Am I the old man who's always by my apprentices' side?

Chapter 106 Trial Array
In order to spread the news of the Immortal Destiny Gathering more widely, Xu Ying specifically asked the Huiyou Escort Agency to help deliver the message, and Ye Shuyun also wrote to the Ye family to inform them of this matter.

Subsequently, Ye Lingying, the old master, did something that stunned everyone in the martial arts world.

He left behind only the necessary personnel to look after each business, and then led all the Ye family members and disciples north—he had come to seek refuge with his grandson, Ye Shuyun!

Of course, this is also because the Ye family has very few disciples to begin with. Apart from the managers and employees of various businesses, there are only a few dozen Ye family members who actually practice martial arts, and even with their accompanying relatives, the total number does not exceed fifty!
Unlike most sects that accept a wide range of disciples, the Ye family is a "family-style sect" with almost no disciples from outside the family.

Among them, those disciples who were not originally from the Ye family were mostly servants, attendants, or even maids in the Ye family. Because of their good aptitude and willingness to work hard, they entered the martial arts world, gained the appreciation of the Ye family, changed their surname to Ye, and officially became members of the Ye family—which was an "honor" for them.

These people were mostly adopted sons and daughters of the Ye family, and their treatment was equivalent to that of the Ye family members who were actually born into the Ye family. The Ye family was not stingy in terms of resources and upbringing, so the adopted sons and daughters of the Ye family were also loyal to the Ye family.

Moreover, under this model, the Ye family members are all elites among elites. Compared with other large-scale sects and forces, their disciples are much more powerful, generally possessing the cultivation level of the seventh or even the sixth rank, and some are even capable of becoming Venerables. This is why, apart from Grandmaster Ye Lingying, the Ye family has become famous in the martial arts world thanks to this group of elite disciples.

but……

Although Ye Lingying only brought a few dozen people with the surname Ye, there were over a hundred people who did not have the surname Ye accompanying her!

The group obtained travel permits under the guise of visiting relatives, and the Yuhang Prefecture did not dare to obstruct them, completing the formalities for the old master as quickly as possible.

After crossing the border between the Southern Chu Kingdom and the Northern Xiao Kingdom, the border general guarding the pass was so frightened by the arrival of Master Ye that he almost bit his tongue. If it weren't for the letter from the Sixth Princess explaining the situation, he would have thought that the Southern Chu Kingdom was inexplicably sending a master to start a war!

Even so, the generals on the other side were still very cautious, and they personally selected 500 men to "escort" Ye Lingying and her party until they entered Baozhou territory before they breathed a sigh of relief.

Baozhou is currently under the command of General Heshilie, who is in charge of the Shuntian Army. When he received the news from the border general, he was not particularly nervous.

General Heshilie's real name is Heshilie Renxian. He is a trusted confidant promoted by Murong Zhen. His martial arts rank is fourth-grade acquired Venerable. Although he cannot defeat a Grandmaster in a one-on-one fight, he can put up a fight against even a Grandmaster if they are in a military formation. Therefore, he is not worried about Ye Lingying making any special moves.

Moreover, he had already received word that the White Stone Immortal Sect was holding an Immortal Affinity Conference to recruit disciples. Even the Emperor had heard about it. He also heard that the Sixth Princess, Princess Xingguo, had specially sent the only blank invitation to the palace, which pleased the Emperor greatly, and he increased the Sixth Princess's fief by a thousand.

According to a secret letter sent by the imperial court, Heshi Lieren's first task was to openly ignore the passing foreign warriors as much as possible—offending the gods for the sake of petty schemes would be a greater loss than gain.

But... the necessary restrictions still need to be met.

My Great Xiao Kingdom is not some cheap cabbage that you can come and go as you please.
The border crossing fee is two strings of cash per person. If you can't pay that, there's no point in discussing it!
This is already quite a small amount; most martial artists from prestigious sects could afford it!

As for ordinary people who can't afford it...

What are ordinary people seeking immortality for? They haven't even mastered martial arts, let alone immortality! I'm doing this for your own good!

The reason for this meticulous calculation was that He Shi Lie Ren had long known that if a martial artist wanted to cultivate immortality, they had to first dissipate all their true energy and refine their true energy channels before they could possibly step onto the path of immortality. Dissipating all one's true energy! What an incredibly difficult decision! Ordinary people simply couldn't do it!
The higher the rank of a martial artist, the less likely they are to succeed!

Therefore, He Shi Lie Ren was not worried about the martial artists going to the Immortal Destiny Assembly, but only about the ordinary people of the Southern Chu Kingdom seeking immortal destiny...

Unfortunately, Zhang Chengdao was completely unaware of these subtle maneuvers.

He was busy studying the various magical techniques and secret manuals in the academy, especially those on various formations and illusions.

They've already made all that boasting; if they can't get the trial formation sorted out before the Immortal Destiny Conference, then things will get really messed up.

Although with his cheat-like abilities, he could easily fool everyone, since he could see everyone's "cards" and discern their qualifications, but...

That's such a shoddy job!

Zhang Chengdao, a modern man whose Steam playtime on Tieba can make guys call him a goblin otaku, has played all sorts of fantasy games and big titles like Twin Swords. How could he possibly not be able to design an interesting trial game... cough, trial levels?
After studying the secret manual for several days, Zhang Chengdao discovered that illusion techniques were simpler than formations.

Firstly, illusion magic relies more on the cultivator's spiritual power, while array formations must be made of spirit stones.

Stable spiritual materials with similar spiritual energy concentration can also be used, but they are not easy to find, unless they are synthesized or decomposed by the cheat panel. Zhang Chengdao searched for a long time and found that it was not as convenient as using spirit stones - it is possible that these spirit stones are the so-called "spiritual materials with similar spiritual energy concentration", after all, they are called crystals in the game.

Furthermore, the spirit stones are relatively easy to deal with; the real trouble lies in the diagrams of the various formations.

To Zhang Chengdao, that thing was like reading a book written in heaven, comparable to forcing an art student to learn advanced mathematics!
The Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, the Heavenly Gang and Earthly Fiends, and many other directions each have their own names and uses. Even if you memorize them, you still can't distinguish them at first and it's difficult to apply them.

After a month of arduous study, Zhang Chengdao barely managed to learn a few very simple formations, and they were of little help to the trial formation.

The only thing worth mentioning is an enhanced formation with an "amplification function," which can barely amplify the effect when Zhang Chengdao casts illusions, allowing him to conserve more spiritual energy.

The others are not worth mentioning; things like spirit-gathering arrays and rain-praying arrays are not very useful.

In comparison, illusions are much simpler.

This thing mainly relies on imagination, and then uses spiritual power to mold some "objects" like playing with clay. It's similar to the spell that enlarged the little fox back then. Essentially, it's a kind of "sleight of hand". Apart from consuming spiritual power, it's not troublesome.

After deciding to use illusion magic to design the trial array, Zhang Chengdao gave up on struggling in the Academy and went to the Crane Pond Reflecting the Moon Lamp in Peach Garden to wash his face and hands.

Because he plans to open all the membership bonuses he's saved up for a month and then do another 30 double draws!
(End of this chapter)