The first thing Zhang Yu thought of when trying to master those hundreds of array diagrams in a short time was, of course, the Supreme Purity Realm. After all, it granted him a full 20Ă mental acceleration.
"True Lord Magneto probably figured I'd use the Spiritual Realm's acceleration service too. After all, what Artifact Refinement student doesnât use it?"
In the blink of an eye, Zhang Yuâs consciousness had crossed into the Spiritual Realm, arriving at a cave abode called the Supreme Purity Realm.
The moment he arrived, he saw Zhang Pianpian poring over her talisman studies.
Zhang Pianpian glanced up and asked, "You contacted me in such a rushâwhatâs going on?"
Zhang Yu briefly explained how heâd been guided by True Lord Magneto during the competition and now needed to crack Su Yanyangâs array.
In the Supreme Purity Realm, Zhang Yu spoke freely. "Sis, I need you to prep some tools for breaking arrays in smart buildings. Youâre probably more familiar with that than I am."
Zhang Pianpian nodded. "Alright, Iâll get it ready. You focus on the array diagrams."
Meanwhile, Zhang Yu also sent a message to the competition group chat, asking them to help prepare a few things.
Before diving into study, he also purchased a Photographic Memory talisman service.
Under the 20Ă mental acceleration, Zhang Yu first memorized the meridian connection diagrams of Su Yanyangâs Law Husk.
Then he split his mind into four: three focused separately on learning the diagrams of the Dimensional Isolation Array, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array, and the Thousand-Mountain Fortress Array; the last part focused on how the three formations interlocked and controlled one another.
"Too bad the Spiritual Realm's mental acceleration canât stack with the Time-Wrecking Demon Pupil in the real world, or Iâd be even faster."
Still, Zhang Yuâs learning efficiency was far beyond ordinary. Just before the break ended, he had memorized all the array diagrams. Barely, but he could now use them.
"Good thing True Lord Magneto highlighted the key parts for this match. Otherwise, learning it all at once wouldâve been hard to apply in a real fight."
âŠ
Outside the competition grounds.
Shi Huaiyu and the others rushed over the moment Zhang Yu arrived.
"What happened? Why did you suddenly ask us to prep all that stuff?"
To boost morale, Zhang Yu brought up Director Gao.
"Director Gao personally arranged for an expert to mentor me, hoping weâll perform well in the next round."
"That expert is incredibly powerful and has a deep understanding of array techniques. Heâs already shown me how to break Su Yanyangâs array."
At those words, everyoneâs faces lit upâespecially when Zhang Yu mentioned Director Gao. Confidence bloomed unconsciously.
Given that Zhang Yu was already Director Gaoâs named disciple, his words carried weight.
As Zhang Yu explained their tactics and the array-breaking plan, everyone nodded along, growing more and more confident.
And the possibility of beating Su Yanyang to win a top-seven spot in the department made Shi Huaiyu, Che Yufei, and the others quietly giddy.
âŠ
The second half of the competition officially began.
Inside the Spiritual Realm, teachers resumed observing the matches.
Zhang Yuâs homeroom teacher, Immortal Jiao Lei, was particularly curious about his studentâs situation.
Seeing Zhang Yu and his five teammates charge straight at Su Yanyangâs worksite, Jiao Lei was surprised. "After losing the first half, theyâre still this fired up?"
But their next moves surprised him even more.
"Theyâre holding⊠demonic-pollution materials? And theyâre lobbing them straight into Su Yanyangâs array zone?"
One teacher nearby laughed. "Theyâre using environmental sabotage. Unless Su Yanyangâs team cleans that up, they wonât be able to lay down the spiritual circuitry for their array."
Lang Yougong praised, "Itâs more than just pollutionâthey targeted the exact spot Su Yanyang was planning to set up, before he even had the chance. That means theyâve already studied his array diagrams and struck preemptively."
"Looks like their break wasnât wasted."
Then Lang Yougong saw Shi Huaiyu and Tian Yang team up, combining the Small Threefold Harmony with the Storm-Dust Palm, whipping up a storm of sand tainted with demonic qi across Su Yanyangâs worksite.
Tu Lishan nodded. "Demonic pollution plus dust storm? Thatâs going to take a lot of effort to clean up."
Su Yanyang spread his arms wide. The Small Threefold Harmony activated with the boost from his Law Husk, conjuring thick earthen walls to block the smoke, but even so, much of the area was still contaminated, requiring manual cleanup.
Wei Huai said coolly, "All theyâre doing is slowing them down. Su Yanyang excels at large-scale arrays and hard fights. His team has already built the core of their array. Now itâs just a matter of cleaning and expanding. Zhang Yuâs team wonât stop them."
And sure enough, Su Yanyang controlled the earth, building bunkers while gradually expanding the array.
âŠ
On the field.
Su Yanyang stared coldly at the oncoming smoke. "Tch. So they actually came up with something."
"A bunch of underdogs and misfitsâyouâre certainly trying hard."
"But this year⊠no oneâs stopping me from winning the Seven Absolutes."
He clasped his hands, transforming the walls into sand, pushing the contaminated portions away, and filling the clean parts back inâover and over again.
Just then, a formation spirit reported: over a dozen people had broken into the array, having pierced the Dimensional Isolation Array with Sky-Piercing Flying Swords, and were now under assault from the Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array.
âŠ
Back in the Spiritual Realm.
Tu Lishanâs eyes lit up. "They rushed in while the array was still incomplete? And brought a whole swarm of ocular husks?"
