Chapter 67: Formation Patterns

The "Qi-nourishing" meridians exist within the body, yet Chen Yu has managed to transplant them onto external objects. Whether living or inanimate, anything infected by Qi exhibits similar structural changes.

Upon experimentation, he discovered that the meridians manifested in different objects possess subtle variations rather than being entirely identical. It is precisely these differences that dictate their varying capacities for Qi. By comparing these discrepancies, Chen Yu verified his findings on stones, wood, and other materials. He committed the meridian structures he observed to memory using his mental power, then redrew them on sand and soil. Paper was scarce in the temple; he had bought some a fortnight ago, but it had to be reserved for writing. For now, poking the ground with a wooden stick to sketch them out sufficed.

After organizing these meridians, he attempted to inject Qi into each one. Whether in the sand or elsewhere, they seemed to lack the function of the original bodies and could not contain the Qi.

"Qi is the union of spirit and fetal breath; meridians are inherently constructed by both. These external objects possess neither. The appearance of meridians in them is entirely a result of the influence of Qi."

Chen Yu then gathered every meridian pattern together, consolidating them into one place. Since the reaction to Qi varies for every individual object, the differences between these meridians are bizarre and varied. He compiled a selection, comparing them to his own Qi-nourishing meridians, yet he had not discovered any that could be integrated—nor was it clear what might happen if they were.

In a flash, five days passed as he buried himself in the task of organizing them.

It could not be said that these five days were without gain. At the very least, he had inscribed more patterns onto the Qi-animated bird, all extracted from hundreds of variations, succeeding only after dozens of attempts. These patterns were intricate and tangled; most were entirely useless, requiring constant trial, error, and refinement. However, a few of the remaining ones were quite miraculous.

A string of delicate patterns, linked like a chain and hooked at the tail into the shape of a silver moon, was filled with Qi. A moment later, it emitted a pale, lustrous glow. Inscribed onto a wooden block, it slowly enveloped it. The next instant, the palm-sized wooden piece was tossed into the air, tumbling between his fingers, light and agile as if carried by the wind.

"Twenty percent lighter."

Chen Yu held the wooden block, a divine light in his eyes as he looked at the fine lines invisible to the naked eye, hidden in the deeper layers. It was not just one line, but a dense, intricate web revealed under his mental reflection. He wore a thoughtful expression. This meridian pattern had been transcribed from a common wild grass. However, it had taken considerable effort to copy and carve it; he had wasted over twenty pieces of wood to produce this single result.

The difficulty stemmed primarily from the fact that once Qi entered these lines, it would autonomously infect, alter, and pull at the texture. He was forced to constantly suppress it, even expending vast amounts of mental power to wrap and lock the Qi, releasing it slowly according to his own design.

Sealing, guiding, sketching the patterns... Every stroke and every step had to be precise; a single error meant all previous efforts were lost.

Fortunately, he had achieved results.

With this in mind, his gaze shifted. With a flick of his palm, a wooden sword lying two feet away in a pile of wood shavings wobbled, enveloped by Qi, and was brought onto his knees. The wooden sword also bore many patterns, and unlike the single type on the wooden block, it featured a greater variety of designs.

[Lightness], [Solidify], [Sharpness], [Toughness].

He had verified these four types of patterns as effective. Following the terminology of mythology, he called them "Array Patterns," and further refined them according to their specific functions. The utility of the four, as their names suggest, goes without saying.

It is worth mentioning that he was far from satisfied with the Array Patterns. Take [Lightness], for example: it required exhausting the Qi in his body three times, plus an instance where his mental power was nearly depleted, to successfully inscribe it. Even then, it required the stacking of sixty-nine array patterns to reduce the weight of a wooden block by twenty percent. This had reached the limit of the block; one more line would cause it to collapse. Even under the seal of his mental power, the lines would be pulled to resonate, triggering adjacent patterns and causing a riot of energy.

The consequences... he glanced at the pile of shattered wood by the wall. There had been quite a few explosions over the past few days. Had it not been for his careful protection, it would not just have been his clothes that were shredded; he would have sustained injuries himself.

Returning his focus to the present, the four existing types of array patterns had many deficiencies. For instance, their individual effects were so weak as to be almost imperceptible, and when too many were inscribed, they caused more severe reactions. In reality, the array patterns stripped from the various textures were not like this at the beginning. They were chaotic. For instance, when he first isolated the [Lightness] pattern, Chen Yu was not even sure of its effect; it even briefly displayed other effects like [Toughness], all mixed together, making them impossible to distinguish.

Finally, he managed to separate them, though this was only possible with the aid of his mental power and the constant, inexhaustible supply of Qi within his body. At present, for reasons unknown, the fetal breath produced by his Dantian was quite limited and could no longer raise his upper limit; whenever he accumulated a portion of Qi in his acupoints, it would increase no further. However, it would recover after being exhausted, and because his body had undergone a transformation, although the total output of fetal breath remained unchanged, the speed of recovery was faster than before.

This was the only reason he could support these varied experiments without being able to recover the Qi he used, treating Qi as if it were inexhaustible.

Of the four array patterns, [Toughness] and [Solidify] could be combined, or rather, all these patterns could be linked as a whole. Yet, their effects often conflicted, making it impossible to activate a specific trait. Chen Yu was currently trapped at this step. Even though he had spent great effort to separate four seemingly useful patterns from countless designs, and could even combine them into the simplest "inferior arrays," he could only utilize three of the four he had created, which left him quite unsatisfied.

"Continue!"

He had to find a way to use all four together!

...

June 26th. The atmosphere of midsummer had grown increasingly pronounced. The weather was turning hot, and the brilliance cast down by the scorching sun in the sky grew more blinding and oppressive by the day.

Boom!

On the mountain, within a Taoist temple nestled in the woods, the young man in a thin robe stepped back and leapt away. Not far in front of him, a clump of slick mud suddenly expanded and exploded! The sudden gust of air, mixed with a dull, thundering sound, echoed from the courtyard across the mountain peak.

"..."

Chen Yu waited for a moment before approaching. Just as expected, he saw the mud scattered about writhing and expanding again, then exploding, though the disturbance was smaller this time. After a series of pops and bangs, and a full quarter of an hour of silence, he finally stepped into the courtyard.

Mud was smeared everywhere, and the walls and floor still bore cracks from the blast. They were fine, but one could faintly discern the power of the previous detonation. In truth, Chen Yu himself had not expected that a casually molded lump of mud could reach such a level. Even if this was not what he had intended, judging by the result alone, a second-rate expert caught off guard at close range might well be blown to pieces.

But this was still not what he wanted.

"Incomplete separation? Or something else?"

He had yet to achieve the unity of the four array patterns, but he had already discovered new ones. The frustrating part was that not only could the four not be used together, but even pairing two of them could trigger a violent reaction.

Just now, he had inscribed two extra lines; as he cautiously filled in the final one, they had exploded without a word of warning.