Jin SeCh8 - Living Array

That was how Shi Wuduan, who had not a clue what was going on, confusedly began living in rogue cultivator Jiang Hua’s little courtyard.

Although he took it in stride rather easily, since Jiang Hua let him drink well, eat well, and read the books in the cellar however he pleased; if he came across something he didn’t understand, he could even go ask Jiang Hua for a pointer or two — but most importantly, Jiang Hua’s temper was exceptional. No matter how he misbehaved or made trouble, no matter how many shockingly off-the-wall questions he asked, Jiang Hua was always friendly and amiable and he never beat him with the punishment ruler …. Two months in, and Shi Wuduan’s skin was starting to itch. He was rather unused to it. QvtXj2

After two months, he was finally bored.

An encirclement-type array blocked the front door. Although rogue cultivator Jiang Hua would scurry about the three mountains and six seas whenever the interest struck him, he was particular about the peace and quiet of his own territory. Who knew how many arrays surrounded his little courtyard. Aside from the few somewhat sapient animals that he raised, the rest of the mountain’s wildlife appeared to know that he was difficult to deal with and consciously stayed away.

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There was at least some entertainment to be had when rogue cultivator Jiang Hua was around, since he’d tell him fantastical stories and strange anecdotes. But he’d go into closed cultivation every three or five days, and each time there’d be neither hair nor hide of him for several days. Thus, there was only He Tong left to look after Shi Wuduan.

He Tong was indescribably boring. His words and actions were all rigidly routine and his expression wouldn’t even change throughout the day as he kept going “Little friend it’s time to study,” “Little friend, it’s time to eat,” “Little friend it’s time to wake up,” or otherwise “Little friend, all things have a spirit, do not bully the young,” “Little friend, you haven’t studied arrays before, don’t wander around at random.” liaMcX

And so, although he had good food and good drink, and didn’t have to take beatings, Shi Wuduan inevitably began to reminisce about life back at Jiulu Mountain. His shixiong and shidi were all there, and all the little yao in Cangyun Valley, and, most importantly, little Li-zi was there.

He liked playing with Bai Li most. Firstly, Bai Li was the prettiest “little maiden” he’d ever met. At his age, young boys only had a muddled understanding that “men and women had to keep their distance”. At his age, boys didn’t want to be seen playing with girls, though they secretly wanted their attention, especially the attention of the prettiest girl.

Only, on Jiulu Mountain, because there weren’t many children of similar age as Shi Wuduan, and because, being the sect master’s closed-door disciple, he didn’t have much contact with the outer disciples, he didn’t understand that “it was embarrassing to hang out with girls,” and was happy to entertain the little beauty all day.

Secondly, Bai Li’s disposition was pleasant. He would laugh when Shi Wuduan teased him, and say “it’s pretty” no matter what Shi Wuduan gave him, unlike Master Kuruo’s group of shijie and shimei, who threw their tempers around for no reason, and who, when they flocked together, twittered enough to make one’s temples throb.

One day, when Shi Wuduan emerged from the stone cellar, he stretched his back and saw the Cuibing bird standing in the courtyard pecking at grain. He shiftily jogged over, giving the bird a slight nudge or two with the tip of his foot. The big chicken fiercely pecked him in return — its new feathers had grown out everywhere but its’ butt, which was still bare. It looked hilarious and completely out of place. Its self-esteem was already damaged after being laughed at by the herd of rabbits that Jiang Hua raised. These days, it was especially resentful of Shi Wuduan, the culprit of his misfortune.

Shi Wuduan squatted on the stone table in the courtyard like a little monkey, one hand propping up his chin, which had become somewhat sharper. His height had grown too quickly, and his clothes were shorter by quite a bit, exposing his wrist. He sighed and said to the Cuibing bird, “Silly bird, I miss little Li-zi and shifu now.”

The Cuibing bird squinted at him for a moment while in the middle of its business, then continued wholeheartedly pecking grain. As a mere “flat-feathered beast,” it didn’t understand a youth’s “lamenting for his wifey” kind of melancholy, precocious heart.

Shi Wuduan sat there sighing left and right for a while. Too bad he was by nature a person who would shine if given a bit of sunlight. In but a moment, he’d completely poured out all of his hard-saved woe, and looked down at the Cuibing bird again. Suddenly, he jumped up, ran back to his room, and packed his cloth bundle. Jumping and clattering around as he ran out, he slapped a hand on the Cuibing bird, nearly making it tumble over, and said, “Go, let’s say goodbye to senior, we’re going home!” 9nGFQX

The Cuibing bird’s response to this was to clutch the ground with its long claws and turn its bald backside at him.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

It wasn’t until Shi Wuduan finally found Jiang Hua, that he found that this senior who usually granted anything he asked for was suddenly being difficult. No matter how he stirred up trouble or pestered him or tried to reason with him, Jiang Hua only chuckled at him, gently but firmly shaking his head in reply.

