Hmm?
Li Fan stopped short at the sight of the four cultivators who had appeared before him.
Ever since he had begun sowing chaos under the banner of an "ancient cultivator from the Heavenly Mechanisms Sect," Li Fan had made caution his first principle.
Whenever he ventured out, he concealed his movements with A Single Hand Veils the Heavens.
That secret art from his past life, capable of shielding him from the Xuan Net's perception, was truly extraordinary. Within the vast Myriad Immortals Alliance, countless cultivators had sought to catch a glimpse of him. Not one had ever succeeded.
He hadn't expected to receive uninvited guests today.
"Who are you?" he asked, not expecting a truthful answer but buying time.
Probing the auras of the four black-robed cultivators, Li Fan relaxed slightly. They were well below Tian Yang's level, likely Nascent Soul realm.
"What do you want with me?" he asked, already knowing.
"You'll find out soon enough!" one of them replied coldly. "Deploy the array!"
The four each took their position at a corner, and golden light erupted from their artifacts. Golden threads laced through the air, and within moments a blazing golden array shaped like a great bell had been woven around Li Fan, sealing him inside.
His eyes sharpened. He moved to evade, but the surrounding space had already solidified around him.
"Contract!" the four shouted in unison.
The golden bell began to shrink, collapsing inward, its outline pressing ever closer to his body.
The Light-Splitting Dragon-Trapping Array.
Trapped within the array, Li Fan remained perfectly calm. He had spent several lifetimes on the path of arrays. He recognized this one at a glance.
It was among the top-tier trap arrays currently in circulation, requiring at least three cultivators to deploy, and the more who joined, the greater its power. Against four Nascent Soul cultivators working in concert, even a Spirit Transformation cultivator would ordinarily be taken without effort.
Li Fan sneered inwardly. He couldn't move, but dozens of Great Five Elements Annihilation Swords erupted from across his body, scattering in every direction and trailing destructive black light.
The four black-robed cultivators flinched at the terrible aura bleeding through that darkness, instinctively bracing to dodge.
Then they realized, with dawning horror, that the black sword-lights weren't aimed at them at all.
They were aimed at the array's critical nodes.
"No!"
One of them cried out as the black lights struck with pinpoint precision.
Boom!
Gold and black collided. The brilliant bell flickered and dimmed, and the once-inescapable trap array buckled.
"Petty tricks! How dare you show off your meager skills before a master!"
Within the shifting play of light and shadow, Li Fan vanished from inside the Dragon-Trapping Array entirely.
“Besides divination arts, this person knows arrays as well?”
“How is that possible?”
The same thought raced through all four minds at once:
"The intelligence was wrong!”
The leader immediately hissed the order to retreat.
But before any of them could move, the sky went dark without warning, as though something had swallowed the heavens whole.
Then dozens of golden beams rained down from the darkness, swift as thunderbolts, tracing the outline of a massive golden bowl that settled over all four men.
"The Light-Splitting Dragon-Trapping Array?!"
They shuddered, disbelief plain in their eyes.
Not only had he turned their own technique against them in an instant—the array he had deployed appeared more refined than the one they had built together.
Its raw power was somewhat weaker, but it had been subtly altered from the version in common circulation. That single variation meant breaking free would cost them dearly.
Left with no other choice, all four were forced to commit their full strength.
Within the golden bowl, four distinct grotto-heaven landscapes took shape: a solitary snow-capped peak, a mist-shrouded jungle, a mountain rising straight as a blade, and a vast open plain.
Above the golden bowl, beneath the darkened sky, Li Fan stood watching.
He looked down at the four Nascent Soul cultivators, killing intent rising steadily within him.
None of them were dedicated array specialists; they had needed artifacts just to build the array, and the array they'd hastily erected was riddled with flaws.
Against ordinary cultivators, those flaws would have been inconsequential, but to Li Fan's eye, their Light-Splitting Dragon-Trapping Array was full of openings.
After breaking free, he had moved without pause.
First, he activated A Single Hand Veils the Heavens to blot out the sky and cut off any outside observation of this place.
Then he used the False Words artifact, purchased from the Tianxuan Mirror, to jam their spirit talisman communications.
After that, he laid the Technique Eruption Spirit-Startling Array, temporarily lifting his Dao Techniques to the Nascent Soul level.
Finally, he set the Light-Splitting Array to hold them in place.
When I was at Foundation Establishment, I could already kill Nascent Soul cultivators. Now that I've reached the late-stage Golden Core realm, the four of you are nothing but sitting ducks.
Heaven-Overturning!
A colossal palm descended from the sky. Sealed within the golden bowl, the four had nowhere to run.
The snow peak exhaled a drifting chill. Ghostly shrieks poured from the misty forest. The sheer mountain drove forward like a ram. Cooking smoke curled from the plain...
Their grotto-heaven landscapes surged and transformed as the four unleashed everything they had—four streams of light tangling and merging into a single barrier to meet the Heaven-Overturning Palm.
It made no difference.
The barrier crumbled at the first touch, as fragile as wet paper.
The giant palm drove down. Amid piercing screams, their bodies were crushed apart piece by piece. The grotto-heaven scenes shuddered once more; flesh and blood writhed and knit themselves back together, restoring their forms.
But the Heaven-Overturning Palm did not slow. It bypassed their physical bodies entirely and drove straight into the four great grotto-heavens.
Boom!
The grotto-heavens convulsed. Mountains, fog-wrapped forests, and open plains all seemed to meet their end at once. Enormous cracks spread like cobwebs across every domain. Peaks collapsed. Trees toppled. The plains tore apart. Another instant and all four grotto-heavens would have been obliterated entirely.
Yet the black-clad cultivators held together with astonishing discipline. At the edge of annihilation, not one of them broke. Driving their spiritual power past its limit, all four joined forces and, against every expectation, absorbed the blow.
The colossal palm faded into nothing. The four grotto-heavens, still shaking violently, gradually stilled.
The four cultivators wore the pale, hollow look of men who had just survived something they shouldn't have. They moved quickly—drawing ambient spiritual qi to repair the damage to their grotto-heavens, swallowing pills—while their gazes swept the surroundings for any sign of Li Fan.
Their divine sense buzzed with urgent exchanges.
"That divine ability was terrifyingly powerful. Li Fan must have spent a tremendous amount of energy casting it. Now is our chance to break the Dragon-Trapping Array!"
"He’s definitely not at the Golden Core realm, even if it appears that way. He may have already recovered from his injuries."
"Agreed. We need to report this at once. This man may very well be bait the Myriad Immortals Alliance cast out deliberately."