The Paladin in the Abyss

The other three turned their heads, but behind them was a steep cliff, and further below was the Plains of the Abyss; they could even barely make out the shadow of Twin Bridges Town in the distance.

"Big brother, what are you talking about?" Bruto scratched his head in confusion, "Where is there any water?"

"You can't be joking..." the werewolf sharply inhaled, "He's talking about the Stygian River!"

"What?" Mohoi was shocked upon hearing this, "You want to use the water from the Stygian River to create mist? But... isn't that too far from here?"

"It is a bit far, but it should still be within the effective range of the formation," Lancelot said as he undid his dimensional bag and took out an enormous iron disc with a radius of over five feet, "We'll find out soon enough if it can work."

"What exactly is this thing?" Bruto looked at Lancelot adjusting the angle of the disk, puzzled, "And why are there so many lines and paths on the surface? It was smooth like the forehead of a Gray Dwarf when I gave it to you..."

"Just think of those as arcane runes," Lancelot finally stopped fiddling, "Hold on a moment. There is still a final touch that needs to be done here at the site..."

About a quarter of the iron disc was left blank for runes that connect with the power of water. Having determined the correct orientation through spiritual sight, Lancelot then lay on the ground, releasing faintly green sword aura from his hands, slowly inscribing onto the disc.

Priest Tiflin was startled by Lancelot's strange ability. Within his scope of knowledge, he had never heard of such a capability. As for old Reap, he was less surprised since he had previous experience breaking through Oasis Fort with this human knight, who was known for his peculiarities.

"Alright," Lancelot got up from the ground, flippantly waved his right hand, and a strong gust of wind that appeared out of nowhere blew all the metal shavings off the disk, "I'm going to start now. The process of creating fog might take some time, so just be a little patient..."

"I got it! Isn't this just a larger version of that array plate you have at home?" Bruto finally caught on, but he still pointed somewhat puzzledly at the huge depression in the middle of the disk, "This should be where the gemstone goes, right? But this is way too big, almost as big as my rear. Where did you get such a large gemstone..."

"You're not misunderstanding, but the situation this time is a bit special," Lancelot walked to the center of the array plate and sat down cross-legged, "This pit is prepared for me."

Generally speaking, after an array is set up, during its effective period, either spirit stones are used for energy supply, or a specialized structure absorbs the forces of nature from the surroundings— the former can be activated by placing the spirit stones when needed and replaced periodically to maintain effectiveness; the latter has the advantage of not needing attention after the array is set up, but it requires high proficiency in formation and usually has less power.

Lancelot's method was to use himself as a human spirit stone, personally supplying energy to the formation. This approach had many drawbacks, but the most crucial was that it completely contradicted the purpose of setting up arrays—arrays were meant to allow cultivators to focus their energies elsewhere. If one had to personally maintain the operation of the array, then there was no point in painstakingly setting it up in the first place. Direct application of cultivation techniques would yield better effects.

However, for the relatively low-ranked Foundation Establishment Cultivators, the situation was not absolute. The power of Divine Sense of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator was limited, making it difficult for them to deploy divine skills over a large area with their own strength. Furthermore, since their cultivation period was relatively short, they were mostly proficient in combat-related spells and unlikely to delve into these "clever tricks and gadgets."

By using the cultivator themselves as the energy source for the array, not only could they better control the operation of the array, but they also saved the time needed to master an unpopular cultivation technique that might not be widely used in the future—he simply "copied" the operational routes of the techniques onto the array plate.

To execute it themselves would take months of study. The final effect was likely to be considerably inferior without the massive support of the array plate. Alone with his foundation establishment strength, he simply couldn't tap into the invisible forces contained by the Stygian River and the volcano.

Lancelot closed his physical eyes and skillfully entered the state of Spiritual Sight. He carefully channeled the True Yuan within his body, slowly infusing it into the metal disc beneath him, allowing the refined energy to follow the pre-engraved routes.

Everything went very smoothly, and the array plate was successfully activated; it seemed his "copying" had no mistakes. Because the Stygian River at the base of the mountain was farther away, he initially tried to connect with the Power of Water required for the operation of the array. The Stygian River was very mysterious by itself, stretching across the entire lower plane, and its waters also contained the power to erase memories, while also serving as a destination for the souls of the deceased.

In Lancelot's Spirit Perception, the Stygian River also contained the strongest Power of Water he had ever encountered. Thus, even though it was a great distance away, after several patient attempts, he successfully established a connection with that tremendous force.

Next, Lancelot attempted to draw out the Power of Fire from the nearby Lava Lake. He succeeded on the first try; the proximity was certainly a crucial factor, and his Fire Spiritual Root was another decisive element, helping him quickly "capture" the invisible pulsation of fire.

Once the connection between Water and Fire was established, the array immediately began to function. The iron disc beneath Lancelot emitted a low hum, and the Power of the Five Elements from the Stygian River and the volcano were drawn out and met mid-mountain. To the eyes of the others, a large amount of white smoke suddenly began to rise at that spot, quickly forming a thick fog and spreading in all directions.

At a place beyond their sight, a large section of the water level of the Stygian River slightly receded and the flow suddenly quickened; however, in this plane, almost no one noticed such details, so the abnormalities in the Stygian River went unnoticed.

But the situation was quite different for the lake of molten lava at the crater of the volcano. Lancelot's Nightmare mount was still joyfully swimming in it, yet the surrounding temperature suddenly began to fall, and the magma turned thick as marsh, startling the Abyssal Warhorse, which hastily struggled and "clawed" its way back to the shore.

A mysterious connection between the summoned beast and its summoner let it understand that the culprit behind all this was its owner, who was currently sitting on that strange iron plate—the "human". Although very upset, the Nightmare didn't dare vent its anger on Lancelot.

But just then, Lancelot suddenly opened his eyes; his Spirit Perception sensed some peculiar creatures.

"What's wrong?" Although usually slow on the uptake regarding other matters, Bruto was always quick to notice Lancelot's unusual actions, "Is it an enemy?"

"Yes, there are four enemies, emerging from that Lava Lake, likely some kind of elemental creatures." Lancelot still sat in his place, "I need to maintain the operation of the array, so those enemies are up to you!"