Master Xuan Ji flipped his palm, and a bright round mirror appeared in his hand. "The human skin mask is just the most ordinary disguise. If a Foundation Establishment cultivator scans with their Divine Sense, they can see through it. And I happen to have an Illusion-Breaking Mirror, which can see through masks. People like us have memories far beyond ordinary people. Seeing your real face, I immediately remembered seeing your bounty in the marketplace before. Tsk tsk, eight thousand Spirit Stones! What did you do as a Mid-Stage Qi Cultivator to warrant such a bounty?"
It was just a coincidence, indeed he was not from the Wang Family or Ziluo Mountain.
Lu Qian relaxed a bit but didn't answer his question. Instead, he asked, "What do you mean by 'people like us'?"
"No one taught you? We who are naturally strong in Divine Sense possess 'Consciousness Collection'," Master Xuan Ji said proudly. "Everyone says Celestial Spiritual Root is one in ten thousand, but I say Consciousness Collector is even rarer!"
At this time, the Earth Spiritual Qi dispersed, and a white Gold Spiritual Qi gathered and surged forward.
The Gold Spiritual Qi felt as sharp as thousands of steel needles piercing through. Master Xuan Ji waved a fiery Command Banner, imitating, using Fire to overcome Gold.
After finishing, he blew his beard and glared, asking, "You, boy, I answered your question, but you remain silent. Hurry up and tell me, why were you bountied? Whose disciple are you? Why are you here?"
Lu Qian found it bizarre, but thinking about the old Daoist's behavior along the way, he certainly wasn't here for the bounty. So he half-truthfully said, "I was originally a disciple of a small sect thousands of miles away, but the sect was destroyed by a powerful enemy, who wanted to eradicate us, that's why there is a bounty on me. Now my senior sister and I are wandering around, just looking for a place to settle."
Master Xuan Ji jumped three feet high with joy: "So you are a loose cultivator now, very good! Very good!"
Saying so, he stroked his goatee and examined Lu Qian: "Hmm, an extraordinary appearance, half as handsome as I am. Consciousness Collection is decent, barely equal to mine. But you're not honest, deceiving those two sinners outside, still not a bad heart."
Lu Qian was about to ask when he heard a rumbling within the array, Spiritual Qi shifted. Strands of Gold Spiritual Qi merged into Water Spiritual Qi, within moments, waves roared, and water whips as thick as a human arm formed, thundering towards them.
"How was this created?" Master Xuan Ji didn't dodge but pointed at the water whip inquiringly.
Having experienced the Five Elements Mutual Inhibition twice, Lu Qian naturally understood. While raising the Spirit Turtle Shield, he hurriedly said, "This is naturally the Five Elements Mutual Generation, with Metal generating Water, the water gathers into a stream, greatly increasing its power."
While speaking, the water whip struck the Spirit Turtle Shield, only a few strikes, and Lu Qian felt a violent shock throughout his body, Spiritual Qi in his Dantian raging, unable to hold on much longer. He was startled and asked Master Xuan Ji, "Senior, how do we break this now?"
"Expand your Divine Sense!" Master Xuan Ji laughed heartily. "Watch me cast!"
He waved two Command Banners, one Earth Element Command Banner generated a shield, stacking on the Spirit Turtle Shield, reducing Lu Qian's pressure. The Wood Element Command Banner emitted green rays, which spiraled in the air like spirit snakes, entwining within the water whip, spiraling upward, directly aiming at the source of the water whip.
"The Array Dao mimics the operation of heaven, ever-changing." Master Xuan Ji, while waving the Command Banner, enthusiastically said, "This array, without a host, also called a Death Array, can only operate on its own following the patterns recorded by the array former. Initially, it uses basic Five Elements Spiritual Qi attack, then enhances the attack through Five Elements Mutual Generation, with simple form, rigid changes. Even someone not versed in arrays, if their cultivation is high enough, can break it with brute force, which is vastly different from arrays with hosts."
