Novel Full Chapter 42: Traces of an Array
Chapter 42: Chapter 42: Traces of an Array
The team had been marching for about two hours, and the Spirit Stone in Li Yuan’s hand had dimmed a bit more.
Absorbing Spiritual Qi while on the move wasn’t very efficient, but it was better than nothing. His Cultivation had even increased a little.
Furthermore, as they headed deeper into the mountains, Li Yuan could sense the concentration of Spiritual Qi in the air gradually increasing.
Fang He, walking to Li Yuan’s left, suddenly leaned over and whispered.
"There are claw marks under that crooked pine tree up ahead."
Li Yuan followed Fang He’s gaze. A half-withered pine tree jutted out at an angle from a fissure in the shale. The earth around its base was scraped away, revealing several deep claw marks.
"Iron-Spine Hyena." Fang He retracted his gaze after a single glance. "It was digging a den, but it left before finishing. Something must have spooked it."
Li Yuan nodded but didn’t reply.
Fang He had spent several years on a demon-hunting team, so his ability to identify the tracks of Demon Beasts was far more refined than what He Shou had taught them.
Along the way, Fang He had already pointed out several details Li Yuan hadn’t noticed: a patch of bark rubbed off a tree trunk, traces of slime on the back of a rock, a shallow depression pressed into a clump of grass.
"Which region did you used to cover?" Li Yuan asked.
"The outskirts of the southern section of the Yuanheng Mountain Range. It’s quite a bit deeper than this area," Fang He said, rolling his shoulders.
"The terrain there is more complex—more ravines—and the Demon Beasts are more diverse. But the rule of thumb is the same: the deeper you go, the denser the Spiritual Qi and the higher the grade of the Demon Beasts."
As the two were speaking, a sharp command rang out from the front.
The team came to a halt.
The captain of the guard didn’t look back. He merely angled his body slightly and said something to a member of the Wang family beside him.
The Wang clansman nodded, then led two guards around the right flank of the column.
A moment later, two short, muffled thuds came from the bushes to the right, followed by the shriek of a Demon Beast, which was quickly cut short.
The Wang clansman and the two guards returned, their clothes spattered with blood but their expressions impassive.
"Two Tier One Low Grade, one Tier One Middle Grade. They’ve been dealt with."
The guard captain grunted, then waved a hand forward. The column resumed its march.
The entire engagement took less than twenty breaths.
Over the course of the journey, similar incidents occurred twice more.
The first incident involved a lone Iron-Spine Hyena, a Tier One Middle Grade beast, hiding behind a large boulder on the path ahead. Once the forward scouts spotted it, two guards took it down together in less than ten breaths.
The second incident involved four Horned Lizards, all Tier One Low Grade, crowded into a rock fissure. A member of the Wang family cast a Magic spell, and after a few screeches from within the fissure, all four Horned Lizards were dead.
The Demon Beast carcasses were quickly butchered. Any valuable materials were harvested, and the rest was left behind.
In the afternoon, the team stopped for a short break on a patch of high ground.
Fang He, squatting nearby, spoke around a mouthful of food.
"Don’t you get the feeling this trip isn’t really about culling Demon Beasts?"
Li Yuan glanced at him.
Fang He swallowed his food and jutted his chin toward the guard captain at the head of the formation.
"You don’t take a route like this to cull Demon Beasts. The areas with the highest concentrations of them are in the lowlands and ravines, but he’s been deliberately avoiding those places. Every Demon Beast we’ve encountered was just by chance; we haven’t gone looking for a single one."
Fang He lowered his voice.
"Besides, look at those guys from the Wang family. The entire trip, they’ve been studying the terrain, not looking for Demon Beasts. It seems like they’re searching for something."
Li Yuan and Fang He exchanged a few more words. Once the break was over, the column continued its advance.
The afternoon trek proved more difficult than the morning’s. The terrain rose sharply, and the loose shale underfoot gave way to solid, grayish-black rock formations. Their surfaces were covered in moss, making the footing slick and treacherous.
Traces of Demon Beasts grew more frequent.
Claw prints on the ground, scratches on tree trunks, droppings in the crevices of rocks—they appeared every few dozen steps.
Within the Spirit Detecting Disc’s sensory range, the frequency of Spiritual Qi fluctuations was also on the rise.
At times, it would register three or four fluctuations simultaneously, scattered in various directions around the group, as though drawn in by some unseen lure.
