Back on the relative safety of Xiao Xiao Peak, the tension didn't dissipate immediately. Lin Fan met Yue Qingqian at the courtyard entrance, his spiritual sense sweeping over her a dozen times, checking for any lingering traces of the Sect Master's divine sense or any unforeseen tracking runes. Only when he was absolutely certain she had returned clean did he allow himself a small, almost imperceptible nod.
He quickly ushered her into his hut, the "absolute safe house," and activated the full suite of isolation arrays. The outside world vanished.
Yue Qingqian finally let out the breath she felt like she'd been holding for hours. Her legs felt weak, and the adrenaline crash left her trembling slightly. The performance had taken a heavy toll, mentally and physically.
Without a word, she took out the "Harmony-Sealing Pouch" and placed it on the table. It felt surprisingly heavy for its size.
Lin Fan approached it cautiously, his eyes narrowed. He didn't touch it immediately. Instead, he took out several strange, multi-lensed devices and scanned the pouch from multiple angles, muttering complex calculations under his breath.
"No residual spatial signature... no active tracking markers... good," he finally concluded. Only then did he carefully open the pouch.
The Star-Navigating Iron lay within, a lump of utter darkness that seemed to swallow the light inside the hut. The faint, rhythmic pulse Yue Qingqian had felt was gone now, completely sealed within the pouch's runic lining.
Lin Fan stared at it, his expression unreadable. There was no joy, no triumph, only a deep, profound weariness mixed with a cold, focused determination. This was it. The final key. The object that represented both their greatest hope and their greatest peril.
"You did well, Junior Sister," he said, his voice quiet but sincere. "Beyond expectations. Your performance... was convincing."
He carefully closed the pouch and placed it inside a heavy box made of Soul-Suppressing Wood, which he then sealed with another layer of complex talismans. This was not a material to be left lying around.
"Rest," he told Yue Qingqian, who looked ready to collapse. "Take three days. Meditate. Don't think about anything. Let your spirit recover."
She nodded gratefully and retreated to her own hut, finally allowing the immense stress of the past few days to wash over her.
Lin Fan, however, did not rest.
For the next three days, while Yue Qingqian recuperated, he threw himself into his work with a feverish intensity he had never displayed before. He barricaded himself inside his hut, the blueprint for the teleportation array spread out before him, the sealed box containing the Star-Navigating Iron sitting ominously beside it.
He began the arduous process of integrating the theoretical knowledge from the library with the practical, unique properties of the materials they now possessed. The Kongming Flower petal provided the spatial warping mechanism. The Star-Navigating Iron would provide the anchor and directional control. But connecting these two volatile, law-defying elements required an entirely new level of array mastery.
He worked ceaselessly, fueled by potent energy-replenishing pills (concocted from ingredients 'borrowed' via Yue Qingqian's earlier missions) and an absolute terror of failure. Complex runes flowed from his fingertips, forming intricate patterns on jade slips and prototype components. Failed experiments resulted in small, contained implosions of spatial energy within his heavily shielded hut, shaking the very foundations of the peak.
He was no longer just a theorist; he was an engineer racing against an invisible clock. Elder Zhao's suspicion was a ticking time bomb. The Sect Master's curiosity was a focused lens that could burn through their deception at any moment. And the ever-present threat of the Heavenly Dao finding a new way to force him onto the 'protagonist path' loomed over everything.
Their window of opportunity was closing. The teleportation array wasn't just a dream anymore; it was their only viable escape route, and it needed to be built. Now.
On the morning of the fourth day, Yue Qingqian emerged from her hut, feeling refreshed and centered. The door to Lin Fan's hut remained closed, but the frantic energy fluctuations from within had ceased.
A moment later, the door opened. Lin Fan stood there, looking even more exhausted than before, but his eyes held the steady, unwavering light of accomplishment.
He held up a single, complex component—a disc made of interwoven metals and carved jade, pulsing with a faint, barely contained spatial energy. It incorporated the Star-Navigating Iron at its core, surrounded by stabilizing runes derived from the Kongming Flower's principles.
"The core navigational module," he announced, his voice raspy but triumphant. "It's complete. Unstable as hell, but theoretically functional."
He looked at Yue Qingqian, a grim determination settling onto his features. "The easy part is over. Now... comes the construction."