Liang Yan chose a room in the corner on the right side of the courtyard, where dust had accumulated thick. After a simple cleaning, he set down his luggage and was just about to sit in meditation to circulate his energy when he caught a glimpse of two people walking from afar along the small path—one fat and one thin, both wearing identical grey robes.
Liang Yan channeled a bit of his energy to probe them and discovered that both were only at the first level of Qi Refining. Furthermore, their internal spiritual energy was meager, barely better than the physique of an ordinary martial artist.
When the two arrived in the courtyard and discovered an extra person, they seemed quite surprised. Liang Yan stepped out of his room, bowed first, and said, "I am Liang Yan, a newly admitted handyman disciple. I hope to receive your guidance in the future, senior brothers."
The fat senior brother smiled kindly, "So you are the new junior brother. Haha, no need for such formalities. My name is Li Dali, and his name is Sun Qianli. You can just call us Brother Li and Brother Sun; that’s how we usually address each other."
Before Liang Yan could reply, Sun Qianli immediately interjected, "You two can chat as much as you like, I’m heading back." With that, he walked off to his own room, slammed the door shut behind him with a *bang*.
Liang Yan felt quite awkward, but Li Dali laughed, "Brother Liang, don't mind him. Brother Sun’s constitution is weak, and our work as handyman disciples is quite heavy. He always looks exhausted; as soon as he finishes his shift, he just goes to sleep."
Liang Yan smiled slightly to show he didn't take it to heart. After exchanging a few more words with Li Dali, they each returned to their rooms.
After a night of meditation and energy circulation, Liang Yan was already dressed and ready at the crack of dawn the next day. Following the map provided by Uncle Zhou, he went to the Rites Pavilion and the Dharma Pavilion to report, where he received the sect’s regulations and a set of grey handyman disciple robes.
By the time he hurried back to the pavilion in the middle of the apricot grove, Li Dali and Sun Qianli had already arrived; only Wang Yuan was missing. Liang Yan walked up and stood in line with the two. Li Dali gave him a friendly smile, while Sun Qianli remained as indifferent as ever.
The three waited for another incense stick's time before Wang Yuan appeared on the path, yawning and strolling over at a leisurely pace. Li Dali and Sun Qianli seemed accustomed to this and showed no signs of surprise.
Wang Yuan glanced lazily at Liang Yan and said, "You, go to the Southern Spirit Wood District, fifty bundles of spirit firewood. Then fetch ten vats of water from the Spirit Spring at Jinxiu Peak. Remember to transport them to the Miscellaneous Affairs Office and register them under my Array Branch. Once you're done, come to the Library Pavilion to clean."
He then turned to Li Dali and Sun Qianli, "As for you two, same old places. If that’s clear, get to work."
The three received their tasks, picked up their tools from the Miscellaneous Affairs Office, and went their separate ways to their respective work areas.
Liang Yan followed the map to the Spirit Wood District. Before long, he saw a lush forest where the trees were thick and verdant, all standing over five zhang tall.
He picked a relatively small spirit tree and swung his axe. With a "clack," the blade only bit seven inches deep.
Liang Yan couldn't help but click his tongue in secret: "The cultivation technique I practice is meant to strengthen the physical body, yet even I find cutting this spirit wood so strenuous. Given the cultivation levels of those two, they probably need a whole day to finish the work. It seems the life of a handyman disciple is truly difficult."
Thinking this, Liang Yan silently circulated the nameless technique passed down by the old monk and put his full strength into a swing. This time, the axe sank in completely, reaching nearly the center of the trunk. Liang Yan finally looked satisfied and continued to chop.
By the time he finally finished cutting the fifty bundles of spirit wood, it was already near noon. Without a moment's rest, he rushed to the Spirit Spring at Jinxiu Peak to fetch water. Once everything was done, Liang Yan endured the soreness throughout his body and returned to the Library Pavilion.
Wang Yuan seemed not to have expected him to finish the task so quickly. He gave Liang Yan a meaningful look, his attitude seemingly changed, though he only instructed him to clean the first floor of the pavilion and said nothing else.
Liang Yan nodded and complied. Within an hour, he had cleaned the entire first floor. At this point, Li Dali and Sun Qianli had not yet returned to report; clearly, for them, the handyman tasks could not be completed as swiftly as Liang Yan had.
"The tasks are done, I must seize the time to enter the library and study the way of arrays," Liang Yan thought to himself.
The reason he worked so hard was actually to save time to read the books in the Array Branch’s library. After all, he was bound by a six-year promise; if he achieved nothing in the way of arrays by then, all his efforts would be in vain.
Liang Yan walked into the Library Pavilion. Although it looked like a small pavilion from the outside, it was surprisingly large inside, with various classics categorized and placed on rattan bookshelves.
Liang Yan had already set his target while cleaning earlier. He walked to the left side of the outer area, reached out, and took a book with a yellowish-brown cover. On it were written the four large characters: "Introduction to Array Formations." Liang Yan sat on the floor and began to read with great interest.
Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, it was evening. Only then did Liang Yan take a deep breath and lift his head from the book.
"So, the way of arrays is vast and profound."
Liang Yan muttered to himself, "At its core, an array is a cultivator applying their understanding of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth to the manipulation of spiritual energy. Excluding the absolute arrays from the primordial era, the arrays created by the great masters of later generations can generally be divided into Killing Arrays, Illusion Arrays, Trap Arrays, Prohibition Arrays, and Sealing Arrays."
"However, all things have spirits. Countless eons have passed since the various races began to cultivate the Dao and seek immortality. Among them, many brilliant talents have improved upon primitive arrays or even created their own. It is a tangled web, giving birth to countless variant arrays with subtle effects that are no longer limited to these five categories."
