Ink Painting only tasted the thunder pattern to open the shell, shattering the divine thought bones. From the Sheep Horn Wind Walker’s head flowed out a pale gold colored divine thought “bone marrow”.

This “bone marrow” was similar to evil god’s blood.

Although the amount was small, it tasted very good.

He just didn’t know what a true evil god would be like after being refined.

After “eating” it, to what level would his own divine sense enhance…

Ink Painting thought for a bit, suddenly frowning.

No…

He was a bit “inflated” now…

Evil gods were estimated to be very powerful and terrifying. If he truly encountered one, he would necessarily face unknown danger.

Even if he truly wanted to have ideas about evil gods…

He would have to wait until his divine thought was profound enough, his divine thought killing powerful enough, carefully plan, thoroughly prepare, cover people’s ears and eyes, and quietly steal and “eat” them only then…

Thinking about “eating” evil gods now was still too early…

Moreover, this idea was too “disrespectful” to evil gods.

Ink Painting buried this idea deep in his heart.

“It’s not that evil gods can’t be eaten, but rather demons and ghosts are more cost-effective.”

Evil gods were too strong, it was better not to provoke them if possible.

But these demons and evil spirits were not strong, they could be stewed in one pot, and eating more was also fine.

Moreover, if he ate them cleanly, he wasn’t afraid of them reporting him.

Furthermore, they were targeting Yu’er, so he didn’t need to be polite at all.

Ink Painting looked at the soundly sleeping Yu’er again, and couldn’t help but think in his heart:

Suppose he brought Yu’er by his side, wouldn’t he always attract demons and ghosts to provide him with tooth offerings?

This way, he would have portable “rations” to eat.

His divine sense could also constantly enhance.

It was like fishing.

These ferocious demons and ghosts were just the “fish”.

So, that means little Yu’er is…

“Little fish bait”?

Ink Painting was startled, immediately shook his head, and dispelled this idea which was too impolite to little Yu’er…

Yu’er on the bed also lightly said “um”, seeming somewhat unwilling.

Ink Painting chuckled, and touched Yu’er’s head.

Yu’er, in her sleep, felt a calm and serene breath, smiled naively, and fell into a deep sleep again.

Ink Painting continued to guard by Yu’er’s side, his divine sense sinking into his sea of consciousness, continuing to simulate the Yuan Magnetic Array and derive secondary thunder patterns…

After that whole night, no more demons appeared.

The next day, Ink Painting did his routine cultivation, drew arrays, and played with Yu’er for a while again.

In the evening, he still guarded Yu’er.

Although the room was empty, it was very quiet. There were no causal lines, no void chains, no demons and ghosts, only the quiet of the night and the serene moonlight.

This evening was still calm.

Ink Painting then knew that this stubble of “leeks” had been cut, and they needed some time to grow…

The next day, Ink Painting said goodbye to Wen Ren Wan and set off back to Tai Xu Gate.

Little Yu’er still grasped Ink Painting’s clothes hem, somewhat reluctant.

But compared to before, Yu’er’s complexion was obviously better. Although somewhat disappointed, her eyes had luster, and her small face was also rosy and plump.

Ink Painting waved goodbye to everyone, and Yu’er also learned from Ink Painting and waved her hand.

After Ink Painting left, Wen Ren Wan pondered for a long time, finally made up her mind, and said to Shang Guan Yi:

“I want to send Yu’er to Tai Xu Gate!”

Shang Guan Yi was just drinking tea, and choked mid-sip, coughing a couple of times. He said helplessly:

“How can you be like this…”

Thinking of one thing is one thing, ah…

“I’ve thought it through!”

Wen Ren Wan’s gaze was firm, obviously having thought deeply.

