Adrian summoned a barrel of mana ink from his spatial ring, and it appeared beside him with a soft fluctuation of mana. The moment it materialized, several of those present exchanged glances. Only inscribers carried mana ink in such quantities and with such readiness. Even among Rule Stage cultivators, this was not common.
Kaya leaned toward another disciple and whispered, "Is he an inscriber?"
The other disciple shrugged, keeping his eyes fixed on Adrian.
Adrian exerted control over the barrel, and the mana ink flowed out smoothly, lifting into the air and hovering around him like a controlled liquid mist. He guided it toward the damaged sections of the formation and began etching new rules directly into the broken areas.
The ink moved with precision, tracing symbols onto the fractured surface. Each stroke glowed faintly before settling into place, merging with the existing structure. Adrian's expression remained neutral, though his eyes tracked every detail.
He did not know what had originally been written there. The erased portions left no trace behind, and he had never seen a UNI-Sect server formation in person before. What he etched now was based entirely on his own understanding of how such a system should function. Because he had constructed similar frameworks before in the origin net, he could infer what kind of logic had been lost, but even so, the process was far from perfect.
Several times, as he worked, he sensed something was wrong. When that happened, he erased the newly written rules and replaced them with alternatives, adjusting the logic and structure carefully. He adjusted pathways, rebalanced data flow logic, and corrected redundancies as they appeared. This was not simple restoration. It was reconstruction.
Everyone watched in silence.
Lara's eyes narrowed as she observed the symbols Adrian etched. Some of the rule patterns stirred faint memories within her. She recalled seeing similar structures in UNI-Sect server formations she had encountered before. Not perfectly, but close enough that she could no longer dismiss it as coincidence.
"Those patterns," she murmured, barely audible.
Maelis glanced at her, "What is it?"
Lara didn't answer immediately. Her gaze remained locked on Adrian's work.
Slowly, realization settled in. Adrian truly understood the arcane concepts underlying this system. What Adrian was doing was exactly what she had only ever heard, reverse engineering.
She could clearly see him hesitating at certain points, writing rules, erasing them, and rewriting them again in a different form. That alone told her something important. Adrian did not possess prior knowledge of the UNI-Sect's divine concept, nor had he memorized this formation. It was as though he had never seen this formation before and was relying purely on foundational arcane logic to reconstruct it.
That confused her deeply. Even she, coming from a lesser minor sect, had seen this formation at least a few times during her travels. Someone of Adrian's apparent background should have been familiar with it, right? Instead, he looked like he was encountering it for the first time.
The contradiction deepened her confusion.
Time passed as Adrian continued his work.
The disciples began to fidget. Some sat down against the walls, others whispered amongst themselves. Kaya watched Adrian with open curiosity, her pale blue fingers tapping against her thigh.
Eventually, Adrian felt the structure stabilize. The missing rules were properly integrated, and the logic pathways were restored. However, there was one issue he could not resolve. Some of the memory storage nodes had degraded beyond repair due to prolonged exposure to the chaotic environment. While he had rewritten their structural logic, the data that had already been lost could not be recovered.
Adrian frowned faintly, examining the damaged nodes one last time. The degradation was too severe. No amount of reconstruction would bring back what had already dissolved into nothingness.
From the rule composition, Adrian could tell that preservation arcane rules had been integrated into the divine concept powering this formation. These acted as fail-safes, which explained why parts of the system had survived at all despite the planet's condition.
Once the last broken section was fixed, the divine essence stopped leaking. With no gaps left in the structure, the instability vanished.
The faint hum that had been vibrating through the chamber since they arrived ceased.
Adrian withdrew his divine domain. Almost immediately, chaotic energy flowed back into the surrounding space, but this time it was the planet's normal chaotic environment. The dense, oppressive energy that had previously forced everyone to rely on authority was gone. That instability had been caused by the leak, and now it was gone.
The disciples tested their movement cautiously, coating themselves with divine essence alone. They found they could move freely without invoking authority.
