Free Web NovelChapter 379: Chapter 366: Forcibly Array-Breaking and Seizing It
"The third fork on the left, there’s a piece embedded in the rock wall..."
Gu Ming followed the directions, but the ground beneath his feet suddenly split open, and a cold, sinister aura gushed out of the black fissure.
Ah Ji violently arched its back, a low growl rumbling in its throat. Its fur stood on end as it unleashed a volley of shadow needles forward.
Ah Kun opened its mouth and waved its fins, manipulating the surrounding water. It expanded out of thin air into a Water Wall, blocking the fissure.
The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul materialized behind Gu Ming, and the Runes on its Giant Armor arm lit up.
The Giant Armor extended to form a pauldron and Half-Body Armor.
The Arm Armor on Gu Ming’s arm also evolved into Half-Body Armor. The Profound Celestial Beast covered him in a translucent form, making him feel as if he were wearing a suit of Heavy Armor. His sense of security skyrocketed.
Gu Ming then looked at the black smoke the shadow needles had pierced. The smoke dissipated, revealing a fissure filled with churning spatial turbulence.
"It’s spatial turbulence. Be careful."
The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul said. It had thought this was the Ghost Cat’s doing, but it seemed the Space here was simply unstable.
The kitten was still trapped inside Gu Ming’s body. Under the Profound Celestial Beast’s suppression, it couldn’t possibly use the spatial turbulence to kill him.
If it had, the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul would have been the first to kill it. Therefore, it was impossible that the kitten was leading Gu Ming astray.
The Ghost Kitten trembled, waving its paws frantically as it explained, "That wasn’t my doing."
Gu Ming comforted it gently. "It’s alright. Keep leading the way."
The Ghost Cat was extremely agitated. Seeing this, Gu Ming stayed quiet and waited for it to calm down. Once the kitten realized Gu Ming truly didn’t blame it, it settled down and resumed guiding him forward.
As the Ghost Cat spoke, it recalled Gu Ming’s behavior. ’The more I think about it, the more I feel I shouldn’t have attacked him. He’s clearly a very good Beastmaster.’
Cyan Treasure, draped around Gu Ming’s neck, finally relaxed its scales now that the surroundings had stabilized.
It flicked its forked tongue, curiously observing the Half-Body Armor formed by the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul. ’It looks so cool!’
After a tumultuous journey, an unexpected sight appeared before Gu Ming on the cracked, black stone ground.
Gu Ming saw an ancient altar with unfamiliar Talismans placed all around it. Fresh kitten corpses lay scattered on the ground.
A transparent stone hovered above the forehead of the largest cat corpse. That was this place’s Space Stone, tainted with the aura of souls.
With just a glance, Gu Ming could feel that the stone was intrinsically connected to the entire Space.
If he were to take it, this Space would instantly collapse.
Seeing this, Gu Ming began to contemplate how he could take it.
Just then, the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul spoke up on its own.
"You can’t take it. Leave and find my master to retrieve it."
"Let me take a look first," Gu Ming said.
After more than ten minutes of this ordeal, Gu Ming had a rough understanding that an Array similar to a Mist Trail had been embedded within this Different Space.
This place seemed to be an artificially created Space, not a natural one.
Gu Ming couldn’t read the writing on the Talismans, but he had a feeling he had walked into someone’s trap.
Fortunately, he had the company backing him. If anything went wrong, someone else would take the heat.
He observed a while longer and realized that if the Space collapsed, he couldn’t leave by the same winding path he had taken to get in. He would have to take a direct shortcut out.
The shortest distance between two points is a straight line; the only way out would be a direct sprint.
But Gu Ming was only a Two-star Beastmaster, and his Pet Beasts weren’t that powerful.
In the end, his only hope was the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul possessing him.
The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul said helplessly, "I can make your body faster and lighter, but you won’t be able to outrun the collapse. This Space is unstable; you’ll have ten seconds at most to escape."
"Either you break the Array yourself, or you leave the stone here and go get my master to retrieve it."
Gu Ming shook his head. "If Teacher Tang comes to get it, then it won’t be considered mine."
The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul just snorted and didn’t respond.
This was a test of his abilities.
If he couldn’t take it, the next person to enter would be Teacher Tang.
Whether the stone would end up belonging to Gu Ming would be up in the air.
To be safe, Gu Ming was determined to take it for himself right now.
Gu Ming retraced his steps, constantly scanning the textures of the various stones on the path while discussing the local Array with the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul.
