After waiting for two agonizing hours, Chen Che posted again.
This time, he was much more reserved. After re-uploading the video, he even edited it to have a more humble title:
"[Newbie] Stumped by an Array, humbly asking the masters for help!"
In just a short while, someone replied.
"Dunno, ask the guy below me."
"Never seen this kind of Array before. Looks a bit complicated. Can any of the experts crack it?"
"If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Tier Two Array. For this forum, that's a question that's way beyond our paygrade!"
"Following. Waiting for an expert to show up."
Most of them were just there for the show.
Forget about offering useful advice; not a single person even recognized what kind of Array it was.
A few people even sent him private messages, asking where he had seen it because they wanted to go check it out too.
"Send me 50, and I'll DM you the solution."
One user left this comment in the thread.
Chen Che certainly wasn't about to blindly trust someone who demanded money right off the bat.
He clicked on the user's profile, and their bio was incredibly impressive: Immortal Sect Certified Tier Three Array Master √ [Blue]
"Whoa!"
Chen Che was taken aback.
Tier Three was Golden Core level. Could this person actually be a master?
As he thought this, he clicked through several of the user's other threads, only to find people in every one of them calling him a scammer who took the money and disappeared.
'On the internet, you can be whoever you want to be.'
He closed the user's profile, blocked them, and then noticed another reply to his post.
However, this person didn't offer a solution. They just suggested he find a locksmith, while simultaneously criticizing Chen Che as if they'd just swallowed a firecracker:
"I've noticed a huge problem with Cultivators these days. The moment they run into trouble, their first instinct isn't to seek out a professional, but to ask random people online! Use your brain! These people have been reduced to loitering on forums; do you really expect them to give you any kind of constructive answer?"
One user felt offended and immediately argued back: "How would you know?"
The person replied: "I've been slumming it on this forum for ten years. Of course I know what you losers are like!"
That one sentence silenced the entire thread. For a full half-hour, no one else commented.
'A locksmith…'
Chen Che thought for a moment, then took out the business card and called Master Wu.
"Master Wu? Hey, it's me, the student who hired you to open that box the other day. I was wondering, can you break Arrays?"
"You're saying an Array is just a type of lock, so you can open them all? Oh, you want to see what kind of Array it is first. Okay, I'll send you the video right away."
Master Wu was indeed very professional.
He didn't make any bold promises, instead insisting on seeing the type of Array first.
Chen Che quickly sent the video. After waiting a long time with no reply, just as he was thinking Master Wu couldn't handle it either, his phone rang. It was Master Wu.
"This is no ordinary Array—it's a Tier Two Array!"
"Do you know what Tier Two means? Even if it wasn't set up by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, it's an Array with power equivalent to one. This Array is composed of four restrictions, including an Illusion Array!"
Chen Che was a little surprised. "It's that complicated?"
"Of course. If I'm not mistaken, this Grand Array was personally set up by a Cultivator with considerable skill in Array Formation. It's not some mass-produced Array Lock you can buy on the market. I've never seen one like it before."
Master Wu continued.
'Does this mean this Cave Mansion can't be opened?'
Hearing his analysis, Chen Che couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
However…
Then again, it made sense. Master Wu was just a locksmith. How could he possibly break an Array set by a Foundation Establishment Cultivator...
"Twelve thousand!"
"Huh?"
"It's mainly because this is a Tier Two Array. It's not easy to break. You'd get the same price from anyone else... If you think it's too expensive, I can waive the house call fee." The sound of him spitting out a cigarette butt came over the line. "You pay, I'll be there!"
'It's not a question of whether it's expensive, the key is how do I get you to come to the site?'
Chen Che was getting a headache. He could only force an explanation:
"Here's the thing. My friend found this video online. He made a bet with me that I couldn't break it with my current Cultivation Realm. The truth is, I don't actually know where the Array is. I was hoping you could teach me how to break it, step-by-step. I'll definitely pay you, of course."
The line was quiet for a moment. "...In that case, come to my shop. I'll tell you there."
"I should go there?"
Chen Che didn't expect the man to believe him so easily. Of course, it was also possible he was just in it for the money and didn't care if the story was true or not.
"Yes. There are a lot of details that are hard to explain over the phone. It's best if you come in person."
After hearing the explanation, Chen Che hurried to the shop.
The same little girl was there, hunched over her homework. Seeing someone enter the shop, she looked up and asked, "Are you here to buy something? The ones on the wall are locks for mortals. The ones in the counter are..."
Chen Che cut her off. "I'm here for a locksmithing job."
The little girl turned her head and shouted, "Dad!"
Immediately, Master Wu walked out, dressed in blue work overalls.
When he saw Chen Che, he beckoned him over to a workbench, brewed a cup of tea, and after confirming several times that Chen Che wasn't joking, he handed over a piece of paper. "I can teach you how to break the Array, but you have to sign this first."
Chen Che took it and saw it was a 'Disclaimer.' "What's this?"
"I think what you're doing could potentially be considered theft, so I have to be careful."
Master Wu said matter-of-factly:
"A few years ago, someone used the 'bet with a friend' excuse, and a colleague of mine fell for it. Without knowing, he helped open more than a dozen locks. One of them was the home of a Golden Core Cultivator, and he was arrested by the Immortal Sect that same day."
"Even though he was cleared and released, he was terrified for a long time. If you get caught one day, I can just submit this disclaimer and claim I knew nothing about it."
'So cautious!'
Chen Che didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After all, the social climate was different between the two worlds.
But even if he was caught, it wouldn't involve the Immortal Sect.
So, without a second thought, he signed the 'Disclaimer' and pressed his thumbprint on it.
Amidst Master Wu's guarantees of "satisfaction guaranteed" and "if it doesn't open, you can smash my shop sign," and after another round of haggling, Chen Che ended up paying ten thousand yuan.
"I'm a professional, after all, so breaking an Array is easy for me. But your understanding of Arrays isn't that deep, so the process will seem a bit complex. Now, listen carefully..."
He uploaded the video to his computer and set the playback speed to 0.1x.
The moment the Sword Pill struck and the Illusion Array fluctuated, he paused the video.
"From this, you can see that the main body of the Grand Array is a Tier Two Water Scale Array; the rest are just additional effects. Now look here. If this were a normal Water Scale Array, the ripples would be very regular."
He resumed the playback.
The water patterns rippled, and the pulse that repelled the Sword Pill was clearly many times stronger at one specific moment.
"Do you know what that means?"
"No idea!"
Chen Che glanced at him. 'This is like asking a middle schooler to solve an advanced calculus problem.'
"The specific reason should be that when the Array was being set up, one of its nodes was drawing too much power."
"An Array is like a circuit diagram. As long as you have a basic power source, components, and wires, it will run. However, a real Array is far more complex than a circuit diagram. This situation is equivalent to a power overload..."
"If you were to increase the current at this exact moment, you could break the Array through brute force."
Now that he put it that way, Chen Che finally understood. "So here's the question: how do I increase the current?"
"Excellent question!"
Master Wu slapped his thigh and took a long drag from his cigarette. "Four hundred!"