Li Yuan sits cross-legged on the bed and runs Spirit Guiding Art.
After Micro-Origin Meridian Guiding Art Major Accomplishment, the transparency of the meridians throughout the body has reached a new level. The speed of spiritual power traveling around the sky is much faster than before. There is no pause from starting from the Dantian to completing the whole body and then Backflow the Dantian.
About an hour later, there were footsteps outside the yard.
Knock on the door.
Li Yuan opened his eyes, stood up and opened the door.
Uncle Qu stood at the door, his expression as usual, but his eyes were a little sharper than usual.
"Follow me."
There are no unnecessary words. Uncle Qu turned around and left, and Li Yuan followed.
The two of them left the outer settlement and walked along a gravel path toward the northern hillside.
The hillside is not high, a gentle slope of about 100 feet, with short shrubs and weeds growing on the slope. When reaching the halfway point, Li Yuan's steps slowed down a bit.
There were weak spiritual energy fluctuations on the ground beneath my feet.
It is not natural spiritual energy, it is artificially arranged. The spiritual energy fluctuations are extremely concealed and follow the surface of the earth, and are almost undetectable without careful perception.
Array.
Li Yuan glanced around. In the bushes, a few inconspicuous gray-white stones were scattered among the grass. The placement of the stones seemed random, but the spacing and orientation were regular.
Uncle Qu stopped at the top of the slope, turned around and looked at Li Yuan.
"Did you see it?"
Li Yuan nodded. "When was it laid?"
"Last night." Uncle Qu said in a calm tone. "I chased the person you talked about last time and didn't catch up, but I found his range of activities. It was just outside the mountain range in the north, going back and forth between several fixed points."
He glanced down the hillside.
"You can't catch him if you chase him alone. This man is highly alert and runs fast. We need to find another way."
Uncle Qu walked to a flat stone surface at the top of the slope and squatted down.
"You still have the piece of Manifestation Stone in your hand."
Li Yuan took out Manifestation Stone from the storage bag.
The gray-white stone is placed in the palm of the hand, and the spiritual power fluctuations on the surface are still there.
Uncle Qu took it and embedded it into a newly cut groove on the stone surface. The size was just right for it to stick.
Then Uncle Qu pushed the gravel around Manifestation Stone and stood up after confirming that the fit was tight.
Uncle Qu took out a milky white Jade Box from his arms and opened the lid.
A clear and sweet scent hit the face, more than ten times stronger than ordinary fruity scent, mixed with extremely pure spiritual energy fluctuations.
There is an emerald green fruit lying inside Jade Box, about the size of an egg, with a light golden luster flowing on its surface.
Spirit Origin Fruit.
Uncle Qu Take out Spirit Origin Fruit from Jade Box and insert it into a groove next to Manifestation Stone in the center of Array.
The moment Spirit Origin Fruit was embedded, the entire Array on the hillside came to life.
The gray-white stones scattered in the bushes simultaneously illuminated with a very faint halo, which connected to each other along the Spirit Power Line road on the surface, forming a network structure covering most of the hillside.
Array amplifies the breath of Spirit Origin Fruit several times and spreads it in all directions. Within a radius of two or three miles, any monk who is sensitive to the breath of Spirit Origin Fruit can smell it.
He patted the dirt on his hands.
"This Array can spread the scent of Spirit Origin Fruit to a radius of two or three miles. That Bandit Cultivator snatched Herb Garden just to get the materials for Foundation Establishment. Spirit Origin Fruit is the main material he lacks the most. If he is moving nearby, it is impossible not to smell it."
Lure the snake out of its hole.
Uncle Qu pointed down the hillside.
"Array requires continuous infusion of spiritual power to maintain it. I'm watching from the outside, and you are responsible for supplying spiritual power in Array. The entrance to the spiritual power is in the stone under your feet, just pour it in, and Array will run on its own."
Li Yuan lowered his head and glanced at his feet. It was a gray-white stone half buried in the soil, with several very shallow lines of Spirit Pattern carved on the surface, which were connected to the overall network of Array.
Li Yuan squatted down, pressed his palms on the stone, and poured in spiritual power.
The Spirit Pattern inside the stone lit up, and the spiritual power spread along the lines on the surface. The operation of Array became more stable, and the aura of Spirit Origin Fruit became stronger, spreading in all directions from the hillside.
Uncle Qu nodded, turned around and walked down the hillside, disappearing into the bushes at the foot of the slope.
Li Yuan maintained his spiritual power output and sat cross-legged next to the stone.
The spiritual power consumption is not large. Array's own structure has been laid out. He only needs to provide spiritual power to maintain operation, which is equivalent to adding oil to a lamp.
Time passed little by little.
It was very quiet on the hillside. Occasionally, the wind blew through the bushes, making a rustling sound. The outline of the mountains in the distance was clearly visible in the sunlight.
About two quarters of an hour later, Li Yuan's eyes moved slightly.
In the bushes to the northwest, someone is approaching.
The footsteps were very low, but the fluctuations of spiritual energy could not be hidden. He was at about the seventh or eighth level of Qi Refining, and his speed was not slow. He walked between short trees and shrubs, stopping every few steps, as if observing the surrounding situation.
Li Yuan did not move, and the spiritual power output remained unchanged.
The man is getting closer and closer.
From two hundred feet to one hundred feet, from one hundred feet to fifty feet.
Then it stopped.
A figure leaned out from behind a short tree.
He was of medium build, with a narrow face and high cheekbones. He was wearing a washed-white gray cloth shirt. He seemed to be in his early thirties. His eyes quickly scanned the hillside and finally landed on the aura emanating from Array at the top of the hill.
The wings of his nose twitched slightly, as if he was trying to distinguish the authenticity of the breath.
Li Yuan has seen this face before. It is the fifth picture among the portraits given by Uncle Qu.
The man stood for a few more breaths, then suddenly took a step forward.
Uncle Qu moved.
A ray of spiritual light shot out from the bushes at the foot of the slope and went straight to the man's back.
The man reacted very quickly. Before the aura could reach him, he had already dodged to the side and moved three or four feet laterally on his toes, avoiding the attack range.
The next moment, the man turned around and ran away.
Without hesitation or looking back, his figure flickered between the shrubs and trees, and in the blink of an eye he was thirty or forty feet away.
Uncle Qu appeared from the bushes and gave chase. The two figures disappeared into the bushes northwest of the hillside one after another.
Li Yuan did not pursue.
He closed his eyes and maximized Aura Imprinting's perception range.
The aura signature of Ninth Layer of Qi Refinement that I noted at the door of the store before has no reaction within the range of perception.
The face matches the portrait, but the smell doesn't.
Not the same person.