Ji Hongdao acted as if he hadn’t seen the other party vanish, continuing to speak as if to himself. “What you should be concerned about is nothing more than the loss of personal freedom while within the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array.

“As for safety, there is no need to worry.

“Just as the Myriad Immortals Alliance has always proclaimed, a Dao Unity cultivator’s power already exceeds the capabilities of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array.

“With your strength, Junior Lord, you surely wouldn’t fear a mere array, would you?

“If a small measure of freedom could be exchanged for sufficiently great benefits, I believe you would be most willing.

“Aren’t you truly curious about what exists beneath the abyss, beyond the mist?”

After Ji Hongdao finished speaking, the Junior Lord’s distorted figure reappeared on the Dust-Crossing Boat.

He made no sound, simply staring coldly at Ji Hongdao, waiting for his next words.

Ji Hongdao showed no surprise at his return. “Once the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array is fully constructed, the Tianxuan Mirror will also undergo another sublimation.”

“When that time comes, the unfinished business from two hundred years ago may finally have a real chance of being completed.”

“Furthermore, if the sublimated Tianxuan Mirror wishes to advance further, aside from encroaching on the territory of the Five Elders Council, it will inevitably set its sights outward, beyond the world.”

“The Lifespan-Devouring White Mist serves as a breakthrough point; it naturally won’t give up easily.

“Once it can spare the effort, the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist certainly won’t be able to hold it back. It’s just a matter of how much time it will take.

“What you must do, Junior Lord, is wait patiently.

“So many years have already passed; what difference does a little more time make?”

The Junior Lord did not seem swayed by Ji Hongdao’s words. Instead, his voice was tinged with a hint of mockery. “Ji Hongdao, you truly haven’t changed at all.”

Without waiting for a response, his form vanished once more.

Ji Hongdao slowly turned his head, gazing again at the busy cultivators within the distant Immortal Fortress. A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

The next day, Li Fan’s arduous labor at the Roaring Abyss officially began.

The array masters responsible for assisting in the construction of the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array, besides Xue Mu, included five cultivators from the Strategy Array Hall of Tianyu Province.

Unlike in ordinary provinces, where one only needed to consider the array’s construction without worrying about safety, building the Soul-Locking Array around the Roaring Abyss was an arduous endeavor, impossible without the combined efforts of numerous departments.

First, the garrison stationed at the Eternal Immortal Fortress, named Qingxuan, donned layers of protection, then painstakingly carved out blank channels within the White Mist where arrays could be laid.

After that, cultivators from the Heavenly Mechanism Hall came forward to select suitable locations within these channels.

Cultivators from the Martial Hall, cooperating with the Qingxuan Garrison, rapidly established dozens of footholds before the White Mist reclaimed the lost ground.

These footholds served as the resting places for Li Fan and the others after each array construction session.

On the recommendation of the veteran array master Dou Xingsi, a method of simultaneous, multi-point construction was adopted to improve efficiency in building the Soul-Locking Array around the Roaring Abyss.

The seven array masters each began from a different point, working outward until the perimeter arrays merged.

After that, they would turn inward to construct the central core array structure.

Finally, once all components were in place, they would install the core hub device and carry out the final adjustments.

The plan itself had no major flaws, but the actual implementation was exceedingly difficult.

Even someone as resilient as Li Fan was nearly worn to exhaustion by the process of constructing the array.

To place an array node within the White Mist, for example, one first had to drive away the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist.

The safe zones cleared by the Qingxuan Army were not permanent.

Before the White Mist returned, Li Fan had to race against time to complete the fabrication of a small array node, which would later connect to other parts of the array structure.

If a mistake or accident meant he didn’t manage to complete the fabrication within the allotted time, he still had no choice but to retreat in the face of the returning Lifespan-Devouring White Mist. It was equivalent to all previous efforts being wasted, and he would have to start over next time.

For the array nodes that had already been completed and were now swallowed by the dense White Mist, any malfunction that demanded inspection or repairs meant Li Fan had to lead several cultivators deep into the fog to investigate at the risk of his life.

On top of that, he had to stay on constant guard against incursions of the abyssal demonic sounds.

Most outbreaks of those sounds were, for the most part, predictable like tides. The Qingxuan Army could tell when each surge was coming in advance, giving Li Fan and the others time to avoid them. But there were also abrupt, unforeseen waves—major demonic sound tides that struck without warning.

Even though the site Li Fan was working in lay beyond the Roaring Abyss, and the demonic sounds had already passed through the Eternal Immortal Fortress where most of their power was dissipated, facing a true, violent tide still made him feel like a candle flame that might be blown out at any moment.

The shrill, hateful clamor churned around him, threatening to tear his mind apart. Once, at an especially dangerous moment, Return to Truth’s charge dropped by several percentage points just to shield him.

Thankfully, the Qingxuan Garrison was highly experienced in handling abyssal demonic sound tides. In emergencies, they might be alarmed, but they never lost their composure. They would place Li Fan in the middle and each produce strange, specialized treasures meant to consume sound.

There was a hole-pocked black stone; a featureless human head bearing only two pairs of ears; a small green plant that swayed to sounds; and many other esoteric treasures. He even saw the red-haired exotic beasts from Wanlai Island more than once.

Their effectiveness was astonishing. The moment they were activated, the once earth-shaking, sea-roaring demonic sounds would disappear instantly.

Still, Li Fan noticed something important: after taking in a certain quantity of sound, both the beasts and the treasures seemed to change.

The beasts grew increasingly manic and hard to control, while the treasures sometimes began emitting eerie noises on their own.

Because of this, the Qingxuan Army replaced these items on a regular basis. When the local stock ran out, they had to go to the Eternal Immortal Fortress to resupply.

And it wasn’t only the sound-absorbing treasures that were expendable. The Black Death Talismans that kept the outpost running and allowed cultivators to survive in the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist, were consumables as well. If resupply was delayed for any reason, construction would be forced to come to a stop.

All told, building the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array in the endless White Mist was several times harder than constructing it in an ordinary province.

Maybe that was why, despite the slow pace, Li Fan’s position on the competition’s rankings hadn’t slipped much. He remained stably around the top hundred, and the point gaps were still modest, with the top ten constantly trading places.

Yet the person who drew the most attention wasn’t among the leaders, but at the very bottom of the 783 names: the Golden Core cultivator Guo Yezhong.

Almost a full year had passed since the contest officially began, and his score was still stuck at zero, unchanged throughout.

He was the only one on the entire board with that result, making him more eye-catching than even the first-place participant.

Cultivators offered all kinds of theories: perhaps Guo Yezhong was either missing and trapped somewhere unreachable, or he had simply defected.