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When he saw Meng Qi stop, Li Che quickly walked over and asked, “How’s it going?”
Meng Qi, squatting on the ground and intently studying the array she had drawn, replied with some difficulty, “There’s another problem.”
“Hmm?”
He looked at the space in front of Meng Qi and saw two beautifully drawn, extremely intricate arrays spread out. The overlapping lines were so complex that even after watching Meng Qi complete the arrays, Li Che couldn’t imagine how they had been drawn.
“The Netherworld Thorn will wither almost immediately after being picked and lose its medicinal properties. The Stardust Stone in the river is in its most formative state; if it’s not refined using the demon race’s secret technique, it will quickly turn to dust once removed from the Nether River.”
“Yeah,” Li Che nodded.
“So, if we use a puppet to retrieve either the Netherworld Thorn or the Stardust Stone, we have to do it simultaneously.”
Meng Qi continued, “This Hundred Ghosts And Hundred Phantoms Array can summon over a hundred phantom puppets. If we were gathering common spiritual materials, it would be possible to send them all at once. But when it comes to retrieving something like the Netherworld Thorn or the Stardust Stone, I can only summon one puppet to retrieve one of the items.”
“Didn’t we agree to…”
Li Che began, but Meng Qi shook her head. “If healing Yan Xuan is only the first step, this Seven Emotions Array likely has seven trials.”
She didn’t need to finish for Li Che to understand. He nodded and asked, “So, what do you plan to do?”
“If I were already at the Spirit Severing stage, it would be simpler,” Meng Qi murmured, “I could try to split off a part of my spiritual consciousness to control another array. Then, with your help, we could manage it.”
Li Che frowned. He stood up and started pacing back and forth, hands clasped behind his back, looking troubled.
Meng Qi remained crouched on the ground, looking up at Li Che. “Or…” she began, her thoughts suddenly racing as she looked at Li Che, already a Spirit Severing cultivator. “You could control the array!”
“Huh?” Li Che was confused and stopped in his tracks, looking down at Meng Qi.
The blue-robed girl’s eyes were bright and clear, and her expression was unusually excited. “This Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array isn’t difficult to learn. You should be able to control it with just a basic understanding of arrays.”
“Not difficult?” Li Che tilted his head to look at the complex arrays on the ground, suddenly feeling lightheaded. He wasn’t familiar with arrays and had never been an array cultivator. All he knew about array cultivation was some legendary deeds of ancient array cultivators he had only occasionally heard from the elders of his sect.
Li Che also knew that after the legacy of array cultivation was lost, there were no true array cultivators left in the Three Thousand Worlds. Even the refinery cultivators who had seemingly re-emerged in recent centuries were not true array cultivators—they simply utilized a small part of the array legacy.
Thinking about this, he couldn’t help but stare blankly at the two intricate arrays on the ground.
And Meng Qi said… this array isn’t difficult…
Although they looked nowhere close to ‘not difficult’ in his eyes, Li Che had great trust in Meng Qi.
“You want me to study the array? But…” Li Che, who had a good memory, vaguely recalled that Meng Qi had mentioned this ‘Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms Array’ before. It was the array used by the mysterious and powerful black-clad man, Ji Wujiong, during the tournament in the Apricot Forest. “This array was passed to you by Ji Wujiong, wasn’t it? Wouldn’t it be inappropriate for you to teach it to me?”
Meng Qi was slightly taken aback. She pondered for a moment and then said hesitantly, “You can’t really say that Ji Wujiong taught me this array. He used it once, and I learned it on my own. At that time, Ji Wujiong didn’t take me as his disciple, nor did he officially teach me this Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array.”
As she spoke, her clear eyes looked at Li Che, her head slightly tilted. “Besides, healing Yan Xuan is taking priority now. Even if we are not required to break through this Seven Emotions Array, I think all rules and propriety can be temporarily set aside in front of a patient in need. Even if Ji Wujiong did pass the array to me and forbade sharing it, I would still teach it to you if it could save a life. At worst, after we leave here, I’ll go and apologize to him myself.”
