Fearsome Rune Array!
A few minutes earlier
When Ye Sect's Tenth Elder told those present at the scene to disperse, everyone focused on his intent to make them leave and his emphasis on the lack of danger... everyone but one.
Qing Wu You!
As the only person among the onlookers that was without a cultivation, not to mention that he was a little boy that belonged to the highly respected Purple Plumed General's group, Qing Wu You was not paid that much attention by Ye Mo or the others.
The young frail-looking boy had long ignored the distracted people surrounding him. He slowly stepped closer to the tremendous array that emitted a piercingly cold and depressingly heavy feeling to anyone close enough to it.
Contrary to most people's discomfort, Qing Wu You's skin continued to tingle pleasantly. It was as if arcs of invisible electricity were playing around him, teasing him, pulling him closer towards those blue runes that danced on the formation itself.
He felt something inside that milky dome was beckoning him to come. The faster, the closer, the better. It was irrational for him to feel this way especially with him fully aware of what this array was meant for.
This was a soul-suppressing array! Not just an ordinary one, but one of the high class!
Though Qing Wu You had no idea what this array is called specifically, he could determine that this was a top-tiered ancient array that dealt with illusions not to the person's six senses, but to his or her divine soul.
It was an array specifically meant to control the souls of powerful cultivators!
One had to know that the color of the runes in an array was enough indication of its strength. The lighter the colors are, the more powerful they are. This one was milky blue in color, which meant it could turn close to white if it was upgraded!
And a white rune array was this continent's peak!
Right now, in this puny little city under one of the four territories of his Imperial Family's rule, this soul-suppressing array activated in front of Qing Wu You was already near the peak of arrays to ever exist in this continent!
As far as he was concerned, even the Imperial Treasury only had one or two arrays of this level!
Yes, according to what his Lord Father told him before, even the Qing Imperial Family had no white rune array plates in their midst!
It had to be known that the Qings are the strongest cultivating clan in this part of the continent, the rulers of the lands hard-won by humans in that devastating war thousands of years ago. Yet even they had no white rune array plates in their midst!
One had to see how precious and rare these arrays plates are, as these were artifacts that had an absurd power engraved in them, allowing them to unleash powerful arrays that could easily deal with cultivators of the same level.
Even though Qing Wu You was not a cultivator, he had read before that the most common arrays, the black rune arrays, could already deal with Body Washing Realm cultivators. Each color represented a leap in a realm.
Black, gray, dark-colored, colored, light-colored, then highest white rune arrays...
Body Washing Realm, Foundational Spirit Realm, Nascent Divinity Realm, Transformational Martial Realm, then the legendary Immortal Martial Realm...
The protective arrays in the Qing Imperial Palace were dark green in color, which meant that they could deal with anyone below the Transformational Martial Realm!
It was even said that in the legends of old, the highest kind of array that ever existed thousands of years ago did not even have colors. Higher than white runes!
Invisible runes!
They were runes invisible to the naked eye even when triggered. It was said that it could not even be sensed despite using a cultivator's divine consciousness.
However, these legendary invisible rune arrays had long been lost in time and no one alive, even those ancestors hidden in seclusion in the Qing Imperial Palace, had witnessed the might of one. Only in the most obscure records from scrolls dug up from ancient graves and ruins could their existence be known.
Qing Wu You only managed to learn of them because he once heard his Lord Father and his Imperial Grandfather, His Majesty, mention it in a passing while playing go...
This meant that among everyone present, it was only him, this eight-year-old boy, who truly understood the terror of this array in front of them!
Neither the Purple Plumed General who wholeheartedly focused on military affairs and cultivation nor the Tenth Elder of Ye Sect, the famous genius of the Dao of the Sword, knew what level of danger this array represented!
Milky blue runes! A light-colored array! An array powerful enough to harm all mortals, whether they be ordinary folks or cultivators!
Anyone that wasn't a true Immortal would be suppressed!
How could such an array appear in a mere first-tiered city?
Inside this, Qing Wu You would be at the total mercy of whoever was controlling this illusion array. Not to mention getting himself killed, the array controller could brainwash him by implanting false memories, make him live in an eternal samsara until he forgets his own identity, drive him crazy by making him experience continuous torture or worse, pull secrets of the Qing Imperial Family straight out from his mouth!
"She's in there? That little girl? Why was she targeted? Or was she the one who started this...?"
Gazing at those dangerous swirling blue mists that indicate an active illusionary array, Qing Wu You knew that the moment he stepped inside, he would be nothing more than chicken on a chopping board. This was also the reason why no one, not even his Imperial cousin, dared to venture inside. Everyone knew it would be meaningless to do so.
As no one knew what exactly happened, whether the thing inside this array would bring harm or benefit, they could only passively wait for the outcome before they could react.
To wait...
Could he wait?
The urge to approach was making him nearly lose his composure. "Inside this array, I can feel... her...calling out...is it her calling out to me?"
For a moment, he closed his eyes.
... and before he knew what was happening, he was already inside the array.
When his consciousness returned, Qing Wu You was no longer outside, surrounded by trees and puzzled over a milky blue rune array.
He was no longer inside the Ye Sect. In fact, he was no longer in Leaf City!
He was inside the Great Hall of the First Palace, the grandest palace of the Qing Imperial Palace!
He was kneeling in the middle of the Great Hall and his Imperial Grandfather, His Majesty the Qing Emperor, was sitting on his high throne in front of him!
His Lord Father and his Lady Mother were both standing side by side in the seat nearest to the Qing Emperor, both looking proud and expectant.
And then looking around at the sea of familiar faces of his clan, Qing Wu You understood.
Today was his eighth birthday, the day he was supposed to Awaken!
The day it was found out that he was a cripple!
The array had brought him back to that most painful day!