Chapter 493: Resonant Fusion

Several days after the preview hall gathering concluded, the Celestial Peak Sect officially announced the completion of their ultra-long-distance Teleportation Array.

The Teleportation Array was situated in a vast, newly constructed plaza at the island’s center. Its Array Base spanned a full hundred zhang, with over a hundred Jade Pillars engraved with Space Runes jutting into the sky. The surrounding Spiritual Qi was so dense it was nearly tangible.

The Celestial Peak Sect honored its promise from the preview hall, making the Teleportation Array free to use during its initial operational period. The small number of Spirit Stones paid by Foundation Establishment Cultivators was merely a symbolic maintenance fee, while Golden Core Cultivators only needed to reveal their cultivation level to travel without restriction.

Li Yuan suppressed his aura, assuming the guise of a late-stage Golden Core cultivator as he stepped onto the Teleportation Array.

As the Array activated, intense spatial fluctuations instantly enveloped him. The sensation of spatial distortion far surpassed that of intra-province teleportation, lasting for the time it would take to drink half a cup of tea.

Li Yuan stood within the Array, his expression calm.

The intense light subsided, and space stabilized.

Li Yuan walked out of the Teleportation Array. Before him sprawled a magnificent city, crouched upon the land like a colossal beast of steel.

Celestial Peak Marketplace.

The city walls towered dozens of zhang high. Inside, buildings stood in dense rows, and the streets were wide. Enforcer patrols were a common sight in the skies. It had everything one could want: shops, restaurants, and alchemy labs of all kinds.

Li Yuan spent half a day exploring the city.

Though it had the appearance of a megacity with a comprehensive selection of goods, its core was much the same as any other marketplace—just on a larger scale. He saw nothing that truly defied convention.

He made a quick round of a few large shops and Loose Cultivator street stalls, spending a sum of Spirit Stones in the process.

Four items, each with the faint glow of an entry, ended up in his possession.

A crudely carved old wooden fish, a dried-up inkstone, a tattered Array Flag suffering from severe Spiritual Power loss, and a cracked Array Hub Crystal Stone.

[Detected equippable item: Old Wooden Fish (Intact)]

[Equipment Entry Preview: Keen Hearing (Gray)]

[Effect: Slightly increases auditory acuity.]

[Detected equippable item: Dried Inkstone (Intact)]

[Equipment Entry Preview: Spirit Flow (White)]

[Effect: When creating talismans, Spiritual Power utilization is increased by thirty percent.]

With a mere thought, Li Yuan caused the two white-grade items to dissolve into motes of light and merge into his body, making them permanent.

Without pausing, Li Yuan picked up the remaining two items.

[Detected equippable item: Array Flag (Intact)]

[Equipment Entry Preview: Conduction (Green)]

[Effect: After setting up an array, the conduction speed of Spiritual Power between Array Flags is increased by fifty percent.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Personally craft fifty intact Array Flags of the same tier.]

[Detected equippable item: Cracked Array Hub Crystal Stone (Intact)]

[Equipment Entry Preview: Hub Solidification (Blue)]

[Effect: While inside an array you have personally laid, the circulation speed of Spiritual Power is increased by thirty percent, and the array can accommodate one additional stream of foreign spiritual qi.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Withstand three full-power attacks from a cultivator of the same tier.]

After buying what he needed, Li Yuan noted that he had been away for some time and the auction was still half a month away. He decided to use the well-developed trade routes between the provinces to first return to Liangzhou.

After several transfers through the inter-provincial teleportation network at Celestial Peak Marketplace, Li Yuan once again set foot on the soil of Liangzhou.

The moment he arrived at a transit marketplace in Liangzhou, Li Yuan keenly sensed something unusual about the atmosphere.

In teahouses and taverns, Loose Cultivators were all discussing the same matter.

"The Primordial Yang Sect is massively recruiting Array Masters, not just from within, but from the outside as well."

"I heard they’re offering incredibly high rewards. As long as your skill in the Array Dao reaches Tier Two High Grade, you can immediately receive a position with a handsome stipend."

Hearing these rumors, Li Yuan understood. This perfectly matched what he had heard from those Primordial Yang Sect disciples in Liupin City. The Evil Slaying Sect had attacked the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm, causing the space there to become unstable. Now, the Primordial Yang Sect was not only short on spatial materials, but even more desperate for knowledgeable people to patch the cracks and repair the great array.

Li Yuan didn’t poke his nose into their business. He simply transformed into an Escape Light and returned to Mist Forest Marketplace.

The moment he landed within the marketplace, Ji Wenchuan and Xu Zhang sensed Li Yuan’s aura and quickly came to greet him.

"Pavilion Master."

With a single glance, Li Yuan immediately took in the changes to the marketplace.

