Unlike the usual tests, this was quite different.
Because the array hubs of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation were exceedingly rare, it was impossible to transfer over a thousand of them to Tianyu Province merely for a single exam.
As a result, the practical array-deployment assessment was not conducted by all formation disciples at the same time. Instead, they were divided into groups of fifty to be tested group by group in succession.
The order in which they took the exam was determined by their overall scores on the routine tests.
Li Fan was ranked slightly above average, so he would not have to wait too long.
The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was grand in scale. No matter how much of a genius one might be, fully constructing it would take several years.
After all, this was merely a test to assess everyone's array-formation skills; they could not truly squander that much time.
Hence, the specific rule was a seven-day limit to construct as much of the formation's central core structure as possible.
The final rankings would be decided by the actual quality of the deployed formations.
Li Fan was placed in the sixth group, which meant by a conservative estimate, his turn would not come for more than forty days.
During the examination period, leaving the grounds remained strictly prohibited.
Only disciples who had finished the exam were permitted to leave the Universal Courtyard to unwind in Tianyu City.
Even so, given past precedents, they were still forbidden from leaving Tianyu City itself.
While Li Fan waited, he began studying the small black box Zhang Zhiliang had given him.
He had attempted to crack it before.
Back then, however, Zhang Zhiliang was not yet dead, and an unknown restriction beyond the sealing formation seemed to enshroud the box. Li Fan had tried several times without success and temporarily put it aside.
Now that Zhang Zhiliang had perished, Li Fan noticed that the restriction had vanished on its own.
It was time to open Zhang Zhiliang's legacy.
Without much effort, as a thin silver line lit up across the small black box, Li Fan dispelled the sealing formation.
The contents within revealed themselves, looking no different from what they had been in his twelfth life.
There was the encrypted jade slip recording the Infinite Method, the Mind Ape incense, the spirit testing orb, the Posthumous Bequest, and an ordinary jade slip containing Zhang Zhiliang's final words.
Li Fan first read through Zhang Zhiliang's dying message.
A moment later, filled with emotion, he set down the jade slip.
In his message, Zhang Zhiliang briefly explained how, by chance several years ago, he had learned that the Crimson Flame was about to descend upon the Congyun Sea.
In order to ascend to the Dao Integration realm, he had embarked on a desperate gamble.
If Li Fan was able to read the message in the jade slip, it meant he had failed to integrate with the Dao and his life and cultivation had both been extinguished.
Zhang Zhiliang's tone was full of regret, yet he also stated that he had no remorse.
In the great battle of Tianling Province, the cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association had slaughtered one another, falling one after another like ants.
Zhang Zhiliang had seen several cultivators who were close friends of his die gruesome deaths right before his eyes.
The entire sky had been blanketed by the celestial anomalies of dying cultivators.
Often, before one could clearly witness the death of the first, it was obscured by the anomaly of the next fallen cultivator.
In that war, Zhang Zhiliang's pride as a Nascent Soul formation master had been thoroughly crushed to powder.
Let alone Nascent Soul cultivators, even Soul Formation cultivators could only drift with the tide in that war, their lives left entirely to fate.
"Beneath Dao Integration, all are merely ants."
At the same time this realization dawned upon Zhang Zhiliang, a boundless ambition for Dao Integration inevitably took root in his heart.
Having survived by sheer luck and returned to the Congyun Sea, his brush with death led to an epiphany, allowing him to advance to the Soul Formation realm.
And now that a godsend of an opportunity had presented itself, how could he possibly give it up?
If he failed, death was the only outcome, and he had long been prepared for it.
Fearing only that the lifelong culmination of his learning, the Infinite Method, would vanish forever, he had left behind his legacy in advance.
...
Because most of his savings had been spent on crafting the array coronet, the contribution points left in the Posthumous Bequest for this lifetime were somewhat less than before, totaling only a little over two hundred thousand.
To Li Fan now, it was barely better than nothing.
What Li Fan cared about more was how Zhang Zhiliang's Infinite Method at the Soul Formation realm differed from when he was at the Nascent Soul realm.
Lighting the Mind Ape incense, Li Fan picked up the encrypted jade slip with golden inlays at its four corners and studied it carefully.
After reaching the Golden Core realm, the strength of his divine sense had surged.
This time, without any dizziness, Li Fan quickly skimmed through the contents of the jade slip.
He was already intimately familiar with the original contents of the Infinite Method.
Comparing it now to this new version, he soon noticed the differences—or rather, the improvements.
The core concept of the Infinite Method was for a formation to continuously evolve on its own, remaining in a perpetual state of growth.
The most critical missing piece was a central core capable of providing the computational power to support the formation's infinite evolution.
In his twelfth life, constrained by the limited horizons of the Nascent Soul realm, Zhang Zhiliang had not explicitly stated any potential candidates for this core.
This time, however, Zhang Zhiliang stated bluntly that the most suitable candidate to serve as the central core for the Infinite Method was none other than the supreme treasure of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals: the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Even when countless cultivators in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals used the Heavenly Profound Mirror at the exact same moment, it never lagged in the slightest.
Not to mention that the Heavenly Profound Mirror was simultaneously responsible for regulating commodity prices, controlling the flow of information, and managing all kinds of affairs.
From this, one could see the unfathomably terrifying heights its data-processing capability had reached.
Moreover, the Heavenly Profound Mirror possessed its own sentience, making it a perfect fit for the Infinite Method.
Previously, owing to its unique standing within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, Zhang Zhiliang had never even considered thinking along these lines.
Yet after the great battle of Tianling Province, the sudden emergence of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation had provided him with inspiration.
"The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation is a monumental attempt to combine the Heavenly Profound Mirror's inherent abilities with array formations.
"Everyone considers this attempt earth-shattering, but in my view, it remains somewhat conservative.
"Still, the Heavenly Profound Mirror is simply too vital. Should anything go wrong, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals would inevitably plunge into violent upheaval. Being cautious is only natural.
"Even so, with newborn mirror surfaces of the Heavenly Profound Mirror serving as array hubs, the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation undergoes a qualitative transformation compared to every other formation in the world.
"Receiving closed-door training in Tianyu Province, you may already have some understanding of how to build it.
"Yet you may not truly comprehend the actual might of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation.
"Back when the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation made its debut in Jiushan Province, I went in person to experience it.
"When I saw those pillars of light piercing heaven and earth illuminate, when the faint sensation of being surveilled and threatened washed over every inch of me, and when the Heavenly Profound Mirror's fluctuations swept across my body...
"A shudder rising from the depths of my soul came unbidden.
"Ji Hongdao and the others are true geniuses, and they have created a true monster.
"Just imagine: when formation after formation is completed, covering every corner of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' territory, what will happen?
"Heavenly Profound locks all spirits; nothing under heaven can escape. Everything that occurs in the mortal world, every slight stir of the wind or rustle of grass, will fall into the sight of the Heavenly Profound Mirror without the slightest discrepancy.
"Before the Heavenly Profound Mirror, the cultivators of the world will no longer have any secrets."
...
Reading up to this point, Li Fan could not help but shudder in horror.
Chapter 312