Chapter 98: Chapter 81: The Reason for Failure
After eating the lunch Fatty An brought, Li Qian clapped him on the shoulder and said reassuringly, "Alright, from now on, your only task is to bring me my three meals on time. Don’t worry about anything else. Just wait to receive your Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragon."
He had only one goal for coming here this time: to evolve all the Koi Carp that were currently ready for evolution.
Besides Tan Tou, Jin Yi, Jin Er, and Jin San, he had also brought ten other Koi Carp. These ten were intended to evolve into Frostfire Salamanders.
These were the ten Koi Carp that had performed well after enduring the dual torment of Elder An’s Sun-devouring Tiger and Elder Tie’s Wind Thunder Lion.
He brought them to this place to see how much their evolution success rate would increase after being trained with the Intimidation Skill.
The recent string of events in Lingshui City had left Li Qian quite unsettled, and a faint, bad premonition grew in his heart.
This was precisely why he was so anxiously preparing for the evolutions. A deeper foundation meant greater security.
After diligently completing his meal-delivery duty, Fatty An didn’t linger and quickly left the water slide area.
Watching Fatty An’s departing figure, Li Qian’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
The coming period, until tomorrow morning, was extremely important for him.
Whether or not all fourteen Koi Carp he brought could evolve depended on this period.
As for the results of the evolution, Li Qian wasn’t expecting all of them to succeed.
The four Koi Carp intended to evolve into Cyan-Scaled Flood Dragons shouldn’t be a problem, but it was hard to say for the other ten whose target was the Frostfire Salamander.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Li Qian resumed the work he hadn’t finished that morning, focusing his attention on the ground.
There, the Blazing Fire Array and the Frost Array were already laid out. All that was left was the final step: linking them together.
This step, linking them together, was both simple and complex.
It was simple because there was only one step, but complex because that step was extremely delicate and required immense Mental Control Power.
Li Qian carefully controlled the Blazing Fire Array and the Frost Array, performing an initial activation. As the Arrays were activated, their Energy gradually began to merge toward the Array Hub in the center.
When he had watched Niu Fenjin perform this step, it had looked very simple.
But Li Qian knew that the simplicity was merely superficial. Its core was incredibly complex and intricate, allowing for no carelessness whatsoever.
The two diametrically opposed energies began to converge on the central Array Hub... Li Qian’s Spiritual Power was highly concentrated.
He hoped he could succeed on his first try, but in the next moment...
CRACK!
A faint cracking sound rang out!
Immediately after, the crimson light from the Blazing Fire Array on his left and the blue-white light from the Frost Array on his right both went out.
Li Qian sighed helplessly.
He had desperately wanted to complete the Frostfire Array in one go, but unfortunately, his first attempt had still ended in failure.
Walking over to the central Array Hub at the point of fusion, Li Qian dug it out. It was an Energy Jade Talisman.
Unlike an ordinary Energy Jade Talisman, while this one was also carved from an Energy Stone, its Array Patterns were different on the front and back.
The Array Pattern carved on the front was complex yet rugged; the one on the back was delicate yet simple.
These two completely different styles of Array Patterns on the front and back of the single Energy Jade Talisman were parts of the Blazing Fire Array and the Frost Array, respectively.
Whether it was the Blazing Fire Array or the Frost Array, if set up individually, either could be completed with just fifteen Jade Talismans.
But to have them merge and form a Combined Array, this sixteenth Jade Talisman was required.
It could be said that this Array Hub Jade Talisman was the most critical piece in completing the Frostfire Array.
It was the hub and key node for the fusion of the two Arrays.
Li Qian already had a bad feeling. Niu Fenjin had told him before that a cracking sound like the one that just occurred was a sign of a failed Array deployment.
After digging out the Array Hub Jade Talisman and inspecting it, he found that things were just as he had suspected: the Jade Talisman had broken in the middle, splitting into two pieces.
Although he was mentally prepared and knew that succeeding on the first try would be difficult, it was still disheartening when failure actually struck.
’I only prepared three Array Hubs... I wonder if that’s enough to finish the setup...’ Li Qian frowned as he glanced at the broken Jade Talisman, unable to stop himself from muttering aloud.
As he spoke, he took out the second Array Hub Jade Talisman.
He had prepared three Array Hub Jade Talismans in total.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to prepare more; it was just that the success rate for making these things was laughably low.
When he’d watched Niu Fenjin sketch them out, he thought it was simple, done in a flash. He never expected that when he tried it himself, it would take a full thirty attempts just to produce three.
A ten percent success rate had made him give up on the idea of grinding out any more.
Besides, he had thought that three Array Hub Jade Talismans would be enough to get the Frostfire Array completed. Now, that seemed a bit uncertain.
After a moment’s thought, he decided not to continue with the setup. Instead, he took out his phone and dialed a number.
’Forget it, I should ask Brother Niu first.’
The person he was calling was none other than Niu Fenjin. Given his understanding of the Frostfire Array, he should be able to offer some advice.
As he thought this, the call connected. A familiar voice came through, "Student Li Qian, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a while for that last lesson."
Hearing that he was still in the mood to joke, Li Qian thought to himself, ’It seems his condition isn’t too severe.’
"Don’t worry about the lesson. You can come over anytime you’re free," Li Qian said with a smile. "Or not at all, if you don’t have the time."
He then asked with concern, "How are you doing now? Did the doctor say when you might be discharged?"
Niu Fenjin’s somewhat bitter voice came from the other end of the line, "I won’t die, but I won’t be getting out of here anytime soon."
The two chatted for a few more moments. Feeling that it was time, Li Qian didn’t delay any further and got straight to the point.
He described the situation he had encountered to Niu Fenjin, who thought for a moment before responding, "A cracking sound generally means one of two things."
"One, the Jade Talisman used as the Array Hub is subpar and can’t handle the intensity of the surging Energy during fusion. Two, there was a problem with your Spiritual Power control. You failed to activate them simultaneously, causing the Fire Attribute Energy and Ice Attribute Energy to arrive at different times."
"When that happens, it’s like searing it with fire and then dousing it with ice water. It’d be a miracle if the Energy Jade Talisman *didn’t* shatter!"
"..."
