Beast Taming: My System is Bugged

Chapter 331 - 318: Light and Dark Array

One day, while slacking off at his workstation, Gu Ming was studying up on Concealment Arrays.

With Spirit Stones now available, the Cultivation of Gu Ming’s two Pet Beasts and Lu You’s Mouse Treasure was advancing by leaps and bounds.

His new Insect Baby got stuffed and suffered from indigestion after just a single, light sip.

With their training efficiency so remarkably high, Gu Ming had no choice but to start thinking about strengthening the security measures at his villa.

His residence, Villa 30, came with a built-in soundproof Concealment Array that could muffle most sounds from battle and mask Two-star Level Cultivation fluctuations.

For the energy fluctuations produced by any Cultivation beyond that, the resident would have to pay for an upgrade themselves.

Most people didn’t worry about it too much. After all, no one would be foolish enough to try and break into one of the villas.

Once a Beastmaster reached the Three-star Level, they would consider learning a Spiritual Technique to suppress their aura, which would also reduce Cultivation fluctuations. Adding another Array wasn’t strictly necessary.

However, learning an additional Cultivation Technique meant spending nearly twice as much time.

In a top-tier university where time was money, everyone preferred to allocate their time to things that would increase their combat power.

After weighing his options, Gu Ming decided that teaching himself a Concealment Array was more cost-effective and would also significantly improve his security.

As he researched, he discovered a rare type of array that filled a niche in high-end formations: the Light and Dark Dual Attribute Concealing Array.

In this array, the Power of the Light Attribute was used for optical camouflage, capable of changing the appearance of Spiritual Objects used for Cultivation indoors through optical Mimicry.

As for the Dark Attribute’s Power, it was used to enhance concealment, particularly through the shadow-related concepts in Dark Attribute Arrays. These could cover the area inside the house with a Shadow Stereoscopic Cover.

This stereoscopic cover, formed from shadows, could perceive Divine Sense and other forms of visual detection.

Whether someone was using divination or direct physical observation to investigate what was inside, the protective shield made of Shadow Film would sense it. This would trigger the array’s core protective mechanism, safeguarding everything within.

Furthermore, the upkeep for a Shadow Array was minimal, unlike the massive daily consumption of conventional arrays.

These Shadow Arrays also came in many varieties. With deeper research, one could even turn the objects inside into shadows as well.

This would suppress the auras of the Cultivator and their cultivation tools to an extreme degree, thus ensuring complete secrecy.

After reading this paper, Gu Ming’s enthusiasm for learning surged. ’This is the array I should learn,’ he thought.

He immediately shared the paper with Lu You so she could study it too, saying:

"Take a look at this. We can discuss it tonight and see if we can figure this array out completely."

Lu You nodded.

She knew this was something Gu Ming wanted to learn and that they would be discussing it that evening, so she focused with all her might and began seriously studying the paper on the theoretical foundations of the Light and Dark Array.

But Gu Ming had an ulterior motive; his real goal was the knowledge granted by the system.

And just as he’d expected, after he proactively shared the knowledge, the system interpreted it as him consulting his classmate about the complex integration of advanced Shadow Arrays and Optical Camouflage Clothing Arrays.

"After your encounter with the Chaos Creatures, you find yourself unable to forget them. As a result, while researching array knowledge, you are involuntarily drawn to the study of Shadow Arrays."

"You have consulted your classmate with severe social anxiety."

"Your classmate with severe social anxiety has begun studying Shadow Arrays, Optical Camouflage Clothing Arrays..."

「After a day of work.」

"You are too old and have reading difficulties. Your learning progress is painfully slow."

"Your classmate with severe social anxiety has proposed an inspired idea."

"You have had an epiphany and finally understand the research paper on the basics of Light and Dark Arrays..."

While talking with Lu You, Gu Ming felt a constant stream of new inspiration bubbling up in his mind.

Gu Ming had his own understanding, but the system’s comprehension existed on a higher plane. Its content was broad and expansive, yet the direction of its summaries was remarkably forward-looking and futuristic.

By thinking along the direction the system pointed out, Gu Ming could easily connect the foundational knowledge he had already learned, allowing him to extrapolate and imagine all sorts of new possibilities for these combined Light and Dark Element arrays.

For example, the Light Attribute’s optical Mimicry could not only change the appearance of Spiritual Objects, but when combined with the Dark Attribute’s Shadow Stereoscopic Cover, it could completely blur the "Illusion and Reality" of the entire space.

On the surface, it would look like an ordinary room with normal furnishings, but in reality, enveloped by the Shadow Barrier, its internal layout and aura would have already been completely swapped out.

For another example, if the perceptive and detection abilities of a Dark Attribute Array were combined with the Light Attribute’s principles of refraction, it could in turn mislead an observer’s judgment.

An abnormal fluctuation might be sensed coming from the east, but in reality, it would be a false coordinate created by the interweaving of light and dark. The true core area would be hidden in the folds of shadow in the opposite direction.

It should be noted that this particular inspiration drew upon the foundational knowledge of Space Arrays.

Gu Ming only followed this train of thought for a short while before he got stuck. He had to give up and move on to digesting the next futuristic inspiration provided by the system.

His imagination continued to expand as he envisioned the possibility of "Dynamic Disguise":

As external detection methods changed, the Light Attribute would adjust its mimicked form in real time.

The Dark Attribute would simultaneously alter the Shadow Barrier’s fluctuation frequency, causing the array to constantly shift its defensive patterns like a living creature, always maintaining a rapid transformation of information to achieve a high level of secrecy.

These ideas unfolded in his mind, layer by layer, and the more Gu Ming thought about it, the more he felt that the potential of this type of Light and Dark Attribute Array was unfathomable.

「After work that evening.」

Lu You was chatting with Gu Ming. After she finished explaining her own understanding, it was her turn to listen.

This was usually when Gu Ming did most of the talking. She would listen quietly, integrating the inspirations he spoke of with the foundational knowledge she had just learned, imagining how to apply them.

Flashes of inspiration like ’So that’s how it works!’ and ’It can be used that way too?’ would also cross her mind, and she too was making rapid progress.

In the blink of an eye, the two of them were back at Cyan Wood Beastmaster Academy. Heading here late at night instead of going back to their villas to cultivate... they were truly something else.

But it couldn’t be helped. When it came to Dark Attribute Arrays, there was a core problem that couldn’t be avoided.

Namely, to run this array, only Cyan Treasure was qualified. Gu Ming was still missing a Dark Attribute Pet Beast to maintain that aspect of the formation.

It was worth noting that in the future, arrays would begin to use Spirit Stones on a large scale as a clean, non-elemental energy source.

But at the present time, Spirit Stones were not yet available. All arrays needed to be maintained by a Pet Beast, which could not leave midway, or the array would collapse.

Of course, some precious Spirit Medicines and Spiritual Waters also existed, storing large amounts of high-density Spiritual Qi. They could serve as a buffer Energy Liquid for an array’s emergency backup power.

Generally, however, people used them as spellcasting materials rather than as an energy source.

Although Gu Ming had the Spirit Stones Yuan Ge had given him, they would be consumed extremely quickly if used to power an array.

Gu Ming’s Spirit Stone payment hadn’t been settled yet, so he wasn’t about to spend them like this. Finding a Dark Attribute Pet Beast to maintain the Dark Attribute portion of the array was the best option.

’The stray Little Black Cat... will I have a chance to run into it today?’

Gu Ming looked out at the forest in the dead of night, having brought the freeze-dried treats the cat loved to eat.