To break Feng Lian's will, I only had to do one thing—
show him the difference between us.
Not through arrogance, not through force, not through words.
Just simple superiority.
My first move was in Level 1.
I made him look like a villain, made him lose face, and made him back off.
Now, he sees me as an opponent.
That is the first step.
---
When the second level started, I quickly understood what it was about—arrays.
The moment I saw the symbols scattered all over the mountain path, I knew this test wasn't just about passing.
It was built to create pressure and competition.
Perfect for my plan.
I looked ahead.
Gu Chaun had already reached one-third of the mountain by the time I arrived.
His speed was far better than I expected. It looked like he had studied arrays seriously and even created his own path of arrays.
Good.
If he was already this fast, I wouldn't have to intervene in this level.
Instead, I shifted my focus to Feng Lian.
---
I told my group that I had experience in arrays and had formed my own path.
That was enough. They immediately relaxed and happily pushed the lead position to me.
They weren't stupid, but they also weren't smart.
Cultivators are naturally more intelligent than other species, but not by a wide margin.
Only those who cultivate their mentality can think far faster.
A normal cultivator from a prestige planet has at least a thought speed above one million.
People famous across the universe—like my father—have speeds in the billions.
Such people can notice tiny details while analyzing hundreds of scenarios at the same time.
Outsmarting someone like that is impossible.
Against them, only absolute strength matters.
My own thought speed is low compared to that—just around five million.
But on this planet, I am easily the smartest person.
With that advantage, I could break every array on this mountain and make them a hundred times more complex, crushing Feng Lian's confidence instantly.
But doing that would be suspicious.
These elders are already watching us.
They probably think we might be wanted criminals.
But no normal wanted criminal at a low rank could do what I can.
Ranks matter. The higher the rank, the more dangerous the criminal.
If someone associates with them, even their entire planet can be punished.
So if the elders truly thought we were high-ranked criminals, they would not hesitate to eliminate us or report us immediately.
I can fight one or two Nascent Soul cultivators.
But all of them?
Impossible.
Especially the planet's king—he could defeat me instantly because he has—
I stopped the thought.
No point thinking about it.
Instead, I chose a simple approach—
act like I'm close to their level, not above them, and overwhelm Feng Lian little by little.
From the start until the end, I would push him down but never crush him completely.
A clean break would be too suspicious.
But continuous pressure?
That builds the foundation.
Destroying someone's confidence isn't difficult.
But doing it slowly, without them realizing it, is far more effective.
If I keep placing people above him, if I make him feel weaker every step, if he keeps losing in ways he can't understand…
He will break.
A genius cannot accept falling behind people he once looked down on.
Especially someone like Feng Lian.
At his age, his potential could easily let him reach a high realm his peers might never touch.
But potential is useless when someone believes others are far better than them.
Once he reaches that mental wall, I will help him.
Guide him.
And use him.
Thinking that, I adjusted my array-breaking speed.
I made myself just slightly slower than Feng Lian's array master.
Not too slow.
Not too fast.
Just perfect.
We advanced until the one-third point of the mountain.
At that point, I noticed the number of arrays had increased—from one to four.
That was Gu Chaun's doing.
Because of that, Feng Lian's array master slowed down.
He had never practiced multi-symbol arrays at this density.
I used this opening.
I kept my speed exactly the same as before.
Now I was faster than Feng Lian's array master.
This would sting him.
Just the beginning.
---
Gu Chaun's Side
I continued killing spirit beasts.
For me, hunting spirit beasts was as easy as breathing.
With my past experience and battle instincts, each fight ended in seconds.
But even then, it still took time.
Running from beast to beast was tiring and painfully slow.
I was getting bored.
So I came up with an idea.
A big one.
"Hey, Xinyi," I said. "How about we fill the whole level with arrays? It'll make this easier."
Feng Xinyi, who had been sleeping, woke up slowly.
She looked annoyed—I probably ruined her good dream.
"Before you say anything, listen first."
I explained my idea.
Her annoyed expression changed instantly.
The moment she understood the concept—an endless, automatic money-making method—she got excited.
The plan was simple:
1. Spread pull-type arrays across the entire level to drag every beast toward a central point.
2. Surround that center with Qi-gathering arrays.
3. Feed the gathered Qi directly into my T.N v1, letting it kill every beast that gets dragged in.
If it worked, the beasts would constantly regenerate around the grassland, get dragged toward the center, and die instantly.
Infinite points.
Infinite beast cores.
Infinite money.
There was only one problem:
Qi-gathering arrays normally don't produce enough energy for my techniques.
To solve that, we had only one option—
make the Qi-gathering arrays far more complex.
Array complexity is everything.
The more complex an array is, the stronger it becomes.
In theory, you could even make a level 1 array strong enough to reach the power of a level 10 array.
But that achievement is so difficult that even someone who has mastered level 10 arrays wouldn't be able to do it.
Let me explain it simply:
A level 10 array is normally ten levels above a level 1 array.
If someone created a level 1 array powerful enough to match level 10, it would be described as:
1¹⁰ — a level 1 array with the power of level 10.
If someone created a level 2 array with the power of a level 10 array, it would be:
2¹⁰ — a level 2 array with the power of level 10.
And so on.
Technically, any array can be pushed to any level through complexity alone.
But doing that requires insane calculations and precision.
For me?
Possible.
Time-consuming, but possible.
We started the work immediately.