My face, was definitely an open book, since this news, were not something I spoke of. Zhang Tian's return was my doing, well, part of it. So, in theory, the reason why this whole shit is happening…is because of me.
"Now, anyone, if they were to know the identity of the small insignificant man, would gladly give him up to the Fire King, in hopes to save their skin, and the very planet they reside on."
Once the old man said his words, my hand was already preparing to fight for my life. After all, this guy, right now that I realize it, doesn't have an ounce of Qi, and to be able to maintain a mountain full of beasts strong enough to beat the living hell out of Soul Transformation cultivators, means that he was at least, at the very least, a half ascendant.
"But. I'm not such a man, Shen Bao. You have done something that you shouldn't be faulted for." The man said.
"How would you even consider that I and that insignificant man are one and the same?" I asked.
I would not have connected the dots if it wasn't for you finding out about the hidden cave under the Black Tower.
Many had spoken of you using an automaton to suck in some disciples into a small world. And once I was given a description of the automaton, I managed to figure it out, because I too, participated in the Lord of Lord's test. I too visited his pagoda. And I clearly remember the administrator. Then after investigating for a bit, I realized that the last Lord of Lord's test happened in the Concaved Desert, where after a small questioning, I knew that you were all transported to a lesser celestial world. And from the rumors in question, the imprisoned prince was apparently held hostage in a lesser celestial world. It only takes a bit of thinking to finally find out that you, and the insignificant man, are actually one and the same." The old man said in a matter-of-factly.
The words he dropped were like bombs on my head, but I tried my best not to expose my anxiety.
The old man drank from his jug once again, and I, did the same, battling the urge to shake in my place.
"Well, no need to hit around the bush, I'm that very same man. But, would giving me up solve this situation?" I said.
"No, it will not, because the Fire King already spoke his word of conquering this planet, and kings do not take back their word." The old man said. "Not even if it would solve the problem, I'm not going to give you up to save my skin. After all, why fault a man for doing the right thing? It was never your fault for helping another, so why put you on the stakes." The old man shook his head.
"I've lived long enough, and I've seen the evil in man, I have also seen some good, and we're in desperate need of the latter." The old man said. The mood turned dreary super fast, and I didn't want it to remain like this.
"I've been sent here to help prepare a formation," I said, cutting away the old man's train of thoughts.
"Oh, yeah, that was nothing but a pretext to get you here, though I expected you to come in a week at least." The old man said.
"I had my means, so there is no formation?"
"No, there is, but it's impossible for me to bring it to full function, I'll need some time"
"Can I see it?" I asked.
The old man was about to say something, but then he stopped, no matter what it was he probably was going to tell me that I wasn't fit to fix something even he couldn't, but I could read through his expressions something around these lines.
'Probably I shouldn't underestimate him, and see what he has, at least nothing is lost.'
"Well, here," the old man said and tapped on the table, revealing a holographic design of the entire planet.
He then pressed a few times on the holographic imagery and a massive formation appeared around the planet.
I stood up, and got closer to the holographic formation.
"Huh, this is… so what's the problem?" I asked.
The old man tilted his head, "I knew you wouldn't figure it out, you can just drop the matter."
"No, I mean, besides the fact that you are lacking some necessary inscription materials, and have some problems with redirecting Qi flow through a few points, I don't see any problem with the formation, especially if we use the planet's own Qi veins, to supply the formation."
The old man frowned, he stood up, and pointed, "It's impossible for me to subvert the evil Qi from this area, it has too much evil Qi, it's a dead zone, and it's eating away at the entire formation, once the formation is set up, they can break it from here and cause the whole thing to break down."
"Yes, that's because you're thinking of actually covering it, why not just leave it as is. Use the whole lay lines around this area to create a vacuum, where any cultivator that tries to enter will have to go through this dead zone, and you can have the cultivator set up at the perimeters. The enemy cultivators won't be able to break through the planetary defenses, and since this evil Qi area will be the most vulnerable, they'll have to funnel through it. You'll basically force them into your own playing field instead of being attacked from all over the planet."
"You mean, to actually leave the enemy a backdoor?"
"Unless you do that, your entire planet is a front door," I said.
The old man thought for a moment then said, "This will bring up more problems, even if we can manage to somehow force the enemy to Colace and gather in one area, we cant go out and fight them, also, creating a formation that actually avoids this area, in particular, will be a task that will take years to complete."
"Not if I were the one to make it," I said.
The old man didn't believe my words until I brought up my brush and began writing an inscription on it.
The speed of writing was amazing to see, especially seeing the old man's reaction to my scribing. But still, to make an inscription capable of coating the whole planet will require more than the surface of a talisman, but for now, the layout should be fine.
I finished the inscription, slammed my hand on it and extracted the inscription, then placed it against the holographic planet.
The whole planet graph shook and shuddered then immediately the old formation was overthrown and a new one, improved and modified one came into position, easily covering all of the hologram while leaving a small area without protection, where this area was the dead Qi zone, the inscription fell down around the rims of the dead Qi zone and enclosed it like it was a hole separate from the planet.
"This is… most impressive. But sadly… we don't have enough time." The old man said.
"How much do we have?" I asked.
"About two weeks."
"How fast can a half ascendant travel?"
"About a two hundred thousand miles a day." He said.
I made quick calculations and said, "I'll need a lot of top-grade spirit stones… I can pull this off before the time ends, but I'll need three Half Ascendants to use every ounce of Qi they have in them for this."
"What do you have in mind?" he asked.
"I'll correct the layout of the formation you have already set up, it'll take some work, but since I know the key location of the formation, I can modify them once I'm on the scene. But I can't do them all alone, I'll need you, Hei Gua Fu, and the bald guy's assistance. So the two of you can come out." I spoke.
I heard a chuckle and two figures materialized from empty air.
"I told you it was him" I heard the feminine voice of Hei Gua Fu, the bald monk came from next to her, with an angry scowl on his face.
"You already knew." The old man said.
"Yeah, though they hid their presence well, there is something they couldn't hide," I said.
"What is it?" asked Hei Gua Fu.
"Well, for you, the last time we met, you smelled of Jasmin, though I'm sure you hid the perfume you use, you didn't remove it from the rest of the room," I said.
"What about me?"
"Oh, you're too fat," I said.
I could swear that I was gonna get beaten black and blue, but I immediately added.
"The chair you were sitting on was slightly bending the ground, the wood underneath your foot is slightly bent out of shape," I said.
"Observant, smart, and good-looking." Hei Gua Fu said licking her lips.
"We'll leave the interactions for later, how about we save a planet now?"