Shang Guan Yi was slightly startled, frowned, and said softly:

“Yu’er’s aptitude is very good, he can enter the ‘four major sects’ in the future…”

“Entering the four major sects, learning inheritance, making friends with fellow disciples, making connections, is a notch higher than the eight great gates…”

Wen Ren Wan shook her head, “I don’t care about Yu’er’s aptitude, how he cultivates dao, or his future achievements. I am his mother, I only hope he is safe and sound, and happy…”

“Those grand plans of your family, fate and causality, I don’t want Yu’er to be too deeply involved. I’m afraid…”

Wen Ren Wan’s face was slightly pale, “…I’m afraid that one day in the future, I won’t be able to see Yu’er again…”

Wen Ren Wan closed her eyes.

Or…

Little Yu’er, lying cold in her arms…

These days, when Yu’er was tormented by nightmares and emaciated unbearably, Wen Ren Wan always had such dreams.

Even, there were more terrible ones…

Wen Ren Wan’s body trembled uncontrollably.

Shang Guan Yi held his wife’s hand, full of guilt.

Letting his son suffer, letting his wife worry, was his dereliction of duty as a husband. But letting Yu’er enter Tai Xu Gate, he still wasn’t quite in agreement.

Shang Guan Yi pondered for a moment, and slowly said:

“Wan’er, do you want to let Yu’er enter Tai Xu Gate because of… Ink Painting that child?”

Wen Ren Wan did not conceal it, and said:

“That’s right, I want to let Yu’er stay by Ink Painting’s side.”

Shang Guan Yi’s brows wrinkled tighter.

He didn’t dislike Ink Painting. On the contrary, he also felt that Ink Painting was a well-behaved, polite, sincere, and lovely child. Because of Yu’er’s matter, he was also grateful to Ink Painting.

But in Shang Guan Yi’s heart, he always had a trace of worry about Ink Painting, even…

Dread.

He always felt that under the innocence of Ink Painting’s eyes, there was a hidden strangeness. Within their clarity, they revealed profundity.

It made him, who had seen countless people, the “quasi-family head” of the Shang Guan family in Qian State, also unable to see through.

Shang Guan Yi had also once entertained the thought of finding someone to deeply calculate Ink Painting’s causality.

But this kind of thing was quite taboo, and it was also an offense to Ink Painting.

Moreover, every time he had this thought, a burst of heart palpitations would involuntarily arise, as if once he spied, he would touch upon some extremely terrible taboo…

This fear was extremely clear.

Shang Guan Yi also thought of Elder Mei of Xuan Ji Valley.

Elder Mei had just responded to his request, pushed aside the fog, and saw some causal taboo, only to lose his mind and say some inexplicable words about himself being “bitten by a zombie”, “going to become a zombie”, what corpse mountain, what great terror, and so on.

Shang Guan Yi didn’t know exactly who Elder Mei had calculated to fall into madness.

But the causality of this person was so terrible, they must be proficient in heavenly secrets algorithms, and it was even possible that they were one of the behind-the-scenes masters secretly pushing this matter.

And Ink Painting, that child, was also very likely related to this person.

Although Ink Painting himself might not know…

Shang Guan Yi hesitated for a long time, and still confided his worries to Wen Ren Wan.

Wen Ren Wan sneered: “That’s because you yourself are used to scheming, so you see causality in everyone and calculations in everything…”

“I think Ink Painting, this child, is pretty good.”

“If you treat him with sincerity, he will naturally treat you with sincerity. If you feel he is not right, it is because you are not right…”

Shang Guan Yi smiled bitterly. After a moment, his expression became solemn, and he sighed:

“Think carefully, why is it that when Yu’er was kidnapped, so many people couldn’t find him, yet Ink Painting could…”

“Yu’er suffers from nightmare disturbance. The elders say this is causal evil and cannot be cured at the root.”

“But why, when Ink Painting comes, Yu’er can sleep peacefully…”

“There must be something fishy here…”

“I’m afraid…”

Shang Guan Yi was worried, not saying it clearly.

Wen Ren Wan heard this, and her expression also became serious. She frowned and thought for a long time, suddenly figuring it out:

“That’s because Ink Painting, this child, is precisely Yu’er’s ‘fortune’!”