Seeing Zhang Yu and the others remotely guiding a horde of eye-equipped husks into the array, Tu Lishan understood: they were baiting the array into misidentifying targets.
Each pair of husks, confused by the arrayâs illusions and information warping, would be mistaken for enemies.
These were all secondhand, off-brand husksâexactly the kind of junk Zhang Yu had asked his team to procure.
Wei Huaiâs eyes glinted with disdain. "It wonât take long to filter real targets from fakes using message interception."
âŠ
On the field.
Su Yanyang scanned the eye-husk chatter.
He coldly instructed the formation spirit, "Donât send me all this junk. Organize it by message order and formatting first."
The Ten Thousand Ghosts Bewitching Array distorted the intruders' messages, but also allowed the formation spirit to intercept them.
Su Yanyang thought grimly, "They
know
their comms are compromised⊠so what game are they playing now?"
Just then, another formation spirit reported: "I intercepted their operation plan."
Su Yanyang sneered. "Idiots. If you intercepted it, itâs bait. Delete it."
But then his expression darkened. "Who opened it?!"
âŠ
In the Spiritual Realm.
Tu Lishanâs eyes gleamed. "This Zhang Yu kidâhe found the arrayâs Spiritual Realm interface and linked in those junk husks?"
"And is that a Soul Cultivator? Did one of them sneak into the array and
open
the file on their behalf?"
Next moment, layers of pop-up ads flooded Su Yanyangâs teamâs ocular views.
Financial loan offers began appearing nonstop. Every twitch of their husks summoned more personalized, targeted ads.
Director Gao chuckled. "Heh. Finance Departmentâs shake-to-reveal ads? Someone embedded them in a talisman and disguised it as a file."
"Su Yanyang was rushing his setup. Thatâs what gave Zhang Yu the opening."
"But⊠does Zhang Yu
know
someone from the Sigil Department?"
He recalled one of Zhang Yuâs dormmates was a top Sigil studentâseemed like they had a solid relationship.
"Knowing a Sigil student definitely pays off."
Watching the on-screen chaos, Director Gao understood the ads were tied to the Spiritual Realmâs big data. Once opened, they started pushing more loans. The more debt the viewer carried, the more ads would appear.
Now Su Yanyangâs teamâheavily indebtedâwas overwhelmed. Their ocular views swarmed with ads, and they had to freeze their husks to manually close each one.
Even worseâŠ
Ads started showing up in their competition group chat. And soon, those were going to spill over into the teachersâ feeds.
Director Gao mused, "Hmph. Finance Departmentâs ads⊠they spread like wildfire. Look once, and youâre marked. So domineering."
"Old Lin, do you really think you can beat
that
system?"
But he didnât stop the ad spread. On one hand, he wanted the other teachers to witness firsthand how aggressive the Finance Department could be. On the other, True Lord Magneto said heâd handle it himself.
"This guy hasnât shown off in a while. Whatâs he planning?"
Just then, above True Lord Magnetoâs name box, a phantom image of a pagoda appeared, radiating divine light. It swept through the air, wiping all ads from existence.
Not just adsâthe teachers felt their Gold Core and Nascent Soul fields temporarily suppressed. Even their Spiritual Realm projections wavered.
Then, as the pagoda faded, everything returned to normal.
Director Linâs heart skipped a beat. "The Nine-Heavens Solar Yang Pagoda?! It repels spirits and banishes all evilâable to cleanse any external interference in the Spiritual Realm, including ads."
"And itâs been remotely activated through the Spiritual Realm⊠that thing must be nearing Level 41. Almost a Pure Yang Treasure."
Once it became one, it could rival even a Divine Transformation-level artifact in specific domains.
The moment the pagoda appeared, the roomâs mood shifted. The other teachers looked at True Lord Magneto with newfound awe.
Director Gao felt the change and thought, "Magneto⊠was that your way of backing us âWar Factionâ folks again? No payment either. Guess our centuries-long friendship wasnât wasted."
True Lord Magneto quietly thought, "Old Gao, I hope you now see the difference between us. Stop struggling. Youâll only hurt yourself."
He looked toward the competition feed. "This Zhang Yu kid⊠he not only memorized every detail of the array in no time but also prepped the perfect counterplan. Even better than I expected."
âŠ
Back in the arena.
Zhang Yu thought, "Just like True Lord Magneto saidâthe best time to break the array is before it's fully set up."
He sent a message: "Old Zhao, found it yet?"
Zhao Tianxing replied, "Iâm closing in along the route you describedâŠ"
Zhao Tianxing, the Soul Cultivator Zhang Yu had hired, had entered Su Yanyangâs smart building system through the junk husks and triggered the ad attack.
Now Zhang Yu was directing him toward their actual target based on his memory of the array diagram.
Then Zhao Tianxing messaged, "Found it. Iâll guide you."
An arrow appeared in Zhang Yuâs ocular display.
He darted forward, movement after movement, until he dashed into a makeshift warehouse.
But the space was emptyâexcept for Su Yanyang floating silently in the air.
Su Yanyang glared and said coldly, "Did you really think Iâd leave our material storage point unguarded?"
Then he struck.
Empowered by his Law Husk, he activated the Level-20 Xuanhuang Mountain-Suppressing Seal and drove it with the Level-20 Xuanhuang Giant Handprint. The violent Xuanhuang Qi surged, engulfing Zhang Yu in an instant.
Explosions erupted as Zhang Yuâs body rapidly gained weight, each footstep triggering shockwaves across the ground.
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