Rebuilding Trials

Just a short week later, the earth trembled as the Phoenix village was lifted into the air.

It slowly rose to the same level as the one where Xiao Clan was on.

Once at this same level, they floated closer to each other. 

When the appropriate distance had been reached, Xiao Long proceeded to build bridges from pure barrier art reinforced with arrays and formations.

The thing with this village was that it's much smaller than Floating Cloud City and Xiao Clan. But it has a lot of free space ready for development.

"Unbelievable Long'er, we only just started to move towards the capital but we already made a clan with Phoenix Blood join us!"

Xiao Li exclaimed to his grandson.

"Yes. Another Hall will be added, the Phoenix Hall. With Elder Feng Baichuan at the head of it."

"...I understand. But will they keep Surname Feng?"

"...Well, I think it's time for an upgrade. We can go from Xiao Clan and become…Floating Cloud Sect?" Xiao Long thought out loud.

"...Possible. Floating Cloud Sect made from Xiao Clan and Feng Clan." Xiao Li hummed to himself as he thought about the perks of Sect. Weirdly enough, Xiao Sect was still a Clan who only had Xiao in it.

Did they want to make themselves feel stronger or did they just one day decide to rename themselves?

Well, Xiao Li thought about asking the Ex-Sect Leader Xiao Juetian one day.

"Good. We can discuss this with them, let's go and see it for ourselves."

The Young Master motioned as Xiao Clan with their elders proceeded to walk over the bridge and towards the village on the other side.

The elders looked down with some fear. As they were quite high and the bridges were not THAT wide.

This only made them want to reach that [Sky Profound] as soon as possible.

Once they were on the other side, Phoenix village elders met the Xiao Clan elders.

Pleasantries were exchanged.

This was where Xiao Long motioned to walk over towards the ruins of Phoenix God Trials.

"I have made a deal with Phoenix God's remnant Soul. I will be turning these ruins into proper trial grounds. I already have a lesser version of it built-in training grounds."

"...And the Phoenix blood?" 

"I will be working on mass-producing them."

"..."

"..."

"..."

There was absolute silence, all the elders were gobsmacked to hear this. They had no idea such a thing was even possible!

"Is this even possible?"

"Yes. With Arrays and Formations will be possible—"

"But?" Xiao Li felt there was a 'but' coming their way.

"The potency of the blood of a God, IT will be hard to reach. In other words, I think we will be able to produce a few drops per year or something like that."

"...That's still an incredible feat, Young Master." Feng Baichuan said from the side.

"The stories Village chiefs tell from one to another, tell that our people would only get one to two drops from Phoenix God each generation before the incident."

Feng Baichuan's words made the Xiao elders baffled. This means that Xiao Long will be able to do even better than the trials!

"I guessed this much. However, as I said it is possible. Besides, only the Feng clan should continue getting Phoenix Blood. For Xiao clan members I will introduce another means to improve our regular bloodline."

"...Is that even possible!? Improve the regular human bloodline!?"

"It is in the way, I will be copying what Phoenix Blood does to simple bloodlines. Watch how it improves the potency and then just repeat it."

"...I see…"

This was above their heads. How does one even start with this!?

"Don't worry, Grandpa, just leave this to me. I will start with lakes and water circulation then switch to working on the trials. In the meantime continue flying towards the capital."

"...Very well."

~~~

While this was happening the rest of the clan were working hard on rending the beasts.

From [Nascent Profound] to [Earth Profound], all the beasts from Ten Thousand Beasts Mountainside have been recovered and proceeded to be rendered for parts. 

Not all cores were given to the Seven Floor Pagoda's array system. However, it now had [Spirit Profound] and even [Earth Profound] beasts.

The Three [Sky Profound] Beast corpses were given to Xiao Long who will make pills out of them.

The rest were given to the Contribution Hall and the pair of alchemists.

Xiao Lingxi and Cang Yue proceeded to use the Profound Core to beef up the Profound energy sensitivity pill and even the vitality pills.

Apart from this Xiao Long instructed how to make layered Cultivation pills.

Starting with [Earth Profound] Ascension pills. They have these in abundance. So, the majority of Deacons and Hall Elders will make that leap from Early to Mid [Spirit Profound] to early to mid [Earth Profound].

This was a leap in cultivation which made the ex-Xiao Sect members only get baffled by how quickly Xiao Clan is progressing.

It doesn't help that they have a live event of the Phoenix Clan advancing in realms in days instead of weeks or months.

After all, Xiao Long gifted them 'Starting packs' and an abundance of pills to catch up.

All in all, everyone was super busy while the two islands were floating to the capital.

~~~~~~Few Days Later~~~~~~

"Alright girls, drop the ice."

The twins nodded as they made a large block of ice lower into an area which will be the drinking water pond.

A formation manifested which proceeded to turn ice into water and start filling the pond up.

Once it was done, the trio proceeded to fill the other three ponds.

"...How did we do, Big brother!?"

"Good girls."

Xiao Long patted the pair on their heads at the same, making sure to pamper them at the same time.

