In another room within the House of Paradise, Lin Qingcheng walked around and examined the brand-new inscription array that had been arranged on the floor. It consisted of ancient characters carved into wood, squiggly markings made from gold paint, and pieces of red spiritual crystals placed in specific locations to serve as nodes and conduits.
After stepping through the whole thing, she couldn’t understand a single bit of it. Instead, her head hurt and her vision turned blurry. She rubbed her face and turned towards Zhou Ziyun for help.
"Sis, how did you co up with all of this?"
Zhou Ziyun smiled smugly, "I’ve been doing so reading in my spare ti."
"How do you have any spare ti?" Lin Qingcheng asked.
Zhou Ziyun rolled her eyes, "I don’t. But I try my best. Anyway, master got so good books from the tropolis on inscriptions and rune arrays. Quite expensive but he said he was able to use so connections to get them. Usually, these things are tightly kept secrets in immortal sects or clans with long legacies."
She pointed to the ancient characters. "These will pull spiritual energy from the spiritual crystals."
They were blocky in shape and complex, with elents not seen in modern written characters. This complexity imbued the characters with spiritual power and the ability to control spiritual energy.
She pointed to another set of ancient characters that were distinctly different, "These will collect spiritual energy and direct it toward the center."
Her fingers traced the paths, hovering over the golden paint, "These are runic script from the so-called Alama Style. It is the orthodox script for guiding spiritual energy within inscription array."
The script was a chain of weird brush strokes between two parallel lines. In between were countless slashes, curls, and dots. It was completely illegible to ordinary cultivators. It was said that an ancient human civilization used this instead of square characters for their writing.
In this aspect, Zhou Ziyun showed off her amazing mind as well as her work ethic. Chen Wentian had not asked her to study inscriptions and array formations. He figured there would be enough ti for that in the future if she ever stepped onto the immortal path. However, she was interested in the subject and found the ti out of her busy schedule to explore it on her own.
"Wow... sis, you’re so amazing!"
Zhou Ziyun smiled, "I’m still learning. Helping you also helps put the stuff I read about into practice. It also gives an excuse to spend more of master’s money."
The two shared a knowing look and laughed.
"Alright, everyone, you can co in now." Lin Qingcheng called out.
A group of won ca in and filled the room. They numbered no more than thirty. From their auras, each one of them was in the Spirit Initiate Realm. As such, most of them were not young and so of them were middle-aged already. Their rankings within the House of Paradise were all very high, at the rank of core disciple, just below the nine directors.
"Madam, Miss Zhou," They all bowed in respect.
Zhou Ziyun studied them for a few monts. These were core mbers of the house so there were no worries about trusting them with so secrets. All of them had taken spiritual oaths and Chen Wentian had investigated their backgrounds. There were no problems.
"Let’s get started. Chengcheng, you’ll be the center."
"Okay."
Lin Qingcheng sat down cross-legged in the middle of the array, on a small cushion.
"Bai Lu, you’ll sit here." Zhou Ziyun directed.
The woman nad Bai Lu sat in a spot next to Lin Qingcheng, facing her madam. Bai Lu was the strongest mber of the House of Paradise and was at the 7th Level of the Spirit Initiate Realm. She used to operate her own brothel in Divine Blazing Province, a testant to her strength and ability. She was also a candidate for the vacant tenth director position.
"Li Songchen, here."
A beauty in white sat down on the other side of Lin Qingcheng from Bai Lu, also facing Lin Qingcheng. Li Songchen was a strange case. She was already at the 5th Level of the Spirit Initiate Realm even though she was only thirty-two. She could be considered a decent disciple in an immortal sect but she had achieved all of it on her own. In fact, she had achieved this while working as a prostitute all her life. She was extrely popular with the custors and her na was widely known throughout the city.
"Zhang Yue... Wu Shishan..."
Two more won took their spots, forming a square around Lin Qingcheng. These two were also quite strong and talented. One was at the fifth level while the other was at the fourth level. The four together would serve as the anchor for the array if Lin Qingcheng was ever absent.
Zhou Ziyun continued after the four, placing each woman around the array. With them taking their seats, the pattern of the array beca more apparent. It was one with concentric circles, one of the more simple and straightforward designs.
At the center was Lin Qingcheng. The first circle was made of Bai Lu, Li Songchen, Zhang Yue, and Wu Shishan. The next circle had eight people while the third and final circle contained sixteen people. Each person faced inward toward Lin Qingcheng with a clear line of sight. The entire array was designed with Lin Qingcheng as the focal point.
"Everyone," Lin Qingcheng spoke, "You all have sworn oaths to and the House of Paradise. You understand your responsibilities. For , I appreciate each one of you for your assistance today with this new experint. You are core disciples of the House of Paradise. I can only rely on you."
"Yes, madam."
"Good, let us activate the array so that each one of you can get used to its effects. Sis, go ahead." Lin Qingcheng nodded to Zhou Ziyun.
Zhou Ziyun pressed her hand on the edge of the array, on top of one of the controlling formations. Imdiately, the pathways opened and the spiritual crystals began emitting their stored energy. The won reacted with cries of amazent.
"Stay calm," She instructed, "This is a basic function of the array, to provide each one of you with spiritual energy. It is not much different from an individual cultivation array. Use it as such, take a little while to ditate. Then, we’ll proceed."
"Yes."
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