Rise of Humanity

Chapter 252 - Star Moon Array Formation

“Master, you really want to ask the city lord?” Yu Chili laughed and said, “Master has been preparing it for so long. What if it doesn’t work and instead, our mountain is slammed into a flatland, what are we going to do by then, cry?”

Zhong Yue waved his hands, he said in a seemingly unfriendly manner, “If it fails, I’m not going to cry. Furthermore, I’ve placed down the array formation myself, I have confidence in it, it will not fail me! Quick, I gave my orders, go!”

Just when Yuchi Li was going to pass the word, Qing He quickly held her back for a second and whispered in her ear, “City Lord Gu Hongzi is incredibly strong, he is a magnate cultivator! Elder Sister Li, please tell the city lord to control his power. After all, our master has prepared for so long, it’s best to give him some face; and secondly, this is our home, where will we stay if it’s wrecked?”

Yuchi Li nodded, and answered with a smile, “Of course, I’ll keep everything under control. Meanwhile, you girls can enjoy some fun and watch as our master’s totem pillars get destroyed. By then, he will know that placing an array formation is not as easy as it looks. However, you girls must keep control of yourselves, comfort our master and try to cheer him up.”

She then headed toward Gu Xia City and gave her master’s request to the city lord. Hearing her words, Gu Hongzi was surprised as he said, “Asking me to test his array formation? Your master is really confident!”

Yuchi Li smiled in reply, “We’ve told our master about the problem that lies in his array formation patterns, but he just doesn’t listen and kept insisting that the city lord test his array formation. Please, may the city lord control your power and save him some face. As long as we can prove to him that his array formation doesn’t work it will do, we do not wish the living in the mountain to be harmed.”

Gu Hongzi cast his gaze over and said, “What a good wife you are.”

Yuchi Li’s face blushed red, her heart thumping as if there was a little deer hopping in her heart. She thought to herself, I’m not one yet….

Slowly but steadily, Gu Hongzi rose into the air, he gazed afar at the Singing Goose Mountain from Gu Xia City and stared closely at it, not moving for a long time. Yuchi Li was puzzled and quickly, she also flew into the sky. After a few moments, Gu Hongzi sighed and said, “This is the array formation formed by your master? It is indeed impressive.”

Yuchi Li looked over at the Singing Goose Mountain too. But she didn’t see the same beauty as Gu Hongzi did, and was even more puzzled.

“How impressive, Junior Martial Brother Long Yue has really understood the arts of array formation. The array, the weapons, and the sources, all three linking and connecting one another. The array was placed down with the incomplete totem patterns, linked by the soul weapons and sourced by the inner cores... this is truly an impressive array formation with automated capability. It will be activated on its own without the need of controlling it, once it is attacked, its defensive capability will be activated right away.”

Gu Hongzi looked around and said, “This is worthy to be deemed as an arcane array formation already, it's not an ordinary array formation anymore.”

Yuchi Li was still trying to grasp what he meant while Gu Hongzi continued softly, “The common people would place the array formations by following exact steps; the talented ones would amend and modify the array formations; but the real genius would place down an arcane array formation.”

All of a sudden, a huge hand emerged behind him, and lunged out at the far away Singing Goose Mountain from Gu Xia City!

The hand was formed by arcane energy and totem patterns, it was a hundred mu in size, showing clearly the power of a Heavenly Dharma cultivator’s Avatar!

In the blink of an eye, the hand had reached to the top of the Singing Goose Mountain, slamming down heavily!

Krong——

The huge hand was too quick, its friction with the air ignited the sky, leaving a trail of fire behind it as it slammed down at the Singing Goose Mountain like a falling meteor!

Seeing it, Yuchi Li shouted in shock, “May the city lord have mercy!”

Before her voice faded away, the hundred and eight stone pillars placed down by Zhong Yue glittered brightly, the incomplete totem patterns brightened up and extended out from the stone pillars into the sky like countless little butterflies.

Ong ong ong——

A series of light buzzing sounds came as the incomplete totem patterns linked themselves to the soul weapons that were placed all around the mountain; the soul weapons were connected with the incomplete totem patterns, and instantly, the incomplete totem patterns were completed.

