Onwards to new heights. (2)

"Alright, this place should have enough space to accommodate the arrays, we just gotta move a bit away from this new landmark our friend here made. Shen, go flatten that hill over there, taking the elevation into account while drawing the array would be a pain in the ass. Liang and company, start sorting through the corpses and dived them based on elements, anyone not aligned to the proper elements will be used as fuel so divide that group into a further five groups, four weak ones for fuel and one strong one to draw the sealing array and dismantling array. And Spirit Stones, prepare the Spirit Stones needed to speed up the dismantling array, if not I fear that we may sit here all year just waiting for that process to finish."

Li Zhao Xu started spitting out commands the moment Liang Chen handed over the Divine Beast blood, she was the one who had to draw up the arrays so it was obvious that the other odd jobs fell onto Liang Chen and the others. Yumao grumbled slightly about her commanding tone, but Liang Chen easily pacified him by placing his hand atop his head and ruffling his feathers.

"Don't whine, we're...I'm the one asking for a favour here so it's just to be expected."

Yumao could only hold back his grumbling and dive into Liang Chen's interspatial ring to start sorting through the veritable sea of corpses they had acquired over time. Sheng Lian followed Yumao and Shen Fei trudged over to the hill so that he could flatten it according to Zhao Xu's instructions.

Luckily, Liang Chen's interspatial ring wasn't actually that disordered, most things were kept separate so that he could easily bring out whatever he needed. It was a bit worse with the corpses, but he had made sure to at least keep the obviously stronger ones separate from the rest, they were the ones who would be most useful after all. As such, he really only needed to give his ring a quick swipe to bring out the strongest corpses and his Spirit Stones, dropping them in front of and around Zhao Xu.

"These are the strongest corpses I have, at least from among the group that doesn't match my own laws. Those two rings contain most of the Spirit Stones I own, but tell me if you need more and I'll bring out the rest."

Liang Chen had no clue when it came to drawing and supporting arrays so he really didn't know how much blood or Spirit Stones Zhao Xu would need, but erring on the side of caution would likely bring out the best result here. Zhao Xu picked up the two rings and inspected their contents, checking the corpses afterwards before she nodded her head.

"Your interspatial ring must have a function to alter the flow of time, even the blood of the bloodline-less corpses still carries a fair share of their original power. That's good, less will go to waste as a result."

She managed to discover one of his interspatial rings functions simply by observing the state of the corpses, but even that function didn't seem to surprise her greatly as she got to work. She brought out a crimson dagger that seemed like it was covered in vines, a brownish-red gem inlaid in the handle seeming to serve as the source of the vines.

She slid the dagger across the throat of the closest corpse, the vines and gem emitting a faint light as the stagnant blood within the corpse was drawn out through the cut. The corpse dried at an astonishing rate, Zhao Xu discarding it without much thought as she moved on to the next one. She slit throat after throat as she procured the blood she needed, the dagger seemingly serving as a reservoir to preserve the blood, and possibly the energy within it.

When she finished with the last of the corpses, she brought out some items that Liang Chen didn't recognize, mostly plants and what appeared to be parts from Demonic beasts. All the ingredients were drawn into the gem, vanishing from her hand one by one.

"Alright, this should be enough for the sealing array so we can draw that one first. If you want to learn a little bit then you can follow me, but what I can teach you will in no way be enough for you to draw your own arrays."

Zhao Xu inspected the gem as she spoke, tapping it a few times as if she was trying to gauge its contents. Liang Chen followed her as she moved away from the poisonous ocean he had created, picking up the dried corpses she had discarded. Once she got far enough away from the ocean, she crouched down and placed the tip of her dagger against the ground, a steady stream of greenish-red liquid leaking out from the tip.

"When it comes to arrays, the important part is that not a single part of it is useless. Every stroke has a meaning, every rune a purpose. Foregoing one line to focus on another opens a weakness in your array, and that weakness will be exploited by your enemy, it's like the opening you reveal after a punch, it's one step closer to hell."

Zhao Xu moved her dagger as she spoke, lines imprinting themselves onto the ground, overlapping in some areas while connecting in others. Her movements were swift and sure, filled with the confidence of an expert.

"They're also much like people, a greater whole formed from several smaller parts. The Lines form the veins as they meander around and the organs that support us, once you have enough Lines you get a Rune, serving as the bones that carry us. Once you connect enough Runes you get a Form, that's the meat coating our bones and giving us our form. And once you've connected all the needed Forms, you end up with the skin, the Symbol, the completed array. There's an additional step or two when you reach a level high enough to turn entire Runes into nothing more than Lines, but I haven't reached that stage yet."

