'Aunt-Master Jiu Jiu is… perfect.'
Li Changshou had turned into green smoke. As he twisted and turned through narrow gaps, and charged downwards at top speed, he passed by array formation after array formation. Each one made Li Changshou feel a deep sense of satisfaction.
Why did he say Aunt-Master was perfect?
Jiu Jiu knew very little about array formations. She was a Perfected Immortal and was approaching the Heaven Immortal realm. Her foundations were sturdy, and her immortal powers were pure. She also had unexpectedly strong control over her own immortal powers.
Most importantly, she could follow the directions of the younger generation!
Perhaps calling them 'directions' would be overboard. Li Changshou admitted that there was an element of trickery. However, one was willing to beat, and the other was willing to endure beatings. Both were willing parties—it was beautiful.
'Aunt-Master Jiu Jiu helped me out a lot this time. I have to thank the elders in the Punishment Hall for punishing Aunt-Master Jiu in this manner. I also have to thank Uncle-Master Jiu Wu for throwing Aunt-Master Jiu into a wine vat to be bathed when she was young. I also have to thank myself, for finding those few pieces of torn sheepskin in the bookshelf at the corner of the Dao Sutra Outer Hall. That was how I successfully 'tested' incapacitating agents used in battles like the Drunken Immortal and Soft Immortal Disperser…'
The green smoke descended about 1,000 feet before stopping in the middle of a narrow gap between two rocks. Li Changshou then transformed into a human again.
In his hands, he held a jade token, which could control the array formation. His fingers rubbed the surface several times, causing the diagram on the jade token to change slightly.
At the same time, ripples appeared in the rocks in front of him like water. Li Changshou walked into the rock, and then the rock reverted to its original state.
Uninhibited, Li Changshou took a few steps into the big rock. A small wooden door appeared in front of him. He pushed it open and walked into a secret room, which measured 30 feet per side.
He took out the array-controlling jade token and turned it around in his palm. Once again, the array formation outside changed slightly. The secret underground room immediately disappeared in the various gaps around the array formation.
Even Heaven Immortals, who were intentionally looking for this room, would not be able to find out its location from any direction unless they destroyed the array formation outside.
This was Li Changshou's main objective in building this Pill Chamber.
'Men need their secret spaces.'
There were two bookshelves in the secret room, filled with old, ancient texts.
Li Changshou sat behind the desk and retrieved tens of sheepskin. He studied them closely and then took out the jade token again. After closing his eyes, a complex, three-dimensional structure surfaced in his mind.
This three-dimensional structure looked like a building in a city that he often saw in his previous life. However, this 'building' was embedded inside the Little Qiong Peak.
Li Changshou breathed out slowly.
'It's been a long time since I last felt so hidden and safe…'
"Ah." Li Changshou sighed as a smile spread across his face. "It's not a bad idea to bathe here. What a joke. I cannot relax, even for a second. I have to keep checking the different parts of this huge array formation."
It was a good thing that Aunt-Master Jiu Jiu was of such a high cultivation level. That was the only reason he could turn his dreams into reality—a huge, three-dimensional, complex group of arrays!
Li Changshou had carefully pieced together the puzzle through Jiu Jiu's hands, based on the design and ideals he had for this array formation.
Based on Aunt-Master Jiu Jiu's understanding, she had helped Li Changshou put together more than 100 medium and small-sized array formations. Moreover, these array formations overlapped to form a natural-like array formation, which covered the environment within a 30-kilometer radius of the Pill Chamber.
The combined effort of Li Changshou and Jiu Jiu produced this huge array. This huge array—a Perfected Immortal's handiwork—could not be broken even by Heaven Immortals.
Perhaps only Heaven Immortals with a deep understanding of array formations would be able to break it.
However, Jiu Jiu only knew of this first step. She did not know of the second, third, and fourth steps.
