Chapter 58: Qi-Gathering Spiritual Array, Liu Changle

Chen Lingxi held the jade pendant up to his eyes, examining it closely in the daylight filtering through the window, then continued to probe it with his spiritual Qi.

"There is actually an extremely small array hidden inside this jade pendant."

Having witnessed the many seals Lin Suri placed into the Incense Burner, Chen Lingxi already knew of the existence of arrays.

The array was no larger than a grain of rice, yet its lines were complex and exquisite, layered and intricately interconnected.

Spiritual Qi flowed slowly along specific trajectories within it, meandering like a tiny stream through a miniature riverbed.

Chen Lingxi focused his attention, advancing his spiritual Qi inch by inch through every node and line of the array.

He then wore the jade pendant against his skin and closed his eyes to observe any changes.

After tinkering like this for two or three days, he finally gained some understanding.

"This array has two functions."

Still in his room, Chen Lingxi stared at the jade pendant. "First, it gathers spiritual energy. Second, it uses that spiritual energy to reform the wearer's body."

He opened his eyes, gripped the jade pendant, and mobilized the streak of azure Qi in his dantian to trigger the array.

Sure enough, the thin spiritual energy in the surrounding air began to flow slowly, drawn in by the array and gathering thread by thread.

The spiritual energy was extremely thin and gathered incredibly slowly; without careful observation, it was almost imperceptible.

This spiritual energy wasn't directly absorbed by him; instead, it clung to his body through the jade pendant's array.

Like an incredibly fine, dense net, the spiritual energy followed the trajectories of the array's lines, carving itself bit by bit into his flesh, meridians, and bones.

"The spiritual energy in this jade pendant is altering me. It's as if it wants to turn my very body into an array."

Chen Lingxi frowned.

He thought of County Princess Yunhe, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi.

"Yang Zhuri gave me this jade pendant to plant this array on me, slowly reforming me into a more suitable great medicine."

"When the time is right, Yang Zhuri will use some method to extract a certain Qi from my body.

"Just like how County Princess Yunhe harvested Qi from Lin Longyue."

Chen Lingxi muttered to himself, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

He set the jade pendant on the table and closed his eyes in deep thought.

Yang Zhuri, County Princess Yunhe, and Chu Linzi—these three were all the Crown Prince's subordinates.

They cultivated a Qi-devouring method, using humans as medicine.

Such methods were incredibly insidious and bizarre.

Yet, their blood Qi cultivation base was not high at all.

'Are they hiding it with some secret technique?'

'Or perhaps Ying Chi doesn't need them to have high strength?'

Chen Lingxi temporarily suppressed these thoughts and rested his gaze back on the jade pendant.

He reached out and grasped the jade pendant once more.

This time, he didn't trigger the array. He simply probed the jade with his spiritual Qi, carefully observing its lines.

The lines were incredibly intricate. Each stroke was perfectly placed, echoing the others to form a complete array.

His spiritual Qi slowly wandered along the lines, firmly committing every trace and node to memory.

Then, he noticed something.

The reason this array could gather spiritual energy wasn't because it contained any inherent power, but because the arrangement of its lines and placement of its nodes perfectly guided the flow of the world's spiritual energy.

It was just like a riverbed to a stream of water.

The riverbed itself had no power, but it could guide the water's direction, allowing scattered trickles to converge into a river.

This array was that riverbed.

And the thin spiritual energy between heaven and earth was that water.

A thought suddenly flashed through Chen Lingxi's mind.

'The jade pendant is too small, and the spiritual energy within it is too weak.

'If the nodes were enlarged and the spiritual energy strengthened, could it gather even more spiritual energy?'

Once this idea surfaced, he could no longer suppress it.

Chen Lingxi was a man of action; once he thought of something, he did it.

He stood up, pushed the door open, and took a trip to a jade shop in the city, buying forty-six jade pendants.

These pendants were all ordinary goods—common jade quality and rough craftsmanship, costing no more than a few qian of silver each.

He brought the jade pendants back to his servant quarters and waited quietly.

Finally, on the evening of the third day, Chen Lingxi cast Vision Wander toward Lin Suri but could not sense his location.

'He finally went out.'

With Lin Suri out, he could experiment in peace without worrying about being discovered.

Chen Lingxi closed the door, spread a sheet of rough paper on the floor, and used a charcoal pencil to sketch the array's lines.

Following his memory of the array inside the jade pendant, he enlarged the lines, increased the nodes, and rearranged the checkpoints.

This was not a simple enlargement.

