Chapter 284: Giant Armor's Demonic Pill

Jujia’s remarkable talent mustn’t be wasted.

Hearing Lu Ye’s question, Jujia gave a simple-minded smile, raised a hand to tap his lower abdomen, and rumbled, "Stored!"

"What do you mean?"

Jujia scratched his head, unsure how to explain. He decided not to, punched his own abdomen, and then opened his mouth to spit something out.

It was, strikingly, an earthy yellow, round bead.

Lu Ye stared blankly at this bizarre sight.

Jujia actually had a strange, round bead in his stomach!

"What is this?"

Jujia casually tossed the bead over. Lu Ye quickly caught it and examined it closely. Vaguely, a term he had once heard from his Second Senior Sister popped into his mind: Demon core!

It was said that once demon beasts reached the Cloud River Realm, a demon core would condense within them. This was the source of a demon beast's power, highly valuable, and many demon cores could be used for alchemy, artifact forging, or even array formation.

The object in his hand somewhat resembled a demon core.

Was Jujia a demon beast?

But Jujia was clearly a human. He wasn't even a demon cultivator, as he lacked their characteristic features. If this wasn't a demon core, then what was it?

Looking closer, he could see that the bead's surface wasn't smooth. Instead, it had tiny, densely packed diamond-shaped protrusions forming a thin film that encased the entire bead.

Lu Ye truly couldn't make heads or tails of it. He slightly channeled spiritual power, and in the next moment, his expression drastically changed.

He detected a vast and pure spiritual power sealed within the bead. If such power were to suddenly erupt, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Lu Ye quickly retracted his spiritual power to prevent any mishaps.

What was certain was that this bead was extremely important to Jujia, yet he had simply tossed it to him. This showed his trust, which subtly touched Lu Ye's heart.

Remembering Jujia's earlier words, Lu Ye suddenly realized, "You can store the spiritual power you gain from cultivation inside this?"

"Mm-hmm." Jujia nodded.

"And use it when you need it?"

"Mm-hmm."

Lu Ye let out a soft breath, secretly marveling.

He had seen things that could store spiritual power; there was a spirit pattern called "Storage Spirit" that could do so. Any spiritual artifact used to control other artifacts certainly had a Storage Spirit restriction, otherwise, it couldn't be wielded for long periods.

However, the sheer amount of spiritual power stored in the round bead within Jujia's abdomen was incomparable to any Storage Spirit restriction.

No wonder Jujia had been cultivating continuously even without a Heaven-grade cultivation technique. With this bead, the spiritual power he gained from cultivation wouldn't be wasted; it could be fully stored within it.

When needed, he could release the spiritual power from the bead.

In other words, in terms of spiritual power endurance, Jujia surpassed all cultivators in the Spirit Creek Realm. Even those at the Ninth Layer who had switched to Heaven-grade cultivation techniques couldn't compare to him.

Jujia's cultivation had been stuck for two or three years. It was hard to imagine how vast the spiritual power stored within this bead was after such a long time.

Thinking of this, Lu Ye realized something else: although Jujia's cultivation was stalled due to the lack of a Heaven-grade cultivation technique, his progress wouldn't cease. As long as he had a suitable technique, he could rapidly open spirit apertures with his stored spiritual power, thus advancing to new realms.

Looking at Jujia, Lu Ye's emotions surged. Where on earth did Sima Yang find this guy?

Such a talent, the Crimson Blood Sect absolutely couldn't miss out on.

After playing with it for a while, still unable to discern its true nature, Lu Ye handed the bead back.

This bead wasn't a demon core, but in terms of value, it was far more precious than an ordinary one. If someone with ill intentions saw it, there was no telling what strange thoughts might arise.

"Don't just show this thing to people casually anymore. Didn't Sima Yang tell you that before?"

"He did," Jujia replied, opening his mouth and swallowing the bead back. As if remembering the deceased Sima Yang, he was enveloped by a wave of sadness and lowered his head.

Lu Ye took out a large piece of beast meat.

Jujia took it, and immediately, his sadness vanished.

A day later, in the small courtyard, Lu Ye's hands were pressed to the ground, continuously channeling spiritual power. Large patches of spiritual light pulsed, and where they converged, intricate and complex patterns shimmered faintly.

As he worked, the patterns continuously expanded and spread, covering an area of several meters.

After a moment, all the spiritual light suddenly vanished, as if it had never existed. However, with careful perception, one could detect an abnormality in the spiritual power within that area.

"Lu Ye, is this an array?" Yiyi, who had been standing by observing, recognized what it was.

"Yes," Lu Ye stood up, took out a thick tome from his storage bag, consulted it, and nodded with satisfaction. "It's done." After so much study, he was finally seeing results. He now had some understanding of array formation and could even set up simple arrays using his own spiritual power.

Of course, such arrays weren't very useful, as they lacked stable conduits like array flags or array bases, making them very easy to destroy.

