With hope and greed in their hearts, several Origin Immortals quickly set up a simple formation, then formed hand seals to search for the stranger undergoing Tribulation Transcendence.
"Strange. No one?"
"Impossible. I've been watching the whole time. No one left."
"Then perhaps he's hiding."
"Search!"
The only thing that could hide from their Immortal Senses was probably an exceptional cave-dwelling treasure.
Perhaps this was the Spiritual Treasure they were after.
Since these people were greedy, they naturally found ways to rationalize everything.
"Why bother?"
Li Yang sighed from a thousand li away. If these people had simply left, everything could still have ended peacefully, but they...
"Forget it, forget it!
I'm just too kindhearted."
Li Yang formed a hand seal, and the Composite Grand Array he had set up but never used roared to life.
"Not good! It's a trap!"
The several Origin Immortals shouted in alarm. Sensing danger, they hurriedly fled outward.
They flew for more than ten thousand li before finally letting out a breath of relief.
"Thank goodness, thank goodness I..."
He suddenly stopped speaking. This place seemed familiar. Had he been here before?
After carefully searching through the sea of his Immortal Infant, the Origin Immortal's face suddenly turned pale.
"Not good! I'm trapped in a formation!"
He immediately understood what had happened. The immortal undergoing Tribulation Transcendence was probably going to pick them off one by one.
Though anxious, he instead grew calmer.
Loose Immortals were like that. They might be ruthless, but if you weren't ruthless, you couldn't stand your ground!
"Explode!"
Another Origin Immortal had also realized the problem. He acted decisively, pulling out a strange Jade Talisman and hurling it away before detonating it.
"Boom!"
The formation shuddered with a thunderous crash. Seizing the opportunity, he pulled out another Jade Talisman and crushed it. His entire body turned into a streak of light as he fled the formation.
Before he could even celebrate, boundless killing intent surged toward him.
"Damn it! Where did all these formations come from?"
With a mournful cry, the Origin Immortal perished in the Killing Array.
Already ten thousand li away, Li Yang carefully sensed everything, gathering a great deal of information.
"This Composite Grand Array was set up by someone at the Returning Dao Realm. It's enough to trap and kill Origin Immortals, but from what I can see, it's nowhere near powerful enough to kill True Immortals."
At first, Li Yang had designed this Composite Grand Array to trap and kill True Immortals.
But now, it seemed it could trap them, but not kill them.
"Still, after gathering all this information and making further progress in the Dao of Formations, I've spotted plenty of problems with the Composite Grand Array. Some of the formations clearly conflict with one another and need to be adjusted."
As he observed through his Avatar, Li Yang calculated a new formation.
He was confident that this time he could create a formation capable of trapping and killing Celestial Immortals.
As for trapping and killing Golden Immortals, he didn't even entertain the thought.
Li Yang understood that without the boost of a trait, his current comprehension, cultivation, realm, and knowledge weren't enough to let him truly understand Golden Immortals.
"Still, I can use other records and descriptions to infer the might of Golden Immortals. Perhaps I can come up with a suitable formation."
This so-called suitable formation was really just a way to gather enough reference experience for using a trait.
Along the way, Li Yang carefully observed the several Origin Immortals inside the formation.
He didn't act. He merely watched as the Origin Immortals died in the various Killing Arrays, each through a different means.
"A bunch of Old Sixes."
Li Yang gave a cold snort and activated the formation.
"Ah!"
With a scream, a figure flew out from elsewhere in the formation. He had clearly used a substitute death technique.
An Immortal Infant burst out of another body. That person had chosen to abandon his Immortal Body in search of a chance to possess another body or be reincarnated.
But no matter what methods they tried, the Composite Grand Array kept them trapped, then refined them.
"Fellow Daoist, spare me! I'm willing to serve you. Please, spare my life!"
Faced with death, someone finally couldn't hold back.
Gradually, one after another began begging for mercy. It was enough to show just how flexible these Loose Immortals' principles really were.
But Li Yang had no need of them.
"Formation, rise!"
His Avatar formed a hand seal. The formation's power suddenly surged, and the area within a hundred li seemed to become a massive furnace, scorching Immortal Bodies and Divine Souls.
