Senior Uncle Jiu Jiu really was... too perfect.
Turning into a wisp of green smoke, Li Changshou drifted swiftly downward through the winding cracks in the rock, sensing each array he passed and feeling a quiet swell of satisfaction.
Why "perfect"? Jiu Jiu knew nothing of formations. She had reached the True Immortal realm, not far from the Heavenly Immortal stage, with a solid foundation and remarkably pure immortal energy—and her control over her own power was, moreover, unexpectedly strong. Most importantly, she let a mere junior direct her around!
"Direct" was perhaps too strong a word. Li Changshou admitted there was a fair bit of sweet-talking involved, but it took two to strike a bargain, and this was, after all, a mutual arrangement.
She had been a tremendous help this time. He gave thanks to the elder of the Hall of Rewards and Punishments who had made Jiu Jiu swear off drinking; to Senior Uncle Jiu Wu, who in her childhood had tossed her into a vat of wine for a bath; and to those tattered sheepskin scrolls in the Dao Collection, from which he had "experimented" into being such combat sedatives as Immortal Drunkenness and the Immortal-Weakening Powder.
The wisp of smoke sank about a hundred feet before stopping in a narrow crevice, where it resumed human form. Li Changshou pulled out the jade token that regulated the arrays and slid his fingers across it. The patterns changed; at once the rock before him rippled like water. He stepped in, and it returned to its original look. Through the great stone he found a small wooden door, pushed it open, and entered a chamber three spans square, heading for his wooden desk.
He turned the jade token gently, and the outer arrays shifted by a hair, making this underground room vanish entirely into the surrounding formations. Even a Heavenly Immortal searching deliberately could not sense the chamber without destroying the arrays outside. A man, after all, always needs a private space.
The chamber held two bookshelves piled with ancient texts. Li Changshou sat behind the desk, studied the sheepskins for a while, then held the jade token and closed his eyes. A complex three-dimensional structure took shape in his mind—like a city skyscraper from his past life, except this "skyscraper" was embedded inside Xiaoqiong Peak. He let out a soft breath. Long time no see, this soul-settling security.
"Ah," he said with a faint smile, "soaking in a bath here wouldn't be half bad. Just joking. Let's keep checking the arrays."
Thank fortune Jiu Jiu was so advanced in cultivation, or else the ambition he had prepared over decades could never have been realized: the three-dimensional compound grand array. Working through Jiu Jiu's hands for two years, he had assembled his vision for the way of formations piece by piece. In her understanding, she had laid out over a hundred medium and small arrays for him, interconnected, vaguely forming a "natural-looking formation momentum" that enveloped thirty li around the pill chamber. Li Changshou plus Jiu Jiu meant this grand array might as well have been set by a formidable True Immortal—breachable only by a Heavenly Immortal, and even then one versed in formations. But Jiu Jiu knew only the first layer; she had no idea of the second, the third, the fourth...
The mainstream formations all stood on bases of precious materials, spirit stones, and refined treasures, their bases linked to yield different effects. Li Changshou knew his craft was neither broad nor deep, but his mind churned out fanciful ideas, and he reasoned them out until they came true.
Around sixty-seven years earlier, while studying the Du Xian Sect's formations, he noticed that the common grand arrays of the Primordial World mostly placed their bases on a single horizontal plane. What if they ran vertically? The effect was the same. Non-defensive ones—maze arrays, trapping arrays, killing arrays—could tilt in any direction. And what if two grand arrays, one vertical and one horizontal, shared a third of their bases? When the horizontal activated, the vertical shut down, and vice versa—"interference-free array switching." Bit by bit he solved the circulation of spirit power and the "compatibility" of different bases...
Until today. Split by horizontal arrays, these formations comprised three layers, and Jiu Jiu knew only the topmost—the hundred-odd trapping and maze arrays around the pill chamber. What she did not know was that, deeper into the mountain, there were a middle layer and a lower layer, whose core bases she herself had helped bury. And that was only the horizontal arrangement; these same bases hid who knows how many vertical and diagonal schemes, threaded through with no small number of killing arrays.
