Free Web NovelChapter 154: Chapter 154: Last-Minute Cramming
The situation was desperate, but he couldn’t just sit back and wait for death.
Jiang Xu began to think.
’Could the entire Marketplace, with its combined strength, stand against them?’
Jiang Xu felt it was a long shot.
He had overheard from the cultivators at the city gate that there were no longer any Golden Core Cultivators guarding the Marketplace.
If the Array within the Marketplace was still active, an invading Golden Core Cultivator would be helpless against it.
But if the Array were to fall, everyone in the Marketplace would be like fish on a chopping block.
So, the key now was to prevent the Array from being broken.
With that, Jiang Xu first returned to the Talisman Shop.
He was no longer in the mood to practice the Divine Forging Technique.
’His life was hanging by a thread; who had the mind for such things?’
Looking at Elder Li, who was still frozen in a daze, Jiang Xu’s anxiety suddenly eased. He even found the sight a little amusing.
"Elder Li, I’m afraid you won’t get the chance to comprehend all these copies of the Cloud Seal Celestial Book. If Elder Demon Su successfully captures the Marketplace, he’ll definitely carry out a massive slaughter. At that point, forget about comprehending the Celestial Book—you won’t even be able to save your own life!"
But Elder Li remained completely unresponsive, as if he hadn’t heard a single word Jiang Xu said.
Jiang Xu wasn’t surprised. He would have been more shocked if Elder Li had actually replied.
Jiang Xu began making his final plans.
’If the Marketplace is breached, how will I escape?’
’First of all, Elder Demon Su will probably attack the Foundation Establishment Cultivators first. A Cultivator at my level, the Qi Cultivation Realm, shouldn’t be worthy of Elder Demon Su’s personal attention.’
’That might buy me a little time to escape.’
’Come to think of it, it’ll probably be those Demon Cultivators I saw in the Marketplace before who will be tasked with slaughtering low-level disciples like me, right?’
Jiang Xu was somewhat confident he could deal with those Demon Cultivators.
’Even if I can’t beat them, I should at least be able to escape, right?’
But then Jiang Xu remembered the Demon Array that Elder Demon Su had set up outside the Marketplace.
Jiang Xu had tested it before in the Endless Forest.
With that Demon Array blocking the way, there was simply no getting out.
It seemed Elder Demon Su was afraid that someone might escape in the chaos or use some method to contact the outside world.
Jiang Xu had tried using a Communication Pearl to contact Zong Ziqi, hoping to inform him of the situation and have him report to the Profound Origin Sect for reinforcements.
But the Communication Pearl was useless; the message couldn’t be sent at all.
Only then did Jiang Xu realize that Elder Demon Su was planning on catching them all in one fell swoop!
But something puzzled Jiang Xu.
’Logically, delays lead to unexpected complications.’
’Since Elder Demon Su is ready to attack the Marketplace, why has he only trapped it instead of launching a direct assault?’
’If he wasn’t ready, why would he activate the Demon Array and reveal his intentions prematurely?’
’But if he was ready, why didn’t he attack immediately?’
Jiang Xu thought for a moment and suddenly realized he had fallen into a mental trap.
Activating the Demon Array didn’t necessarily mean Elder Demon Su had prematurely exposed his intention to attack.
Because the Demon Array was extremely well-concealed; it was possible that only Jiang Xu could see it.
The Demon Array had only just been deployed, yet it had already converted so many people into Demons.
If more time passed, the number of Demons would surely multiply several dozen times over.
As one side waned and the other waxed, the gap between them would eventually widen.
The Demons would kill secretly from within, and when the Marketplace was finally breached, they would all transform into monsters and attack their own companions...
Good heavens, Jiang Xu didn’t even dare to imagine what that scene would be like.
It was possible that in the end, Elder Demon Su could annihilate the entire Marketplace without even lifting a finger.
Fortunately, Jiang Xu had seen through this step, preventing an even greater tragedy.
But Jiang Xu felt no joy, instead arriving at a terrifying conjecture.
’If the reason Elder Demon Su isn’t rushing to attack the Marketplace is that he wants the Demon Array to create a batch of Demons to aid his assault... then by neutralizing the Demon Array’s intended function, have I just caused him to move up the timeline for his attack?’
Jiang Xu felt a wave of dizziness.
’If that’s true, didn’t my actions just hasten the tragedy?’
’I can only pray that Elder Demon Su hasn’t noticed, or that he hasn’t completely figured out how to break the Array yet.’
Jiang Xu stood up, recalling the objects the Demon Cultivators had placed inside the Marketplace.
Although he couldn’t see them with his Spiritual Eye Technique, there was nothing else to do at the moment, so he might as well go and investigate them again.
After all, he had only observed them from a distance before and hadn’t gone up for a closer look.
Maybe if he went to check now, he could discover a new clue.
Besides, it was through careful observation that he had discovered the Cloud Seal Celestial Book in the Talisman Shop not long ago.
’Wait, I... I remember I still have...’
Jiang Xu took out several books from his Storage Bag.
These were the few books on arrays that he had obtained from the Study in the Secret Realm.
He flipped through them for a while but still couldn’t understand them. So, Jiang Xu had to put the books away, planning to read them on-site once he got there.
「...」
He made his way to the path the Demon Cultivators had taken. Relying on his memory, Jiang Xu was confirming the approximate locations of the objects they had placed.
After recalling them in his mind, Jiang Xu had a pretty good grasp of their locations.
Even so, Jiang Xu still didn’t have any leads.
He activated his Spiritual Eye Technique and searched for a long time, but still found nothing.
Jiang Xu was at a loss, knowing his utter lack of understanding of the Array Dao was the reason he was so clueless.
So, he took out the Array Books again, preparing to cram at the last minute.
FLIP! FLIP! FLIP!
Jiang Xu flipped frantically through the pages, skipping all the irrelevant content, and went straight to the section about breaking arrays.
After finding the section, he stopped flipping and began to study it slowly.
After several hours, Jiang Xu finally gained a rough understanding of the major methods for breaking arrays and their key principles.
There were many ways to break an Array.
The first was a direct assault, using absolute power to shatter any Array. However, this method placed extremely high demands on the Array Breaker’s strength.
The second was to observe and analyze the Array’s structure and operational patterns to find its Array Hub or Array Gate. The Array Hub was the core of the Array; destroying it could weaken or even dismantle the entire thing. The Array Gate was the key channel for entering and exiting the Array.
This required a powerful Divine Sense or specialized Scouting Techniques to see through the Array’s internal structure and operational mechanisms.
The third was to use Five Elements Mutual Inhibition. Many Arrays followed the Laws of the Five Elements of Mutual Generation and Inhibition. By using techniques of a counteracting attribute, one could neutralize or counter the Array’s effects. For example, using Water Attribute Techniques to break a Fire Attribute Array would be twice as effective with half the effort.
The fourth was to be like Elder Demon Su, who had a mastery of the mysteries of various Arrays. Such a person could directly dismantle an Array or use an Array to break an Array—that is, by setting up a Counter-Array.
