Chapter 389: Celestial Stems and Branches

Cao Yun and Hongyu were both exhausted. But as Hongyu was resting after gulping down a few pills given to her by Cao Yun, the young man was walking all over the place. The Five Bloods Pheasant's nest had already been barren, but now it was a scene of pure desolation. Indeed, many pieces of wood and burnt plants had flown all over the place. There were all ashes from small animals and demonic beasts as well as parts of corpses that had resisted. Among them were the parts of the Five Bloods Pheasant himself. Although his cores had exploded, Cao Yun was able to find a few fragments in the carnage.

Most of them were in terrible condition. Some were still fuming. And yet, Cao Yun worked on getting as much as he could out of the chaos. Every single piece of the demonic beast could help him set up the array formation he had in mind. And while he was doing so, Dian Mo was criticizing his original blueprint for the array formation. At the same time, he was explaining how he had improved upon it. The worst part though was that everything he was saying was making a lot of sense.

Cao Yun could understand his reasoning behind the Eight Trigrams and the Five Transformations. Both were related to Yin and Yang as well as the five elements. They were principles that explained how Wandering Qi was flowing in nature. And the purpose of an array formation was to manipulate the flow of this Wandering Qi to affect the physical world. Unfortunately, Cao Yun's understanding was not as profound as he had initially thought.

With alchemy, he had understood how to make the five elements work together to produce an internal effect. But with this array formation, he wanted the illusion of the Five Bloods Pheasant's vitality to be spread outward. However, his array formation would have had little influence on a wide area and this would have caused the other two 6-core demonic beasts to sense the deception sooner rather than later.

"You see, your problem is that you got too caught up in the Anterior Heaven Trigrams. There are tens of thousands of variant of those trigrams in the way they are ordered to one another. Not each variant is interesting. However, they have very different effects and they react differently to the five elements. The first step should be first to see which order of the eight trigrams is best suited for the place you're working with. That is an improvement of your Bamboo Maps.

"But then, you're not done. You have to understand which ordering is best suited for the effects you want to produce. Only after that can you work to make them align with each other. A great array formation master is able to change the very nature of the place he's working with. It's not unheard of that some master could turn an active volcano into a frozen tundra. Just like cultivation or martial arts, array formations are a way of going against the Heavens.

"Of course, you must understand nature and respect it. But you also have to be able to change it to go with your will. It's just like with a teacher. You listen and you respect your teacher, but you also create your own understanding of his teachings. And with time, you can eve produce your very own school. Right now, you're just like a child in awe of nature. Unless you understand that you can alter it and that you have to respect it, not worship it, then you won't go beyond the Human rank."

Although he was busy sifting through the debris, Cao Yun listened attentively to Dian Mo. Everything he was saying made sense to him. And he was a great array formation master. So Cao Yun would indeed listen to his every word on the subject. Even id he didn't, he would still hear them. Usually, Dian Mo liked to talk, but today it was his favorite subject. There was no way for Cao Yun to make him shut up.

Soon though, the thought occurred to Cao Yun to question him on the principles among the Eight Directions that he had not understood at all. What he was talking about was interesting and it could even help him improve both his alchemy and his martial arts. But he suspected that it was a bit too advanced right now. However, there were some basic stuff he had still trouble with. Maybe shedding some light on those might even help him understand the Azure Dragon constellation in his sea of consciousness.

"While you're in the mood, I wanted to ask your opinion about some things. I fear that my martial arts are being slowed down by my lack of understanding of Sixty Rotations and Twelve Earthly Branches and Ten Heavenly Stems. Both of these principles have to do with the passing of time and its relation to celestial bodies. Since you're so knowledgeable, I thought you might have some idea about those."

"Are you stupid?!"

At first, Cao Yun thought Dian Mo would go back to a rant against Cao Yun's lack of talent. But his mood didn't change. Instead of talking about his "great" array formation, he went directly to the subject that interested Cao Yun.

"Those are very simple principles. It barely took me two centuries to understand those."

Dian Mo spoke as if two centuries to learn those was a short span of time. Of course, for a spirit that was virtually immortal as long as his array formation had enough fuel, this was a short span of time. But for Cao Yun, this was way too long. Who was the idiot here? Anyway, since he wanted to learn, he didn't add any remark and waited for Dian Mo's wisdom.

"First of all, Sixty Rotations is the lesser principle there. If you understand Twelve Earthly Branches and Ten Heavenly Stems, you'll have almost understood everything about Sixty Rotations. I mean, this one is more like a special case of the overall principle. What you need to understand is that all celestial bodies have an influence on everything around them, absolutely all of them. Of course, those influences can be so insignificant that they don't matter. However, if you want to create sturdy array formations, you have to take into account that those celestial bodies move around all the time as well. For example, if your array formation has to endure several millenniums, the very stars in the sky will have changed between the moment you set it up and the moment it would theoretically stop being used.

"In other words, you have to set it up so that it can not only withstand the geological changes around, but also the movement of the celestial bodies. Some masters say that your array formations have to stand even if the earth shatters and the sky ruptures. One of the most difficult points is that those celestial bodies are not always visible. But since they all have some influence on one another, observing the behaviors of those you see can give you hints as to those you cannot see.

