Jin Se

Chapter 10

Shi Wuduan experimentally took a step forward. The astrolabe above his head was leashed by the silk threads, illuminating a small circle centered on him. And then, the bamboo and rocks controlled by the Six Circle Array began to slowly shift away from him.

Shi Wuduan had had it all thought out. Plotting out the trajectories of the stars to calculate the corresponding change in the array for every change in the stars' positions wasn't a reliable method - he'd be calculating until he grew whiskers and still not be done. Even though Shi Wuduan sometimes seemed a few cards short of a deck, he wasn't stupid. Someone so skilled in such a complicated art at such a young age was definitely not that dumb- for example, he knew that Jiang Hua was trying to con him.

He pondered for a while and felt that since rogue cultivator Jiang Hua was an old friend of his shifu and was his senior, he was different from the Cuibing bird and those rabbit spirits. It wasn't proper to openly and brazenly con him back. So, he could only cheat by calling on Bai Li to help him trick this dead thing that was falsely called a living array.

The metal rod that Bai Li sent him was called a galaxy pestle, made from a mineral called "luo metal." In the back mountain of Jiulu Mountain, there were plenty of little black rocks such as these. Usually, they weren't of much use since all they could do was respond to the energy of the stars, absorb a bit of light, and twinkle a bit. When some yao were born, their parents would often collect these types of rocks to grind into powder to paste to the roof of their cave dwellings, creating an illusion of the night sky to amuse their young.

Shi Wuduan's astrolabe, ever since it had sucked up the essence of that fierce ghost in the abandoned temple, had become a bit wild. It was a bit difficult to control because his cultivation wasn't very high. Although normal divinations weren't a problem, controlling the stars in the astrolabe required considerable effort, thus, he asked Bai Li to make something to help him.

The astrolabe derived astral calculations. Countless sand-like grains moved in imitation of the stars in the ninth heaven. Shi Wuduan hung it over his head, planning to use it to trick the Six Circle Array, using that "fake" celestial sea to make those annoying rocks and bamboo obediently move out of the way.

When he tried it, it actually worked.

"South of the great fire, the sun consumes its light." Shi Wuduan became extremely self-satisfied, and his guts grew bigger as well. According to the slow movement of the sands in the astrolabe, the sea of bamboo slowly revealed a path. He headed straight, and maintained a decent pace, constantly adjusting the astrolabe above his head, not running into any obstruction.

Suddenly, for some reason, the ground began to shake. There was an almost furious rumbling sound coming from a faraway mountain ridge.

The human and bird were in the middle of the Six Circle Array. The Cuibing bird was originally terrified of the array, and had been quietly huddled up against Shi Wuduan, but this strange event caused it to start struggling as if possessed, stretching its neck out and repeatedly screeching, giving quite a scare to Shi Wuduan. He looked down and found that the bird's black, watery eyes actually seemed to reflect a bit of red light.

He confusedly hauled the large bird, stiffly petting its head, quietly saying, "Ai, don't yell anymore."

However the Cuibing bird seemed as if its life was on the line, screaming and convulsing. Shi Wuduan was small, his strength limited, and was almost unable to hold onto it.