Obtaining the Inheritance
When Lin Ming reached a point about a hundred feet away from that star, he stopped.
Although the star's light was faint, upon closer inspection, he discovered that the Formation Patterns contained within it were far more profound and refined than any of the others.
Those Formation Patterns were like a nebula compressed for millennia, slowly rotating inside the stars, undergoing countless changes every instant.
That star was like the culmination of a grandmaster's Array Dao; though its exterior was dim, it contained a dazzling light within that could illuminate the entire starry sky.
Lin Ming stretched out his palm and gently cradled the star in it.
The moment his fingertips touched the surface of the star, the dark blue star suddenly lit up, and an extremely ancient message flooded into his mind like a torrent.
The information, like a star compressed to its extreme, suddenly exploded deep within his consciousness.
Though there was no roar, it was more awe-inspiring than a thousand thunderbolts falling simultaneously; though there was no flame, it was more dazzling than the sun shining brightly in the sky.
The Master of the Star Residence's lifelong insights into the Dao of Formations transformed into countless tiny specks of light that surged in.
At first it was just a glimmer of light, then it turned into a torrent, and later it became a galaxy hanging upside down in the sky, washing over every inch of his cognition.
He saw the earliest Spiritual Runes. The Spiritual Runes was so simple that it was almost plain, consisting of just a dot, a horizontal line, and a fold, with Spiritual Energy used to outline a loop.
Yet within this most basic arrangement lies the order of the beginning of time.
A single dot represents the spiritual pivot, a horizontal line represents the meridian, a bend represents the pass, and a loop represents the endless cycle of life. When the Master of the Star Residence was young, he once carved a half-inch mistake on Blue Stone, which caused the entire Spirit Gathering Formation to reverse, and the Spiritual Energy, like a wild horse, blasted the stone platform into dust.
That failure made him realize that Spiritual Runes are not static drawings, but living, breathing entities.
Every line must conform to the nature of the Spirit Qi, just like controlling water, it is better to dredge than to block, and better to guide than to suppress.
So later, he drew three thousand basic Spiritual Runes, from one rune to nine runes, from single arrays to chain arrays.
Those Spiritual Runes spun, disassembled, and reassembled in his mind, like countless stars dancing to some ancient rhythm.
He saw how the "Spirit Gathering Pattern" compared scattered Spirit Qi to streams and the Spiritual Runes to riverbeds; if the riverbed is too straight, the water will rush and disperse; if the riverbed is too winding, the water will stagnate and rot. Only by adding meandering patterns, locking patterns, guiding patterns, and storing patterns can the Spirit Qi be allowed to slowly permeate the fields like spring water flowing around them.
Then, I saw the "Sectarian Qi Suppression Pattern" and how to distinguish the types of Sectarian Qi: Earth evil energy is turbid and needs to be suppressed with earth and metal; Yin evil energy is cold and damp and needs to be evaporated with fire and wood; Wind evil energy is light and swift and needs to be wrapped with water.
Each type corresponds to different patterns, angles of transition, and sequences of Spiritual Energy infusion. A slight error will result in a backlash, and a tiny mistake will destroy the formation and kill the person.
Next is the balance of the Five Elements mutual generation and restraint. Metal is sharp, wood is nourishing, water is moistening, fire is intense, and earth is thick. They seem to each have their own place, but in reality, they restrain each other.
The Master of the Star Residence once transformed a desert into an oasis with a Five-Element Rotation Formation, but also caused the entire Herb Garden to wither and burn in an instant due to an excess of Fire Element and a deficiency of Wood Element.
The information came flooding in like a tide.
The Five Elements are not five forces, but five temperaments; mutual generation is not about giving without giving, and mutual assistance is not about simple reconciliation.
True balance lies in finding that "living point" within the dynamics.
Metal can fell trees, trees can break through soil, soil can dam water, water can extinguish fire, and fire can melt metal; but if a glimmer of hope is left in the midst of a deadly situation, and a door to life is hidden in a deadly predicament, the Five Elements will transform from mutual consumption into an endless cycle.
He seemed to see a great array unfolding in the void, with Five-Colored Spirit Light coiling like Dragon Snake, Qing Mu rising in the east, red fire burning in the south, white gold sharp in the west, black water deep in the north, and yellow earth thick in the center.
The five elements rotate, sometimes clashing like swords, sometimes complementing each other like a mother and child embracing.
Every change affects the hundreds of Spiritual Runes within the formation; the slightest misstep could lead to complete collapse.
But if one can find that delicate balance, one can move mountains and rivers with a wisp of Spiritual Energy.
Further in, one finds the grandeur of Composite Grand Formation. A single array is like a star, while a complex array is like a Star Sea.
The Master of the Star Residence Spirit Gathering Formation Array on top of the Origin Locking Formation, then covered the Killing Array with an Illusion Array, and connected the Trapping Array with a Teleportation Array. There were arrays within arrays, all interlocked.
As that information unfolded in his mind, he could almost hear the sound of countless gears meshing: the main array was the bone, the secondary array was the vein, and the auxiliary array was the acupoint; the Array Eyes was like the heart, the array base was like the foot bones, the Formation Patterns were like the meridians, and the Spiritual Energy was like the blood.
A Composite Grand Formation that can heal itself, grow, confuse enemies, and also reveal its fangs in an instant.
He saw a nine-layered, nest-like "Star-River Heavenly Prison Formation". The nine layers were not simply added together, but rather they supported each other. If one layer was damaged, another layer would compensate; if one layer erupted, the other eight layers would resonate simultaneously.
