Free Web NovelChapter 158: Chapter 158: Research
As always, Elder Li was just as he had been before.
’If I really can’t find a way to stop Elder Demon Su, hiding inside the Talisman Shop might be a good option. I wonder if the mighty expert who left these walls covered in Runes also left some kind of failsafe to prevent them from being destroyed? But that’s a last resort, something to try only when all else fails. Placing my hopes in such vague conjectures is unrealistic, after all.’
Jiang Xu glanced at the walls of the Talisman Shop one last time. Though reluctant, he quickly left.
After Jiang Xu had left and disappeared, all the Celestial Runes in the Talisman Shop flickered faintly twice, then vanished.
The previously motionless Elder Li’s lips trembled slightly, then returned to their calm state.
...
After gaining Divine Sense, Jiang Xu immediately felt the difference.
Now, as long as Jiang Xu released his Divine Sense, it was like having an "Eye of God."
Even with his eyes closed, he could completely perceive everything within a ten-zhang radius around him!
However, this range was not as wide as that of a true Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Even a Foundation Establishment Early Stage Cultivator had a Divine Sense range of over thirty zhang.
’It seems my Cultivation level is still holding back the full potential of my Divine Sense.’
’Since I’ve developed Divine Sense, I can start learning the application Magic for it listed in the Divine Forging Technique.’
With this in mind, Jiang Xu arrived at the location where the Demon Cultivators had placed the items before.
Arriving in a hurry, Jiang Xu released his Divine Sense to begin his Investigation before he had even steadied himself.
He had thought that with Divine Sense, he should be able to make some significant progress.
But to his surprise, when he arrived and took a look, he still couldn’t see anything at all.
This was so infuriating Jiang Xu almost blacked out.
’If this is how it is, what was the point of me rushing to develop my Divine Sense?’
’I might as well have just stayed in the Talisman Shop and waited to die!’
However, a moment later, Jiang Xu had another thought.
’If it could be discovered just by having Divine Sense, then the many Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the Marketplace would have found it by now. The risk would be too high. Elder Demon Su would never have been that careless.’
Jiang Xu opened the Array Book again, hoping to find an answer.
Now that he had developed Divine Sense, Jiang Xu felt that his speed of thought and his comprehension of problems had been greatly enhanced.
It was like a person gaining a calculator; both efficiency and accuracy were greatly improved.
Now, when Jiang Xu looked at the Array Dao Books in his hand, he saw things from a completely new, elevated perspective.
Whether it was Magic, the Array Dao, or the Talisman Dao, they no longer seemed so unfathomable to him.
Only now did Jiang Xu understand why the Array Dao Books said that a Cultivator should wait until they reached Foundation Establishment and developed Divine Sense before studying Arrays.
With Divine Sense versus without it, the difficulty of understanding Arrays was like the difference between heaven and earth!
After flipping through for a long time, Jiang Xu closed the book.
After pondering for a good while, he finally released his Divine Sense. He then closed his eyes and simultaneously unleashed his Spiritual Eye Technique.
This time, the world he saw through his Divine Sense was just like the view when he normally used the Spiritual Eye Technique. No, what he saw now using Divine Sense was even more detailed and rich.
He could now perceive many things he couldn’t see before.
For example, right now.
Compared to before, Jiang Xu could now see many unknown objects that had clearly appeared on the ground in front of him.
"What is this...?"
Jiang Xu hurried forward to inspect them carefully.
They looked like pale purple crystals, emitting a faint purple glow. Just getting close, Jiang Xu felt a bone-chilling cold that made him want to shiver.
Jiang Xu meticulously cross-referenced the object with the descriptions in his books, trying to identify it.
After flipping through three or four books, he finally found something similar.
This item was called Netherworld Stone Marrow, hidden deep underground in places of extreme Yin.
These places were usually where telluric energy gathered and Yin Qi was dense, such as deep subterranean abysses, ancient tomb Secret Realms, or naturally formed points where yin and yang intersected.
Due to its special formation environment and hidden depth, it had developed a very special ability.
That is, it had extremely strong Concealment capabilities. Although it was only a Tier Two material, it could prevent the vast majority of Foundation Establishment Cultivators from seeing through it and discovering it.
Besides its Concealment ability, its most important property was its excellent capacity for being inscribed with Array Patterns.
A palm-sized piece of Netherworld Stone Marrow could easily withstand the inscription of several Tier Two Arrays.
For an Array Master like Su Duo, who specialized in Chain Arrays, using it to set up an Array Breaker Array was simply perfect.
For Jiang Xu, finding it now naturally made him ecstatic.
But just as he was about to do something about the Netherworld Stone Marrow, a new difficulty arose.
The pieces of Netherworld Stone Marrow were all clearly linked together, vaguely forming the prototype of an Array.
If he wanted to destroy them by force or simply take them away, it would be equivalent to clashing with the entire Array. For a Qi Cultivation Cultivator of Jiang Xu’s Cultivation, he was clearly not powerful enough.
If he could mobilize all the Foundation Establishment Cultivators in the Marketplace, they could clash with it head-on, but Su Duo wouldn’t just stand by and watch.
Besides, how to mobilize them was a problem in itself.
Never mind whether he could convince them to believe him.
Not every Foundation Establishment Cultivator could see them.
To make them see, he would have to reveal his Spiritual Eye Technique, which would ultimately create another crisis for him.
’Wait... destroying it would be difficult. But what if I don’t try to destroy it?’
Jiang Xu felt he had grasped the key and started flipping through the Array Book again.
’Arrays require extreme precision, even more so than Talismans. Even a single crooked Array Pattern can be a grave error, potentially causing the entire structure to collapse.’
Jiang Xu thought along these lines, his eyes fixed on the book, his Divine Sense fully extended, firmly memorizing the text and images on the pages.
’If I could subtly alter Elder Demon Su’s Array before this Grand Array is fully activated, could I disrupt its effects, or even neutralize it entirely?’
The more Jiang Xu thought about it, the more excited he became, but after studying the Netherworld Stone Marrow in front of him, he deflated once again.
Because Su Duo also had countermeasures in place.
Jiang Xu hadn’t noticed it just now.
But now that he looked...
The pieces of Netherworld Stone Marrow were all protected by defensive shields.
And they were all at least Tier Two defensive shields, which were impossible for Jiang Xu to break.
’These defenses are too strong... Sigh, if only the shields were made of Demonic Qi, I could try using an Exorcism Talisman...’
Huh?
’It’s not Demonic Qi?’
’Then this is simple!’
