Chapter 440: Repairing the Array

After entering the hall, Song Qingming immediately felt his spiritual sense being affected; it struggled to spread even a few yards away. He realized at once that there must be a restriction here designed to isolate a cultivator's spiritual sense.

Standing in the hall, Song Qingming looked around carefully and discovered that the twenty-some golden copper pillars standing throughout the hall were emitting multicolored golden light at regular intervals, as if specifically arranged by a master.

Each copper pillar held a formidable, individual restriction, and once all the pillars were connected, they formed a unique array.

Upon witnessing these exquisitely arranged restrictions and arrays, Song Qingming was quickly captivated, unable to help but click his tongue in wonder.

"Fellow Daoist Song, the 'Golden Light Five-Thunder' array in this hall was personally set up by a Core Formation senior of our sect. Whether refining special magic treasures or engraving runes here, one can use the five-colored golden thunder within the array to temper them, achieving twice the result with half the effort." Seeing Song Qingming's curiosity about the grand array, the man surnamed Hu at his side hurriedly spoke up to introduce it.

Back outside the hall, when the man surnamed Hu saw that the final array master invited by Bai Yunhua was actually Song Qingming, his face had been full of surprise. Having dealt with Song Qingming for several days, he truly hadn't realized that Song Qingming was also a second-tier array master.

After the Foundation Establishment pill transaction a few days prior, the man surnamed Hu's attitude toward Song Qingming had undergone a complete transformation, and he took the initiative to strike up a conversation the moment they entered the hall.

Hearing the other party continue to talk incessantly about the "Golden Light Five-Thunder Array," Song Qingming quickly understood that this man surnamed Hu was also someone obsessed with the path of arrays, and his level of expertise seemed even higher than Song Qingming's.

Once preparations were complete, Bai Yunhua, standing in the center, moved his right hand slightly and retrieved a very ancient-looking array set from his storage bag.

This array set appeared to be of great antiquity, with at least several thousand years of history. The array flags already had many damaged areas, most of the runes on the surface had become dim and lusterless, and a large piece was missing from the central array disk.

Although Bai Yunhua could barely activate this array with his spiritual power, the spiritual fluctuations it released were already riddled with holes; the current power of this array was likely inferior to even an ordinary low-grade second-tier array on the market.

"Fellow Daoists, to repair this array, we must first restore the runes engraved upon it. Next, Senior Sister Chen and I will be responsible for the runes on the array disk, while the array flags will be left to Brother Hu, Junior Brother Xiao, and Fellow Daoist Song."

Since parting ways at Black Stone Valley, Song Qingming hadn't seen Bai Yunhua for over twenty years. Bai Yunhua, who was at the fourth level of Foundation Establishment back then, had now steadily advanced to the sixth level.

However, compared to his cultivation base, Bai Yunhua's array expertise was even more superior. He had now become one of the few high-grade second-tier array masters within the Carefree Sect and was the most skilled among the five people present.

Besides Bai Yunhua, the array expertise of the woman surnamed Chen, who was at the peak of Foundation Establishment, was slightly lower than Bai Yunhua's, but she was also a mid-grade second-tier array master of many years; her array techniques were actually not far from breaking through to high-grade second-tier.

The remaining two, Song Qingming and the man surnamed Hu, had similar levels of array expertise, both being mid-grade second-tier array masters who had advanced not long ago. Only the man surnamed Xiao, who had the lowest cultivation, was slightly inferior, being only a low-grade second-tier array master.

Under Bai Yunhua's meticulous arrangement, everyone began to take on their respective tasks. However, because this array refined by an ancient predecessor was indeed very rare, Song Qingming and the others had never seen some of the rune styles, so they could only consult each other and slowly study them together.

For arrays refined by such ancient cultivators, many runes had evolved and improved over thousands of years through the hands of numerous cultivators, and some had long since changed appearance, evolving into new types of runes that could only be seen in their original form in surviving ancient cultivation classics.

Just restoring the runes engraved on the array took nearly a month, and this was only the result of the "Golden Light Five-Thunder Array's" assistance, which saved everyone a great deal of effort.

While engraving and restoring these runes, Song Qingming always felt that the appearance of some runes was somewhat familiar, as if he had seen these styles in those classics, but he couldn't quite recall them for the moment.

Next, it was time to begin repairing the damaged parts of the array. This step was more cumbersome than the previous rune engraving, requiring the cooperation of everyone present to proceed slowly. This was the reason why Bai Yunhua had insisted on gathering five people with high array expertise to help.

Song Qingming and the other two took turns continuously activating the array, while the more skilled Bai Yunhua and the woman surnamed Chen spent nearly two months fully repairing all the damaged locations.

After completing this most important step, the power of this ancient array increased several times over, and it was basically considered more than half repaired. Afterward, everyone spent nearly another month patching up some of the loopholes in the array, which finally completed Bai Yunhua's commission.

