Gao Yuan sat cross-legged on the practice couch and let out a long breath.
He raised his hands slightly into palms, and then slowly pressed them down, thereby dissipating the spiritual energy of heaven and earth that had been absorbed by the surroundings under the guidance of his movements.
Opening his eyes, he glanced at the jade dial hanging on the opposite wall.
Seven and a half days have passed since he started to enter samadhi.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but sigh.
Even though his proficiency in "Red Flame True Art" has been upgraded to the master level.
However, the transport speed of Da Zhoutian was much slower than he had expected.
"Even if it is a master-level technique, it actually takes more than seven days to complete the transportation of the Great Zhoutian!"
I sighed in my heart.
He subconsciously looked inwards with his spiritual consciousness, and looked towards the natal pearl floating in his Dantian.
After his proficiency in the "Red Flame True Technique" was raised to the master level, he had already understood the entire Hunyuan Realm cultivation process.
In this grand realm, the essence of Kung Fu practice is actually the process of constantly condensing the 'spiritual orifice' on the surface of the new 'birth pearl'.
The so-called 'divine orifice' is actually a special hole opened up on the 'natal pearl'.
Like Gao Yuan at this time, for a monk who has just entered the Hunyuan realm, his 'natal pearl' is actually a chaotic and mixed sphere.
In order for its internal core to communicate with the external environment, it is mainly through the 'fine essence' energy that escapes from the 'gaps' of the 'birth essence pearl' itself.
Due to the uncertainty of these 'gaps' themselves, this method of energy exchange has the disadvantage of being inefficient.
At the same time, the process of spontaneous dissipation of ‘Jingyuan’ out of control is not conducive to the further condensation of the ‘Original Pearl’ itself.
And on the surface of the 'Original Pearl', developing a 'divine orifice' specially used for the entry and exit of 'Jingyuan' can solve these problems very well.
First, having a specific 'divine orifice' as a portal can greatly improve the efficiency of the interaction between the 'natal pearl' and the external environment.
At the same time, after the 'Jing Yuan' has a more convenient dedicated entrance and exit channel, it will naturally no longer forcefully open a 'temporary gap' on the surface of the 'Original Pearl'.
If things go on like this, it will naturally have a considerable positive impact on the condensation of the ‘Original Pearl’ itself.
Therefore, the cultivation of each level of the Hunyuan realm is actually a process of opening the ‘divine orifice’.
They all need to go through the process of 'locating acupoints', 'retaining spiritual power', and 'penetrating spiritual acupoints' in cycles.
During this period, for every additional 'divine orifice' on top of the 'Original Pearl', the efficiency of its internal core's interaction with the outside world, as well as the upper limit of energy throughput per unit time, will be significantly improved.
Until you reach the ninth level of the Hunyuan Realm, all the nine "divine orifices" above the "Original Pearl" are penetrated.
The various aspects of performance of the ‘Original Pearl’ have also reached their peak.
After practicing the proprietary secret method, these nine 'divine orifices' are connected with each other, each performs its own duties, and forms a more efficient whole, and then it will advance to the perfect state of Hunyuan Realm.
At that time, once the opportunity comes, it is possible to give birth to the ‘innate soul’, and then use this to advance to the ‘spiritual realm’ in one fell swoop!
In my mind, I imagined for a while what I knew about the entire process of Hunyuan Realm cultivation.
Gao Yuan shook his head and turned his attention back to reality.
With the help of his 'spiritual consciousness', he looked at his 'natal life', which had not even a trace of 'divine orifice' revealed under the 'spiritual power' he had formed after being transported by two great heavens.
Yuanzhu', I sighed again.
"The cultivation process of Hunyuan Realm sounds simple, but in fact it is extremely difficult!"
"After all, the penetration of every 'divine orifice' requires the continuous supply of massive amounts of 'spiritual power'."
"At my current speed, even if I don't waste any time on polishing my 'supernatural powers' and 'magic weapons' in the future, if I want to be promoted to the second level of the Hunyuan Realm, it will probably take at least fifteen or six years, right?"
"This is the effect of the "Red Flame True Technique" which is famous for its fast training speed in the early stage, after its proficiency is upgraded to the master level!"
"Those ordinary Hunyuan realm monks who usually try to cultivate by themselves, their skill level is only a proficiency level if they are exhausted!"
"After all, those who can purely rely on themselves to raise their skill level to above the proficiency level are definitely rare beings!"
