The Gui Water Divine Thunder flashed and embedded itself into the Divine Crow's chest, causing its assault to stall momentarily.
Contrary to expectations of a world-shattering explosion, dense black lightning tendrils spread like parasitic vines from the crow's chest, quickly forming a fine mesh that bound the platinum Divine Crow within.
The Divine Crow struggled frantically, its cries growing increasingly piercing, but the lightning net tightened further. The searing platinum flames fiercely clashed with the black lightning, the sound sharp and grating.
Lu Qian saw the lightning tendrils reach out further, penetrating the Divine Crow's body, turning the platinum flame Divine Bird into a pitch-black hue.
The Divine Bird struggled and maneuvered within the lightning net, yet the black lightning clung tightly, binding it. It spun around twice, but failed to shake free in the slightest; instead, the net continued to expand while its body grew smaller under the corrosion.
Realizing escape was futile, the Divine Bird let out a sharp cry, shrank inward, and suddenly exploded!
A platinum fireball rapidly expanded, causing the black lightning tendrils to instantaneously swell.
Yet the lightning net ultimately did not rupture; all the platinum flames were tightly secured within, without a hint of leakage. The net shrank and compressed inch by inch, a soft popping sound ensued, and the last flicker of flame disappeared into the air.
Only a baby fist-sized cluster of Gui Water Divine Thunder remained, swaying gently in mid-air.
Is this the method of a Foundation Establishment Array Cultivator? Lu Qian gazed at the divine thunder, his imagination running wild.
Such divine thunder, who below Foundation Establishment can resist?
When cultivators advance from Qi Cultivation to Foundation Establishment, their divine sense multiplies several times, allowing ordinary array cultivators to perform the Triple Transformation.
What if it were himself? To what extent could his own consciousness collection achieve? Could his divine sense be powerful enough to perform the Triple Transformation during late-stage Qi Cultivation?
"Impressive, isn't it?" Master Xuan Ji said with animated eyebrows, "Hurry up and bow to your master. I'll pass down a lifetime's worth of efforts to you, ensuring you surpass your predecessors."
Lu Qian snapped back to reality, pondering while pointing at the divine thunder: "Senior, the task isn't finished yet."
This wave of Bing Fire attack seemed to have exhausted all the spiritual power of the grand array, leaving it completely calm.
Master Xuan Ji shook his head in confusion: "Weird, this array is really strange, first with such low spiritual pressure, then such long intervals between attacks. Despite the significant consumption of the Triple Transformation, with spirit vein charging, this shouldn't be the case."
He sensed the location with his divine sense, waved the command banner, and the remaining tiny cluster of divine thunder shot out.
With a thunderous blast, lightning scattered, rocks flew, and turned into clouds of stone powder. Lu Qian sensed a violent fluctuation in the array's spiritual qi, chaotic as it seemed a component base had been destroyed by the divine thunder.
"That's two of the five gone; if the remaining bases are removed, the grand array will be completely broken."
As he spoke, he pinched a spell in his hand, put away the silver cloth, and the five command banners lost their glow. He then took three from them anew for use as ordinary magical artifacts.
Lu Qian pondered thoughtfully.
It seems that silver cloth is the key to the array. Without it, the bases could only serve as regular magical artifacts.
Just as he was about to ask, Master Xuan Ji lamented loudly: "Oh my, such a Gui Water Divine Thunder cost me a total of six hundred spirit stones! Six hundred spirit stones!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Qian was taken aback, realizing a single strike depleted a mid-tier magical artifact! Is this the cost of power?
"Lu the Kid!" Master Xuan Ji's old face leaned over eagerly, shouting randomly, "To save you, I've spent my coffin savings; you must not disappoint your master's efforts!"
"...Senior, can we break the array first, break the array?"
After considerable expenditure earlier, Lu Qian and Master Xuan Ji consumed a few recovery elixirs, meditated briefly, and continued forward.
What followed contained no surprises. Listening to Master Xuan Ji's chatter all the way, he gathered the Fire, Wood, and Metal Element Bases, each carved with forms of the Vermilion Bird, Cyan Dragon, and White Tiger.
Cyan Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, Black Tortoise, there should be a Qilin among the Earth Element Base, right? These appear more advanced than Master Xuan Ji's Five Elements Command Banner; it's indeed befitting of a Foundation Establishment Feather Scholar's array base, though fundamentally still high-tier magical artifacts, not spiritual artifacts. Additionally, the Vermilion Bird Seal was blasted apart by the divine thunder, leaving only the upper half.
All these jade seals were gathered by Master Xuan Ji, with Lu Qian happily accepting without contest.
Seeing Lu Qian's obedient demeanor, Master Xuan Ji felt greatly gratified, and regardless of Lu Qian's lack of bowed fealty, he spilled out the foundational array knowledge like beans from a bamboo tube.
It turns out that silver cloth is the array map.
To use the Five Elements Grand Array as an example, before the array map was invented, cultivators needed to manipulate five component bases in specific ways to raise the formation, open the array realm, and activate the grand array.
After that, within the grand array, one can choose one of five, two of five, three of five... creating various transformational strategies to defeat the enemy.
Such operations are time-consuming and laborious; to simplify, people invented the array map after millennia of trial and optimization.
The array map and bases are refined as a set, interlinked. The map acts as a central hub, controlling the bases through it.
The array map has two functions.
One is to activate the grand array. The other is to maintain the array's operation.
Array cultivators only need to infuse ample spiritual power into the map, or use a Spirit-Gathering Array to absorb spiritual qi, and the map will activate the bases and open the grand array.
Array cultivators can also leave records in the map with divine sense. By placing this map within spirit veins to absorb spiritual qi or providing it with enough spiritual power, it can automatically control the bases, operating according to the recorded combination and transformation strategies. The Five Elements Grand Array here adheres to this principle.
The array map, as the core of the array, is inherently expensive, and the more complex the transformations recorded, the higher the material requirements for the map, exponentially increasing the cost.
"Though convenient, this autonomously operating death array without a host is easily broken by a cultivator's hand," Master Xuan Ji remarked as they arrived at a stone wall on the shadow side of the mountain, following the spiritual qi vein to find an approximately ten-foot high cave, "Activating the grand array requires all components; if choosing to destroy the bases to dismantle the array, all bases must be destroyed, otherwise the absence of one merely diminishes the transformations, reducing power."
"This is the place; it seems the final base and array map are within this cave," Master Xuan Ji said, gazing at Lu Qian with eager eyes, "Good disciple, there's definitely a spirit vein inside. If you don't want to wander further, we can establish a foothold with this vein."
Lu Qian had his own plans in mind, ignored his ramblings, and strode toward the cave.
Just as he took a few steps, his probing divine sense shifted, instantly altering his expression as he placed the Spirit Turtle Shield in front of him and swiftly retreated from the cave!