Although Li Fan did not truly know what this Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation was, it was not hard to deduce that the man was referring to the Profound Net that had recently revealed its formidable power on the Tianling Province battlefield.
Keeping his composure, Li Fan probed, "According to our projections, even with the aid of the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation, the Five Elders Association shouldn't be retreating step by step and showing complete decline, should it?"
The cultivator sighed. "We truly miscalculated this time. No one expected the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals to reproduce this ancient formation so quickly.
"Moreover, it appears even more domineering than in the historical records."
A trace of helplessness colored his voice. "Our Five Elders Association's countermeasures are not yet fully prepared, which has left our situation on the Tianling Province battlefield rather dire for the moment.
"That is why we urgently need a way to weaken their formation."
Li Fan did not answer right away. Instead, he tapped his fingers rhythmically on the tabletop, appearing lost in deep thought.
"Even with our strength, obtaining the formation diagram of the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation would require an immense price," Li Fan said slowly after a long pause, looking thoroughly hesitant. "Certain fellow daoists who have already infiltrated the depths of the Alliance might even have to sacrifice their lives for it.
"And even then, success cannot be guaranteed..."
Seeing that there was hope, the Five Elders Association cultivator struck while the iron was hot. "Fellow Daoist Zhou, rest assured! As long as you can procure the formation diagram, everything is negotiable!"
Li Fan remained noncommittal.
After pondering a moment, he said in a low voice, "This matter is of great consequence; I cannot make a unilateral decision. How about this: three days from now, I will return here to give you my answer."
Though anxious, the cultivator knew the man had a point and could only nod reluctantly.
"By the way, let us meet somewhere else next time. In these troubled times, caution is warranted." With that, he gave Li Fan the location of another island.
Li Fan cupped his hands in farewell and flew off, returning to Congyun Immortal City.
"Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock, Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing.
"Ancient times, Heavenly Profound Mirror...
"Could it be the Profound Heaven Sect?"
Inside his quiet cultivation chamber, Li Fan's eyes flickered in thought.
"The sight of tens of thousands of cultivators plummeting from the sky in an instant feels somewhat familiar...
"Right, Jiushan Province!"
The nine mountain ranges spanning Jiushan Province also possessed the peculiar trait of preventing cultivators from flying over them.
In his previous life, when Li Fan had traveled to Jiushan Province to make purchases at the Wanfa Merchant Guild, he had witnessed several headstrong cultivators plunge to their deaths after attempting to defy the ban.
"Could there really be some connection between them?"
Li Fan began searching his memories for the various records he had read in the past.
Suddenly, a piece of information he had previously overlooked caught his attention.
Legend had it that the nine massive mountains in Jiushan Province were formed from the meridians of an ancient strange beast after its death.
The nine mountains were named Tianchang, Tianduan, Tianxu, Tiancu, Tianjie, Tiandai, Tianlao, Tiandong, and Tianxi.
Though seemingly distinct, the nine mountains were united in substance, faintly forming a natural array. This caused the space in Jiushan Province to be unstable, rendering even teleportation formations unusable.
...
These were details Li Fan had known long ago.
Back then, he had possessed no tangible concept of what ancient beasts were truly like.
He had merely thought that a dead beast's meridians turning into mountains suited the grandeur of ancient mythology, with nothing particularly remarkable about it.
Yet after personally visiting the beasts' sacred ground of Mount Nanming within the Fallen Immortal Realm and witnessing so many notorious beasts that had terrorized antiquity, Li Fan finally noticed something amiss about the myth.
For no other reason than this:
If the myth was true, that strange beast's size had been absurdly colossal.
Jiushan Province spanned vast territory; in his previous life, Li Fan's round trip had taken more than half a year.
If merely its internal meridians could stretch across an entire province, just what kind of gargantuan existence had this beast been while alive?
By comparison, the likes of Chi Jiutou, Zi Wushou, and the Azure Divine Dragon were probably no larger than ants.
While body size did not necessarily correlate directly with strength, claiming that a beast whose corpse formed nine mountains was weak was something Li Fan would never believe.
"Perhaps from this unknown beast, I can trace the origins of the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation."
Even from the name alone, Li Fan was almost certain the formation was inextricably tied to the ancient Profound Heaven Sect.
Yet nothing was absolute; it could simply be a pure coincidence.
There was no harm in being thorough.
Li Fan used "strange beast whose body became Jiushan Province" as keywords to search for relevant information within the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
So much time had passed that definitive verification was impossible.
Opinions varied, and no concrete answer existed.
Li Fan browsed through them one by one, yet none appeared reliable.
Just as he was about to give up in frustration, a painting titled *Dream Encounter with Ancient Strange Beasts* caught his eye.
It had not been created by a contemporary cultivator, but was instead an informal sketch by a disciple of the former Divine Brush Sect.
After the Divine Brush Sect was swallowed by Dianhua Gate, the sect's possessions were scattered across the realm.
The painting had been acquired by a rogue cultivator by chance. When that cultivator perished during the Great Cataclysm, his storage ring was ransacked of all treasures, leaving behind only the seemingly worthless items that were not even worth the space they occupied.
The discarded storage ring had been thrown aside like trash by the roadside.
Covered in dust for several thousand years, it was eventually discovered by a passing cultivator.
According to this cultivator, named Tang Bowen, he had pieced together the past through a lingering thread of millennia-old resentment within the storage ring.
Naturally, this tale might well have been fabricated by Tang Bowen to inflate the painting's price.
Regardless, the piece did indeed originate from thousands of years ago.
It depicted over a hundred distinct species of beasts, several of which Li Fan had encountered in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
What drew Li Fan's attention was that beyond the beasts shown openly, another beast was concealed within the painting.
Along the outermost edges, one could vaguely discern that all hundred-plus beasts appeared to be standing upon the body of a single, colossal entity.
Yet precisely because its body was so unimaginably massive, it could not be captured on canvas at all.
The hundred-plus beasts upon its back served merely to outline its scale.
In the corner, a single line of calligraphy remained:
*"Vast indeed and without form; its name is Tian."*
This open, blank style of composition had naturally drawn many comments from cultivators.
One knowledgeable viewer had bluntly pierced the mystery:
*"I know this one. Isn't that the giant tortoise whose corpse formed Jiushan Province?"*
The comment carried a heavy tone of mockery, yet it was no falsehood.
The character *tian* was written with the components *wang* and *ba* stacked together, reading as *兲*.
Its name was Tian.
"The Tian Beast..."
A sharp light flashed through Li Fan's eyes.
Chapter 565