However, most of the Demon Beasts kept their distance, steering clear after sensing the group’s collective aura from afar.
The combined presence of some thirty-odd Cultivators, their auras overlapping, was a powerful deterrent to Low Tier Demon Beasts.
The occasional reckless beast that blundered into them was quickly dispatched by the vanguard in a matter of moments.
The team had to stop periodically to rest and recover their Spiritual Power.
During one such break, Li Yuan finished absorbing all the Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Stone in his hand and swapped it for a fresh one.
[Spiritual Qi Gathering (White) Permanence Progress: 4/10]
At dusk, the column arrived in a relatively open valley.
The valley was not large, enclosed by mountains on three sides with a single opening to the south. Its floor was a flat bed of gravel, bisected by a dry creek bed and flanked by a few gnarled, ancient trees.
The guard captain halted at the valley entrance, his eyes sweeping across the entire basin. He then waved a hand at the column behind him.
The team dispersed, each member finding a spot to unload their gear.
Li Yuan’s squad was assigned to a spot on the eastern side of the valley, near the mountain wall.
Two of the Wang clansmen didn’t stop to rest. Instead, they followed the dry creek bed deeper into the valley.
The guard captain stood at the valley entrance, watching the pair recede into the distance. He then turned and walked toward the camp, his expression unreadable.
About an hour later, the two Wang clansmen returned.
One of them held several stone fragments. On their broken surfaces, faint, intricate lines were visible—they did not appear to be natural formations.
The two walked directly to the guard captain and handed him the fragments.
The guard captain took the stone fragments, holding them close to his eyes to examine them for a few moments. His brow twitched slightly.
The three of them then huddled together, conversing in hushed tones.
Li Yuan was too far away to hear what they were saying, but he could see the guard captain’s expression change from calm to grave, and then from grave to an emotion Li Yuan couldn’t quite place.
’It wasn’t worry... more like he had just confirmed something.’
After they had talked for a while, the guard captain slipped the fragments into his sleeve and strode toward the main camp.
He Shou, who had been squatting on the ground, hesitated for a moment before getting up and following him.
When he returned, his expression was peculiar.
"What is it?" Li Yuan asked.
He Shou sat down beside Li Yuan’s group and lowered his voice.
"They found some traces deeper in the creek bed."
He Shou paused, carefully choosing his words.
"Traces of an Array."
Li Yuan’s gaze sharpened.
"Abandoned," He Shou added. "Those two from the Wang family said that remnants of an Array’s Spirit Patterns are embedded in the rock layer beneath the creek bed. The Array itself is defunct, but the patterns are still visible."
"Judging by the structure of the remaining Spirit Patterns, it wasn’t a small Array; its area of effect was considerable. And it’s not the only one—they found similar traces on the rock walls flanking the creek bed, in different spots. This suggests there could be remnants of other Arrays nearby."
He Shou drew a circle on the ground with his finger.
"Captain Wang’s plan is to split into teams to investigate tomorrow. He’s taking the Wang family members and one squad to continue deeper inland. The rest of us will be split into groups to search this immediate area for more signs of Arrays."
"Our squad’s roster will remain the same. We’ll be responsible for the area from the east side of the valley to the north."
Li Yuan leaned back against the mountain wall, not replying right away.
’Abandoned Arrays... with a wide coverage area... and more than one of them.’
’Someone set up Arrays here in the past.’
Fang He, who had obviously been listening, leaned in from nearby.
"Arrays? You mean someone used to live in this place?"
He Shou shook his head.
"I don’t know. The Wang family members didn’t say much, and Captain Wang offered no explanation."
He Shou rested his long saber against a nearby rock and closed his eyes.
"Let’s worry about tomorrow, tomorrow. For now, we rest."
The camp gradually grew quiet, the only sound being the footsteps of the night watch pacing back and forth at the valley entrance.
Li Yuan sat cross-legged at the base of the mountain wall, a Spirit Stone in hand, slowly funneling Spiritual Power into his Gathering Spirit Ring.
The Spiritual Qi was significantly denser deep within the Yuanheng Mountain Range compared to the outskirts, allowing for a faster absorption rate.
With the boost from his Spiritual Qi Gathering attribute, the effect was even more pronounced for Li Yuan.
[Spiritual Qi Gathering (White) Permanence Progress: 5/10]