William racked his brain, but the only solution he could think of was to escape. The assassin had left the door open, so William carefully stepped out from the corner and exited his room while keeping an eye on the assassin.
Atticus' Illusion Magic never ceased to amaze William. The fact that a powerful assassin could not locate him while in the same room made William realize just how powerful a creature of Mythical rarity was.
William subtly released some Mana from his fingertips, weaving together a Basic Rune without forming a complete Array. He was conducting a test to see if the assassin would sense such a small Mana signature.
His risky play worked out, since the assassin didn't seem to react. William kept his presence to a minimum and formed three more Runes to create a Basic Concealment Array. This would hopefully prevent the assassin from sensing his next move.
An Intermediate Concealment Array was formed, then an Advanced one was layered over top of it. Once the setup was complete, William got to work building the most complex Array he had ever formed.
William's Mana reserves decreased by a considerable portion to create a single Fire Element Rune, then two similar Runes of the Water and Earth Elements. With a lot of effort and half of his Mana, William was able to piece together the Perfect Runes of Wind and Lightning.
-Formed your first Perfect Rune: +50 Potential Points
He had nearly completed the Array, but it was still lacking a purpose and wasn't much more than a bundle of unstable Elements. William created an Advanced Rune of Stability and placed it in the center of the Array, then layered the outside with five Advanced Confinement Arrays.
He sent some Mana into the Array to activate it, then heaved a sigh of relief as a thin barrier almost invisible to the naked eye covered William's entire room. If the Array worked as intended, the assassin wouldn't be able to escape the Array unless she had an Affinity with all five of the Elements used or she was also a Perfect Array Master.
If she was the latter, it would still take a few minutes for her to escape. By then, William would hopefully have some reinforcements. Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on Novᴇl_Fire(.)net
-Formed your first Perfect Array: +100 PP
-Invented an Array: +5 PP
-Invented your first Array: +10 PP
-Invented a Perfect Array: +50 PP
-Invented your first Perfect Array: +500 PP
William's eyes bulged at the wave of Potential Points, but he didn't have much time to think about it right now. He wasn't completely confident in his Array holding back the assassin, so William planned to use the remainder of his Mana to add a second identical Array around the first.
The assassin noticed something was off as soon as the Array went into effect. Even William's Concealment Arrays could not completely hide the presence of the Five Elements Sealing Formation as William decided to call it.
She disabled her camouflage and slid out from under the bed in one smooth motion. She pulled an item out of her Space Ring that looked like a blue compass and used it to inspect the room.
Her eyes revealed a tinge of surprise which transformed into anxiety. Had she been caught in an enemy trap? No. There's no way anyone would go so far for an Outer Core Disciple.
She took a moment to breathe and collected her thoughts. Even if it was an enemy trap, there was no way she could be caught here!
The assassin pulled out a dagger and gave the Barrier a slash, but the blade bounced right off. She was surprised to see not even a crack, which suggested the Array was at least at the Advanced level.
William was still nowhere to be seen, but he had to be within the residence. The assassin cursed, every moment spent in the Five Elements Sect was an increased risk that she would be discovered. 'Damnit, I should have just blown up the whole place!'
William completed his work on the second Array and decided it was time to find some help. There was a slight problem, however.
Who could William trust to keep his knowledge of Perfect Arrays a secret, that was also powerful enough to deal with an assassin?
I guess I have no choice, William thought. The only person that fit the description was the Sect Master.
He ran out of the residence, not noticing the assassin's Detection Arrays hidden amongst the others that protected his home. William ran to the Great Hall, as it was the only building open this late at night.
Old Jur was still there, sitting at the front desk with his notebook. He raised his eyes in surprise to see William. "Back so soon? Have you already earned another Cultivation Technique?"
"Not this time, old Jur. Do you know how I can contact the Sect Master?" William asked hurriedly.
Jur frowned. "The Sect Master? You can't just call him up for any random reason. What do you need from him?"
"There's someone in my residence trying to kill me, I need his help to take care of them." William tried not to give many details.
"What?!? You better not be joking boy, otherwise you will be in serious trouble!" Jur immediately picked up a communicator and contacted an unknown party.
Jur relayed what William said about the intruder, then hung up without another word. Within moments, a group of three Elders wearing dark-blue robes arrived from the sky and stopped at the Great Hall.
They appeared serious when they landed, and the Elder in the center showed a badge that William didn't recognize that showed the Five Elements and a blue star. "We are the Sect Guardians, take us to your residence young man."
William nodded. He ran to the residence at moderate pace, but the Elders became impatient and carried him along with their Qi and asked him to point the way.
Back at William's residence, the assassin had received information about ten minutes ago that someone exited the building. She was becoming anxious, since her efforts at breaking the Array so far had failed horribly. Only by using Magic of her Water Element did she cause any damage to the Array at all.
She spent another ten minutes burning through her Mana to launch Water spells at the Barrier. The Barrier eventually gave way, but just when the assassin was about to escape, she noticed a second Array of the same type.
"F-Fuck!!" the assassin completely lost her composure. She was almost out of Mana, and had even spent some of her Cultivation trying to finish off the previous Barrier.
Even worse, when she was about to attack the second Barrier, a group of individuals that she immediately recognized as the Sect Guardians entered the Array. All hope of escaping the Sect was lost at that moment, so the assassin raised her hands in surrender while the Elders searched her body for hidden weapons.
Once the situation was under control, one of the Elders walked up to William. "You're quite lucky to be alive, the assassin that was sent after you belongs to the Thieves Guild."
William recognized the name as the same one mentioned by a group of bandits outside Blue Moon City. It was interesting that the name had appeared here as well.
The Elder continued speaking, "It's quite interesting though, where did this Array come from? It's quite powerful to seal a Golden Core Cultivator inside for so long."
'She was a Golden Core assassin? Why am I so unlucky?' William complained in his mind.
"Uh, I don't know Elder. It might have been here for a long time. I was just as surprised as you when it popped up and suddenly trapped her." William tried to think of an excuse, but was not great at lying.
The Elder nodded. There was no way a kid like William would know anything about the workings of a Perfect Array, much less how to create and activate one. He could just consider himself extremely fortunate that he happened to live in this specific residence.
"No problem, we will wrap up things here. You just get some rest." the Elder gave a weary smile before helping his two companions restrain the assassin. They took her into the sky and flew off until their figures were no longer visible at a speed William couldn't understand.
That better be the last time for a while, I'm tired of losing sleep over assassins and random assholes that think they can kill me for free.
That last sentence was targeted at Peter, who had quite literally sent a group of men to capture William in broad daylight for no reason.
The only thing good that came out of the late night was a whopping 665 Potential Points that William earned while creating his new Array. One could never complain about having too many Potential Points!