Chapter 637: Right Under Its Nose?
If Juju could not see it, then it naturally had no way to act against it.
That, He Lingchuan supposed, was exactly what the Heavenly Palace intended. Hiding the array eye was the best way to protect it.
He Lingchuan pondered for a moment. “If you could see it, would you be able to attack it?”
“It has only lit up twice. The first time lasted the longest, roughly two incense sticks[1]. The second time, it only flashed a few times.”
He Lingchuan gave a soft sound of surprise. “The first time only lasted two incense sticks? Are you sure?”
“Yes, but that was enough for me to judge its position at the time.” Juju was Mount Xu’s guardian spirit, after all. Anything that happened within its territory and skies could hardly escape its observation. “At that time, it was east of Tianji Peak, about half a kilometer above the ground.”
Roughly half a kilometer?
“The second time was much shorter, but I could tell it was also at that same height. That hadn’t changed.” Juju gave a hoarse laugh. “It is very likely moving along that same level.”
“Two times alone prove nothing.” After saying this, He Lingchuan fell into thought.
Juju’s words did not quite match what had actually happened.
The first strange flashing of the Tianluo Star had occurred when the Qianxing City ruins produced that hidden scene.
The moonlit Qianxing City phantom had lasted four full hours and only vanished before dawn. The Tianluo Star had also remained bright until the first pale light appeared in the east. He and Fushan Yue had both seen that with their own eyes.
Yet Juju said that the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array’s core, which corresponded to the Tianluo Star, had only manifested for two incense sticks, which was about half an hour.
Why was it so short?
Of course, He Lingchuan would not bring this fact up with Juju. In all the world, the only ones who knew what truly happened that day were probably the Heavenly Palace and himself.
“How does the Heavenly Palace repair it if the array eye is so far from the ground?”
Anything used would suffer wear. Anything that suffered wear needed maintenance, or it would eventually break. In that sense, no matter how wondrous an array was, it was no different from buildings, furniture, or any other durable object.
And the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was so important. Would it be proper not to inspect and maintain it several times a year?
Juju fell silent again.
He Lingchuan understood. So it doesn’t know.
The Heavenly Palace guarded against everything, and most of all against this “inside thief.” How could they let it learn the core secrets of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array?
“In all these years, you haven’t managed to get anything useful out of the Ke Family either.”
“The members of the Ke Family are just dogs raised by the Heavenly Palace. How many divine secrets could they possibly know?” Juju was disgusted whenever this came up. The gods had appointed the Ke Family to make offerings to it, and only the Ke Family could openly contact it. But the Ke Family was always kept away from the true secrets of both the Heavenly Palace and the imperial court.
This was obviously deliberate. No matter how much effort Juju spent on them, it was all wasted.
Thinking of this, flames surged across Juju’s whole body.
He Lingchuan, not being underground, could not see the terrifying scene of magma roiling. He only asked, “In the past ten years, have you kept in touch with any other outsiders?”
“Why ask that?”
“So that means you have?” This aberrant creature is cunning and unwilling to be controlled. Since it couldn’t obtain information from the Ke Family, perhaps it has opened another channel and found other informants.
If He Lingchuan could make contact with it, who was to say others could not? There were countless strange divine techniques in the world. Even the Heavenly Palace could not guard against every possibility.
“I need more intelligence too.” He Lingchuan smiled. “Why not act as the middleman?”
Juju also let out a low laugh, neither confirming nor denying.
This brat had only hooked up with it for one day, yet already wanted a share of other people’s intelligence. How could there be such a convenient thing in this world?
“I’ll offer one piece of information first, as a show of sincerity.” He Lingchuan was always generous when he needed to be. “More than ten years ago, when the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array was nearly complete, the final step was installing the array eye. At the time, the Ke Family made a great number of offerings and fed you until you fell into a deep sleep. Correct?”
This was one of Juju’s most unpleasant memories. It answered with a heavy “Mm.”
“But you woke early, flew into a rage, and nearly caused the entire array to collapse.”
Juju said stiffly, “I was only a step away. Truly a pity!”
If it had ruined the array back then, would it have had to endure the last ten-odd years of humiliation?
“But your eruption still severely affected the final installation. They didn’t even have time to calibrate it.” Everyone in Lingxu City had deeply felt how terrifying this rock-fire aberrant creature could be when enraged. “After the work was finished, the supervising officials discovered a problem.” He Lingchuan spoke word by word, “Every autumn and winter is the Tianluo Star’s bright period. For safety’s sake, the array eye was still supposed to remain hidden in the void. With the Heavenly Palace’s ability, they could already adjust it to that degree. However, because of your interference, that part failed, and with the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array already having begun operating, that issue turned into a foundational error that could no longer be repaired. Unless they rebuilt the array eye, they could only use other methods to patch over it.”
Anyone familiar with the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array knew that with Juju around, the array could not be stopped.
Would Juju calmly watch the Heavenly Palace rebuild the array eye, restart the array, and suppress it all over again?
Juju was instantly interested. “What do you mean? Be clearer!”
“To put it simply, the array eye should have remained hidden in the void during autumn and winter. But in reality, once the Tianluo Star’s bright season arrives, it may very well be floating above Mount Xu.”
Zaifu Kua and his colleague had discussed the construction process in his dream, and the conversation had been full of technical terms and parameters. He Lingchuan had expended great effort to extract this one key point.