The foundation of the main array formations was made out of precious ingredients, spirit stones, and specially-refined treasures. Since the foundations were all interconnected, the Heaven and Earth powers were activated. That allowed the huge array to have multiple different effects.
The Array Formation Dao was vast and deep. Li Changshou knew that he had not yet learned enough about array formations to be called an expert.
He had to have a realistic and clear view of his own understanding and skills.
However, he could not help his bold and unconstrained imagination. What's more, he could repeatedly expound on these imaginations to make his dreams become a reality, step by step.
About 60 to 70 years ago, when Li Changshou's had been enjoying a break from cultivating, he had studied the array formations set up around the Immortal Du Sect. By chance, he had discovered that the foundations of common array formations in Primordial World were mostly laid on a horizontal plane.
At the time, he thought, 'What if they could be laid on a vertical plane? The effect should be the same.'
Take the spherical mountain-protecting array formation, for example. If its foundation were laid vertically, the half-sphere would be able to rotate 90-degrees.
Of course, most mountain-protecting array formations needed to make use of power from the earth meridians. It was not possible to lay their foundations vertically.
However, protective array formations aside, mazes, trapping array formations, and killing array formations could rotate freely.
'On this basis, what would happen if I lay the array foundations on an oblique plane? What would happen if I laid the foundations of several array formations in a criss-cross fashion? For example, between two array formations, one could be laid horizontally and the other vertically. They would share 1/3 of their foundations. When I activate the horizontal array, the vertical one will be deactivated, and vice versa. That would create an 'interference-free switching array'!'
Li Changshou had slowly fumbled his way and eventually figured out how to allow spiritual power to flow through the array formation. He had also resolved problems with applying the theory to various array formations' foundations.
All his work had culminated to this day.
Little Qiong Peak's Pill Chamber's huge, three-dimensional, complex array formation was the successful realization of Li Changshou's theory!
If one divided up the huge arrays on the horizontal plane, they would find three layers.
Jiu Jiu only knew about the top layer—the array formation surrounding the Pill Chamber. This contained more than 100 trapping arrays and mazes.
The layer was about 1,000 feet deep into the mountain. There were also a middle layer and a bottom layer underneath. Jiu Jiu also helped with burying the foundations of the huge, core arrays in the middle and bottom layers.
However, this was only the situation when the arrays in this area were activated in the horizontal plane.
These array foundations also had several hidden programs laid vertically and obliquely. Among them were many killing array formations.
At that moment, the secret room, which Li Changshou was in, was the center of all the array formations.
The secret room would only appear in this rock when all the vertical core array formations had been activated, and all the horizontal ones were reversed.
There was no need to fear even great masters of Earth Escape. Without the jade token in Li Changshou's hand and his special controlling hand techniques, one would have to break the Little Qiong Peak into pieces in order to find this secret room.
If the day came where the Little Qiong Peak had to be broken apart, even the Immortal Du Sect might perish. Before then, there would be a 99% chance that Li Changshou would already be…
'Cough, there's no meaning in living and perishing with the sect. It is more righteous to remain alive in order to take revenge for my fellow masters and disciples!'
On a side note, the arrays on the bottom layer were meant to absorb the earth meridians' energy.
In order to avoid absorbing too much power from earth and spirit meridians, which would attract the attention of other cultivators or seniors in the sect, Li Changshou had to avoid all the spirit meridians. Instead, he chose to absorb 'turbid' power, which the earth had the most of, and then use the cleaning array left behind by the magi race to filter the power.
Although this would slightly impact the power of the killing arrays, it was the most appropriate solution.
What's more, even if experts in the sect noticed the group of arrays on the Little Qiong Peak, as long as he did not activate the vertical and oblique planes, they would only see trapping arrays and mazes. They could not blame him for breaking the sect's rules.
Before this, he had been using mediocrity as his disguise. This was known as 'passively camouflaging'.
Now, however, he was forced to do more since he needed a Pill Chamber to refine pills. He had to take 'active disguise' to the extreme. As for the direction he would take in the future, Li Changshou had already thought about it.
