Lin Wei retreated to his room with the stolen diagram. He had to absorb and correct the knowledge quickly before The Weaver grew suspicious.
He unrolled the parchment. The diagram was a chaotic mess of lines to a normal eye, but the Void Eye Edict immediately imposed its own order.
"Initiating Void Command Analysis: Array Formation."
The Edict began to Devour the knowledge itself. Lin Wei felt the complex patterns and laws of the array flow into his mind, not as diagrams, but as fundamental rules of the world. The Edict then started to Refine and Correct the entire array.
It took far less than three hours. The moment the process finished, Lin Wei understood the diagram completely. But more importantly, the Edict had extracted the core principle of the Spirit-Binding Ward—the way it manipulated space to generate a barrier.
"The Spirit-Binding Ward is too slow. The Void Command suggests a different application: the Void Step Array."
A new, simple diagram flashed in Lin Wei's mind: a personal, instant-casting array that wouldn't bind spirits, but shorten the space between two points. It was a terrifying, instantaneous movement ability that bypassed the need for complex, elemental Qi manipulation.
Lin Wei closed his eyes and channeled his Foundation Establishment Qi, sketching the simple lines of the Void Step Array onto the air around his body. The lines were invisible, drawn with the dark-green, Void-refined Qi.
Whoosh.
Lin Wei vanished and instantly reappeared six feet to his left, pressed against the wall. The movement was instant, leaving no ripple of disturbed Qi, no shadow, and no sound. It was the movement of pure dimensional displacement.
He was ecstatic. The Void Step Array was far superior to any normal movement technique, and completely untraceable. He had turned a high-level defensive array into a supreme escape and combat mobility skill.
But his progress also came at a price. The enormous Qi consumption needed to maintain the array and fuel the Foundation Seed left him constantly drained. He needed a constant, massive source of energy.
He looked out the window at the chaotic rooftops of the Whispering City. The city was a feast of spiritual energy and resources, but it was also a hunting ground. Lin Wei needed to secure a permanent, high-volume income stream to fuel his Void Edict.