Early autumn night fell like spilled ink, spreading slowly across the firmament.
Deep within the ocean of clouds and mist, the figure of a young man appeared, bearing the demeanor of an immortal with eyes like clear colored glaze.
From afar, he gazed down impassively upon the elder and youth, Li Canghai and Luo Chen, his face utterly devoid of emotion.
"And here I wondered who dared trespass upon my Tianyuan Dao Sect. So it is the two of you—Li Canghai, Luo Chen!"
The moment Li Canghai saw him, his brow furrowed slightly. "Liancheng, have you been well since we last parted?"
Even as he exchanged greetings aloud, he sent a divine sense transmission to Luo Chen.
"Be on your guard. Liancheng's spirit and qi are full and vibrant. He shows no signs of injury whatsoever."
Luo Chen's eyes flickered with understanding. He understood what Li Canghai implied.
There were two possibilities for Liancheng to have been injured.
The first was a century ago, during the battle of Broken Soul Cliff. The Five Elders of Tianyuan had fought Monarch Qixia, paying the horrific price of four elders falling to grievously wound her, leaving her immobilized to this day. Liancheng had been the sole survivor of the Five Elders and had likewise suffered severe wounds. Yet over the past century, he had already nursed himself back to health.
The second possibility was that the sixth-order Heavenly Vault Continent-Gathering Formation had just been forcibly broken by the forces Luo Chen dispatched. By all rights, Liancheng, who presided over the array, should have suffered backlash from its collapse. Yet looking at him now, he showed not the slightest hint of backlash; his aura was balanced and tranquil, entirely free of wounds.
Of the two possibilities, the former was within Luo Chen's expectations. But the latter was somewhat beyond Li Canghai's.
How could someone emerge completely unscathed after such a terrifying formation was forcibly halted?
Could it be that he had not been the one presiding over the array after all?
"Naturally, this seat is well. But Li Canghai, is it not rather discourteous of you to arrive uninvited today?" Liancheng remarked indifferently. He remained seated cross-legged atop the severed Heaven and Earth Peak. The surrounding mist and clouds coalesced, gradually forming an illusory phantom visage that mirrored his exact facial features.
Seeing this, Li Canghai's expression shifted slightly. "An illusory form? You are merely at early Deity Transformation; how could you possibly condense an illusory form? No, that is not an illusory form!"
He stared with suspicion and doubt at the colossal giant of cloud and mist, racking his brain to discern the nature and purpose of such a technique.
To Luo Chen, however, it seemed rather familiar.
It felt as if he had seen this kind of method somewhere before.
At this juncture, Li Canghai saw no further need for restraint. Having confirmed that the giant was not a true illusory avatar, he assumed Liancheng was merely putting up a blustering facade.
He declared in a clear voice, "This old man has not come asking for much. I only request that Fellow Daoist Liancheng bestow a single item upon me to aid in the completion of my great work!"
As he spoke, Luo Chen's expression beside him grew noticeably graver.
Liancheng glanced at Luo Chen, then asked coolly, "What item?"
Li Canghai laughed freely. "It is simple. From an ancient ruin, this old man obtained a method to forge a spirit treasure, one that requires scouring renowned mountains and great seas to refine into a treasure. In today's world, when speaking of the greatest mountains, there are the Northern Sea's Primordial Magnetism, the Western Desert's Emerald Screen, the Eastern Desolation's Mount Cangwu, and the Central Plains' Mount Lanke and Heaven and Earth Peak. Primordial Magnetism suppresses the five elements and cannot be used by me. Emerald Screen is sealed by an eminent monk, such that not even a fraction of its true form can be glimpsed. As for Mount Cangwu, this old man naturally dares not go knocking on their doors."
A fierce glint flashed across Liancheng's face. "So, you have set your designs on my Central Plains?"
Li Canghai replied as if it were only natural, "Spiritual mountains and precious lands belong to the virtuous. Today's Tianyuan Dao Sect is no longer the supreme sacred land that reigned over the world. You possess Mount Lanke, Tiannan, Libei, and even Tiandi Island—a full four fifth-order spiritual veins. Is that not far too extravagant? This old man does not ask for much, only that modest plot of land known as Mount Lanke!"
Once Li Canghai stated his true objective, Luo Chen, standing alongside him, quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
He had genuinely feared that what Li Canghai wanted was something Liancheng could afford to part with.
Mount Lanke was something Liancheng would never give away.
Sure enough, upon hearing those words, Liancheng laughed from sheer outrage.
Once his laughter subsided, his voice turned icy cold.
"Fellow Daoist Li, do you not know that Mount Lanke is the ancestral court of my Dao Sect, the foundation of Tianyuan for ten thousand generations?"