"If there is no host, what drives this array?" Lu Qian asked loudly, feeling the direction of the green rays from the Command Banner.
"Good question! There are three sources of power for arrays. One, the array former uses their own Spiritual Power to activate the array. Two, the array former uses a Spirit-Gathering Array to extract Spiritual Qi from Spirit Stones to supply the array. Three, the array former sets the array core in a Spirit Vein, automatically extracting Spiritual Qi from the Spirit Vein to power the array, as long as the Spirit Vein exists, the attack continues. All major sects' Mountain Defense Grand Arrays are arranged like this."
Lu Qian's heart suddenly raced. In the first two cases, the array requires a host, but for this array, it is likely the third situation. Thus, a Spirit Vein truly exists here!
"Found it!" Master Xuan Ji shouted, "To break the array, one method is to destroy the array base of the Grand Array. The Five Elements Grand Array has five array bases. Typically, array formers continuously move the array bases, making them difficult to find. But this Death Array, with no one moving the array bases, only requires following the Qi flow to find the array bases, breaking them one by one, and the array will be broken. Follow me!"
Lu Qian remembered it all in his mind, and holding the Spirit Turtle Shield, he snaked around the chaotic rocks, trying to dodge attacks, while moving with Master Xuan Ji towards the side.
After running over a hundred steps, they felt the Spiritual Qi was chaotic ahead, it turned out that Master Xuan Ji was waving the Wood Element Command Banner, strands of green light transforming into rings, encircling a dark-colored Magical Artifact hidden among the chaotic rocks. Two kinds of Spiritual Qi clashed, lights flashed, and the water whip suddenly weakened and thinned.
Lu Qian fixed his eyes on it, it was a palm-sized Jade Seal, carved with turtle and snake forms, surrounded by surging waves.
"Hit it!" Master Xuan Ji shouted.
Lu Qian was about to trigger his Starlight Needle when a thought struck him. He raised his hand and made a sword gesture, and a series of talismans shot out from his bosom: "Decree!"
The talismans exploded, earth and stone overturned, waves of earth gathered into a sword shape, rising from the ground, stabbing straight at the Jade Seal.
The Earth Sword stabbed in a round, hitting the Jade Seal. Using Earth to overcome Water had an excellent effect; the Jade Seal's glow halted, and the water whip in the air all exploded, water droplets raining down, like a torrential downpour.
Master Xuan Ji's face was full of approval, he waved the Command Banner to knock down the Jade Seal, grasped it with his five fingers, and received it in his palm.
The Spiritual Qi in the air seemed to freeze for a moment, even the pervasive fog dissipated a bit, and then the Grand Array rumbled again, beginning to accumulate for the next round of attack.
"The Five Elements have lost one, and now all changes in this Grand Array only have the remaining four elements." Master Xuan Ji stood on a large rock, displaying the transparent turtle-snake Jade Seal, asked, "Lu Qian, do you now understand what arrays are?"
Lu Qian hesitated for a moment, since entering the array, the various transformations of the array flashed through his mind, an answer was on the verge of emerging.
He answered loudly, "Combination! An array is a combination of changes!"
Master Xuan Ji laughed heartily, three Command Banners rose in front of him, verdant Spirit Wood, blazing Flame, deep yellow Earth, lights intertwined, dazzling: "Correct! Correct! Extremely smart! Extremely smart! An array is a combination, changes arise from combinations!"
"The Five Elements Grand Array, five kinds of Spiritual Qi, water-fire combination forms one change, water-wood combination forms another change, water-gold-fire combination forms another change, gold-wood-earth combination forms another change... Even the sequence of water before fire, or fire before water differs. Thus, from five to one, five to two, five to three, five to four, five to five, there are a total of 325 kinds of changes."
He stopped laughing, and stared at Lu Qian, eyes extraordinarily earnest: "Lu Qian, you become my disciple, and I will impart all the array mysteries to you, how about it?"