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"Moo~~~" The big black ox snorted in surprise, dropping the two pieces of ore it was holding. Big Brother was awake.
Without a second thought, it dashed toward the shore. After all these years, Big Brother must have discovered something amazing. Chen Xun was truly a genius!
Chen Xun was still in a daze when, from a distance, a huge cloud of dust appeared, accompanied by the sound of a bellowing ox. A massive black sphere was charging toward him, with a small red figure standing on top.
"Moo!!"
"Brother Xun!"
The big black ox and Little Red shouted excitedly, their tails wagging rapidly. Despite the years that had passed, nothing had really changed.
Chen Xun smiled and started running toward them. The three of them collided in a tight embrace.
"Heh, I’ve been in seclusion for a long time, huh?" Chen Xun looked them up and down. "How have things been?"
"Moo moo~~" The big black ox nudged Chen Xun, sniffing his scent.
"Brother Xun, you’ve been gone for fifty years! I’ve mined almost all of this vein, haha," Little Red said, tilting his head up. "I’ve been busy every day. And Ox has even completed his formation skills—you don’t know, we even made a Five Elements Stone!"
"So long?" Chen Xun was surprised as he hugged the big black ox's head, not having felt the passage of time.
"Moo~" The big black ox nodded; Little Red was telling the truth.
Chen Xun sighed in relief. Thankfully, Little Red was around; otherwise, he couldn't have imagined how the old ox would have endured these fifty years. Studying formations alone would’ve been far more boring than being in seclusion.
"Brother Xun, you don’t have to worry about us," Little Red called out cheerfully. "No cultivators ever come near here; it’s very safe!"
"Haha, good job." Chen Xun praised them with a happy pat on the big black ox and Little Red.
"Moo~" The big black ox nudged Chen Xun again and began recounting the changes of the past fifty years, with Little Red animatedly chiming in with gestures and excitement.
With Brother Xun out of seclusion, they felt like they finally had a guiding force again. Sometimes, they didn’t even know what they should be doing.
As they walked, Chen Xun patiently listened to their stories, mainly concerned about how they had been living.
But he couldn’t help but laugh. When they weren’t busy, the ox and the lion had taken to blessing the towering trees on the island, even going on various adventures. Their little booklet held records of many experiences.
"Moo moo~" The big black ox floated the booklet in the air, showing Chen Xun its daily activities.
"Impressive, old ox! The Five Elements teleportation array is done already?"
"Moo!"
The big black ox proudly patted Chen Xun with its hoof, giving a smug, lopsided smile. How could the Ximen Black Ox be stumped by formations?
Chen Xun's gaze grew somewhat distant, but not because of what they’d been up to—he was lost in his own thoughts. But there was no rush, as he continued listening to the big black ox's tales.
Eventually, they arrived at the centre of a formation: a circular Seven Star Dark Light Array, with seven fist-sized God-killing Stones embedded within.
"Brother Xun, this is the 'Five Elements Stone.' It's even more efficient than spirit stones and can be recharged once its five-elemental energy is depleted." Little Red leapt off the big black ox’s back. "Ox is a formation genius; he saved us so many spirit stones!"
"Moo~~!" The big black ox stood proudly and gave Little Red a confirming look—well said!
Chen Xun stood at the centre of the array and suddenly activated his five-elemental power. The array began to gleam with starlight, its veins instantly coming to life, as if he’d always known how to set it in motion.
"Moo~!" The big black ox's eyes widened in awe. No wonder Chen Xun was the Five Elements Path Ancestor—his brilliant big brother.
This teleportation array can only be activated by cultivators with profound knowledge of the five-elemental force. Touching it with regular spiritual energy wouldn’t cause any reaction at all.
“Nice work on the array, old ox.” Chen Xun brought his two fingers together and laughed. “Let me give it a try.”
As soon as he finished speaking, he vanished instantly, reappearing in the distant part of the array. His eyes lit up with amazement—it was incredibly fast, and he felt no spatial pull at all.
As he left, the "Five Elements Stone" in the teleportation array dimmed slightly, then slowly began absorbing the five-elemental energy from the surroundings to recharge. Before long, it was fully restored.
“Moo moo?”
“Awesome!!” a loud shout echoed from afar.
“Moo!!”
The big black ox snorted excitedly, running in circles. It had found a way to stabilize the Five Elements teleportation array—by stacking arrays!
This technique of stacking formations was something it had learned at the Five Elements Sect, and now it applied it to the teleportation array. Although this compact array looked simple, it contained three layered formations.
The Five Elements teleportation array was now fully stable, although it consumed a significant amount of resources. But with plenty of ore and storage rings on hand, the entire vein on this island had been extracted.
A gentle breeze blew by as Chen Xun teleported back and forth, again and again.
“Haha! Fantastic! Old ox, Little Red, we won’t need to spend spirit stones on teleportation anymore; we’re self-sufficient!” Chen Xun was thrilled, playing around with the teleportation array. It would save so many spirit stones, which he could then use to buy more materials. “Woohoo!”
“Moo~” The big black ox’s head was nearly raised to the heavens, looking as though it was ready to cross its hooves in satisfaction.
“Brother Xun, I helped too!”
“Little Red, you get free rides on the array, haha.”
“How about setting one up on the Tian Duan Plains?” Little Red’s eyes sparkled, his tail wagging so fast it became a blur. “What do you think, Brother Xun?”
“Sounds good!”
“Roar!! Haha, Brother Xun, you’re incredible!”
Little Red leapt up with joy. It was definitely best to bring up matters when Brother Xun was in a good mood—no chance of getting scolded that way.
A stick of incense later, Chen Xun returned to their original spot, absolutely delighted. They now had another trump card for survival. This Five Elements teleportation array was much better than ordinary arrays.
According to the big black ox, the array’s range was impressive—far enough to traverse this vast island with ease, and they hadn’t even tested its limits yet.
And this was only a small-scale teleportation array. The big black ox could already set up a medium-sized array, which could teleport across major regions. Chen Xun was amazed to hear this.
Even with their current power, travelling thousands of miles instantly was impossible. The art of formations was profound and vast—he’d completely given up on mastering it.
With over two thousand years of accumulated knowledge, no matter how hard he tried now, he couldn’t surpass the old ox, a peerless genius in formation arts.
The big black ox continued to explain to Chen Xun that setting up an ordinary teleportation array required great care, with aspects of feng shui involved, such as choosing a location with spatial stability.
But the Five Elements teleportation array didn’t require carving a base. The whole world was its base, with the endless flow of five-elemental energy forcefully stabilized within the array.
As long as it pinpointed a teleportation point, it could set up the array at will. Currently, this only worked for small arrays; medium arrays still took considerable time to set up.
Chen Xun kept exclaiming in amazement and instinctively took out a notebook to jot things down. The big black ox patted Chen Xun’s shoulder repeatedly, giving him a look of approval that almost seemed to say, “There’s hope for you.”