Right at this moment, countless marvelous totem patterns and soul weapons linked together, they came together as a gigantic Star Toad that was even larger than the mountain itself!

The Star Toad had six eyes like six bright round moons, and one of them was the Heavenly Dharma soul weapon bright moon, blazing brightly. Wherever it shone, there would be light pillars shooting up into the sky at the gigantic hand!

The Heavenly Dharma soul weapon snake spear has turned into the gigantic Star Toad’s tongue, the thousands-foot long forked tongue lashed from the giant toad’s mouth and pierced a hole through the gigantic hand!

Not only that, but the Wu Yang River that surrounded the mountain suddenly moved!. It floated into mid-air, its two ends joined together and its power was also activated, revolving around the mountain in the sky above, it would be cast out at any time now!

The sake skin pouch on the middle of the mountainside was also triggered, turning into a lotus giant python, with its head lifted out and hissing continually at the giant hand. It looked like a snake slithering on the back of the giant six-eyed Star Toad!

Even more, there was a thin length of chiffon floating up from the mountain, surrounding the Star Toad as if it was a string of clouds, concealing its power deep within!

One after another, the Atman Body and Inner Core soul weapons were activated by the arcane array formation, blasting their powers out in order to protect the mountain!

Gu Hongzi’s giant hand had only slammed down for a bit and was instantly crushed by the array formation, dispersing into thin air.

Yuchi Li was stunned. She stood with her mouth agape behind Gu Hongzi. The other girls on Singing Goose Mountain were also stammering at the result of the test.

This was beyond their understandings. In their eyes, the incomplete array formation placed down by Zhong Yue would have little to no power at all. And yet, the array formation had just worked, and its power was incredibly strong, even fending off Gu Hongzi’s strike!

This result was way too unfathomable!

The ways of sculpting taught by the old man were way more than what was simply presented, how abstruse….

Zhong Yue didn’t have time to think much, he quickly moved around the mountain and extended his psyche out to check on the six inner cores’ arcane energy consumption. When the strike came, he wasn’t the one that powered the Star Moon Array Formation. Instead, it was powered from six sources: the six inner cores!

When the array formation sensed a danger, it would be automatically triggered, consuming the power of the inner cores and unleashing its power. That was why the inner cores were very important.

And now, Zhong Yue was checking on the inner cores to estimate how long would they last.

When Zhong Yue sent his psyche over, he found out that the inner cores had shrunk greatly. Furrowing his brow, he thought to himself, The Inner Core and Heavenly Dharma inner cores can only last for an hour of attacks before their energies are depleted and render the array formation useless. It seems like this array formation is a big eater, only a few inner cores can’t sustain it for long.

The Star Moon Array Formation was also an offensive array formation. Itt would also return the favor to its attacker at the same time it was attacked. It was strong enough to fight off a Heavenly Dharma expert, but it could not last long.

Furthermore, the inner cores would also deplete by themselves as there would be slight surges of energy leakage. These inner cores would at most, last for a few years before their energies would dry up. The Heavenly Dharma inner cores would last longer, but not any more than seven to eight years.

I need more inner cores, moreso those at the higher grades, just so the array formation can last longer. But where do I get more of the stronger and better inner cores?

Just when Zhong Yue was thinking about it, Xin Huo said with great excitement, “Brat Yue, go and kill more experts, that’s how you can get more inner cores!”

Such a suggestion was naturally, filtered away by Zhong Yue. He thought in his heart, It’s only lucky for me to get so many inner cores. But such a luck would not favor me forever, I might just die the next time.

He stopped the inspection and returned back to the palace He pressed his hand down in the air and in tandem, the hundred and eight totem pillars slowly sank into the ground, disappearing from the surface of the mountain.

Following this, the soul weapons also disappeared, leaving behind only the hefty ones, such as the snake spear, bright moon, and Wu Yang River.

These soul weapons were connected to the whole Star Moon Array Formation, he would not need to worry about them being stolen or taken away. To do so, it would mean that the array formation was getting intruded upon, and naturally the array formation would repel such an action that threatened its existence and activate itself to fight back.

These inner cores can only maintain the array formation for three to five years. After that, it will need more inner cores.

Zhong Yue told the girls to refrain from touching the soul weapons. For now, the girls were looking up to him as if he was their god, surely they would listen to his words.

