Chapter 380: Observing the Array

"Hahahaha! My array is complete; who among you dares to come and break it?"

On the fourth day, the Nine Rivers Array had fully taken shape, and the Jiangzhou Prefect was in high spirits, ascending the city tower in person.

Yet the next moment, with a gunshot, Chen Gongming fired a Tiangang Thunder-Fire Light Bullet.

The Prefect was startled into a stumble; he only heard the sound and could not even see the bullet, yet when it was three feet before his brow, a barrier seemed to appear in front of him, creating layer upon layer of obstruction, and all the thunder-fire was extinguished and silenced, proving useless.

As a military officer, Chen Gongming was also skilled in military formations, though military formations and this kind of esoteric array-laying method were not deeply related, merely sharing a common lineage of thought; seeing the bullet silenced and misfiring, lacking the wonder of the Five-Thunder Tiangang, he knew this array had some substance.

The Prefect dared not be arrogant anymore and called for his adjutant to go out; the adjutant stepped forward and loudly boasted about how powerful this array was, all of which had been memorized in advance.

Suddenly, water lotuses appeared, and the space within the array could be vaguely seen, with large ships, iron chains, and Command Flags... but everything was inverted and chaotic, and what the eyes saw was often deceptive, just like looking at clear water and thinking it shallow, only reaching the ankles, but once one actually went in, it would submerge the waist.

The momentum of nine rivers was gathered together, creating various changes; the nine Qi dragons from before were just like this, all variants of water dragons.

Within those water lotuses, a floating duckweed leaf grew, the duckweed having a round face and purple back.

This duckweed was no ordinary treasure, but the duckweed of Pingxiang, a treasure of auspiciousness; the only female Immortal, Jieyin Fairy, stood upon this round duckweed, holding a horsetail whisk in her hand, and with a slight flick, she made the water curtain like a screen, hooking open on both sides, while the other four Immortals stood, one on a gourd ladle, one on a large catfish, one on a large frog, and one on a dragonfly.

They were each displaying their own extraordinary Daoist Divine Abilities.

But these were all "relying on something," not true, carefree roaming of the void.

At the very least, everyone had seen Xu Jia walk on the surface of the sea, and had seen him ride clouds to roam proudly, and even break the Dharma Realm with a sword, with thoughts following his will; all of these were of a higher caliber than the affected and pretentious display of these few.

Chen Gongming thought to himself: This is also an Earth Immortal? Then I can achieve it too. He followed the "Path of the Combat Walker," belonging to the Daoist Protectors, the same path as Wang Lingguan, achieving sainthood through the physical body; though he also cultivated his Primordial Spirit, he was more skilled in martial arts.

This kind of achievement as an Earth Immortal does not rely on gathering Qi and ingestion, or visualization and meditation, but purely on active practice; to reach the Earth Immortal realm, one needs to achieve the four great Human Immortal martial achievements: "Water Fire Immortal Garment," "Golden Sinew and Jade Sinew," "Five Viscera Thunder Sound," and "Circulation Qi Gathering."

Of the four achievements, any one of them brought to completion is at the level of a Great Ning Dynasty Martial Top Scholar, and with all four achievements complete, one is basically at the level of a Martial Immortal.

It is just that the resources required are countless; currently, he was using the flood dragon meat stored by the Poyang Small Flood Dragon previously, and fish bone glue boiled from the fish bones of that thousand-year-old black fish spirit, to be able to support his continued cultivation.

"My great array, there is a poem that says: Nine rivers converge to evolve the great array, water momentum connects to the sky to lock the flood dragon.

Ten thousand rivers return to the abyss to condense the azure sea, one Supreme Ultimate gate suppresses the east wind."

The caliber of that poem was quite high, which made Chen Gongming very unhappy: "Have you not heard, he who sins against Heaven has no one to pray to? Before setting up this array, have you calculated a life-and-death divination? If you haven't had time yet, there is still time to calculate it now."

Xu Jian pointed at Xun Taizi: "Do not bicker with him for now; I will enter the array to take a look, and return to explain the reality to you all."

"Is there any danger?"

