Longzang

Chapter 681 Pixel Style

While both were bounced away, Feng Tingyu was at least quite flexible. However, the closer you got to the bottom, the more terrifying her elasticity became, eventually increasing dramatically.

This time, Wei Yuan was thrown back hard, without the slightest softness. Its hardness rivaled that of Nether Iron, and Wei Yuan felt that it was hard enough to rifling a cannon barrel with his bare hands.

Wei Yuan managed to steady himself and avoid crashing into the wall. He could see who it was, but he was still incredulous. He said, "Senior Sister?"

Ji Liuli tidied his disheveled hair and said, "What, are you surprised to see me?"

"Weren't you in seclusion? Have you finished consolidating your strength?"

"With my inherent qualities, do I need to strengthen them? Come, let me show you my Dharma body."

Ji Liuli picked up a small magic knife that was used as a decorative item in the enlightenment room, parted a long hair from his head, blew on the knife, and the hair swept across, severing the knife in two. In this way, he could cut a hair with a breath.

Wei Yuan then understood why he felt like he had bumped into a mountain of Nether Iron. His senior sister's physical body was truly abstract; even the Mingwang Palace wasn't this exaggerated.

Wei Yuan decisively abandoned the idea of ​​sparring with her. Wei Yuan's Dharma form was vast and complex, resembling heaven and earth, almost a fully formed mental world.

Ji Liuli's form is clearly an extreme form of concentration; this smallness and extreme focus is precisely the nemesis of Wei Yuan's Dharma body. Just from Ji Liuli's demonstration, Wei Yuan knew that even if he used the Yin-Yang Giant Sword and unleashed its power to sweep away all barbarians, he could probably only cut through half of her Dharma body.

Wei Yuan inquired further and learned that Ji Liuli had consolidated his Dharma Aspect in seven days, then followed True Lord Yanshi to learn about the Dharma Aspect stage, and after completing his apprenticeship, he went straight to Qingming.

She happened to see Wei Yuan's notes on the Five Elements Dao Soldiers left in the Hall of Merit, so she also exchanged for a copy of an article by the Immortal Lord of the Listening Sea, and also looked up some information about the outer world. She then began to study the true meaning of the Dao with great interest in the Enlightenment Room.

She lost track of time while conducting this research, and several days passed without her realizing it. It wasn't until Wei Yuan entered the Enlightenment Chamber again that he discovered Ji Liuli.

After exchanging their previous experiences, Ji Liuli picked up a piece of jade paper and quickly wrote half a page of numbers on it, saying, "I just read the notes you left behind. Your understanding of the Water-Walking Soldiers is somewhat flawed. Actually, this problem is quite simple, just with a few slight variations in the basic principles. Lord Tinghai Xianjun has explained it very clearly; look, it's these few paragraphs..."

Wei Yuan had read those passages several times; he recognized all the characters.

Ji Liuli rolled her eyes at him, realizing that Wei Yuan hadn't understood at all, so she patiently explained: "To enable a water-attribute Dao soldier to reach the 'early stage of Dharma Aspect' level of agility, the system needs to configure at least 4096 controllable nodes. Each node is like a feature vector, responsible for controlling different parts of the body to move in different directions. Multiple nodes combine to form a 'basic movement,' similar to a higher-order movement feature after feature intersection."

However, controlling each node independently is equivalent to constructing an extremely complex high-dimensional control space, which is not only inefficient but also highly redundant. Therefore, we introduce a set of basic control instructions. By combining these basic instructions, we can generate complex yet ordered sequences of actions.

The combination method can be modeled using a recursive tree structure, such as using the node splitting mechanism in decision trees or random forests to optimize the action generation path. Each layer of nodes represents a decision point, such as raising a hand or turning left, and finally outputs a 'water blade launch' action through a series of rule paths.

