Back in the palace’s library, his eyes sparkled as he turned the parchnt without wasting a second.
The orange phoenix feather scratched the yellowish surface, blueish lines sketching one rough design after another. Of course, he began by focusing on utility. After all, the blessed land’s strength was its ecosystem and abundant qi. He couldn’t lose them just to turn it into a flying bastion. But altering the formations after a brief two months of study?
He rapidly frowned. ’I can’t change its form too much. It’ll be supermassive, though.’
In terms of scale, the palace could be compared to the College of Alchemy and Transmutations, the surrounding fields to Alkemia Al-Nur’s bustling city, and the forests and mountains were slightly broader than the desert. Back then, he had taken three days to cross it in Arun’s carriage, so it was by no ans small.
And the wider the target, the harder it was to protect. Especially for sothing airborne. But solutions already hustled in his mind.
He added a curved line over the circle representing the blessed land, then a line far below. ’No one will threaten it if I fly high enough.’
He spun the quill between his fingers, then tapped on the parchnt, adding two words: oxygen and cold. ’The blessed land produces its own oxygen. As long as I don’t let it disperse in the surroundings, it should be fine. In fact, the best would be to isolate it from external contaminations altogether. Hmm. A mana barrier won’t suffice. A layered protection lding mana and qi?’
His eyes lit up as he enveloped the circle with a blue and gray barrier. Planning the first for isolation and the second to regulate the blessed land’s life force, he left a vacuum in between, then filled it with cannons.
’What bastion doesn’t have weaponry,’ he snickered before he shook his head.
Though doable, he frowned at the maintenance, not to ntion the complexity of accessing or adding further components in the vacuum.
’Forget about it.’ He crossed this design, simplifying his ideas before he drew it anew.
The two barriers tightly stuck together, almost lding into one impregnable sphere. A yellow disk surrounded it, annotated with mixed alloys of the ninth tier. Studded with round cavities as broad as the palace, he imagined how they would drown any attacking faction with soul-chilling beams.
His eyes ignited as his imagination ran wild. More than a bastion, it would beco the uncontested ruler of the sky, sothing no one would ever dream of challenging.
But the resources...
’It’s a bottomless pit impossible to fill anyti soon. Perfection has a cost.’ A smirk split his face, ambition burning in his eyes. ’And I’m willing to pay it, no matter how many years it’ll take. But first, the barriers, floating magic circles, and energy conduction.’
As his hand danced over the parchnt, Lulu, who had remained silent the entire ti atop his hair, nodded. A soft smile curved her lips, and her eyes sparkled each ti he drew a line, then crossed it to make it better.
Honestly, she would have felt a stinging disappointnt if Adam had given up on his creativity to rely on her optimisations. Because, in the end, that’s all she could do. Her work would be flawless but lacking a soul, an intrinsic identity that would make everyone say: that’s Adam’s handy craftsmanship.
She observed him for hours, impressed by each new genius stroke Adam painted.
Selene’s theories turned from a complex, outdated circle into a grand one divided into nine precise sections.
Natural symbols designed to absorb external qi danced along its edges like flourishing calligraphies.
He filled the inside with rune-like inscriptions from Elena’s transmutation legacy, their goal simple yet aningful: to convert the absorbed qi into mana. And in the central nexus shaped like a sun’s spiked corona extending outward, he drew elegant diamond-shaped stars that would allow the absorption and conversion of any elent.
With this, the heavens and the world’s infinite energy would be his bastion’s fuel—an eternal generator that worked automatically.
With the general blueprint done and planning to optimise it over the years, he now needed to carve mana veins into the blessed land undergrounds to disperse the mana.
One goal was to strengthen the land itself and develop magical herbs. The other was to lead it into the propeller magic circles that would ensure stable flight.
This would be a lengthy task, the planning and checking alone spanning several years. But his lips curled into an eager grin as he prepared to continue.
Before he could, the library doors slamd open. The soft moon glow cascaded down Misha’s blond hair, which was tied into two neat buns, as her princess dress, embroidered with pink peaches and lifelike sunflowers, fluttered with the chilly breeze.
Without giving Adam a second to turn, she lunged, her hands covering his eyes and her exasperated voice echoing. "For how long are you going to lock yourself up? We haven’t seen you the entire day. Co on, it’s night already!"
She glared at the sprawled parchnts filled with drawings and notes, then snorted. "We said no cultivation or work four hours before sleeping!"
Adam lowered her hands and smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Misha. I learned about so concerning news and lost track of ti while working out a fix."
She exhaled, her golden eyes softening as she placed her right hand on her chest. "I hope it’s nothing too serious, but still... I don’t want us to grow apart for the sake of strength."
Adam gently grabbed her shoulder and pulled her into a warm hug. "That’ll never happen—you know it." He felt her shudder in his embrace and continued. "You’re right, though. We should spend ti together before we reach those higher cultivation realms."
"Right? We’ll need to seclude ourselves for months, perhaps even years. We must enjoy our ti before it happens. Do you understand?" She pulled back, her solemn eyes locked into his. This rule didn’t co out of nowhere. She had specifically made it to nurture their bonds daily before ti ca to lack.
"Yes, ma’am!" Passing his hand under her legs, he took her into a princess carry with a chuckle. "If it ever happens again, don’t hesitate to pull by the ear."
As he walked to the exit, her heart hastened, pumping blood into her blushing face before she went with the flow and answered. "I’ll let you off because it’s your first offence. I won’t be so lenient next ti!"
They exchanged a glance, then chuckled on their way to their room.
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