Chapter 569: Vast And Formless
Li Fan had no idea what the so-called Xuantian Spirit-Sealing Array actually was, but it wasn't difficult to guess that the man was referring to the Xuan Net, whose power had recently been put on full display on the Tianling Province battlefield.
He kept his expression neutral and probed carefully. "According to our projections, even with the aid of the Xuantian Spirit-Sealing Array, the Five Elders Council shouldn't be suffering such consecutive defeats. The decline has been too apparent."
The man sighed. "We truly miscalculated this time. No one anticipated the Myriad Immortals Alliance would reproduce this ancient array so swiftly. And it seems even more domineering than the records describe."
A note of helplessness crept into his voice. "Our countermeasures within the Council aren't fully prepared yet, so the situation on the Tianling Province front has become... rather awkward for the moment. That's why we urgently need a way to weaken their array."
Li Fan didn't answer. Instead, he began tapping the table with a deliberate rhythm, as though in deep thought.
Only after a long pause did he speak, his expression clouded with visible hesitation. "Even with our capabilities, obtaining the array diagram for the Xuantian Spirit-Sealing Array would come at a tremendous cost. Some of our Fellow Daoists embedded within the Myriad Immortals Alliance might even pay with their lives. And success isn't guaranteed."
Sensing an opening, the Five Elders Council cultivator pressed his advantage. "Fellow Daoist Zhou, rest assured. If you can procure the array diagram, everything is negotiable."
Li Fan gave a noncommittal hum. After a moment, he said gravely, "This matter is of great consequence. I cannot decide alone. Give me three days. I will return here with an answer."
The Five Elders Council cultivator was anxious, but he knew the man spoke sense and could only nod in reluctant agreement.
"One more thing, let's meet at a different location next time. In these troubled times, it's best to be cautious." He then provided Li Fan with the coordinates of another island.
Li Fan cupped his hands and soared away, returning to Congyun Immortal City.
Tianxuan Soul-Locking... Xuantian Spirit-Sealing. Ancient times... the Tianxuan Mirror... The Xuantian Sect, perhaps?
Within his secluded chamber, Li Fan's eyes shifted as he sank into contemplation. That scene of countless cultivators plummeting from the sky all at once... it feels vaguely familiar. Ah, yes. Jiushan Province.
The nine mountains of Jiushan Province shared a peculiar trait: no cultivator could fly over them. In his past lifetime, Li Fan had traveled to the Wanfa Trade Association in Jiushan Province to make a purchase and had witnessed the grim fate of several stubborn cultivators who refused to believe the tales, only to fall to their deaths.
Could there be some connection here?
He began sifting through the vast body of documents and records he had studied over the years. Suddenly, a piece of information he had previously overlooked surfaced in his memory.
Legend held that the nine great mountains of Jiushan Province were formed from the meridian channels of an exotic beast that died in ancient times.
The nine mountains were named: Tianchang, Tianduan, Tianxu, Tiancu, Tianjie, Tiandai, Tianlao, Tiandong, and Tianxi.
Though separate, these nine mountains were subtly interconnected, faintly forming an array. This caused the space within Jiushan Province to be unstable, to the point where even teleportation arrays could not function there.
All of this was information Li Fan had already known. At the time, he had no concrete mental image of what a demonic beast truly was. He had simply thought the idea of a beast's meridians transforming into mountains after its death fit the flavor of ancient legends perfectly, nothing particularly remarkable about it.
But after visiting the Southern Abyss Mountain, the sacred land of demonic beasts within the Fallen Immortal Realm, and witnessing so many demonic beasts whose fearsome reputations dated back to antiquity, Li Fan had begun to sense something deeply off about this myth.
If the myth were true, then the size of this exotic beast was simply too immense.
It had taken Li Fan the better part of a year to travel back and forth across Jiushan Province.
If its meridians alone could span an entire province, what kind of colossal existence must this exotic beast have been in life?
By comparison, creatures like Crimson Nine-Heads, Purple Headless, or Azure Divine Dragon would likely be nothing more than ants.
Size may not directly correlate with strength, but to insist that a beast whose body became nine mountains had been weak... Li Fan certainly wouldn't believe that.
Perhaps, from this unknown exotic beast, I can verify the origins of this so-called Xuantian Spirit-Sealing Array.
From the name alone, Li Fan was almost certain the array was connected to the ancient Xuantian Sect.
But nothing was absolute; it could also be a coincidence. Being thorough wouldn't hurt.
He searched the Tianxuan Mirror using "the exotic beast whose body formed Jiushan Province" as his query.
Too much time had passed for anything to be verified with certainty. Opinions varied wildly; no consensus had ever been reached. He went through the results one by one, but nothing struck him as reliable.
Just as frustration began to set in, a painting titled Dream Encounter with an Ancient Exotic Beast caught his attention.
This was not a contemporary work, but a casual sketch left by a former disciple of the Divine Brush Sect.
After the Divine Brush Sect was absorbed by the Dot-Painting School, the sect's belongings had scattered far and wide.
This particular painting was accidentally obtained by a rogue cultivator. That cultivator perished during the great calamity, and the contents of his storage ring were plundered clean.
Only things that seemed utterly worthless, too cumbersome to bother taking, were left behind. The storage ring itself was discarded like a worn-out shoe, tossed to the roadside.
Sealed for millennia, it was eventually discovered by a passing cultivator.
According to this cultivator, Tang Bowen, it was through a strand of resentment that had lingered for a thousand years within the ring that he learned of these past events.
Of course, this account was likely fabricated by Tang Bowen to drive up the price of the painting.
Regardless, the painting genuinely originated from thousands of years ago.
It depicted over a hundred demonic beasts of various forms, including many Li Fan had seen within the Fallen Immortal Realm.
What drew his attention was not the obvious demonic beasts, but what lay concealed at the edges of the image. At the very border of the painting, the hundred-plus creatures appeared to be standing atop some colossal entity. But precisely because its size was too immense, it could not be fully depicted. Only the hundred-plus demonic beasts on its back served to suggest its scale.
In the corner, these words were inscribed: "Vast beyond form, its name is Heaven."
This minimalist style of artistic expression naturally drew comments from many cultivators. One well-traveled and widely experienced cultivator cut straight to the point with a single remark.
"I know this one. Isn't it just that giant turtle that turned into Jiushan Province after it died?"
The tone was heavily teasing, but it wasn't entirely empty talk. The ancient character for "Heaven" really did look like the character for "turtle."[1]
Its name was Tian.
Its name was Heaven.
The Tian Beast.
A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
1. 天 (tiān) is composed of 一 + 大 ("one" + "great") and means Heaven / sky / celestial.
兲 (tiān) is composed of 王 + 八 ("king" + "eight") and is an archaic variant of 天
The joke hinges on the fact that 兲 looks like 王八 ("turtle" / "cuckold" / a vulgar insult) stacked vertically. The well-traveled cultivator mockingly claims the artwork is saying that the beast that became Jiushan Province was a “turtle/cuckold,” while the artist's original meaning was "Heaven." ☜