Chapter 208: A Stroke of Genius, an Epiphany Opens

Xing knew how to mask the Great Luo Tracking Art, and as its caster, Master Chi Lian surely also knew the conditions under which it would fail. With his Spirit Tree Realm strength, to check all the possible locations one by one would not be difficult.

Qin Haoxuan frowned. “But there’s nothing I can do now. The moment I step out of this army camp, with his strength, he will surely sense my aura immediately. No matter how far I run, he will catch up.”

Xing also had a bit of a headache. In front of a Spirit Tree Realm expert, no matter how heaven-defying Qin Haoxuan was, and no matter how dazzling a genius he himself was in the Netherworld, all they could do for now was flee in disarray. The two of them were simply not on the same level.

Qin Haoxuan rubbed his head, which was beginning to ache. Ever since he had learned that Master Chi Lian might be checking locations one by one to find him, he had kept the Thousand-Mile Talisman in the most convenient spot, ready to escape at a moment’s notice.

He stared at the talisman for a moment, and then suddenly thought of The Great Art of Talismans. With his deliberate practice during this period, he felt that his spiritual sense had improved somewhat. And thanks to the second half of the Introduction to Spiritual Sense, he had become quite proficient in its application.

He had only broken the first restriction on The Great Art of Talismans. He wondered if he could break the second one now. The talismans from the first layer were already so powerful; if not for the difficulty in gathering the materials, he would have been much better off. He wondered if, after breaking the second restriction, there would be a talisman that was suitable for him and easy to refine.

With this thought, he immediately took out the jade slip and sent a trace of his spiritual sense into it. Passing through the first layer, his consciousness quickly came into contact with the barrier of the second restriction.

The second restriction was far more complex than the first. The moment his spiritual sense touched its barrier, countless golden inscriptions immediately floated up, blocking him from entering.

Being denied entry was normal, and Qin Haoxuan was not discouraged. He said to Xing, “I want to break the second restriction of The Great Art of Talismans and see if there’s a suitable talisman for me.”

Xing, who had been wanting to focus on cultivating the Dragon Demon Golden Body, nodded. “The talismans in the first layer were already so monstrous. If you can break the second restriction, there might be even more monstrous ones. But I estimate the requirement for one’s spiritual sense will be very high.”

Qin Haoxuan didn’t waste any words. He sent his spiritual sense in, memorized the appearance and arrangement of the inscriptions, and then began to copy them. The last time, he had copied one-tenth, and Xing had completed the other nine-tenths. But this time, he had to copy a full one-third of the diagram before Xing finally recognized it and took over to complete the rest. Seeing that he could not only recognize it but also draw it from memory, Qin Haoxuan was once again astonished by his powerful memory and vast knowledge.

After completing the diagram, Xing squatted on the ground and contemplated it for a long time. He then picked up a brush and, after a full three hours, had drawn out a series of Spiritual Imprint Arrays on the back of a military map, arranging them into a strange shape. “Follow this pattern,” he said. “First, use your spiritual sense to create the array and see if you can do it properly.”

Qin Haoxuan studied the diagram carefully, then closed his eyes and began to replicate it in his sea of consciousness. With the experience of the first time, he was able to condense the small Spiritual Imprint Arrays quickly. But to arrange them according to the pattern Xing had drawn was extremely difficult, no less so than copying the inscriptions of the restriction itself. No matter how long he stared at the diagram, the moment he began to replicate it in his mind, the originally clear pattern would gradually blur. At first, he couldn’t even copy one percent before he forgot it. He worked from morning until late at night, looking once and copying once, repeating the process thousands of times, and only managed to memorize one-tenth of it.

Seeing the beads of sweat on his forehead, Xing asked while he was resting, “How much have you copied?”

“One-tenth,” Qin Haoxuan replied with a wry smile.

After resting for a little while, he immediately started again. This time, Xing rarely did not mock him. Seeing him so focused, his clothes soaked with sweat, his hair dripping, he was incredibly shocked. In cultivation, great achievements belonged to two types of people: those with peerless talent, and those with a will as firm as a rock. Xing now understood that Qin Haoxuan possessed the potential of the latter.

This time, his efforts lasted until noon the next day. By now, his face was deathly pale, his lips were colorless, and his eyes were sunken, with bloodshot whites. He looked worse than a critically ill patient who had just recovered. Xing knew this was due to the overexertion of his spiritual sense.

“How much now?” he asked.

Qin Haoxuan’s lips moved, and he uttered two words: “Two-tenths.”

Xing nodded and said no more. This progress was within his expectations. Although his Dao Heart and perseverance were admirable, this kind of thing also required comprehension. A moment of enlightenment was better than ten years of hard study, and in that, no one could help him.

After resting for a little while, just as Qin Haoxuan was about to continue, Xing spoke. “Comprehend. Comprehend. You must comprehend more.”

Qin Haoxuan was stunned. He glanced at the usually frivolous Xing, instantly understood his meaning, and nodded in acknowledgment. His gaze returned to the massive diagram. With Xing’s reminder, he did not foolishly dive in again. He scanned the pattern he had looked at countless times, this time much more slowly.

After looking, he closed his eyes again and began to demonstrate it in his sea of consciousness. The first two-tenths, which he had practiced nearly a hundred thousand times, were deeply ingrained in his mind and became instinct. But after that, his progress slowed considerably. A faint glimmer of inspiration flashed in his mind, but he couldn’t grasp it, and with his divided attention, the pattern he had just arranged collapsed.

He did not give up and looked at the diagram again. He began to wonder if Xing’s abstract drawing was the problem. But just as he was about to ask, he saw that Xing was deep in his own cultivation of the Dragon Demon Golden Body, and would not be waking up for some time. This creature, although unreliable, has never been so on important matters, he thought. He then remembered Xing’s reminder: “Comprehend.”

Comprehend… what? He was stuck. If he continued to memorize it by rote, it would take far too long. Master Chi Lian would not give him that much time.

With no other ideas, he stood up and began to browse the bookshelf in the tent. It was Su Wu’s old tent, and the shelves were filled with books on military strategy and various essays. He casually picked up one titled Miscellaneous Notes of the Daming Lake Hermit. He flipped through a few pages. It was full of pedantic, scholarly language, as obscure as a cultivation manual. Just as he was about to put it back, he flipped one more page, and his eyes suddenly fell upon a sentence:

“Endless, it cannot be named; it returns again to nothingness. This is called the form of the formless, the image of the imageless. This is called the elusive. Meeting it, you do not see its head; following it, you do not see its back. Grasp the ancient Dao to manage the things of today. To know the ancient beginning is the essence of the Dao.”

Reading this sentence, he chewed on its meaning, and suddenly, a flash of insight struck him. He had been too focused on the form, and had neglected the meaning.

It was a stroke of genius. After this hazy moment of enlightenment, Qin Haoxuan immediately sat down cross-legged, no longer looking at the diagram. When he closed his eyes, it was as if a bolt of lightning had flashed in his sea of consciousness. The entire diagram of the Spiritual Imprint Array, most of which he could not remember before, now appeared in his mind with perfect clarity. Without hesitation, he took the jade slip in his hand and began to infuse it with his spiritual sense.

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