Anchor Year 57: Han Wuyou broke through to the late Foundation Establishment stage.
Anchor Year 58: The ten-year deadline arrived.
The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals dispatched a host of black-robed cultivators, launching a purge across the world of all rogue cultivators who had not joined the Alliance.
The rogue cultivators of the world rose up in resistance, but they collapsed at the first blow.
Part of this was due to their inherently weak combat strength.
Yet the prowess the black-robed cultivators displayed in these battles was truly not to be underestimated.
Though their cultivation was not exceedingly high—mostly in the Nascent Soul realm—they were terrifying in actual combat. They could take on more than a dozen cultivators of the same realm simultaneously without being disadvantaged.
Furthermore, their methods were ruthless, never leaving anyone alive.
No matter where the rogue cultivators hid, the black-robed cultivators could always pinpoint their exact locations, leaving them nowhere to flee.
For a time, rivers of blood flowed across the world.
After barely repelling a squad of black-robed cultivators, the Li Realm group conferred and ultimately chose to join the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
After practicing the secret technique Covering the Sky with One Hand, which they had previously found in the ruins of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect, and through Shuo Feng's maneuvering, they successfully passed the trial of the White Jade Heart-Interrogation Platform.
For the time being, they lay low within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Anchor Year 60: The fighting ceased.
Within the territory of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, not a single rogue cultivator remained.
Anchor Year 61: The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals issued a decree.
"Maintaining the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation is everyone's responsibility."
All cultivators within the Alliance were required to practice a technique named the Mending the Heavens Record.
Although cultivating this technique did not increase one's own cultivation, it generated corresponding Heaven-Bestowed Points in the Heavenly Profound Mirror based on one's progress.
Just like contribution points, Heaven-Bestowed Points could be exchanged for various cultivation techniques and resources.
Thus, despite widespread grumbling, the vast majority of cultivators had no choice but to cultivate the Mending the Heavens Record as required.
Anchor Year 63: Han Wuyou broke through to the Golden Core stage.
That same year, during a period of closed-door meditation, he comprehended the Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture from the Formation-Breaking Jade Platter.
Anchor Year 65: Rumors began to circulate that a new barrier seemed to have appeared between heaven and earth; the cultivation gained from practicing was no longer entirely one's own.
Instead, a small portion of it vanished without a trace, going to parts unknown.
The rumors circulated for only a short while before being suppressed.
The Li Realm group held a secret gathering. After comparing notes and verifying with one another, they confirmed the truth of the news.
Xiao Heng cautioned everyone not to make a fuss.
The day after the gathering, the Li Realm group received a visit and a warning from a squad of black-robed cultivators.
Anchor Year 69: The Five Elders Association suddenly launched a surprise attack on Bafang Province.
This time, they seemed to have devised a method to temporarily shield themselves from the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation's tracking.
Sweeping forward irresistibly, they captured more than half of Bafang Province's territory within a single day.
Just then, tens of thousands of densely packed black-robed cultivators descended and engaged in a bloody clash with the Five Elders Association.
The overall strength of the Five Elders Association's elite forces was a cut above the black-robed cultivators.
Yet the black-robed cultivators fought with fearless disregard for death, and their numbers seemed endless. As soon as one wave fell, another immediately took its place.
Ultimately, after suffering heavy casualties, the Five Elders Association was forced to retreat.
After this battle, cultivators across the world learned the identity of these black-robed cultivators:
Heavenly Sorcerers.
Anchor Year 71: More information regarding the Heavenly Sorcerers was revealed.
Unlike the existing cultivation system, Heavenly Sorcerers had no need to cultivate. As long as they gained the approval of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, they could draw upon its authority to mobilize the energy encompassed by the Spirit-Locking Formation in battle.
At present, the highest rank of Heavenly Sorcerer possessed strength equivalent to a Nascent Soul cultivator.
Anchor Year 72: A bizarre tale shook the world.
Tang Fangsheng, a Golden Core cultivator, accidentally killed over a hundred mortals in Chilong City during a fight with someone.
One mortal named Shi Qing miraculously survived.
However, his entire family suffered tragic deaths.
