"Let me tell you the truth!"
"Just because I stumbled here at your place, I absolutely cannot let you live to see tomorrow's sun."
"Do you think I didn't turn on you last night for no reason? That was because I was setting up the Nine-Star Array to trap you here. Then I'd wait for those wilderness witches to deal with you."
"And turn you into my slave. Everything here would become my territory."
"After that, I'd have a real trade alliance station. Every merchant caravan passing by would have to pay me taxes. Every caravan would have to hand over money to me. Hahaha!"
The more Mr. White laughed, the more exaggerated it became. He looked completely carried away.
As his laughter grew more twisted, a barrier-like layer quickly appeared inside and outside the pet enclosure.
But… This barrier had countless tentacles stretching out from it.
The endless tentacles were like jellyfish, sweeping toward the people in the territory.
The first to be caught was naturally Daji, who stood closest to the barrier. Ethan saw a long transparent tentacle descend from midair and wrap around her.
No matter how much Daji clawed and scratched at it, she couldn't cause the tentacle any damage at all.
"Meow!"
Daji yowled in fury.
As Daji was taken, the scarecrow was also frightened by the tentacles raining down from the sky, hopping around wildly.
But these tentacles were everywhere.
They could suddenly extend from any direction inside the pet enclosure, reaching out to wrap around the scarecrow. This scared it half to death, and it immediately started yelling in Ethan's head.
["Ethan, save me!"]
["What is this thing? It's disgusting! It's wrapping around me!"]
["I can't breathe! I'm going to be strangled to death! Hurry and save me!"]
"Enough. Can you stop acting?", Ethan rolled his eyes, "What do you mean you can't breathe? Do you even need to breathe?"
["But it's really scary! Who knows if this thing will damage my head?"]
"You have a head?"
After mocking it a bit, Ethan couldn't be bothered to argue with the scarecrow anymore.
The reason he was so calm was simple. He had already seen the description of this so-called Nine-Star Array.
And it left him with zero pressure.
[Nine-Star Array: A magical formation developed by the Astrologer Archmage Nostradamus while observing celestial changes. This formation is not used for defense, but for capturing enemies. Known as the Air Fishing Net. Once captured, escape is extremely difficult without special means.]
There was a lot of extra explanation in the description, but Ethan only cared about one thing, developed by Nostradamus.
'Heh! If you're using something invented by the big shot I brought back, you've got to pay copyright fees.'
"Master, someone's bullying your disciple," Ethan shouted, "Aren't you going to help?"
Mr. White sneered repeatedly, "This is the Nine-Star Array developed by a Archmage. If it weren't so complicated to set up, I would've taken your life yesterday."
"Would I have waited until now?"
"You can scream your throat raw and no one will come save you!"
"Who says that?"
At that moment, Nostradamus finally spoke.
But instead of acting immediately, he circled around the array once and began nitpicking, "You dare call this a Nine-Star Array? You're missing one star here!"
"And here. Such a huge loophole. Who's that for? For yourself?"
"You idiot. With such half-baked nonsense, you still have the nerve to show it off? Using it is one thing, but you even dare slap my name on this trash imitation!"
"You're courting death!"
Nostradamus clearly didn't take Mr. White seriously and scolded him outright.
Mr. White stared in confusion at this stone man, hands behind his back like an old man, walking around the array he had painstakingly set up and criticizing it. What was going on?
"Who the hell are you?"
Mr. White, embarrassed and furious, shouted, "You broken stone man, how dare you look down on my array! Let me tell you!"
"This was developed by Archmage Nostradamus himself!"
"Forget dealing with a non-human thing like you!"
"It's more than enough to deal with your master too!"
Mr. White roared and pointed at Nostradamus, "Nine-Star Array, capture it for me!"
"Idiot."
Yet Ethan not only wasn't afraid, he even looked at Mr. White like he was watching a fool.
Seeing Ethan so dismissive made Mr. White even more enraged. He pointed at Ethan as well, "Nine-Star Array, capture everyone here! I'll make them regret offending me!"
"Not only will I take all your belongings, I'll sell your soul to the wilderness witches!"
"I'll have them torment you every single moment!"
"You'll regret it for eternity!"
As Mr. White shouted wildly, countless transparent tentacles descended from the roof of the pet enclosure, reaching for Ethan and Nostradamus.
But Nostradamus simply rolled his gray eyes. Since he was made of stone, there was no white to show.
Then he casually flicked one of the incoming transparent tentacles.
The next second, the tentacle acted as if it had come alive. Not only did it stop advancing, it even began trembling in front of Nostradamus.
This scene left Mr. White completely stunned.
He widened his eyes and shouted at Nostradamus, "What's going on? Capture him! You useless thing, hurry up and capture him!"
"You're the useless one," Nostradamus said coldly, "That's not how you use the Nine-Star Array."
After speaking, he began chanting softly.
Then a yellow-glowing star flew out of his mouth, rising to the roof and landing in the very spot he had pointed out earlier, the place missing a star.
Immediately, the entire Nine-Star Array lit up brilliantly. It shifted from transparent to a deep, profound blue.
Within that blue glow, countless stars appeared, beautiful like the Milky Way. And among that galaxy of stars, a few shone especially bright.
They were like lanterns in the night, illuminating the entire roof!
"W-what's going on?"
Mr. White finally realized something was wrong and staggered back in fear.
Nostradamus had never had a good temper. There was no way he would let Mr. White off now. He glared at him.
Flash!
One of the nine stars sent down a beam of starlight.
The starlight easily bound Mr. White in place. He couldn't use his spatial ring. He couldn't even move. Only his mouth could still speak.
"My Nine-Star Array… how could it… how could it obey you?"
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