"Boom!"
Lin Yun burned the two Black Fiend Sect members into two heaps of white ash with a Fireball spell, then swept them into the nearby Medicine Field with a wave of his hand to serve as fertilizer.
Then he looked around at the Medicine Field, his brows slightly furrowed, and murmured, "Even the Black Fiend Sect has found its way here. It looks like it's time to leave."
Before this, Lin Yun had planned to raise his cultivation to at least the ninth level of Qi Refinement before leaving the valley to find somewhere rich in primordial qi and cultivate the White Yang Diagram in seclusion. But he had since learned that this was the world of A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality, and now the Black Fiend Sect had come knocking as well.
He knew he needed to leave. For one thing, all the places rich in primordial qi in the Heavenly South were held by cultivation sects and families. As an independent cultivator, he simply had no way to claim a spiritual site.
For another, the demonic invasion would probably happen within a few years. When it did, the Yue Kingdom would descend into chaos, making secluded cultivation just as difficult.
Whether he wanted to cultivate the Daoist Books from the Zu Mountain world or raise his cultivation as quickly as possible to face the coming upheaval, he needed to find somewhere rich in primordial qi without delay.
If possible, he also needed to find the Ancient Teleportation Formation leading to the Chaotic Star Sea as soon as possible, so he could flee there at any moment. Otherwise, if Han the Old Devil fled first and destroyed the Ancient Teleportation Formation on the Chaotic Star Sea side, his escape route would be cut off.
The Heavenly South really isn't a place where independent cultivators can survive. All the finest spiritual veins are occupied by the major sects and families, and they've monopolized the places that produce medicinal herbs and spiritual materials too. Before the demonic invasion, I still need to join one of the Seven Great Sects, both to cultivate and to find the spirit stone mine hiding that Ancient Teleportation Formation, Lin Yun pondered.
Then he took out the Yellow Maple Valley Ascension Token again and gently rubbed it between his fingers. With a soft chuckle, he said, "This will get me into Yellow Maple Valley nicely."
With his aptitude of Four-Spirit Root, Lin Yun would ordinarily have had no chance of entering any of the Seven Sects of Yue unless he competed in the Ascension Immortal Assembly and took first place. Fortunately, he had this Yellow Maple Valley Ascension Token passed down through the Lin Family.
With a turn of his hand, Lin Yun put away the Ascension Token. He looked around at the Medicine Field again and said softly, "Most of these herbs aren't much use to me, but I can't just abandon them. And I can't neglect the Lin Family ancestral home either."
With that, Lin Yun looked at the mist shrouding the valley nearby. "Very well. I'll rearrange this Cloudmist Illusion Array and seal off the valley, so the likes of the Black Fiend Sect can't come disturbing the Lin Family Ancestral Grounds again."
This Cloudmist Illusion Array had been brought out of Yellow Maple Valley by a Lin Family ancestor when he left the sect. It consisted of four array flags and an Array Disk.
It was an unranked array whose only function was to create an illusion within the mist, barely sufficient to deal with Qi Refinement cultivators.
With someone controlling it, it could shift the illusory mist and trap enemies. Without anyone at the helm, however, intruders could pass through as easily as the two Black Fiend Sect members had. It offered virtually no protection.
That was why the array needed to be rearranged before the valley could be sealed off.
First, Lin Yun fetched the Array Disk that controlled the formation from his home. Then, following its indications, he unearthed the four array flags from the valley's four corners.
As the four array flags were removed, the mist shrouding the valley instantly dispersed.
Holding the old, slightly damaged flags and Array Disk, Lin Yun examined them for a moment and considered, Of all the arrays I've studied, Emei's Twofold Dust Array is the most intricate and powerful. Although I still haven't fathomed the mystery of the twofold transformation of dust into its own space-time, there's no harm in borrowing a principle or two.
This Cloudmist Illusion Array can create illusions within the mist. That makes it perfect for manifesting the dark and light gates of the Twofold Dust Array. Even if I can only reproduce a trace of their effects, trapping Foundation-Building Stage cultivators shouldn't be difficult.
At that thought, Lin Yun immediately began working on the four array flags. They had been created through artifact refinement, and only when all four were combined with the Array Disk did they barely qualify as a mid-grade magical artifact. Their materials were nothing remarkable either.
The flagpoles and Array Disk had been refined from a type of wood that grew on spiritual land, while the flags had been woven from some kind of spiritual silkworm silk. After so many years, the silk flags, wooden poles, and Array Disk had all begun to decay. Barring any unexpected developments, the array would fail within a few more decades as its materials rotted away.
Lin Yun tossed the four array flags and Array Disk into the air, holding them there with his magical power. As his hands formed a succession of seals, a faint green light flowed out of the suspended Array Disk and poured into the four flags.
He was using the Array Disk's essential qi to repair the array flags.
This method came from the Zu Mountain world. It was the fundamental technique its sword immortals used to extract five metals essence from ordinary metals to refine powerful magical treasures and flying swords.
It involved a basic principle of cultivation worlds: everything in heaven and earth was composed of "qi."
Thus, anyone proficient in observing, distinguishing, and refining qi could naturally find the "qi" they needed within all things in heaven and earth, then put it to use.
Whether they refined qi for their own use to raise their cultivation or combined the essential qi of materials to refine artifacts and pills, it was extraordinarily convenient.
That was precisely what Lin Yun was doing now: channeling the essential qi of the Array Disk's materials into the array flags to replace what they had lost over the past several centuries.
As the Array Disk's essential qi continued pouring into the flags, the disk gradually decayed until, with a crack, it crumbled into a mass of rotten wood. The array flags, meanwhile, gleamed as though they were new.
Pale-faced, Lin Yun retrieved the four flags. "My cultivation is still too low. Just repairing the array flags nearly exhausted my magical power."
Tossing the flags aside, Lin Yun immediately sat down to meditate and recover his magical power. It was not until early the next morning that he fully recovered.
Only then did he begin reworking the restrictions within the array flags. This proved much simpler. In less than two hours, he had finished rearranging their restrictions and also refined two pieces of jade into Restriction Tokens for entering and leaving the array.
After setting the array flags back in place, Lin Yun looked at the valley, once again shrouded in mist, and chuckled softly. He was thoroughly satisfied with this Cloudmist Dark-Light Array, which he had developed from the Cloudmist Illusion Array. Barring anything unexpected, it could easily trap Foundation-Building Stage cultivators.
If any cultivator below the Core Formation Stage entered the array, the shifting darkness and light within its misty illusions would gradually interfere with their five senses without their noticing. Even their spiritual sense would be eroded by the illusions created through the changes between darkness and light in the array's primordial qi.
In the end, they would lose all ability to distinguish the passage of time or the directions around them. Trapped in the array, they could only await death from exhaustion once their magical power ran dry.
Moreover, the Cloudmist Dark-Light Array no longer needed the assistance of an Array Disk, nor did it require spirit stones mounted on one to supply spiritual power. The four flags formed an array on their own, drawing spiritual qi from the surrounding environment to sustain its operation.
After admiring his handiwork, Lin Yun went to the Lin Family ancestral graves in the valley, where his grandfather was buried,
and offered him one final stick of incense.
Looking at his grandfather's gravestone, Lin Yun said softly, "It's time to go."
Before leaving the valley, Lin Yun picked only a few useful herbs from the Medicine Field. He cast one last glance at his old home, then clasped his hands behind his back, turned with easy grace, and stepped into the mist, heading out of the mountains.
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