Shi Qing was utterly grief-stricken and enraged.
In his despair, he prayed to the heavens.
For reasons unknown, he received the approval of the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation and became a Heavenly Sorcerer.
In an instant, he acquired the combat strength of the Nascent Soul stage and brutally slaughtered his enemy, Tang Fangsheng, on the spot.
A century of bitter cultivation by a cultivator was inferior to a single bow from a mortal.
Cultivators across the world were thrown into panic.
Anchor Year 75: Heavenly Sorcerers equivalent to the Soul Formation stage emerged.
At the same time, cultivators discovered that their own cultivation progress was becoming increasingly slow.
Anchor Year 80: The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals broke up a major conspiracy attempting to destroy the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, executing over a hundred cultivators.
Anchor Year 85: From the Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture, Han Wuyou comprehended a technique: the Crucible Myriad Forms Technique.
He read through the Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture, examining the vast, sea-like array of different creatures recorded within it.
Yet he faintly discovered that all living things shared something in common.
Heaven and earth were like a crucible, melting and smelting creatures that were perhaps once a single entity into the myriad forms of the mortal world.
By practicing this technique, one could freely transform among these myriad forms.
So long as one mastered their physiological structure, one could take on the form of plants or beasts.
Ordinary cultivators could hardly distinguish the false from the genuine.
Overjoyed, Han Wuyou broke through to the mid Golden Core stage.
Anchor Year 86: The number of Heavenly Sorcerers grew steadily.
Anchor Year 90: An anomaly appeared in the heavens.
Blood rained across the provinces, and wails echoed through heaven and earth, unabated for months.
Anchor Year 91: A Heavenly Sorcerer possessing Dao Integration cultivation stepped in, thoroughly suppressing everyone involved in an attempt to subvert the Spirit-Locking Formation.
Anchor Year 101: The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals established explicit quota requirements for cultivators practicing the Mending the Heavens Record.
Anchor Year 139: Han Wuyou received a secret message from Xiao Heng. After arriving at a stronghold thirty thousand zhang underground, Han Wuyou learned that in recent years, under the banner of overthrowing the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation, Immortal Restoration had gathered a large number of like-minded cultivators.
At the same time, Han Wuyou learned an even more shocking piece of news:
Over the course of a century, countless cultivators had vanished mysteriously, with neither their living bodies nor their corpses ever found.
Substantial evidence indicated that this was the handiwork of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Han Wuyou learned an upgraded version of the Covering the Sky with One Hand technique, which could interfere with the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation's surveillance within a certain radius.
Anchor Year 150: News came that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association were about to merge.
The world was shocked.
Anchor Year 159: The Xuanhuang Realm was unified.
The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association were collectively named the Heavenly Alliance.
A host of Heavenly Sorcerers began heading into the former territory of the Five Elders Association to construct the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation.
Anchor Year 160: Han Wuyou broke through to the late Golden Core stage.
Anchor Year 163: During the construction of the Spirit-Locking Formation, Immortal Restoration attempted to ambush and kill the formation masters to seize the structural blueprints of the Spirit-Locking Formation.
However, the attempt ended in failure, and seventy-eight people died gruesome deaths.
Afterward came a frenzied purge by the Heavenly Alliance.
Many innocent cultivators perished horribly.
Immortal Restoration went entirely into dormancy.
Anchor Year 171: Across the entirety of the Xuanhuang Realm, construction of the Spirit-Locking Formation was completed.
From then on, the sky took on a permanent green hue.
And the Xuanhuang Realm entered a period of calm that lasted nearly a century.
The number of Heavenly Sorcerers grew ever larger, while the cultivation speed of cultivators grew slower and slower.
Moreover, their overall numbers steadily decreased year by year.
Beneath the seemingly tranquil surface of the Xuanhuang Realm, dark currents surged.
Anchor Year 260: Han Wuyou broke through to the Nascent Soul stage.
Anchor Year 263: A Proclamation to the Cultivators of the World spread across all corners of the Xuanhuang Realm overnight, thoroughly raising the curtain on the war between the cultivators and the Spirit-Locking Formation.
Chapter 415