"To draw potential from the abyss, you must let Ah Kun feel the temper of the water’s flow for itself. It must take everything it sees, hears, and touches, and infuse it into its very core, condensing it into its own unique potential," Teacher Zhong explained from the shore.

Mr. Zhong did not provide a ready-made Array for the way of potential. Instead, he had Ah Kun draw its potential from the abyss, letting it arise from within.

You and your classmate with severe social anxiety observed the momentum of the Hanging God Waterfall and were inspired.

The classmate with severe social anxiety suggested using a simple Memorization Array to help your Pet Beast commit the momentum of the Hanging God Waterfall to memory, assisting Ah Kun in comprehending the way of "potential."

Gu Ming and Lu You talked, waiting for the system to transmit the knowledge.

Sure enough, as their conversation deepened, the topics Lu You mentioned were gradually converted by the system into the key construction points and fine-tuning directions for the Memorization Array.

This Array, designed for the Sea of Consciousness, was a perfect match for Ah Kun’s spiritual state and resonant frequency.

From this, Gu Ming learned the following:

The Memorization Array was a Basic Array that appeared after an innovation in Cultivation Techniques. It was created specifically to help Pet Beasts memorize the sequences of techniques or observe scenes within their Sea of Consciousness.

Though it seemed simple, by virtue of its "memorization" function, it had become an essential foundational module for high-end Arrays.

Not all Pet Beasts could directly comprehend the principles of the Great Dao; their understanding relied on the nurturing of emotions and spiritual resonance.

The Memorization Array could record everything seen and felt, along with the emotional surge of that moment.

When the Pet Beast activated its technique, the Array would trigger a "light-speed startup" effect, allowing it to instantly enter a combat-ready state and launch a fast attack.

This was also a Basic Array frequently used in future fast-attack systems.

Gu Ming racked his brain. There were many memory-type arrays, but they were all overly complex and nowhere near as simple as the Memorization Array the system had provided.

This particular Memorization Array used very few nodes for its formation—only twelve. Even a One-star Pet Beast could operate it with incredible ease, feeling no pressure whatsoever.

If one had to point out a difference between this Array and contemporary ones, it would be that the connecting lines of its central Array Pattern were mostly elegant curves, reminiscent of ripples.

Gu Ming let his mind sink into his Sea of Consciousness. Using his Divine Sense for Perception, he realized it was indeed the form of the waves in the Sea of Consciousness, undulating in a specific instant.

This was the source of inspiration for the Memorization Array.

Gu Ming nodded to himself. He first drew the ripples of the Sea of Consciousness on the sand to get the ball rolling.

"I have an idea. Let’s take the simplest Memory Array on the market and optimize it further so it can operate in a One-star Pet Beast’s Sea of Consciousness. It’s just like when we were studying the Transportation Array and tried to create a simplified version."

Gu Ming’s words opened up a new line of thinking for Lu You.

Previously, she had been chatting with Gu Ming, using a process of elimination to filter through usable Arrays.

She couldn’t possibly design an Array from scratch; she could only draw upon the experience of her predecessors.

Having finished the process of elimination, she watched quietly from the side as Gu Ming began to draw the Array.

The Sunflower Seed-eating Hamster also came over to watch, holding a small sunflower seed and making little MUNCH MUNCH MUNCH sounds.

Ah Kun swam out of the water, floating over to Gu Ming on a ball of water vapor to look at the Array its master was drawing.

Gu Ming’s Sword Qi Divine Sense deployed instantly, swimming into his Pet Beast’s Sea of Consciousness to observe its ripples and capture that fleeting sense of reminiscence.

Gu Ming altered the lines as he drew, making the curves smoother and more rounded to match the curve of Ah Kun’s Spiritual Fluctuation.

He simplified the complex, continuously removing nodes from the existing Memory Array and gradually optimizing it toward the Memorization Array he remembered.

At some point, Teachers Zhong and Zhang had fallen silent and moved closer to observe.

After watching for a few minutes, ripples soon began to form in Ah Kun’s Sea of Consciousness as well.

The Sword of Spiritual Sense within Lu You stirred slightly. She, too, sensed that the Array’s simplification was working and was astonished at the speed with which Gu Ming was optimizing it.

「One day later.」

The twelve-node Memorization Array was preliminarily inscribed in Ah Kun’s mind.

As it was a Basic Array, Ah Kun’s Array Formation process went quite smoothly. The Spiritual Waves in its Sea of Consciousness rippled again and again. It felt as if its memory had suddenly improved, and its master’s words had become much clearer.

Even the words of that Teacher Zhong, whose speech was full of long, hard-to-remember sentences, now seemed shorter. Ah Kun could now remember four or five of his sentences at a time.

Memorization Array preliminarily formed!

Ah Kun is attending a lecture—

Ah Kun’s Wave-Swallowing Technique experience +100

990,000 experience points remaining until Entry Level for the Wave-Swallowing Technique!

With the Array formed, the experience Ah Kun gained from listening to lectures multiplied several dozen times.