In other words, when we "move our minds," we are essentially inputting a high-level command into the model, similar to the input signal of a neural network. The backend control logic tree then automatically executes the action generation logic to complete the water blade release. Of course, we can also use a method called principal component analysis to reduce dimensionality, projecting these 4096 nodes onto dozens of "principal axes," each representing a key action feature, such as "gathering energy," "wrist rotation," or "blade cleave." In this way, the system only needs to process a few dozen "spiritual dimensions" to reconstruct the entire action—also a matter of "move our minds."

Wei Yuan wanted to say that originally, after copying the basic spell model, one could simply use a thought to shoot out a water blade, without needing to learn so much.

Ji Liuli spoke for almost half an hour, finally finishing explaining how the Water Path Soldiers used the Water Blade Technique. Wei Yuan understood and memorized every word, but he couldn't grasp the meaning when they were put together.

Ji Liuli rolled his eyes, saying, "This is hopeless." Wei Yuan was also helpless. He had just relayed all of this to the common people, but the Crouching Dragon and the Phoenix Chick all pretended to be dead, not one of them making a sound.

After leaving the Enlightenment Chamber, Wei Yuan led Ji Liuli to the Immortal City. There was a house here that belonged to Ji Liuli, and Wei Yuan clearly remembered her preferences. From the color scheme to the layout to the decorations, everything was in the style that Ji Liuli liked, making her eyes light up.

Ji Liuli then went about his own business, wandering around Qingming, while Wei Yuan returned to the Enlightenment Chamber in the Hall of Merit to continue his practice.

The method of "water-based military discipline and displacement" is one research method. Wei Yuan also has his own research method: First, he must be able to release the most basic Taoist techniques.

After several hours of hard work, Wei Yuan felt that he was a little closer to success, but he couldn't say exactly how much closer.

Wei Yuan suddenly had a brilliant idea. After constructing the spell core, he directly reduced the number of nodes on the Dao Soldier to double digits, thus successfully constructing his first spell Dao Soldier.

This Taoist soldier was very strange. His entire body was made up of dozens of water-based blocks. Each arm had only about ten faces, and his body was similar, looking exactly like several roughly cut blocks pieced together.

According to Xu Wenwu, this is pixel art.

Thus, Wei Yuan constructed his first pixelated Dao soldier. This Dao soldier's strength was limited, roughly at the level of a beginner in the Dao Foundation stage, and it was only at the Human Rank Dao Foundation stage.

Wei Yuan silently dispersed the Dao soldier. If people knew that he had used the Yujing Dao technique to create a Dao foundation Dao soldier, his teacher might have to expel him from the sect.

However, pixelated Dao soldiers also had their advantages. When Wei Yuan arrived at the Dao technique testing ground, he waved his hand, and several hundred pixelated Dao soldiers appeared in the field. It was just that this scene looked somewhat eerie; Wei Yuan felt as if the heavens and earth had malfunctioned.

With Wei Yuan's immense divine sense and Dao power at this moment, he could unleash over a thousand pixelated Dao soldiers in one go. More than a thousand human-level Dao foundation cultivators—their power is terrifying. This is similar to the path Zhang Sheng has taken: winning through sheer numbers and breaking through stalemates with sheer force.

Then, with a thought from Wei Yuan, the Dao soldiers began to move around, some even engaging in one-on-one combat. However, only about two hundred Dao soldiers moved; the remaining three hundred stood motionless, like wooden figures.

Wei Yuan dispersed the three hundred uncontrollable Dao soldiers, and the remaining two hundred or so Dao soldiers immediately became much more agile, with more details added. For example, their faces, which were originally flat, now had several more facets, and their power was also slightly increased.

Looking at these two hundred-plus ridiculous and somewhat bizarre Dao soldiers, Wei Yuan roughly assessed their combat strength, which was much higher than that of a single water-type Dao soldier at the Dharma Aspect level.

Wei Yuan noted down all the data and was preparing to begin the second research project, which was to use all the Dao soldiers as array nodes to form an array for attack.

