For the next week or so, we alternated between riding in a chariot and walking on foot. It was for no other reason than the kids not liking to be locked up in a metal(ish?) box for prolonged periods of time and wanting to stretch their legs. In fairness, it's not as though we were in some kind of a 'hurry'. It's been a while since I felt this unoccupied with our next destination, simply thinking we'll get there when we get there.
We also didn't beeline for the Jade Blossom City as it was quite some ways away, instead choosing the lesser of the region's two major cities, Lotus City. For that, we first had to travel northward to reach the banks of the Lotus Blossom River--I know, names so original they gave me a whiplash--which happened at the very last day of the week's travel.
The river itself was quite a surprise as it was genuinely pink, color of the faded lotus flower. Speaking of them, the banks of the river were absolutely overrun by the flower; spanning east and west, all the way to the river's entry into the lake, there were hundreds of thousands of lotus flowers, and they were all of the pinkish hue. Yes, they varied in the color slightly, but bearing witness to the sight left me a bit breathless.
It was a harsh cut just beyond the river's banks, as it transitioned into dull, dark-green grass that filled out most of the land we could see. There was just this one patch along the river that bled color to the point it was kind of difficult to look at.
"There's a legend about this place," Lao Shun said as we pitched the tent to rest of the night. "That a long, long, long time ago, there were two sworn brothers who met in their youth and formed a lifelong friendship. However, by the time they became adults, their tribes had gone to war, and they were forced to pick up weapons against each other. Not wanting to kill a sworn brother, they made a pact that they'd place a lotus flower a day before they arrived at a place, so that the other would know to leave.
"Ultimately, they were both killed in the war, but once the chieftains of the tribes learned of their friendship, they made peace with one another and, in their honor, lined the length of the river with lotus flowers so that they would always be remembered."
Stories like these, ultimately, populate histories--as on Earth, so here. Whether they are true or not, and to what extent they may be truthful, is wholly irrelevant. They give life to otherwise meaningless things. In reality, there's probably some natural phenomenon--maybe some kind of a unique material in the river--that's the cause of the lotus flowers decorating the banks. But that's boring.
"That's lovely," Wan Lan said, and most of the other kids nodded.
Days started slowly blending into one another; beyond there being a couple of minor breakthroughs, and Eternity transforming into a house-sized lotus, there was little else happening as we made our way up the river toward the Lotus City. Once at a fork, we set out right, which is when we finally started seeing some change in terrain.
For the first time in what felt like forever, I saw a tree--then another, and then another, and soon there were small forests littering the landscape. And in just a few days' time, the horizon got blanketed by a massive behemoth that cast a shadow across the flats.
I immediately understood why it was called a 'Lotus City'.
Because it was kind of, sort of, if you squint real hard in the shape of a lotus flower. The walls kind of unceremoniously fanned out and I noticed earthly pillars shooting out of the ground that were vaguely shaped like flower petals. There's just no way those were natural, as they curved like a goddamn scoliosis.
Atop of them rested tall, looming buildings that overlooked the rest of the city, though the 'petals' only extended in three directions, leaving the front 'flat' and simple.
We climbed atop a small nearby hill and gave a slightly better view and, through the faint flickering, I could see an array extending all around the city and about full fifteen hundred feet into the sky.
Something unprecedented happened just then.
[--Creator's Eyes used][Target: Ethereal Lotus Array][...][Consume 500 CP to deduce partial information on the array?]
... wait, why did this never trigger before? And if it was a new thing added to the system, I do not remember reading it.
I spent the 500 points quite easily despite it being on the expensive end of things, but as this was my first time deducing an array, it's not as though I had a frame of reference for what it's supposed to cost.
[--500 CP consumed][...][Basic Information][Array Name: Ethereal Lotus Array][Rank: Intermediate][Type: Permanent / Sustained][Durability: 86%][Effect: a relatively basic area-spanning array, containing multitudes. Its primary effect, as with most defensive formations, is the protection from the external. Once activated, it can temporarily hold out against Imperial-level threat, though it is ultimately designed to withstand attacks from sub-Imperial realm cultivators. Its secondary function is observational. By restructuring and terraforming nearby terrain to resemble parts of a lotus flower, the array focuses them as points of interest from which Qi disperses, allowing for the array's Master to see the totality of the area that the array spans. Though it has some minor Qi-adjacent boosts, they do not do enough to boost it out of its subpar tier][...][Means of Destruction: Host's level is not enough to discern][Discern Construction Blueprint: Host's level is not enough to discern][Other information is impossible to discern at the moment]
... huh.
Huh, huh, huh.
What the hell? Where has this been this entire time?
It's actually kind of insane that I can just read so much info about an array, though I imagine a good chunk of it is mostly public knowledge. Still...
"Everything alright, Master?" Xing Feng asked.
"No, everything is fine," at least now I know that the petals fanning out aren't purely decorative but part of an array. "Just admiring the array, is all."
"It is quite basic, but the fanning petal-shaped terrain is decently unique," Han Yimu said. Okay, I have the system to help me figure it out, but how do you know?! Oh, you just learned it like a normal person would? Ah, never mind.
"Have you studied arrays before, Yimu?" though the system never mentioned it, it might just be that it was overshadowed by everything else.
"A bit," he said. "But Master--I mean, my former Master discouraged me pursuing any auxiliary field, citing that my time was best spent cultivating as my talents were severely lacking."
... huh. Was his former Master blind or a bit slow in the head?
I fetched something that's been buried in my ring for a long while now, a fairly thick codex, with an overly long name resembling certain web novels I used to read.
"Here," I said. "Study it, see if it interests you, and if it does, just keep pursuing it. You are more than talented enough."