The original boundaries had been pushed out, more than doubling the area. Numerous new stone houses and shops had been constructed on the outskirts, and the streets had been redesigned. The defensive forces had grown by several squads, and the patrolling cultivators, clad in crisp armor, projected an impressive combat presence.

"You’ve expanded?" Li Yuan asked as he walked to the head seat in the main hall and sat down.

"It’s all thanks to you, Pavilion Master." Ji Wenchuan stepped forward, his voice filled with unconcealable excitement. "Ever since you assumed the title of Honored Guest Protector for the Primordial Yang Sect, many things have become much more convenient."

Xu Zhang nodded slightly and added, "Furthermore, my merchant’s association decided to increase its operational investment in the Mist Forest Marketplace, so various Low Tier Spiritual Materials and medicinal pills have been flowing in continuously. After discussing it with Chen Yi, I took the liberty of carrying out a round of outward expansion."

Li Yuan nodded slightly.

’The resources have been integrated well. As a hands-off boss, I just need to provide a sufficiently powerful backing and a deterrent presence. Others will naturally handle the concrete details.’

"The territory has expanded, but the array can’t keep up." Li Yuan’s Divine Sense extended from the main hall, sweeping over the marketplace’s outer perimeter. "The current Defensive Array has just been stretched to its limits. The nodes are weak; it won’t withstand any real pressure. I’ll personally rebuild it."

Night fell.

Li Yuan went alone to the newly expanded outer border of the Mist Forest Marketplace.

He didn’t immediately pull out a new Array Disc and Array Flags. Instead, he closed his eyes.

Array Heart Sense and Array Base Retrospection activated simultaneously.

Within his web of perception, not only did the original array circuits of the marketplace appear, but even the traces of ancient, dilapidated arrays, long buried by the sands of time, surfaced one by one.

Li Yuan opened his eyes. Forming a blade with his right hand, he caused his Spiritual Power to surge.

He began to dart through the darkness, his fingertips periodically etching deep grooves into stone and soil.

He wasn’t tearing it all down to rebuild from scratch. The [Remnant Pattern Nesting] entry in his equipment list flared with a dense green light.

Each time Li Yuan established a new array node, a gentle stream of Spiritual Power would automatically reach out, seeking the old, residual Array Patterns underground with the precision of a vine. A circuit that would have originally required ten Mid-grade Spirit Stones to build could now be perfectly connected with just three, by leveraging the remnants of the old array.

Like dead trees experiencing a second spring, the old, dilapidated arrays were reactivated by the new Spiritual Power, transforming into sub-nodes for the new array.

Link after link, layer upon layer.

Spirit Gathering Array, Illusionary Array, and Vajra Defense Array. Under the connecting influence of the old patterns, several arrays with different functions meshed together perfectly, forming a vast, interconnected array formation.

As Li Yuan drove the final core Array Base into the ground, a shimmer of light, nearly imperceptible to the naked eye, flashed abruptly across the sky above the entire Mist Forest Marketplace.

[Interlocking Array established successfully.]

[Permanence condition for Remnant Pattern Nesting (Green) has been met.]

[Remnant Pattern Nesting (Green) has become a permanent entry.]

The spectral image of the old interlocking Array Disc in his equipment list shattered instantly, dissolving into countless green motes of light that flowed into Li Yuan’s sea of consciousness.

The instant the entry became permanent, Li Yuan felt a great RUMBLE in his mind, as if some barrier had been utterly shattered. A tidal wave of enlightenment regarding the workings of the Array Dao and the harmony of spatial nodes flooded his mind.

[Arrays: Tier Three Proficient → Tier Three Expert]

But that was not the end.

A system panel abruptly popped up before his eyes.

[Entry Resonance Fusion Detected]

[Array Heart Sense (White)] + [Pattern Comprehension (White)] + [Array Base Retrospection (Green)] + [Remnant Pattern Nesting (Green)]

[Acquired New Entry: Array Network Insight (Blue)]

[Effect: Grants an extremely powerful intuition for large-scale array networks. You can passively perceive the sources and flaws of all array fluctuations within the range of your Divine Sense. When reading and utilizing any incomplete Array Patterns, their logical circuits are automatically completed. When laying a new array, you can seamlessly nest it with and forcefully commandeer any unowned or Low Tier Array Patterns from friend or foe in the environment.]

Li Yuan stood where he was, slowly letting out a breath.

’Four mid- and low-tier entries fused into an exceptionally tyrannical blue-grade ability. It not only encompasses all the previous effects, but this new trait of forcefully commandeering environmental Array Patterns means that in a complex array confrontation, I can directly hijack the enemy’s outer defenses for my own use.’

’My mastery of the Array Dao has advanced by leaps and bounds, and my power has reached a new level.’