After cultivating the entire night, I woke up at the same time as Feng Xinyi. We both took a bath and left the inn for the third day of the festival.
"Brother Gu, may I ask a question?" she said.
I nodded.
"If you're Gu Xue's bodyguard, why are you so weak? Shouldn't you be at least a Core Formation cultivator?"
"Oh, I didn't tell you the whole thing before, that's why you're confused," I replied and explained the situation to her.
"Oh, so that's why you wanted to protect her. A race, huh? That sounds good." She paused for a moment, then her eyes widened. "Wait... didn't you tell me that you know the formula of the Ancient Cultivation Path? Is that really true?"
"Uhhh…" I froze for a second. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. But since there was no escape, I said, "Yes, I know it. That's why I was able to cultivate so fast. I can give it to you—but only if you prove yourself worthy."
She didn't doubt it. Instead, her eyes lit up with excitement. "Yes! I'll try my best to prove myself worthy!" she said, almost like a child full of joy.
"Alright, enough chatting. Let's go—it's the last day to enjoy," I said, walking forward.
"Yes!" she said and followed me closely.
We ate together, then I started teaching her arrays. She was surprisingly good at it. Her creativity wasn't high, but her comprehension speed and symbol-making accuracy were amazing. If we combined my creativity with her talent, we could even make the hardest tier-one arrays.
The most difficult one in the book was a formation called Qi Destabilizer. As its name suggested, it destabilized Qi within an area, making it an AOE-type formation—very complex, but extremely useful.
It used the Space and Time symbols to affect Qi. Let me explain a bit—Qi existed in two forms:
One was the dark energy that filled everything within space-time, and the other was the true dark energy, or Dark Energy Authority, that existed beyond space-time.
Even though this formation was strong, it only worked against Qi Condensing or Foundation Establishment realm cultivators.
As for Authority—everything had one. Space, time, reality, even dark energy—all had their own authority. Authority represented the truest form of something, and it could be controlled through one's Dao.
For example, if someone cultivated the Fire Dao, they could control fire to an extent. But unless they mastered the Fire Authority, that control would always be limited. Reaching the pinnacle of a Dao meant reaching the peak of cultivation itself, the third step according to the Guide.
"Dark Energy should be the strongest Dao, right?" I thought. "I wonder if I could cultivate the Dao of Dark Energy someday…"
Anyway, back to the main topic. With our combined skill, we had basically mastered all the tier-one arrays. The next step was tier-two, but for that, we needed a book of tier-two symbols.
We searched all day but couldn't find one.
"Tier-two symbols are managed by the Array Association," a shopkeeper explained. "If you want to access them, you need to register. But unfortunately, Velora doesn't have a branch here."
Now we understood—if we wanted tier-two arrays, we'd have to register elsewhere. It wasn't a big problem though; for now, we could experiment with what we had until we left this planet.
We wandered around the festival the rest of the day. At night, when we returned to the inn, I checked on Gu Xue's condition. She seemed fine. She'd made friends with the others and wasn't having nightmares anymore—that was a relief.
We ate the food we bought and got ready to sleep. I laid down on the floor.
"Why are you sleeping on the floor? Why not sleep next to me? Isn't it more... efficient?" she said with a teasing smile.
I didn't know why, but she'd changed a lot in just one day. Since I had no reason to refuse, I laid beside her.
When I did, she hugged me.
"Hey," I said quietly.
"Yes? Is there any problem?" she asked, still smiling.
"No, nothing," I replied.
For some reason, I didn't mind. Maybe because I was used to Gu Xue hugging me in her sleep—it felt familiar.
And just like that, we slept.
After that, we trained for four more days, and that's how I spent my seven days at the festival.
Today was the day of the Inheritance.