Chapter 11: The seal

'Fu Hua, if you somehow resolved this in time then I promise to give you more time to live. I'll even protect you till I get to the bottom of all this' the prince could only count on the other now, his own self doing its best to gather enough time and hope it was enough.

Meanwhile, Fu Hua was faced with his own set of problems, namely - the divine array.

While Xiao Lan was busy distracting the attention of the monster, Fu Hua made his way toward the centre where the array was likely placed. The array likely spanned a good few feet for it to be this effective and fast working.

But much to his disappointment, the array was not that large. It was by pure luck that the miasma had not thickened enough at the centre yet to cover the evidence of the array. This gave Fu Hua an opportunity to study the array.

The array was vaguely familiar and Fu Hua tried to remember where he could have seen it before. Unlike common demonic arrays, this one did not jump to his forefront so it was a little difficult to place it.

But still, it was not totally unfamiliar to him so he must have studied it once. The node that held the array together seemed slightly fried due to the energy explosion. However, this should not have been possible.

As a rule, the demonic array sucked any energy that was poured into them and converted it into fuel. To solve it you actually needed to suck all its energy dry which was deadly for normal people.

In most cases, you needed a spiritual tool or something similar to it to contain the harmful side effects. That was the biggest reason Fu Hua had wanted Xiao Ran to do it.

Since he was a noble and from the royal family to boot, it was likely he had the royal family's seal with him.

The royal seal was an extremely powerful spiritual tool Fu Hua had seen once or twice. It was provided to every blood-related member of the royal family for protection and was bound to their blood.

It was said to be a gift from an ancient immortal god and could contain any type of energy infinitely. It was a double-edged sword though since it could just as easily feed the energy out to the array.

Only someone with the immortal god's blood could control it, hence a royal family member was needed.

But wait, that would not work since this kid was not related to Xiao Lan but to his mother's side of the family. He would not have any royal blood in him, would he?

Really, the resemblance of Xiao Ran with Xiao Lan was mixing Fu Hua up. But that was beside the point here. What was important was to resolve this array.

Fu Hua took the node in his hand and felt it all around. The damage was not significant at all. In fact, for as bad as it looked, the node and the array was unharmed. The monster should not have been called forth at all.

So why did this feel wrong to Fu Hua's senses? There was something that nagged at the slave's senses. There should be something that should not be here and it did not belong.

"Your highness, please allow us to assist" the voice of the backup was so loud that it even managed to reach Fu Hua all the way down. The guard who had shouted it was likely trying to raise the morals of the whole group.

Fu Hua waited for the feeling of relief that was supposed to come as those cultivators tried to contain the monster who looked vaguely like a Bayyako. However, their attacks showed no effect at all.

They did the opposite and the monster seemed even more enraged and energetic. The huge body and heavy claws were attacking the group, trying to get free from his bind.

In all honesty, it should have worked perfectly. No demonic beat could resist harm from the divine energy but it did not seem to work that well here. The beast was behaving like it was not a demonic beast at all.

It gave Fu Hua a pause, possibilities swimming inside his mind. Suddenly, he began to doubt if this array was even demonic in nature at all.

Once again, he forced himself to remember where he had seen this array before. Since it was not overly familiar, it was likely not something he had studied extensively. So had he seen it vaguely?

Maybe in the academy when he had been a slave there? He remembered looking at various divine arrays during his time there. But he recognised a lot of the design features as well.

Can this be a divine array too? But then where had the demonic miasma come from? An experiment to join both sides of the energy? That can be possible since he only recognised half of it anyway.

Has someone really been foolish enough to do so? If that was the case then the culprit was not a commoner at all. He was most likely a noble who had learned about both cultivations and had tried to tie them up.

"Damn nobility and their sense of superiority" Fu Hua could not help but curse. Now they had a problem that had no immediate solution.

The only way out here was to seal this array and then allow it to run its natural course till it ran out of power. Since it was likely not possible to resolve the nodes it had, Fu Hua could not see any better alternative.

'I still don't have any power though. I'll have to draw it from around me.' This was a dangerous manoeuvre but there was likely no choice.

This was a technique that was forbidden to practice - to draw external energy and process it through your own self. It put a heavy load on one's core and corrupted it with foreign influence so one was never advised to follow this path.

Fu Hua was not most people and there were too many people dependent on him right now. The energy headed his call slowly but it started to finally move.

Fu Hua needed to draw right over this array with the energy to seal it and it was a painful process. The more he moved the energy, the more it jabbed at his insides. It left small paper cuts like wounds all over his body when he forced it to move and it hurt.

These cuts would naturally heal but they would run their course and they would hurt all the time till then. Even using spiritual medicine and pills would not help Fu Hua recover faster.

Not that he had the means to obtain those either.

Slowly, the seal started to form, the light covering the glow of the array below. The monster should start to feel the effect pretty soon.

A loud cry was heard as soon as he was halfway through and Fu Hua knew that the monster had noticed his efforts. Fu Hua doubled his efforts, his body really feeling the strain now.

His heartbeat was loud in his ears and his vision was going blank at the corner of his eyes but Fu Hua still persisted. He needed to finish this seal because ordinary people were at risk if he failed.

The nobles would likely not help till their own lives were not in danger and as much as he trusted Xiao Lan to help, he was one single man who could be distracted easily.

Besides, Xiao Ran was still in danger and he could not allow the kid to come to harm. Not now and not ever if he could help it. It would feel like letting Xiao Lan all over again and he was not sure he could make that decision once again.

Fu Hua felt the pressure around him change but the seal was finally done. The slow one just gazed at his back before it disappeared into a flash of light. It had not hurt at all but the phantom sensation sent shivers down Fu Hau's back.

Had he been even a second late then the consequences would have been fatal for him.

Fu Hua's vision swam but his hand still stretched toward the seal. He needed to make it there to complete it. He just needed to touch it and it would seal itself. His body lost its balance due to having no energy and he fell onto his hands and knees.

Just a little bit more. He needed to move just a little bit more. His hand was almost onto the seal.

"Please, let me touch the seal" the rough voice pleaded but it seemed to have gone unheard. Fu Hua could not even see clearly now, his body in too much pain.

Then his hand moved and his body jerked from his impact. The rough and painful touch told him that someone had taken over for him and his hand finally touched the array to seal it.