Chapter 312: Secret of the Spirit Locking Formation

Unlike ordinary tests, the core components of the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array are exceptionally rare. It is impossible to transport thousands of them to Tianyu State just for a single assessment. For this reason, the practical array-formation exam will not be taken by all array-path students at once. Instead, they will be divided into groups of fifty, taking the test sequentially.

The order of participation in the assessment was determined by everyone's usual comprehensive test scores. Li Fan ranked in the upper-middle range, so he would not have to wait too long.

The Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array is immense in scale; even a genius would need several years to fully construct it. Since this is ultimately just a test of everyone's array-formation skills, it is impossible to waste so much time. Therefore, the specific rule is to construct as much of the array's central core structure as possible within a seven-day limit. The final ranking will be determined by the actual array construction.

Li Fan was in the sixth group, meaning, by conservative estimate, it would be over forty days until his turn. During the assessment period, going outside was strictly prohibited. Only students who had completed their assessment were permitted to leave the Universal Villa and relax in Tianyu City. However, learning from past lessons, they were not allowed to leave Tianyu City itself.

While waiting, Li Fan began studying the small black box Zhang Zhiliang had given him. Previously, Li Fan had attempted to decipher it. However, at that time, Zhang Zhiliang was still alive, and the black box seemed to be shrouded in an unknown restriction in addition to the sealing array. After several unsuccessful attempts, Li Fan temporarily gave up. Now that Zhang Zhiliang had perished, Li Fan noticed that the restriction had spontaneously vanished. This indicated it was time to open Zhang Zhiliang's legacy.

Without much effort, as a thin silver line lit up on the black box, Li Fan broke the sealing array. The contents inside were revealed, looking much the same as they had in his twelfth life. They included an encrypted jade slip containing the Boundless Law, Heart Ape Incense, a Spirit-Sensing Orb, remnant exchange credits, and an ordinary jade slip recording Zhang Zhiliang's last words.

Li Fan first read Zhang Zhiliang's last words. A moment later, with a look of emotion, he put down the jade slip.

In his last words, Zhang Zhiliang briefly explained how, several years prior, by chance, he had learned of the imminent arrival of the Crimson Flame in the Cloud Sea. To advance to the Dao Integration realm, he embarked on a desperate scheme. If Li Fan were able to see the last words in the jade slip, it would mean Zhang Zhiliang's attempt at Dao Integration had failed, and he had perished.

Zhang Zhiliang's tone was filled with regret, but he also stated he had no regrets. During the great battle in Tianling State, the cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Society slaughtered each other, falling like ants one after another. Zhang Zhiliang himself witnessed several cultivators, with whom he was usually friendly, dying tragically before his eyes. The entire sky was filled with phenomena accompanying the deaths of cultivators. Often, the phenomenon of one cultivator's death had not even fully manifested before it was obscured by that of another. In the war, Zhang Zhiliang's pride as a Nascent Soul array master was utterly shattered. Not to mention Nascent Soul cultivators, even Soul Transformation cultivators could only drift with the tide and leave their lives to fate in this great battle.

He realized that below Dao Integration, all were ants. As Zhang Zhiliang awakened to this truth, an boundless ambition to achieve Dao Integration inevitably blossomed within him. He narrowly escaped death, returned to the Cloud Sea, and, having survived the ordeal, gained enlightenment, advancing to the Soul Transformation realm. Now that a heaven-sent opportunity had presented itself, how could he possibly give it up? If he failed, he would die, and he had long since prepared for that outcome. Fearing that the Boundless Law, his life's work, might vanish, he had left behind this inheritance in advance.

Because most of his savings had been used to create the array crown, the contribution points remaining in his remnant exchange credits in this life were fewer than before, only a little over two hundred thousand points. For the current Li Fan, this was barely better than nothing.

What Li Fan valued more was how Zhang Zhiliang's Boundless Law, now at the Soul Transformation realm, differed from its Nascent Soul version. Lighting the Heart Ape Incense, Li Fan picked up the encrypted jade slip, which had golden inlays at its four corners, and began to read it carefully.

After reaching the Golden Core realm, his divine sense strength had surged. Without the dizziness this time, Li Fan quickly scanned through the contents of the jade slip. Li Fan already knew the original contents of the Boundless Law by heart. Comparing it with this new version, he quickly noticed the differences, or rather, the improvements.

The core concept of the Boundless Law is for an array to continuously evolve on its own, constantly growing. The most crucial aspect is the lack of a central core that can provide computational support for the array's infinite evolution. In his twelfth life, due to the limitations of his Nascent Soul realm perspective, Zhang Zhiliang had not explicitly stated potential candidates for this core. This time, however, Zhang Zhiliang was forthright: the most suitable central core for the Boundless Law was the Myriad Immortals Alliance's supreme treasure, the Sky-Profound Mirror.

Even when countless cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Alliance used the Sky-Profound Mirror simultaneously, it never experienced lag. Not to mention that the Sky-Profound Mirror was also responsible for regulating prices, controlling information flow, and other matters. This showed how terrifyingly unimaginable its data processing capabilities were.

Moreover, the Sky-Profound Mirror possessed its own spiritual intelligence, making it a perfect fit for the Boundless Law. Previously, due to its unique status within the Myriad Immortals Alliance, Zhang Zhiliang had never even considered this possibility. However, after the great battle in Tianling State, the emergence of the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array gave him an epiphany.

In his message, Zhang Zhiliang noted that the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array represented a great attempt to combine the Sky-Profound Mirror's own capabilities with array formation. While others considered this attempt earth-shattering, he found it somewhat conservative. He acknowledged, however, that the Sky-Profound Mirror was simply too important; any error could plunge the Myriad Immortals Alliance into violent turmoil, making a cautious approach understandable. Even so, he believed that the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array, by using the Sky-Profound Mirror's newly formed mirrors as its core components, had undergone a qualitative change compared to all other arrays in the world. He wrote that since Li Fan was undergoing closed training in Tianyu State, he might already understand how to construct it, but added that Li Fan might not fully comprehend the true power of the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array.

Zhang Zhiliang then recounted his personal experience. When the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array first appeared in Jiushan State, he had gone to witness it himself. He described seeing pillars of light illuminating the heavens and earth, feeling a subtle sense of being monitored and threatened permeate his entire being, and experiencing the Sky-Profound Mirror's fluctuations sweeping over him. A shudder, deep from his soul, had spontaneously arisen. He concluded that Ji Hongdao and the others were true geniuses who had created a real monster. He then urged contemplation on what would happen once one Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking Array after another was completed, covering the entire territory of the Myriad Immortals Alliance. He elaborated that with the Sky-Profound Spirit-Locking, nothing could escape. Everything that happened in the world, every slight stir, would fall precisely into the Sky-Profound Mirror's view. Cultivators across the land would no longer have any secrets before the Sky-Profound Mirror.

Reading this, Li Fan couldn't help but be shocked.