As Meng Qi finished speaking, her beautiful eyebrows raised slightly, her chin lifted, and her gaze became even more resolute.
“You’re right!” Li Che stared at her for a moment and then suddenly nodded firmly, “You’re absolutely right!” He paused and added, “If Ji Wujiong wants to punish you afterward, I’ll bear the consequences with you.”
“Yes.” Meng Qi nodded vigorously. The two exchanged a smile, understanding each other without needing more words.
Without further ado, Meng Qi began teaching. She took out her trusted knife and started drawing on the ground with great care. “You are also a medical cultivator, so you’re naturally very familiar with the study of meridians and blood vessels.”
Li Che nodded, “The human body has twelve standard meridians and eight extraordinary meridians. A cultivator draws in the aura of heaven and earth, which flows through the meridians, nourishing the bones and blood, and finally gathers in the spiritual sea, gradually increasing their cultivation.”
He paused for a moment, “When the spiritual sea is developed, the spiritual sense is also born. When we need to use aura, it flows out from the spiritual sea, reverses through the meridians, and strengthens the spiritual sense.”
Being a medical cultivator, Li Che naturally understood these concepts thoroughly.
“Correct.” Meng Qi nodded. Holding the knife in her right hand, she quickly drew a small array on the ground. This small array was much simpler than the two previous Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms arrays. Meng Qi drew it effortlessly and finished in a matter of seconds, as naturally as drinking water or breathing.
“Though we medical cultivators may not have the combat power of spell or sword cultivators, we use spiritual sense more and have finer control over aura, so our spiritual sense is often stronger than sword or spell cultivators of the same level. This makes us particularly suited for learning arrays. I imagine…” Meng Qi said, “that the ancient array cultivators had a very powerful spiritual sense as well.”
“Take a look.”
“Okay.” Li Che squatted down beside her, studying the small array with her. “What kind of array is this?” he asked as he examined the overlapping lines. Although this array was simpler than the Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array, with fewer and less complex lines, only after observing it for a while did Li Che begin to grasp a bit of its structure.
Meng Qi then tossed out twelve eighth-grade spirit stones. With a flick of her slender fingers, the twelve spirit stones embedded themselves into twelve positions within the array. The light from the stones flashed, and their aura was instantly drained, converging at the center of the small array. “This isn’t really an array,” Meng Qi explained. “I came up with this based on the twelve standard meridians and our cultivation methods.”
Li Che: “?”
Meng Qi clarified, “These twelve lines.” She pointed to the array with her knife, explaining to Li Che, “The Hand’s Major Yin Lung Meridian connects to the Hand’s Yang Supreme Large Intestine Meridian, then to the Foot’s Yang Supreme Stomach Meridian…”
As she explained, her knife traced the lines of the array.
“An array requires the use of spiritual sense to control the flow of aura in one continuous motion,” Meng Qi said. “Just like our twelve meridians, where the aura flows endlessly, forming a self-sustaining circuit. Do you understand?”
“Und-understood…” Li Che scratched his head, still a bit bewildered. He understood meridians, of course. Meng Qi was clearly using the study of meridians to help him grasp the concept of arrays. He committed her words to memory and then said, “Please continue.”
“The places where the twelve meridians intersect are represented by the twelve spirit stones, and they ultimately converge at the spiritual sea,” Meng Qi explained as she made the final stroke with her knife, completing the new array.
She flicked her fingers, sending twelve spirit stones into place, and then, with a wave of her hand, she took out a spiritual herb from her storage space. Meng Qi placed the herb in the center of the array, and the once dried dried slowly began to turn green. In just a few moments, the dried leaves unfurled, becoming lush and vibrant again. Soon, the leaves not only turned green but also started to sprout new growth.
“I see,” Li Che nodded thoughtfully.
Many spiritual creatures in the Three Realms, including plants, drew upon the aura of heaven and earth to grow. This dried herb absorbed the aura from the twelve eighth-grade spirit stones and, under the influence of that aura, was revitalized.
Meng Qi smiled, “I’ve always thought that it’s quite easy for us medical cultivators to learn arrays.” She added, “Why don’t you give it a try?”
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