“Bang!”
“Bang!”
On the square, explosions rang out without pause.
Su Xiaomei and Xiao Heng sparred using only the palm techniques they had just comprehended, fighting to a standstill in an evenly matched deadlock.
Under Heavenly Sight and Earthly Hearing, Li Fan closely savored their techniques.
Combining their moves with his own prior insights from the Dao charm, he suddenly felt as though the clouds had parted and everything had become clear.
*So it can be interpreted like this!*
Although Li Fan possessed merely mediocre aptitude and could not directly comprehend a divine ability from the Dao charm,
Su Xiaomei and Xiao Heng were also in early Foundation Establishment, and Li Fan could easily understand the palm techniques they displayed.
If one could not solve the problem on their own, could they not still copy the work?
He would first draw upon their realizations to master the palm divine ability. Afterward, he could gradually integrate his own insights, eventually developing a palm strike entirely his own.
As he observed the duel, Li Fan noticed the differences between their techniques.
Though both had derived their styles from observing the same strand of Dao charm,
the conception behind Xiao Heng’s technique was ethereal and otherworldly, as elusive and unfathomable as the Great Dao itself.
Su Xiaomei’s technique, on the other hand, held a trace of peerless, domineering resolve.
It was as if with one strike of her palm, all creation under heaven and earth must submit.
Neither could be judged superior to the other.
One could only say that the Ocean-Overturning Palm from back then was simply too astonishing, possessing many facets within a single strike.
Their palm techniques were both their own personal insights and manifestations of the intents inherently contained within that Ocean-Overturning Palm.
……
Xiao Heng and Su Xiaomei’s duel lasted an entire day.
It only came to an end when Li Fan finally called a halt.
“Not bad. It seems both of you have gained a great deal. However, remember never to become complacent.
“You are still far from fully comprehending this strand of Dao charm.
“From here on out, cultivate, comprehend, and spar with each other regularly.”
Li Fan instructed them, and Xiao Heng and Su Xiaomei both nodded in agreement.
With the assistance of these two prodigies, Li Fan’s comprehension of the Ocean-Overturning Palm grew day by day.
Unfortunately, as time passed, both Xiao Heng and Su Xiaomei’s respective palm techniques drew close to mastery,
while Li Fan felt that he was always lacking something.
The palm strike he executed still lingered purely within the realm of martial forms,
falling far short of rising to the level of a divine ability.
Yet Li Fan was not in a hurry.
He simply refined and enhanced the palm technique with patience.
Two months later.
In the subterranean seclusion chamber.
As fine silver lines lit up across the small black box,
the sealing formation upon it was finally broken.
The several items inside instantly appeared before the eyes of Li Fan’s clone.
One of them was somewhat familiar to Li Fan.
It was an encrypted jade slip with four corners inlaid with gold.
However, the content of this jade slip certainly was not He Zhenghao’s posthumous work, *Mountains and Rivers Hundred Meridians Array Chart*.
He immersed his divine sense within it to read the contents.
Before long, Li Fan felt dizzy and lightheaded, and his spiritual consciousness retreated from the jade slip.
Pressing his temples to soothe the stinging ache in his divine sense,
an excited gleam appeared in Li Fan’s eyes.
The contents recorded in this jade slip were none other than the lifelong learning of Zhang Zhiliang, the foremost formation master of the Congyun Sea.
The Infinite Method.
The formation insights of both He Zhenghao and Zhang Zhiliang had now fallen into Li Fan’s hands.
It seemed his clone would not be idle for a long time to come.
With devoted research, Li Fan’s path in the Dao of formations was bound to have a bright future.
Li Fan was thoroughly looking forward to seeing He Zhenghao’s reaction when they sat down to discuss the Dao in the next lifetime.
Calming his emotions, Li Fan inspected the remaining items.
A small white pouch filled with silver incense.
This was the very incense Li Fan had frequently used back when he was studying diligently under Zhang Zhiliang to relieve mental fatigue.
A small black orb.
A spirit testing orb used to assess one’s level in formations.