He would take all the array formations' foundations under the Pill Chamber as his base. From there, he would slowly expand outwards. Little Qiong Peak would become a fortress in the sect, which no one would notice.
He had only one life, and the Primordial World were way too exciting.
'For cultivators in my generation, seeking longevity and the Great Dao should come first. It would not be too late to appreciate the Trichiliocosm's beautiful views after that.'
"Finally," said Li Changshou as he rubbed his hands together. He kept his sheepskin and jade token and retrieved several storage sacks. Then, he poured out several storage Dharma treasures from within.
After two years, he could finally take stock of the surprise rewards he had reaped from his expedition to the North Continent.
"First, I'll see how poor that Immortal Yuwen Ling was."
Li Changshou chuckled as he took out two paper effigies and turned them into his clones. The clones lifted up two storage Dharma treasures, took one corner of the room, and began to melt them.
Half a day later, the paper effigy manning the furnace almost ran out of power. Li Changshou kept his rewards, got to his feet, and left the secret room.
He held an embroidered case in his hand. Inside the case were two sleeping 'beetles'.
If he was not wrong, these should be—Love Gu!
"Good stuff," exclaimed Li Changshou. "It's a pity I have no use for them now. I'll keep them first. In the future, if the immortal and spirit beasts I rear do not show signs of reproducing, I can use this to push them. That would increase their reproduction rate and save these rare breeds."
…
Time flew by. It was now the day that Jiu Jiu had agreed to help Li Changshou with refining the pills.
Jiu Jiu yawned as she put on a hemp garment that one of her senior sisters had washed for her. Sleepily, she mounted her wine gourd and headed towards the Little Qiong Peak.
As one of the main Perfected Immortals in the sect, Jiu Jiu had many powerful figures behind her. Thus, she flew without many restrictions. She could go wherever she wanted to go, except for the prohibited areas.
"Is today the 20th day?"
Jiu Jiu squeezed her fingers together and counted. Immediately, she felt confused.
Before this, she had tried the Drunken Immortal 'concentrate' because she had been seeking excitement. In the end, she had slept for five or six days straight.
As she rushed along, she neglected to expand her immortal awareness. Thus, she failed to notice the floating cloud in the forest beneath her.
Once Jiu Jiu arrived at the Little Qiong Peak, two heads popped out of the cloud. The one on the left was the short Daoist, Jiu Wu. The one on the right looked like a teenage girl, no more than 16 or 17 years old.
Although she looked like a teenage girl, with beautiful features and full curves, she was filled with youthful energy. Both of them were about the same age—more than 2,000 years old.
The teenage girl's Dao name was Jiu Shi, and she was the fourth disciple of Exalted Wang Qing. She was also Jiu Wu's Dao companion and the girl whom Jiu Wu often used the Strong-Pupil Three-Headed Spider's web to spy on.
Jiu Wu said in a low voice, "It doesn't seem right for us to do this. This is the Little Qiong Peak after all."
The teenage girl retorted irritatedly, "What are you afraid of? If they're unhappy with us, we'll just have to fight the Peak Leader of this peak!" Then, she narrowed her apricot eyes and said, "She came here the moment she woke up. There must be something wrong. When have you seen Little Jiu this hardworking? I want to see whether this Junior Brother Qi Yuan has grown three heads or six arms. How can he attract our Little Jiu here every day even before ascending to immortality?"
Jiu Wu smiled bitterly as he raised his short, thick eyebrows. "There are array formations here? I can't sense Little Jiu's aura anymore."
"What array formation do we have to fear? Haven't we all learned these?" Jiu Wu pursed her lips and grabbed Jiu Wu's collar. Without another word, they hid their figures and auras and turned into two shadows, which flew towards the Little Qiong Peak's forest.
"We are both halfway to the Heaven Immortal realm. Must we fear array formations set up by someone who hasn't even ascended to immortality?"