"When the supply of 'spiritual energy' is insufficient, there are not enough cultivation resources, and my own understanding of the techniques is not very deep."
"To complete the first level of cultivation, it will probably take at least several decades!"
"This has not yet been considered, and the further impact it will have when encountering a training level."
"And if nothing else happens, the training levels in the Hunyuan Realm should be similar to those in the Kaiyuan Realm and Qi Lianjing Realm!"
"In addition to the fixed small levels when breaking through each level, when breaking into the two small realms of the fourth and seventh levels, there is often a large level that is enough to cause a qualitative change!"
"Moreover, as the level of cultivation gradually increases, the difficulty of breaking through these levels will only become more and more difficult!
"For example, some monks who have average qualifications and do not have sufficient training resources, once they encounter a hurdle, it must be normal for them to be stuck for decades or even hundreds of years!"
As his mind turned, Gao Yuan was secretly speechless at the hardships of future cultivation.
At the same time, in his heart, he became more and more urgent about the arrangement of the "Little Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array".
He didn't stand up in a hurry. He patted the storage bag on his waist and took out the Exile mask.
After putting it on, he went straight into the exclusive secret room.
…
After appearing in the exclusive secret room, Gao Yuan saw at a glance the 'transmission notes' floating quietly in mid-air in the secret room.
After he appeared, the latter spontaneously gathered around him.
Seeing this, his heart moved, and his skilled hands pointed out one after another, one by one, opening the 'transmitting symbols' wrapped in various colored light groups.
Following his movements, soft female voices emerged in his mind.
As expected, these 'telephones' were all the various materials collection tasks he had previously issued. After they were collected and the transaction was completed, the alliance official sent a reply letter to deduct the spiritual stone in his name.
After digesting all the sound transmission in the ‘transmission notes’ in your mind.
Gao Yuan checked the names one by one in his mind, and quickly sorted out the various materials collected by the Exile Alliance during his time of meditation, and then he had a clear concept.
"It's not bad. With the addition of the materials collected before entering meditation, the materials for refining the thirty-six formation flags are finally gathered together, and there is even a slight surplus!"
"Currently, we only have the materials needed to refine the first-level formation disk, but two key things are missing."
"As long as I collect the remaining two materials, I can start refining them and refine all the array plates, formation flags and other 'array equipment' for the first-level "Yin Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array"!"
"At that time, as long as I deduce the orientation based on the formation diagram, I will soon be able to lay out the most basic version of this formation in the underground stronghold!"
After whispering a few words softly, Gao Yuan's mind immediately recalled part of the array content of "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array".
As a third-level mid-level gain array, the "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array", in addition to the main function of "gathering spirits", also has many common functions such as concealment, transformation, and evil-proofing.
At the same time, this formation is also very flexible and changeable in terms of layout.
Users can make many flexible adjustments based on specific differences in the actual environment and local conditions.
The most important point is that the organizer can adjust the scale and power of the formation by adjusting the refining materials and quantities of the formation flags and formation disks.
What Gao Yuan plans to deploy now is the most basic 'level one version' of this formation.
According to the description of the corresponding formation diagram, this set of third-level mid-level first-level formations only needs to prepare thirty-six dedicated formation flags and match the corresponding first-level formation plates to successfully deploy this set of formations.
.
Excluding the cost of purchasing the array, the layout cost of this simplified version of the array is actually not high compared with the specific power that will be displayed later.
Even if all the refining materials for the array flag and array plate, as well as the elixir consumption when refining these materials, are added up, there are only 1.5 million intermediate spiritual stones.
By then, the coverage area of this formation will be approximately three acres.
At the same time, it can also show the effect of increasing the density of 'spiritual energy' within a certain range according to specific conditions such as the surrounding environment!
During the operation of this formation, the consumption of resources was within Gao Yuan's tolerance.
Even if it runs continuously for a year, it will only consume forty advanced spiritual stones.
With his current inventory of more than 1,500 high-level spiritual stones, even if he doesn't go to the exclusive trading area to find someone to exchange them.
It is enough to easily support this formation and run it continuously for thirty or forty years.
"I just don't know how much help this formation will provide to my cultivation speed after it is deployed!"
"However, this formation is only used for temporary emergencies after all."
"Since I still have plenty of spiritual stones in my hands for the time being, it would be better to get it right in one step and get the full-power version of this formation as soon as possible!"
