Lu Haotian returned to the Array Hall the next day without delay went and read mor books about arrays.
Then he went back to his courtyard by noon. He did not rush or skip steps, simply sitting in the same corner as before and taking out the jade slip to review the basics again. Nodes, lines, and balance—these were the foundation he had only just begun to grasp.
Yesterday, he had barely managed to stabilize three nodes for a few breaths, which was not even considered a proper formation. It was only the beginning. Raising his hand again, he gathered qi at his fingertip and guided it into a pebble.
The node began to form. It flickered, wavered slightly, and then stabilized.
Lu Haotian did not react outwardly, but his gaze sharpened. Yesterday, achieving this had taken hours, yet today it came much faster. He understood that this was not true improvement, but simple familiarity with the process.
He moved on to the second node, this time slowing his movements and being more careful. The moment both nodes existed, he connected them with a thin strand of qi. It remained unstable, but it held.
His breathing shifted slightly as he felt it again. The drain was subtle but clear, and this time he focused on it instead of ignoring it. The nodes were not just structures; they consumed qi constantly, even while doing nothing.
"So it's not just formation," he muttered quietly. "It's maintenance."
This realization made things more difficult. While he could create nodes, sustaining them for long periods using only his own qi would affect his cultivation. That was not acceptable.
He remembered reading that spirit stones were used to provide Qi for arrays. After a moment, he reached into the Veiled Emperor Ring and took out a low-grade spirit stone. He studied it briefly before looking back at the fading node in front of him.
"Let's try."
Holding the spirit stone in one hand, he extended the other and began again. This time, instead of drawing qi from his body, he drew it from the stone. The difference was immediate; the qi was rougher and harder to control, but far more abundant.
He guided it carefully and formed a node, then stabilized it. When he formed a second node, the drain no longer affected him directly, as the consumption came from the spirit stone instead.
Lu Haotian's eyes sharpened slightly. "So this is how they do it."
However, the problem appeared almost immediately. The qi from the spirit stone was harder to refine, causing the nodes to flicker more violently than before. When he tried to connect them, the structure collapsed instantly.
He remained silent, glancing at his hand and then at the cracked spirit stone. "Not that simple."
Using external qi solved one problem but introduced another—control. He did not stop and immediately tried again.
The second attempt failed. The third failed even faster. By the sixth attempt, he managed to form two barely stable nodes using the spirit stone's qi.
Sweat formed on his forehead, not from exhaustion but from intense concentration. "This is harder," he admitted quietly.
He adjusted his approach, slowing down and refining the input. Instead of drawing large amounts of qi, he began to pull thinner strands, making them easier to control.
The first node stabilized more smoothly this time. The second followed and held.
When he connected them, the line formed and remained intact for longer than before.
Lu Haotian watched it carefully without moving or interfering, focusing only on observing its behavior. After a few moments, it finally collapsed.
He exhaled slowly, his expression calm. There was no disappointment, only acknowledgment.
"…Progress."