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He had already walked through the encirclement-type array once with rogue cultivator Jiang Hua. Even if he hadn’t, he felt that he already more or less understood the introductory material on the subject after all the days he spent holed up in the cellar reading books, and thought these kinds of simple arrays were beneath him.

However, when he walked to the door of the courtyard, Shi Wuduan was struck dumb.

The array in front of the courtyard had been changed at some point, the rocks and bamboo seemed to meld and overlap. This bamboo sea was like a giant maelstrom that could suck away one’s wits if they looked at it too long. The moonlight that fell into the forest curved in strange ways, making the spell seem less like an array than a mirage crafted by some otherworldly ghost.

Shi Wuduan took a step forward, and stopped. The Cuibing bird that had fallen from his hand and onto the ground at some point stared for a moment at the sea of bamboo. It shook its head a few times like it was drunk and circled around a few times in an eight shaped loop. It stretched out its neck before falling on the ground with a “poof” and stopped moving. QSAsv2

Shi Wuduan thought about the bold, visionary words he’d spoken, and took out a torch, planning to burn the whole thing down.

However, when the flames touched the vegetation, not only did they not catch, they suddenly extinguished. A faint green spell pattern appeared on the ground, rippling with light, before vanishing in an instant.

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Jiang Hua, to prevent him from burning everything down, had set a “Fire Prevention Spell” on the entire mountain.

And so on the second day, when Jiang Hua emerged from his room, he was greeted with the sight of Shi Wuduan curled up in a ball with his head pillowed on his cloth bundle, sleeping in the courtyard. He was even holding a small stick; the ground beneath him was filled with rows of messy array-breaking algorithms — a pity that he’d been unable to undo the array. uMoqly

Perhaps the Cuibing bird’s noggin was too small and it’s belly was too big, but it couldn’t stand looking at things that took brainpower, so it was still spread-eagled on the ground.

Rogue cultivator Jiang Hua stood with his hands clasped behind his back while he scrutinized the ground, and couldn’t resist laughing, thinking this little rascal who’s been learning for barely two months, and doesn’t even count as a beginner, sure has quite a method when it comes to breaking arrays, it actually looks somewhat legitimate — too bad he hadn’t even gotten close.

As such, with no other choice, Shi Wuduan could only capitulate to the might of rogue cultivator Jiang Hua’s “Six Circle Array”. Unless the array master willingly let him out, Shi Wuduan could only hang around on the mountain for the time being.

Unlike those arrays with a set solution method, or those elementary arrays, that though they could change, could still be broken by following a single line of reasoning, the “Six Circle Array” was a living array. Ysc0lF

Jiang Hua had said, “This array is constantly changing according to the heavenly bodies. Only by completely calculating the trajectories of all the stars in the southern sky, can the solution be found. As long as the stars change, so too does the array change. The slightest shifts in the stars’ positions can turn the Six Circle Array on its head.”

Noticing the youth’s eyes roving around, no doubt cooking up some nefarious idea, Jiang Hua offhandedly rapped his head with a fan, and said, “No need to rack your brains over some crooked scheme. Every day you aren’t able to undo this array is a day you’ll spend cultivating here under my guidance.”

Shi Wuduan pouted, and said, “Senior, if you keep me trapped here, my wife will be all alone at home. What’ll I do if she remarries, huh?”

Jiang Hua really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, while Shi Wuduan negotiated in all seriousness, “It’s alright if you don’t let me go back, I’ll just have to write my wife a letter home.” RYKpgQ

Jiang Hua shook his head, no longer paying him attention.

Thus, Shi Wuduan, huffing and puffing, took out a stack of paper and writing supplies. Earnestly, one stroke at a time, he wrote a letter to Bai Li while he laid on the table. He wrote a thick pile of rambling nonsense, going on and on without end, “three papers without a donkey. ” After he finished, he blew the ink dry before stuffing the letter in an envelope, sealing it, and tying it to the Cuibing bird’s leg. Then he opened his bundle-full of treasures, carefully taking out the astrolabe, before turning the bundle upside down, sending all the bracelets, earrings, hairpins, bells, and jade pendants clattering out.

Then Shi Wuduan said, “Bring this stuff back to little Li-zi too, I bought this all for her.”

