The tome held no qi. Well, no qi meant to transfer any memories at least. Which meant I would have to read through all of it. I took another look at the book, this was going to take a while.

"Arrays are a way to direct qi outside of your aura. In a way, you could say they use techniques without needing any qi intent."

Interesting. But I didn't know any techniques as far as I knew, but hopefully this book would change that.

"Arguably, one could say arrays are far more important to any sect than most cultivators. They secure their outposts and cities, their mountains and forests, and most importantly their inner sanctum.

And most sects have some secret arrays prepared for dire times."

As I continued to read about arrays and their uses something sprang to mind. Arrays were a cultivators way to be useful to society beside being a hired muscle. And they'd be my way to get a shower!

Just the thought of taking a hot shower again, or for the first time, nearly had me moan in pleasure.

Time to read on, and finally find out how to create arrays. I'd be able to find how to, and what to use them for myself. Without a third of the tome talking about it.

"Creating arrays is easy in principle. You just need to combine different runic symbols to achieve an effect. And fill them with qi.

But the meaning of these symbols was lost in time, and only a few array combinations are still known from the past.

Most get discovered by brave cultivators experimenting on this explosive subject."

Wait. How did that happen? The meaning of array symbols was lost to time? They were like civil magic, the most important part cultivation added to a society!

For something like that to be lost in time some serious shit must have happened in the past.

Something like the meteor that killed the dinosaurs, or perhaps the equivalent of a nuclear war. Or a super plague empowered by qi.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts of increasingly hideous causes for that loss, and returned my attention to the book in front of me.

"Arrays need constant throughput of qi to work, and can be powered by many things. Spirit stones, ambient qi, a cultivators qi. Everything containing qi can power an array."

Interesting. How'd that work though? I had yet to see something not living affect qi that wasn't qi itself. Wind for example didn't have any effect on qi that I could observe.

All living things did though, parting the ambient qi like a boulder did with waves. So, what made these array symbols so different? It couldn't just be the material, after all all the qi in different materials was practically inert until someone interacted with it.

Well, I'd see. For now, the tome on arrays.

"Arrays mainly need practice to be made, the better and more precise array symbols are created, and put in relation to each other.

In the following pages, many of the most common arrays, as well as all known array symbols, will be listed in the following pages."

So, precision and relation. What'd be the best way to do it? I'd just have to see. Though it didn't seem all that perfect for clothes. I could easily stitch some symbols into the robes I made, but those symbols would never perfectly align with each other, nor be as precise as they'd be in a non moving, solid object.

Well, time to see how arrays looked.

Arrays were runic circles. The simplest array was just a triangle, connecting three different array symbols, which was locked in a circle.

The array description simply said it increased the structural integrity of everything within. Which while simple, didn't seem all that useful to me. Perhaps place it around the chest? So that hits to the chest would get weakened?

Worth a try. For now, I took a look on the three array symbols. They were strange, just a bunch of interlocking lines. There was no rhyme or reason that I could see, or anything that connected the three. Still. Looking at them created a particular feeling. Like something was missing, like they were incomplete. I read on.

"This is the most basic array possible. Using less than three symbols is ill advised, as such arrays are prone to break anytime. Without any apparent reasons.

Looking at these symbols should make you feel uncomfortable, like something is missing. That is true in fact, as something is missing. All array symbols written down like that feel that way.

The feeling will only go away once you add in depth, which is hard to do, and something most people don't bother. Especially because the feeling of wrongness never goes away, it weakens a little, and such arrays are better than normal ones."

Wait. So array symbols were three dimensional? Or perhaps even four dimensional. So I'd have to add a fourth dimension, how would I even do that?

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Or even more, after all it didn't sound like just adding a fourth dimension would do the trick. Perhaps array symbols were like this one theory about a universal language I had once heard about? e8 or something.

Anyways. If array symbols were indeed made of a universal language, and some cultivator of old had found them, then I really didn't want to know what happened to the civilisation that brought about that genius. Or perhaps a group. Humans always worked better in groups than they did alone after all.

So, testing. Should I start with fabric, or use some volunteer crabs? I didn't really gain anything from using fabric, after all I'd have to power the array myself which wouldn't be the case if I used a crab.

Case settled I went out, hunting for a few volunteers.

Hunting for crabs was ever fruitful, the waste of the fisherman being a perfect breeding ground for bottom feeders like that.

Anyways. Now that I had a home myself I got myself a barrel of saltwater, to keep my subjects for longer than a day. Armed with a sharp bronze knife - pig iron was weaker than good bronze, and steel to expensive out here - I strapped a test subject to the table.

With my tome open next to me, I set to copy the simple array onto the crab's chitin.

First the symbols, then the triangle, and finally the circle to finish it. Thanks to the increased dexterity coming with both my cultivation and my work I didn't take long to accurately finish the array.

I could feel the topmost symbol immediately starting to attract the crab's qi, until all lines were filled with qi. Qi that didn't take long to be burnt, and go inert. The qi managed to power the array about five minutes in total. Which felt like a pittance.

