Chapter 392 |
The first thing Zhang Yu thought of when trying to master those hundreds of array diagrams in a short time was, of course, the Supreme Purity Realm. After all, it granted him a full 20× mental acceleration.
"True Lord Magneto probably figured I'd use the Spiritual Realm's acceleration service too. After all, what Artifact Refinement student doesn’t use it?"
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yu’s consciousness had crossed into the Spiritual Realm, arriving at a cave abode called the Supreme Purity Realm.
The moment he arrived, he saw Zhang Pianpian poring over her talisman studies.
Zhang Pianpian glanced up and asked, "You contacted me in such a rush—what’s going on?"
Zhang Yu briefly explained how he’d been guided by True Lord Magneto during the competition and now needed to crack Su Yanyang’s array.
In the Supreme Purity Realm, Zhang Yu spoke freely. "Sis, I need you to prep some tools for breaking arrays in smart buildings. You’re probably more familiar with that than I am."
Zhang Pianpian nodded. "Alright, I’ll get it ready. You focus on the array diagrams."
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu also sent a message to the competition group chat, asking them to help prepare a few things.
Under the 20× mental acceleration, Zhang Yu first memorized the meridian connection diagrams of Su Yanyang’s Law Husk.
Then he split his mind into four: three focused separately on learning the diagrams of the Dimensional Isolation Array, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array, and the Thousand-Mountain Fortress Array; the last part focused on how the three formations interlocked and controlled one another.
"Too bad the Spiritual Realm's mental acceleration can’t stack with the Time-Wrecking Demon Pupil in the real world, or I’d be even faster."
Still, Zhang Yu’s learning efficiency was far beyond ordinary. Just before the break ended, he had memorized all the array diagrams. Barely, but he could now use them.
"Good thing True Lord Magneto highlighted the key parts for this match. Otherwise, learning it all at once would’ve been hard to apply in a real fight."
…
Outside the competition grounds.
Shi Huaiyu and the others rushed over the moment Zhang Yu arrived.
"What happened? Why did you suddenly ask us to prep all that stuff?"
To boost morale, Zhang Yu brought up Director Gao.
"Director Gao personally arranged for an expert to mentor me, hoping we’ll perform well in the next round."
"That expert is incredibly powerful and has a deep understanding of array techniques. He’s already shown me how to break Su Yanyang’s array."
At those words, everyone’s faces lit up—especially when Zhang Yu mentioned Director Gao. Confidence bloomed unconsciously.
Given that Zhang Yu was already Director Gao’s named disciple, his words carried weight.
As Zhang Yu explained their tactics and the array-breaking plan, everyone nodded along, growing more and more confident.
And the possibility of beating Su Yanyang to win a top-seven spot in the department made Shi Huaiyu, Che Yufei, and the others quietly giddy.
…
The second half of the competition officially began.
Inside the Spiritual Realm, teachers resumed observing the matches.
Zhang Yu’s homeroom teacher, Immortal Jiao Lei, was particularly curious about his student’s situation.
Seeing Zhang Yu and his five teammates charge straight at Su Yanyang’s worksite, Jiao Lei was surprised. "After losing the first half, they’re still this fired up?"
But their next moves surprised him even more.
"They’re holding… demonic-pollution materials? And they’re lobbing them straight into Su Yanyang’s array zone?"
One teacher nearby laughed. "They’re using environmental sabotage. Unless Su Yanyang’s team cleans that up, they won’t be able to lay down the spiritual circuitry for their array."
Lang Yougong praised, "It’s more than just pollution—they targeted the exact spot Su Yanyang was planning to set up, before he even had the chance. That means they’ve already studied his array diagrams and struck preemptively."
"Looks like their break wasn’t wasted."
Then Lang Yougong saw Shi Huaiyu and Tian Yang team up, combining the Small Threefold Harmony with the Storm-Dust Palm, whipping up a storm of sand tainted with demonic qi across Su Yanyang’s worksite.
Tu Lishan nodded. "Demonic pollution plus dust storm? That’s going to take a lot of effort to clean up."
Su Yanyang spread his arms wide. The Small Threefold Harmony activated with the boost from his Law Husk, conjuring thick earthen walls to block the smoke, but even so, much of the area was still contaminated, requiring manual cleanup.
Wei Huai said coolly, "All they’re doing is slowing them down. Su Yanyang excels at large-scale arrays and hard fights. His team has already built the core of their array. Now it’s just a matter of cleaning and expanding. Zhang Yu’s team won’t stop them."
And sure enough, Su Yanyang controlled the earth, building bunkers while gradually expanding the array.
…
On the field.
Su Yanyang stared coldly at the oncoming smoke. "Tch. So they actually came up with something."
"A bunch of underdogs and misfits—you’re certainly trying hard."
"But this year… no one’s stopping me from winning the Seven Absolutes."
He clasped his hands, transforming the walls into sand, pushing the contaminated portions away, and filling the clean parts back in—over and over again.
Just then, a formation spirit reported: over a dozen people had broken into the array, having pierced the Dimensional Isolation Array with Sky-Piercing Flying Swords, and were now under assault from the Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array.
…
Back in the Spiritual Realm.
Tu Lishan’s eyes lit up. "They rushed in while the array was still incomplete? And brought a whole swarm of ocular husks?"