Standing there and pondering for a moment, Gao Yuan muttered a few words to himself in a low voice, and at the same time began to roughly estimate the specific costs required to deploy the full-power version of the formation.
The full-power version he mentioned is also the complete version of the "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array".
If you want to deploy this version of the formation, the number of formation flags needed to set up the formation will be increased to 360 in one fell swoop.
At the same time, the specific material formula for refining the array flag and the requirements for controlling the array disk will be much higher than those of the first-level version.
In this case, the power of this formation will be greatly improved on this basis.
According to the description of the array diagram, the coverage area of the array alone will reach more than a hundred acres, and its ability to absorb the "spiritual energy of heaven and earth" will naturally increase accordingly.
"It's just the cost..."
"Hiss! My remaining net worth of more than 50 million intermediate spiritual stones seems to be a little bit not enough!"
"No matter what, the collection of formation materials cannot be solved in a day or two!"
"What's more, some of the materials may have to go through the alliance auction before they can be purchased!"
"No matter what, let's collect the preliminary materials first and do what we can do first!"
After muttering a few words to himself, Gao Yuan strolled to the 'Developing Jade Bi'.
He called up various materials collection tasks that he had previously posted.
After slightly adjusting the content and increasing the quantity, they published it again in the task area.
At the same time, he found the task of collecting the two materials that were currently lacking in refining the first-level formation disk.
On the basis of the original purchase price of 20,000 intermediate spiritual stones, an additional 10,000 intermediate spiritual stones were added and then listed.
After doing all this, he habitually browsed the major sections of the Exile Alliance for a while.
Then he left the exclusive secret room without further delay.
…
In the weapon refining workshop.
Gao Yuan was sitting on a high-backed stone chair, holding a jade slip in his hand that recorded the formation diagram of "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array".
While he was studying the method of refining the formation flag recorded in it, he was comparing it with the memory in his mind to check whether there were any gaps.
A moment later, Gao Yuan, who was sitting quietly, suddenly reached out and pointed at the 'crucible platform' not far away from him that had been specially forged for weapon refining.
Following his movements, the 'Spirit Fusion True Flame', which had already been promoted to the second-level advanced spell through systematic 'deduction', suddenly appeared in the center of the 'Crucible Platform'.
As the flames surged and leaped, bursts of blazing heat expanded, mixed with blue light, and spread wantonly towards the surrounding space.
And because the casting medium is mixed with some 'spiritual energy'.
In addition, "Red Flame True Art" is a fire-attribute skill, and it has a certain bonus effect on the power of fire-attribute spells.
Under the superposition of the two phases, the power of the 'Spirit Melting True Flame' this time after it is displayed is more than several times higher than when Gao Yuan used it in the Kaiyuan Realm.
But thanks to the 'Spirit Fusion True Flame' and the 'Red Flame True Technique', the proficiency of both has reached the master level.
Therefore, Gao Yuan did not feel any extra operating pressure when performing specific controls and was still able to do so with ease.
He looked at the blue flames that were tumbling not far away, and secretly felt the consumption of 'spiritual power' in his body.
He also mentally compared the consumption rate of the 'spiritual power' in his body with the estimated refining time of the weapon embryo based on his understanding of the formation flag refining method.
"Fortunately, although the 'spiritual true flame' activated by 'spiritual power' consumes a lot of 'spiritual power', there is still no big problem in refining a piece of artifact alone."
"At most, you need to stop every once in a while, meditate and exercise to restore your 'spiritual power'!"
As the mind turns, Gaoyuan no longer delays.
I saw him distractedly maintaining the stable output of the 'Spirit Fusion True Flame', while casually pointing at the materials neatly placed on the surface of the stone platform next to him.
Following his movements, several pieces of ore of different shapes flew up lightly as if guided.
Under the guidance of his thoughts, each of them flew stably and orderly to the top of the 'Crucible Platform'.
Then it was quickly enveloped by the rising 'spiritual true flame'.
It didn't take long for these various ore materials to gradually begin to dissolve under the continuous calcination of the 'Spirit Fusion True Flame'.
Wisps of impurity black smoke also curled up from time to time, floating in the surrounding void.
Gao Yuan, on the other hand, was sitting on a high-backed stone chair with an expressionless expression. He held the magic formula in his hands and tapped it gently from time to time.
Controlling the 'Spirit Fusion True Flame' with ease, it operates stably according to the established scale.
…
Time flies.
