"Oh, I see. You count us still being in the rotation then?" Mo Sha said, nodding.
"Of course I do. You have zero clue just how vast the Ink Clan's forces are." I said, nearly grinding my teeth.
"What do you mean by that? From what we've gathered via the reports it seems our forces, while fluctuating a bit, are nearly equal." Mo Sha said.
"If you continue to believe that, Great Evolution would have some words with you." I said, my gaze filled a disappointed look so heavy the air inside many of the Supreme Elders just in my sight trembled and sparked. "Behind the enemy lines is a restriction sealing away the Ink Clan's Progenitor. And inside it he has an army in the trillions. We've had our hands full with just a couple million or so at each battle zone. What do you think would happen if they spilled out too?" I stated my question in a cold tone.
"Are, are you serious! How do you know this!" Mo Sha stammered in confusion.
"I can't tell you right now…" I said, looking down at my hand. "I will explain it later. But for now, just put some trust in my words. I wouldn't be trying so hard if I didn't truly feel the need to do so. And if you'd take a look around, this is one of the things I made in an effort to create a failsafe in the event I should fail. Nothing less than a bulwark of 9th ranks working together in sync could hope to have even a snowball's chance in hell of delaying the enemy even for a moment. Or are you too scared to believe it?" I continued, releasing both my dragon and phoenix prestige.
"Uhm, no. It's just a crazy large number to think about. It almost seems impossible. Are you sure you'll be strong enough to defeat this guy?" Mo Sha asked, managing not to faint as the target of the sheer pressure he was under.
"If we had time I could give a solid answer. But even then I'm still using estimates of what my strength will be. I can't say anything is certain until after I reach the peak of the 8th rank. But… right now, I'd say it's 1 to 9 odds. 9 in Ink's favor." I said, putting my prestige away. That was dangerous, I felt like I was going to explode… Or maybe… Not? Hmm, I'll look into that a bit later. Perhaps when I visit the twins again. Did their healing help me with something… I wonder.
"Those aren't great odds…" Mo Sha sighed.
"Hey, it's better than nothing." Luo Ting He said, as she wrapped an arm around me. "Don't worry yourself about the odds too much, alright? Work to reach the strongest you possibly can be. After all, that's all anyone can do." She attempted to encourage me, then she moved to a whisper so only I would hear. "I heard you also have this wine of some kind. Would it be possible for me to get some of that too? I'll find you as many workers as you need in exchange." She asked.
"Pfft, I'm having it served to all the 8th ranks that come to the wedding. So no need to worry." I answered with a smirk. "Though you're only getting a small cup for free. That stuff isn't easy to make. And I'm the only one who can make it. As such… It is in limited supply." I added.
"Oh, maybe… Eh, I'll see about it later. For now I've seen enough to convince me. This thing works. And really well at that." Luo Ting He said, looking around and leaning against me for support. "Hmm, is it possible to have the part of the cultivators removed? Like make it fully automatic or something like that?" She asked, as the idea came to mind.
"I… Can't do it. There are many reasons why. But for starters, it would limit the types of lives people live. And thus lower my power overall. For example, this one array here would run me a net 0 gain. And thus would be useless. And the other one, would put me in the negative. It requires people to live and work throughout the day." I answered, shaking my head.
The three Array Masters smirked with amusement as they began investigating even more unrestrained as before. I of course noticed, but let them do their thing. After what seemed like hours they held a short meeting among themselves and then came back.
"Yang boy, did you happen to try making this change to the array?" One of the two men asked, showing an example with a bit of Qi projection.
"Hmm, you three are indeed quite gifted to see that. Allow me to answer another way." I said, snapping my fingers, the four of us teleported to the other array while everyone else was brought outside of my small realm. "As the three of you can see… I've already done it. As well as this improvement, that one there. And I even made a 5 element 2 forces energy generator to help supply and conform the world force into the array's fuel. Also twisting the flows of energy around each other in a helix for extra support and higher throughput. If you have any suggestions, I'd welcome them, but… I don't see it getting better than this aside from increasing the scale of the array. Which would just be annoying since it's better for logistics if I spread them around my small realm." I explained, showing them all of the things I managed to think of.
"Yeah, this is quite good. If I had more time to study it. I might be able to come up with something. Would you be able to accommodate?" The other man asked, with a raised brow.
"If you don't mind waiting a few months or so? I am on track to refine more elements soon. I was planning on the Earth Element next. Perhaps it will give me more insight. So for now you can take this. If something jumps out just let me know when you get the chance." I said, handing them each a book so thick it would take a mortal their entire lifetime to comprehend it if they even managed to open it. And then we all exited my small realm.