"Not necessarily, rest assured. Before I left, my elder brother gave me the patchwork Immortal garment sewn by our mother, and I am wearing it close to my body now; this garment has the ability to avoid calamities and escape disasters, blessed by Merit, and will not suffer from disaster," he said, then entered the array alone; besides the "Wuxian Zhizhi Earth Immortal Method" modified from the Gen-Mountain Qi-Ingestion Method, he also practiced the Tiangang Great Saint Five-Thunder Spirit-Preserving Method improved by Xu Jia, which also had a portion of Inner Landscape imagery, commanded by the Tiangang Great Saint, with the Three Primes, Eight Vistas, and twenty-four Thunder Generals, the Inner Landscape forming an eight-cornered, three-layered Mandala, with eight Thunder Gods on each layer, all commanded by the Primordial Spirit and represented by the Tiangang Great Saint.

It was just that his Earth Soul was still gestating in a geomantic treasure land to resolve the zombie Qi of his past life and had not yet returned to its place; otherwise, if he had recovered the fruits of his past life, with the accumulation of two lifetimes of cultivation, although he would not be in the ranks of God Immortals, he would have no bottlenecks within the Earth Immortal realm and would be an outstanding one among them.

As he entered the array, Xun Taizi's figure became huge, appearing in a three-dimensional Eight Characters shape to surround him, with the dragon head three feet above his head, like a shelter, and the wind whistled all around, but with nine winds fluttering, it acted as a barrier.

"Just a mere Human Immortal child?" The five Immortals smiled contemptuously and returned to the array.

Xu Jian rode the wind into the array, passed through the water-sky illusion, and entered the true interior, only to hear the beating of great drums shaking the sky, and black flags pressing down like rolling clouds.

Clouds and mist rose from all directions, and the slanting rain was bone-chillingly cold.

Above were iron chains, and the ground was swaying, as if walking on a water-grass meadow.

Suddenly, a voice rang out: "Awakening of Insects!"

Then a loud sound of cymbals was heard, followed by thunder and lightning—it was the vibration of countless chains, and the soldiers on the ships chanted spells; although they had no cultivation, the power of hundreds of people gathered together, and from the Dharma Realm, nine Qi dragons could be seen converging to form a huge Yuanlong.

The Yuanlong was pitch black all over, its body enormous, circling the entire city, and a pair of dragon horns produced huge lightning, which struck down toward Xu Jian.

Xu Jian ignored this external appearance and thought: "All great arrays are related to the study of the Book of Changes and arithmetic; although this array is named Nine Rivers, it is not a Nine Palaces array. Just now, hearing the array command, 'Awakening of Insects' was the signal; it must be using the Seven Mansions of the Azure Dragon or the Big Dipper as the signal. The shape of the Azure Dragon, one full cycle is the change of the Twenty-Four Solar Terms, and the Big Dipper is the pointer; pointing south is summer, pointing north is winter... I only need to follow this line of thought to find the Gate of Life."

"There are nine Qi dragons here, so it must be taking the shape of the Azure Dragon completing a full cycle."

"However, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms cycle repeatedly; this Nine Rivers Array is based on the changes of wind, rain, and rivers, so there must be a high-water period and a low-water period. High water is in summer, low water is in winter. He uses 'Awakening of Insects' as the command, which is slowly increasing the power of the array until the summer season, when the power of this array is at its peak, with the momentum of gale-force winds and torrential rain; the autumn Qi is desolate and also has the meaning of metal punishment, which is a certain death calamity; although winter is stern, it has the meaning of storage in the solar terms, and the power of this array will drop significantly."

Xu Jian's thoughts were numerous; although he had guessed the general idea, he was not confident that he could break the array alone.

Facing the thunder of Awakening of Insects, Xu Jian, who practiced the Tiangang Great Saint Method, was not afraid, calmly releasing the Tiangang Inner Generals; the Thunder Generals held the Five Thunders in their hands, and whenever thunder came, they would counter-strike it, intercepting it in the air.

Since he had a guess, Xu Jian headed north, but this array had already inverted space, and the Twenty-Four Solar Terms were constantly flowing, so he needed to take himself as the center, use the solar terms as the standard, and visualize a Heaven-Earth-Water Three Primes disk in his heart.

This body was the south, and corresponding to it, Awakening of Insects, was the Beginning of Winter, where all things are gathered and hidden.

Xu Jian still had some talent for arithmetic; this was the Past Life Wisdom from his previous life.

After calculating the direction and moving, sure enough, after a while, his body gradually became cold, and the surrounding environment was full of withered grass, hanging with clear dew, sparkling and glittering; the area he had reached had already gone from Awakening of Insects to "Cold Dew."

"There is some error, but not much," Xu Jian thought.

(End of chapter)