Seven months passed by in a flash.
In the underground stronghold, Gao Yuan stood in front of the finished product table of the weapon refining workshop.
He quietly looked at the poles neatly stacked on the stone platform in front of him. The surface of the poles had even lines, like a unified formation flag, and a look of satisfaction flashed across his face.
"It's okay, although there is a big difference between the third-level weapon embryos and the second-level weapon embryos I refined before."
"However, the various experiences accumulated through long-term refining in the past still have many things in common."
"Except for the few pieces that were warmed up at the beginning, all the subsequent embryos have reached the 'superior' quality without any surprise."
"In this way, the power of the formations deployed using the 'formation flags' refined from these top-quality weapon embryos will surely be improved to a higher level based on the original ones!"
"It's not in vain that I spent more than seven months refining these 'formations'!"
Recalling the bumpy refining experience in the past half year or so, Gao Yuan couldn't help but mutter a few words to himself with emotion.
The reason why it took him so long to refine the most basic version of the "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array" and the corresponding 'array equipment'.
The main reason is still the lack of 'spiritual energy' around the underground stronghold.
This means that every time he refines a piece of equipment embryo, he needs to spend a lot of time running the exercises to restore his 'spiritual power'.
After all, the level of 'Spirit Fusion True Flame' is currently only the second level of advanced level.
If it were not driven by 'spiritual power', a relatively advanced spell-casting medium, the latter would really be somewhat powerless when faced with the ore materials used to refine third-level weapon embryos.
It is precisely because of this that the progress of refining these 'array tools' was delayed again and again beyond the time he expected, stretching for more than two hundred days.
In the past half a year or so, at least two-thirds of the time was spent meditating to restore his 'spiritual power'!
"Fortunately, this life of extreme embarrassment due to lack of 'spiritual energy' has finally come to an end!"
Gao Yuan sighed softly and stopped delaying.
He stretched out his hand and put all the array flags stacked on the stone platform in front of him into the storage bag on his waist.
Then he walked straight towards the position of the formation that he had already calculated based on the formation map.
And these refined formation flags were placed in place one by one according to the formation techniques that had been used to practice with defective formation flags. With the help of system analysis, the proficiency has been upgraded to the 'Grandmaster level'.
After all preparations were completed, he strolled to the atrium of the underground stronghold.
He took out the two-foot-sized array plate with enough advanced spiritual stones already placed inside it, and gently placed it in the predetermined position.
Then Gao Yuan exhaled softly, holding the magic formula that he had practiced countless times with both hands, and pointed it at the formation plate not far away.
"Buzz~!"
Following a long and majestic roar, bright streams of light like water waves suddenly surged out of the fine lines imprinted on the surface of the array disk.
At the same time, a burst of exciting void vibrations occurred out of thin air around the formation disk.
The latter carried a rumbling echo, stirring up a mysterious rhythm and spreading in all directions.
For a moment, it seemed like a response.
Just listen to the position where he had placed the formation flag before, and there were similar roars and fluctuations coming one after another.
These fluctuations with mysterious rhythms are intertwined with each other like echoes.
There is no sign of mutual interference and cancellation at all. On the contrary, after blending with each other, there is a tendency of superimposing each other.
In the end, it turned into a thunderous roar that shook the earth, and then quietly returned to peace, just like moisturizing things silently.
During this process, Gao Yuan stood silently in the atrium of the underground stronghold, quietly feeling the astonishing movements caused by the activation of the formation.
It wasn't until the latter's momentum reached its peak that it gradually subsided and eventually became invisible.
At the same time, in the surrounding void, there is also a different kind of aura unconsciously, which is slowly growing and becoming more and more dense.
Through the spiritual consciousness released outside, Gao Yuan naturally discovered this abnormality for the first time.
After a moment of concentration, a smile appeared on his face.
Because this strange aura whose concentration is slowly increasing is the 'spiritual energy' that he has always wanted to see through!
…
Four days later.
In the rest room, Gao Yuan's eyes were slightly closed, he sat cross-legged on the practice couch, and slowly finished the exercise by pressing down with his hands.
After a moment, he opened his eyes, and then subconsciously looked at the jade dial hanging on the wall opposite.
"Has it been four days? As expected!"
An inexplicable look flashed across his face, and he whispered to himself.
The most basic version of "Xiao Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Spirit Gathering Array", after the layout is completed, the 'spiritual energy' within its coverage can be gathered together through the operation of the array.
