Chapter 2778 - 2772: Days Are Numbered

"Boom!" As the orange light above the Array grew brighter, the plants suddenly came to life. The once withered leaves began to sprout again, and numerous green buds emerged from the root clumps. Even the stems became vigorous and robust, filled with boundless vitality.

An Jiao, watching this miracle of revival from the side, was stunned. He even forgot to take notes, simply staring blankly at the enchanting scene, repeatedly exclaiming, "This is a miracle, a miracle of life! A miracle of the Arcane Arts!"

But before An Jiao could rejoice for long, the orange light from the Life Arcane Array suddenly intensified, followed by a palpable heat, and then a loud explosion—though the resultant shockwave was not large.

However, when An Jiao reopened his eyes, the plant, which had just regained its vitality, had already turned into a pile of residual ashes, devoid of any life force, leaving only a dead silence.

Clearly, the explosion triggered by the Life Arcane Array had completely extinguished the plant’s vitality. The result was even worse than the original state. Initially, the plant was merely withered but still retained some life force, albeit minimal, almost nonexistent.

But now, not only was the plant’s form completely destroyed, the life force within was also entirely eradicated. A significant amount of ash-like aura dispersed from the pile of residue, like a heavy blow landing on An Jiao’s head.

An Jiao collapsed on the ground in despair, uncertain where the problem lay. In theory, even if the Life Arcane Array couldn’t fully revive the withered plant, it shouldn’t have destroyed it. Such a violent energy wasn’t something a Life Arcane could release; it was more like a Destruction Array.

An Jiao stood up again, limping towards the desk to flip through the ancient book, trying to identify the issue. Yet, after several thorough reviews, he still couldn’t pinpoint the problem.

Because the ancient book didn’t contain extensive records about Life Arcane, he naturally couldn’t find the issue. Perhaps the sage who wrote the book had encountered this problem but didn’t record it, or the records were lost to the sands of time.

It’s also possible that the sage never encountered this problem at all. After all, such a genius could discover these remarkable Arcane Runes and might not have faced this issue.

Just as An Jiao was feeling disheartened, he stumbled upon a picture on the last page where Life Arcane Array was documented.

It was a green pattern surrounded by countless faint auras, mesmerizing in its appearance. Moreover, there were several lines of extremely small text around the complex green pattern Array.

An Jiao exerted considerable effort to barely make out the content written above:

"Life Arcane is the arcane magic of all living beings. All Arcane Arts involving life should be extremely strict. There should not be a single error in the orientation of the Runes and Array. If the Life Arcane Array succeeds, it should be green, filled with vitality and natural aura!"

These few short sentences gave An Jiao an epiphany. His previous efforts were too hasty, mistakenly believing he was close to breaking through to true Life Arcane, only to realize he had gone astray. Arcane magic concerning life indeed required utmost precision.

Since his previous Array was orange, not the vitality-filled green mentioned in the ancient book, he was certainly wrong. He must have made an error when organizing the large number of Runes, leading to the problem with the Life Arcane Array and the plant’s destruction by violent energy.

Realizing the cause of his failure, An Jiao couldn’t sleep that night. He turned up the light and began calculating and sketching corrections for his flawed Array at the desk over and over again.

Thus, a night’s time passed, and An Jiao roughly improved his Array. Yet, he still dared not experiment easily and spent another seven days calculating.

Finally, believing his Array to be foolproof, An Jiao even skipped the phases of plant and animal experiments, directly conducting the experiment on himself. It was a gamble, despite his confidence in the results of the days-long calculations. No one could guarantee the experiment’s success, or that the Array would not have issues.

But An Jiao was someone who dared to believe in himself. After taking a few deep breaths, he finally unleashed the Array on his left leg.

He had bet correctly. The miraculous power of the Array indeed healed his long-disabled leg, allowing him to run successfully.

An Jiao discarded his crutch, vigorously running on the grass by the river bank. To feel his running power and the presence of his left leg more closely, An Jiao even ran barefoot, letting the earth and pebbles roll beneath his feet, intimately contacting his soles.

As An Jiao was running with all his might for the first time in his life, his vision suddenly darkened, and his mind almost immediately lost consciousness, causing his body to lurch forward and crash heavily to the ground.

When An Jiao awoke, he found himself lying in his bed, with his father, An Tian, sitting nearby. Forcing himself to sit up, An Jiao touched his chest, discovering that his chest, along with his lungs and most vital heart, was throbbing with pain.

Not only that, but An Jiao also noticed a peculiar sweetness in his throat—the taste of blood. It seemed he had not only lost consciousness after falling but also coughed up a substantial amount of fresh blood.

An Tian, looking at his son’s wretched state, showed no particular emotion, merely commenting lightly, "When I returned today, I found you fallen again on the grassy bank by the river..."

"This has already happened..." An Tian, after a long silence, finally spoke slowly.

"The eighth time this month, I know," An Jiao said weakly. He looked at his pale hands, then to his emaciated limbs like desiccated corpses, and right leg, chuckling bitterly,

"I’ve known for a long time, I don’t have much time left..."