately starting on the second...
Nearly three hours later, he finally finished carving all thirty required Energy Jade Talismans.
’Whew, I only ruined two Energy Jade Talismans. That’s pretty good!’ After carving all the Energy Jade Talismans, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh of relief.
He was very satisfied with having only two failures. The result had exceeded his expectations, leaving him pleasantly surprised.
After finishing all the Energy Jade Talismans, he didn’t immediately move on to the next step. Instead, he began to pace and observe the area.
On one hand, he was surveying the site for the formal setup. On the other, he was relaxing, recalibrating, and taking a short break.
After about ten minutes, feeling that he was properly composed, Li Qian continued with the setup.
He first picked out fifteen Energy Jade Talismans, arranged them on the ground in a specific pattern, and then placed Fire Attribute Energy Stones at seven key nodes.
Once that was done, he used his Spiritual Power to connect with the Array Patterns in the Energy Jade Talismans and activated the Array.
As the Array activated, a crimson light began to spread—the sign that the Blazing Fire Array had been successfully set up.
With the Blazing Fire Array complete, at least half the work was done.
Next, he just had to follow the same procedure to set up the Frost Array and then link the two together to complete the Frostfire Array.
Everything went smoothly. Another half an hour later, Li Qian had the Frost Array set up as well.
By the time he finished, it was already noon. Li Qian didn’t continue; instead, he made a phone call.
A moment later, Fatty An came waddling over, a smile on his face and food in his hands.
"What’s got you so happy?" Li Qian asked casually as he took the food from Fatty An.
Fatty An chuckled. "Tan Tou is about to evolve, so of course I’m happy."
He continued without pausing, his tone tinged with regret, "By the way, Qianzi, are you sure you won’t reconsider? Letting Tan Tou evolve into a Frostfire Salamander?"
"I wouldn’t recommend it." Li Qian shook his head and explained, "There’s a fifty percent chance of failure when evolving into a Frostfire Salamander, whereas evolving into a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon is a sure thing. With Tan Tou’s aptitude, there’s no need to take that risk."
There were two other reasons Li Qian didn’t mention.
First, Tan Tou had already completed all the pre-evolutionary training targeting the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon. If they were to change its evolutionary path now, all that previous training would have been for nothing.
Second, and this was the most crucial point.
Compared to Ah Long, Tan Tou’s Spirit Attribute wasn’t particularly outstanding.
Through the evolutions of Xiaoliu and Ah Long, Li Qian had accumulated some experience and was now almost certain of one thing.
The success rate of the evolutionary path from Koi Carp to Frostfire Salamander was indeed influenced by willpower.
The stronger the willpower, the higher the probability of a successful evolution.
For both Xiaoliu and Ah Long, given their willpower, the success rate would have been far higher than fifty percent even without the assistance of Liu Changfeng’s soul bond.
But for Tan Tou, it was a different story.
When there was already a clear path to success, there was no need to take such a risk.
"Sigh, that’s a real shame." Hearing Li Qian’s explanation, Fatty An couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret. He then muttered to himself, "I heard that the Frostfire Salamander has a chance to evolve into an Ice and Fire Giant Dragon... That’s a Saint Spirit-level Pet Beast!"
Li Qian smiled, trying to console Fatty An. "As for the evolution from Frostfire Salamander to Ice and Fire Giant Dragon, there are still no leads on the method."
He wasn’t just making this up. In the entire Beast Taming Realm, no one had yet figured out the evolutionary method to turn a Frostfire Salamander into an Ice and Fire Giant Dragon.
In fact, it was only speculation within the Cultivation Realm whether the Ice and Fire Giant Dragon even evolved from the Frostfire Salamander at all.
No human Breeder had ever witnessed the evolutionary process. They had only observed small, mixed colonies of Ice and Fire Giant Dragons and Frostfire Salamanders living together.
Furthermore, the fact that both the Ice and Fire Giant Dragon and the Frostfire Salamander possessed both Ice and Fire attributes was a detail that was hard to ignore.
Of course, it was also possible that this information had already been confirmed, or that some Breeders had already figured out the evolutionary method, but it simply hadn’t been made public yet.
He paused for a moment, then continued along that line of thought, "And even if a Breeder has figured it out, the cost would likely be prohibitive."
"Most importantly, if a Frostfire Salamander can evolve into an Ice and Fire Giant Dragon, who’s to say the Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon doesn’t have its own subsequent Evolutionary Forms? I, for one, refuse to believe that."
Seeing that Fatty An was still not quite convinced, Li Qian offered a compromise. "If you still want a Frostfire Salamander, you can wait until you reach the Elite Level and gain a second Beast Taming Space. You can reconsider it then. In any case, whether it’s a Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon or a Frostfire Salamander, getting one won’t be a difficult task for us!"
