At last, the medicinal effects faded, and Huo Hai's heart clenched. Just a little more, only a little more! Hurry up! he shouted inwardly. The final formation diagram was only a hair's breadth from completion.
Yet that tiny distance seemed like a heavenly chasm, impossible to cross no matter what he did. He needed just a little more mental power, just that tiny bit. Once it recovered, he could complete the entire diagram.
But that tiny bit of mental power simply would not recover. By now, his mental power was replenishing at an agonizingly slow pace. He had no pills left to restore it, either. The one he had obtained before had been a lucky find in the ruins. At this rate, by the time that last bit recovered, the beginning of the rune would surely have dissipated completely.
Huo Hai felt as though he were waiting for death. Anxiety and urgency filled his heart. He truly regretted it now. If only he had not been so arrogant earlier, if only he had prepared more thoroughly.
Perhaps things had gone smoothly for so long that he had grown accustomed to it and become somewhat conceited. Huo Hai reflected on his mistakes, but there was nothing he could do now. He knew the consequences if such an enormous amount of mental power collapsed completely and recoiled against him. Even if the backlash did not kill him, he would hardly fare any better. Recovering from it would be terribly difficult.
No wonder people always said the path of cultivation was strewn with hardships. So many brilliantly gifted cultivators had ultimately died from accidents and ordeals of every kind. Only a scant few ever reached the summit. Would he end up like that, too?
Looking back, he had faced all kinds of dangers.