"You two can return to having your fun. I am going to work on the ruins now."

"Okay! We will see big brother in the evening~"

The pair then flew away to continue exploring the new island and talk with the new neighbours. 

While the Young Master went to the Ruins where the Phoenix Spirit used to be.

He started with Earth Profound energy as he started to turn a cave into a proper tunnel which expands and then goes down. 

The excess dirt will be stored outside for future use. He has quite a bit of it already. Maybe he could make it into a mountain similar to how it was with the original floating island?

Well, thoughts for later. For now, he proceeded to lay arrays in a similar style to his Seven Floor Pagoda.

He quickly reworked the whole interior of the ruins. From a simple cave, it expanded into a large underground cavern. 

This was where he was thinking of starting working on arrays which mess with perception, he has a general idea of how to do it. How to mess with eyes and hearing, even the feeling of touch.

But, one thing that falls short is Profound Energy and how to trick one.

One could take a pill before entering a trial.

'Could work… for now, let's start with a basic trial first.'

So he started with the basics after finishing the pagoda-style manifestation of Profound Beasts.

He is going to follow the same style of trial as it was with Phoenix's original trial. A powerful fire beast first round, fire arrows in the second one and lastly a hallucination.

The first one was quite easy. He already had a Profound Beast Manifestation array. So, spawning one enemy is not hard, the second is arrows.

This one is not hard either. Just make arrays that attack in the form of arrows. 

But the last one…

He started to think about this subject.

That moment he remembered that his Transcended Focus allows him to see souls…

So, manipulation at the soul level?

'Something to research on…'

As he thought about it, he activated arrays and a lava monster started to rise in front of him.

It was at [First of Emperor Profound].

For a stronger one, he needs to improve a few things but it was working.

He quickly disposed of it with his ice. Then he switched to arrows.

Which was an improvement over the original Phoenix. The arrows were shooting at him from multiple directions.

As multiple barrier walls manifested to tank the arrows, they only lasted for a few seconds as then they passed through and slammed into him.

"Felt this one."

With a small grunt, he pulled out three arrows from his body. The wounds healed a few seconds later.

"Not bad. The basics are done. Now, I need to work on a few other things."

One of those is to store power for the arrays.

However…

How?

He then proceeded to think about what his floating islands have.

The wind is one of those.

But…

'Oh yeah… water… hydropower?'

His eyes widened as he got this slick idea!

He swiftly pulled out an empty scroll and on it he started to draw one array leading another. Eventually, he got something insane if this works!

'Mass production of Purple Veined Heaven crystals!?'

'If I can compress this further, I could produce Divine Crystals and if this is possible I would have unlimited wealth and unlimited resources for cultivation, powering arrays and formations…'

With a new wave of excitement, he rushed out from the cavern and flew back to Xiao Island. He flew to the back of the mountain where a small stream was running from the mountain into one of the water ponds. 

He proceeded to work on the stream and turned it into a small dam.

Then he proceeded to carve runes on the walls of the dam and create arrays where the water would be rushing out.

One array will capture the moving 'force' or more precisely, absorb the force behind the movement. Theoretically slowing down how fast it should be falling. 

However, it should regain some of the falling speed by the time it lands in the pond.

If this truly works, then he could have several of these arrays if he makes it big enough of a waterfall.

After the first array is done, the next one is the transformation array. Where regular energy becomes Profound energy. 

This one took him a while to make. Even then the ratio was 3 to 1. Regardless. He can come up with some sort of solution later on.

'Use Water Profound Energy instead of regular one? Could that improve the amount I need?'

Thinking on this for a bit, he returned to adding a third array which is a compressor array. Compressing the Profound energy until it can form a crystal.

So there it was. The first array is right where the water leaves the dam and falls into the pond. The second one is just next to the array in the form of a cube-like box, where the transformation is happening and lastly, the final array is on the ground where the compression takes place.

After the prototype was done, he proceeded to open the small dam and watch with bated breath.

The process did work… but…

'I see…I see…'

'Let's rework a few things.'

Xiao Long walked over and started to add more arrays. He used Earth Profound Energy to improve the compression.

Once the improvements were done he could sense that indeed the amount of Profound energy generated is not bad. 

With bigger waterfalls, he could technically build something like a cultivation tower, where a very heavy amount of Profound energy is gathered. 

So many ideas…not enough waterfalls…

After waiting for half a day the young Master inspected the compression array.

His eyes widened as he saw a small piece of purple crystal in the middle of the array.

"Hell yeah!"

