Qu Zhoufu stood up and said evenly, "Why have you still not entered the Profound Gate?"
"Cultivation isn't the key." Qu Zhu gazed into empty space. "Formations and swords are. I'm searching for a solution, but the deeper I go, the more shallow I find everything I once learned and saw."
"But those deeper, higher things... you need to stand at the corresponding height."
"If you see them, will you be able to unravel the Buried Star Tomb?"
"..." Qu Zhu fell utterly silent. Those words seemed to bite straight into the heaviest part of his heart. Without a word, he watched the cypress branches trembling in the night wind. Only after a long while did he say, "In truth, I can't think of any way to unravel it."
"For seven years, I've taken that ancient formation apart countless times, drawing out every single array pattern to study. There were no omissions or mistakes." Qu Zhu spoke softly. "I'm completely certain that what I uncovered back then was its correct, complete form."
"But it just wasn't the same." The man looked into Qu Zhoufu's eyes, his voice low and hoarse. "Do you know? I even spent two years making a miniature version. It really could make a piece of metal, once inscribed and refined, perform the task of guarding, but it just wasn't the same."
"No matter how many times I tried, the objects sustained by that formation were always cold, dead routines."
Qu Zhoufu watched him quietly.
"I broke everything down into its smallest, most basic components... and still couldn't find it." Qu Zhu pressed his lips together. "All I could do was gather every action of the Star Worm that day which had no basis in the formation under a single description: 'the quality of being alive.' It