The servant the Heavenly Empress sent had already managed to find those people familiar with arrays before she returned and the Heavenly Emperor had dispatched them immediately. Thus, in the end, a group of ten masters with their disciples went down to the human world and stood around the array that separated the secret realm from the Leyuan region even though it wasn't as urgent as everyone had thought.
Next to those gods stood two dragons. One of them was actually listening to what those masters said and provided his own ideas. It didn't need to be said that this dragon was definitely not Qiu Ling.
No, while An Bai dealt with those gods Qiu Ling just looked from one person to the other and contemplated if he thought of them as trustworthy or not. Those were gods so they should want to get his beloved out of the secret realm. But who knew how their skills were? They had already discussed with An Bai for a while but still, nothing had been done. He really started to feel like this whole undertaking was futile. Those guys just wouldn't be able to manage. Ah, he really had to find the old geezer!
As unkind as Qiu Ling's thoughts were they weren't completely wrong. If the array was anything those gods knew, then it wouldn't have taken them such a long time to discuss. In fact, the gods were faced with the same problem as An Bai before: Some elements of the array seemed familiar but the rest wasn't and even though every one of these masters had checked the ground and had even let their disciples have a try, none of them could say what had been used to anchor the array. It didn't seem to be based on any of the six elements.
"Maybe … we're looking at it the wrong way. Figuring out what was used to tie the array down here would be good but it could also be that the changes to the array as we know it were brought about by the incorporation of a second array. In that way, the true entrance to the secret realm might not be lying here but is at another place instead. This array here would then merely be a passage."
This proposition by one of the honorable elders was met with some nodding and murmuring but not everyone was convinced.
"That could very well be. But even then this array would need to be stabilized with something."
"That is also true but maybe the anchor is, in fact, at the place this array leads to. This would require it to be a very strong anchor but it isn't impossible. If that was the case it would even make it easier to find this place. After all, not every place could provide the necessary spiritual energy for that."
At this revision of his original theory, another god shook his head. "Even if that was the case, we would still need to find a clue as to what element was used. There are quite a few possible places, after all. We couldn't check all of them without narrowing the options down at all, could we?"
"We're twenty people. It wouldn't be completely impossible."
"Wouldn't it still be better if we figured the unfamiliar parts of this array out first? That might help us with finding out more about a possible second array. Furthermore, even if there isn't a second array, we would still get closer to solving this problem. Although I have to say that I think the incorporation of a second array to be highly likely."
"Indeed, indeed." The first honorable elder spoke up again. "It could also be —"
"Aren't you just guessing?" Qiu Ling frowned and looked at each of them one by one. Those guys had no idea what this was about at all! They were just wildly making guesses!
The gods froze. That was indeed right. All of them were trueborn gods. How would they know about human arrays?! These things weren't related to them at all! How could this guy reproach them for that?
One of the elders that had just taken part in the guessing coughed. "Longjun, you can't say it like that. We're not just wildly guessing. In fact, we're narrowing this situation down to the most likely scenarios. Doing so will reduce the effort needed to dispel this array later on."
Qiu Ling just stared at them. He might as well wait until his master found that old geezer or until An Bai finished with his research. The speed of these old turtles discussing just wasn't fast enough.
An Bai was quite embarrassed by his king's display of his lack of politeness. "Ah, what His Majesty actually wanted to say was that all guessing will not bring us a final conclusion so long as we don't try to verify it. How about this? One or two of us will search for possible places that may hold a connected array. Somebody else could try to find a master of arrays from the human world or something left behind by such a master. There might be valuable clues in that. The rest should try to deconstruct the structure of this array and compare it with arrays known to our two races. Maybe we can find some similarities with other arrays. In that way, we might also find something that points in the direction of interconnected arrays or saves us the trouble of searching in that direction any longer."
The venerable elders slowly nodded. "That doesn't sound bad. Then we'll do it this way."
An Bai gave a relieved sigh. He had really feared that his king might have offended these masters too much. Well, not that they would dare to slack off just because of that. After all, these gods hadn't been kidnapped by his king but had been sent by the Heavenly Emperor instead. They would certainly work until they found the solution.
In this way, the research An Bai had intended to do from the very beginning finally started. Qiu Ling just frowned. He really didn't trust these gods. No, it was still better to rely on his race's old geezer. Mn, where could he have gone? Couldn't his master message him already?