Mu Domain, Mu City.
Mu Chen walked slowly beneath the covered corridor, his black clothes making his figure look all the more tall and straight. A bird perched quietly on his shoulder.
It was a sparrow, covered in gray-brown feathers flecked with darker markings. With its short tail feathers, it looked utterly ordinary.
She perched quietly on Mu Chen's shoulder, her little black-bean eyes occasionally turning to survey the surroundings. Now and then, she groomed the down at the base of her wings with her beak, looking perfectly tame.
Anyone who saw her would have assumed she was nothing more than an ordinary little pet the youth had trained.
Only Mu Chen knew what a terrifying existence lay dormant within this seemingly harmless little sparrow.
Even he had to exert nearly all his strength to suppress her!
Nine Nether.
Ever since they had struck their bargain in the Black Nether Abyss, Nine Nether had withdrawn her vast true form and the monstrous black flames that could burn the heavens and boil the seas. She had taken on this appearance and followed at Mu Chen's side.
In her words, the heavenly tribulation was imminent. Maintaining her true form would invite disaster, while this shape required the least effort.
Mu Chen had no objections.
He had spent several days cultivating in a quiet chamber at the Mu Estate, repeatedly familiarizing himself with the Emperor's Fallen Double Pupils. Only when he could wield them without the slightest hitch in his thoughts did he emerge from seclusion.
Outside the window, afternoon had arrived, and the sunlight was just right.
He pushed the door open and stood briefly beneath the corridor. The gray-brown sparrow fluttered down onto his shoulder, glanced at him with her little black-bean eyes, then turned away to groom her feathers, looking utterly indifferent.
Mu Chen smiled and left her alone.
His father, Mu Feng, had mentioned earlier that he had found someone to guide him in Spirit Arrays. Now that his other affairs had been settled for the moment, the time was right.
He passed through several courtyards and arrived at a secluded little courtyard on the western side of the estate.
Dark green vines climbed its walls, and the gate stood ajar. It was silent inside, its atmosphere quite unlike the rest of the estate.
Pushing the gate open, he saw a stone table and stools beneath an old pagoda tree.
A middle-aged man in gray-white robes sat on one of the stone stools. An old parchment scroll lay spread before him, and his fingers hovered over it as he studied it intently.
He was thin and gaunt, with a stern face and naturally downturned lips, as though he had been born incapable of smiling.
This was Wen Ling, the first-rank Spirit Array Master retained by the Mu Domain.
Hearing footsteps, Wen Ling raised his head. His gaze settled on Mu Chen without much reaction, and he merely offered a respectful bow.
The sparrow flew soundlessly onto a branch of the pagoda tree, disappearing into the shadows of its leaves.
"Now that you're here, Young Lord, let us begin studying Spirit Arrays," Wen Ling said once they had taken their seats.
"Please go ahead." Mu Chen listened quietly, his expression earnest.
"Simply put, a Spirit Array uses a special method to make spiritual energy resonate, thereby drawing upon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to produce offensive or defensive effects."
"However, creating this resonance is extraordinarily complex and difficult..."
Wen Ling explained the basics, giving Mu Chen time to digest these fundamental concepts, then slowly raised his right hand with its long, slender fingers.
Mu Chen's gaze settled on his fingertips.
Specks of spiritual light materialized there, swiftly gathering until they formed five Spirit Seals with intricate, delicate structures.
"These are Spirit Seals," Wen Ling explained at just the right moment. "They are indispensable to setting up a Spirit Array..."
As he spoke, he flicked his fingers lightly.
The five Spirit Seals flew from his hand and vanished soundlessly into the air, like droplets merging into the sea.
Whoosh!
A fierce gust of wind sprang up in the courtyard without warning, setting the pagoda leaves rustling and the parchment on the stone table flapping.
The wind departed as quickly as it had come. Within two or three breaths, it vanished without a trace, and calm returned to the courtyard, as though that gust had been nothing more than an illusion.
Mu Chen looked thoughtful. With his strength, he could naturally see the little Spirit Array that had merged into the air.
"This is merely a minor, unranked Spirit Array. It doesn't even qualify as a first-rank Spirit Array, the lowest rank..."
"Generally speaking, the more powerful a Spirit Array is, the more Spirit Seals it requires, and the harder it becomes to control them all at once..."
"Spirit Seals are the foundation of setting up an array. Besides them, there is another indispensable component..."
"And array diagrams, like Spirit Array Masters, are divided into nine ranks..."
Once Wen Ling had finished explaining the basics of Spirit Arrays, he turned his hand over, took out a jade slip, and handed it to Mu Chen.
"This contains the method for cultivating Spirit Seals. Try it and see whether you can form them."
"In a sense, this is the most basic test for a beginner. If you feel clumsy and sluggish while cultivating, you can stop."
"That would mean your sensitivity to Spirit Seals is poor. In other words, you lack the talent for this."
Mu Chen took the jade slip without wasting words. Closing his eyes, he absorbed the method for cultivating Spirit Seals contained within it.
He raised his right hand and extended his index finger.
Within just two or three breaths, a speck of spiritual light quietly appeared at Mu Chen's fingertip!
One Spirit Seal, formed!
Then came the second, the third...
More and more points of spiritual light lit up out of thin air around Mu Chen!
Counted carefully, there were a full five hundred!
The expression on Wen Ling's face gradually shifted from shock to bewilderment, then to a daze of utter disbelief...
Five hundred Spirit Seals on his very first attempt?
At that moment, Mu Chen slowly lifted his eyes.
He looked at Wen Ling, who had all but lost the ability to speak, and let out a gentle breath. A reasonably satisfied expression appeared on his face as he said:
"Master Wen, forming these Spirit Seals seems... not all that difficult."
The pagoda leaves rustled softly in the breeze, sifting broken patches of light onto the stone table and Wen Ling's frozen face.
His mouth opened as though he wanted to say something, but all that escaped his throat was a muffled, almost strangled breath.
The five hundred Spirit Seals floated quietly around Mu Chen, spiritual light flowing through them. They were so stable that not one trembled, as though they had always belonged there.
"Not... all that difficult?"
Wen Ling finally found his voice.
His eyes shifted from the Spirit Seals to Mu Chen's calm face, then back again. He repeated this several times, as though trying to confirm whether he had fallen into some absurd dream.
When he had first started learning, it had taken him an entire fortnight to form five Spirit Seals!
But these were five hundred!
This was no longer a question of how talented someone was. This was... Wen Ling's limited imagination could no longer find a fitting description for the sight before him.
Before true "talent to awe gods and ghosts," all common sense and experience were as fragile as a sheet of thin paper.
Seeing Wen Ling remain silent for so long, merely staring at him in a daze, Mu Chen gave a slight mental command. The five hundred Spirit Seals around him vanished soundlessly.
He knew his talent was formidable, but he had not expected others to be so incapable of handling it...
Calm returned to the courtyard, broken only by the faint whisper of wind through the leaves.
"Master Wen?" Mu Chen called again.
Wen Ling jolted, as though he had been hauled up from the bottom of deep water. He drew a long breath, then slowly released it.
When he looked at Mu Chen again, his gaze had changed completely. A complex emotion mingled within it, almost like the reverence of a pilgrim before something sacred.
"Young Lord... I cannot teach you!"
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