Juju could not help but raise its voice, “What? You’re saying the array eye is not in the void?”
“It’s in the void right now,” He Lingchuan corrected.
“I know, I know. You mean once the Tianluo Star begins staying bright, it will leave the void and float in Mount Xu’s sky, right?” Right under its nose, for ten whole years, and it had never discovered it?!
“Yes. So your resistance back then did have an effect.” It had left behind an irreparable bug. Otherwise, He Lingchuan probably would have had no way to act this time. “We just don’t know what method the Heavenly Palace uses to render it invisible, and to keep birds from crashing into it.”
“Those aren’t a problem. The Heavenly Palace has plenty of methods.” Juju quickly calmed down, though excitement still colored its voice. “Hah, Hahaha! I thought that since the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array could run for so long, there were no problems with it.”
Simply put, it had trusted the heavenly gods’ methods too much and had never thought that the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array itself might have flaws.
“For large foundational arrays, the tolerance for error is quite high. Generally speaking, a few defects won’t stop them from operating.” He Lingchuan gave an example. “Just as those supervising officials said, what major construction project isn’t riddled with flaws while it’s being built? If something can be repaired or adjusted, then it gets repaired or adjusted. Most of the problems are resolved, and in the end, the project still passes inspection and enters use.”
Take any building, for instance. During construction, a random inspection could uncover a horrifying number of defects. But after completion and especially after official acceptance, how many buildings collapse after only two years?
“Just like this error. Didn’t they manage to cover it up? Even you didn’t notice. Let’s see if we can use this as an opening.” Even though Juju was a knowledgeable ancient greater monster, it had never handled the large-scale engineering projects humans were best at, nor was it familiar with the tricks involved.
He Lingchuan stood and poured himself a cup of warm water. “What makes the array eye float?”
That thing could drift back and forth above Mount Xu while maintaining a fixed altitude, so it surely had some source of power.
“What else could it be? It obviously must be suspended dipper stone.”
“Huh?” He Lingchuan thought for quite a while before remembering what suspended dipper stone was. “You mean it floats for the same reason as the seven floating islands?”[2]
The floating islands could remain suspended motionless in the air because their foundations used suspended dipper stone. When he first arrived in Lingxu City, Bai Ziqi had mentioned that the stone did not belong to this world and had its own method of charging.
“Of course.” Juju said gloomily, “You want to make it fall? Hah, don’t even think of it. As long as Lingxu City continuously replenishes it with floating stones, it can hover steadily. And as long as the Grass Sea opens regularly, the source of floating stones is not a problem.”
He Lingchuan stroked his chin. “As the most important array eye of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array, the Heavenly Palace must have protected it very thoroughly.”
“Didn’t the intelligence you obtained include its defenses?”
“Even if I got them, they wouldn’t be very useful.” He Lingchuan shook his head. “The supervising officials only had contact with it more than ten years ago. Who knows whether the Heavenly Palace reinforced it afterward? My blind guess is yes.”
“I can’t act. With just you, bringing it down is impossible.” Juju sighed, rarely showing such resignation. “Leaving aside the defensive divine techniques set up on it, the array eye must also have origin energy protection.”
The array eye was the core of the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array. The Heavenly Palace’s protection of it must be the most comprehensive.
Beijia’s origin energy was tremendously powerful. Even if Juju attacked with all its strength, the effects of its divine techniques would be greatly weakened.
After all, origin energy existed precisely to resist powerful monsters like itself.
“There is always a way.” Having acquired even more intelligence, He Lingchuan’s mood lightened. “First, we need to confirm the array eye’s location. By the way, when the Tianluo Star flashed those first two times, did you make a move?”
“You saw me this afternoon, didn’t you? There are restrictions on my body. I cannot attack buildings or arrays that Lingxu City has constructed within Mount Xu’s range.”
He Lingchuan remembered the conspicuous rune collar around it. As he had expected, as long as the Grand Spirit-Gathering Array operated normally, Juju could not turn its spearhead against the array eye.
“But I still threw a few avatars at it.” It was not Juju’s style to admit defeat without even trying.
“Did it work?” Although the array eye was more than three hundred meters[3] above the ground, a volcanic eruption could easily exceed that height. It would take Juju no effort to throw lava at it.
“Er, no. They were bounced away.” Juju sounded resentful. “I used very little force. Otherwise, it would have been judged as an attack on the array, and that would have been bad.”
In He Lingchuan’s understanding, violating the restriction meant suffering for it.
“However, the avatars I threw up still saw the array eye clearly.” Since the array eye was half a kilometer above the ground, Juju needed to toss avatars upward to observe it closely from different angles.
This thing truly has a mind of its own. He Lingchuan’s spirits lifted. “What did you gain?”
His information about the array eye had all come from Zaifu Kua, and to be honest, it was somewhat outdated. Fresh, firsthand information was far more valuable.
An attack on Mount Xu would be extremely dangerous. He had to gather as much intelligence as possible.
1. Probably 30 minutes total. ☜
2. This is mentioned in the first chapter of Arc 8, Chapter 555. ☜
3. The author used zhang here, by the way, so if it sounds oddly specific, it’s because it was really just a hundred zhang, which is typical for a casual measurement. Well, if you’re wondering 100 zhang = 333 meters. ☜
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