"Look at those Azure Dragon stars above your head for example. You only see seven of them, but if you watch carefully, you'll see that they don't exactly move as if there were only seven of them. Yes, the difference is tiny, but if you really pay close attention to them, you'll see that they are all influenced by each other, but also by other stars you simply can't see. Those principles dictate that you have to observe the celestial trajectories of not only the visible stars but also all the invisible ones as well. Imagine that a star is the center of a tree trunk and that the trajectories of the invisible stars around are pulling its branches and its roots in all kinds of directions. Soon, you will realize that all of the cosmos is a giant network of branches always growing.

"Then you will be able not only to envision the movements of the stars, but the movements of entire galaxies. In order to set up array formations that last long enough, you have to find the branches and the stems within the starry sky. The stems are more static and central but it doesn't mean they don't move either. On the other hand, the branches are more dynamic and prompt to break or divide themselves in several directions. But that doesn't mean that there isn't a static element to them either.

"Everything often depends on your viewpoint and on your timetable. Things that are static around your planet for a millennium might become extremely dynamic if you observe your entire region of the galaxy for a million year. But the principles stay the same. They originate from the very first observations of the Three Jade Saints and they kept the names. But if you really understand them, then you'll be able to set up array formations on other worlds, under other stars and even in other realms."

Dian Mo's explanation was very good in fact. As much as Cao Yun had read about the subject, the explanations were always a bit too convoluted. Right now, he was certain that he had understood the gist of it. Now, he simply had to make a bit of research in his memory. But before that, he took some time to observe the stars in the infinite sky above him. As he was still working on his Horn Star, some vague hues had begun to appear. Indeed, he was trying to turn his Horn Star into its very own constellation. But it was true that he had never considered how the stars moved in relation to one another.

Until now, he had mostly considered each one separately. But it was now obvious that this was a mistake. After all, they were all part of the Azure Dragon's body. There was no sense in studying them apart. Although Cao Yun couldn't perform all the moves at the same time, he had already used several of them in coordination with one another. When the constellations were to be formed, they would slowly mingle with each other. After all, the separation between constellations had been invented by the observer. There was no natural distinction between them as they were all part of the Azure Dragon.

With this new outlook on things, Cao Yun was able to see that the stars had indeed tiny variations. Their movement wasn't perfectly cyclic. Or rather, Cao Yun was able to see several cycles that were almost identical but with slight variations. That showed that there was a general movement that was indeed cyclic, but it was mixed in with some other influences, other cycles of varying duration that were thus creating all these variations.

Now that he had made this discovery, he could observe the stars for entire hours to discover new mysteries. And with his ability to speed up his thought processes, he could really save a lot of time like that. Of course, without practicing his actual martial art, he wouldn't progress that much. But he knew that he was on the right track. Not only was he able to understand his martial art better, he would also be able to develop his array formation skills faster as well. Indeed, Dian Mo was useful!

Of course, Cao Yun didn't have the time right now. But while a part of himself was busy with that, he heard someone getting close. He wasn't too worried because he had recognized their Wei Qi and even heard their breathing. They were Zeng Bei's group. Although Cao Yun was still quite weak, he was confident that they wouldn't take advantage of this. However, he had still a lot of poisons at the ready if need be. As much as he despised the use of poisons in a fight, he wouldn't let himself get killed because of that. Thankfully though, they truly were trustworthy.

"Senior Guai, do you need our help?"

"I do. Quickly gather everything you can from the Five Bloods Pheasant. I need them to set up an array formation. If we fail, the Golden Plumed Jackal and the Flame-Tailed Wolf will become threats."

Since they were living in Yunling City, they knew just how dangerous a territory dispute between two 6-core demonic beasts could be. Besides, they had just witnessed how terrifying the Five Bloods Pheasant had been. Immediately, they began to help Cao Yun. Even though they were hunters, they decided not to try to take anything for themselves. Not only were they being generously paid by Huang Si, but they were also loyal to Zeng Bei who was loyal to Huang Si.

Thanks to their help, Cao Yun gathered everything. With each piece of the Five Bloods Pheasant's corpse or demonic cores, Dian Mo was altering his blueprint to adapt the array formation. Finally, he decided that this was it. His array formation was good enough for their purposes. After all, they were just deceiving two demonic beasts who would not come too close to this place. And it wasn't supposed to endure for too long, less than a decade was acceptable. Once the Huang family was well established, they would clearly have ways to deal with those 6-core demonic beasts.

Most likely though, the chaos both within and without the Hongchen Kingdom would become a threat before that. Hopefully, Huang Si would be able to adapt to those circumstances too.

Cao Yun asked the hunters to step aside and he took out his very classical compass. Even though they were not too knowledgeable, they could tell that it wasn't the tool of a great master. After all, Cao Yun wasn't one. He had not even officially become a 1-star Human array formation master. Technically, he clearly had the ability but he had focused on alchemy as it was necessary to get information about the Imperial City. However, he had also realized that array formations could be a tremendous help to improve his martial arts and even his cultivation.

Under Dian Mo's advice, he worked for several hours while the hunters were standing guard around the nest to make sure that no demonic beast got too close. They were simply too terrorized to do so. Even after his death, the shadow of the Five Bloods Pheasant was still present in their hearts.

At last, Cao Yun was done and he put the last piece of a demonic core literally within the trunk of the tree that had harbored the Hellish Dragon Fruit.