Mo Hua had another question.
"But, Master, isn't earth unsuitable for use as an array medium?"
Ordinary Array Masters would not use earth as the array medium for an array technique.
The soil was either loose or damp in texture; it could also dry out, weather away, and erode. Over long periods, it was difficult for it to retain a fixed form, making it unsuitable for bearing Array Patterns.
Mr. Zhuang corrected him. "It is not unsuitable as an array medium. It is simply that most Array Masters cannot use it as one."
"What they cannot accomplish, they cannot understand. Over time, most Array Masters came to believe that earth was unsuitable as an array medium."
Mo Hua thought for a moment, then asked weakly, "Then how can earth bear Array Patterns?"
He still did not quite understand.
"What is the essence of an array's Array Patterns?" Mr. Zhuang asked.
"A manifestation of the trajectories through which Lingli flows," Mo Hua answered.
He had studied Divine Sense Derivation, drawn Grand Arrays, and used a Grand Array's Array Hub to control the flow of Lingli within Array Patterns, so his understanding ran deep.
Mr. Zhuang nodded. "Do you remember what I told you? Some Array Masters only know how to follow a diagram, drawing Array Patterns rigidly according to the Array Diagram. They dare not add a single stroke or remove a single stroke, yet the array techniques they draw still have no effect."
"Because they possess only the form, without the inner flow of Lingli, the array techniques they draw are nothing but empty shells."
"Yet some Array Masters are not bound by form. They draw as they please, and their array techniques emerge whole and seamless, as though wrought by nature itself."
"That is because such Array Masters use