Li Che watched, dumbfounded with amazement. Canglang Academy was a sect with a continued ancient heritage. Sects like these, which carried the legacies of bygone ancient times, often had some ancient secrets passed down through the generations. When refinery cultivation discovered the ancient legacy that allowed them to make a comeback, Li Che overheard some Canglang elders mentioning an extinct cultivation branch called array cultivation. As its name implied, array cultivators used arrays in battle, and they were incredibly powerful, capable of rivaling those who specialized in the spell or sword.
Yet, for reasons unknown, while sword cultivation, spell cultivation, and even their own medical cultivation had inheritances passed down from ancient times, array cultivation seemed to have vanished overnight from the Three Thousand Worlds, with no sects remaining to carry on its legacy.
When Li Che first heard of this, he couldn’t quite imagine how an array cultivator fought. He knew a bit about the methods of refinery cultivators. The tools required for medical cultivation, such as cauldrons, medical knives, and silver needles, were all crafted by refinery cultivators, so he wasn’t unfamiliar with that branch of cultivation.
He thought that, like medical cultivators, refinery cultivators might not have strong combat abilities and were perhaps less dashing than spell and sword cultivators. That was until he witnessed Ji Wujiong’s extraordinary array in the Apricot Forest, and then here, saw Meng Qi’s array in action.
Li Che’s eyes widened as he watched the white figure—the phantom puppet—bouncing and running towards Meng Qi. The girl bent down, placed the Cold Spring Dew into a jade box, and handed it to the puppet, gesturing towards the Nether River.
The puppet tucked the jade box into itself and then hopped towards the Nether River.
The Nether River’s water continued to flow merrily, looking totally harmless, but Li Che knew that merely touching its surface would result in immediate freezing, even for cultivators at Spirit Severing or higher levels. And the water would freeze not only one’s physical body but also their spiritual sea, the aura it contained, and even their inner core. A cultivator unable to use any aura would be no different from an ordinary person.
Li Che was suddenly a little nervous. Wouldn’t this puppet that emerged from the array be completely frozen?
In the blink of an eye, the white figure had already reached the edge of the Nether River and stepped into the river without hesitation.
“Ah—” Li Che couldn’t help but cry out. The moment the puppet stepped into the Nether River, a thin layer of ice began spreading from its feet, encasing it completely.
“It’s going to…” Li Che started to say, but before he could finish, the puppet quickly shook its body, and with the sound of ice cracking, the ice shattered and fell back into the river.
“It’s not frozen…” Li Che murmured. He couldn’t help but turn to look at Meng Qi, who stood beside him. The blue-robed girl’s expression remained calm, but when Li Che looked over, she suddenly sighed.
“What’s wrong?” He asked.
“Array cultivators…” Meng Qi pulled out another handful of profound-grade spirit stones from her storage bag. “…spend even more money than us medical cultivators,” muttered she.
Sure enough, the spiritual light on the Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array had dimmed considerably compared to before. With each step the puppet took, the sound of cracking ice resounded, and the light of the array grew dimmer.
It had only taken three steps, and the once brilliant array was now so dim it was almost on the verge of fading completely.
Meng Qi raised her hand and threw in another dozen or so profound-grade spirit stones into the array.
“…” Li Che subconsciously touched his storage bag. Before entering the Ten Absolute Mountain, his sect had specially provided him with some spirit stones, including a few profound-grade spirit stones. But he realized that even with all his worth combined, they wouldn’t be enough to support that little puppet for more than a couple of steps.
Crack, crack, crack… The puppet continued to hop towards the center of Nether River. Meng Qi had already thrown out the fourth batch of profound-grade spirit stones, each batch consisting of ten or more stones. Although the river wasn’t wide—no more than a creek—it had taken nearly a hundred profound-grade spirit stones to get the puppet to the center.
Finally, the puppet stopped. Ice quickly formed around it again, but this time, when it shook its body, the ice didn’t shatter and fall away as it had before.
The profound-grade spirit stones that Meng Qi had just thrown into the Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array began to dim, and the aura within the array flickered faintly, as if it might disappear entirely at any moment.
The ice around the white shadowy figure also thickened, and now even the cracking sound had ceased.
…
On the banks of the Nether River, the light within the Hundred Ghosts and Hundred Phantoms array suddenly grew intensely bright. The aura it emitted was so dense that it was as if a small sun was shining brilliantly instead of a mere flickering star.
Li Che’s mouth hung slightly open as he looked at Meng Qi in disbelief, then back at the array.
Did… did he see that right?
Just now, Meng Qi had simultaneously tossed at least a hundred profound-grade spirit stones into the array.
The next second, the little puppet, which had been almost completely encased in ice and on the verge of vanishing within it, suddenly began to glow brightly.
Crack, crack… with the sound of cracking ice, the puppet stretched its limbs and jumped out from the shattered ice.
But as soon as it broke free from the ice, the once brilliant array dimmed again. Meng Qi let out a light hum and, with a flick of her hands, threw in two more handfuls—nearly another hundred profound-grade spirit stones—into the array.
“…” Li Che silently withdrew his hand from his storage bag. Meng Qiqi really did have a lot of profound-grade spirit stones!!
At this moment, the girl had already turned her gaze back to the center of the stream. Her eyes gleamed slightly as she raised her voice and commanded the puppet, “Pick up a few more!”
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