Sage of Humanity

Every cultivator who entered the Hundred Arrays Pagoda was duly informed by the Tianyan Sect of its dangers, to prevent these talents from dying young.

However, no matter how much Tianyan Sect cautioned them, accidents still occurred.

Given the protective nature of the Righteous Blood Sect, Bai Qian certainly did not want Lu Ye to encounter any trouble inside the Hundred Arrays Pagoda.

Standing before the stone pagoda, Lu Ye stepped inside and, under the guidance of Bai Qian, stood on a formation at the center.

Bai Qian moved to place Spirit Stones around the formation and looked up at Lu Ye. Seeing that he was ready, he then activated the Formation.

The view twisted and changed, similar to the sensation of using the Heaven's Augury Pillar to enter and leave the Spirit Stream battlefield. When Lu Ye came back to his senses, he was already in a spacious space.

This space was not large, about the size of a room.

After looking around, Lu Ye noticed a protruding stone brick on the wall of the room. He walked over, placed his hand on the stone brick, and pressed slightly. The stone brick immediately recessed inward.

Instantly, nature's spiritual energy surged, and patterns rapidly spread across the room. These patterns appeared not only on the floor but also on the walls on either side.

The Formation revealed itself, and witnessing this, Lu Ye understood that he was supposed to break the Formation.

Over the years, array cultivators from the Nine Provinces including the Tianyan Sect had continuously attempted the Hundred Arrays Pagoda, and the specific challenges inside were already well-understood by the cultivators.

Generally, there were three types: array setup, array destruction, and array repair.

Array setup involved setting up a Formation according to the requirements of the Hundred Arrays Pagoda, array destruction meant that the pagoda created a Formation for the cultivator to break, and array repair was more complex. The pagoda might only create half a Formation to be completed or might produce a Formation with errors that the cultivator needed to find and mend.

There was a time limit of six hours on each level, and the more challenges a cultivator completed within these six hours, the greater the benefits they received.

The Formations contained within the Hundred Arrays Pagoda numbered far more than one hundred; the name "Hundred" referred to its one hundred levels.

Breaking Formations was something Lu Ye was particularly good at, and it was much simpler compared to setting up or repairing Formations.

First, Lu Ye tossed two elixir pills into his mouth and chewed them while stimulating the Insight Spirit Runes.

With a flash of spirit light in his eyes, Lu Ye immediately spotted several operation nodes of the Formation. After all, this was only the first level, where the Formations were the simplest.

Lu Ye was not entirely sure of the specific function of the Formation, but he did not need to understand it thoroughly.
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Not even bothering to bring out his array banner, Lu Ye pulled out the Boulder Mountain Saber from his waist and thrust it at one of the nodes. As spirit force surged, the operating Formation suddenly stalled and then dispersed.

In just three breaths, the Formation was broken!

New patterns rapidly formed, constructing another Formation. After a brief observation, Lu Ye thrust out again with his saber.

After consecutively breaking three Formations, no new Formations appeared. A flicker of light suddenly materialized out of thin air and drifted before Lu Ye. He reached out to touch it, imprinting it on his forehead, and a message appeared in his mind.

This time the challenge was to set up the Formation, and the array diagram for the Formation was provided with that message.

Lu Ye sheathed the Boulder Mountain Saber and, after a moment's thought, took out five array banners from his storage sack.

Compared to breaking Formations, setting up Formations was undoubtedly more troublesome. Previously, when setting up Formations, Lu Ye directly stimulated his own spirit force, constructing a Formation all at once in the same way as constructing spirit runes. While this method was quick, it also entailed greater consumption and resulted in unstable Formations that were easily broken.

However, setting up Formations with array banners was different. It consumed far less energy, the Formations were more stable, and the error tolerance was much higher. Generally, array cultivators set up in this way because not all array cultivators could control their own spirit force as strongly as he could.

As Lu Ye threw out the array banners one by one, positioning them at the four corners, the framework of the Formation was swiftly constructed. Following this, he then stimulated his spirit force to fill and perfect the internal structure of the Formation.

This was the advantage of using array banners for setup: first constructing the framework of the Formation with the banners and then completing and supplementing it, which was much simpler than his previous direct stimulation of spirit force to construct Formations.

The progress was rapid, and about the time it took one incense stick to burn later, the Formation was completed. As Lu Ye established the final pattern, the Formation began to operate.

After maintaining it for three breaths, the formed Formation was inexplicably erased, and Lu Ye retrieved his array banners.

Another flicker of light appeared…

Soon, Lu Ye discovered a problem. It seemed he was being somewhat targeted.

Because in the following challenges, the number of times he was asked to break Formations was very few; out of every ten challenges, only one or two involved breaking Formations, while the rest involved setting them up.

As for repairing Formations, this type of challenge would not appear in the first ten levels. Only after reaching the tenth level would it be included.

He was unsure what trials other cultivators faced here, but the proportion of his array destructions was only around ten to twenty percent, which clearly wasn't normal.

This made him vaguely suspect that the Hundred Arrays Pagoda had its own way of thinking. Did it think he was breaking arrays too quickly, so it increased the difficulty?