The Cuibing bird was so frightened by the glow of treasure and the fragrance of rouge flowing from the pile that it fell off the table. Shi Wuduan didn’t care at all, stuffing the whole thing into a package and binding it to a bird leg that was, at that moment, especially thin and scraggy. ac9GMd

“Fly,” Shi Wuduan commanded.

The Cuibing bird pitifully dragged the package that was nearly as big as it was, crying out in protest. Shi Wuduan poked its bare butt with a brush, and said, “Aiya, you eat so much and grow so much blubber, what’s it all for anyways? Stop putting on airs, fly already!”

The Cuibing bird had no choice, and could only flap its wings a few times, dislodging a few newly grown chicken feathers. It got less than two feet in the air before it fell back onto the table, pitifully and accusingly blinking it’s black pea eyes at Shi Wuduan.

Shi Wuduan scratched his head, then suddenly cackled mischievously. The Cuibing bird shivered, knowing that he’d come up with another lousy idea, feeling like it was on the cusp of a disastrous catastrophe. wtRcMx

Shi Wuduan silently recited an incantation and blew at the spooked Cuibing bird, whose chicken feathers had stood up on end. But it was too late to run. It felt a scorching sensation on its butt and turned its head. There was a small fire resembling a ghost flame burning behind him. It used its wings to flop forwards, but the more it flopped, the larger the flame grew. It could only shriek as it flew for its life.

Shi Wuduan remained standing in place, looking upwards at the small trail of smoke left behind by the Cuibing bird. Remembering that he was still trapped on the mountain, he felt a bit of envy.

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Yet, at that time, Cangyun Valley was in a state of disorder.

The yao king Bai Ziyi stood before the inexplicably cracked “Karmic Mirror,” whose luminous surface had dimmed. This mirror, which little yao were called to stand before when they cultivated to human form, seemed to have one foot in the grave. Dq 3Lz

It was said in the Cangyun Valley, that the “Karmic Mirror” was a treasure of the yao race, passed down from when the heavens and earth were in primeval chaos. Not even divine lightning could harm it, but it had for no reason cracked apart – it was an ominous omen.

Bai Ziyi summoned a few elders to guard the Karmic Mirror, but all the same, they could only watch as it darkened bit by bit.

However, she didn’t speak a word of these events to Bai Li. She even managed to force out a smile every time she saw him. Bai Li was extremely idle. His face was bloodlessly pale as usual, but he had grown by quite a bit — his form, which used to seem of similar age to Shi Wuduan, had grown to appear around fifteen or sixteen. His tall figure had already begun to stretch out.

Bai Ziyi had been hurrying back, and upon seeing Bai Li waiting for her at the cave entrance, startled slightly, before hesitatingly smiling at him, asking, “What’re you doing here?” 4OieD

Bai Li didn’t reply, only silently appraising her.

Bai Ziyi felt somewhat uncomfortable under his gaze, the smile on her face stiffening before she looked away, and said, “I’m feeling tired today. I’m heading in to change. Go play by yourself.”

However, Bai Li lowered his head and chuckled coldly, still using that especially gentle voice of his, “Mother?”

Bai Ziyi’s footsteps halted, and she saw Bai Li raising his eyes before he leisurely continued, “Mother. Are you truly my mother?” iurGxm

Bai Ziyi raised her eyebrows in surprise, before forcing out a smile, “What are you saying, child? If I’m not your mother, who else could I be?”

Bai Li stretched out his palm, his thin, delicate, white hands were beautiful as ever. He looked down and said, “From as far as I can remember, aside from when I was little and still had a pair of fox ears, I can’t seem to remember what my true form is like. Isn’t it quite strange when you think about it?”

Bai Ziyi hurriedly said, “That’s because your father isn’t of our race…”

However, Bai Li again interrupted her, looking up, his cutting gaze making her swallow back her words. He said softly, “Moreover, why on earth would a blood-related mother fear her own son?” mZlwPt

Bai Ziyi was mute, her pupils dilated. She stared stiffly at Bai Li as if paralyzed. During that short exchange, sweat had already gathered at her temples.

Right at that moment, the Cuibing bird crashed into the Fire Lotus cave like a lit firecracker, shattering the strained atmosphere. Instantly, Bai Li let out a fierce killing intent. Then he realized that it was the Cuibing bird and he let his guard down.

Bai Ziyi hastily took her leave, entering the cave without turning back. Bai Li casually extinguished the small fire burning on the Cuibing bird’s backside. He looked at her retreating form, not pressing the matter, only smiling a somewhat mocking smile.