Just as Zhang Zhiliang had said, after studying for so long in the Cosmos Branch Academy, Li Fan had more or less grasped how to construct the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array.
But as for the actual power of this constructed Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array, Li Fan wasn't entirely clear. He lacked a precise, quantifiable understanding.
It was like a worker on a weapons assembly line who might not fully comprehend the destructive capability of the object they were building.
Li Fan had initially thought the primary purpose of building the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array was to mark Five Elders Council cultivators who had infiltrated Myriad Immortals Alliance territory.
But after Zhang Zhiliang's reminder, Li Fan now realized its true purpose likely extended far beyond that.
The Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array was indeed exceptionally effective at distinguishing friend from foe. But if that were its only purpose, it would be a tremendous waste of resources.
One must understand that, according to the current construction plan, every single province within the Myriad Immortals Alliance would be fitted with a Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array. The amount of construction materials required was unimaginable.
Even if the number of Five Elders Council spies doubled, the combined losses they could inflict might still pale in comparison to the value of these materials.
Even in the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s most remote territories, places where infiltration offered almost no strategic value,Tianxuan Soul-Locking Arrays were still constructed without exception, reflecting a policy of total, saturated defense.
Rooting out and guarding against spies was one aspect. More importantly, it was about achieving a high degree of control over their own territory.
Under the coverage of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array, any Five Elders Council cultivator in their territory would be instantly marked. This also meant that everything within the array's range was under constant surveillance.
When Li Fan first encountered the Tianxuan Mirror, he had conducted a test.
After learning the news of the vanishing Liuli Fish on Liuli Island, he first purchased a batch of Liuli Pearls at the original price, and only then sold that information to the Tianxuan Mirror.
Subsequently, the price of Liuli Pearls skyrocketed, earning him a small profit.
More importantly, it confirmed that the Tianxuan Mirror was not omniscient. It could not know of events that occurred beyond Myriad Immortals Island.
Li Fan had taken deliberate steps on multiple occasions to avoid the Tianxuan Mirror's gaze, ensuring his secrets remained hidden, especially Return to Truth.
But once the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array was established, the Tianxuan Mirror would remedy this shortcoming. All of Li Fan's maneuvers would likely be laid bare before its prying eyes.
The thought that every single move he made from now on would be under the constant watch of the Tianxuan Mirror sent a chill through Li Fan's heart.
If he thought one step further, there was a possibility that the Myriad Immortals Alliance might even establish a special agency. If this agency detected any cultivator behaving abnormally, it would dispatch its members to... handle the situation. In that case, any potential source of instability would likely be snuffed out.
It seems I need to reconsider whether to profit from Spirit Mist Grass in the next life. Li Fan thought.
While it could bring overnight wealth, the impact and upheaval caused by a war are too great. Especially this Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array. Once completed, my every step will be fraught with difficulty. Keeping my secrets hidden will become nearly impossible.
At this thought, Li Fan felt, for the first time in this life, the sensation of having dropped a stone on his own foot.
No wonder the Myriad Immortals Alliance's resolve to build the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array is so firm. To ensure sufficient personnel for the array's deployment, they even dragged back a failure like me...
However, the widespread adoption of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array in this life can no longer be stopped. The best I can do is move with greater caution, ensuring my own anomalies remain hidden.
If things become truly untenable, I can always activate Return to Truth. After all, I have now broken through to the Golden Core realm. Even after everything is virtualized, I can still retain my cultivation.
Li Fan sighed inwardly and continued reading the jade slip left by Zhang Zhiliang.
The moment Zhang Zhiliang saw the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array, he instantly comprehended its formidable power, and fear took root in his heart.
Simultaneously, it sparked an idea within him.
The combination of arrays and the Tianxuan Mirror was indeed feasible, yet the idea of claiming the Tianxuan Mirror for himself was clearly absurd.
So, what kind of esoteric treasure could serve as a viable, lesser substitute for the Tianxuan Mirror, acting as the core for the Unlimited Art?
After a period of searching, Zhang Zhiliang found his answer: the secondary entities of the Tianxuan Mirror.
If a newborn mirror surface was a newly created avatar of the Tianxuan Mirror, then a secondary entity was a completely new, independent offspring that the Tianxuan Mirror might occasionally spawn by chance.
A newborn mirror surface, as an avatar, maintained a constant connection to the Tianxuan Mirror’s true self.
A secondary entity, however, could be regarded as a completely independent individual. From the moment of its birth, it had no further connection to the Tianxuan Mirror, yet it would inherit some of the Mirror’s characteristics.
It was the perfect lesser substitute.
The Tianxuan Mirror itself was utterly beyond reach, but its secondary entities... those could be plotted for.
Over the long ages, the Tianxuan Mirror had spawned several dozen such secondary entities.
Their actual capabilities varied in strength, and they were often bestowed upon cultivators who had made exceptional contributions to the Myriad Immortals Alliance.
For example, there was one type of secondary entity called the Xuanqing Archive.
The Xuanqing Archive contained a complete replica of all the knowledge and information that existed within the Tianxuan Mirror up to the moment it separated.
While it could not synchronize with any new information generated by the Mirror after its birth, its contents were still vast and all-encompassing, more than what a single cultivator could hope to learn in a lifetime.
In Zhang Zhiliang’s conjecture, there must be one, or even several, secondary entities that had inherited the Tianxuan Mirror’s terrifying computational power.
If he could obtain just one, then the birth of the true Unlimited Art would not be far off.
Even settling for a lesser option, any random secondary entity would be enough to serve as the foundation for a prototype of the Unlimited Art.
Secondary entities of the Tianxuan Mirror...
With several dozen in existence, if one were determined enough, it might not be entirely out of reach.
Li Fan’s eyes glinted thoughtfully.
What followed were Zhang Zhiliang’s specific insights into the Unlimited Art.
They were indeed far more profound than before. He had optimized the program for the array’s self-evolution, greatly improving its efficiency.
Li Fan divided his time between cultivation, reviewing the construction of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array, and continuing his research into the Unlimited Art.
Time flowed quietly by, and soon the day of his assessment arrived.
Following Ji Hongdao’s guidance, Li Fan was transported to an immense, utterly empty space.
A black storage ring fell into his palm, filled to the brim with array construction materials.
Not far away, the hub device encapsulating a newborn mirror surface floated silently in the air.
Simultaneously, a red pointer materialized above his head, marking the time allotted for the assessment.
Li Fan took a deep breath, steadying his mind. Then, he began retrieving materials from the storage ring and constructing the array.
With the aid of the Unity of Dao Transformation and Mind, his work was flawlessly precise. And after an initial period of adjustment, his efficiency soared. In just two and a half days, he completed the core structure of the array.
Next, he needed to perfectly embed the hub device into this core structure. It was at this step that Li Fan encountered some difficulty.