Although Emperors were quite durable, and normal flames wouldn't damage them at all, the flames inside the Red Array were not normal flames.

It wouldn't had been much point in working for a month at creating the array room if burning a few logs or oil had sufficed. No, the Fire Domain was considerably more powerful, and indeed different from normal flames.

Zara had instinctively pushed her inborn Spirit Essence out, to create a Water, then an Ice barrier around herself to keep the flames away, but that only helped so much. Even worse, the barrier depleted her own qi reserves rapidly, and in a minute she began running out.

"Be smarter, Lady Zara. You don't need mana to keep the flames away." Pef advised her from his command chair, while keeping a close eye on the monitoring arrays. Vital signs, inner temperature, cultivation realm, qi reserves and many more factors were being scanned and provided by his formation arrays, everything but the insight into Dao.

So far, not even the powerful Icefire had managed to reliably copy Pef's complete inner screen, although even the more basic screen was quite helpful. It was one thing to guess at your own physical or mental condition, and another to have an accurate screen to reflect it.

His grandpa's achievement with the Icefire sprite had been incorporated into the array room formations, and more work had been done with the aid of the Fox Saint, who did have an entangled soul to test various features.

And then, just as Lady Zara reached the limit of her qi reserves and the Ice barrier faltered, another force pushed the flames away, this time without draining her core.

"I did it! I think I have my Water Domain now!" Zara exclaimed tiredly from the metal room, and the flames vanished at once.

The Fox Saint turned towards the Holy Son, eyes now even more respectful. "I can sense her Domain indeed. Weak...but it's there. At Emperor Realm!"

"Take the console, fox girl. Today I want to test the Electric Array myself" the blonde boy spoke as he flew from his chair and opened the door of the metal room.

"..." the Fox Saint abstained to comment now, and simply turned on the Electric Array then took the command chair to monitor the new victim. Willing victim as well.

Meanwhile, Pef reached Lady Zara in the middle of the room and helped her stand. "Well done, Zara. Now wait in the control room while I train." he spoke gently while pointing at the door.

The woman nodded and just walked out, too tired to fly. Behind her, the door snapped shut and runes lit up to power the array inside.

"Come beside me, little Zara. I guess you'll work with us from today onwards." the Fox Saint demanded from the command chair, as a Lightning Domain was formed inside the metal room, giant electric arcs crossing between the rune-glowing metal walls.

"You have the Fire Element, my lady?" Zara asked curious, as she never encountered a Fire Domain before. She had never seen a Spaceship-like control room, with a hundred screens and magic arrays lining the walls, some of the screens even showing accurate maps of the planet or the solar system.

"Now I do have a Fire Domain, yes. But, right now there is a Lightning Domain inside the test room, and I don't have that. I merely provide the qi for the array." the Fox Saint explained politely as she wiggled a few fingers to point at the energizing plate on the console.

"...How many Domains can this device create?" Zara wondered out loud.

"Only the main Eight Elements, for now. Our Holy Son says he needs to Ascend a few times, before he can create the entire Element Wheel with all the combinations." the Fox Saint answered while pointing at the Eight Element Trigram in the center of the console, which had the lightning bolt symbol lit up in blue.

"...I've never heard of such a device." Zara muttered as her eyes locked onto the screen showing the inside of the metal room, filled with electric arcs like a hundred angry lightning serpents.

"Nobody has heard of such an array, little Zara. Young Pef has invented it, although this is the third room we have built. The first two kinda...melted." The Fox Saint explained with a wry voice.

Inside the array, Pef sat on the metal floor and only focused on his dantian, and his inner screen. It was quite the cheat, as he could easily observe his understanding of Lightning Dao climb constantly, slowly crawling towards the threshold of 10 percent, where a Domain would usually manifest by itself.

Using a secondary partition of his mind, he also began writing a cultivation method for the Lightning Dao, incorporating some of the first world memories of voltage and electricity, electromagnetic energy and nuclear powerplants, although those soon reached their limit. Technology in this new world was different and less-dependent on electricity, and artifact sentience was not a computer program but a feature of the universe, present even in high level swords or flames.

Still, even his meager insights helped create a basic method, to be expanded upon once he reached a better understanding.

'Emperor Realm, I guess. Right, little Icefire?' Pef wondered inward as he completed his first attempt at the cultivation method.

'Uh? I do not know? Doesn't Lightning fall from the sky, or maybe clouds?' the small Icefire Avatar muttered a bit confused.

'Oh yes! Natural lightning...almost forgot about that. And then, there is the terrible Tribulation Lightning...I'll come back for that part later. It kinda hurts.' Pef exclaimed as he reopened the mental folder to add a dozen lines in the Lightning Method about naturally-occurring lightning, as well as lightning-rods and various surge protections for buildings, not commonly used in this day and age.

Just as he finished writing the last lines, his own Lightning Domain sprang up and countered the artificial Domain.

"We're finished now, fox girl. You're free today." Pef spoke as he walked towards the door, notebook already in hand to transcribe the cultivation method on paper for later review, and hopefully more Contribution Points with the Resource Hall.

As he stepped out through the door, a slightly impressed Saint flew from the command chair. "Did you really achieve a Lightning Domain, Holy Son?" she asked in a feeble tone.

"Yes, yes. Four Elements left, fox girl. I'll let you learn the method tomorrow. See you at morning tea!" Pef answered with a far-away voice, as he sat in mid-air and simply wrote in his notebook, while his cultivation climbed another Star without any effort.

Lady Zara just waited at the side, eyes sparkling as she observed the Holy Son shatter a couple of cultivation edicts without even noticing them.

She once more smiled inward at the huge chance she got to have such a blessed teacher, no matter his curious methods or impossibly small age and body. She would follow even a frog if she could ran the cultivation stair this fast, while the Holy Son simply sat in an elevator and climbed without care.

"A hundred sword routines, Lady Zara. You might get bored until I finish here." Pef spoke casually, making the Emperor Realm disciple curse inward.

The Fox Saint had already vanished, no doubt enjoying some delicious restaurant food a thousand li away by now.