The One He Competed with

Meanwhile, back in the dragon realm, Bai Mu sat down at the desk, a scroll of paper in front of him and a brush with its tip coated in ink in his hand.

Nie Huang sat beside him, looking at him with worry. "Will this work?"

Bai Mu took a deep deep breath. "To be honest, I don't know. But there's no way I can give up without even trying. They've already done so much for us. They prepared the recipe, they gathered the ingredients, now my father even found somebody who can refine the pill for you. I guess it won't take too take long anymore until we'll be hearing good news. I don't want to sit here and just accept something from them while I haven't done anything to keep my word. That's just now not how it should be."

Nie Huang nodded and fell silent. There was nothing she could do to help Bai Mu in figuring this out. No, this was something that her fiance had to do all on his own. She could merely sit next to him and maybe make him a cup of tea if he needed a break. Everything else would rely on him. She couldn't help but sigh at that thought.

These people had done so much for her. She was the one who didn't have spiritual veins to cultivate. But now, the one who would repay them was Bai Mu. It wasn't that she had a problem with him doing something for her but not being able to help out at all made her feel quite ill at ease. Helping each other and standing in for each other when you wanted to get married was normal. But if there was nothing from her side … That really was a little sad.

Bai Mu knew that Nie Huang wasn't feeling too well about this. Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do. She didn't know about anything that had to do with cultivation. How would she be able to help? No, for the time being, he needed to do this alone. "Don't worry about it. One day, you'll also be able to play your part in this." He reached over and squeezed her hand before concentrating on the scroll again.

He sketched the array that his parents had used back then to trap the people in their realm and stared at the fine lines. What Leng Jin Yu wanted wasn't an array that could teleport them into the realm without trapping them but one that would keep people outside.

If his mother was here, this wouldn't be difficult at all. Among the people who had founded the Dark Temple back then, she had been the one who was most proficient in arrays. If he knew where she was, just casually asking would probably have given them ten different possibilities on how to do this. Unfortunately, even he didn't know where she was. In that case, he had to try himself.

Bai Mu closed his eyes and took another deep breath. Keep people out and only allow them in with the key. In that case, the inner and outer layer of the array would probably need to be subverted. He drew the new shape next to the old one and opened his eyes. In general, this had to be true. Unfortunately, making these two layers of the array fit together would be much more difficult.

If an array consisted of several shapes, then these shapes had to be linked together so that their lines would be connected and could react to the key together. With the underlying frame being changed, the links would have to be changed as well. Otherwise, this array would collapse in itself as soon as he tried to set it up. If he was unlucky, it might even cause an energy distortion that would kill everyone nearby.

He once again drew the shape, this time leaving out the links that had been connecting the two layers, leaving only the ones that were fundamental. Now, the array should be stable. The connection between the shapes was weak though and would likely impact its functionality.

He furrowed his brows and continued to stare at the shape. Originally, the layers had been designed the other way around but subverting the links wouldn't work either. He would need a completely new arrangement of them. He pondered the ones his mother had told him about and drew a few of them at the edge of the scroll. These … Somehow they should be able to connect these two layers.

Bai Mu bit his lip. He had learned a lot from his mother but his understanding in arrays wasn't good enough. He had always focused on his sword arts and mastery over other weapons more.

He couldn't help but give pause at that thought, his lips curving up in a small smile. That wish of being able to wield those weapons well … Hadn't it been born out of the stories his mother had told him about his father and the legends about him that had been circulated in the Dark Temple?

Feng Jian Hao, the first practitioner of the later demon faction … That person had been his idol for the first years of his life, even though he came to resent him later on for not returning to his mother's side. Still, he had persevered in wanting to catch up to him, in wanting to surpass him. Even though he had never seen that person, his father had still been important to him. He was the one he subconsciously competed with all the time.

And now, he had actually met that person and he turned out to be the God of War of the Nine Heavens. He really didn't know what to think of that. Could he say that his father had had an unfair advantage all the time? Or maybe he had been delusional in wanting to measure up to him? Ah, but maybe he wasn't that bad, actually. Maybe … his father would even be proud of him if he ever got to see him wield any of these weapons.