Chapter 114

Editor: meowmiao

Walking more than a hundred steps was not an easy task for the senior with graying hair who did not usually exercise. Grandmaster Luo stopped to catch his breath. “It’s safe for now, but still…”

Before he could finish, he suddenly heard a name that couldn’t be considered unfamiliar. It was something that had come out of the youth’s mouth.

He gave a few low coughs before turning around to sound out the other party. “Xiao Gu, did you notice something…?”

Gu Yan had met all the seniors who came to Kun Yi Mountain. Apart from Grandmaster Luo, there was also Grandmaster Wen who took special care of him because he was also a spirit tamer. The last one was Ye Chengyu.

During the spiritual convention, Gu Yan had thoroughly slapped the faces of all those countries who thought that China would be forced to withdraw from the spirit tamer category. Ye Chengyu, a rookie who had recently emerged, was also in the limelight. Therefore, China was undoubtedly the biggest winner of this year’s convention.

Now, these three people stared at the dark-haired youth walking with them. The blaze in their eyes burned bright, as if waiting for something.

At first glance, the eye of the array wasn’t located anywhere special. According to the knowledge of the present era, the eye of an array should be safely hidden away. Only selecting a special spot and making ample preparations would ensure that the array would not be broken.

However, they had found the eye of the array laid within the forest; it wasn’t hidden at all. The unremarkable mountain and rocks in front of them seemed to be related to the array, therefore none of those who had arrived on Kun Yi Mountain dared to casually touch it. It was this vigilance which saved their lives.

“This is a Nine Temple Zhoutian array that someone had deliberately tampered with.” Gu Yan said with certainty. Every node was joined correctly. Even if he hadn’t personally laid an array as complex as this ‘Nine Temple’ array, the fundamental principle was easy to see.

The eye of an array was also its heart. Observing it makes it easy to understand the overall layout of the formation. Now, Gu Yan was standing in the heart of the array, thankful that those seniors who had come earlier hadn’t attempted to destroy it.

Otherwise, not only would they have failed to destroy the array, they would also have been swallowed up by it. A peculiar characteristic of the Zhoutian array was such that if it wasn’t completely broken, it would undergo self-restoration. So, the more damage it received, the harder it would be to break in the future.

“Zhoutian arrays are righteous arrays with the function of warding against ghosts. Now that it has deliberately been inverted, the evil spirits are being attracted instead…” Gu Yan explained as he examined the array’s composition. The enemy who laid this array was extremely meticulous, setting the terrain as the lure and the trees and rocks as the bindings.

This wasn’t the work of a single individual. To know an ancient array long extinct, this ‘external power’ must be a country with inside information.

He clearly remembered he hadn’t written such a setting in the original novel. This could only mean that his actions had caused a chain of events to occur due to the butterfly effect. As for which actions, the only one that fit the bill was the spiritual convention.

In the original story, China failed to stand out in this year’s spiritual convention. But now, the story had changed such that they had become the biggest winners, inevitably threatening the interests of various powers. As a result, the other party had rushed to attack them.

“This is going overboard, luckily Old Zhao didn’t come otherwise he’d probably explode once he heard this.” In order to attack them, this person had come up with something as extreme as destroying their dragon vein. If this wasn’t going overboard, what was? Grandmaster Luo touched his chest in an attempt to calm down. Thankfully, he didn’t have any heart ailments or else he would have been lying in the hospital for three days like his elderly friends after being angered to this extent.

Grandmaster Wen didn’t have much to say apart from patting the shoulders of the youth whom he’d looked favourably upon since the spiritual convention. With a kind expression, he asked, “Did you recognise this array because you’ve seen it before? If you know anything else about it, don’t hesitate to share. Any information will be helpful.”

This ancient array had long gone extinct. To be frank, both Grandmaster Luo and Grandmaster Wen were extremely shocked to hear the name ‘Zhoutian array’ from the mouth of a youngster. They themselves had only heard of it but failed to recognize it when standing in the eye of the array. Unexpectedly, the dark-haired youth had seen through it with a single glance.

