Back in the apocalyptic world.
Ye Wuji stood atop a towering skyscraper situated at the heart of the city, surrounded from all sides by a massive, thousand-foot-wide garden. From this height, not only could he oversee the vast ruin of the cityscape, but he also had a clear view of the building's immediate surroundings in every direction.
After some time spent flying and scouring the ruined city for the perfect location to install his Blood Essence Harvesting Arrays, he finally settled on this place.
"This is it," he muttered. "This place is incomparably far better than any of the others I've seen before this."
The building beneath his feet had once been a luxurious hotel—the Arasaka Hotel.
Its surrounding garden, wide open and filled with roaming zombie cultivators, made it an ideal location for the Blood Essence Harvesting Array. And it also had both the space and the strategic positioning to serve as a permanent stronghold in the future.
Ye Wuji took out the two Blood Essence Harvesting Arrays from his storage bag, examining them thoughtfully.
"Where should I place them? Using them separately would work, but it would be a waste… instead, by combining them into one would double the range."
While most arrays could be stacked like this, it rarely offered substantial benefits unless the environment allowed for full utilization, like in this situation.
Naturally, combining two arrays would increase their power and reach, but it would also raise the energy requirements. Though that wasn't a problem for him since the Blood Essence Harvesting Array was self-sustaining—it absorbed blood essence from creatures inside it and used a portion to fuel itself, while the leftover condensed into blood essence crystals.
It was a perfect example of why demonic arrays were better and more suited for prolonged operating instead of righteous ones.
"Since it will have a doubled range, the array center should be somewhere on the second floor of the Arasaka Hotel, and the array nodes should be distributed evenly around the garden perimeter," Ye Wuji concluded.
Without hesitation, he leapt onto his flying shuttle artifact and descended to the hotel's grand entrance. After entering, he made his way upstairs and carefully fused the two arrays into one before setting up the central array formation on the second floor.
Once that was done, he exited the hotel and meticulously placed the array nodes throughout the surrounding garden.
When the formation was complete, he returned to the center, placed several blood essence crystals to fuel its initial activation, and whispered:
"Blood Essence Harvesting Array… Activate."
A red mist slowly began to spread.
Without wasting time, Ye Wuji pulled out his flying shuttle artifact once again, leapt onto it, and rose into the air. From high above, he hovered in silence, watching the transformation unfold.
Within moments, the once lifeless garden was engulfed in thick, blood-red mist. Zombie cultivators, once freely walking around, began collapsing one by one. Their bodies twitched violently before going still, lifeless. The array harvested their blood essence, used a portion of it to sustain itself, and the leftovers to start creating blood essence crystals within the array center.
A thin smile appeared on Ye Wuji's face.
"This is perfect. With this, I'll have more than enough resources to continue cultivating. And Si Wei and Xue Sha will have more than enough to eat."
He descended, landing before the Arasaka Hotel's entrance, and pulled out Si Wei and Xue Sha from his Corpse Tower.
"I'll be inside cultivating," he said flatly. "Guard the array and you may eat all the corpses here, but only after the array finishes extracting their blood essence and they're truly dead."
Both corpse soldiers nodded, eyes gleaming with hunger, but obediently.
Satisfied, Ye Wuji turned and walked back into the hotel, ascending to the highest floor's room. Though he could have picked a room on lower floors and closer to the array center, he deliberately chose one with the broadest view, because from here, he could monitor the entire field whenever he wanted.
Inside the room, he sat down cross-legged and summoned a small mountain of blood essence crystals beside him.
"This should last for a while," he muttered with a faint grin and then activated the Scarlet Soul Blood-Refining Cultivation Art.
|>>======|✦|======<<|
One month later.
On the top floor of the Arasaka Hotel, Ye Wuji abruptly opened his eyes. His aura pulsed, sharper and denser than before. For weeks, he had remained in closed-door cultivation, tirelessly absorbing blood essence crystals.
And now, the results finally showed themselves.
"I've reached the peak of the seventh stage of the Qi Refining Realm," he murmured, a flicker of satisfaction glinting in his eyes. "Just one final small push... and I'll breakthrough into the eighth."
Without wasting a moment, he resumed cultivating.
He focused once more; a mound of blood essence crystals piled beside him like a small hill. Circulating his Qi according to the Scarlet Soul Blood-Refining Art, he channeled the blood essence into his meridians. Warmth surged through his body, followed by a scorching tide that scorched his limbs, expanding his dantian bit by bit.
Two days later—
BOOM!
His aura erupted. Dust blasted outward as spiritual energy, and his Qi surged through the room. His cultivation base skyrocketed past the bottleneck.
His eyes snapped open, this time filled with absolute satisfaction
"Eighth Stage of Qi Refining Realm."
Finally. Only just one step away from the peak of the Qi Refining realm.
"I should continue cultivating, this is the time to reach the peak of the Qi Refining realm finally. If I keep the momentum—"
But then he paused, frowning. He felt a strange sensation. Reaching into his storage ring, he pulled out the Mother Plant.
A portion of the stem, the one from which the yellow petal had sprouted, was slightly withered.
Ye Wuji narrowed his eyes.
"Looks like there are some news from Bai Qi."
He let out a low sigh, reluctantly stopping his cultivation and slowly standing, brushing the dust from his robe.
"It's time to return."