Chapter 1004: Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array
"The Floating Starry Sky Grand Array?" The Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone stood frozen for a long moment.
Then, it shook its head. "Though that array is damaged, it still concerns the safety of the Xuanhuang Realm. Only my main body holds the memory of it."
Li Fan felt a pang of disappointment, though he hadn't held out much hope to begin with. He had only mentioned it in passing.
Just as he was about to make another request, the Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone spoke again. "However, if you're simply looking for a formation of a similar tier to use as a reference for breaking arrays, I do have something else I can offer."
Li Fan's interest was instantly piqued. "Oh? Such as?"
The Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone seemed to gather itself for a moment before snapping off another one of its fingers and holding it out to him.
Perhaps because the amount of information being transferred this time was far greater, the color drained from the clone's face.
Its body weakened, it leaned against the wall and slowly slid to the floor.
Li Fan paused his analysis of the Dharma Spreader's restrictions and turned his focus to absorbing the contents of the new finger.
Pressing his fingers to his throbbing temples, Li Fan tried to process the formation's contents as quickly as possible while simultaneously relieving the pressure on his mind.
Not far away, the Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone, now seated on the ground, watched with a look of pure schadenfreude.
It had clearly withheld any warning, all for the sake of watching Li Fan make a fool of himself.
But soon, the sneer on the clone's face slowly gave way to a grave expression.
It discovered that Li Fan's rate of adaptation far exceeded its imagination.
This was no random prank. The Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone had specifically chosen this immortal-tier formation from its memories based on the information processing capabilities Li Fan had displayed when analyzing the Dharma Spreader's restrictions.
It was calibrated to cause him just enough trouble without actually making his head explode.
But now, to the clone's astonishment, Li Fan's ability to process information seemed to have improved significantly in just that short span of time.
Moreover, the speed of that improvement was increasing at a visible rate.
"This... How..."
The Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone was bewildered, its curiosity burning. If not for the agreement between them—and the slight gap in their power—
it might have been tempted to split Li Fan's head open right then and there to see what secrets lay within.
Meanwhile, in a place the clone could not perceive—inside Li Fan's sea of consciousness—
the Final Dissociation Disc was undergoing a violent and unimaginable transformation.
"Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number," Li Fan repeated the name of the formation in his mind, his heart swelling with elation.
Truly a grand array that transcended the mortal world.
Even though the Final Dissociation Disc had yet to fully decipher it, the mere act of receiving the formation's data was already triggering a revolution within itself.
Before this, the Final Dissociation Disc had already pushed the deduction of all known formation principles in the cultivation world to their absolute limit.
The path forward was cut off; there was nothing left to deduce.
The Final Dissociation Disc was, after all, not a living being. It possessed no consciousness of its own.
It could not, like a true master of the Dao of formations, create something from nothing or forge a new path from a dead end.
It needed new theories, new architectural frameworks for arrays.
And now, this Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array had just opened an entirely new window for the Final Dissociation Disc.
The name "Mysterious Jade" seemed to imply it was but one part of a larger set of formations.
"Myriad Spirits Return to Number" described its primary function.
As the name suggested, under the array's influence, everything within its domain would be converted into a digital representation.
Cultivation realms, destructive power, spiritual sense intensity, physical strength—all of it would be presented as concrete numerical values.
At first glance, the array might not sound particularly impressive.
But immortal-tier formations often had an unexpected way of turning the mundane into the miraculous.
Once digitized, any and all numerical expressions within the array could be adjusted at will.
As long as it was within the operational limits of the formation, the changes were boundless, subject only to the controller's whim.
And the final result was...
...that even a mortal with no strength to speak of, once adjusted by the Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array, could instantly become a being whose combat power rivaled that of an immortal!
By the same token, an immortal who fell into the array, if unable to break free, would have their values adjusted in an instant, losing the cultivation they had amassed over countless years and being reduced to a mere mortal!
It sounded like utter nonsense, but that very fact only served to underscore the terrifying power of an immortal-tier formation!
He had never imagined a formation could achieve something so absurd. Li Fan was profoundly shaken.
"If I had such a grand array in my hands..."
But he didn't let the sudden surge of excitement go to his head.
After fully receiving and analyzing the information on the Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array, Li Fan was struck by a sense of awe and impossibility.
Because the Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number Array was fundamentally impossible for a mortal cultivator to construct.
Beyond the immortal spiritual energy required to operate it, the myriad materials needed for its construction were things Li Fan had never even heard of.
Powerful as the Final Dissociation Disc was, it could only deduce the formation in theory; it could not bring it into reality.
Fortunately, this immortal-tier formation had indeed opened up an entirely new domain of array theory for the disc.
The process of deduction, which had stagnated with nothing left to derive, slowly began to accelerate once more.
An infinite future had just begun.
...
As Li Fan gradually returned from his state of surging excitement, he looked at the Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone—still sitting on the floor, looking weak and somewhat stunned—and asked with great concern, "What happened to you, brother?"
This wasn't just feigned sentiment from Li Fan. He had already gained a tangible benefit from the clone and could see countless more ripe for the taking. Having come to see the Heavenly Profound Mirror as a personal treasure trove he could tap into at any time, Li Fan naturally had to show concern for its well-being.
But when the Heavenly Profound Mirror's clone heard Li Fan call it "brother," it was instantly covered in goosebumps.
It shuddered, scrambled to its feet, and hastily insisted that it was perfectly fine.
Only then did Li Fan nod, relieved.
"With this Return to Number Array as a reference, my confidence in helping you escape has grown even greater."
"There's no time to waste. I'll go make the necessary arrangements at once."
"You should stay here and don't wander off. We wouldn't want any accidents."
Li Fan instructed.
The clone had intended to wander the mortal realm and experience humanity anyway, so staying in this city was of no consequence. It nodded in agreement.
After discussing a few more potential eventualities and details, just as Li Fan was about to leave, he suddenly asked, "Brother, do you have some kind of token?"
"Mirror Holder Cang helped you create this human body, so he should be trustworthy, right? I might be able to contact him on my journey and enlist his aid."
(End of Chapter)
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