The array in that jade pendant was only the size of a rice grain, with just a few scattered lines. The array he wanted to lay down would cover the entire room, with hundreds of lines and forty-six nodes.

The position, direction, and arrangement of every single node required precise calculation.

Chen Lingxi sat cross-legged in front of the rough paper, his finger moving slowly over it as he traced out the enlarged array stroke by stroke.

This drawing took two full sichen.

When the final stroke fell, the sun outside the window had already slanted to the west.

Twilight washed over from the horizon, stretching the shadow of the old locust tree in the courtyard long across the ground.

Chen Lingxi placed the forty-six jade pendants on the floor one by one, matching the positions of the array nodes.

Then, he sat cross-legged in the center of the array and mobilized that streak of azure Qi in his dantian.

Spiritual Qi seeped from his palm and poured into the first jade pendant.

The pendant vibrated slightly and lit up with an extremely faint azure glow.

The spiritual Qi flowed along the lines toward the second jade pendant. The second one lit up, and then the Qi flowed to the third, the fourth, the fifth...

Like a weaver using spiritual Qi as his shuttle, he threaded all forty-six jade pendants together.

The spiritual Qi circulated among the pendants, surging through the array's lines and gradually weaving into a complete net.

The instant the spiritual Qi traversed the final line and poured into the last jade pendant—

The entire array suddenly lit up.

All forty-six jade pendants simultaneously erupted with a hazy azure radiance. The light wasn't blinding; instead, it was incredibly soft.

Guided by the array's lines, they echoed and linked with each other, forming an array that blanketed the entire room.

And then—

Spiritual energy surged forth.

Threads of spiritual energy gathered from all directions, drawn in by the array and falling into its bounds.

Though the spiritual energy was still thin, it was countless times greater than what a single jade pendant could gather.

Sitting cross-legged within the array, Chen Lingxi felt the spiritual energy brush over his body like a spring breeze, a look of pleasant surprise lighting up his eyes.

"It worked," he muttered to himself, the corners of his mouth involuntarily turning up.

But this joy didn't last long.

Chen Lingxi closed his eyes to sense it for a moment, and his brow furrowed once more.

The rushing spiritual energy was indeed greater than the spiritual Qi he had poured into the jade pendants, but only by a tiny bit.

The spiritual energy flowed into the array and swirled around his body, but it wasn't heavy or dense.

He made a rough estimate. If he used this array to assist his cultivation, the spiritual energy he could absorb daily would only be twenty to thirty percent more than what he could draw in through normal breathing exercises.

This minor boost was just a drop in the bucket for his current cultivation base at the Qi Circulation 3rd Floor. It would be better to just eat a few more alchemical pills.

'Not exactly worth the effort.'

Chen Lingxi shook his head, his frown deepening.

He sat in the array for a moment before suddenly coming to a realization.

'There must be a crucial set of array seals for this array. It isn't as simple as just getting the sequence right and pouring spiritual energy in.'

He remembered how Lin Suri laid out arrays using Incense Burners; not only was there spiritual Qi circulating within those burners, but Talismanic Seals were also maintaining them.

This array was definitely the same.

The array in that single jade pendant didn't just have lines and nodes; it possessed a complete set of array seals.

Those seals were the true core of the array, capable of boosting the efficiency of gathering spiritual energy by several times, or even dozens of times over.

'The array I laid down today only has the form, but lacks the spirit. It's an empty shell that can't unleash its true power.'

Chen Lingxi narrowed his eyes.

'Ying Chi.'

'If I can find a way to get these array seals from Ying Chi, I won't have to painstakingly search for spiritual energy pills in the future.'

'But I must be cautious about this.'

Ying Chi was too strong.

His Qi Circulation cultivation had probably already reached the fifth floor, or perhaps even the sixth floor.

And in some ways, he was even stronger than Lin Suri.

Because he still had an extremely powerful Purple True Treasure Vase by his side.

Chen Lingxi suppressed these thoughts for now, dug out the forty-six jade pendants one by one, and stowed them back into his Cosmos Bag.

Then, he sat cross-legged and began his breathing exercises.

He still had a long road ahead of him; he needed to advance carefully, step by step.

...

Over ten days passed quietly.

During this time, Chen Lingxi never left his room. He practiced his boxing in the day, took pills at night, and performed his breathing exercises every single day without pause.

At dusk on this particular day, Chen Lingxi was practicing his fists in the courtyard.

Mountain-Pulling Stance, River Entering Form, City-Collapsing Stance.