Shang Guan Yi was stunned, not knowing what to say.

Wen Ren Wan thought more and more that she was right, and nodded, saying:

“Ink Painting, this child, must have deep fortune!”

“So when Yu’er was kidnapped, others couldn’t find him, yet Ink Painting could. Others couldn’t save him, yet Ink Painting could!”

“Yu’er suffers from nightmare disturbance, and Ink Painting was also there that night. I personally saw Ink Painting fall to the ground, his face pale and with evil entangled around him, obviously blocking ‘disaster’ for Yu’er, which is why he fainted.”

“But I said, Ink Painting, this child, has ‘deep fortune’, so these ‘disasters’ cannot harm him!”

“Ink Painting’s fortune is also Yu’er’s fortune.”

“Yu’er is young and has had a bumpy journey. To grow up safely, he just needs to stay by the side of a child like Ink Painting who has deep fortune!”

Wen Ren Wan’s tone was firm and reasonable.

Shang Guan Yi was almost convinced by her words…

Fortunately, he had heard a little about causality, evil, and other things, and knew that the so-called “fortune” was fundamentally not such a simple thing.

Shang Guan Yi still wanted to refuse, “Yu’er is still young, and he is only refining qi. Tai Xu Gate won’t accept him…”

“Not as a formal disciple, just as a preschool boarding…”

“The Tai Xu head won’t agree…”

“He is the direct bloodline of the Shang Guan family and Wen Ren family, and his spiritual root is so good. How could he not agree? He will even break the rules to accept him…”

“This…” Shang Guan Yi had a bit of a headache, and said again: “Perhaps it will delay Ink Painting’s cultivation…”

Wen Ren Wan was slightly stunned.

This indeed…

She hadn’t thought of this matter.

Ink Painting’s usual cultivation should be quite busy, and he definitely couldn’t take care of Yu’er.

Wen Ren Wan thought for a while, then had an idea:

“I will send a guard to take care of Yu’er, supervise Yu’er’s cultivation, and usually not disturb Ink Painting. If Yu’er is tormented by nightmares and can’t sleep, then trouble Ink Painting and let him go see him just…”

Shang Guan Yi sighed: “There is no such precedent at Tai Xu Gate…”

“That was before, now there is.” Wen Ren Wan said.

“Father won’t agree, and there will likely be many obstacles at Tai Xu Gate, especially some elders who adhere to sect rules, they won’t agree…”

“How will we know if we don’t try?”

“Wan’er…”

Wen Ren Wan said firmly: “I have decided! Yu’er must be sent into Tai Xu Gate!”

Shang Guan Yi said: “Yu’er now… already rarely has nightmares, there’s no need for so much trouble…”

Wen Ren Wan’s gaze sank, “What about the future?”

Shang Guan Yi was startled.

Wen Ren Wan frowned, deeply emotional, and said coldly: “How do you know that there won’t be more terrible nightmares in the future?”

“If Yu’er in the future…”

Wen Ren Wan’s voice trembled slightly, seemingly recalling the terrible future in her dream, “…in the future encounters more powerful, more desperate nightmares…”

“At that time, our child, what will he do…”

Wen Ren Wan gripped Shang Guan Yi’s arm tightly, her slender fingers gripping until they were white.

Shang Guan Yi’s expression was astonished.

He looked deeply at his wife, seeing in her eyes the deep affection, and the fear of some unknown existence. His heart trembled.

Shang Guan Yi nodded deeply, and said gently:

“Alright, I will find a way to send Yu’er into… Tai Xu Gate!”

Ink Painting still didn’t know about Yu’er’s matter.

He also didn’t know that before long, he would have a “little neighbor”.

Ink Painting returned to the sect and continued to research the Yuan Magnetic Array and derive secondary thunder patterns day and night.

The secondary thunder patterns recorded in his secondary thunder pattern jade slip also grew more and more.

Although they were still very complex, with many changes and details, these “patterns”, in Ink Painting’s eyes, became clearer and clearer, and also more and more familiar.

