Shi Lang finished the array formation in four minutes before moving back inside the spaceship and asked, “What is the status?”
Unity replied, “Everything is ready. We can leave anytime we want to.”
Shi Lang nodded, and after a thought, he said, “Initiate space jump but do not fire the engines until the planet implodes. I want to see something.”
The crew was surprised, and then they looked at Unity. This lady was superior, and they wanted her to advocate that it was risky to stay in this area. Unity asked, “What do you want to see?”
Shi Lang looked at the visuals and the readings from the planet. He said, “I have a hunch.”𝞸𝑣𝗅xt.𝑐𝚘𝑚
Unity followed his thoughts and said, “Well, okay.”
Shi Lang and the rest of the people did not say much but watched the readings. Soon, the planet began to shrink in size. Shi Lang said, “Move away slowly.”
The crew controlled the ship while the readings for tectonic movements and Everything went off the charts. Minax asked, “What is happening? Planets do not shrink like this.”
Shi Lang clicked his tongue and said, “It is an array formation.”
The people were shocked, and Unity said, “Not just an array, but a planetary array. It can easily change the fate of a planet and make it crumble under its weight.”
Shi Lang shivered and said, “Jalan theya mas cahiel tryand.”
Unity opened her eyes wide and said, “Are you sure?”
Shi Lang nodded, and his aura began to climb. The people were confused, and Amelia asked, “What are you talking about?”
Unity glanced at Shi Lang and found that he was too engrossed in his thought and said, “This is something we discovered in the old classic back in the library. My master acquired accounts of a demon who was proficient in formation arrays. The language was an ancient script, but it described the scene perfectly. This demon could make humans or creatures act like array nodes.”
Marly gasped and asked, “H-How is that even possible?”
Unity nodded and said, “The secret lay in the sutra of cultivation they used. The entire sutra transforms your blood into spirit liquid by instilling the spirit energy stolen from other people’s blood. Some cultivators realized this, but it was too late to counter anything.”
Jenkins asked, “How does it work?”
Unity sighed, but before she could say anything, Shi Lang said, “The bodies power the soul. If one of these people dies, they must find another soul to replace the array node. However, in this case, the array was a fail-safe to keep things under wrap.”
The people understood what was going on here. Amelia walked up to Shi Lang and patted his shoulder as she said, “This is not your fault.”
Shi Lang blamed himself for the deaths of millions who could not leave the planet. He sighed and said, “I know it is not my fault, but the people died, and even after all this strength, I could not do anything. What is the use of cultivation if one cannot even save those in need?”
Amelia did not say anything to it because she was also the same. She also considered what she could have done to reduce the risk. All of the teams were the same. Shi Lang clicked his tongue and said, “Initiate the hyperspace drive and set the trajectory to our spaceship.”
The crew nodded when suddenly, Shi Lang froze. He sensed something and took a look at Amelia. The lady looked at him in askance, and Shi Lang said, “Unity, follow me to the infirmary.”
Then he held onto Amelia and vanished from his place. Everyone followed behind him. Jenkins said, “Something is wrong.”
Hayley said, “For the sake of that demon, I hope Amelia is not inflicted anyhow.”
The others nodded, and the young lady asked, “Excuse me, but what is happening?”
Darcx said, “The array that destroyed your home. A map of it is engraved on Amelia’s back. She touched Shi Lang just now and made him the second node of the array. This will follow up till she makes thirty-nine nodes.”
Minax said, “I think this particular array is not affected by the placement of its nodes. It just needs the strongest people to act like a node and then explode when one of them is missing.”
Darcx nodded and said, “Well, that’s the essence of it.”
The young lady cast eyes on Minax, and Darcx said, “This young lady is, Li-yah.”
The team greeted her calmly, then discussed what the two people had planned for the future.
…
Inside the infirmary room, Shi Lang had Amelia lying on her stomach with her back bare. Unity stood at the side and said, “What do you intend to do?”
Shi Lang replied, “Erase it.”
The sword spirit frowned and asked, “It will not work like that. You need to remove it from all the nodes simultaneously.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I want you to use sword intent to push out the demonic spirit energy of the imprint on my back.”
Unity was surprised and asked, “Are you sure? I cannot do this to two people at the same time.”
Shi Lang nodded and said, “I am aware, do not worry. I will be administering this on Amelia.”
Unity was surprised and said, “Lang, you can ask others for help. You know, we have Tex.”
Shi Lang shook his head and said, “I cannot trust anyone else with her. Do not worry.”
His resolve was firm, and he was not going to waver. The procedure would be excruciating, but he did not want to say anything. He placed a hand on Amelia’s back. The lady had already been given sedatives, and he had placed a few spirit seals on her body to keep her knocked out.
Unity appeared behind Shi Lang and placed her hand on his back. Then the two communicated telepathically and channeled the sword intent inside the other person’s body. Shi Lang was about to shiver when he clenched his jaw and calmed himself. The sword intent from Unity was tamed, but it was still wildly looking for traces of Shi Lang’s intent to clash.
If that happens, the stronger intent will overtake the other attribute. This way, Shi Lang would lose his way of the sword. So, he was fighting on two fronts. At the same time, his body was on the verge of destruction. He controlled his thoughts and controlled his sword intent akin to a needle.
The needle did not run rampant inside Amelia’s body. It was as if the sword was a scalpel. Shi Lang had turned into a surgeon. The traces of the demonic spirit was drilling deeper into the bodies with every passing minute, and they needed to manipulate the intent to capture the demonic energy.
Once trapped, it will be pushing this energy out of the body. However, that would be possible only when the needle completely mapped the array map. Shi Lang was calm and focused. He was following Unity’s rhythm of mapping to avoid the lag between the two people. The more they worked, the more they were exhausted.
Shi Lang’s face was laced with sweat, and his body trembled slightly as if he had reached its limits. However, this was not enough. He still needed to cover half the array layout quickly. This array map had consciousness, so the demonic spirit energy tried to move around when Shi Lang approached it. If he were to chase after this demonic energy, Amelia would be injured.
The young man focused and slowly moved forward to entrap the demonic energy. Unity faced the same thing in her advances, but her condition was better than Shi Lang’s. An hour passed, and Hayley and the other few people came to check on them. After ensuring that Shi Lang and Amelia were acceptable, they left without disturbing him.
When they rushed here, Shi Lang had already told them what was going on, so these guys did not move closer to them. The young man carried on for a couple of hours before pushing the demonic energy from the body’s four directions and collecting it into one spot.
Then the young man used a bubble of the sword intent and closed it slowly so that the demonic energy did not struggle much and began to push it out of a small hole at the back of the person. The black mass was wiggling restlessly.
Unity also spotted this black mass and began to create a bubble of sword intent to prevent it from running around. The two masses were obtained and Shi Lang was shivering at this moment. He was done for, however, he could not relax just now. He said, “Uni, Unity, help me contain this thing.”
Unity nodded and took control of Shi Lang’s intent bubble with ease. The young man then slumped on the floor and the sword spirit said, “Tex, come here.”
The lady did not expect to have faced such a horror.