This Array was called the "Gui Water Spirit Gathering Array."

Gui Water is the water of rain and dew, the water from underground. It belongs to the Yin attribute and is common in Water Element Daoist Skills.

Inside Ah Kun, Gui Water was the purest water that fell from the sky and flowed in subterranean currents—a branch of Water Element Spiritual Qi.

In other words, it was a purified version of Water Spiritual Qi.

As for how to purify it, one had to use the Gui Water Spirit Gathering Array to assist the Pet Beast in the process.

Otherwise, for a Pet Beast to comprehend this on its own would require immense Talent and Water Element Affinity.

Ah Kun’s current Water Element Affinity had been ground up to an extremely high Realm through daily Attribute increases.

Gu Ming had it pay closer attention to distinguish the Water Element Spiritual Qi in the air.

As its learning experience grew, Ah Kun slowly began to sense the flow of the "Gui Water" Spiritual Qi that its master had spoken of, circulating between heaven and earth.

It could sense it, but there was too little of this type of Spiritual Qi.

When it opened its mouth to inhale, it only managed to gather a tiny bit of Gui Water Spiritual Qi.

At that moment, Gu Ming crouched by the bank and began to draw an Array Diagram.

This Array used Ah Kun’s heart as the core Array Hub and its meridians as the Array Patterns.

Whenever the Grouper Fish took in and expelled river water, the Gui Water Spirit Gathering Array inside its body would resonate with the currents stirred by its tail fin, enhancing its absorption of Gui Water.

Once the Gui Water entered its body, it would also be repeatedly purified by the Triple-Fold Wave Patterns.

The entire purification process was fully automated by the Array, requiring no thought from Ah Kun. It was completely foolproof.

Gu Ming first mapped out the Array on the riverbank. After confirming that the Array knowledge in his mind was fully realized, he then modified the Array Points inside Ah Kun, using its meridians as Array Patterns to construct the Array around its heart.

The Green Treasure Breathing Technique was the key to activating this Array.

"Ah Kun, try touching the riverbed silt with your tail," Gu Ming said softly.

Ah Kun’s gill covers trembled as it took deep breaths.

Its tail fin didn’t forget to quiver, leading all the meridians in its body to "breathe" in unison.

The river sand churned, and a large amount of pure underground water surged forth, getting sucked into Ah Kun’s body.

After a round of purification by the Array...

A large amount of Gui Water Spiritual Qi had accumulated inside Ah Kun.

This was the product of the spirit gathering—all of it ultra-pure Water Element Spiritual Qi.

As it gently sloshed across the Foundation Establishment Platform inside its body, it also began to rapidly transform into the purest Mana.

Only with energy could it have the strength to store Power.

Furthermore, Ah Kun’s continuous breathing process was already in line with the essence of the Storage Rune Technique.

Seeing this, Teacher Zhong nodded.

The supplementary learning effect of this Array was excellent. It could almost be considered a tailor-made Spirit Gathering Array.

And the Array Formation technique Gu Ming used was extremely bold, actually using the Pet Beast’s internal meridians as Array Patterns, thus bypassing the process of selecting Array Materials.

"However, setting it up this way has a huge flaw. The meridians will be consumed as if they were Array materials. Your Ah Kun can’t just keep damaging its meridians to complete this storage step, can it?"

Teacher Zhong shook his head. A shortcut Array was all well and good, but the side effects were too severe. It wasn’t suitable for widespread use.

"That is indeed a drawback. Let me think about it." Gu Ming also paused his exploration and began to ponder.

He checked it repeatedly, cross-referencing it with the Array Point layout described by the system, and found no errors.

’Then the mistake must be somewhere else.’

Teacher Zhong shook his head, letting Gu Ming think it over slowly.

The path of Arrays was inherently one of profound learning, requiring a great deal of trial and error. At the same time, it was also very expensive.

One could say that before a qualified Array could be developed, it often took thousands of attempts, or even tens of thousands of trials.

Researching Arrays was equivalent to scientific research; burning through a large amount of materials was a given.

Could Gu Ming leverage his genius thinking to solve it overnight?

’Teacher Zhong didn’t think it was possible.’ 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

But with a genius, you never knew. Maybe he could.

