Volume One, Chapter Seventeen: The Formation (Part Two)

Gu Mingxi channeled her spiritual power, shattering the deceptively heartwarming scene before her. As the illusion crumbled, she could no longer hold back, bursting into uncontrollable sobs.

It turned out she still harbored a lingering obsession—one rooted in the family life of her previous existence. In that past life, her parents had divorced when she was very young, and she had never experienced the warmth she had just witnessed in the illusion. Following the divorce, she had lived with her mother, who never remarried and spent every day rushing about, struggling to make ends meet. In her memories, her father was a non-entity, while her mother was always a hurried, retreating figure. Her childhood was defined by loneliness, accompanied only by a single ragdoll.

Because of this long-term isolation, Gu Mingxi had grown up with a somewhat timid nature. Even into adulthood, this remained unchanged, leading to her being bullied by senior colleagues when she first entered the workforce. Living such a miserable reality, she turned to novels for solace, finding comfort in their fictional worlds until an accident while reading brought her to this current world.

Before her memories of that past life returned, Gu Mingxi had lived every day in carefree happiness. Her parents in this life, Gu Moyuan and Lin Sheng, treated her with such profound love that when her past memories resurfaced, she did not revert to her former fragility. Instead, she learned to be strong and resolute. The parents of this life had healed the wounds of her past with their affection.

The scene in the illusion had been so warm that she realized it was fake the moment she saw her parents, yet she had lingered for a day, craving that warmth—a final closure for her past self. From now on, she would no longer be tethered to those regrets. She was completely detached from that former life. In the past, she had been a devoted daughter; her mother had lived a busy, industrious, and vibrant life, even taking group tours after Gu Mingxi started working, perhaps even finding the prospect of new romance later on. Her father had long since started a new family. It was all for the best.

In a way, she should be grateful for this illusion. Had this obsession remained buried in her heart, it would surely have manifested as an inner demon in the future. Should such a demon have emerged unexpectedly during a tribulation, it would have been a catastrophe. Shedding this attachment in such a way was a blessing. Emerging from the illusion, she felt a sudden, intense longing to see her parents of this life.

Regrettably, due to the toll of childbirth, Lin Sheng’s cultivation had become unstable, and she was currently in seclusion. It was possible that Gu Mingxi would not see her for more than a decade.

After composing herself, Gu Mingxi continued onward, only to fall immediately into another formation. She sighed. Another one—it was to be expected. The first two had been an illusion array and a maze array, neither of which possessed offensive capabilities. Among non-offensive formations, only a binding array remained. After observing her surroundings and testing the barrier with a flicker of spiritual power, she confirmed it was indeed a binding array.

She stroked her chin, thinking. She had never been taught how to dismantle formations. The illusion had been broken by confronting her inner obsession, and the maze had been easy enough to solve. But for this binding array, without understanding its structure, she had only one option: brute force.

"Boom!"
"Boom!"
"Boom!"

Three consecutive blasting talismans tore a hole right through the array, and Gu Mingxi stepped through. Looking at the mangled mess she had made of the formation, she prayed silently that the elders wouldn't mind. In truth, her worry was unnecessary; in the world of arrays, if you had the skill, you could search for the core to dismantle it, but if you lacked the finesse, brute force was perfectly acceptable. As long as the objective was achieved, any method would do.

Having navigated all three formations, Gu Mingxi had made a positive impression on the elders of the Formation Institute. They saw her as spirited and resourceful, and they held high expectations for her. Once she exited, a disciple informed her that she had passed the entrance assessment and should report for class the following day.

When she arrived the next day, Gu Mingxi realized that almost no other disciples had managed to break through all three formations. Besides herself, only one other student named Gu Zhaoming had succeeded. She glanced at him—the only other person to clear the test. He was a quiet boy who had sat at his desk since arriving, without exchanging a word with anyone. Who could have guessed that this quiet, seemingly antisocial boy would one day become one of the only two Ninth-Grade Array Masters in the Gu family?

The instructor arrived shortly after, scanning the room. Gu Mingxi noticed his gaze lingered a moment longer on her and Gu Zhaoming.

"Array crafting is a fascinating art," the instructor began. "I trust that in time, you too will come to appreciate its intrigue."

The remark felt like a blast from the past, reminiscent of her old math teacher, who would always insist before a lesson that mathematics was an interesting subject. The similarity brought a strange sense of familiarity to the art of formations.

The instructor proceeded to explain the fundamental composition of arrays, then used a few roadside pebbles to construct a simple maze array for them. Gu Mingxi was astounded. She had thought the exam formations were simple, but seeing the instructor create one with mere stones, she realized why the previous ones had been so weak—they had likely been constructed from simple materials. She had never imagined that something as sophisticated as an array could be fashioned from common pebbles. It seemed incredibly practical.

In an instant, a profound interest in the art of arrays took root in her heart.