Chapter 371 372: Inference Array
After Feng Wei left, Li Zhixuan said through gritted teeth, "Those were my Spirit Stones!"
Chen Dong gave a slight shake of his head and said coldly, "They're mine now!"
"You despicable, shameless scoundrel!"
"My dear Daoist Li, can't you see the situation we're in? We're in the same boat now. One wrong move, and we all die!"
Li Zhixuan fell silent at his words. In his current predicament, he was in no position to make any grand pronouncements.
Chen Dong continued, "There's no place left for you or me in the Wangyou Realm. We have to repair the passage and escape. If you want revenge, lying low and cultivating in the outside world is a better bet than staying here. So, you have to help me!"
Li Zhixuan understood Chen Dong's logic, but his predicament left him feeling powerless. He was so grievously injured he couldn't even match Chen Dong, a mere Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator. With a bitter, helpless laugh, he asked, "In this state, how do you expect me to help?"
Chen Dong casually tossed Li Zhixuan's Spirit Sword and a few other Magical Artifacts back to him, then gave him a handful of Healing Elixirs.
"Heal as fast as you can. Zhang Jun is guarding this place. If he finds us, our survival will depend on you!"
Li Zhixuan put the items away and swallowed a few elixirs, thinking, 'Once I recover, you'll be the first person I teach a lesson to. I'll make you pay, with interest, for these two months of humiliation.'
But Chen Dong immediately warned him, "Don't get any funny ideas. I need to focus everything on repairing the Realm Passage. The speed of the repairs is a matter of life and death for us!"
Li Zhixuan gave a cold snort, found a spot, and sat down to meditate.
Chen Dong, for his part, began to study the structure of the Realm Passage.
The Array inscriptions, the materials... the more he studied them, the more alarmed he became. Everything was incredibly profound. However, Chen Dong didn't lose heart. He began to work on the problem from two directions, reverse-engineering from this broken Realm Passage and simultaneously analyzing the one on Cloud Cliff Peak in the present world...
This Realm Passage was less advanced than the one in the present world, composed primarily of Arrays. However, judging from the inscriptions, the Arrays themselves were at least seventh-tier. Sixth-tier items were already considered peerless treasures in the Wangyou Realm. Trying to fully restore a seventh-tier Realm Passage here was undoubtedly as difficult as ascending to heaven.
In terms of Arrays alone, a fourth-tier Array was enough to threaten a Nascent Soul Stage expert, to say nothing of a seventh-tier Array.
With his exceptional talent, coupled with his recent cultivation and research at the Qixia Sect, Chen Dong could easily lay a Third-tier Array. But the leap from third-tier to seventh-tier was astronomical. It was like trying to solve a doctoral-level problem using only junior high knowledge—and a problem that was incomplete, at that, requiring you to figure out the missing parts before you could even begin to build the solution.
After two days of study, Chen Dong's head was splitting. He would have given up already if not for the knowledge that his Six Paths of Radiance could aid in the inference process. While he could now simulate You's sacrificial array deployment, he had no idea how the Array was actually supposed to be used.
The Six Paths of Radiance in his sea of consciousness was a finite resource, so he had to use it sparingly. He would only draw upon its power when he had completely exhausted his own mind and was still unable to make a breakthrough in his deductions.
As for how to replenish the Six Paths of Radiance, Chen Dong currently only knew that it increased with his own cultivation breakthroughs and through certain specific actions.
For example, saving people increased the Saint Dao Radiance. Killing people increased the Asura Dao and Yellow Springs Dao Radiance. Dual cultivation could increase the Red Dust Dao Radiance...
To Chen Dong, the Six Paths of Radiance was an utter mystery. It didn't just boost his combat strength; each path also corresponded to a powerful Secret Technique. It could evolve techniques, be used for Array inference... its wonders were endless.
Given the current crisis, Chen Dong didn't have the luxury of pondering the origins of the Six Paths of Radiance. 'Perhaps I'll find out once the Floating Mountain in my sea of consciousness is fully pieced together and explored,' he thought.
As time passed, his confidence grew, and his proficiency with Arrays increased by leaps and bounds.
Perhaps thanks to Feng Wei, not a single Qixia Sect disciple had patrolled the mountain for a month. Even Zhang Jun hadn't appeared once, which did much to soothe Chen Dong's frayed nerves.
According to Li Zhixuan, he had now recovered half his cultivation. While he still couldn't defeat Zhang Jun, he would have no trouble defending himself.
What they lacked now was time.
Another ten days or so passed before Feng Wei returned. She brought with her a full ten storage bags of Demon Beast Essence Blood; the hundred Top-Grade Spirit Stones were almost completely spent.
"I completely cleaned out all the high-grade Demon Beast Essence Blood from every nearby Treasure Hunting Pavilion. They said if we want more, it'll have to be special-ordered. You were almost out of Spirit Stones anyway, so I came back."
Feng Wei also tossed him a medallion.
"It's proof of being a major client at the Treasure Hunting Pavilion. They said it'll get you a discount on future purchases. I have no use for it, so you can keep it."
Chen Dong nodded and pocketed it.
Feng Wei's expression turned to one of pleasant surprise as she continued, "Actually, we don't have to go so far afield. I discovered a huge number of demon beasts on several of the Yun Gu Sect's peaks. I asked a disciple and found out they're Zhang Jun's private menagerie. He loves collecting strange demon beasts—things like a mutated Human-faced Demon Spider, a white Unihorned Tiger Demon, and so on. There are tons of them. If we're short on Essence Blood, we could just go kill a few. He wouldn't dare say a word."
Chen Dong had felt they were still a bit short on Essence Blood, but hearing this, he abandoned the thought of having Feng Wei collect any more. If worst came to worst, they could just go and kill a few of those beasts.
Now that he had the Demon Beast Essence Blood, the only thing left was to finish the Array inference. Chen Dong took stock of the radiance in his sea of consciousness. If he had enough, he could finish his work in another month. But he was far, far from having enough.