22 Chapter 22: Array Master?

Lying down, side to side with Yinling, Jun gazed up at the stars, her words echoing in his mind.

"Where should we go next?"

A simple question, yet it left him clueless on how to answer it. Their previous goal had been to go to Sky Palace but now they knew they had no chance in hell after what they did.

Not knowing where to go, he was contemplating whether they should just be rogue cultivators on the run when his thoughts were interrupted by a familiar chime.

[Ding! Congratulations Host on completing the Task]

[Reward: Rank 1-7 array master Book, Rank 1 - 4 Seal Master Book]

[Would you like to receive?]

Eyes sparkling with anticipation, he almost forgot the rewards of the system, after all, he had been too busy trying to stay alive.

"Receive!" thought Jun in his mind, and upon checking his inventory, two new books appeared.

Wanting to take them out and study them, he realized right now is not the best place.

"Hey, Yingling!"Jun called out, capturing Yinling's attention. "I think we should first find some shelter, maybe a cave or something"

Frowning slightly, Yinling responded, "Jun... you do know I can just set up a house I have stored inside in my ring right?" She pointed to the interspatial ring adorning her finger.

"You" Jun exclaimed, pointing at her ring, "have a house in your finger?" He was about to call her out for saying ridiculous things when a realization struck him. Can't storage rings store basically anything except living things?

If that's the case, shouldn't a house be a simple matter? He had never heard of or seen this concept in these types of novels.

"Well, why didn't you say so earlier instead of lying here in the middle of the woods" retorted Jun.

Ignoring his comment, Yinling retrieved a blue gem from her ring, infused it with a bit of energy, and tossed it into an open area.

Poof

Magically, a house materialized from the thrown gem, leaving Jun with his mouth agape in amazement.

Looking at Jun's agape mouth pleases her, she feels happy when she elicits such reactions from him.

"Just follow me but don't touch anything without my permission" she spoke menacingly.

Nodding subconsciously, he followed her in, and upon entering, he saw it was the same size as the inn they had stayed at.

A simple humble layout with a couch and other furniture but no pictures. Could this immortal world not have the concept of cameras?

"Yingling, do you know what are pictures by chance?"

Stopping in her tracts, she turned and replied, "No, is it some kind of food?"

Chuckling at her innocence, Jun explained, "No no nothing like that, pictures are a way of capturing real-time moments onto paper, kind of like paintings but instantaneous"

Intrigued, she responded, "Really? Maybe you can make one for me."

Nodding in thought, Jun agreed, "Perhaps I will, one day."

Their conversation turned to arrangements for the night. "You can take the couch, and I'll sleep in my room, like at the inn," Yinling suggested.

"Fine by me," Jun agreed, as she headed off to freshen up.

Settling on the couch, he held the Array Master Book in his hands. "I hope these books are worth all the trouble we've gone through," he mused.

Jun was very excited since array masters from what he had heard are a very noble profession.

Every top sect knows array masters are indispensable, without them, the sect would be missing out on critical infrastructure and resources for their disciples.

Protection arrays are needed in case the sect faces a life or death crisis, spiritual arrays for gathering the energy of heaven and earth to increase the spiritual energy concentration of the sect.

Attack Formation arrays for when an enemy is near the sect, so many other things involving arrays are needed.

"There were many uses for arrays but they weren't used to their full potential" thought Jun.

For example, when he was rushing at max speed for 5 hours, his energy was only slowly being consumed thanks to his amazing energy control.

If it were another cultivator with the same cultivation as Jun, they could only travel at their max for half an hour at best and would eventually run out of steam. This is the huge difference energy control makes in cultivators.

If he could develop a type of mobile array that is placed on the human body to actively draw in spiritual energy when fighting, wouldn't he be able to outlast every single opponent?

And when the human body can't store any more energy, could he develop a sort of battery to store the energy and in critical situations use it?

Such possibilities excited him intensely, especially with his epiphany phase, will he become the youngest rank 7 array master on the continent?

Opening the book, he read the introduction "Array Masters are cultivators who harness spiritual energy to create powerful arrays, intricate formations capable of defense, attack, or manipulation of the world around them"

As he read the first chapter, understanding it was as simple as drinking water for him.

Connections that would take even a genius weeks to connect were understood in mere seconds.

The first chapter contained basics like, what are array masters and how these special formations can manipulate the spiritual energy into their needs.

What are the basic formations and materials that are used and how they interact with each other which was quickly being understood by Jun.

There were many simple rank 1 formations such as defensive formations, attack formations, spiritual energy gathering formations, and more. The one Jun focused on was called the Spirit Convergence array.

As the name implies, it concentrates the energy of heaven and earth into one area. After taking a look at it, insight after insight flooded Jun's mind. Not even a minute later, Jun mastered it.

"Originally only a top rank 1 spiritual energy formation now a low rank 2 formation, am I a genius or what" mused Jun.

The way this formation works is by exploiting a process called diffusion which is the process in which particles move from areas of high concentration to low concentration.

Using this, the array first devoids an area of energy, with this, the concentration compared to the vast world is extremely low causing all the surrounding energy to rush in crazily. Although at first, this process may work, but once these particles stabilize, it would mean nothing.

But this is where the array works its magic, through a simple process called entanglement, it hides the presence of the spiritual energy inside the array, tricking the spiritual energy into always rushing into it.

A simple yet genius process, but being a low-rank array as it is, it has limitations. The array itself can only hold a certain amount of energy before it falls apart making it only a rank 1.

"Hehe, luckily I noticed a better efficient formation to use, effectively multiplying its storage by two" thought Jun. That's why that rank had increased to rank 2.

Wanting to go outside and test it out immediately, he realized one important detail, he didn't have the materials needed to set up the formation which were low-ranking spiritual stones.

"Wait! I stole the ring of that bastard Li Chen" Looking at his hand he noticed an extra ring on his finger. Pouring his energy into it, he soon saw an array of items ranging from high-rank spiritual stones, clothes, pills, exotic fruits, and more.

"Damn, this guy was loaded, and now it's all mine," Jun laughed aloud, overwhelmed by the riches.

Searching through the ring, he found thousands of low-rank spiritual stones tucked away in the corner.

Taking them out, he noticed they were the same size as a normal pebble except for the fact that it had a faint glowing white color emanating from it, which intrigued him. How did these stones even come about? Can he replicate the process to make spiritual stones and become rich??

Just about to walk out he screamed "Hey Yinling! I'll be outside trying out a new formation I learned"

"Alright, just be careful outside' came a yell from the bathroom.

Looking at the woods, to him, it appeared to be daytime thanks to his cultivation but if he were a weak body tempering cultivator, it would be nothing but pitch black.

"Alright, let's get started" spoke Jun to no one.

He first started by placing 4 low-rank spiritual stones around the house in a strange pattern, intentionally leaving one out.

After that was settled, he had to use wooden sticks to connect the formation which he easily acquired from the trees nearby.

"So now comes the final step" said Jun while walking to the empty area where a spiritual stone needed to be placed.

Placing the last spiritual stone on the spot, he eagerly awaited the results.