He was already intimately familiar with the first three stances. Now, as he executed them, they flowed like moving clouds and running water, completed in one smooth, continuous breath.

Blood Qi surged like a tide through his meridians, and silver marrow circulated slowly deep within his bones, casting a silvery-white glow over his entire body.

And then—the fourth stance, Sea-Stabilizing Stance.

'With minor attainment in Silver Bone, I can now practice the Sea-Stabilizing Stance.'

The core essence of this stance lay in "stilling."

It was like the ocean roaring with monstrous waves, while the cultivator was a reef amidst the sea—no matter how terrifying the storm and waves, he remained completely immovable.

His breathing became incredibly long and drawn out. Between each inhale and pause, the blood Qi throughout his body sank into his muscles, bones, and flesh. It no longer erupted outward, but rather retracted and settled inward.

Deep inside his bones, the silver marrow churned. It was like a beach after the tide receded—seemingly peaceful on the surface, yet silently accumulating a monumental force underneath.

Chen Lingxi practiced the Sea-Stabilizing Stance over and over again. Only when the moon reached its zenith did he slowly retract his stance.

Standing in the center of the martial yard, he looked down at his hands.

At the tips of his ten fingers, a silver light had already spread from his finger bones to his palm bones.

The layer of silvery-white radiance deep inside his bones was noticeably denser than before, showing faint signs of spreading up his arms.

'Only a few steps away from Great Completion.'

'Moreover... these Seven Forms of Halting War are actually this extraordinary.'

Chen Lingxi urged the blood Qi within his body, sending it surging a full cycle through his meridians.

The blood Qi was incredibly thick and heavy, flowing through his blood vessels like tangible mercury. Every single drop contained an unstoppable, overwhelming power.

'Blood Qi like this is actually a bit more tyrannical than the Bone-Piercing Force of ordinary Silver Bone Great Completion cultivators.'

Chen Lingxi looked down at his hands, a look of deep thought flashing in his eyes.

'I've only just begun practicing the Sea-Stabilizing Stance, and I haven't even fully grasped its method for circulating blood Qi, yet the blood Qi I've cultivated already surpasses that of a Silver Bone Great Completion figure... A blood Qi cultivation method like the Seven Forms of Halting War is absolutely far from ordinary.'

He recalled when he was back in the West Courtyard's Martial Arts Hall, and He Duan had him choose a manual from among three cultivation methods.

He had chosen the Fragment of the Seven Forms of Halting War simply because it was the most suitable one, not because he felt it was profoundly advanced.

Yet now that he had cultivated to the Silver Bone Realm, he finally realized the true exceptionality of this method.

'Even Qiu Chihu's silver marrow blood Qi wasn't as thick and heavy as my current blood Qi.

'Qiu Chihu had the cultivation of Silver Bone Great Completion and came from an extraordinary background. The method he cultivated must have been extremely precious too.'

The more Chen Lingxi thought about it, the more he felt the Seven Forms of Halting War were anything but simple.

'The reason the Seven Forms of Halting War were overlooked by others is because they are too complex and too difficult to practice. But once they are mastered, the blood Qi they produce is far thicker and more tyrannical than ordinary methods.'

He took a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.

The Fragment of the Seven Forms of Halting War only recorded the first four stances.

Mountain-Pulling, River Entering, City-Collapsing, and Sea-Stabilizing.

'These four stances can help me cultivate to Silver Bone Consummation, but the final three stances are already lost.'

'I'll have to sneak into the Martial Arts Courtyard another day and see if I can find the follow-up methods for the Seven Forms.'

The night grew deeper, leaving only the sound of the wind in the courtyard.

A long time passed.

Having finished his cultivation, he was just about to wash up, rest, and then use Vision Wander on Lin Suri again.

Suddenly, a burst of light footsteps came from outside the courtyard.

The footsteps were incredibly soft. If his five senses hadn't been vastly enhanced after reaching the Qi Circulation 3rd Floor, they would have been almost impossible to detect.

Chen Lingxi furrowed his brows slightly. The Concealed Edge Method circulated within his body, tightly wrapping up his aura. He walked soundlessly to the window and peered out through the crack in the lattice.

Under the moonlight, a person vaulted over the courtyard wall, landing lightly in the yard.

The man wore a Daoist robe made of extremely ordinary, dust-grey material.

His landing was as light as a fallen leaf drifting onto the surface of water, making almost no sound at all.

Chen Lingxi's gaze fell upon the man's face, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

'Liu Changle?'