“From One Yuan, Two Rites, Three Types, Four Divisions, all the way until Nine Temples, the Zhoutian array is divided into different grades according to its complexity. If one attacks it without destroying it completely, the attacker will suffer a severe rebound and the array will only become stronger and harder to break.” In order to explain it succinctly, Gu Yan started from the top and took the chance to point out all the taboos to avoid.

The ancient record of arrays contained arrays of the righteous path as well as evil ones. The righteous path arrays consisted of exorcising spirits, gathering spiritual energy, etc. while the evil path consisted of attracting evil spirits, and forceful possession of life essence and luck. In short, it harmed others.

Gu Yan had studied both types of arrays but never expected that a proper righteous path array could be inverted to this extent. There was no way to use the standard method of breaking arrays but the inverted method could be analyzed and reversed. It was only a matter of time.

No matter what, it was only polite to give the enemies, who’d sent them such a big present, a small token of appreciation.

The ghost king, who’d turned back into housecat form, was currently lying obediently in the youth’s arms. As he explained the details of the array to the others, this cat slowly curled its tail around his hand and began to purr.

His lover was so outstanding no matter which world he was in. This wasn’t only a good thing. Although this man had belonged to him for a long time, Xie Lan still didn’t like others looking at his beloved treasure.

Arrays were complicated, especially the ancient ones. Its complexity far exceeded the expectations of the divination masters present.

However, the seemingly complex arrays appeared rather simple once the dark-haired youth explained. Even grandmaster Wen, who was known to be only good at spirit taming techniques in the spiritual world, felt like he could understand. The three people present were stunned for a long time after listening.

If only their array shifu had explained it so clearly, they wouldn’t have gotten a massive headache over a single array…

“What are we waiting for? Let’s begin.” Grandmaster Luo slapped his thigh and swiftly took out his compass. “China’s dragon vein also has a temper. Once we deal with this array, those dirty bastards hiding themselves will finally know how to spell the word regret.”

It wasn’t that they were impatient. Ye Chengyu, who had been observing their surroundings as the seniors spoke, suddenly said, “More evil spirits are being drawn in. Any longer and those guarding the perimeters won’t be able to hold on. We need to figure out the method to break this array before they’re overwhelmed.”

The safety they currently enjoyed was temporary. Once their first layer of defence is broken through, it would be close to impossible to break the array in time.

“There’s still a few elders rushing over, Old Zhao will come once he catches his breath. The four of us aren’t enough to break the formation, once the others come, it should be enough. Since we’re already here, we should make preparations.” Grandmaster Luo held up his compass to examine the edges between the array. Time wasn’t on their side so they had to make the best use of it and not let down the hard work of their comrades defending the perimeters.

The array had been deliberately inverted, so theoretically, deducing its formation should yield some answers to break it. Gu Yan found a large rock to lean against as he pulled out a notebook. Two hands circled around his cat as he began to jot down the array on the blank page to calculate the distance value.

That’s why it was said that it wasn’t easy to be a divination master. This job couldn’t be separated from math and science.

“This is a triangular formation. One point is a huge boulder at the eye of the array while another point is close to water. There aren’t many water sources on Kun Yi Mountain, so it shouldn’t be hard to find… the last point is no doubt at the summit.” The empty page was quickly filled with illustrations and calculations. It was likely that apart from the author, no one else could understand it.

But the big cat in his arms did. The book had been opened in front of the cat, and the youth’s every word did not escape its eyes..

“These three points need to be broken at the same time.” Breaking all three simultaneously was one of the conditions. Putting away the notebook and pen, Gu Yan stroked the obedient cat in his embrace and prepared to share his conclusions with the others so they could send a few more staff to aid in the investigation of the points.

“Meow.” A low purr came from the cat-like beast as it licked the youth’s slender fingers.

After staying here for sometime, Xie Lan understood why none of the ghosts had reported this abnormality to the ghost city.

All the ghosts he’d sent to the human realm were most likely lured by the array after getting close to this mountain. They’d probably fallen under the spell and became the evil spirits’ new members. Now, they were attempting to break through their defence.

T/n: Yoohoo~ It’s exactly 3 years and 1 day since I started translating TPWSTKMFFMI… yes curse my inefficiency but we’re almost at the end xD