Like strangers becoming dao friends, the more you see them, the more familiar you become…

And these dao friends still had a big family.

Although their appearances were different, they were connected by blood and would have commonalities. The more he saw, the more he could recognize all of them…

Ink Painting thus, without rushing or impatience, constantly derived and summarized, and finally recorded about a hundred kinds of secondary thunder patterns with different patterns in the secondary thunder pattern jade slip.

And Ink Painting’s derivation also became more at ease.

The fusion of heavenly mechanism strange calculation and derivation calculation also gradually became handy.

His comprehension of secondary thunder patterns also deepened.

Ink Painting felt that he should find something to practice on…

The “transmit book order” was still too profound…

After these days of research and seeking guidance from some senior brothers and sisters, and even exchanging with some fellow disciples who had deep family learning in arrays, Ink Painting gradually broadened his understanding of beacon fire Yuan Magnetic Arrays, or similar Yuan Magnetic Arrays…

Yuan Magnetic Arrays are the foundation for cultivators to record, transmit books, and transmit messages.

Besides recording with pen, ink, and paper, and transmitting books, the recording method most used by cultivators is the jade slip.

All jade slips in the cultivation world are basically built on the foundation of the Yuan Magnetic Array, used to display text, record text, and transmit message documents.

Fixed style magnetic patterns, secondary thunder flow, indefinite magnetic patterns, magnetic ink displaying characters…

This whole set is both the underlying array structure of “transmit message” type spiritual tools, like the transmit book order, and the array foundation of all cultivation dao jade slips.

Jade slips recording inheritance rely precisely on the Yuan Magnetic Array.

Ink Painting thought of Old Brother Jiang’s two jade slips.

Those two jade slips probably recorded the Break Gold Gate’s sect-protecting inheritance, the Break Gold Imperial Sword Art!

But the jade slips were sealed and couldn’t be spied upon.

Unsealing is simpler than restoring.

Ink Painting planned to learn and use it step by step, first utilizing his understanding of the Yuan Magnetic Array to unseal the Break Gold Gate’s inheritance jade slip, then step by step, research and “restore” the transmit book order…

The Break Gold jade slip was made of white jade, with gold patterns engraved on the edges.

Ink Painting took out the jade slip and secretly researched it in his disciple residence for a long time in the evening, but still didn’t understand it in the end…

His predictions were all correct.

The Break Gold jade slip was based on the Yuan Magnetic Array, including fixed style magnetic patterns and indefinite magnetic patterns, with the secondary thunder pattern as the “bridge”.

The so-called “add seal” was indeed doing something on the Yuan Magnetic Array, covering the original text in the jade slip.

A “secret pattern” was needed to unseal the inheritance jade slip.

The essence of this “secret pattern” was actually just a “secondary thunder pattern”…

But the idea was just an idea. When he actually went to solve it, he found himself completely at a loss…

How exactly was the Break Gold jade slip “add sealed”? And how to unseal it? The secret pattern was a secondary thunder pattern, but exactly which kind of secondary thunder pattern? Without the secret pattern, how to unseal it?

“Without inheritance, self-exploration is indeed very difficult…”

Ink Painting sighed.

He thought about it and felt that he still had to find someone to ask.

Ink Painting’s original plan was to find Old Mister Xun, but he thought about it and shook his head.

He couldn’t consult Old Mister Xun about unsealing and decrypting.

As long as he opened his mouth and asked, Old Mister Xun would surely guess that he was secretly tinkering with something…

In the sect, unsealing, in all likelihood, was just unsealing the “seal” on an inheritance jade slip.

This wasn’t too good, it could easily affect his “law-abiding” image in Old Mister Xun’s heart.

He didn’t need to think to know that in Old Mister Xun’s eyes, he was definitely a “well-behaved”, “serious”, “diligent” good disciple.

If he let Old Mister Xun misunderstand him, it wouldn’t be good.

