Gu Ningyun had previously won a mysterious-rank low-grade defense array plate for taking first place in the individual combat matches of the New Disciple Competition.
Now that Mu Chenze mentioned it, she remembered.
As long as an array plate wasn't destroyed, it could be used repeatedly.
She fished the array plate out of her storage ring. "Is this array plate usable?"
"I almost forgot you got that." Mu Chenze's eyes lit up.
"My current cultivation and skill level aren't enough to set up a mysterious-rank array from scratch, but using your array plate is naturally excellent."
He pulled Gu Ningyun down to a crouch next to the barbecue stove. "You haven't used an array plate before, have you? Come, I'll teach you how to set it up."
Having someone teach her in person was naturally better than reading the written instructions that came with the plate.
Gu Ningyun readily crouched down. "Come on, teach me."
"The place where you put the array plate will be the center of the array."
Mu Chenze guided Gu Ningyun to place the array plate on the ground. "Inject spirit energy and use your divine sense to trigger the array plate's core."
The octagonal array plate was a celadon color and only about the size of a palm, looking quite exquisite sitting on the island.
When Gu Ningyun first received this array plate, she had already refined and bound it to herself.
She immediately extended her right index finger, touching the center of the array plate as she injected her cyan spirit energy into it.
With a thought, complex cyan lines began to snake out from the center of the array plate.
The lines spread out in eight directions, only stopping once they reached the eight corners.
"These lines are the spirit energy conduction patterns."
Mu Chenze explained patiently, "Look at the outer edge of the plate; there are eight corners in total. Don't stop the spirit energy from your right hand yet. Use your left hand to take out eight low-grade spirit stones and place them on the ground next to each of these eight corners."
Gu Ningyun did as instructed.
Just as the eighth spirit stone was placed, Gu Ningyun felt her right index finger, which was still touching the center, get flicked like a peeled boiled egg, gently bouncing off the plate.
The eight corners of the array plate lit up with a cyan light. Immediately after, the spirit energy from the spirit stones flowed from the corners into the plate along the eight spirit energy conduction patterns.
Following the direction of the spirit energy injection, white patterns lit up on the plate circle by circle, moving from the outside in. The faint light from the eight corners and the cyan glow of the conduction patterns were replaced by a white spiritual light.
Spirit stones contained all types of spirit energy in the cultivation world—gold, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, thunder, and ice. Under unknown rules, they manifested as a soft white light.
While ice spirit energy was also white, its white was more transparent; the white light from the spirit stones was denser. If one didn't use their eyes but sensed it with their divine sense, it felt more like a prismatic, multi-colored white.
At this point, the spirit energy from the spirit stones had replaced the wind spirit energy Gu Ningyun had been injecting.
When the innermost patterns lit up, a transparent spherical shroud spread out in all directions, centered on the array plate.
Gu Ningyun suddenly felt as if she could control this protective shield.
With a thought, the shroud expanded to cover an area of about eight square meters. It didn't just cover the barbecue stove and the five of them; there was plenty of extra space, so it didn't feel crowded at all.
Once the protective shield stabilized, Gu Ningyun withdrew her divine sense.
The small array plate was now glowing with dense, concentric layers of various white patterns.
Although the eight corners of the array plate remained lit, the consumption of spirit energy was extremely slow.
"Actually, for a standard defense array plate, once the protective shield is stable, it basically stops consuming spirit energy from the stones."
Mu Chenze pointed toward several patterns without touching them. "Besides defense, your array plate also has a concealment function. Look at these array patterns that seem tangled together. On the plate, they are actually two sets of independently running patterns, corresponding to concealment and defense."
Gu Ningyun looked where he pointed, but her eyes just glazed over. She couldn't understand any of it.
She was very honest. "Your explanation is very clear, and I understand what you're saying. But I don't understand the array patterns at all."
Mu Chenze's finger paused.
His companion learned so many things and was always the strategist of their team. Influenced by his usual impression of her, he had momentarily forgotten that she had never studied arrays, so his explanation was essentially gibberish to her.
Mu Chenze chuckled. "That's my fault."
"Let's go back to controlling this array plate. A common defense array plate only has the defense function—meaning it only has that one set of patterns. The defense array generated by those patterns can be maintained indefinitely as long as it isn't attacked, until the owner takes back the plate or removes the spirit stones."
"Your plate has an added concealment function. The concealment effect of the shroud actually works by using the concealment patterns to interact with the spirit energy outside the array, forming a screen. When someone outside looks at or uses their divine sense to scan the shroud, they will only see that this area looks identical to its surroundings, with nothing out of the ordinary."
"Because air is always circulating and the spirit energy in the air is constantly flowing, the concealment patterns must run continuously to maintain the effect. That's why the array plate is still slowly absorbing spirit energy from the stones."
So that was it.
After binding the plate and reading the single-page manual, Gu Ningyun only had a vague idea of how to use it. She had no clue how many spirit stones to use or how the number of stones affected the plate.
With Mu Chenze's explanation, Gu Ningyun felt as if a veil had been lifted, and her control over the array plate became much more natural.
"If the array is attacked, the plate will directly absorb spirit energy from the stones to maintain the shroud. These eight low-grade spirit stones should be enough to block a full-strength strike from an early Foundation Establishment cultivator, right?"
Gu Ningyun estimated based on the strength of the shroud and the energy content of the eight low-grade spirit stones.
"Ningyun, your intuition for arrays is quite good."
Mu Chenze looked at her in surprise. "Correct. If you increase it to forty low-grade spirit stones, it can block a full-strength strike from a peak Foundation Establishment cultivator. That is also the limit of this array plate."
At this point, Gu Ningyun basically understood everything.
She placed another eight spirit stones outside the corners and mentally expanded the shroud's range to sixteen square meters.
"Even though the spirit stones have doubled, because the coverage area has also doubled, the array's defensive power is still at the early Foundation Establishment level. Am I right?"
"Exactly. That's how it works. To be able to apply what you've learned so quickly and draw such inferences... you're a genius!"
Hidden on the north side of the small island, Shen Banxi marveled, "Such a genius! As expected of the Peak Master successor I'll assist in the future!"
Shen Banxi's eyes practically glowed as he watched Gu Ningyun, but the only other listener, Shu Ziming, ignored him.
A mysterious-rank array plate was useless against him, an early Golden Core stage cultivator. He leaned back against a reef, resting his chin on his fists as he stared intently at the fragrant sea spider legs on the grill.
He swallowed hard. "When we came to the East Sea for training before, why didn't we think of grilling a few legs to eat?"
Wen Xuan didn't sense Shu Ziming's resentment at all.
Seeing Gu Ningyun and Mu Chenze finish setting up the array and move away, she handed each of them a plate of grilled legs.
"You two worked hard setting up the array plate. Eat first."
"Then I won't be polite."
Gu Ningyun chuckled, holding the plate with both hands and taking a deep sniff. "Smells amazing! Our Great Food Cultivator Wen's skills really live up to her reputation."
"What 'great food cultivator'? Stop it."
Wen Xuan suddenly became very busy, though her movements while sprinkling the seasoning looked a bit stiff. No one knew what she was so busy with.
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