By the time Lin Mu reached the Spring Valley Restaurant, his Immortal sense had already managed to infiltrate the Spatial Plane and had arrived where Lu Xu was.
"You're back, Brother Mu Lin." Luo Liqin turned around to see the door open.
"Mmhmm, let's get to work." Lin Mu said as he sat down.
Luo Liqin adjusted the formation screen to focus on Lu Xu as practiced, making it easier for Lin Mu to watch it all.
Once Lin Mu could see it all, he quickly began chanting.
Lu Xu's opponent started showing delays in his movement, making the man understand his opportunity had come.
'Just in time…' Lu Xu immediately attacked the foe.
A few minutes later, Lu Xu left the Spatial Plane, having been decided as the victor.
"And there we go…" Lin Mu said as he withdrew his immortal sense.
"That was good Brother Mu Lin." Luo Liqin praised. "Your fight against Yin Yuan, I mean." He added.
"It was a bit unexpected though. I didn't think she would use a High Grade immortal tool to defend." Lin Mu replied.
"Indeed. But we can also think of it as a warning for us." Qian Wen spoke. "We can now assume that our opponents are also wary of us and will be observing you in detail." He stated.
"You're correct." Lin Mu nodded. "We shouldn't get ahead of ourselves." He agreed.
The matches in this cycle had also come to an end, with the next stage beginning tomorrow.
"Can't believe we're already so close to the end of the tournament," Qian Wen muttered.
"Mmhmm, just three more days left." Luo Liqin nodded his head.
"Has there been any information about the upcoming rounds?" Lin Mu asked.
"It has only been confirmed that the matches will happen one after the other, instead of all at once." Luo Liqin replied. "Though same as before, it will all end in a day."
"I see… that is good." Lin Mu nodded his head.
"The only thing we don't know yet is the order of the matches." Luo Liqin spoke.
"If we consider the past tournaments, it might be according to who won first." Qian Wen chimed in. "Those that fought and won earlier would also be placed earlier in the ranks."
"There's always a chance they would consider something else." Luo Liqin stated.
"Maybe…" Lin Mu muttered as he looked up at the tournament grounds in the distance.
The open balcony gave him a wide view of the city as well as the millions of people currently present within it. While looking at it though, Lin Mu felt a faint change in the sky.
"Hmm?" Lin Mu raised his brows, feeling something strange. "They're… Changing the arrays." He muttered.
Qian Wen who heard it, looked at the sky too, but was unable to see anything.
"What are they doing, Brother Mu Lin?" Luo Liqin inquired.
"Give me a little time…" Lin Mu said as he closed his eyes.
Next he activated his Spatial perception and extended his Immortal sense high up into the sky. There, Lin Mu could feel the runes starting to change. But the change was such that the runes themselves weren't being erased.
Instead, the formations were being separated. By keeping the runes intact, the arrays were being dismantled by disjointing the formations.
'What are they doing?' Lin Mu wondered.
He focused on the Spatial Planes themselves using his Spatial perception and finally saw the scene.
The boundary of the Spatial Planes started getting closer before touching each other. Then, the boundaries started to melt into each other!
"Wait a second…" Lin Mu finally realized what they were doing.
He checked the arrays and saw that they were indeed being merged as well, just that they process was on a larger scale.
The four smaller arrays that formed the Spatial Planes were eventually condensed together, turning it into one massive array.
The process took about an hour, and was a lot faster than making an entirely new Spatial Plane.
"They merged the four Spatial planes together." Lin Mu revealed surprising Qian Wen and Luo Liqin.
"They did?" Qian Wen was surprised while Luo Liqin understood something.
"Looks like this is in line with the match format." Luo Liqin spoke. "Since they won't be having 4 matches at once, they only need 1 spatial plane." He stated.
"Seems like it. Though the Spatial Planes this time will be large." Lin Mu could see it already. "Even larger than if we add up the space of the 4 planes." He sensed the qualitative change that had happened.
The merger of the four arrays resulted in a greater change. Instead of the space increasing in an additive way, it had instead increased multiplicatively!
Rather than being 4 times the space of a single Spatial Plane, it was now 8 times!
'Is this due to the overall stability and efficiency improving?' Lin Mu wondered.
He knew that having four spatial arrays close to each other like that can cause strain on the Spatial Fabric. This could result in the loss of some energy as well as lowering the overall capabilities of the array.
Of course, it could be compensated by better control and expansive formations. But then again, in the short time that the temple had to set these up, they needed to compromise on some level. Though if they wished to do it, they very well had the capabilities for it, as could be seen now.
~Creak~
The door of the room opened again, and Lu Xu entered along with the Ming Sisters.
"I brought them along." He spoke.
"Are you okay?" Lin Mu asked the two.
"We're fine now." Ming Aolian nodded her head.
"The Mulch Crawl Eater Beast is fine too." Ming Dandan replied. "Though I'm sorry, I couldn't help you." She apologized.
"It's not your fault." Lin Mu shook his head lightly. "Your opponent was simply too strong."
"Brother Mu Lin is right." Luo Liqin agreed. "If Yao Changying was that easy to deal with, we wouldn't be having problems."
