"Deciphering Ancient Star Patterns," "Taiji Two-Poles Birth-and-Control Variation Array," "A Brief Study of Void Array Dao."
Reading those titles, Su Ming's breath involuntarily stalled for a moment.
These were the true priceless treasures. Especially "A Brief Study of Void Array Dao." If he could grasp even the surface of it and combine that with his "Observation Micro" ability, he had confidence he could set up a short-range escape teleportation array during Foundation Establishment.
"The margin for survival just thickened by thirty percent."
Su Ming satisfiedly tucked the sole copies into the most intimate storage pouch on his person.
After finishing all this, the cave dwelling fell quiet again.
Su Ming poured two cups of clear water and gently pushed one cup to the empty meditation cushion opposite him.
He watched the faint ripples on the water and images of the mundane world floated up involuntarily in his mind.
That scholar had finally achieved his dream of peace and prosperity.
"A gentleman is cautious when alone, and does not deceive in a dark room." Su Ming softly recited the line from the calligraphy slip Xu Qing had given him, a faint smile curving at the corner of his mouth.
He lifted the cup before him, raised it toward the void as if toasting from afar.
"Brother Xu, shoulder the storms of the court for now. Mountains high and waters long, take care of yourselves."
He looked up and drank the water in one gulp.
Then the scene shifted.
Su Family Village, those two brand-new black lacquered wooden doors.
Second Brother Su Yang's broad shoulders, his mother's graying hair, and at dawn, his father's stooped back standing on the threshold smoking pipe tobacco, watching him leave.
Su Ming's eyelids sank slightly.
He did not feel sorrow. He knew the Three Talents Protection Array he left behind and the covert watch of the capital's sleeper agent were enough to let his family live prosperous and secure in the mundane world.
As long as he did not return, as long as he did not drag the cultivation world's karmic ties back to them, they would be absolutely safe.
"Father, mother, second brother. This lifetime's ties end here."
Su Ming spoke the words silently in his heart.
When he opened his eyes again, the last traces of mundane weakness and attachment in his gaze had been completely wiped away.
His Dao heart, at that moment, became round and lustrous like a pearl, unbreakable.
He lowered his head and fixed his gaze on the Xuantian ring on the index finger of his right hand, which looked dull and rough.
Su Ming reached out with his left hand and gently stroked the ring's surface.
He could clearly feel that deep within the ring, the faint soul-power fluctuations were reviving and condensing at an astonishing speed.
Since absorbing the essence of the Soul-Nurturing Wood Pith, Lin Yu's soul body had entered deep sleep.
But now, that sensation like a cocoon about to break open grew stronger and stronger.
On this lonely path of long cultivation, this modern soul who always talked nonsense and constantly vowed to survive at all costs was the only true companion he could entrust life and death to.
"My array-crafting comprehension now is enough to read the array runes you drew back then."
A faint, ghostly light shimmered across the ring's surface, as if responding to his words.
Su Ming smiled and withdrew his hand.
With a flick of his wrist, the "Formation Peak Secret Realm" access token bestowed by Xuanheng appeared in his palm, emitting a purple starlight.
Rubbing the intricate patterns on the token, Su Ming's expression gradually deepened.
Half a year.
He planned to seclude himself in the secret realm for half a year.
There he would thoroughly integrate these three hundred-plus basic runes with the higher-level runes he had newly understood, attempt to construct his own compound killing formation, and push his cultivation toward the mid-stage Foundation Establishment barrier.
He knew that whether the Ming Abyss Sect might revive at any time, or whether people would continue to hunt for that elusive Heaven-Mending Pill, the Cloud Hidden Sect's current peace and the daily life of his master sect were only temporary.
The wind would come, sooner or later.
And before that wind rose, he had to grow scales hard enough.
......
On the fifteenth day after returning to the sect, deep at night.
Tonight's moonlight was excellent, like a thin veil of silver flowing through the skylight hollowed in the dome, laying a frost-white patch across the greenstone floor.
In the beam's center, seventy-two mid-grade spirit stones were embedded in grooves in specific positions, forming an intricate and precise "Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Power Gathering Formation." At the array's very core, the jet-black Profound Shadow Egg lay quietly.
Under the interweaving moonlight and starlight, the egg's surface emitted a deep, faint glow. The dark golden lines etched on its shell, previously dormant, now seemed like living things, swirling several times faster than during the day. In the flicker between light and dark, a weak pulse rose up like a heartbeat.
"In—out—"
With each alternation of light and dark, a little of the gathered force of the stars was drawn in, sinking into the egg's hard shell.
No lamps were lit inside the cave dwelling. Three zhang away from the formation, on a meditation cushion, Su Ming sat cross-legged.
He wore a loose gray inner robe, not the conspicuous True Disciple purple robe. An old jade slip, "Star Guidance Manual," lay open across his knees, and at the fingertip of his right index, a droplet of ghost-blue liquid spiritual energy slowly drifted in the void under his will.
He was working through a high-level guiding rune called "Star Path."
These days had been simple and fulfilling for Su Ming. Having extracted himself from the mundane whirlpool of power and severed worldly ties, his Dao heart became clearer than ever. Every day he either meditated to refine liquid spiritual energy, or devoted himself entirely to the deconstruction and recombination of these three hundred-plus runes.
No scheming, no court intrigues, only these concrete, tangible laws of array dao.
That grounded feeling gave this young man—who lived by the Way of Survival and was riddled with insecurity—a steady peace that radiated from within.
The ghost-blue filament in the void, under Su Ming's extremely strict divine-sense micro-manipulation, was gradually forming a complex polygonal structure. Only the last three nodes remained before this rune, which could multiply star-power guidance efficiency, would be complete.
However, just as his fingertip was about to place the third-to-last node,
his finger stopped without warning.
Not from lack of spiritual energy, nor exhaustion of divine sense, but from a primal shiver that shot up his spine into the back of his head!
"Vzzz—!"
An anomaly erupted!
The Profound Shadow Egg at the formation's center trembled violently without any forewarning. The dark golden lines that had been slowly flowing across the shell were suddenly injected with some furious fuel and burst into a blindingly intense golden light!
The light was so fierce it drowned out the pouring moonlight, illuminating the dim cave as if it were daytime!
"Crack!"
A crisp shattering sound followed.
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