However, everything progresses from easy to difficult. This successful first step marked Lu Ye's entry into the path of array formation.

"Jujia," Lu Ye called out.

"Huh?" Jujia, who was watching the spectacle nearby, turned his head.

"Walk onto it and test it, but don't channel any spiritual power."

Although the array was set, an array formed this way was very fragile. Even a slight channeling of spiritual power from Jujia would break it.

This was similar to how Lu Ye had initially constructed the Spirit Gathering pattern in his spirit apertures; such directly formed Spirit Gathering patterns would collapse upon spiritual power impact.

Later, he found a way to transform the Spirit Gathering patterns into small funnels, which stabilized them.

"Oh," Jujia replied, taking a step forward.

"Slow down!" Lu Ye quickly shouted. If Jujia stepped down like that, the array he had just set up would likely collapse instantly.

Jujia's raised foot froze mid-air, then descended at an extremely slow pace. He cautiously watched Lu Ye's reaction, and only after Lu Ye nodded did he move his other foot.

This was clearly a bit difficult for him; after a few steps, his leg almost cramped.

After a good while, he finally reached the center of the array. Instantly, the previously hidden array patterns lit up. Within the array's coverage, spiritual power surged, and a spiritual energy-infused slash attacked Jujia.

Jujia, remembering Lu Ye's instruction not to channel spiritual power, stood there and endured the blow head-on.

Then he scratched his backside, an innocent expression on his face.

"Pfft..." Yiyi almost burst out laughing because the power of that slash was simply pathetic, even weaker than a Golden Arc Slash unleashed by a fifth-layer cultivator.

After activating this slash, the entire array crumbled with a crash, turning into flickering specks of light and disappearing.

Lu Ye wore a thoughtful expression. Given his current attainment in array formation, it wasn't surprising that the array he set up had such an effect. Several spirit patterns were used to construct this array, with "Spiritual Arc" – the spirit pattern that produced the slash – as its core.

The spirit patterns Lu Ye could construct now weren't limited to those gained from his talent tree; he had also learned many from books. However, because they took a long time to construct and were unstable, they couldn't be used effectively in combat.

They could only be used when setting up arrays.

Yiyi thought the array was incredibly weak. Though she didn't say it aloud, she definitely thought so.

However, if array masters skilled in the path of arrays saw it, they would certainly be highly appreciative.

This was because Lu Ye had created the array entirely without any conduits, purely by forming it in one go with his spiritual power. Any single mistake in the process would lead to complete failure.

If constructing a spirit pattern was like writing a single character with a brush, then setting up such an array was like writing an entire essay. While writing this essay, the ink couldn't run out, and no strokes could be wrong.

This posed a tremendous test of a cultivator's control over their spiritual power.

For Lu Ye to achieve such results on his first attempt at array formation was truly remarkable. If he were to forge array flags and bases as core components before setting up arrays, it would be much simpler, and their power would be greatly enhanced.

Strictly speaking, array masters could barely be considered a branch of spirit pattern masters.

However, the spirit patterns array masters learned were primarily for array formation. There were so many spirit patterns in this world that even ordinary cultivators spending their entire lives couldn't fully comprehend them all, so they had to choose certain specializations.

Array masters learned patterns geared towards formation, combat pattern masters learned patterns for battle, and auxiliary pattern masters focused more on support. Different specializations led to learning different spirit patterns. Even artifact forgers, who crafted spiritual artifacts, learned some spirit patterns, mainly for creating those artifacts, as every spiritual artifact had restrictions composed of engraved spirit patterns.

Even a spirit pattern grandmaster like Lady Yun wasn't proficient in everything.

Lu Ye had never crafted array flags or bases before; this required special materials and tools, which he currently lacked. It wouldn't be too late to delve deeper into it once he returned to the Crimson Blood Sect.

Lu Ye's current main focus was on arrays, specifically on breaking them.

Therefore, the kind of array he could set up wasn't important. He simply needed to familiarize himself with array structures to facilitate his ability to break others' arrays.

Glancing at Yiyi, Lu Ye walked back into the house and continued his cultivation and study of the tome. The more he learned, the more he appreciated the profoundness of the path of spirit patterns.

Lu Ye had previously thought that with his talent tree, he could effortlessly activate various spirit patterns and easily become a spirit pattern master. Only now did he realize his mistake. While the talent tree indeed provided him with many conveniences, if he relied solely on it, he would at best be a second-rate spirit pattern master in the future. Reaching the first-rate or top-tier level would be utterly impossible.

There were many things that the talent tree simply couldn't bestow.

Days passed. Lu Ye would occasionally come out to set up new arrays, familiarizing himself with the techniques he had mastered. He learned from failures and improved his proficiency through successes.

His array formation speed was increasing, but his only regret was not having an existing array to study how to break it. This matter would still fall on the Divine Concealment Palace's shoulders. He hoped Gu Canyang wouldn't regret inviting him as a guest then.