He did not dawdle and moved his paw to the marked circle, which was filled with several strange and, even with the tiny amount of rune knowledge he had acquired when he had bought the Illusion Formation from the system shop, unreadable runes.
Not pondering this, Thiago did as the old man had told him and let his mana flow into his paw and from there into the marked area.
Immediately, rune after rune lit up with the continuous amount of mana Thiago was injecting, and when every rune around and inside the circle had lit up, the whole circle suddenly lit up brightly, and Thiago could see several lines and patterns leading away from this altar also lighting up at that moment, these were probably the connecting parts to the other nodes of the array. "Haha, it's working," Thiago rejoiced after seeing his mana being sent through the connecting lines and patterns to the other altars, indicating that the array should be working again soon.
That is, if Thiago's mana reserves were large enough. But that shouldn't be too much of a problem, since this whole place was filled with dark power, and he should be able to replenish his mana with it.
Seeing that it worked, Thiago decided to speed up the process by increasing his mana output many times over to seal the dark apparition more quickly.
Daoist Sacred Blade, feeling that the mana input into the array node had increased, smiled happily at this moment and spoke to the dark apparition while they were still fighting: "It seems like it won't be long before you're sealed again, what do you think?"
"Ke ke, even if I am sealed again, how long do you think that puny little tiger's mana will last? Won't I be unsealed again when his mana runs out? And when that happens, you will have no energy left to maintain your soul form as it is now, and you will vanish between heaven and earth, ke ke!" the dark apparition replied mockingly, causing the old man to frown heavily, for it was true what the dark apparition had said.
The sealing of the dark apparition was only useful for Thiago to escape from this place in one piece, but in the end, it would make no difference to the dark apparition and would even benefit it, since the old man's energy would be wasted.
"What is to come will come," the old man murmured as he continued to fight the dark apparition relentlessly, trying to keep it from rushing towards Thiago and attacking him.
Meanwhile, Thiago could feel the ground begin to shake as the array was now basically fully charged and only a little bit of manpower was left to get it working again.
Thiago was amazed at the fact that such an amazing and large array had not drained all the mana from his demon core, as he had previously thought. What he did not know was that the array itself still had some reserve mana that had accumulated over the time since it had stopped working, so it only needed Thiago's mana to replenish it to the required amount until it could work again.
Just then, Thiago felt that the array had enough mana for now, as he saw numerous beams of light rising from the various nodes placed around this independent space, which would make for a spectacle if it weren't for the seriousness of the situation.
"Good, it worked!" exclaimed Daoist Sacred Blade as he watched the beams of light rise all around and slowly converge towards the place where the old man and the dark apparition were situated.
"Damn you!" the dark apparition cursed in anger as he saw the beams of light getting closer by the second and turning into chains of light that would soon be wrapping around him.
He already knew this, since it hadn't been the first time he had been sealed, speaking strictly this would be the second time, making a deep hatred well up in his heart for Daoist Sacred Blade, who had been the root cause for him to have been sealed in this place, in the first place.
The dark apparition still tried to fight against these shining golden chains of unknown matter that encircled him, closing the distance every second.
But with the old man's interference and his incessant attacks on the dark apparition, in the end the dark apparition had absolutely no chance of escaping these chains and had to be honestly sealed.
"Roarrrr! It won't be long before I break out of this seal again, and when that happens, you and I both know that I will be able to leave this independent space that you originally sealed me in, because your measly soul fragment won't be able to last much longer now that you've consumed so much energy, ke ke! "The dark apparition sneered at the old man, causing a huge frown to appear on his face once again, but he did not allow himself to be disturbed, even though he knew that this was all the truth, but he still held some kind of unknown hope, and he also seemed to have made some plans beforehand.
As the chains tightened around the dark apparition, his weird shape writhed and twisted within the black fog and mist that surrounded him. The chains seemed to bind not only his corporeal body, but also his very essence, sapping away his dark powers. These were the last words he was able to utter before the chains completely encased him and dragged him underground, where he was surrounded by various runes and sigils that suppressed his powers and strength.
"Sigh, I don't know how long I can keep him here unless - no, impossible," the old man murmured before appearing beside Thiago as if teleporting.
"You've done well, you can stop infusing mana now," the old man ordered before speaking again, "I'll be brief, as I don't have much time left before my soul's energy is used up.
You will receive my inheritance, as it seems to be fated, I don't care that you're not human, as I've never really been against the Beast Clans, unlike many others.
After receiving my inheritance, you must leave quickly, as the seal will not last long without constant mana support.
After you leave, you will have about five years before all the remaining energy of the Independent Space, and thus the second and most important seal, is used up. Until then, I hope you can somehow find someone to strengthen the seal, as it is basically impossible for you to reach the realm required for it in the required time.
I will give you a certain seal to use to find a fellow Daoist of mine, well, if he is still alive, I suppose.
This inheritance contains most of the skills that I have acquired in my life, which are many, as well as a huge number of weapons, resources and many other things that you will have to find out for yourself.
And of course, it also contains all sorts of information. Information about this whole independent space and how and why I ended up in this situation, so you can understand it better.
That was all, everything else will be explained to you in the inheritance, goodbye! With that, the old man made a ring appear on the ground next to Thiago, and just before Thiago could comprehend everything the Daoist Sacred Blade had just said, the old man began to fade away, until suddenly there was nothing left of him.
"Farewell and thank you, Senior, for giving Junior this precious inheritance!" Thiago thanked him, for he still knew the basic forms of courtesy, even if the old man could not hear him at that moment.
But what he did not see was that the old man was still invisibly listening, and only when he heard Thiago's thanks did he smile slightly, while inwardly he thought that he had still made the right choice in giving Thiago the inheritance that he had originally planned to give to a human being, or to let it rot here forever, unnoticed by anyone, and then disappear completely from the face of the earth.
After that, the old man really did disappear into nothingness, as he had run out of soul energy and was no longer able to maintain his soul, which was originally only a remnant of his original soul that had long since died.
Thiago felt a little strange with everything that had happened since he had entered the cave, but now he had to find a way to leave this independent space, and to do that he would have to take a look at the Inheritance.
If he could control the formation of the Array, he might be able to get to the place underground where the Dark Apparition was currently sealed to devour him, if that was possible, but theoretically it had to be, since all of its power was currently sealed.
If that worked, he would surely reap another wave of massive benefits.
Well, first of all he had to take a look at the inheritance...