Seven Arrays

After an unknown amount of time, Lu Feng woke from his slumber in a daze and found himself in darkness. As far as the eye could see, darkness stretched without end, without the slightest trace of light.

"Where is this? Could it be that I'm not dead?"

Lu Feng was overjoyed. His consciousness remained, and he could still think. Had he truly survived?

"You've been unconscious for three days and three nights. You're finally awake."

A voice abruptly rang out from the darkness. It sounded aged and weathered, yet immensely penetrating, as though it came from the void itself. It made one's mind tremble and inspired immense awe.

With a trace of fear, Lu Feng warily looked around, but aside from darkness, there was not a soul in sight.

"Who is it? Who's speaking?" Lu Feng shouted into the endless darkness.

"The one who saved you," the aged voice sounded again, carrying a faint chuckle.

"Who are you? Where is Senior Sister Yi Han?" Lu Feng anxiously wandered through the darkness in search of her.

The aged voice laughed. "The injured woman who was with you? I saw Clear River Sect identification token at her waist and casually tossed her back into the sect."

Lu Feng was somewhat displeased by the old man's use of the word "tossed," but learning that Yu Yihan had returned to the sect put him much more at ease.

Lu Feng sensed the condition of his body, then asked, "Senior, where is this? Why is it so dark?"

"Your strength is gone, so don't tell me you can't even recognize the initial state of your life soul anymore?" the aged voice replied listlessly, sounding somewhat lazy.

"Life soul?" Lu Feng froze. He immediately sensed the endless darkness again. Once he calmed himself, he discovered that this dark environment felt somewhat familiar and intimate. He was indeed within his own life soul sea.

"The life soul sea is still here! That means the foundation of Soul Cultivation remains, and I can still cultivate?" Lu Feng's heart brimmed with hope, but the thought of his seven spiritual souls already having shattered filled him with disappointment again.

"Can I still cultivate?" Lu Feng asked into the darkness with a trace of hope.

For a long while, the voice did not reappear. Lu Feng could not help feeling puzzled. Slowly recalling the events at Night Crow Ridge, he thought, Although my seven spiritual souls exploded at the time, I extracted a thread of origin power just before they did. Now that I've confirmed it, that origin power is drifting within my life soul. If I can anchor and nourish it, perhaps rebuilding my cultivation isn't impossible.

"Senior!" Lu Feng called out several times into the endless darkness, wanting to confirm his suspicions. His mind was currently full of questions awaiting answers.

At last, the aged voice appeared once more.

"Haah..." It actually let out a long yawn before lazily asking Lu Feng, "What did you just say?"

Lu Feng was speechless. He was worried sick over here, while that person seemed to have fallen asleep?

Helplessly, Lu Feng could only obediently repeat himself. "Senior, can I still cultivate?"

"Cough, cough." The old man coughed, his voice turning somewhat solemn as he said in a low tone, "There are two paths before you. First, cultivate anew, but you will likely find it difficult to live past seven years. Second, become an ordinary person with no cultivation whatsoever. With your constitution, you may perhaps live to a hundred."

"Cultivate anew!" Lu Feng did not hesitate in the slightest. Let alone seven years, even if it were seven months, he would still make this choice. Too many doubts from the battle at Night Crow Ridge plagued him. If he wanted to uncover who was trying to harm him, he had to possess absolute strength.

The old man seemed very satisfied with Lu Feng's answer, and a faint laugh drifted from the darkness.

"I can use arrays to anchor and strengthen the origin power of your seven spiritual souls, allowing them to slowly nourish and recover. But the consequence is that you must comprehend these arrays. Otherwise, if the arrays lose control, you will inevitably be reduced to ashes, leaving not even bones behind." The old man's voice carried a measure of severity, but his tone was full of appreciation.

"Once I comprehend the arrays, will I be able to cultivate like an ordinary person?" Lu Feng carefully pressed further. This concerned his life, so there was no room for carelessness.

"Once the seven arrays have been set, you will be able to cultivate as usual. Thereafter, every array you gain control over will be equivalent to your original opening of one spiritual soul. But remember this well: after all seven spiritual souls have been opened, you must still fuse and connect them. This step requires the aid of an exceedingly rare spiritual treasure. Without it, it cannot be done." The old man explained the difficulty involved, allowing Lu Feng to prepare himself mentally in advance.

"Seven arrays?" Lu Feng was startled. He had thought there would only be one.

"Afraid?" the old man teased with a laugh.

"This junior is merely a little surprised, not afraid." Lu Feng shook his head, then deliberately said, "I'm only worried about Senior's array-setting skill. I fear that after escaping the calamity of Night Crow Ridge, I might instead lose my life because something goes wrong with the arrays."

"Hmph." The old man snorted coldly and said with immense pride, "I have set countless arrays in my life and have never made a mistake."

Although Lu Feng's expression did not change, his heart was ecstatic. Never made a mistake in the Dao of arrays in an entire lifetime? If that was true, it was far too terrifying. Even among the greatest array masters in the world today, who would dare make such a boast?

Had he encountered a reclusive master beyond the mortal world?!

But on further thought, without extraordinary means, how could this person have rescued his dying self from Night Crow Ridge?

