Chapter 638 - Storm of the Abyss (XI) (Patreon)

Man, it's been a while since I've experienced silence so heavy.

Even Long Tao had a look on his face as if someone stuffed a heap of shit down his throat, let alone Shufen who looked to be just about ready to hyperventilate. Which, well, made me want to hyperventilate, too.

"Are you sure, Master?" Long Tao asked, a flicker of doubt emerging in his gaze. Wow. It's actually been quite some time since he doubted something I said, so the array must be a big deal.

"... pretty sure," I said, realizing I should probably relay every detail just in case something is afoot. "It's a mid-Imperial tier array, and its quality of assembly is around minimal."

"Minimal?" that switch in expressions was fascinating. From increasing doom and gloom when I mentioned its grade, bordering utter and complete despair, to a relief that almost reached the levels I saw in Ed's expression when Sarah texted him that it was negative.

"Hm, minimal," I nodded.

"Phew," it was a literal sigh of relief overlapping from both of them. I looked at them strangely for a moment before Shufen offered an explanation.

"Immortal Spatial Lock Array is one of the most notorious spatially locking arrays to ever exist," she said. "It's also one of the few Imperial-grade arrays that is, technically, available to practically everyone. It was discovered in an ancient tomb, on its centermost wall, and as no one sect at the time managed to gain a complete control of the tomb, the entire schematic of the array was leaked. Naturally, just because most everyone knows it, very few can gather enough materials to properly employ it.

"Despite that, when it has been deployed--usually during sect warfare--it has never, not once, been breached from the inside. While some Formation Grandmasters have managed to decipher a few minor weaknesses when being attacked from the outside, when perfectly deployed, the array has never been broken before its natural expiry point."

"Oh. Perfectly deployed," I noted.

"Yes," she nodded. "Every other iteration as scaling stack of flaws. At a minimal quality level, most don't even consider it an Imperial-grade array. No, they don't even consider it a Divine-grade array, but somewhere around the mid Myth tier, at best. It's still notoriously difficult to break out of, don't get me wrong, but far from impossible."

I don't actually know all that much about formations and arrays. And by much, I mean I know squat, essentially. Outside of the ones provided to me by the system--alongside the materials required to run them--I have never studied or deployed a formation of this world. Heck, I wasn't even aware that there was that big of a difference between a 'well-assembled' and a 'badly-assembled' ones.

"My great grandfather," Long Tao interjected. "Once mentioned that deploying it at any quality beneath Perfected is a pathetic waste of resources. But, he also happened to have mentioned how to thieve away those resources while breaking down the array."

"... thieve, you say?" my ears perked up as fire roared within me. They stole over a million of high-grade Spirit Stones from me. It's only just and righteous that I steal everything they own, down to their undergarments, from them, no? Yup. Just and righteous, and not at all vengeful and petty.

"We just have to locate the array's core," he said.

"If the quality is minimal," Shufen added, her eyebrows scrounging into a small frown. "We'd notice the instability, no?"

"We would," Long Tao said. "Unless they were using stubs."

"Oh!" alright, you're losing me guys. "That's why he was kind of weak!" she exclaimed as both of them looked at the crippled man on the ground.

... wait, what?

"What do you mean, Sister Shufen?" little Feng took my place and asked.

"Sometimes, when you want to overcome the shortcomings of an active formation, you supplement the quality by creating intermittent stubs," she said. "Something living, or at least something with Life Qi. You can effectively increase the quality of the assembly by a whole tier and, at the same time, disperse the flaws so that the stubs inherit most of them. For instance," she added, crouching next to the guy. "If we kill him, as the stub collapses, this entire side of the array will immediately showcase its flaws. Depending on how many stubs there are, it's entirely possible that we could see the exit, or at least a roundabout path towards it."

"Oh!" Xing Feng exclaimed as Han Yimu joined us.

"Can cultivators as weak as him even be used as stubs for an array that's inherently of Imperial-tier?" he asked with a frown.

"No," Shufen shook her head. "Ordinarily, at least. There's one exception."

"..." everyone fell silent, lost in thought. I pretended to be, too, but there's no way I'd be the one giving the answer.

"They use their Life Qi," Light said after a few moments. "Directly sapping their lifetime to make up for the gap."

"Precisely," Shufen said.

"Alright, well, kill him and let's see if there's an exit," Light added, walking up to him and staring down. Man, for most of the time, Light is this cute little obedient thing that's adorable squared, but there are moments when she says something off the cuff that just... well, breaks my brain a bit.

"Keep him alive for now," Long Tao said. "If we kill him, the array will consume some of its materials to forcibly make up for the difference."

"There'd be less for us to take away," I said. "Keep this man alive at all cost! Shun, from now on your singular duty is to keep this heap of flesh alive at all cost, you hear me?" he looked at me oddly for a moment before sighing and walking over to the de-limbed figure.

"How do we locate the core if the stubs hide the flaws?" little Feng asked.

"By collecting the stubs," Shufen said. "One connection is difficult to detect in this mess, but if we have a few, we can just look for the overlap between them."

"... alright," I said. "Let's rest and recover here for a moment before moving on."

It was mostly just for Rayce as he was by far in the worst shape. Looking at the young man, I sighed; the vast majority of my natural 'buffs' didn't apply to him, and I didn't have any Shaman-exclusive ones.

I had to switch the priority of what I'd be making once we're out of here; I wanted to see whether I could create Shamanic Arts that are similar to Surging Spirit Art, bolstering either healing or even Mana recovery to some extent. There shouldn't be a reason that it's impossible, but it never really cropped up in my mind. Truthfully, as the kids rarely--if ever--demanded specifics unless I asked them, I guess I tend to passively assume that they don't need anything.

Haah.

I finally returned to our three companions, two of whom were looking at me with forced distance. I felt kinda bad dragging them into this, but I was still extremely curious how the woman recognized me. She was clearly hiding something from me, and judging by her gaze, she wasn't about to spill it out any time soon.

"Will you be joining us?" I asked.

"I, I," she stammered for a moment before suddenly sighing and standing up. "Some fates are irreversible, I suppose." hm? What's she talking about? "You asked me how I recognized you," she added. "And I told you the truth--partial truth, yes, but truth nonetheless. The other part of it are your kids."

"What about them?"

"He told me that you and them were one of a kind," she said. "And that if I ever got to witness your relationship with them, I'd immediately recognize you."

"Huh? He told you? Who's he?" I asked, tilting my head slightly sideways.

"Yun Qi," Yun Qi? Yun Qi... Yun Qi... who the heck is Yun Qi? I don't know any Yun Qis. She didn't elaborate, her gaze boring into mine as the name echoed inside my head. Like a bolt of lightning through the mist, a face and a name emerged.

"... Elder Qi?" I mumbled almost instinctively.

"Yes."

"!!!" FUCKING WHAT?!