Food gives me an entry, I will be invincible if I stay alive

Chapter 423 Nothing but familiarity

Outside the forging workshop.

Old Dong's expressions were varied.

Inside the forging room, after three failures, Chen Xu finally succeeded in replicating all the array patterns on the first puppet.

Although he was merely replicating the original patterns, Chen Xu was still completely clueless about the reasons behind these patterns.

But to be able to successfully replicate it is already enough to be considered a genius, which is amazing.

All of this was mainly due to Chen Xu's previous learning of several runes through the book "The Talisman".

For example, the "All Things Transformation Talisman" that he used most often.

In the bustling kitchen, Chen Xu has drawn this talisman countless times.

When Chen Xu first learned to draw talismans, he often experienced failures.

Even now, he still has many questions about the true mysteries of the rune lines.

But as the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

Even the most obscure things, if you draw them thousands of times, you should eventually understand some of them.

Even if you don't understand it, there's always a natural feeling of familiarity that flows naturally.

This is Chen Xu's current state.

The array patterns on the puppet's body are three-dimensional and twisted, with each turn being strange and subtle, creating an unexpected and thrilling atmosphere.

If Chen Xu were to delve deeper into the meaning of it, he would sometimes even feel a little dizzy.

But when he doesn't think about anything and simply sketches naturally, he suddenly seems to be able to find the most crucial point.

So he wrote down his thoughts naturally, with a flowing and effortless style.

When the array patterns on the first puppet were completely drawn, Chen Xu felt as if he had gone through a long run.

During the run, he seemed to see a chaotic world rapidly shifting.

The sun, moon, heaven, and earth are in a cycle of alternation.

Pure air rises, turbid air sinks, yin and yang alternate, thus creating heaven and earth, the four directions, time and space.

The world is vast and boundless.

Chen Xu couldn't see the whole picture; he only felt as if he were a mayfly traversing this boundless天地 (heaven and earth).

Spacetime and the universe are filled with dust and threads everywhere.

As a tiny mayfly, amidst countless indistinct and incomprehensible threads of dust and silk, it seemed to be nothing more than a small insect struggling in vain.

However, the insect's running around didn't seem to be entirely useless.

At least in the process of running, he saw more scenery and broke more threads.

Some threads became entangled around him, making his running increasingly difficult.

He pulled up some of the silk threads wrapped around his body and used them to pull and control another part of the scenery behind them.

Then, he seemed to see a thread that moved the wind, a thread that moved the water, a thread that moved the fire...

There are also endless threads, woven into one mesh after another.

Finally, he became engrossed in the netting, and it looked like he was about to sink deeper and never be able to get out.

But suddenly, at a certain moment, the thread in front of me tightened abruptly.

Snapped!
The thread broke.

Chen Xu regained consciousness and looked at the scene before him again.

Where in this world can one find any silk threads?
What he saw before him was clearly nothing more than an array platform, a weapon-refining room, and Chen Xu himself, Mao Zhenren, and three Hundred Battle Puppets in the weapon-refining room!
When Chen Xu was caught in the strange phenomenon, he was actually drawing array patterns to repair one of the puppets.

When the silk thread breaks, it means that he has completed drawing the array pattern.

The origin of this strange phenomenon is clearly related to the drawing of the puppet array patterns. Did Chen Xu touch upon some of the "puppet's" memories while repairing the array patterns?

Is it because he completely drew the puppet array pattern that Chen Xu once again glimpsed some truth about the world through the magical thing called "talisman"?

Chen Xu had a keen intuition that he believed both were possible.

When a puppet is controlled, it is as if it is carrying countless threads; if the threads move, the puppet will dance.

But aren't people in this world also being manipulated by the invisible?

Manipulated by identity, manipulated by desire, manipulated by "fate"...

No one knows how much of this manipulation is truly "doing what one wants."
Behind those endless threads in the universe, could there be an even more mysterious manipulator?

Just as the Great Li Kingdom is a kingdom depicted in murals, how can we know that the Xuan Tian Star Realm is the real world?
Some questions shouldn't be pondered too deeply, as excessive thinking can easily lead to mental confusion.

Chen Xu even felt a thin layer of cold sweat seep out on his back without realizing it.

His posture, with his hand on the array flag and standing there in a daze, appeared to Master Mao as one of utter exhaustion, as if he had run out of true energy.

Immediately, Master Mao raised his hand and slapped the jade bottle, causing the stopper to fall off.

One of the Qi-replenishing pills suddenly flew out of the bottle and shot accurately at Chen Xu.

Master Mao shouted, "Disciple, receive the elixir!"

Chen Xu snapped out of his daze and instinctively opened his mouth.

The pearl, as white as jade, seemed like a small shooting star as it suddenly entered his mouth.

The pill instantly transformed into a fine, nectar-like liquid upon entering the mouth.

Immediately following this, a massive surge of vital energy erupted, rushing into Chen Xu's slightly parched meridians—

He concentrated most of his true essence into his golden core, and at this moment, the true essence flowing through his meridians was indeed showing signs of depletion.

The Replenishing Essence Pill has a potent medicinal effect; even ordinary Golden Core cultivators can use it to replenish their true essence, let alone those at the Foundation Establishment stage.
As Chen Xu was affected by the effects of the medicine, most of his previous confusion naturally dissipated.

He slowly regulated his breathing and gently exhaled a breath of stale air.

The wonders of the array patterns are truly amazing.

If ordinary people cultivate improperly and fail to comprehend the true meaning, that's one thing, but the worst thing is to lose one's mind and soul in the mysteries of the array patterns.

After thinking it over, Chen Xu decided to ask.

He wanted to see what kind of answer a Nascent Soul cultivator would have to this world.

So he picked and chose, sharing some of his feelings from when he was drawing the array patterns, and then asked Master Mao:
"Master, were those threads I just saw the channels we use to control the puppets, or something else?"

When Master Mao heard Chen Xu describe his feelings just now, he was momentarily stunned.

He countered Chen Xu's question: "Disciple, are you saying that when you were drawing the array patterns just now, you actually sensed through the array patterns that there seemed to be countless threads in the world?"

In fact, when Chen Xu comprehended the Netherworld Abyss Divine Power in the Great Li Kingdom, he had a similar feeling!
But Chen Xu was not confused at the time; he even felt that the clouds had parted and the fog had cleared.

It was precisely because he had deciphered some of the laws governing the operation of the threads in the universe that Chen Xu was able to travel between the underworld and the human world at will.

At that time, it was because of this that he was able to understand some of the mysteries of space.

However, in the Xuan Tian Star Realm, everything is different.

A question suddenly arose in Chen Xu's mind, and he hoped that Master Mao would provide an answer.

After Mao Zhenren asked Chen Xu a question, the expression on his face suddenly changed.

He said with surprise, excitement, and even disbelief:

"The mystery of the array runes? My disciple, you have only just begun learning the Thirteen Runes of Puppetry, yet you have already begun to experience the mystery of the array runes. How is this possible?"

"My disciple, do you truly lack a Dao body? Not some innate primordial Dao body or anything like that?"

(End of this chapter)