A sheet of golden foil. An ordinary jade slip.
Li Fan first read through the jade slip.
Inside were, naturally, Zhang Zhiliang’s final words.
Zhang Zhiliang made no mention of the various Soul Formation cultivators on Wanxian Island plotting against Crimson Flame.
He merely introduced his Infinite Method to Li Fan, along with the purpose of that golden foil.
Zhang Zhiliang’s Infinite Method was the culmination of his life’s blood and devotion.
Back then, hundreds of thousands of array coronets were unleashed all at once, allowing someone at the Nascent Soul realm to sway the contest between Soul Formation and Dao Integration experts—a scene that had left a deep impression on Li Fan.
Yet, according to Zhang Zhiliang’s posthumous words, the Infinite Method he had cultivated was still far from reaching true mastery.
When lecturing, Zhang Zhiliang had once said that so-called formations were merely standardized, formulated laws.
While standardization undeniably made the application of laws simple and swift, it also unavoidably introduced a fatal flaw.
Every formation under heaven could be broken.
Once a formation was laid down, its standardized structure became fixed.
Anyone proficient in formations could discern its weaknesses and, given enough time, unravel it.
Formations such as the Seven-Colored Immortal-Felling Formation or the All-Heaven Star Array might boast infinite might,
but if a formation master truly wished to break them, it was merely a matter of time.
What Zhang Zhiliang sought was a formation that could never be broken.
In his view, the reason a formation could be broken was that once deployed, it ceased to change.
Without change, no matter how complex or vast it was, the day would come when it was deciphered.
However, if a formation could continually evolve on its own, remaining in a state of perpetual growth at every moment,
and if its rate of growth and adaptation could outpace the deciphering speed of the world’s greatest formation masters,
then that formation would be one that could never be broken.
This was Zhang Zhiliang’s lifelong aspiration:
the Infinite Method.
Unfortunately, though Zhang Zhiliang’s skill in formations was superlative,
he was still far from creating the true Infinite Method.
The most crucial missing piece was a core.
A central core capable of providing the computational power to sustain the formation’s endless evolution.
Zhang Zhiliang had attempted to use all manner of things as this core:
wonders of heaven and earth, cultivators’ consciousnesses, ancient magical treasures…
Yet without exception, every attempt had failed.
The computational demands the Infinite Method placed on the core were simply too terrifying, exceeding even the upper limits of Zhang Zhiliang’s comprehension.
Beyond computational requirements, this core also indispensably required its own sentience.
Infinite evolution held countless possible directions.
If it relied solely on brute-force exhaustion of possibilities, the speed of evolution would be drastically reduced.
Only if the core possessed its own sentience—constantly coordinating computational resources, steadily adjusting toward optimal evolutionary paths,
and even making corresponding optimizations based on how a formation master attempted to crack it—
could the Infinite Method truly be considered the genuine Infinite Method.
Of course, Zhang Zhiliang held no expectation that Li Fan could realize the Infinite Method.
All he hoped was that Li Fan would inherit his current mantle
and pass it down from generation to generation,
in hopes that one day a true genius of the Dao of formations would emerge to fulfill the grand aspiration of the Infinite Method.
As for that sheet of golden foil, it was meant to encourage Li Fan’s studies in the Dao of formations.
Its name was the Posthumous Bequest.
Essentially, it was an inheritance containing an immense number of contribution points.
Only after a cultivator died and certain conditions were met could it be claimed.
And this Posthumous Bequest left behind by Zhang Zhiliang contained a staggering four hundred thousand contribution points.
It was the accumulation of Zhang Zhiliang’s entire lifetime.
It could be claimed in ten separate installments.
The condition for each claim was passing a test of formation knowledge administered by the spirit testing orb.
There were ten tiers of trials in total.
If one truly inherited Zhang Zhiliang’s Infinite Method, all four hundred thousand contribution points could be taken into their pocket.
Yet if one could not even pass the very first tier of the trial, they could only gaze longingly upon a mountain of treasures without being able to take a single coin.
Chapter 153