Some non organic test were in order. I'd have to test the effect size had on the drain on qi, if qi intent had a different effect, if I could somehow delay activation. And if qi drain increased when I attacked the array itself.

And more. Lots and lots of tests.

I looked over at the half finished robe for Lioness, and decided to finish it. And take a break from work after, it was time to officially break into the second realm, and use the time I'd 'need' for that to research arrays and their creation.

And how to best use them for my work.

The tome's author was a bastard. While the arrays I tried had all worked, the symbols themselves changed. Not by much, but whenever he used the same symbol it changed a little. Which had me confused until I remembered the multidimensional nature of these array symbols. He always rotated the symbols just by a few degrees, making the same symbol look different from itself.

I only noticed because the qi gathering rune was used in every single array, and while he rotated that one the most, it had the same effect regardless of orientation. Which made noticing that little deception a matter of time, and of will to learn the idea behind arrays.

After that I didn't take more than half an hour to complete a mental picture of the rune. The rune, or symbol, did not have an end. It was just a single line that wound through itself several times, until it finally reconnecting to itself. Very strange, but perhaps it worked as a three dimensional representation of a higher dimensional symbol. How would I know, I didn't really understand higher dimensions, and I didn't plan to go that deep either. The only thing I knew about the fourth dimension was that it somehow moved. Or something like that, after all I had once seen the animation of a tesseract, or a four dimensional cube.

And a little bit of the theory of relativity, but that knowledge was vague, and I had no clue if it still held true. Though, high gravity did influence one’s perception of time, so I may even have some success adding a fourth dimension to my arrays, if I could use my qi intent for something like that at least.

Perhaps I’d try in the future, forming array symbols out of my own qi, but have in affect the time of the array symbol in a way that it would seem like a small dot following the line, instead of a complete line. That sounded like it would need time though. Lots and lots of time, some added insight to my qi intent, and qi. Lots of qi.

A point to try later anyways. For now, I should return to my experiments. Experiments that went quite well, all things considered. For example the efficiency of all arrays increased significantly the smaller they were made. In a way it was still the same. The radius of the circle seemed to be the thing directly responsible for the power needed for the array. The qi the array burnt was then used to spread its effects through the circle itself, and the area that decreased by an order of magnitude compared to the circle’s radius.

I had a test fabric based off my tests. A fabric I took longer to create than several normal robes. Arrays didn't power up until they were encased in a circle after all. Something I abused by just creating the symbols, using them for six of the triangles at once, and only adding the circles once the whole fabric was filled with miniature symbols and triangles.

As I had used a differently colored fiber of each part of the array, the fabric looked positively magical. It would sell great at the very least.

Anyways.

That small, simple fabric was ridiculous. Nothing I did could damage it, as all those interconnected symbols were hyper effective compared to their bigger brethren, and pulled in qi from each other. Which meant you didn't try to break through one, powerful array, but nearly a hundred small, significantly more efficient ones at the same time.

And, something I had forgotten when I learnt how to create this one for the first time - the array protected anything within it, which meant you had to drain it of qi first. Qi which seemed to move freely through the fabric as all single arrays were linked.

Sadly Lioness had already left the town, or I would allow her to have a go at it, so for now other cultivators had to do. Second realm cultivators. I made the array out of the highest quality of material I had access to, but could already see some degradation of the materials. Something the book mentioned. Arrays put stain on the material they were added to. Which, if one asked me, made them perfect to add to a living creature. After all, living beings healed, and when you added these arrays with something that wouldn't naturally heal, then you’d have nearly indestructible skin for as long as you had access to qi.

Which would be quite a while, considering even the biggest array I created was several times more effective than simply shoving qi into a material, and hoping it would work against any attacks directed at the robe.

Well, qi worked. It was simply outperformed by arrays.

I sighed. Just doing research with this simplest of arrays had taken me nearly two weeks. And my customers were getting antsy, which meant I had to open my shop again. And go visit the mayor’s office, ascending to a new realm had to be reported after all.

For now, my research would have to be slowed down, as I worked through the backlog of stuff I’d have to do. I really should start using my nights to cultivate too, one good night’s rest was more than enough for a week after all.

I sighed again, there was just so much to do, and too little time to do it. Create robes, research arrays, cultivate, work out, find new ways to use my gravity qi.

Weren't cultivators supposed to live longer? And thus have time for all the stuff they wanted to do?

I really should hire myself a mortal or two, to clean the house, prepare food, go shopping. Man my shop. All the little stuff that took several hours a week if counted together. Hours I could use for different things.

Though, with the power of my brain growing together with my cultivation, I should try and start working on several things at once. For example simply holding a sphere of gravity qi around me, sucking up all ambient, purified qi like a vacuum cleaner shouldn't be too hard to maintain. Well, at least if I wasn't in my shop, doing it there would just be stupid.

I’d have to do some serious planning, now that I had made my first steps into the wider world, even if only with an oath. For now, I’d just continue as is and see where it got me.