Seeing Zhang Yu and the others remotely guiding a horde of eye-equipped husks into the array, Tu Lishan understood: they were baiting the array into misidentifying targets.
Each pair of husks, confused by the array’s illusions and information warping, would be mistaken for enemies.
These were all secondhand, off-brand husks—exactly the kind of junk Zhang Yu had asked his team to procure.
Wei Huai’s eyes glinted with disdain. "It won’t take long to filter real targets from fakes using message interception."
…
On the field.
Su Yanyang scanned the eye-husk chatter.
He coldly instructed the formation spirit, "Don’t send me all this junk. Organize it by message order and formatting first."
The Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array distorted the intruders' messages, but also allowed the formation spirit to intercept them.
Su Yanyang thought grimly, "They know their comms are compromised… so what game are they playing now?"
Just then, another formation spirit reported: "I intercepted their operation plan."
Su Yanyang sneered. "Idiots. If you intercepted it, it’s bait. Delete it."
But then his expression darkened. "Who opened it?!"
…
In the Spiritual Realm.
Tu Lishan’s eyes gleamed. "This Zhang Yu kid—he found the array’s Spiritual Realm interface and linked in those junk husks?"
"And is that a Soul Cultivator? Did one of them sneak into the array and open the file on their behalf?"
Next moment, layers of pop-up ads flooded Su Yanyang’s team’s ocular views.
Financial loan offers began appearing nonstop. Every twitch of their husks summoned more personalized, targeted ads.
Director Gao chuckled. "Heh. Finance Department’s shake-to-reveal ads? Someone embedded them in a talisman and disguised it as a file."
"Su Yanyang was rushing his setup. That’s what gave Zhang Yu the opening."
"But… does Zhang Yu know someone from the Sigil Department?"
He recalled one of Zhang Yu’s dormmates was a top Sigil student—seemed like they had a solid relationship.
"Knowing a Sigil student definitely pays off."
Watching the on-screen chaos, Director Gao understood the ads were tied to the Spiritual Realm’s big data. Once opened, they started pushing more loans. The more debt the viewer carried, the more ads would appear.
Now Su Yanyang’s team—heavily indebted—was overwhelmed. Their ocular views swarmed with ads, and they had to freeze their husks to manually close each one.
Even worse…
Ads started showing up in their competition group chat. And soon, those were going to spill over into the teachers’ feeds.
Director Gao mused, "Hmph. Finance Department’s ads… they spread like wildfire. Look once, and you’re marked. So domineering."
"Old Lin, do you really think you can beat that system?"
But he didn’t stop the ad spread. On one hand, he wanted the other teachers to witness firsthand how aggressive the Finance Department could be. On the other, True Lord Magneto said he’d handle it himself.
"This guy hasn’t shown off in a while. What’s he planning?"
Just then, above True Lord Magneto’s name box, a phantom image of a pagoda appeared, radiating divine light. It swept through the air, wiping all ads from existence.
Not just ads—the teachers felt their Gold Core and Nascent Soul fields temporarily suppressed. Even their Spiritual Realm projections wavered.
Then, as the pagoda faded, everything returned to normal.
Director Lin’s heart skipped a beat. "The Nine-Heavens Solar Yang Pagoda?! It repels spirits and banishes all evil—able to cleanse any external interference in the Spiritual Realm, including ads."
"And it’s been remotely activated through the Spiritual Realm… that thing must be nearing Level 41. Almost a Pure Yang Treasure."
Once it became one, it could rival even a Divine Transformation-level artifact in specific domains.
The moment the pagoda appeared, the room’s mood shifted. The other teachers looked at True Lord Magneto with newfound awe.
Director Gao felt the change and thought, "Magneto… was that your way of backing us ‘War Faction’ folks again? No payment either. Guess our centuries-long friendship wasn’t wasted."
True Lord Magneto quietly thought, "Old Gao, I hope you now see the difference between us. Stop struggling. You’ll only hurt yourself."
He looked toward the competition feed. "This Zhang Yu kid… he not only memorized every detail of the array in no time but also prepped the perfect counterplan. Even better than I expected."
…
Back in the arena.
Zhang Yu thought, "Just like True Lord Magneto said—the best time to break the array is before it's fully set up."
He sent a message: "Old Zhao, found it yet?"
Zhao Tianxing replied, "I’m closing in along the route you described…"
Zhao Tianxing, the Soul Cultivator Zhang Yu had hired, had entered Su Yanyang’s smart building system through the junk husks and triggered the ad attack.
Now Zhang Yu was directing him toward their actual target based on his memory of the array diagram.
Then Zhao Tianxing messaged, "Found it. I’ll guide you."
An arrow appeared in Zhang Yu’s ocular display.
He darted forward, movement after movement, until he dashed into a makeshift warehouse.
But the space was empty—except for Su Yanyang floating silently in the air.
Su Yanyang glared and said coldly, "Did you really think I’d leave our material storage point unguarded?"
Then he struck.
Empowered by his Law Husk, he activated the Level-20 Xuanhuang Mountain-Suppressing Seal and drove it with the Level-20 Xuanhuang Giant Handprint. The violent Xuanhuang Qi surged, engulfing Zhang Yu in an instant.
Explosions erupted as Zhang Yu’s body rapidly gained weight, each footstep triggering shockwaves across the ground.
Next Chapter >>>