"This old man knows, and I know full well you would not part with it. Thus, I came to take it myself, so you need not trouble yourself to deliver it to my door."
"With just you? And that little fellow beside you?"
When he spoke the words 'little fellow,' Liancheng cast a contemptuous glare at Luo Chen.
"You have great courage. Over countless years, you are the boldest I have seen—offending a Deity Transformation sacred land with merely a Nascent Soul cultivation."
"Without courage, how could one keep one's life?" Luo Chen advanced toward Heaven and Earth Peak at an unhurried pace, speaking slowly. "If Senior is willing to return my life soul, then this sect master can readily lead his people away."
The moment the words 'life soul' left his lips, Li Canghai understood instantly. No wonder Luo Chen had gone to such great lengths, refusing even to shy away from risking his life to oppose the Tianyuan Dao Sect.
Without a complete life soul, a cultivator could never break through to the Deity Transformation stage.
Even if one forced their way into that realm, an incomplete soul would render the boundary unstable, causing them to inevitably fall back down sooner or later.
In fact, tumbling down in cultivation would be a blessing. If a flawed primordial spirit caused one to become lost in the ocean of origin qi during daily cultivation, that would be a true matter of life and death!
Rumors said that Luo Chen had once entered under the banner of the Tianyuan Dao Sect as an external guest elder of the Star Gate.
Thinking back, it was likely during that time that his life soul had been severed and withheld!
At this realization, Li Canghai grew slightly apprehensive. If Liancheng were truly generous enough to hand back the life soul, this temporary ally of his might abruptly change his mind, leaving Li Canghai in an awkward predicament.
However, Liancheng's reaction put his mind at ease.
Atop Heaven and Earth Peak, the illusory features of the cloud-sea giant curled into a sneer of utter contempt.
"Once you entered my Tianyuan sect, your life and death were no longer yours to decide. In life you are a disciple of our Dao Sect; in death you are a ghost of our Dao Sect!"
Luo Chen's expression remained unchanged. "This sect master knows. That is why I have come to retrieve it in person. I trust Senior will not take offense!"
Liancheng grinned coldly. "One of you wishes to take my sect's property, and the other wishes to reclaim his own. Do you possess the ability to do so?"
Beneath the moonlight, a speck of fine dust gently drifted up from Liancheng's palm.
Though the dust was minuscule, it carried the weight of a mountain. The moment it appeared, ripples undulated across the entire void.
The cloud giant reached out with immense hands, gently cupping the speck of dust, and then clasped its hands together.
In the next instant!
The cloud giant abruptly opened its hands.
A dark-yellow light curtain snapped open like a vast canopy.
Radiating outward from the mountain summit, it expanded wildly.
In merely a breath, the entirety of Heaven and Earth Peak was enshrouded within the light curtain.
"An array!" Li Canghai blurted out, his eyes gleaming sharply.
Without hesitation, he thrust out a palm.
A tremendous palm force drew upon the world's origin qi, roaring through the air as it struck fiercely against the light curtain.
Yet the reaction upon impact was terrifyingly bizarre.
There was no sound, no shockwave, no reaction at all.
That immense palm strike vanished like a clay ox plunging into the sea, dissipating into nothingness.
"This..." Li Canghai murmured, bewildered and finding it hard to accept.
Luo Chen's brow knitted tightly. Sweeping his gaze up and down Heaven and Earth Peak, his eyes roving across the dark-yellow light barrier, a sense of familiarity welled up within him once more.
This time, his memory provided a clear answer.
Luo Chen exclaimed, "The Heaven-Earth Severing Array!"
Years ago, when he had attended the Alchemy Saint's ascension ceremony atop Heaven and Earth Peak, he had sensed an omnipresent formation that exerted pressure even upon his fourth-order physique.
Back then, someone had told him that this formation was the Tianyuan Dao Sect's mountain-protecting array, laid down over thousands of years—the Heaven-Earth Severing Array.
However, that array had failed to halt Monarch Qixia.
He had not expected that, through Liancheng's hands, it would reappear before them today.
Hearing this, Li Canghai came to a sudden realization. "So it is this array! I thought that after Heaven and Earth Peak collapsed, the Tianyuan Dao Sect would never be able to recreate it. To think your attainment in array dao was this profound, Liancheng."
"If you want what you came for, break this array and face this seat first!"
After activating the formation, Liancheng ignored the two completely. Closing his eyes, he sat cross-legged in meditation just as before.
Such peculiar behavior was baffling.
With formidable enemies before him, he did not launch an attack.
Even with the Tianyuan Dao Sect currently under assault, he turned a blind eye.
To say he feared Li Canghai and Luo Chen joining forces was even less plausible.