He definitely wouldn’t tell him the secrets of Tai Xu Gate later either…

So he had to change who he asked.

Ink Painting thought for a long time and finally found a suitable candidate:

Zheng Fang.

Zheng Fang was a child of the Zheng family from Zhen State.

The Zheng family’s treasure passed down through generations, their secret inheritance, was the true thunder pattern array.

Secondary thunder patterns were a kind of derivative of thunder patterns.

Zheng Fang might not know thunder patterns, but being born into the Zheng family, he was exposed to it from a young age, and would definitely be familiar with secondary thunder patterns, or rather, related Yuan Magnetic Arrays.

Ink Painting went to find Zheng Fang.

Zheng Fang held a little grudge against Ink Painting.

Because he lost to Ink Painting.

The Zheng family’s secret array, which he was proud of and had learned diligently, although relatively basic, was easily learned by Ink Painting.

What was even more excessive was that he, who came from an array family, had to be taught arrays by Ink Painting and call Ink Painting “little senior brother”.

But he also knew that Ink Painting’s array was indeed too much stronger than his, so he was very unhappy in his heart and wasn’t too fond of talking to Ink Painting. Their relationship also wasn’t too good.

Ink Painting knew that Zheng Fang wasn’t bad at heart, just a bit straightforward in temperament, so he praised him with “sweet words and honeyed phrases”.

He said that the Zheng family was renowned, “like thunder piercing the ear”.

Able to overcome all difficulties and pass down the upright and incorruptible thunder pattern inheritance, the disciples of the Zheng family were presumably all upright in heart and open and aboveboard!

Then he praised Zheng Fang again, saying he was young, talented, and his future in arrays was certainly immeasurable…

Zheng Fang, in Ink Painting’s “sugar-coated bullets” of praise, was defeated. The grudge in his heart suddenly disappeared. Although he tried hard to keep a straight face, he couldn’t hide the happy smile at the corner of his mouth.

Ink Painting then took the opportunity to ask about the Yuan Magnetic Array.

Zheng Fang’s impression of Ink Painting was much better, and Ink Painting had also taught him a lot of array knowledge, and was still his “little senior brother”. He should also “return the favor”.

Zheng Fang chatted with Ink Painting about the Yuan Magnetic Array for a while.

Zheng Fang had the Zheng family’s inheritance, his vision was wide, and Ink Painting explored on his own and researched deeply.

The two chatted for a while and both benefited greatly.

Zheng Fang felt even more that Ink Painting, this “little senior brother”, had a powerful comprehension of arrays, and he also recognized him a lot in his heart.

Ink Painting then took the opportunity to ask:

“Then suppose I have a jade slip and want to seal it so others can’t see it, what should I do?”

“Adding a seal to a jade slip, ah?”

“Um um.” Ink Painting nodded.

Zheng Fang said: “Actually, it’s very simple. Just add another layer of ‘array pattern’ to cover the content, and then leave a ‘seal pattern’ as the key just…”

“Seal pattern?” Ink Painting was slightly startled, “Is it a ‘secret pattern’?”

Zheng Fang shook his head, “Not the same. Generally, cultivators who don’t understand arrays, or array masters who are not proficient in Yuan Magnetic Arrays, will confuse them and call this kind of array patterns uniformly ‘secret patterns’…”

“But in orthodox inheritance, these names are all very strict and cannot be mistaken.”

“‘Seal pattern’ is used to solve ‘add seal’, and ‘secret pattern’ is used to solve ‘encrypt’.”

“If a jade slip is add sealed, you can’t see the text in the jade slip.”

“If a jade slip is encrypted, you can see the text in the jade slip, but the text you see is actually ‘disguised’…”

“These two methods are based on the same array principle, but their forms are quite different…”

Ink Painting suddenly realized, and praised again:

“You know so much!”