Several months later, the five people who repaired the array held the array flags and practiced once more. After this period of repair, the power of this ancient array had increased by more than several times, having already recovered to a high-grade second-tier level.

Seeing that there were no obvious flaws on the surface of the array, Bai Yunhua nodded with a smile, slowly put the entire array set into his storage bag, and bowed to thank everyone.

"For this array to be successfully repaired, you brothers have contributed a lot during this time. Thank you for your hard work, fellow Daoists. This spirit tea is something I have treasured for many years; you can use it to refresh yourselves after returning."

After receiving the spirit tea gifted by Bai Yunhua, everyone smiled and returned the gesture one after another.

Everyone had been invited to help repair the array this time for various reasons, not to earn spirit stones. For instance, Song Qingming and the man surnamed Hu agreeing to help was actually to repay the favor they owed Bai Yunhua.

Just as Bai Yunhua was leading everyone away from the hall, a sound of an ancient bell suddenly rang out somewhere on Mount Guyang, causing everyone who had just stepped out of the hall to show expressions of surprise.

Just as everyone was wondering what had happened in the sect, golden spiritual light lit up all around Mount Guyang. Soon, these lights gathered in the high sky to form a massive light shield, enclosing the entire gate of the Carefree Sect.

Not long after, as several sound-transmission talismans flew in one after another, the people standing there bid farewell and left one by one, leaving only Song Qingming and Bai Yunhua behind.

Song Qingming, who still didn't know what had happened, could only bow to Bai Yunhua at his side and ask: "Fellow Daoist Bai, I wonder what has happened on the mountain. Could you tell me a thing or two?"

Bai Yunhua replied with a calm expression: "I am truly sorry, Fellow Daoist Song. I only know that the bell sound seemed to come from Tianyang Peak just now; I don't know what happened yet. Seeing the sect activate the mountain-protecting array so quickly, it is possible that another brother is breaking through to Core Formation?"

"To actually encounter a fellow Daoist breaking through to Core Formation, that is truly a coincidence. I wonder if it is feasible for me to leave Mount Guyang now?"

Bai Yunhua shook his head slightly at Song Qingming and said: "I am not very clear about this either. However, fellow Daoist, do not worry. In the past, even if someone was breaking through to Core Formation, the mountain would be sealed for at most a month; it will not delay you for long."

After bidding farewell to Bai Yunhua, Song Qingming, unable to leave Mount Guyang for the time being, could only return to Song Xinyu's cave dwelling first.

Originally thinking this would be completed in three months, he had now been delayed for more than a month, and just as he wanted to leave, he encountered the Carefree Sect sealing the mountain under martial law. Song Qingming felt somewhat depressed.

This sudden activation of the mountain-protecting array and the sealing of the mountain by the Carefree Sect seemed somewhat abnormal. Even Song Xinyu, who was already a Foundation Establishment cultivator, went out to inquire but couldn't find out exactly what had happened or which brother was breaking through to Core Formation.

What Song Qingming found strange was that the duration of this mountain sealing and martial law was not as long as Bai Yunhua had said. Only four days passed before the Carefree Sect withdrew the mountain-protecting array, and Song Qingming was finally able to leave Mount Guyang.

More than ten years ago, after Song Qingming failed to form a core, the magic power he had stored in his body for many years by the Zangyuan Technique also failed and disappeared for the most part. Now ten years have passed, and under his own efforts, Song Qingming finally practiced the Zangyuan Technique to the peak again. Next, he can also prepare to form a core again.

After leaving Mount Guyang, Song Qingming headed north all the way and soon successfully left Guyang County.

A few days later, shortly after Song Qingming entered the territory of Qinghe County, while flying on his sword in mid-air, he suddenly heard intense sounds of fighting coming from a forest below.

Seeing this, Song Qingming took the initiative to stop his flying sword a short distance ahead, then jumped down from mid-air and walked alone toward the place where the fighting was happening.

In the world of immortal cultivation, except for some markets or towns guarded by high-level cultivators where fighting between cultivators is strictly prohibited, in such wild places, various cultivator duels can appear at any time and place.

Whether it is a high-level cultivator or a low-level cultivator, as long as you go out, you cannot avoid having disputes and conflicts with other cultivators for various reasons, and naturally, sometimes you need to solve problems with strength.

Even if you keep a low profile and don't want to fight with other cultivators, sometimes if you are not careful, you will still be targeted by those malicious rogue cultivators, making it difficult to stay out of trouble, and thus you have to accept such a fate.

As the number of cultivators in the Song family increased over the years, the burden of the entire family also increased a lot. Many places on Mount Funiu needed to spend spirit stones. Song Qingming had always prioritized investing the family's resources in opening up spiritual fields and planting various spiritual items.

Compared with the income of weapon refining which is often unstable, planting spiritual items and cultivating spiritual medicine is always the most stable source of resource acquisition in the entire immortal cultivation world, and the Song family is naturally no exception.