Having followed its master for so long, the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul naturally had some knowledge of Arrays.
However, it didn’t want to teach Gu Ming; Array-Breaking wasn’t its responsibility.
It was only here to capture the Ghost Kitten and to protect Gu Ming.
Any other tasks were outside its scope of duties.
So, it just made a few noncommittal grunts, avoiding the main point.
Gu Ming hadn’t expected it to get to the point anyway. In the system’s eyes, the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul was already an Eight-star Level Pet Beast.
Its Power and breadth of knowledge far surpassed the real-world Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul.
So when Gu Ming chatted with it, in the system’s eyes, it was as if a fifty-year-old Old Deng was humbly asking an Eight-star Pet Beast about the connections within the local Array.
The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul is already at the Eight-star Realm and looks down on this type of Space Stone.
Faced with your humble inquiries, it puts aside some of its pride and offers a few casual pointers.
The Eight-star Level Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul was immensely powerful. The difference in their status was like that between the clouds and the mud, and their attitudes toward treasures were completely different.
While the stone was incredibly useful to Gu Ming, to an Eight-star being, it was nothing more than an ordinary rock.
As Gu Ming skillfully continued the conversation, system prompts detailing the Array’s structure and the Daoist Skills involved began to appear one after another.
"That’s the Undead Element’s Corpse Illusion Technique, and a Soul Calming Ceremony Talisman..."
You are learning knowledge related to Undead Element Arrays!
Strange and Bizarre Array Experience +100!
At the university, such esoteric subjects generally weren’t taught.
Not unless Gu Ming took the initiative to study those specialized courses.
The future Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul was giving him pointers out of pity, seeing the earnest, fifty-year-old "Old Deng" persona and figuring he had it rough.
They chatted for another ten minutes or so.
By the time the real-world Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul was growing impatient, Gu Ming’s knowledge of Arrays had already skyrocketed.
Now, when he released his Divine Sense to roam through the deathly land, he had a completely new understanding of the area. Winding, previously invisible paths became clear before his eyes.
Gu Ming transmitted the scenes of the Array’s weak points that he’d observed to his Cyan Treasure, instructing it to release its Plant Life Light Wave and eliminate the hidden auras of the corpses one by one.
After Cyan Treasure had used its Plant Life Light Wave to blast away all the corpse auras from the core Array Points, the blood-red glow in the sky above gradually faded.
The foul, bloody stench pervading the air also dissipated.
The withered trees and cat corpses vanished as well.
The Ghost Kitten inside his body trembled, finding itself increasingly baffled by the Little Cyan Snake’s abilities.
Seeing this, the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul’s eyes also flashed with a peculiar light.
It grew more certain that this was no simple Life Light Wave, but an ability possessing a special Attribute.
After the Array was completely broken, Gu Ming took the nearly transparent Space Stone, which shimmered with the light of souls, and stored it in his Beast Taming Space.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
The moment Gu Ming removed the Space Stone, the surrounding world suddenly disintegrated as if its very bones and blood had been torn away.
The ground beneath his feet first groaned as if under immense strain, then shattered like a porcelain plate. A spiderweb of cracks spread at a visible speed, devouring every inch of solid ground.
The sky above was even more terrifying. Like a black cloth ripped down by a tremendous force, it came crashing down with a muffled roar.
In an instant, light was distorted and torn, shattering into countless bizarre, streaming fragments.
All three Pet Beasts were terrified. The path before them was disintegrating at a horrifying speed, while rubble and fragments of Space rained down on them.
This was several times faster than the spatial collapse at Ah Ji’s old home.
Gu Ming didn’t dare hesitate for a second. He pushed off his toes and sprinted wildly toward the exit he had memorized.
The purplish-black phantasm of the Giant Armor behind him took on a lustrous sheen as the Power of the Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul flooded his body.
"Go!"
In that instant, a light yet immense Power surged through Gu Ming’s entire body.
It felt as if a great force was lifting him from behind, making him take flight. His feet felt as light as if he were riding on wheels of wind and fire, so light he was practically floating.
He felt the wind whistling past his ears. A distance that should have taken him a while to cover, he now crossed in a matter of seconds.
The moment he stumbled out of the spatial fissure, a deafening roar erupted from behind.
When he looked back, the collapsing Space was imploding at an astonishing speed.
All the fragments, light, and shadows were devoured by an invisible singularity, finally fading into a faint trace of light before dissipating completely into the void.
