The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

"Yes, Xiaobai is very diligent in his cultivation."

Zuo Qingqiu ultimately did not expose Xiaobai's gluttony and playfulness in front of outsiders. Instead, she reluctantly agreed with Xiaobai's words and nodded in acknowledgment.

Then he said to Youli, "Youli, you should talk to Xiaobai more often. She is still young, only a little over a hundred years old, and has a very lively personality. You two should get along very well."

"Yes, Master~ Youli understands~" Youli immediately replied respectfully, her virtual image's smile becoming even brighter, "Miss Yuling is so innocent and carefree, Youli likes her very much too~ I will definitely 'accompany' Miss Yuling well~"

Xiao Bai nodded vigorously, "Yes! I will also get along well with You Li!"

The two "white-haired lolis" exchanged a glance. One had a sweet and flawless smile, while the other tried her best to make a "generous" expression. It was as if invisible sparks were crackling in the air.

Zuo Qingqiu nodded in satisfaction. With a thought, she shrunk the enlarged magic mirror back to the size of a palm and put it into her storage bag.

She didn't notice at all that, the moment she put away the mirror, Xiaobai secretly made a little face in the direction of the storage bag.

Meanwhile, deep within the mirror of the small mirror in the storage bag, a fleeting, almost imperceptible, expression resembling a pout flashed by.

"Alright, Xiaobai, come with me, I'll take you somewhere." Zuo Qingqiu took Xiaobai's hand and walked out of the bamboo house.

"Where are we going, sister?" Little White immediately shifted her attention away from the "annoying mirror spirit" and asked curiously.

"You'll find out when we get there." Zuo Qingqiu kept her in suspense, then led her away from the main hall area and towards the back of Zixu Peak, to a relatively secluded place protected by array formations.

-

Behind Zixu Peak, on a relatively gentle hillside, stands a uniquely shaped building.

It was a towering spire, over ten zhang tall, built entirely of bluish-gray steel rock. The tower was hexagonal, wider at the bottom and narrower at the top, with a cold and simple design. It lacked the flying eaves, brackets, carved beams, and painted rafters of ordinary towers, and its surface was engraved with countless intricate and mysterious silver patterns that seemed to shimmer with spiritual light.

The top of the tower is not an ordinary temple, but a conical, extremely sharp constricted structure with its tip pointing straight to the sky, reflecting a cold, hard metallic luster in the sunlight.

The entire spire exudes a cold, functional, and powerful aura, completely different from other buildings on Zixu Peak.

This is an important energy node on Zixu Peak of the Taihua Sect's protective formation—the Nine Heavens Supreme Bright Array.

There are 36 such important nodes in the entire Taihua Gate Mountain Protection Formation system, located on the 36 most important peaks of Taihua Gate.

They are responsible for extracting, gathering, and transforming massive amounts of spiritual energy from the earth's veins. When needed, they transport and gather this pure and enormous energy through specific array channels to the core of the grand array, supporting the massive protective array that is powerful enough to cover the entire Taihua Gate.

At this moment, Zuo Qingqiu, with Xiaobai in tow, arrived at the tightly closed, heavy bronze gate of this spire-shaped building.

The gate is also engraved with intricate array patterns, with a uniquely shaped groove in the center.

"Sister, what are we doing here?" Xiaobai looked up at the cold, pointed tower, feeling both curious and vaguely oppressed.

She could sense that the tower contained some kind of immense, dormant power.

You'll find out soon enough.

As Zuo Qingqiu spoke, he took out the jade tablet representing the identity of the peak master of Zixu Peak and pressed it into the recessed array groove on the stone door.

"Buzz..."

The jade plaque emitted a faint bluish light the moment it came into contact with the groove.

"Click... Rumble..."

The array patterns on the bronze gate lit up one by one, emitting a deep hum.

Then, the heavy door slowly opened inward, revealing a deep darkness behind it.

A surge of purer, yet more "inert," and seemingly restrained, immense spiritual energy emanated from inside the door.

Zuo Qingqiu, holding Xiaobai's hand, stepped inside.

The interior of the tower is much more spacious and taller than it appears from the outside.

The interior had no windows and was extremely dark. Only a few fist-sized luminous pearls embedded in the walls emitted a faint but steady milky-white light, barely illuminating a central area.

The air was cool, carrying a unique scent reminiscent of an underground grotto, a blend of rock and spiritual energy. It was so quiet that you could hear the echoes of your own heartbeat and footsteps.

At the very center of the tower's interior stands a colossal object.

It was an extremely complex and precise enormous instrument composed of countless silver-white metal tracks, gears, bearings, metal plates with immortal patterns, spiritual energy conduits, and crystals of various unknown materials.

The instrument is about three zhang tall and two zhang wide. The whole structure is a complex polyhedron. The outermost layer is several layers of silver metal tracks that can rotate along different axes at different speeds. The tracks are inlaid with countless tiny, shimmering Taoist patterns of various colors.

At the heart of the instrument is a basketball-sized, azure crystal core that floats in mid-air, slowly rotating, with what appears to be a swirling nebula inside.

At this moment, because the energy node is in "standby" mode, most of the structure of this huge and sophisticated instrument is still. Only the core azure crystal is rotating at an extremely slow speed, emitting a faint but stable blue glow, which reflects a cold texture onto the surrounding cold metal components.

"Wow..." Xiaobai exclaimed in amazement as she looked at the enormous machine, which exuded both power and exquisite beauty. "Sister, what... is this? It looks so amazing!"

"This is the 'Array Orbiter,' the core magical artifact for controlling and channeling this energy node," Zuo Qingqiu explained, leading Xiaobai to a control platform in front of the instrument.

The platform is made of a single piece of black, smooth, mirror-like jade, which is also etched with intricate array patterns, with a palm-shaped indentation in the center.

Zuo Qingqiu placed his right hand on the indentation and infused it with divine consciousness carrying specific instructions.

"Buzz—!"

A deep rumble emanated from the ground beneath our feet, the surrounding walls, and even overhead! The entire interior of the spire seemed to awaken completely from its slumber!

The first thing to light up was the previously dim array patterns on the walls. Streaks of silver light, like living streams, rapidly spread and illuminated along the patterns, transforming the once dark tower interior into a brightly lit space in the blink of an eye! The flowing silver light was both cold and magnificent.

Next up is the "orbital array device" at the center!

"Click...click...buzz—!"

The outermost silver metal track was the first to start rotating! At first, it was slow, but then it got faster and faster! The different layers of tracks began to rotate wildly along different axes, at different speeds, and even in opposite directions! Gears meshed, bearings slid, emitting a deep and rhythmic mechanical sound!

Countless tiny celestial patterns embedded in the track are "lit up" one by one as the track rotates, bursting out with dazzling spiritual light of various colors!

Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple... seven colors of light trailed dazzling tails on the high-speed rotating track, weaving together a dazzling and dynamic picture of light!

The most crucial part of the instrument, the azure crystal, also suddenly increased its rotation speed!

The nebula-like vortex inside churned wildly, bursting forth with a deep blue radiance a hundred or even a thousand times stronger than before!

-

P.S.: I wonder if any fellow cultivators can guess what the fairy is trying to do by activating the "Array Orbiter"?