Take the recent Earth Shifting Technique for example. He and Lu You had figured out a Transportation Array to move Origin Power, allowing them to wield a Power that should have been impossible to use at the One-star Realm.

「The next day.」

Gu Ming was completely out of ideas. He had hit a wall.

Lu You joined the discussion, researching with Gu Ming how to use an Array to build up momentum and lower the barrier to entry for the first step of the Wave-Swallowing Technique.

The more she studied and delved into this Array, the more she felt that it was already incredibly refined, with absolutely no room for improvement.

Whether it was using meridians as Array Patterns or the various Array Formation techniques centered around the Grouper Fish’s heart, it was a masterclass of formation techniques—truly ingenious.

Gu Ming clearly hadn’t used any overly advanced techniques. Nearly half of it was Array theory taught to university freshmen, and the other half was Basic Array theory from senior high school.

"Gu Ming, this Array you’ve set up is perfectly balanced at a level that causes injury but still allows for recovery. It’s a tightrope walk with no room for optimization," she said, shaking her head.

Gu Ming pondered for a day and finally understood the Array’s true intention.

’This is an Array tailor-made for a true One-star Kunpeng.’

’In the system’s timeline, the Array set up by Mr. Zhong did indeed consume the body’s meridians, but it was planned according to the meridian strength of a Juvenile Kunpeng.’

’From his esteemed perspective, the Gui Water Spirit Gathering Array inside the body wouldn’t make Ah Kun cough up blood; it would merely make it extremely uncomfortable.’

’After all, using one’s body to run an Array isn’t supposed to be comfortable for the Pet Beast. This is carving an Array with life itself!’

’That’s it!’

Once Gu Ming understood the principle behind the Array, he worked backward, examining the Array’s strength support points. He removed the high-intensity spirit-gathering function points to reduce the Array’s consumption.

After he and Lu You experimented repeatedly, refining it for three days, Ah Kun could finally operate the Array completely without the risk of its meridians bursting and bleeding.

Correspondingly, the Array’s spirit-gathering strength and Speed dropped by several levels.

Previously, Ah Kun only needed one minute to collect a few drops of ultra-pure Gui Water Spiritual Qi.

Now, it needed to run for an hour to collect a few drops of Gui Water and complete the accumulation step required for the Wave-Swallowing Technique.

It seemed like a downgrade, but it was still incredibly impressive.

Teacher Zhong stood to the side, rendered speechless.

"If the later steps of ’raising the potential’ and ’condensing the vortex’ can also be fast-tracked with an Array, it might actually have a chance of learning the Wave-Swallowing Technique."

Teacher Zhong said to Teacher Zhang, shaking his head. He felt his way of thinking had become rigid, lacking the Spiritual flexibility of the younger generation.

The second key point of Abyssal Stop was "potential."

Raising the potential required drawing it out without releasing it, like a fully drawn bowstring.

The previous accumulation process was a process of continuously building up this potential.

However, this potential was not the same as *that* potential.

To transform this potential into the potential for Abyssal Stop, the Mana refined from the Gui Water in the body had to resonate with one’s Sea of Consciousness.

So how could an Array be used to lower the learning threshold for this step?

Teacher Zhong watched the two of them sitting by the river, discussing back and forth as their inspirations clashed and sparked.

He heard them mention the Transportation Array from the Earth Shifting Technique, and also Old Deng’s Health Array, which was the Brain Array for the Cyan Pine Skill.

’Just as I thought. They’re going to carve an Array in the Pet Beast’s mind.’ Teacher Zhong sighed internally at their audacity.

The ignorant are fearless.

They’re all unafraid of death.

"Aren’t you afraid? What if the Array malfunctions and fries the Pet Beast’s brain?" Teacher Zhong turned his head to ask his old classmate beside him.

Teacher Zhang stood under a tree, arms crossed, observing the two students. He then stroked his Snake Pet.

"Sigh. You’re too used to protecting your reputation. Students from the bottom have no choice. They start at rock bottom. If they don’t fight for it, what future do they have?"

Teacher Zhong fell silent. Zhang Yunpeng seemed to be talking about studying, but Teacher Zhong felt he might as well have been talking about himself.