Guo Yezhong was a man who had devoted his entire life to the array path.
His mind was nimble and unconventional, constantly brimming with peculiar ideas. He also loved to drink, and after particularly heavy bouts of inebriation, he would share the seemingly impractical fantasies churning through his head with his closest friends.
His friends mostly dismissed these as drunken ramblings, laughing them off.
Not long ago, Guo Yezhong had gotten dead drunk again.
He described to his friends a vision he claimed to have seen in a dream: Tianxuan hanging in the sky like a spider's web, enveloping the wilderness, tightly binding all living things.
It was so bizarre that none of his friends took it seriously this time either, treating it as amusing tavern talk.
After Guo Yezhong sobered up, they even teased him about it.
To everyone's surprise, his expression changed drastically the moment he heard this. He warned his friends not to speak of it carelessly, then stormed off in a huff.
For several days afterward, he shut himself away, refusing all visitors and not venturing out.
Then, suddenly, he announced that he had gained some vague insight and needed to travel somewhere to seek his opportunity to break through to the Golden Core realm.
He left and never returned.
Several days later, a strange phenomenon descended from the heavens, and someone discovered his corpse.
***
Fake liquor kills. Li Fan sighed softly, then fell into thought.[1]
Had the Myriad Immortals Alliance silenced him to prevent a leak?
For an organization so desperately short of array talents, that made no sense. A single conscription order could have made Guo Yezhong pour his blood and sweat into completing the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array. There was no need for something so extreme.
That left the Five Elders Council.
After Li Fan had leaked the "Tianxuan Soul-Locking, Xuanhuang unified" message to them, they would have tried every means available to gather related information. But the Myriad Immortals Alliance's extreme secrecy had left them with little to go on.
Until they discovered that a seemingly insignificant Foundation Establishment cultivator had openly described a vision tied to the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array while drunk.
And so disaster had fallen on Guo Yezhong from out of nowhere.
Li Fan stroked his chin, piecing together the likely course of events.
Although Guo Yezhong had immense talent in the array path, he probably didn't know much about the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array. At most, he had conceived a vague notion of it. But the Five Elders Council's research into arrays is no less advanced than the Myriad Immortals Alliance's. With Guo Yezhong's clue as a starting point, it's hard to say where they might end up.
This time, the Myriad Immortals Alliance is pouring even more into the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array than they did in my previous life. Caught between these two forces, the array will either never come into being, or it will evolve into something far more terrifying than before. I can only hope the Five Elders Council puts up a good fight. If it truly comes down to it, I can lend them a hand at the crucial moment.
Li Fan turned his attention to the structural diagram of the Soul-Locking Array in his mind, reviewing it carefully once more. Only after some time did he set those thoughts aside.
The vast majority of cultivators in the Myriad Immortals Alliance remained completely unaware that an event capable of reshaping the Xuanhuang World's future was unfolding around them.
Life continued as it always had: completing missions, accumulating contribution points, redeeming techniques and cultivation resources, secluding themselves to train, occasionally taking time to relax.
The topics circulating among cultivators were the usual sort. Which young genius had broken through again. Who had gotten incredibly lucky and stumbled upon a technique in some sect's ruins.
But this year, one name kept surfacing in every corner of every conversation: Li Fan, cultivator of the Heavenly Mechanisms Sect. The one who had accurately predicted the skyrocketing price of Samantabhadra True Leaf.
The vast majority of those caught up in that affair had suffered heavy losses, and they ground their teeth at the mention of his name. Yet none of them doubted his divination abilities.
What was more, a group of cultivators had emerged who praised Li Fan's divination arts with near-fanatical devotion. They swore that his abilities rivaled those of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's most established divination masters, and spoke as though the Samantabhadra True Leaf incident were only one of his many achievements. But when pressed for details, they would clam up with expressions that said, “Believe it or not, it’s up to you.”
Still, divination alone would not have sparked such fervent discussion. The real reason was simpler: Li Fan could make people rich.
Everyone knew the story. He Zhenghao from the Congyun Sea had pooled contribution points, handed them to Li Fan to manage, and received both principal and interest back a year later.
On the surface it looked like a classic pyramid scheme, but Li Fan's reputation for "extraordinary divination abilities" lent the whole affair an air of plausibility. Contribution points were hard-won, and a fifty percent return in a single year was an almost irresistible temptation!
Cultivators came seeking out He Zhenghao in droves, all wanting to join the next round. So many came that even He Zhenghao, who fancied himself a man of the world, was unnerved.
He retreated behind Liuli Island's protective array and refused to come out until he had contacted Li Fan and received his approval.
Following Li Fan's advice, he issued a statement. Due to the overwhelming number of interested cultivators, which exceeded Li Fan's managing capacity, the investment round would accept contribution points from a maximum of five hundred cultivators, accepted in order from highest pledged amount to lowest.
The announcement drew silent curses from every direction. After a moment's hesitation, most cultivators ultimately chose to walk away. But a small handful staked their confidence in Li Fan with their contribution points.
The competitive structure worked as intended. The third round of pooled contribution points swelled to a staggering fifteen million, averaging over thirty thousand per person, and this with everyone holding back somewhat and taking a wait-and-see approach.
He Zhenghao went around collecting points until his hands went soft, grinning the whole time.
Seeing how hard he worked, Li Fan promised him one percent of the profits as a reward, and he threw himself into the work with even greater enthusiasm, going so far as to urge the investing cultivators to dig deeper into their reserves.
While this "master swindler" Li Fan was busily amassing wealth, the Empire's Foundation Establishment Master had not been idle either.
The ten million contribution points Li Fan had gifted them had allowed the technique thieves to complete their mission ahead of schedule, yet they showed no sign of stopping.
To prepare thoroughly for their eventual complete break from the Xuanhuang World, they continued earning contribution points by various means and quietly shipping all manner of redeemed resources back to the Empire.
On this particular day, a special guest arrived on the island.
A somewhat disheveled and wild-eyed young man stood before the Foundation Establishment Master's small courtyard, muttering to himself.
"I've been saving for so long. It should be enough now. With the help of this renowned Foundation Establishment Master, I will surely succeed in my breakthrough this time. Once I reach the Foundation Establishment realm, my fate will be my own, no longer dictated by heaven. No matter how vast the cultivation world is, I, Han Yi, will go wherever I please!"
1. This phrase originated from real incidents of methanol poisoning from bootleg liquor. In colloquial use, it has become a lighthearted, self-deprecating way to say:
"I did something really foolish—I must have been out of my mind." ☜