Zheng Fang’s face was slightly red, and he was proud in his heart. Like pouring beans from a bamboo tube, he explained everything about “add seal” and “encrypt” again:

“The so-called add seal is to add another layer of ‘indefinite magnetic pattern’ on a complete Yuan Magnetic Array, forming a dense and uniform ‘magnetic ink fog’ to cover the true content in the jade slip…”

“Encryption is different. It distorts the magnetic flow between the fixed style magnetic pattern and the indefinite magnetic pattern, which is the ‘secondary thunder flow’, thus causing the magnetic ink to display distorted text…”

“If you want to unseal it, you just need to crack the ‘seal pattern’ and unlock the ‘indefinite magnetic pattern’.”

“If you want to decrypt it, you just need to decipher the ‘secret pattern’ and correct the ‘secondary thunder pattern’…”

Zheng Fang talked incessantly, saying it all at once.

Although some things were things he had memorized by rote and didn’t quite understand himself, he had indeed learned them extremely solidly.

Ink Painting looked at Zheng Fang with new eyes.

Indeed, if three people walk together, one must be my teacher.

Being humble and eager to learn, looking and asking more, always brings rewards.

Ink Painting returned fully loaded and excitedly began to ponder the matter of “unsealing”.

The Break Gold jade slip of the Break Gold Gate had a blank surface, as if covered by fog, but when looked at carefully, there were fine magnetic ink spots.

This was “add seal”.

And after understanding the principle, thinking of a way to find the “seal pattern” and carry out the unsealing also had an idea.

The method was also very simple.

These two jade slips were all old, and Old Brother Jiang must have checked them often on weekdays.

When checking them, he would definitely unseal them with the “seal pattern”.

As long as it was unsealed, it would definitely leave traces of magnetic flow.

Other cultivators might not be able to see these traces, but Ink Painting could rely on the heavenly mechanism fusion algorithm to spy on some clues.

Spying on the magnetic flow meant spying on the traces of secondary thunder flow.

Then, based on experience, he would preliminarily simplify the secondary thunder flow to a secondary thunder pattern.

But this secondary thunder pattern was Ink Painting’s own simplification and was not necessarily accurate.

Ink Painting still had to circle some similar secondary thunder patterns from his self-summarized “secondary thunder pattern library” and enumerate them one by one to try…

Second-grade secondary thunder patterns were all in the same category.

Among hundreds of secondary thunder patterns, there would always be one “secondary thunder pattern” that would be the “seal pattern” to unseal the Break Gold jade slip.

If not, it didn’t matter. As long as the category was determined, he could explore and add some changes himself, and then try them one by one just.

And secondary thunder patterns weren’t completely considered array patterns, they had no norms, and weren’t completely accurate in reality either.

As long as the rough outline was the same, it could actually be used as a “seal pattern”.

Like two keys, even with some differences, they could still open the lock.

The only problem was that this derivation process could not be done on the dao stele in the sea of consciousness.

It could only be done in reality, trying the fusion of strange calculation and derivation calculation.

Therefore, Ink Painting could only be careful and try little by little, avoiding the situation where the load on the sea of consciousness was too heavy and divine sense produced cracks when amplifying the derivation calculation with strange calculation…

Several days later, Ink Painting, through the fusion algorithm, perceived the traces of secondary thunder flow.

Ink Painting spent half a day preliminarily simplifying these secondary thunder flows to “secondary thunder patterns”.

Afterwards, Ink Painting spent another two days finding several similar “thunder-same” secondary thunder patterns from his own secondary thunder pattern jade slip.

Ink Painting used these “secondary thunder patterns” as “seal patterns” to try and unseal the Break Gold jade slip one by one.

The result was still relatively smooth.

After trying more than ten times, Ink Painting heard a light “chirp” sound, as if there was a weak thunder flow surging and magnetic flow induction flowing.

At the same time, in the Break Gold jade slip, the clouds dispersed and the fog scattered.

Above the jade slip, the indefinite magnetic patterns used to add the seal dissipated one by one, revealing the five golden characters above the jade slip head:

“Break Gold Imperial Sword Art!”

(End of this chapter)