Chapter 1403: Quasi-Eleven Star

They stared at Anthony, wondering where he had obtained this information. After staring at him for a moment, they spoke.

"Did the Lover of Death tell you this?"

Ancient Elder Li Xing asked curiously.

Anthony neither confirmed nor denied it; these Elders were welcome to think whatever they wanted. If they believed that he had gained such knowledge from the Lover of Death, then so be it.

"I doubt it. If the Lover of Death knew, he would have delved into the ways of Formations or Runes, reached our level, and Transcended. But he did none of that and died in the Outer Regions."

Hidden Elder Cane Haine stated, his eyes narrowing, his reasoning logical.

Anthony smiled for a moment as his attention shifted towards the Translator of Wills, and he spoke.

"For such a good deduction, I will show you a demonstration. How much you can learn from this and improve from here depends on the both of you."

His tone held faint amusement, as Cane Haine’s words had truly been funny to him.

"Demonstr—"

Li Xing began to speak, but before he could finish his words, Anthony snapped his fingers.

SNAP!

At the sound, the Rune Formation beneath their feet, already merged with the mountain, shone with golden light. A monocle artefact immediately appeared before both old men’s faces, ensuring they wouldn’t miss whatever was about to happen for anything in the world.

And with that, they saw their Rune Formation mutate into something else, yet paradoxically remain the same. The next moment, the effect of the Rune Formation slammed into both of them.

The two men immediately stood frozen, dazed like a pair of statues.

What seemed like a moment passed, and they regained their senses. When they looked around, they found themselves standing within the Sect Master Hall, somewhere they had left almost two hours ago, yet they were back there.

How?

Their eyes fell on the Sect Master and Core Elders, who looked at them strangely. It didn’t take more than a moment to understand what had happened. The effect of the Formation had worked on them, and they had barely seen anything through their monocle artefacts, artefacts that had never failed them.

The Translator of Wills was even more stunned. He had always made sure to design his Formations so that no one could ever use his own Formation against him, but Anthony had bypassed those safeguards entirely.

They immediately vanished from their positions, returning to the mountain. The moment their eyes locked on Anthony, they were about to fire off a round of questions, but before they could, Anthony raised a hand as he spoke.

"I won’t be answering any questions. As people who have lived for as long as you have, I’m sure that if you search your memories carefully, you will remember everything that happened, even if you only saw it for the briefest of moments."

He stated, drawing a line as he didn’t want anyone bothering him to teach them or anything. They were old, he was young; it was supposed to be the other way around.

The two old men frowned. Questions burned in their minds, but they had no one to ask... no, they had someone to ask, but they simply couldn’t.

What were they supposed to do? Beat him? Bribe him? Please, they would lose on both grounds.

They felt like going crazy.

"Ahhhh!!!"

Hidden Elder Cane Haine exhaled as he sighed wearily, tired of the situation he was in.

"While I understand why you might not want to answer questions, at least answer this... is this an Eleven-Star Rune Formation?"

His tone trembled softly as he asked. He knew there was no Eleven-Star Formation within the Ten Grand Regions. While it might exist within the Unknown Regions, that was merely speculation, and nobody knew anything for certain.

Thus, they had nothing to compare this newly improved Rune Formation to and could only ask.

For one, they knew it wasn’t their Ten-Star Formation anymore and had been "improved," as Anthony had said earlier.

"It’s not a complete Eleven-Star Formation, but a Quasi-Eleven-Star Formation. Wouldn’t me drawing an Eleven-Star Rune Formation and letting you both see it just be me giving it away for free? Such knowledge is priceless. I’m sure you understand."

At Anthony’s words, their eyes trembled heavily as they couldn’t believe what they had just heard.

A Quasi? Nobody in all the Ten Grand Regions had achieved such a thing.

And not just that, Anthony said that drawing an Eleven-Star Rune Formation was practically him giving it away for free. Didn’t that mean he could draw Eleven-Star Rune Formations at will and with a snap of his fingers?

As they had that thought, various others followed.

Pledge themselves to Anthony as their Master. Kill him and take whatever knowledge he possessed for themselves. Take the entire Null Sect hostage. Invade the Acarnis Lower Galaxy and take it over as a bargaining chip.

Plans rose and fell in tandem as they understood the futility of each.

The only way was to become Elders of the Null Sect. But they hesitated.

Yes, the Universe was all about getting stronger and progressing forward endlessly. But that didn’t mean they could simply cut off their own organisations as though they were some sort of plague. That represented a million years of loyalty, hard work, protection, and everything else they had invested in them.

They couldn’t just shrug it all off at the sight of such improvement. But it was the only opportunity they had ever received.

They closed their eyes, then exhaled. Anthony wasn’t going anywhere, and neither were they dying of old age. They would come again later in the future, but for now, they needed to focus on this Quasi-Eleven-Star Rune Formation and learn as much as possible from it.

Even if they learnt only one thing, that would be enough. With that, they forgot about their own work, took out various artefacts, and started examining the improved Ten-Star Rune Formation.

Although they tried to mask it, Anthony could see through the burning happiness and excitement coursing through their veins. They were both like children who had found new toys.

He simply shook his head with a smile. With a thought, a parasol and a reclining chair appeared. Sitting under the parasol, he simply enjoyed the cool mountain breeze as he waited for these two to finish, knowing full well that they would find one or two things at most.

Even then, it would take them ages to decipher what they had discovered, even after finding it.

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Forgive this author for vanishing. Webnovel invited this small author to the UK for a Webnovel event, so I spent the past few days going through the visa process and getting a lot of documents ready.

But I’m back now. Sorry.