Gu Ming hadn’t expected that a simple Memorization Array could compensate for the elderly Grouper Fish’s memory problems, allowing it to hear and retain more knowledge.

Gu Ming didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this result.

’If only I’d known this sooner,’ Gu Ming thought. ’If Ah Kun’s memory had been this good from the start, it could have grinded its Cultivation Technique Experience much faster.’

Now that he had figured out a method, Gu Ming took the opportunity that night to enter his dreams, open the Dream Training Space using Achievement Points, and fiercely grind his Skill Level.

「On the morning of the sixth day of learning the high-end Combat Technique, the Wave-Swallowing Technique.」

During a simple morning training session, the system showed that Ah Kun’s total experience bar for the Wave-Swallowing Technique was approaching one million points.

It was still Uninitiated, merely close to Entry Level. The experience was stuck here, needing a catalyst for change.

Gu Ming deliberately beckoned Ah Kun over to listen to a story he was about to tell—a story about the Hanging God Waterfall.

In truth, Gu Ming had never seen any Hanging God Waterfall.

It was just that in the system’s eyes, this river *was* the Hanging God Waterfall, a forbidden zone.

He was merely recounting the appearance of the waterfall’s momentum that Ah Kun had seen.

Through this layer of narration, the river’s flow pattern that had been stored in Ah Kun’s mind by the Memorization Array began to change.

Ah Kun’s thoughts took flight. Its once-barren mind grew wings of imagination. The Hanging God Waterfall tore through the clouds, plummeting from the heavens and smashing through the city’s surface, a drop of tens of thousands of meters from top to bottom.

Its majestic, earth-shattering momentum formed a forbidden aquatic zone.

Ah Kun imagined itself as a fish in the pool beneath the Hanging God Waterfall, performing a Fish Leap day and night, jumping onto the waterfall and climbing up against its current.

Each time it climbed, it would be pushed back down by the immense momentum of the water, falling back into the pool.

This made Ah Kun tremble slightly, feeling the immense pain of its body crashing back into the water’s surface.

"This... is the Hanging God Waterfall, a treasured, forbidden aquatic zone that countless Fish Pets compete to climb," Gu Ming said, concluding his story with a shake of his head.

’I wonder if Ah Kun understood, or if the Memorization Array in its mind has changed.’

But then he saw Ah Kun blowing bubbles, asking why those Fish Pets wanted to climb up.

Gu Ming was taken aback by the question for a moment.

Although he had never personally seen the Hanging God Waterfall from thirty-two years in the future and couldn’t imagine a waterfall splitting the sky to smash through a city, he did know why the fish climbed upwards.

"Because fish strive to swim upstream to reach a better place for their Evolution. It’s a testament to their unyielding spirit of progress."

Ah Kun remembered its master’s words.

’Fish strive to swim upstream!’

In that instant, the Memorization Array completed its final transformation.

The image of an ordinary little river in its mind had transformed into the scene of the Hanging God Waterfall it had just imagined. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

A torrent cascades from the heavens, as myriad fish leap against the abyssal falls.

An astonishing aura surged from within its body. The Mana converted from Gui Water Spiritual Qi began to resonate inside the Dragon Pattern Tripod on its Foundation Establishment Platform.

The Foundation Establishment Platform also completed its final construction, and within the tripod, the figure of a dragon-like Ancient Dragon Fish emerged.

The roaring sound of a torrential waterfall suddenly echoed from within the cluster of water bubbles beneath Ah Kun.

Everyone looked down and saw the bubbles beneath it churning violently. The flow accelerated, and soon the currents were crashing into each other, creating bursts of fine mist.

Ah Kun held its head high, beat its fins gently, and leaped into the air.

The cluster of bubbles supporting it from below extended in response, turning into an elongated cascade of water.

At that moment, the Grouper Fish leaped with an astonishing presence. It seemed as if it were truly soaring up a waterfall, its form so beautiful that no one could look away.

Teacher Zhong, on the shore, was slightly startled by the sight. After a moment, he declared, "The grand potential has been achieved!"

In the face of such an astonishing presence, the difficulty of learning "Vortex," the step after Abyssal Stop, was drastically reduced.

After all, the two most difficult preliminary steps were now complete.

Ah Kun leaped from the air down to the river’s surface. As it passed, the surrounding water abruptly stagnated.

The water behind it stopped moving, piling up and rising higher, while the water in front, not controlled by the Daoist Skill, continued to flow forward.

The stagnant water hovered around Ah Kun’s body. It looked as if it had truly stopped a stretch of the river over ten meters long.

This was the first step of the Wave-Swallowing Technique: Abyssal Stop.

Upon first entering this state, Ah Kun felt its body grow scorching hot as endless Power surged from within.

It felt as if its body was being crushed to the bottom of the river by a waterfall, filled with a pent-up energy that yearned to break free of its shackles and be unleashed.

Everyone present watched Ah Kun, their faces filled with astonishment.

"Is that... the light of Evolution?"