One had merely seized a fortunate encounter to stumble into Deity Transformation. The other was still only in the Nascent Soul realm, far from someone to fear.
As an ancestor of the world's foremost sacred land, Liancheng possessed immense pride; how could he possibly be afraid?
If he acted this way, there had to be something far more important than dealing with the two of them.
Luo Chen frowned and turned to Li Canghai.
"Does Senior recognize this array?"
"Since you have spoken its name, of course I recognize it," Li Canghai replied with a faint smile. "Earlier, because its outward manifestation was different and its power had changed, this old man failed to recognize it at first glance. Looking at it now, it is indeed a variant of the Heaven-Earth Severing Array."
He ceased probing blindly and instead drifted upward, hovering just outside the dark-yellow light curtain.
In ancient myth, there was the phrase 'severing earth and heaven,' meaning heaven and earth, gods and mortals each kept to their roles without interfering with one another.
Yet by rearranging the characters, in the hands of the Tianyuan Dao Sect, the power of this Heaven-Earth Severing Array was entirely different.
"According to Demonic Lord Liantian's research, this array is actually not complex. Grounded upon a fifth-order spiritual vein, it isolates the world's origin qi and suppresses living beings. Those beneath the fifth order find it difficult to move, while those above the fifth order cannot manipulate origin qi.
"That is why my strike vanished like a clay ox into the sea, eliciting no reaction whatsoever.
"This array does not possess immense lethal power, but against enemies at or above the Deity Transformation stage, its defensive effect is immediate.
"If we charge inside, we will be stripped of our ability to control worldly origin qi and forced to rely solely on our own dharmic powers. The array's master, however, is entirely unaffected; every move and technique he executes will be augmented by the fifth-order spiritual vein, multiplying his might.
"With one waxing as the other wanes, this array cannot be lightly entered."
After a brief examination, Li Canghai reached this conclusion.
Luo Chen asked urgently, "Can it be broken?"
"Yes!" Li Canghai nodded, but before Luo Chen could relax, he continued, "However, it requires time! The other party prepared this array long ago, which was why he could activate it instantaneously. I suspect that the moment we set foot on the island, he could have triggered it at any second."
Time...
Luo Chen looked grimly toward Heaven and Earth Peak.
There, the giant of cloud and mist continued to uphold the light curtain, sustaining the operation of the Heaven-Earth Severing Array.
Meanwhile, Liancheng sat cross-legged atop the flattened mountain summit. Beneath his feet, dense, crisscrossing lines stretched toward unknown ends, with ribbons of blood-red hue gradually dyeing those patterns.
If nothing went amiss, those patterns were the foundation of yet another array.
The God Descent Array!
This was the accumulated foundation of the world's foremost sacred land!
Three supreme formations operating simultaneously.
Mobilizing the entire sect's might to initiate the Heavenly Vault Continent-Gathering Formation, relying on ten thousand years of heritage to trigger the Heaven-Earth Severing Array, and finally, Ancestor Liancheng personally maintaining the God Descent Array.
If he truly succeeded...
"Luo Chen, there is good news!" Li Canghai observed for a while before suddenly speaking.
"Speak."
Li Canghai said swiftly, "This Heaven-Earth Severing Array was once broken, and Heaven and Earth Peak itself was snapped in two, leaving its foundation unstable. Therefore, the array before us is actually incomplete. Aside from suppressing the manipulation of worldly origin qi, its other powers no longer exist. Thus, I only need to target the local earth qi to cut down the time required by more than half and break this array."
Luo Chen's eyes lit up. "Then I must trouble Senior!"
Li Canghai chuckled. "No matter. Once I unravel this formation, I will have mastered another array to deploy at my cultivation dwelling in the future, providing excellent defense against external foes."
Even as he spoke, he set to work.
One formation flag after another flew from his hands, plunging into the ground below.
One incantation gesture after another was cast from his fingers, embedding itself within the dark-yellow light curtain.
As time slipped by, the dark-yellow barrier began to tremble faintly.
Seeing this, Luo Chen knew Li Canghai's reputation as a grandmaster of the array dao was no exaggeration. In such a short span, he could already dismantle a peerless array that a Deity Transformation sacred land relied upon as its bulwark.
Yet was such a short span truly brief enough?
Atop Heaven and Earth Peak, Liancheng had opened his eyes at some point, coldly watching the scene and letting Li Canghai dismantle the formation unhindered.
Luo Chen could not understand his intent—why did he remain as steady as Mount Tai?
Apprehensive, Luo Chen prepared himself for the inevitable battle the moment the array was breached.
Just to be safe, he bit his fingertip and smeared his purest origin blood across his eyes.
The complete Crimson Pupils and Golden Eyes were unleashed at full power!