In the chamber where he now stood, only when the vertical arrays activated and the horizontal ones reversed did it appear among the rock strata. To reach it, even a cultivator with Earth Escape at mastery, lacking the jade token and its special control method, would have but one option: split Xiaoqiong Peak open. If ever that day came, the Du Xian Sect would already be at its final hour—and before then, Li Changshou was nine parts in ten certain... ahem. Dying alongside the sect had little meaning. Keeping his useful body alive to avenge his master's sect was the proper path.
A side note: the main function of the lower-layer bases was to draw on the power of the earth's veins. To avoid draining the spirit veins and catching the notice of other peaks or the sect's higher-ups, Li Changshou deliberately avoided all spirit veins, drawing directly on the earth's "murky" power and filtering the spiritual energy through a Clarity-Restoring Array. That slightly weakened the killing arrays, but it was far safer. Even if some expert noticed his many arrays, without the vertical and diagonal schemes they were mere trapping and maze arrays, nothing that broke sect rules. Before, the ordinary had been "passive disguise." Now the pill chamber forced him to push his "active disguise" to the limit of his stage.
The way forward: starting from the bases beneath the pill chamber, expand outward slowly, forging Xiaoqiong Peak into an inconspicuous fortress in the immortal sect. Life comes but once, and the Primordial World is splendid. We qi cultivators seek longevity and the Great Dao in steady steps, savoring the wonders of the three thousand worlds.
"Finally," he said, rubbing his hands as he put away the sheepskins and the jade token. He produced a few storage pouches and tipped out their treasures. The unexpected gains from the Northern Jambu Continent—after two years, at last they could be inventoried. "Let's see just how poor this immortal Yuwen Ling really is." He chuckled and sent two paper-cut incarnation avatars off to a corner to melt and refine the storage treasures slowly.
Half a day later, he had finished sorting the spoils and rose to leave. In his hand was a brocade box holding two sleeping "beetles"—if he guessed right, love gu worms. "Good stuff," he praised. "Pity it's not much use now. Keep them. If my immortal birds and spirit beasts ever lack the urge to breed, I can catalyze them with these, boost the young, and save a few rare breeds."
...
On the agreed day for helping with the pill refinement, Jiu Jiu yawned, wearing a flaxen short robe some senior sister had washed for her, still half-asleep as she flew unsteadily toward Xiaoqiong Peak on her great gourd. As a mainstay True Immortal backed by powerful forces, she flew freely, restricted only by the forbidden grounds. "Today's the twentieth day, right?" She counted on her fingers, momentarily confused—earlier, chasing a thrill, she had sipped the undiluted "mother liquor" of Immortal Drunkenness and slept in a haze for five or six days. She did not spread her immortal sense, so she failed to notice a cloud drifting over the forest below.
When she reached Xiaoqiong Peak, two heads popped out beneath that cloud. On the left was the stocky Daoist Jiu Wu; on the right, a maiden who looked no more than sixteen or seventeen. Young in look, lovely of face, supple of figure, and full of vigor, she was in fact nearly the same age as Jiu Wu—both past two thousand. Her Dao name was Jiu Shi, the fourth disciple of the Venerable Wangqing and Jiu Wu's dao companion—the lady he so often watched in secret through his Three-Headed Pupil Spider.
Jiu Wu said in a low voice, "Should we really be doing this? This is Xiaoqiong Peak."
"What's there to fear? If we don't like it, we fight the peak lord!"
The maiden retorted crossly, narrowing her almond eyes. "She just woke up and dashed over—something's definitely off. Have you ever seen little Jiu this diligent? Today I'll see for myself whether this Junior Brother Qi Yuan grew three heads or six arms, that he hasn't even become an immortal and yet has our little Jiu here every day."
Jiu Wu gave a wry chuckle, then arched his thick short brow. "There's an array here? I can't sense Jiu Jiu's aura anymore."
"An array—what do we fear? Who here hasn't studied a few?" Jiu Shi curled her lip, grabbed Jiu Wu by the collar, and with no further words turned the two into shadow and flew toward the forests.
"Here we are, two half-step to Heavenly Immortal cultivators, and you expect me to fear an array laid by someone who hasn't even become an immortal?"