Just as Zhang Zhiliang had said, after studying for so long in the Universal Courtyard, Li Fan already understood most of how to construct the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation.
However, as for just how powerful this constructed Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation truly was, Li Fan was not entirely clear, lacking a clear, quantitative grasp of it.
Much like a worker on a weapons assembly line, who might not necessarily have a clear sense of the destructive power of the finished product.
At first, Li Fan had also thought that the main purpose of constructing the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was simply to flag Five Elders Association cultivators who infiltrated the territory of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Yet with Zhang Zhiliang's reminder, Li Fan realized that its true purpose might go far beyond that.
Using the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation to distinguish friend from foe was indeed remarkably effective.
However, if it were only for that purpose, it would be a gross waste of potential.
One had to realize that according to the current construction plan, a Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation would be built in every single province of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
The quantity of materials required was beyond measure.
Even if the number of Five Elders Association spies doubled, the total damage they caused might still not equal the value of those materials.
Not to mention the remote reaches of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, where infiltrating served practically no purpose at all.
Yet without exception, every single one of them was slated to have a Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation built to establish saturated defense.
...
Weeding out and guarding against spies was one aspect, but more importantly, it was to achieve absolute control over their own territory.
Under the coverage of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, the moment any cultivator from the Five Elders Association entered, they would be marked.
In reality, this meant that everything within the formation was under constant surveillance.
When he first encountered the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan had conducted a test.
After learning that liuli fish had gone extinct on Liuli Island, he had first purchased a batch of liuli pearls at the original price, and only then sold the information to the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Afterward, the price of liuli pearls skyrocketed, earning him a tidy profit.
It had also confirmed that the Heavenly Profound Mirror was not omniscient. It could not know what transpired beyond Wanxian Island.
Possessing True Reversion, Li Fan had deliberately avoided the Heavenly Profound Mirror multiple times to ensure his secrets went unnoticed.
But once the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was established...
The Heavenly Profound Mirror would remedy this shortcoming.
None of Li Fan's little maneuvers would be able to escape its prying gaze.
The thought that his every move from now on would be under the constant surveillance of the Heavenly Profound Mirror sent a chill through his heart.
To speculate more malevolently, would the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals establish a specialized agency?
The moment they noticed any unusual behavior from a cultivator, they would dispatch operatives to deal with them.
If so, any destabilizing factor would likely be snuffed out.
"It seems I'll need to reconsider whether to profit off Spirit Mist Grass in the next life.
"Although it can bring overnight riches, the ripple effects and upheavals brought by a war are simply too great. Especially this Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation—once construction is finished, every step I take will be fraught with difficulty, and keeping my secrets safe will become nearly impossible."
Thinking up to this point, for the first time in this life, Li Fan felt as though he had shot himself in the foot.
"No wonder the Alliance's resolve to build the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was so fierce this time. To ensure enough formation builders, they even brought back someone like me who had already been eliminated...
"Still, the widespread rollout of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation in this life is already an irresistible trend; it can no longer be stopped. Going forward, I must be even more cautious and never expose anything unusual about myself.
"If worst comes to worst, I'll trigger True Reversion immediately. In any case, I've already broken through to the Golden Core stage, and I can preserve my cultivation after turning illusory anyway."
Sighing softly to himself, Li Fan continued reading the jade slip left by Zhang Zhiliang.
The moment Zhang Zhiliang had laid eyes on the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, he had instantly grasped its sheer power and felt terror.
At the same time, he had also found inspiration.
Combining formations with the Heavenly Profound Mirror was indeed feasible.
Claiming the Heavenly Profound Mirror for oneself was obviously pure nonsense.
In that case, what extraordinary treasure could serve as a subordinate substitute for the Heavenly Profound Mirror to act as the core of the Infinite Method?
After extensive searching, Zhang Zhiliang found the answer.
A secondary body of the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
If the newborn mirror surfaces were clones newly created by the Heavenly Profound Mirror,
then a secondary body was an entirely new offspring that the Heavenly Profound Mirror occasionally produced by chance.
As an avatar of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, a newborn mirror surface maintained constant contact with the main body.
A secondary body, on the other hand, could be regarded as a completely independent, newly born entity.
From the moment of its birth, it severed all connection to the Heavenly Profound Mirror, while inheriting a portion of its traits.
As a subordinate substitute for the Heavenly Profound Mirror, nothing could be more suitable.
The Heavenly Profound Mirror was out of reach, but its secondary bodies were something one could scheme for.
Over the long ages, several dozen secondary bodies had been birthed by the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Their actual capabilities varied in strength, and they were often bestowed upon cultivators who had rendered outstanding service to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
For example, there was a type of secondary body called the Profound Azure Mirror.
The Profound Azure Mirror copied and stored all knowledge and information that had existed within the Heavenly Profound Mirror prior to its detachment.
Although new information generated by the Heavenly Profound Mirror after its birth could not be synchronized, it was still all-encompassing—a vast repository of knowledge that a cultivator could not exhaust in a lifetime.
In Zhang Zhiliang's conjecture, there had to be one or even several secondary bodies that inherited the Heavenly Profound Mirror's terrifying computational power.
So long as one obtained such a treasure, the birth of the true Infinite Method would not be far off.
Even as a second-best option, virtually any secondary body would suffice to sustain the embryonic form of the Infinite Method.
...
"A secondary body of the Heavenly Profound Mirror...
"With a stock of several dozen out there, if I make discreet inquiries, it might not be entirely out of reach."
Li Fan's eyes flickered slightly.
After this came Zhang Zhiliang's specific insights into the Infinite Method.
They were indeed far more profound than before.
The procedures for the formation's self-evolution had been optimized, greatly increasing its efficiency.
Li Fan cultivated while reviewing the construction of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation and continuing to study the Infinite Method.
Time slipped quietly by, and soon the day of Li Fan's group assessment arrived.
Guided by Ji Hongdao, Li Fan was teleported into a vast, empty space.
A black storage ring settled into the palm of his hand, packed full of array-building materials.
Not far off, the array hub enclosing the newborn mirror surface floated quietly in midair.
At the same time, a red indicator abruptly appeared overhead, marking the examination time.
Li Fan drew a deep breath, composed his mind, took out the materials from the storage ring, and began setting up his formation.
Aided by the secret technique of Spirit Unity with Dao Transformation, Li Fan's formation-laying technique was remarkably precise.
His speed was astonishingly rapid. After an initial period of getting accustomed to it, his efficiency improved by leaps and bounds.
In just two and a half days, he completed the construction of the formation's central core area.
Next came embedding the array hub perfectly into the core formation area.
At this step, however, Li Fan ran into a problem.
Chapter 313