In an instant, the Immortal Bodies and Immortal Infants vanished, reduced to ashes. Then came the full sequence of rites to send them on their way.
"Formation, disperse!"
Li Yang formed another hand seal, and every trace of the formation vanished without a trace.
His Avatar didn't leave after finishing the task. Instead, he turned into a speck of dust and merged with the surrounding world, quietly keeping watch.
The time limit: one month.
Meanwhile, Li Yang's true body had already fled a hundred thousand li away.
He found a Star Stone lode, then relied on his immortal cultivation to grab and refine it in one go, turning it into materials and storing them in the Sanctuary.
After extracting an iron ore vein and putting it inside, the Sanctuary transformed into a speck of dust and merged with it.
"There isn't much time left before my appointment with Senior Brother. I need to refine the Origin Immortal Stage 'Golden Pill' Avatar."
Li Yang went to the furnace and beckoned. Tens of thousands of stars in the sky suddenly blazed brighter, then fell into the furnace like raindrops.
"True Fire, rise!"
Li Yang exhaled Samadhi True Fire, scorching the furnace and refining the 'Golden Pill.'
"Star Stones, rise!"
Immortal Sense surged out, cutting a large quantity of Star Stones into pieces before placing them in the furnace and increasing the heat.
In the days that followed, Li Yang continuously infused the furnace with hand seals and etched formation runes into it. Various materials melted into the mixture without pause.
Day after day passed. After forty-nine days, thirty-six thousand five hundred 'Golden Pills' surged out of the furnace, flying straight into the sky before settling into different positions according to the formation.
"Crack!"
A crisp sound rang in Li Yang's ears. Then he watched in horror as a stream of gray-brown energy, accompanied by the power of the void, fell into the Star Dou Great Array.
The energy felt terrifyingly powerful to Li Yang. It seemed capable of dissolving all things, yet also seemed to be the source of all things.
He vaguely recalled something recorded only in the sect's ancient texts.
"Chaos Qi!"
Li Yang cried out. He hadn't expected the formation to draw Chaos Qi here.
Could the formation withstand it?
Though Li Yang was the formation's creator and had reached the Heavenly Immortal Realm, he was still filled with dread at this strange and terrifying force, one mentioned even in ancient records.
Just then, the Grand Formation of Celestial Stars connected as one. Brilliant starlight shone forth, and the countless streams of void energy were converted into spiritual energy, then into power to drive the Star Dou Great Array as it withstood the Chaos Qi.
Cracking sounds rang out without pause. The Sanctuary's space couldn't bear the strain, and even the Avatar that suppressed the space and had fused with Star Stones couldn't withstand the Chaos Qi's corrosive power.
"No, that's not right. It's holding!"
Li Yang immediately realized something was wrong. These were all his Avatars—how could he fail to understand their condition?
They were severely damaged, but their bodies were rapidly repairing themselves, and their quality was rising just as quickly.
"That's right. The ancient Circulating Star Dou could already block Chaos Qi from entering the Primordial Wilderness and convert it into spiritual energy."
Li Yang's eyes lit up. He then flew into the sky to personally oversee the formation.
"Boom!"
As the Chaos Qi was absorbed, the Circulating Star Dou Avatars received an enormous boost. They were still only as strong as Origin Immortals, but their bodies had grown several times stronger, even more than tenfold.
Then boundless void energy surged in once more, bringing another stream of Chaos Qi. The Grand Formation of Celestial Stars gradually stopped struggling against it.
Who knew how much time had passed? Every Star Dou Avatar had received a tremendous boost. Li Yang could clearly feel that he could no longer destroy them.
At that moment, another stream of Chaos Qi arrived. The Star Dou converted it into countless strands of spiritual energy, which poured down like a waterfall.
The spiritual energy was exceptionally pure. Along with it came wisps of heavy Turbid Qi.
The Turbid Qi reached the ground first, merging with the earth. Li Yang could clearly feel that the Sanctuary's space seemed to have risen by a level.
Heaven and earth seemed to join together, yet also seemed to separate, as high-grade spiritual energy filled the entire space.
He thought of something he hadn't yet had the chance to create, but had obtained thanks to this unexpected turn of events.
"Cavern Heaven!!"
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