Zhao Xu spoke confidently, but she wouldn't let that confidence get to her head. She had indeed reached a stage many others would never reach when it came to array creation, but she was far from the peak. And if she also kept in mind her father's more unorthodox way of making arrays then she was even further from the peak. But then again, she was still so far above Liang Chen that it may as well be comparable to the difference between her and her father.

"Not a single part of the array, no part of the body, is useless, it all serves a purpose. Discovering this purpose is what you need to do if you want to create or destroy an array. Taking this one as an example, the last five Lines I've drawn are all meant to stabilize the energy flowing through this one rune. The Line I'm drawing right now, as well as the next five, are all meant to transfer the energy flowing through this Rune into the next one. And the eight Lines I'll draw after that are all meant to stabilize the energy flowing into this Rune from the others. Depending on which of the Lines you destroy you can either shut down the Rune itself or cause a chain reaction that can take down several of the other Runes around it. On the other hand, destroying the runes responsible for regulating or creating the element of the Rune will have a much lower effect since the energy itself will still flow properly."

Zhao Xu continued talking as she drew, not really caring about how much Liang Chen would manage to pick up. Some people were meant to draw arrays, some were meant to cure wounds and heal diseases, some were meant to forge weapons, and others still were meant to create techniques. Those were the ones born with the talent, be it the talent to accomplish their task or the talent to work hard enough to make up for the lack of appropriate talent.

If Liang Chen was the first case then he would learn from just this, if he was the latter then he wouldn't learn anything from this and would have to search out the answers on his own. Whatever the case was, it had nothing to do with Zhao Xu, she only spoke because of a fleeting fancy, a moment of mimicry.

And indeed, Liang Chen didn't really understand much of what she said. He obviously understood the basics, but the finer details escaped him. What made this Line more suitable to sending out energy while this Line was more suited to accepting energy? Why did these four Lines enable this Rune to birth lightning? He didn't understand. But he still listened, he picked up what he could understand and memorized what he could not, there was still time for him to understand in the future.

Hours turned to days as Zhao Xu drew, murky lines starting to fill the land as the image she wanted to carve into the world slowly took form. Three images stood at the centre, one in the shape of a bird, one in the shape of a tiger, and one in the shape of an elephant. The three beasts faced each other, overlapping at the place where their maws would touch.

Surrounding these three images was an image that looked like a dark spiral, looking at it from above made it seem as if it was swallowing everything and dragging it downwards. A final image was mixed into this dark spiral, it resembled jagged teeth that adorned the spiral and sank into the three bestial images.

Five large arrays, the spiral that formed the outline alone was nearly three kilometres across. It didn't need to be this large to work, but Zhao Xu had increased the size so that they could throw out more corpses at a time to speed up the process. Liang Chen sat at the very centre of the array, at the spot where the three bestial images overlapped into a twisted mess of lines.

He had already thrown out a great deal of corpses, the jagged teeth mixed into the other images dismantling the corpses and reducing them to their base energy. He also threw out all the cultivation resources he had on him, anything he had that was related to his body-focused laws was tossed out and dismantled by immaterial teeth.

The treasure he got from Yi Ze Ruan was no different. Only in the case of this sword, he had to first pry loose the gem that served as the core. After all, it was this core that carried all the water-based energy that he was searching for.

The arrays thrummed around him, buzzing with power as they voraciously drew in the energy that was offered to them. Zhao Xu and the others stood outside the array, Zhao Xu keeping a close eye on the runes that formed each array, making sure that things worked as they should.

After what felt like years, Liang Chen threw out the last of the items he had prepared. All the corpses were gone, all the body-focused resources had been expended, he had put just about everything he had on the table for this moment, this step. He raised his head slightly as he sat there, locking eyes with Yumao.

"If it shows signs of running out of control, activate your domain, that way I'll stand a greater chance of containing it."

Zhao Xu and Shen Fei didn't know what Liang Chen meant, but Yumao was extremely clear on it. Liang Chen needed two additional energies for his body, one was relatively harmless and easy to acquire, but the second one brought with it risks should he be unable to control it. So he steeled himself, he didn't allow his attention to waver for a single instant.

Liang Chen nodded his head as Yumao steeled himself, closing his own eyes to signal Zhao Xu that he was ready. The arrays whirred to life around him, the sealing array locking down the area as the three bestial arrays summoned their respective elements and bombarded him with them.

Today, Liang Chen would advance his body cultivation by altering some of the more important parts of his body. And the parts he had selected for today were the two most important ones, the brain and the heart, failure was not an option. But what he did not know was that he had already made a mistake, an error he had engraved into his very body without knowing it.