“With only the nine of you, it’ will be hard to manage my ever-growing territory. Qing He, Chun’er, Yuchi Li, handpick a few talents from the human and monster races, send them to my mountain and I’ll nurture them personally,” Zhong Yue instructed them, “And when they have become Qi Practitioners, they would be given the rights to manage a piece of my land as a lord under my jurisdiction, they will be my trusted aides.”

The girls bowed as they received their orders, before dispersing and going out to chose talented younglings from the monster and human races in his territory and send them to the mountain.

------

After three days, the selection came to a total of over twenty younglings, having equal numbers of humans and monsters. Fear consumed these younglings as they thought that they were chosen and gathered here to be sacrificed for the forging of an evil soul weapon. But truth proved otherwise. They had never been so grateful in their lives after they reached the mountaintop and listened to the explanation that they were chosen with no other reason than to be imparted with the ways of cultivation so that they could serve their lord better.

“Yuchi, Qing He, come and join us,” Zhong Yue told the girls.

The nine girls were shocked and overjoyed. They quickly sat down and listened carefully, especially Yuchi Li and the other dragon girls, as they were not Zhong Yue’s cronies but the subordinates of the Ao Clan. And yet, Zhong Yue was willing to tell them his cultivation knowledge and attainments, this gave them an even better impression of Zhong Yue.

Zhong Yue then started his lesson. He picked up the stone pillars that were left unused before, and engraved them with the totem patterns of the【Soaring Dragon Hundred Forms】while teaching them the visualization art of the Jiao Dragon, fully imparting them his knowledge in the【Soaring Dragon Hundred Forms】.

Ao Fenglou didn’t teach him the cultivation art of the【Soaring Dragon Hundred Forms】and only imparted him with the skills. But Zhong Yue was not the amateur he was before, his perception had allowed him to perceive and extract the cultivation art from the skills.

He explained the knowledge from shallow to the deep. Yuchi Li and the other girls were cultivators and they have the foundation to understand his teachings, enthralling themselves with the abstrusities he presented to them. On the other hand, the new younglings were stunned, not being able to understand most of his words.

But Zhong Yue only talked about it once, he didn’t repeat himself and only left behind the stone pillars engraved with the dragon totem patterns for them to study.

---

After three days, Zhong Yue finished engraving the dragon totem patterns on the stone pillars. He placed them in the Knowledge Teaching Palace in the master monastery. He turned and told the others, “These stone pillars contain the skills and art of the【Soaring Dragon Hundred Forms】. Anyone can enter the Knowledge Teaching Palace and study them as you like. Qing He, bring out the medicinal pellets and the other materials.”

Qing He quickly took out all of the medicinal pellets. There were a total of over forty thousand medicinal pellets with different uses. Zhong Yue had killed countless Atman Body experts on his way to Xian Kong Saint City, and when he advanced into the Atman Body level and established a force of his own, the other greater and lesser forces had all greeted and congratulated him with countless gifts.

Qing He, Long Chun’er, and the others then bought the medicinal pellets with the other items that were useless to them. In addition to the medicinal pellets produced in his territory, he now had a substantial amount of medicinal pellets.

And most of all, Zhong Yue had the beast god inner core, so he didn't need any medicinal pellets to cultivate, and hence, the number kept growing higher and higher.

“These medicinal pellets will be placed in the Medicinal Pellet Palace. Chun’er and you girls will make a set of rules regarding the amount of medicinal pellets you will be distributed to aid in your cultivation progress, and those medicinal pellets will be given out on a monthly basis. Rather give more than less.”

Zhong Yue smiled gently and ended the day with the last sentence, “Your master I will now be in closed-door training, nothing shall disrupt me in this period of time.”

The girls were surprised and overjoyed, and so were the younglings; they quickly bowed and thanked him.

Ostensibly to the outside world, Zhong Yue was in closed-door training, but in actual fact, he left the Gu Xia City’s territorial land and headed toward the Savanna Wasteland, treading the path back to his homeland: the Great Wilderness!

Lei Hong is dead, but is Tian Myriad Mother still in Swords Gate? Everything will be clear to me as long as I return back. By then, I will know if Lei Hong was really the celestial messenger or was he only a petty scapegoat that was pushed out...