Page 51: Leaving
Days left before the sect's martial and alchemy competition: 120 days
The village has improved so much compared to its previous state a month ago. The people have become active in the village's improvement while the number of cultivators have increased. With the addition of East Tiger whom they named as Lin Hu, hunting for food and essence crystals have significantly increased. The village's defence was also improved thanks to Lin Hu's input which she learned from being part of barbarian's den. Feng Shangyuan, the current chief has now a military trainer who would guide the kids in their cultivation and skills.
After staying for more than a month in the village, Long Bai has taught Lin Hu the skill set of the <White Dragon's Martial Skill> and the future requirements in case someone would be able to reach the first threshold. While for the village chief, Long Bai taught him the needed skills on how to maintain the essence core synthesizing array (core-forming array). This is so that the next children would still be able to have a chance becoming a cultivator no matter the aptitude. In addition, Long Bai created a low level protection array for the village which the chief can activate during emergency times which would be able to protect them from any low level stray beasts. Although Long Bai has no real deep connection with the village, taking care of the people, especially the children, has given him one of the most satisfying feeling he had all his life. He can't just leave it be.
It may be true that he did those things within the duration if one month, Long Bai still did not neglect his cultivation. Working during the day and cultivating during the night, he was able to increase his cultivation by one level. Currently, he's now at the 4th level of bone tempering layer which makes him the strongest in the village followed by Lin Hu. As for the children who just awakened, two has already reached the third level of flesh tempering layer while the rest was at the second level. It might be slower compared to Bai's rate but its just because the cultivation base they practice was too average. This is if its compared to Bai's constitution however the technique was tweaked a little bit by Bai so it should be better than the original which the chief was formerly practicing.
Now, everyone from the village has gathered outside preparing for something. Since Long Bai has announced a couple of weeks ago that he would be leaving at this date, the people prepared a send-off gathering so they could give their regards to him. He also said that it might take a long time before he can visit this place so the villagers understand that they should make this one grand. Outside, the villagers were waiting for Long Bai to step out of his cabin ready to give their greetings.
"MANY THANKS TO OUR GREATEST BENEFACTOR AND THE FIRST LORD OF THE WHITE DRAGON VILLAGE"
Just as Long Bai stepped out of the cabin, a synchronous voice of people has burst into his ears. 'Aw man, they did it again.' Bai's thought was running active. Looking at the villagers who were there for the fiasco, Long Bai just rode on their whims. One after another, each approached Long Bai and received their offerings. Naturally, they were food they prepared for his journey. Even the children which he taught for a while gave him something which was something appreciative, a piece of preserved meat from their first catch. Everything they gave all entered his cosmic pouch. It was good that it was still able to accommodate the current content or else it would be a hassle to hold them while travelling.
"I appreciate everything and will eat them happily during my travels."
Long Bai's words were short but has reverberated into the hearts of the villagers. Until they saw nothing of his silhouette, the villagers stayed standing watching his back. In every one's mind, they were reminiscing everything that has changed and improved because of a young man's gift and work.
An hour has passed since departing from the village. Long Bai has planned a trip back at the sect however not a straight one. At this junction of the hour, he has just reached the cave which the bandits have stayed. Although it was already searched by the raid team, Long Bai believed they would not have noticed something inside the deepest chamber. During his last visit, he sensed something peculiar inside that chamber however it didn't register in the system since he wasn't aware of it yet. It was just after he learned about arrays that he understood there was something in that cave. If his guess was correct, the place might have been visited by an array master from the past and left something there for the taking. He wasn't sure but that is what he's aiming. Since he still have four months to go before the competition, he might as well use his time to satisfy his curiosity.
Long Bai is back in the cave system. Last time because he was too focused in killing the bandits, he failed to essentially check the cave we. Now that he have the time, he was able to notice things that he didn't notice before. At the entrance, there was a remnant of a broken array which was supposed to conceal the entrance. Long Bai can't tell what caused the damage but this might have been the reason why the bandits was able to find the entrance. Aside from that, the cave system has a total of seven chambers but four of them were destroyed. One of those were the crevice where he pilled the body of the dead bandits before. Now, there are no bodies since the last ones who came here took them and burned them.
At the deepest chamber, Long Bai slowly and carefully scanned the area. He was looking for any clues that would tell him any sign of an array. At one corner, it wasn't that much obvious but a circular pattern has been etched. Since it was dark, it would have been impossible to see but once the eyes adjusted, it can be barely noticeable. After looking on the other walls, there were five of the same patterns. It was as if the formation created a pentagram. Long Bai stood on where the middle should be and he finally saw the array's form. On the walls were five inscriptions in a circle located 2 meters above the ground and on the ground just below them were another five inscriptions. It was like two star formations stacked together, one below and another 2 meters higher. If Long Bai's going to imagine it, ot was as if the formation was trying to box something. This means that there's still part of the formation he hasn't seen yet. Thinking deeply, he tries to guess where it was. Upon looking above, it was the moment where he should be shouting "eureka!". It was the location of the final inscription. Five points below, another five points 2 meters higher and one above. If all dots are connected, it would make sense. Everything was making a star formation on the x,y, and z planes. If it is imagined, it would resemble a pointed house.
[System notice: You have detected an array. Touch the heart of the array for the system to analyze. ]
Following the system's notification, Long Bai put his hand on the central part of the array, it was where he was standing.
[System alert: The system began to extract the formation details. Stay your position until the remaining time. 4 min : 52 secs]
Looking at the time it needs to extract the information, the array must have been a high level one. Probably 4 or 5 which Long Bai has no record of it yet. He stayed kneeling for the duration of the time and after the info was extracted, he felt a lot of his inner essence was used for the process.
[System notice: Analysis of the extracted information has started. Time remaining: 9 min :53 secs.]
Seeing that he will need time, Long Bai decided to replenish his inner essence for the time being. He rummaged the essence replenishing pill he had left from his pouch and took 1. Absorbing essence from the outside while circulating the converted inner essence all throughout the body, he noticed a difference of velocity on one side of his essence veins. On his right shoulder where the strength gate was located, the flow of essence was faster compared to the other parts. This gave him some motivation to locate and break open the remaining gate channels in his body. Its just that such task required huge amount of essence to do it just like the mellinium milk he found last time. If he knew it before hand, he should have used it to break open the rest instead of increasing his cultivation but there's no helping it since he won't be able to survive if it wasn't the case.
After ten minutes, he was prompted by the system of its notification.
[System notice: The array has been analyzed. The grade 5 transporting array has been added to your library. You may now use it accordingly.]
After the upload of the information, Long Bai felt the pouring of information in his mind. Such experience has never been a great experience for Long Bai because every time that it happens, he felt like puking or sometimes dizzy for a moment.
With the new information in his mind, he now understood how to manipulate the planted array on the chamber. 'So this is a transporting array. Based from the size, it can only transport one person at a time and the distance is just a few hundred kilometers. This is a linked array and its other linked array is located on a place I don't know off. Should I try and explore? Hmm, might as well since I'm here.'
Long Bai's curious nature can't just be easily extinguished as long as he knows there's no much threat for his life. Now, since he know that the array was a two way array, he can return anytime he wants. He went to the activation circle in front and injected essence on it. When it activated, he supplied twenty red shards before going back to the center.
[System alert: You are being transported to another island. Prepare for the side effects of a short distance transport. ]