Even so, Lu Ye's speed in array setup was gradually improving. After all, it was just the first level, and even if it required him to set arrays, it wouldn't be too difficult. Many Formation internals were standardized, and with more practice, Lu Ye became more adept.

The only issue he now needed to consider was the consumption of his spirit force. He had opened up to one hundred and seventy-nine orifices, just one orifice short of advancing to Level 9.

This count of opened orifices was still the progress from half a month ago. Over the recent half month, he had been following Bai Qian in crafting array banners, which consumed a massive amount of spirit force, leaving him no opportunity to open the last orifice.

However, there was no need to hurry because as soon as he passed the first level's trial, he would be able to advance to Level 9. By then, the Hundred Arrays Pagoda would gather enough of nature's spiritual energy to allow his cultivation to recover.

Continuously setting and breaking arrays, Lu Ye was immersed in it, completely forgetting the passage of time.

Until a certain moment, when, following the requirements of the Hundred Arrays Pagoda, Lu Ye set up an array, the spiritual energy in the room suddenly increased rapidly. Within just a few breaths' time, the room became foggy to the point of barely seeing his own hands.

Three Shichen had passed.

The trial of the Hundred Arrays Pagoda wasn't difficult, no matter which level one was on; as long as a person completed an array destruction, setup, or repair once, it counted as passing the trial.

The more completions, the richer the rewards when the time limit was reached.

The rewards of nature's spiritual energy were additional. No matter what, cultivators here needed to consume a great deal of spirit force for the trials, and after the time limit, the Hundred Arrays Pagoda would create an environment suitable for recovery, to prepare the cultivator for the trials of the next level.

Lu Ye didn't count how many trials he completed in these three Shichen, but a rough estimate would suggest around forty or fifty times, and that was because he encountered a high chance of array setups than usual. If he wasn't being specifically targeted by the Hundred Arrays Pagoda, this number could have increased significantly.

Completing forty or fifty trials in the first level was an extremely terrifying achievement. If the leaderboard at the base of the tower were still operational, then Lu Ye would definitely have his name on it, and moreover, at a very high position.

As a result, the rewards given by the Hundred Arrays Pagoda were also extremely generous – the dense and now mist-like spiritual energy was the best proof of this.

Not only that, but a fist-sized orb of luminescence also emerged out of nowhere, floating before Lu Ye.

This orb of luminescence was the most important benefit of overcoming the Hundred Arrays Pagoda.

Not in a hurry to touch the luminescent orb, Lu Ye first checked the consumption of his spirit force.

For three Shichen, he had continuously set and broken arrays without a break, and even though he had been consuming elixir pills to restore himself, his spirit force nearly ran dry.

With a slight movement of his thoughts, he constructed Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes in his spiritual orifice. In just the time it takes one incense stick to burn, one hundred and seventy-nine spirit runes had formed. Driven by the Spirit Energy Gathering Spirit Runes, the mist-like spiritual energy from the surroundings continuously flowed into his spiritual orifice, allowing his nearly depleted power to recover quickly.

After finishing these tasks, Lu Ye then reached out to grab the luminescent orb floating before him and pressed it against his forehead.

The luminescence entered and vanished.

Complex and intricate information suddenly appeared in Lu Ye's mind, leaving him feeling quite overwhelmed.

If the way Lu Ye had acquired information about spirit runes from the Talent Tree before felt like someone was prying open his skull and stirring his brain with a red-hot iron, then what he experienced now felt like someone was hammering his head vigorously.

Lu Ye's head jerked back, nearly causing him to fall over.

His head swelled, his temples throbbed violently, his eyes bulged, and they were filled with bloodshot streaks due to the overwhelming influx of information.

This was the greatest danger of overcoming the Hundred Arrays Pagoda! This was also why Bai Qian had fervently advised Lu Ye to be mindful of his own limits.

The luminescence contained vast knowledge of the Array Path, infused into Lu Ye's mind in a manner that was overwhelming, without caring whether he could withstand it or not.

If one didn't possess strong willpower and a sturdy psyche, just that could cause one to faint on the spot or, in severe cases, suffer mental damage or even death.

If any other cultivator at the Spirit Stream Level 8 were here, they surely wouldn't be able to bear it.

Fortunately, Lu Ye had endured the torment of the Talent Tree several times before and was not unfamiliar with this kind of sensation.

Moreover, he had refined his psyche in the Soul Cleansing Pool, making his psyche much sturdier than cultivators at the same level.

Another factor was his repeated entries into the Mirage Realm to battle the enemy. Each time he "died" in the Mirage Realm, it refined his psyche a bit more. One or two times might not be noticeable, but over many occurrences, his psychic power naturally enhanced, though he was unaware of this.

Thus, overcoming the Hundred Arrays Pagoda was not about completing as many trials as possible but rather going through as many trials as one could bear within one's limits. Once exceeding those limits, the cultivator might not be able to endure the overwhelming benefits and could suffer dire consequences.

Many cultivators who attempted the Hundred Arrays Pagoda didn't die during the trials but died due to these ultimate benefits, which was a sorrowful fate indeed.