"But no matter how they change, they never depart from the four essentials of arrays: the Array Eye, the Array Vessel, the Array Pattern, and the Array Source. The Array Eye refers to the core of the array, much like a person's Dantian; it usually uses magical treasures or spirit artifacts. Once the Array Eye is broken, the great array cannot be maintained. The Array Vessel refers to the professional objects used to assist in setting up the array, analogous to a person's acupoints; these are usually array disks, array flags, or array beads, which vary depending on the array. The Array Pattern refers to the Dao patterns carved by the person setting the array, like a person's meridians. As for the Array Source, it is usually filled by spirit stones, though other treasures rich in spiritual energy can be used instead. The Array Source is like the spiritual energy within a human body; if one has a Dantian, acupoints, and meridians, but no spiritual energy flowing through them, they are useless."
This "Introduction to Array Formations" could be said to be meticulous, clarifying the basic knowledge of the way of arrays in great detail, and it served as Liang Yan's gateway into the path of arrays.
Liang Yan had an amazing memory and could read ten lines at a glance. It only took him one afternoon to force the summary of the book into his mind before he pushed the door open and stepped out.
Standing outside the door were three people: Sun Qianli, Li Dali, and Wang Yuan.
Sun and Li had clearly just finished their work and returned to report. They did not expect that Liang Yan, as a newcomer, would finish his tasks before them, and they were quite surprised.
What was even stranger to them was that Liang Yan would spend his time in the library studying arrays.
One must know that cultivators of the current age prioritize their own cultivation above all else. If he had spent his time on the path of alchemy, it would be understandable, as some pills possess the power to seize the fortune of heaven and earth, greatly assisting one's own cultivation or even breaking through bottlenecks—which is why the world is obsessed with alchemy.
But the way of arrays is ethereal and elusive. Except for specific times and occasions, its help in actual combat is minimal, so few people are willing to delve into it.
Even Sun Qianli and Li Dali, as members of the Array Branch, rarely practiced arrays themselves. Whenever they had time, they were almost always meditating and refining Qi, trying to break through to the second level of Qi Refining. Moreover, they hadn't chosen the Array Branch of their own volition in the first place.
Liang Yan was unaware of their confusion and assumed they were just curious about how he could finish his tasks so quickly, so he bid farewell to Wang Yuan and left.
Liang Yan returned to his dormitory, meditated and practiced all night, and the next day he finished his tasks early again, continuing to bury himself in the library.
This Array Branch library was filled with books related to arrays and contained no cultivation technique manuals. Even among the outer disciples of the Array Branch, few came here; perhaps only one person would come to browse every ten days or half a month. This worked in Liang Yan's favor, allowing him to read in peace by himself.
Thus, Liang Yan spent his mornings chopping wood and practicing, his afternoons studying the way of arrays, and his nights circulating energy to refine Qi. In this way, three months passed in the blink of an eye.
On this afternoon, in the Array Branch library, Liang Yan was holding a black volume, shaking his head as he read with great interest. On the cover, written in gold-leaf trim, were the six characters: "Explanation of the Eight Formations of Feng Hou."
As he read, Liang Yan suddenly frowned. He flipped to the last page of the book, channeled spiritual energy into his fingertips, and after a moment of hesitation, wrote
"In the transformation of the Eight Formations, the 'Heavenly Cover' is the vanguard of the troops and the master of the array. If one acts too hastily, they will perish from within; it should be hidden like a crouching dragon, and not used unless it is a matter of life and death."
After thinking for a moment, he wrote again: "The 'Earth Carrier' acts as the vanguard, unstoppable when charging the enemy, with infinite utility. However, a trapped beast cannot fight for long; it can be supplemented by the 'Cloud Canopy.' The Earth Carrier is upright, the Cloud governs the four corners; strike them, and they will collapse."
He continued: "The 'Wind Yang' is formless, attached to the Heaven, and the Cloud Canopy to the Earth. At first, it is formless; the Wind changes into a snake, the Cloud changes into a bird, charging at the stars to shoot the Heavenly Wolf. These four changes are 'living arrays.' As for the Dragon Flight, Tiger Wing, Bird Soar, and Snake Coiling..."
Liang Yan was quite hesitant at first, but as he wrote, he became more and more engrossed. When he reached the height of his inspiration, he was beaming with joy, his handwriting dancing across the page, flowing freely as he combined the eight changes of the Eight Formations of Feng Hou in pairs, deriving infinite variations.
If a senior who understood arrays were here, their jaw would surely drop in shock.
One must know that while the "Eight Formations of Feng Hou" is not a profound array, it is certainly not simple introductory material. It contains eight changes: Heavenly Cover, Earth Carrier, Wind Yang, Cloud Canopy, Dragon Flight, Tiger Wing, Bird Soar, and Snake Coiling.
An ordinary person would not make much progress in any one of them without a month of study. Yet, Liang Yan had managed to overturn the book and conceive of improvements in just three months. To call him an array genius would not be an exaggeration.
Of course, Liang Yan himself would not know this. For the sake of his six-year promise to the Pavilion Master, he had been studying arrays tirelessly from the first day he joined, doing nothing but working, cultivating, and reading, almost to the point of obsession.
Liang Yan wrote his improvements for the eight formations on the last page of the book. Suddenly, he felt that he was merely an apprentice of the array path, yet here he was in the library, using his pen as his voice to spout such grand theories—it was truly laughable.
Thinking this, his face flushed, and on the last line at the end of the text, he wrote: "The ramblings of a mad scholar."
After finishing, he closed the book, looked at the sky outside the window—it was already dusk—and stood up to clean the library before heading out to his dormitory.
(End of chapter)