Kaya extended her hand, summoning a small sphere of divine essence. It formed without resistance, without the crushing weight that had been pressing down on them before. She laughed, a sound of genuine relief.
At the same time, the server formation was activated.
A holographic interface materialized above the formation, lines of light forming a familiar control structure. Adrian recognized the architecture immediately, it was nearly identical to the UNI-OS interface.
The first system message appeared,
› Unable to establish connection to Main Net
› Retrying…
› Connection failed
The server attempted to link itself back to the galactic net, but the corresponding formation on this planet was clearly too damaged to respond. Adrian did not concern himself with that. Even without external connectivity, the internal data was still accessible.
He stepped closer, extending his hand toward the interface. He navigated to the storage interface and began searching through the remaining data. Lara, the other elders, and the disciples gathered closer, watching the display with barely concealed disbelief. Some were still struggling to process the fact that Adrian had repaired a UNI-Sect formation at all.
Adrian searched for any reference to an alchemy garden. After a brief scan, a term surfaced.
Azure Garden.
He tapped the entry, and a new panel expanded, displaying fragmented records. The text was incomplete in places, corrupted by degradation, but enough remained to piece together the basics.
It appeared to be the name assigned to the alchemy garden of this ancient sect. As he searched further, he even got a map of this planet.
Adrian expanded the map projection. It filled the space above the formation, a three-dimensional rendering of the planet's surface before its destruction. Mountains, rivers, cities, all marked properly. The Azure Garden was clearly labeled in the eastern hemisphere, nestled within a mountain range.
But at this moment, no one had any idea where they were within this planet.
Lara stepped forward, studying the map intently, "Can you overlay our current position?"
Adrian analyzed and soon found out which city they were in by matching the architectural pattern scattered throughout this city.
He pulled up a secondary dataset containing structural blueprints of major cities. The patterns were distinct enough that he could compare them against what they had observed outside. The central tower's design, the plaza layout, the distribution of secondary buildings, it all matched a location marked as Virenth Hold on the map.
A marker appeared on the holographic display, pulsing faintly in the western hemisphere.
"There," Adrian said, his voice calm. "We're here."
Maelis's eyes widened, "That far west?"
With all these things, they finally got a direction. If they traveled east from this city and continued along that direction, they would eventually reach it.
Adrian traced the path with his finger, and the system responded by drawing a glowing line across the map's surface. The route stretched across thousands of kilometres, with multiple cities in between.
The value of this information was immeasurable.
Lara exhaled slowly, her shoulders relaxing for the first time since they had entered the planet, "This changes everything."
Maelis nodded, "We would have wasted weeks searching blindly."
Without this, they would have been forced to search every city they encountered, wasting enormous amounts of time and resources. Now, they had a direct path forward. They could bypass every other city and focus entirely on reaching their destination.
Adrian dismissed the holographic interface with a gesture, and the light faded. The chamber returned to its previous dimness, illuminated only by the faint glow of the divine essence crystals powering the formation.
Lara stepped forward and bowed deeply toward Adrian. "Thank you."
Her voice carried weight, sincerity threaded through every syllable. Despite her lingering doubts, what Adrian had done brought them nothing but benefit. And everything Adrian had done so far had helped them.
Whatever his true motives were, this act alone warranted respect.
One by one, the others followed. The disciples bowed, some deeper than others, their movements stiff but genuine. Maelis inclined her head, her sharp gaze softening slightly. And even Torvain, who had questioned Adrian at every step, bowed sincerely.
Kaya clasped her hands together and dipped low, "We're in your debt."
Adrian observed them quietly. He could see it clearly now. These people were not malicious. Their suspicion had never come from arrogance or hostility, but from caution.
They had been burned before. Their sect was dying, besieged by a stronger enemy, and every stranger represented a potential threat. Of course they would question him. Of course they would doubt.
Even now, he could see that their gratitude did not stem from blind trust, but from the understanding that his actions directly aided their sect leader's recovery and their sect's survival.
That sincerity mattered to him.
That realization settled firmly in his mind, reaffirming he had chosen the right sect.