That was no longer a formation, but a living world.
He then saw that the "Heavenly Cycle Star-Dipper Formation" had 365 Array Eyes corresponding to the stars in the heavens, and each Array Eyes was composed of 72 sub-patterns, with even finer spiritual networks beneath the sub-patterns.
The master array master stood in the center, using his divine sense as a thread to simultaneously control 3,600 nodes. Spiritual Energy flowed like an inverted Milky Way, and starlight descended from the void, converging into a river.
When the enemy breaks in, it's like falling into the Star Sea, every step treading between deadly danger and illusion.
Then, the supreme Formation Patterns, which folds space and freezes time, appeared.
According to the news, the Master of the Star Residence devoted all his efforts in his later years to finally reaching this level.
Space is no longer a flat piece of cloth, but can be folded, twisted, sewn, and knotted.
Sumeru can be hidden in a mustard seed, and ten thousand miles can be condensed into a single step. The Formation Patterns are like needles, and the Spiritual Energy is like threads, piercing, tightening, and knotting the void to form anchor points.
Two places thousands of miles apart can be traversed in a single step as long as the anchor points are aligned. Even more ingenious is the creation of a courtyard within a palm-sized Jade Tablet, the concealment of a mountain within the courtyard, and the hiding place of a grotto within the mountain.
Layer upon layer, like a mirror within a mirror, a dream within a dream.
The information unfolded rapidly in his mind, like a boundless Scroll Painting.
The Scroll Painting began as just a corner, then spread out in all directions, crossing mountains, oceans, stars, and all the boundaries of his imagination.
He saw Spiritual Runes falling like rain from the sky; he saw the array base floating like a continent in the void; he saw the Array Eyes shining like the sun, illuminating countless branches; he saw Spiritual Energy surging like rivers between the Formation Patterns.
They saw the Master of the Star Residence sitting alone on the Star Platform, his white hair as white as snow, yet his fingertips still glowing with an undying spiritual light.
All those successes, failures, ecstasy, despair, epiphanies, and regrets, all compressed into information, like an encyclopedia of formations compressed into a single star, now burst open in his consciousness.
Lin Ming felt his soul being stretched open, like a dry well suddenly being filled with a vast ocean.
Every inch of my consciousness was throbbing with pain, every thought was trembling.
He almost screamed, but no sound came out; he almost fainted, but was firmly held in his conscious state by the infinite mysteries.
The formations he had learned before now seemed so rudimentary. He was like a frog trapped at the bottom of a well, staring at the small patch of light at the well's opening every day, thinking that was the whole sky.
But at that moment, the information transformed into a giant hand, suddenly lifting him up from the bottom of the well.
He jumped out of the well.
Then he saw it. He saw that the Dao of Formations was not an inanimate object, but the skeleton of heaven and earth, the veins of the stars' movement, and the net woven by time and space.
In the boundless sky, every star is an array, every gust of wind is a pattern, and every inch of emptiness is inscribed with ancient characters yet to be deciphered.
He saw his own insignificance, but also the vastness ahead.
The shock was like thunder, the joy like a tidal wave, and the awe like an abyss. He knew that from this moment on, he could never go back to that well.
After an unknown amount of time, Lin Ming slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes reflected the vast starry sky, with Five-Colored Brilliance and deep blue starlight intertwining and flowing deep within his pupils, like a rainbow merging into the Star Sea.
At this moment, Lin Ming's expression remained calm, but a very rare smile appeared on his lips.
He had already obtained the inheritance of the Master of the Star Residence, and those insights into the Array Dao were like a seed planted in the core of his Inner World, waiting to take root and sprout in the future.
He looked down at the deep blue star in his palm. The star was no longer dim; it radiated a warm and bright light, like a heart that had finally been awakened and was slowly beating in his palm.
The star slowly deformed, condensed, and solidified in his palm, eventually transforming into a star-blue token.
The token is engraved with a star map, in which seven stars are arranged in the shape of the Big Dipper, emitting a deep and distant star-blue light.
The Star Residence Token is the token of the head of the Nine Residences.
Lin Ming put the token into his sleeve and placed it next to the previous two tokens.
The three tokens resonated with each other, emitting a very faint buzzing sound, like a short and melodious musical movement.
The starry sky beneath our feet began to slowly dissipate at that moment.
One by one, the stars went out; one by one, the connecting lines broke; and the darkness faded away little by little, like thin ice melted by sunlight.
Lin Ming found himself standing on that stone platform, with star-blue flames burning quietly on the five-pointed stone pillar.
He stepped down from the stone platform and walked towards the Altar.
The third star-blue halo on the Altar had completely dissipated, all three halos had extinguished, and the dark blue Crystal Stone in the center of the Altar had also dimmed, like a star that had exhausted its energy and returned to silence after completing its final mission.
Lin Ming stood before the Altar, repeatedly pondering the information he had obtained from the Master of the Star Residence's inheritance.
His insights into Array Dao were extremely profound, and he couldn't fully digest them in a short time. However, some of the core ideas had already been etched into his mind like a brand.
He could feel that his understanding of the Dao of Formations had undergone a qualitative leap at that moment, like a sharp blade that had been reforged, with an invisible layer of cold light on its edge.
Lin Ming raised his palm and lightly traced a line in the air with his fingertips.
An extremely fine Spiritual Runes condensed at his fingertips. Although the structure of the Spiritual Runes was simple, the Formation Patterns contained within it subtly echoed a certain core concept in the inheritance of the Master of the Star Residence.
He nodded slightly, dispersed the Spiritual Runes, and left this space.