As a result, in the lounge, which is one of the formation eyes, the concentration of 'spiritual energy' has almost doubled compared to before.
Affected by this, Gao Yuan's speed of condensing 'spiritual power' with the help of his skills also increased by about double!
"However, I feel that this speed is far from reaching the operating limit of the master-level "Red Flame True Art"!"
Recalling the cultivation process of the past few days, he said softly with some unfinished thoughts.
"If the density of 'spiritual energy' can continue to increase on this basis, then the speed at which I can condense 'spiritual power' can also increase again!"
"It's just that unless we find a suitable 'Land of Spiritual Veins', or a more advanced version of this 'Spirit Gathering Array' is deployed."
"Otherwise, it will be difficult to continue to increase the concentration of 'spiritual energy' around you in a short period of time."
Thinking of this, he whispered a few words helplessly to himself.
In the past half year or so, he has released many methods to increase the density of 'spiritual energy' in the area.
This question is not a big secret. Once his mission was posted, it didn't take long for him to receive replies one after another.
Its content is nothing more than two points, one of which is what he is using now.
That is to use formations to expand the area where the 'spiritual energy' is absorbed, thereby forcibly constructing a 'spiritual energy depression' within a given range.
This causes the 'spiritual energy' in the surrounding area to concentrate here, which in turn increases the 'spiritual energy density' of this area.
Secondly, it is to look for the so-called ‘land of spiritual veins’.
It is said that above this world, there is a special area, and underground in this special area, there is a magical existence called "spiritual vein".
The latter will periodically 'erupt' huge amounts of spiritual energy to the outside world, making the density of 'spiritual energy' within the influence of the 'spiritual vein' much higher than in other places.
It’s just that this so-called ‘land of spiritual veins’ is actually extremely rare.
In addition to the distribution of 'spiritual veins' underground in the core areas of each main city in the four regions, there is only hope of finding them outside the boundaries of the four regions, in those dangerous no-man's lands.
"Tsk, there's no need to think about this 'land of spiritual veins'."
"With my current half-baked Hunyuan realm strength, the risk of rashly venturing into the no-man's land outside the Four Realms is too great. A third-level monster that pops up at random would be enough for me to drink."
"As for those main cities, no matter how big the 'land of spiritual veins' is, they must have been divided up by the city lord's mansion and the Hunyuan realm families entrenched in the inner city early!"
"As an outsider, if I show up rashly, it would be easy if I wasn't surrounded by others!"
"Forget it, just take it slow. After all, I still have hundreds of years to live. It's not a bad thing to settle down for a while!"
"What's more, with this basic version of the Spirit Gathering Array, it's already much better than when there was nothing before."
"For now, let's collect all the materials needed for the subsequent version of the formation."
"It's not too late to wait until you enter the Gray Desert and complete the mission of 'Hunting the Strange Demon' before considering increasing the 'Aura Density'!"
Sitting cross-legged on the soft bed of cultivation, Gao Yuan softly planned the follow-up plan.
After a while, he took out the Exile mask and went straight into the exclusive secret room.
…
"It's the 'Dragon Jade Tablet' again?"
"In recent times, more and more people have issued tasks to collect this 'Dragon Jade Tablet'!"
After taking a quick look around the alliance mission area, Gao Yuan muttered in surprise.
In fact, the collection mission for this 'Dragon Pattern Jade Tablet' has appeared in the alliance mission area for almost more than a year.
It's just that similar collection tasks are very common in the alliance task area, and the frequency of such tasks was not high at first.
In addition, Gao Yuan was basically busy last year, preparing to break into the Hunyuan realm.
After he entered the Hunyuan Realm, he was busy arranging the "Little Sumeru Yin-Yang Five Elements Formation" all day long because of his 'spiritual energy' problem.
Therefore, although he had seen several solicitation tasks for the 'Dragon Pattern Jade Tablet' last year, he did not pay too much attention to it.
Until the past few months, because he wanted to collect materials for refining the 'array', he often entered the exclusive space to check the acquisition results.
At this point, he gradually noticed that the frequency of solicitation tasks related to the 'Dragon Pattern Jade Tablet' was significantly increasing.
But his attention only stopped there. No matter what the other party was involved in, he had no time to take care of it now.
He is now focused on improving his strength quickly so that he can go to the depths of the Gray Desert and complete the task of "hunting a strange demon" as quickly as possible.