After seeing this he swiftly left the site and went to find his grandfather.

~~~~~~Xiao Li~~~~~~

The old man sighed as he felt his cultivation surge. He finally did it! [Sky Profound]!

He was the first person from Xiao Clan to reach this realm right after his grandson.

But he is not counting him, it's just not fair how quickly he is cultivating!

Regardless as he got up from his cultivation mattress and was about to start floating, his grandson blasted into the room!

"...Long'er?"

"Grandpa! Quick! I have something to show!"

Xiao Long proceeded to motion him to follow. The Clan Leader followed him as they quickly left the pavilion.

"Why such haste?" 

"...I found a way to make Purple Veined Heavenly Crystals."

"!!!"

"Show me!"

Before Xiao Long could say something, he noticed his grandfather can fly now!

"Congratulations Grandpa! You could say what I will show you is just another gift on top of it."

As he said that he started to float as well. He then led him to the location of his experiment.

When they arrived at the place, Xiao Long showed him the compression array.

In the middle of it was a small piece of purple crystal, barely visible.

"...How does this work?"

Xiao Li was more interested in what he was seeing. What's with the arrays in this place?

"I am using the falling water to produce energy. It gets absorbed and then transformed into Profound energy, lastly, it gets compressed into Purple Veined Heavenly Crystal."

His grandfather slowly nodded. He started to understand what this meant.

"...I guess you want a bigger waterfall?"

"Correct! I will be turning one side of this mountain into a waterfall. We will use that waterfall to create a cultivation tower."

"I see…this means we will get another floating island?"

"Indeed, I will be making another waterfall on Feng Island."

"Good. For now, let's keep this to ourselves. We don't want everyone to get excited before it's even done."

Xiao Long slowly nodded as he looked at the mini model of what he was doing.

He decided to keep this under an array. He wants to see how big of a crystal he can make.

"Very well. Send some of the [Sky Profound] enforcers to look for waterfalls in the meantime."

"Alright."

After the pair separated, Xiao Li could only shake his head from giddiness and amusement. His grandson is keeping on moving forward and making more ways to improve cultivation.

The whole clan can't even keep up!

~~~

Xia Qingyue looked at her husband who was looking at her without blinking.

"...What is it?"

"Nothing. I am just training my focus. I have been struggling with the last trial of the new Phoenix Trials."

The beauty could only frown. She started to dislike anything related to Phoenix.

First is that because of the Phoenix Empire, he is going to have a second wife. Now they have the whole village with Phoenix blood and that annoying little girl.

Well, mostly that little girl who became obsessed to become Xiao Long's wife! It's just maddening to her.

Mostly or weirdly how she is threatened by a child which is making her embarrassed of herself!

"...The same one where you saw me trying to kill you?" She asked softly as the beauty ended up getting close to him and gently stroking his cheek.

"The very same. I can make partial illusions and things like that but I can't trick Profound energy."

"...Hmm… so you have something else in mind?"

"Projection of a soul."

"...?"

"...You can do something like that!?"

"I have all of the tools needed to do that. Only one is missing and that is the soul manipulation."

"...I-I see… I think…you are rushing too fast. Just relax and let me take care of you."

As the beauty said that she ended up having him on her lap using her thighs as a pillow while feeding him with fruits. 

This was one of their usual afternoons…

Though Xiao Long continued to use the Transcended focus on himself as he tried to use Profound energy to manipulate the soul in some fashion.

He then remembered the only single he can think of who can influence the soul!

'Chi Wuyao… she is Devil Queen…it is said that she got Creation God level being Legacy…a Legacy which allowed soul manipulation and control.'

'This means…Yin Profound Energy…'

Just like that, he proceeded to focus on Yin Profound energy and started to look for ways to pick it up…

While this was happening Xia Qingyue noticed that something was off about her husband. 

"Husband?"

That moment she saw a ghost-like image of him appearing next to him!

"Hehe! It worked!"

"!?"

The black-haired girl freaked out for a second!

"Don't worry this is just a projection. It appears it did work."

Hearing his ghost-like voice made her take a deep breath and calm down.

"You should not terrify me like that." The beauty pouted at him.

"Sorry…"

After saying that, he dismissed his projection and opened his eyes and looked at her from below.

He then swiftly changed the way he sat, and pulled her into his lap before starting to hug.

"How about I help you to reach [Sky Profound]?"

She looked interested for a moment but then she crossed her arms.

"...No. I want another week of just us being together!" She said with inflated cheeks.

This was…the same. Only, he will instead be with her the whole time.

So she wants two things from him at once.

'Smart…as expected from my wife.'

"...Fine… then we can spend some more time in Xia Manor."

This was when she smiled at him and pulled him into another hug.

"...Yes…you will help your Yue'er reach that [Sky Profound] won't you?" Xia Qingyue said, as she hugged him closer and made sure her face was close.

"Indeed, but now return to your original duties. My dearest wife."

Once again she pouted. Her seductions started to fail.

'It's all thanks to how many women he has around himself!' She snorted internally to herself.

"As my husband commands~"

The beauty returned to feed him fruits while Xiao Long thought about how he should implement the Soul projection into the Trial array system.

'Hmm…maybe project the soul and give a temporary body…this way I could mess with the trial taker and finally cast true illusions?'

With new ideas in mind, he was ready to improve the trials!

~~~

For advanced chapters my pat : pat reon.com/DragonsFics

OR

Discord: discord.gg/denoffanfics

P.S: For those who don't like navigating Discord I will be moving my Discord exclusive stories to Patreon