Cinder was kind enough to explain each step of the repair process and why she was doing what she was to the eight trigrams formation as she worked. I had read and memorized all the material I had purchased on each of the professions concerning arrays, runes, and enchantments, but that only supplied me with technical information. While important, it gave no real experience. I needed hands-on experience to become proficient in each profession.
My memory was eidetic by this point. The advances to my intellect and ability to recall had become prodigious after my advancement to the Qi Gathering Realm, but I needed to actually practice any of the professions to become proficient. What I found interesting was my ability to recall, perfectly, events from my past. Tidbits of information that I had come across before being digitized were available, trivia, and technical knowledge about the strangest things.
Knowing how something was done and having the ability to make use of that knowledge were two different things. Cinder's kindness gave me insights into the real mechanics of array creation and repair. Her abilities were profound enough that I would have gladly studied with her until I reached the journeyman rank if she was willing.
"It isn't enough to simply pour the softened metal flux into the channels you engrave," she explained. "You need to synergize and bond the metal flux with the array as you meld the two substances together. It can be done using Qi, a brute force method that works, but using that method isn't efficient and the array will be prone to failure at some point. Much sooner than it needs to be if you make the effort to inscribe correctly.
"You have opened your Dharmic body completely now, so have the ability to harness techniques those at Body Refinement Realm lack. The more elegant solution is to use your newly awakened Dharmic spellcraft and fuse the array plates with the metal flux by manipulating how the bond is formed. The process is similar to the technique you used when joining your territory stone with the town stone.
"A word of warning. Once you start the bonding process and begin adding the metal flux, you have to finish. If you stop because you don't have the energy to complete melding the two parts together, or you lose focus, you can't restart. People have tried, but no matter how they have tried or experimented, stopping and restarting the bonding process creates a fracture, a break that is undetectable.
"Those breaks cause catastrophic failure as they interrupt the flow of Qi along the path of the array. It doesn't matter how perfect the array appears to your Qi perception, the array somehow remembers that point where you stopped and restarted. It works like a dam that collects Qi into a growing pool of energy until eventually that pool of energy melts the array into slag.
"Those arrays have been known to explode," she finished, warning me about the dangers.
"How can you affect repairs then?" I wondered. "You are stopping and starting at each damaged section in the array, filling in the missing flux before moving on to the next part."
"Because this array was created properly without breaks to begin with. As I mentioned, arrays work as if they remember the crafting process, they remember how they are supposed to function. When you need to make a repair, the array responds by operating as it did when newly created. This array not only remembers how it is supposed to act, but it is also a master-level array and is actually helping to facilitate my repairs. An Array created by a true Master is almost alive. It wants to function properly.
"Watch carefully as I add flux to this next section. Use your Qi perception and narrow your focus as tightly as you can on the array just in front of where I will be adding new flux," she suggested.
Focusing on my perception, I watched as she returned to her repairs. It didn't take me long to understand what she meant. The area of the array she was working with seemed more alive than inert. The part that was broken, anticipating the repairs and flowing, almost reaching out to grasp and greet the flux she was providing.
It was almost as if the array structure itself was reforming, smoothing out, and removing any impurities or missed flecks of metal flux still lodged within the grooves that had been etched when first created. That semblance of life wasn't the same or as advanced as the intelligence that I was nurturing within my weapons, but there was a desire, a sense of yearning from the array construct for completeness. It wanted the purpose it was created for to be restored.
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I narrowed the focus of my perception even more until I could examine the changes being made on the microscopic level. The metal plate the array was etched into was oscillating, the individual particles vibrating in concert. I could see a magnetic attraction form, as the metallic structure prepared itself to accept the new material, aligning the metal flakes. Establishing connections up in response to the negative and positive magnetic fields that oscillation was creating.
"What is creating the magnetic attraction?" I asked once I was satisfied that was what I was seeing.
"The Dharmic spell I am using not only uses heat to soften the flux and engraving so that they will bond more effectively," Cinder explained, "it also uses the properties of metal and vibration to align and magnetize the array making the etching receptive to the new material.
"That is why arrays created by non-cultivators or Body Formation cultivators break easily and don't last as long. You need complete control over your Dharmic abilities to create the surface conditions between flux and engraving to fuse a bond that will endure and remain stable.
"That is also why an Array professional can't step beyond the journeyman level until they reach the perfected stage as a Qi Gathering cultivator. You can see how I am preparing the array to accept the metal flux, but that sight would be lost to you if you were the one making the repairs.
"You don't have enough mental capacity to soften the flux and the array, while combining the two perfectly. Your perception isn't powerful enough yet."
"That makes sense," I said thoughtfully, "the same principle applies to pill formation. I can create new and stronger pills each time I advance a stage. I wonder if all professions have that limitation?
"There have to be exceptions, there always are, but if there are I don't know of them," Cinder replied.
"There are too many arrays being created to think that Qi Gathering Realm cultivators about to advance to the Nascent Soul level are spending their time mass producing arrays for the billions of people that use them in everyday life. How are so many arrays being produced?" I wondered.
"I mentioned that once you started creating an array, you had to complete it, or it was destroyed. Have you wondered how someone would have the concentration and focus to create the eight trigrams formation if that was the case?" She asked.
"The array is massive, enveloping the entire town. How could anyone manage something on this scale if they weren't able to take breaks and rest?
"The answer is simple enough. The larger arrays are socketed, the sections of the array snapping together, each part that overlaps crafted to integrate and work together to conduct Qi," she answered.
"Now knowing this, does that suggest a way a city might create and mass-produce the number of arrays its citizens would consume?" She asked.
There had to be a way. No cultivator would waste their time creating so many arrays. A method to mass-produce must exist. A way to copy an array an Adept or Masterclass Array professional might make.
"Perhaps they use a stamping technique or a mold that can be used to create exact copies of the better-made array plates?" I suggested. "The array wouldn't be as powerful or last as long as an original, but it would allow for mass production."
"Good idea," she said praising me, "you are almost right. The factories use a master mold and a press to create the arrays. The mold to create the array plate, a press to add the metal flux and bond it with the plate. They are assembled using the energy from Spirit Stones to replace the Dharmic or Qi energies cultivator's supply.
"The arrays that are created this way only last ten to twenty years, but they can be produced in vast numbers and quickly. It makes more sense economically to make them this way too. A master mold can be commissioned by a high-ranking array professional this way. A Master Arrayist might be enticed to create one array.
"Additionally, the Empire has set standards as to size and shape for certain arrays, so that the arrays can be easily swapped in and out when a failure occurs. It has the added benefit of allowing the discarded arrays to be recycled."
The only question I had left dealt with supply. Where was all the metal coming from to create so many arrays, and how was it being produced? We didn't use large machinery, anything that could cart tons of raw ore from mines to factories, so how did we do it?
I knew array, runes, and enchantments had to be used. Probably spatial devices to transport ore and the processed metal. What I couldn't figure out was how the metal was mined itself, but all things were possible when you had Qi and Dharmic spells to rely on, I reminded myself.
I mean if the Sect could dig out the side of a mountain to house our buildings, then I was sure there were people proficient and blessed with metal affinity willing to extract the metal our society needed.
In fact, an earth aspect cultivator was probably more efficient at extracting metal from the ground than using a mining technique method like strip mining. Knowing that, I felt stupid to have even wondered how it was accomplished.
Qi and Dharmic energy were no secret, of course. That was the method used to mine metal. With perception as a guide, there would be no wasteful digging required to extract the ore you were looking for.