At that very moment, Luo Chen's mind shuddered.
Within his field of vision, vibrant spiritual auras converged from four directions, gathering continuously toward a certain spot beneath Heaven and Earth Peak.
That place was...
"The entrance to the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven!" Luo Chen said coldly, a chill settling over him.
"Luo Chen, a breach has already been opened in the array. Give me just a little more time... What did you say?" In the distance, Li Canghai had not yet grasped his meaning.
Wisps of cyan-white flames were already rising from Luo Chen's body.
"The Tianyuan Dao Sect never intended to merely reconverge the Central Plains—that was merely an incidental task! What they truly want is to swallow three entire continents—no, even including the western continent that sank into the sea! They intend to reclaim all the spiritual opportunities once scattered across the Central Plains, using them to remake Heaven and Earth Peak and activate the God Descent Array!"
Li Canghai was incredulous. "Gathering spiritual opportunities across continents is simply impossible for a Deity Transformation expert! That is a method achievable only by a Void Refining True Monarch after condensing an illusory avatar! Liancheng could never do it!"
"No, they can!" Luo Chen shook his head. Under the command of his divine sense, worldly origin qi surged madly into his body, an exceedingly terrifying force poised on the verge of erupting.
Leaving aside whether gathering spiritual opportunities truly required a Void Refining True Monarch, Luo Chen at least knew that Alchemy Saint Chu Yan had long ago devised an alchemical technique called Refining Heavenly Mechanism, capable of capturing minute spiritual opportunities to refine into pills.
And within the Tianyuan Dao Sect, there existed a spirit treasure capable both of suppressing a continent's spiritual opportunities and gathering them.
Years ago, Luo Chen had witnessed Sect Master Mo Shouzhuo wield that very treasure to open the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven.
Its name was the Lanke Chessboard!
Mo Shouzhuo had fallen, but the master of that spirit treasure was still alive: Ke Lianshan, the Chess Saint of the Central Plains.
If he advanced to Deity Transformation and fully stimulated the Lanke Chessboard, the result would be even greater than what Mo Shouzhuo had achieved back then!
At present, Ke Lianshan was nowhere to be seen.
Yet the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven had opened a year ago, with vast numbers of Nascent Soul True Persons entering it. That could not have been a mere grotto-heaven tournament.
"He is breaking through to the Deity Transformation stage inside, while simultaneously manipulating the Lanke Chessboard to draw massive amounts of spiritual opportunities for Heaven and Earth Peak!"
As if to validate Luo Chen's conjecture, a vortex manifested out of thin air at the entrance of the Mirage Dragon Grotto-Heaven, funneling vast quantities of worldly origin qi within.
Meanwhile, atop Heaven and Earth Peak, Liancheng had slowly drifted into the air, merging entirely into the giant formed of clouds and mist.
In that instant, the giant seemed to attain true physical substance.
The giant reached out an enormous hand, grasping toward a nearby low yet straight mountain ridge.
No!
That was no ordinary ridge!
That was the severed upper half of Heaven and Earth Peak from long ago. Having fallen to the earth after being sheared off, a century had reduced it to what appeared as a low ridge.
The massive ridge was hoisted by the giant as if weightless, then pressed back down onto Heaven and Earth Peak.
"Rejoin, Mountain!"
Liancheng's booming voice resounded through the void.
The moment Heaven and Earth Peak reunited, everything was restored to its original state, once again becoming the majestic mountain Luo Chen had beheld years ago.
The next instant!
"God Descend!"
A pillar of light soared straight into the heavens, piercing into the sea of stars.
Within that colossal beam of light, an ultimate, boundless killing intent began seeping into this realm.
All of this took time to describe, but it unfolded in merely a breath.
Li Canghai stared dumbfounded at the sight. Feeling that suffocating killing intent, he felt as insignificant as an ant.
"Luo Chen, run!"
Without hesitation, Li Canghai turned and fled.
The God Descent Array had been triggered; the descent of an upper-realm True Monarch was now an absolute certainty.
To remain here was certain death!
Yet Luo Chen did not follow.
Li Canghai glanced back, only to see Luo Chen enveloped in cyan-white flames, hurtling straight into the gap in the Heaven-Earth Severing Array that had just been pried open.
An ant trying to shake a tree; a mantis attempting to halt a carriage!
At that moment, such thoughts crossed Li Canghai's mind.
He did not linger for a second longer, fleeing Tiandi Island directly and triggering the displacement array he had prepared outside, vanishing into the far distance.
While green hills remain, one need not worry about firewood. He would never stay to die alongside Luo Chen.
Perhaps the few shreds of admiration he held were the only respect he could offer this young friend.
"Fellow Daoist Luo, take care!"
Chapter 1078