Cloud Deep's bamboo grove was wreathed in mist.
Chen Yu visited Yang Hongli's bamboo cottage, but found no one there. Only after asking cultivators passing along the bamboo paths did he learn that his senior brother had spent the past few days in a humble courtyard beside the lotus pond.
The path of array formations was difficult to learn and even harder to master. Copying a cat while drawing a tiger and setting up arrays by imitation would ultimately leave one with only the form, without understanding the deeper principles.
Yet once one had learned and mastered it, even within the fiercely competitive Three Origins Sect, one could secure a respectable job and stipend.
Someone like Yang Hongli, whose accomplishments in array formations at such a young age already nearly matched those of an elderly master, basically never had to worry about Spirit Stones.
When he craved seclusion, he returned to his bamboo cottage to cultivate in retreat. When he wanted more liveliness, he entered the mundane world and rented a small blue-tiled courtyard to experience the myriad faces of life.
He was simply rolling in money.
After finding the courtyard, Chen Yu was swiftly led inside by a young attendant, where he met Yang Hongli and the protective array he needed.
Yang Hongli handed the array diagram to him and said with great interest, "This is what you asked for: the Eight Gates Golden Lock Array. It borrows the principles of Qi Men Dun Jia and adapts the wonders of array formations. It is fundamentally different from mundane array arts."
"The Life Gate, Scenery Gate, and Open Gate circulate and shift without cease, leaving only the five baleful gates to invite enemies into the urn. Only brute force or someone within the array can break it."
"The array principles