"You're actually proud of this piece of junk?" I sighed and reached into my sleeve for a Compass.
It had a grayish-white face marked with stellar orbits, and the black bead at its center slowly rotated at exactly the same speed as the one Fu Changling had just shown us.
I took out another four Sub-Talismans. Their jade, star patterns, and size were identical to the four in Yan Shaman's palm.
With a couple of casual adjustments to the Compass, its bead spun even more steadily than Fu Changling's, while its flowing star patterns shone a little brighter.
Everyone fell silent.
The sound of the gray sea's tides suddenly became especially clear.
Fu Changling stared at the Compass in my hand. His lips moved, but no words came out.
Qin Shuwan's smile froze on her face.
"Fellow Daoist Xia..." Lan Zhenyuan finally spoke, his voice as rough as sandpaper. "That Compass of yours..."
"Of course I just made it. Your interlocking Dao Patterns have seventeen redundant nodes. Every rotation of the bead wastes thirty percent of the laws. I made a few adjustments, and now it wastes less than ten percent per rotation. As for Sub-Tokens, how many do you want?" I snapped my fingers, forcibly condensing countless Sub-Tokens out of the laws in an instant.
Lan Zhenyuan opened his mouth, then closed it again. In the end, he cupped his hands toward me and took a step back.
Fu Changling looked even worse than Qin Shuwan.
The more confident he had been when he took out the Sub-Talisman earlier, the more it now burned in his palm.
He had planned to use it to keep me under his thumb. Now that idea had become a complete joke.
He stared at the Compass and Sub-Talismans in my hand for several