"Due to the unique nature of divine souls, array hub devices can be mass-produced."
"However, the activation of every single array hub within the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation requires an array master to guide it personally. Furthermore, to ensure the formation's accuracy, an array master must periodically adjust and calibrate it."
"And that is precisely why you have been brought here for intensive training."
A small golden sphere suddenly appeared in Ji Hongdao's hand—the very object that had been distributed to everyone earlier alongside their robes.
"This is a Soul-Gathering Pearl, crafted from Yin Spirit Jade. True to its name, it serves to collect and imprison divine souls."
"Do you see the golden light inside?"
"Those are all the divine souls of Five Elders Association cultivators we have captured!"
As Ji Hongdao spoke these words, the expressions of the gathered cultivators shifted dramatically.
From the soul-extraction demonstration just moments ago, they knew that the golden light within the souls of Five Elders Association cultivators was the mark of a soul covenant.
Yet in each cultivator's soul, that golden shimmer accounted for only a sliver.
To condense so much light that it seemed almost solid, how many souls had been required? Thousands? Tens of thousands? The more they thought about it, the more horrified they became.
Some of these young talents of the array dao had immersed themselves in research from the day they began cultivating, rarely brushing against such a ruthless side of the cultivation world.
At this moment, their faces turned pale, hearts pounding in unease.
Ji Hongdao said in a low, heavy voice, "What? Frightened? Think we are too cruel?"
"You should realize that in the battle of Tianling Province alone, the number of Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals cultivators who perished was a hundred, a thousand times greater than the souls trapped in the Soul-Gathering Pearls in your hands!"
"To say nothing of the countless wars, large and small, that have broken out over thousands of years." He added, "Mercy to an enemy is true cruelty."
Ji Hongdao cast a deep, searching look over the young cultivators, letting his point sink in before abandoning the topic.
Turning back, he resumed explaining the golden pearl.
"What you must do is observe and interact with these souls up close, time and time again, to perceive the traces of the soul covenant."
"Ultimately, you must reach the point where you can discern the difference without relying on any external aid."
"Only then will you be capable of adjusting and calibrating the array hubs when constructing the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation."
"This process of comprehension consumes souls. You had best achieve it before the souls inside your Soul-Gathering Pearls are exhausted."
"Otherwise..."
Ji Hongdao's voice turned icy. "We will deem you unfit to build the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation. Not only will you be expelled from the Cosmos Courtyard, but we will also bill your recommenders for the wasted training expenses."
At these words, everyone's expression darkened.
Failing to meet expectations and being thrown out in disgrace was not just a matter of losing face. It would likely ruin their future, forever severing them from the path of arrays. The recommended talents could not help but feel a crushing weight of pressure.
"However, rest assured. To lower the difficulty for you, we have already processed the souls of these Five Elders Association cultivators using special methods."
"The vast majority of their memories have been wiped clean."
"With pure soul bodies, you will not have to face the onslaught of memories and emotions, making them far easier to comprehend."
"So long as you aren't useless deadwood here merely to pad your credentials, none of you should have trouble." Ji Hongdao shifted his tone at the end, offering a word of encouragement to the young talents.
Finally, he outlined their study schedule for the foreseeable future.
During the day, the cultivators would follow Ji Hongdao to study the construction of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation. At night, each would return to their private courtyard to contemplate the soul covenant marks.
Every month, an assessment would be held to inspect their progress.
And so, Li Fan began his rigorous routine of advanced study in the Cosmos Courtyard.
The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation truly lived up to the high hopes the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals pinned upon it to turn the tides of the war.
It was unfathomably profound and intricate.
The outer structure of the formation alone comprised a staggering thirty-six million archetypal patterns.
Each archetype was assembled from numerous and varied basic arrays. Even the simplest among them was a composite of tens of thousands of distinct array units.
Mastering the complete structure of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was no simple task, even for these prodigies handpicked from every province.
Yet Li Fan had the aid of the secret art Spirit Unity with Dao Transformation.
Everything he studied and saw, everything he did and thought, was recorded without the slightest error inside the blue Dao Transformation Stone in his sea of consciousness.
He could review it anytime, cross-referencing past and present.
Li Fan's mastery over the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation progressed by leaps and bounds, placing him among the very best of the talents.
In stark contrast, however, stood his perception of the soul covenant.
By the time roughly a quarter of the golden light in his Soul-Gathering Pearl had been spent, Li Fan was still where he had started, having made virtually no progress at all.
Yet Li Fan let nature take its course, unbothered by pressure.
Threats of expulsion from Tianyu Province or collecting fees from one's recommender held no sway over him.
Barring any accidents, by that time Zhang Zhiliang would likely have already returned his Dao to heaven.
Thus, Li Fan maintained an untroubled heart, taking his time to contemplate at his own pace, neither proud nor impatient.
Time slipped quietly by.
On this day, Li Fan extracted another soul from the pearl, just about to begin his contemplation.
Suddenly, two vast torrents of cultivation surged within his body, rushing forth like an endless, roaring river. In an instant, they filled half of his third Tribulation Body.
What was more, the feedback of cultivation continued to mount without pause.
A spark of delight rose in Li Fan's heart. Sensing it, he thought, 'Did both Ye Feipeng and Xiao Heng break through to the Golden Core realm?'
Subconsciously, he moved to activate Formless Killing Intent to see what was happening on their side.
Yet the distance was too vast, rendering him unable to discern what had transpired with the two. This left Li Fan feeling somewhat uncomfortable and unaccustomed.
'Judging by the sheer volume of cultivation feedback, they must have achieved at least a Three-Dharma Golden Core.'
'What a shame that I couldn't witness such a magnificent spectacle.'
'It seems I need to find a way to upgrade my Formless Killing Intent.'
Settling the quiet joy in his heart, Li Fan's divine sense expertly surged into the blank soul in his hands.
It was as though he had entered a boundless, vast expanse of pristine white. Li Fan drifted through it, attempting to locate any trace of the golden soul covenant.
Yet, just like before, he found nothing.
The mark of the soul covenant was buried deep within the soul, like a single droplet merged into the boundless ocean, virtually impossible to detect.
Violently drawing out a soul to observe it was akin to boiling the sea to force the covenant's mark to the surface. Forcibly extracting a soul was no different from murder; such a method could never be used for large-scale identification.
The only viable path was to project divine sense into the soul body, interacting with it intimately to perceive the presence of the soul covenant's imprint.
Chapter 292