But before he could even begin, his internal Dao power suddenly surged, its upper limit rising rapidly! Wei Yuan cried out in alarm, and upon looking, he saw that the mist at the edge of the Human World was indeed churning, with new plots of land constantly being generated. The entire Human World had begun a new round of expansion, and it was exceptionally fierce!

Wei Yuan swiftly scanned the human world with his divine sense, searching for the source of the change.

Then a pretty woman stood in the garden, watering a patch of red, burning moss with her spiritual energy.

Wei Yuan was dumbfounded. He never expected that Fuyao could actually make this Phoenix Blood Longevity Moss survive! But in doing so, he didn't know how many more years his cultivation journey would be extended.

At that moment, a strange thought suddenly occurred to him: Could something hatch from that egg?
This is unlikely in terms of common sense, but in the cultivation world, anything is possible.

Wei Yuan felt something was amiss, so he immediately notified the girl Yin Yang, asking her to find a way to suppress the egg and prevent it from changing.

Then Wei Yuan cut off a tiny bit, no bigger than a pinhead, from the Phoenix Blood Longevity Moss and gave it to Xu Henshui to test the medicine.

At this time, Xu Henshui's alchemy temple was undergoing a major construction project, with many alchemists taking out array materials from stacked boxes and setting up arrays.

This array was quite large, covering several alchemy rooms and herb rooms. The array patterns were also mysterious, so mysterious that Wei Yuan couldn't understand them at all.

The reason Wei Yuan couldn't understand this formation wasn't because of a lack of skill in array formations, but rather because high-level formations adapt to the materials used; the rarer the materials, the more unusual the formation. Therefore, Wei Yuan's unfamiliarity with this formation indicated the use of a large number of rare materials he had never seen before.

Wei Yuan approached Xu Henshui and asked, "Uncle-Master Xu, what kind of formation is this?"

Xu Henshui said, "This is the Penetrating Array. This array can greatly enhance one's divine sense. Whether refining pills or identifying the properties of medicinal herbs, one can reach a state of profound understanding within this array. Medicinal herbs that can normally only be studied once can be studied seven or eight times within this array."

For example, some spirit mushrooms normally require a whole one, but with the blessing of this array, only a small piece of the umbrella leaf containing the spirit seed is needed. If the cultivator's divine sense is strong enough, even a single spirit seed may suffice.

Wei Yuan took out the Phoenix Blood Longevity Moss and said with a smile, "With the help of this formation, these medicinal herbs should be enough for Uncle-Master."

Xu Henshui looked at the tiny moss, no bigger than a pinhead, and said speechlessly, "You think too highly of your martial uncle."

However, once the Cave Micro Spirit Array is completed, Xu Henshui estimates he can use these medicinal herbs to research three pill formulas. As Xu Henshui received the medicine, Wei Yuan suddenly noticed his fingertips trembling slightly. Startled, he quickly asked, "Uncle-Master, what's wrong?"

A cultivator's control over their physical body requires meticulous attention to detail; if uncontrollable tremors occur, it indicates a serious problem.

Xu Henshui glanced at Wei Yuan with a resentful look and said, "Liu Li has already left, why did you have to provoke her back? She came to me just now, insisting on sparring, and that's how I ended up like this. That damned woman, she doesn't know her own strength."

Wei Yuan had personally experienced Ji Liuli's formidable physical strength, which was comparable to that of a freak at the peak of the Imperial Realm. Even he himself was hesitant to spar with her, so Xu Henshui's frail body would naturally be no match for her.

Wei Yuan sensed something was wrong and immediately went to the Immortal City.

At this moment, only Feng Chutang was in the Immortal City. He was sitting at his desk, quietly looking at the blueprint of the Transformation Pool that had been copied down in front of him. Everything seemed peaceful and serene.

Wei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Uncle-Master Feng!"

Feng Chutang looked up and calmly asked, "Is there anything you need, nephew?"

Wei Yuan finally realized something was wrong. At this moment, Feng Chutang was completely devoid of her usual gentleness and passion; her eyes were filled with a deathly aura.

"Uncle-Master, what's wrong...?"

(End of this chapter)