Chapter 292: Hundreds of Attempts Without Success

Due to the special nature of divine souls, array core devices can be mass-produced. However, the activation of each array core within the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array requires personal guidance from an array master. Furthermore, to ensure the array's accuracy, array masters need to debug and calibrate it periodically. And this is why you are here for intensive training.

Ji Hongdao's hand suddenly produced a small golden orb, the very item that had been distributed to everyone earlier along with their clothing.

“This is a Soul Gathering Orb, crafted from Yin Spirit Jade. As the name suggests, it has the function of collecting and imprisoning divine souls.”

“Do you see the golden light inside?”

“Those are the divine souls of the Five Elders' Society cultivators we captured!”

As soon as Ji Hongdao uttered these words, the cultivators present all changed color.

Through the live demonstration of soul extraction just now, everyone learned that the golden light within the divine souls of the Five Elders' Society cultivators was a trace of the soul pact. However, the golden light only accounted for a tiny fraction within each cultivator's divine soul. To condense such a large amount of golden light, almost palpable, how many divine souls would that require? Thousands? Or tens of thousands? The more they thought about it, the more horrified they became.

Some array formation prodigies had been immersed in the study of array formations since they began cultivating, rarely encountering such a cruel side of the cultivation world. At this moment, they couldn't help but turn pale, their hearts filled with panic.

Ji Hongdao said in a deep voice, “What? Are you scared? Do you think we are too cruel? But you must understand, in the battle of Tianling Province alone, the number of cultivators who died fighting for the Myriad Immortals Alliance was hundreds, even thousands, of times the number of divine souls in the Soul Gathering Orbs you hold! Not to mention the various wars, large and small, that have continuously erupted over thousands of years. Leniency towards enemies is true cruelty.”

Ji Hongdao gazed deeply at the many young cultivators before him, then stopped short, no longer delving into the topic. Instead, he continued to introduce the golden Soul Gathering Orb.

“What you need to do is constantly observe and make close contact with these divine souls to comprehend the traces of the soul pact. Ultimately, you must reach a point where you can distinguish these differences without external aid. This way, when you construct the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array, you will be capable of debugging and calibrating the array cores. This process of comprehension consumes divine souls. You had best achieve this before the divine souls in the Soul Gathering Orb are completely depleted. Otherwise…”

Ji Hongdao's voice turned cold: “We will deem you incapable of constructing the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array. Not only will you be expelled from this Grand Universe Villa, but we will also charge your recommenders for the training losses incurred.”

As soon as he spoke, the cultivators' faces all became somewhat grim. If they failed to meet the requirements and were simply expelled, it wouldn't just be a matter of losing face. Their futures would likely be ruined, forever cut off from the path of array formations. These prodigies, who had been recommended, couldn't help but feel immense pressure.

“However, rest assured. To ease your difficulty, we have already processed the divine souls of these Five Elders' Society cultivators using special methods. Most of the memories within the divine souls have been thoroughly purged. With purified soul bodies, free from the impact of memories and emotions, comprehension will be much easier. As long as you are not simply here to gain prestige without effort, you should have no problems.”

Finally, Ji Hongdao shifted his tone and began to encourage the young prodigies. Lastly, he set the study plan for everyone for the upcoming period. During the day, the cultivators followed Ji Hongdao, learning to construct the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array. In the evenings, they each returned to their respective courtyards to comprehend the soul pact imprints. Every month, an assessment would be conducted to check their learning progress.

Thus, Li Fan began his advanced study schedule at the Grand Universe Villa. The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array truly lived up to the Myriad Immortals Alliance's high expectations as an array formation hoped to reverse the tide of events. It was incredibly profound and complex. Just the outer structure of the array alone contained thirty-six million standardized array patterns. Each basic pattern, in turn, was composed of numerous different fundamental array formations. Even the simplest one incorporated tens of thousands of different array units. Mastering all the array structures of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array was no easy feat, even for these geniuses selected from various provinces.

However, Li Fan had the assistance of the Dao Transformation Divine One secret technique. Everything he learned, saw, and even thought or did, was recorded with absolute precision within the blue Dao Transformation Stone in his sea of consciousness. He could consult it at any time, cross-referencing information. Li Fan's mastery of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array progressed by leaps and bounds. Among all the prodigies, he consistently ranked among the top.

In stark contrast, however, was Li Fan's ability to perceive the soul pact. When about a quarter of the golden light in the Soul Gathering Orb had been consumed, Li Fan still showed almost no progress, just like at the very beginning. However, Li Fan remained unconcerned, feeling no pressure at all. Talk of being expelled from Tianyu Province or charging his recommender fees could not threaten Li Fan. If there were no unforeseen circumstances, Zhang Zhiliang would likely have already returned to the embrace of the Dao by then. Therefore, Li Fan maintained a calm mind, unhurriedly comprehending at his own pace.

Time thus flowed slowly by. On this day, Li Fan once again drew a divine soul from the Soul Gathering Orb, preparing to comprehend it. Suddenly, two immense surges of cultivation energy emerged from within his body. They were like vast rivers, surging ceaselessly. In just an instant, his third tribulation body was filled halfway. And the feedback cultivation continued to increase steadily.

Li Fan's heart swelled with joy, and he subtly sensed: “Have Ye Feipeng and Xiao Heng both broken through to the Golden Core realm?” He instinctively wanted to activate his Formless Killing Intent to observe the situation there. However, the distance was too great; he couldn't discern what was happening to them. This made Li Fan feel somewhat uncomfortable and unaccustomed.

“Judging by the amount of cultivation feedback, both of them are at least Three-Rule Golden Cores. To miss such a spectacular scene is truly a small regret. It seems I need to find a way to upgrade my Formless Killing Intent.”

Calming the faint joy in his heart, Li Fan skillfully sent his divine sense into the blank divine soul he held. It was as if he had arrived in a vast, boundless expanse of white. Li Fan traversed this space, attempting to find traces of the golden soul pact. But just as before, he found nothing. The imprint of the soul pact was deeply hidden within the divine soul, like a drop of water merged into the ocean, extremely difficult to detect. Violently extracting the divine soul for observation was akin to boiling the ocean to force the soul pact imprint to appear. Forcibly taking a divine soul was no different from murder. It was utterly impossible to use such a method for large-scale identification. One could only enter the soul body internally with divine sense, through close contact, to comprehend the existence of the soul pact imprint.