Chapter 46: What a pity, he’s hacking the system
“Ugh……” Naturally, Liu Meng had already noticed something was off with Su Lan Qian, but sadly her pleading was about as effective as calling a brick wall a therapist. She sighed, cheeks apologetic. “On behalf of my disciple, I’m sorry. She entered early, and I’ll make sure to record that extra time.”
“No worries, just a few seconds,” Bai Feng waved dismissively. He wasn’t about to get into a tussle with someone stuck in heart demon mode.
He strode briskly to the array set up by Su Lan Qian and just walked right into it.
As the array activated with a hum, the final match of the sect competition officially kicked off.
……
“Is this… a Five Elements Array?” Bai Feng mumbled inside the dark, pitch-black labyrinth. His surroundings were so dark he could barely see his own hands, feeling like he’d been trapped in a cave without sunlight.
He remembered that the Five Elements Array was a pretty special trap formation—like a gathering spirit formation, but with different grades.
This one should be a Fifth Grade Five Elements Array, and thanks to excellent materials and Su Lan Qian’s modifications, it’s now basically a near Six Grade Array.
For a cultivator at the early Golden Core stage, setting up such a formation was a rare mark of genius—truly a once-in-a-millennium Array Talent.
But alas, he’d been hacking the system.
“Hmm, the array pattern is a bit raw; looks like she just learned it recently. Maybe even left a few small loopholes,” Bai Feng observed, focusing on the Yin-Yang Pattern and the Five Elements flow clearly visible in his eyes. He secretly surmised how to break it.
While trapped, Arrays like this don’t rely heavily on offensive power but are fiercely defensive.
They can’t be shattered just by hitting a few key points like other formations—they’ll slowly recover unless all five crucial nodes—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—are destroyed at once.
Easy to say, hard to do. For most array masters, discovering even one node is tough enough; finding all five hidden key points, especially with a defensive formation known for resilience, was practically impossible.
Clearly, Su Lan Qian had exhausted all her tricks trying to beat him. She set the array against his limited early-stage Foundation Establishment strength, exploiting its defensive nature.
However, in a way, it showed she considered him an equal—no longer underestimating him like before.
“Seems pretty tricky,” Bai Feng said, raising a bamboo sword to one of the nodes. His current strength couldn’t even damage the nodes—though attacking from small loopholes would take forever and was more complicated.
“Oh well, no need for all that complexity,” he shook his head, took out a pill from his storage pouch, and popped it into his mouth. Then, he silently chanted to his system:
‘System, claim reward.’
【Ding! The host has claimed the reward. Please break through in a quiet environment.】
Bai Feng sat cross-legged on the ground, swallowing the disguised pill, and immediately, a surge of spiritual energy flooded his body.
Meanwhile, outside the array, Chu Ning Yan and Liu Meng had sensed something unusual.
“Is he breaking through?” Chu Ning Yan chuckled helplessly. “This is still in the middle of a match. Honestly, I don’t know whether to think he’s reckless or just really confident.”
But she wasn’t surprised. Bai Feng’s internal spiritual power had already solidified considerably; only a step away from Golden Core. She just hadn’t expected him to choose to breakthrough inside the array.
“Maybe he thinks he can’t break the nodes’ defenses and figures he might as well do it inside,” Liu Meng offered her opinion. “But your disciple is brave and cautious—five-element arrays are famous for their defenses, mainly geared for counterattacks. Maybe that’s why he dared to breakthrough inside.”
Chu Ning Yan nodded, curious. “Will breaking through inside the array have any effects?”
“It depends on the formation. For example, I know one that isolates external spiritual power, but such formations are usually Seventh Grade or higher,” Liu Meng explained, shaking her head. “This Five Elements Array is Fifth Grade, mainly for testing and breaking formations, so it’s not blocking outside contact.”
Her mind flickered to Bai Feng’s eyes—just now, in the Fire Dragon Array, the spiritual power surged so violently from the flames she couldn’t see clearly. But without those flames, she saw a peculiar flash in Bai Feng’s eyes.
It seemed he shared an eye trait with her disciple—impressive; no wonder Su Lan Qian looked defeated.
While they were chatting, Bai Feng finally opened his eyes:
“Golden Core, achieved.”
His spiritual power at last coalesced into a gold pill floating at his dantian.
The gold pill was dense and solid, looking nothing like a newly promoted Golden Core.
He stretched his arms, feeling the power within.
The Golden Core was a critical milestone in cultivation; whether strength, spiritual power, or divine consciousness, it far surpassed the Peak of Foundation Establishment.
He closed his eyes, recalling the moves he ‘stole’ from Bai Yu Mo.
If before he was just copying, now he had a newfound understanding of that bamboo thorn move, gradually making it his own.
Meanwhile, fragments of sword dao within him started trembling slightly. The previously incomprehensible sword techniques now had answers.
Bai Feng exhaled a turbid breath, intentionally not opening his eyes. Instead, he placed his hand on the bamboo sword.
In the next moment, a sharp sword intent burst out from him. His bamboo sword was suddenly thrust forward at the peak of this sword momentum.
The sword, even his arm, blurred into a residual shadow.
It was just a simple bamboo stab, but in his hands, it carried a different kind of elegance.
He exhaled again, then opened his eyes. The once rock-solid Five Elements Array began collapsing—sunlight streamed down from above.
If someone looked closely, they’d see all five crucial nodes stabbed through one by one, shattered into pieces.
This scene even made Chu Ning Yan silent. The sword he’d just thrown out was so magnificent that even she, with her keen eyes, would call him a sword genius.
Turning to her mouth-gaping disciple, Bai Yu Mo, she could tell her apprentice didn’t quite realize that Bai Feng’s sword talent was formidable.
“Yu Mo, does Bai Feng often practice swordsmanship?” she asked.
Startled, Bai Yu Mo first shook her head instinctively, then nodded: “I’ve only seen him once. My brother only used this bamboo thorn move once, and he was almost its match. Oh, and I saw that after my brother had a revelation—maybe he comprehended it during his epiphany!”
Chu Ning Yan nodded, watching as Bai Feng sheathed his sword, returning to his usual slightly lazy demeanor, strolling over.
What a fascinating little guy.
She couldn’t help but laugh softly—her most correct decision was definitely taking Bai Yu Mo and her brother Bai Feng as disciples.