In an instant, Lu Feng elevated the old man to an extremely high position. At the same time, suspicion quietly arose in his heart. Why would such an existence go to such lengths to save a cripple like him? Could he have some ulterior motive?

The instant this doubt arose, it was smothered within his heart.

Lu Feng laughed at himself. Even if the old man had other intentions, he now had nothing at all. What was there to fear?

"Senior, may I ask which seven arrays they are?" Though Lu Feng was not an array master, he had some knowledge of the Dao of arrays. He truly could not think of any arrays capable of such effects.

The old man smiled proudly. "They are seven peerless Strange Arrays that I spent my entire life seeking out. They perfectly align with a person's seven spiritual souls. They are supreme arrays bestowed by Heaven..."

Lu Feng listened intently to the old man. At first, hearing of the various wondrous powers of those arrays filled him with longing. Gradually, however, he suddenly realized that the old man seemed to be deliberately exaggerating the arrays in order to "tempt" him.

A thought suddenly surfaced in Lu Feng's heart. Could Senior's purpose in saving me be to test those arrays?

If that was truly the case, then at least they had a mutually beneficial relationship. Lu Feng instead trusted the old man a little more.

"Senior," Lu Feng interrupted the old man's grandiose boasting, "I am ready. I can accept the arrays into my body at any time."

"Good!"

The old man's voice gradually faded from the darkness. Not long afterward, a creaking sound came through, like the opening of a door and yet like bamboo snapping. Lu Feng quietly sensed the subtle movements on the old man's side and discovered that there seemed to be one more person.

Could it be that Senior cannot set these arrays by himself? Lu Feng was startled. Recalling the old man's words just now, what kind of array could require even a great array master who had never failed to find someone to work with him?

"Guard your mind. Do not resist," another cold voice came from the darkness. Then, the space on both sides of Lu Feng slowly converged. Enormous halos emerged layer upon layer, while countless patterns atop them glimmered endlessly. The entire dark space became dazzlingly magnificent.

Unfortunately, Lu Feng had no chance to witness this beautiful sight.

A dense, unceasing torrent of immense force poured into his body. Before Lu Feng could fully react, he felt a suction force erupt from the depths of his soul. His vision went black, and he lost consciousness, leaving the countless radiant patterns to do as they pleased.

Lu Feng, unconscious, knew nothing of what was happening outside.

On Night Crow Ridge.

A cold and peerlessly beautiful woman stood proudly alone upon the mountain peak. Her white gauze robes fluttered in the wind, and she seemed like a celestial maiden descending from the Ninth Heaven, radiating an immaculate immortal aura. The things around her appeared to lose all color because of her presence, as though they did not dare vie with her in splendor.

The woman looked at the traces of battle left upon the ridge, her expression somewhat desolate. She lightly bit her lip, and a trace of unwillingness showed between her brows.

She had come for their appointment, but she had arrived too late!

The woman stared at the jet-black flexible sword she had picked up, her eyes full of regret and sorrow. She coughed lightly several times, and blood actually seeped from the corner of her lips. It was unknown whether this came from excessive grief or the recurrence of an old injury.

The woman stood alone on the mountain peak for a full day. When she finally left, her entire figure seemed incomparably dim, and the chill radiating from her expression seemed capable of freezing Heaven and Earth alike.

Night Crow Ridge was not the only place where someone sighed in sorrow.

Within the Inner Sect of Clear River Sect, in the great hall where the sect disciples' Soul Jade Tablets were stored.

Every disciple who entered the Inner Sect would have a Soul Jade Tablet inscribed. This was a rule shared by nearly every great sect and faction.

At this moment, the disciple responsible for guarding the Soul Jade Tablets cried out in shock and terror, "Bad... this is bad... Senior Brother Lu Feng's Soul Jade Tablet has shattered..."

Shattered meant that its owner had died.

Soon afterward, the entire sect was shaken and filled with regret...

A middle-aged man was tending to Yu Yihan, who lay unconscious upon her bedchamber couch. His eyes held affection and heartache, yet he also seemed troubled and deep in thought, uncertain how he should tell Yu Yihan of Lu Feng's death after she awoke...

Naturally, Lu Feng knew nothing of any of this. By the time he regained consciousness once more, seven days had already passed.

"The seven arrays are complete. What happens next depends on your own fortune."

Lu Feng was utterly stunned. The old man's aged voice echoed through his mind, but it no longer possessed its former penetrating force. On the contrary, it sounded extremely weak.

Although the seven arrays had been set, Lu Feng could do nothing at the moment aside from regaining clarity of consciousness. Everywhere his awareness reached remained boundless darkness. The only difference was that seven mist-like balls of light had appeared in the darkness, formed from the scattered radiance of the seven spiritual souls within his life soul.

Within his life soul, although the seven spirit souls had been reforged and stabilized through the arrays, Lu Feng found them exceptionally unfamiliar at this moment, as though they had no connection to him whatsoever.

Not long after the old man's voice faded, the glows of the seven spiritual souls also dimmed and darkened. The soul sea once again returned to silent darkness.

Wandering, desolation, loneliness...

Lu Feng remained in this environment for many days. Though darkness was bad in every way, it allowed him to sort through many of his thoughts. Many of the doubts from Night Crow Ridge also became much clearer.