The Three Talents Array, Eerie Penglai

Although the Dragon Clan had been ambushed by Luo Hou during the Immeasurable Kalpa, suffering devastating losses to its strength;

the current Four Seas Dragon Kings were all Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals;

and their wounded old ancestor, Zhu Long, was recuperating in the depths of the sea. The few elite Dragon Guards protecting him were also Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals.

Taken as a whole, their strength would not have been considered weak in the Primordial Wilderness before Hongjun's teachings.

Even severely wounded, Zhu Long was still a Primordial Golden Immortal. Dealing with ordinary Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals would not be a problem for him.

However, the Primordial Golden Immortals of the Three Innate Clans had all broken through with the aid of their clans' Fortune Boost. Now that their clans had declined, they might well be affected.

Given Zhu Long's current condition, he would not show himself unless the Dragon Clan faced the danger of extinction;

the Four Seas Dragon Kings, each holding garrison over one of the four seas, had long lost the edge they possessed when they had ruled the Primordial Wilderness;

now, they sought only to survive in peace, to preserve the continuation of their bloodline, cowering in uneasy safety and not daring to draw attention lightly.

The New Generation of Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals were gradually entering the world;

whoever came to take a turn around the Dragon Palace would be no small trouble for the current Dragon Clan.

Fortunately, the Dragon Clan still retained a little of its former prestige. For now, no one dared act rashly, and all merely watched to see how things changed.

Bei Ming wandered about the East Sea, searching for tens of thousands of years;

his Spiritual Sense swept out, Laws interweaving, until he finally caught a faint, almost imperceptible ripple from an innate Formation within a certain silent, undisturbed Sea area.

That ripple was exceedingly faint. Had a trace of opportunity not vaguely surfaced to guide him here, Bei Ming would have nearly turned and left.

The sea here was calm and windless, its emerald waves glittering beneath lingering mist. On the surface, there seemed to be nothing at all;

even if one flew overhead, one would encounter no obstruction—only the illusion of boundless emptiness hanging over the place.

Bei Ming watched for a moment, certain that his intuition was no illusion.

Then the situation before him could be explained. Some kind of innate Formation had to exist, protecting whatever lay within.

Though he could not determine whether this was truly the Three Immortal Islands, anything hidden within an innate Formation of this caliber could not be ordinary.

Bei Ming's inheritance included the path of Formations. This time, he could attempt to break it.

To avoid disturbance from Petty Thieves, Bei Ming settled his mind, concealed both his figure and aura, and focused wholly on the Formation before him.

Time flowed on; stars shifted, cold and heat turned, tides rose and fell.

After studying it for three thousand years, Bei Ming found the formation gate and quietly slipped inside.

The qi situation within the Formation was stable, assuming the aspect of the Heaven Earth and Man Three Talents;

"Man" was one of the Three Talents, representing the Human Path and all living beings, not merely the Human Race in the narrow sense;

yet at this moment, the Three Talents Formation held only an aspect of emptiness.

Bei Ming spread out his Spiritual Sense, yet could detect nothing whatsoever.

"Strange."

With a light twist of his fingers, Bei Ming formed a Profound Feather woven from black and white, then sent it forward.

The Profound Feather flew out and pierced into the void, vanishing without a trace. Then it slowly emerged not far off to the side, sending a ring of pale-blue spatial ripples spreading outward.

Bei Ming beckoned, and the Profound Feather drifted back into his palm.

"Spatial folding..."

At present, the Three Talents Formation had shown no offensive capability, but its bizarre spatial effects still left Bei Ming feeling troubled.

Bei Ming formed hand seals, drawing upon the Wind Law and Water Law;

rings of Law ripples spread from him through the space in all four directions, attempting to use the Laws to trace the Formation's operating path in reverse.

Bei Ming closed his eyes and concentrated, sinking his perception into the Formation.

"Heaven, Earth, and Man are arranged in a triangular pattern... three as one, drawing upon each other. The formation is stable. Forcing it open will likely prove ineffective."

Breaking a Formation was like picking a lock. The Formation's master possessed the "key" and could open or close it as they pleased;

but if one were an outsider;

one could directly destroy the entire "lock" to solve the problem, but that placed rather high demands on one's strength;

there was also a more harmonious method, like picking a lock with a wire—using skill;

when applied to the path of breaking Formations, it meant studying the Formation until one understood it, after which one could come and go freely within it, unnoticed by gods or ghosts.

Since this Formation concerned the Three Talents, he would seek the means to break the situation through the principles of the Three Talents.

The Formation possessed Three Talents, holding Heaven, Earth, and Man in place. Whoever broke it must correspond to them.

Standing within the Formation, Bei Ming summoned a spiritual radiance behind him. Auras converged as he unleashed a divine ability: an external incarnation.

In an instant, the phantom of Kun Peng appeared!

The Giant Kun roared, water surging as dense Water Law aura radiated from its body;

the Great Peng spread its wings, its wind howl shaking the nine heavens. With every beat, it churned the void and revealed the Wind Law.

Heaven was yang; Earth was yin;

Among the Four Symbols, Wind and Fire were yang, while Water and Earth were yin;

Peng wielded the Wind Law and could suppress the Heavenly position;

Kun wielded the Water Law and could suppress the Earthly position;

Bei Ming's true body suppressed the Human Position.

The three echoed one another, forming a smaller Three Talents Formation within the Innate Three Talents Formation;

Bei Ming continuously formed hand seals, as countless streams of Mysterious Light converged, guiding the larger and smaller formations to slowly merge.

The formation shifted unpredictably. Bei Ming focused completely, gradually harmonizing and resonating with it.

Immersed in breaking the formation, he utterly forgot the passage of time.

Winds and clouds changed, sun and moon alternated; nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years passed in the blink of an eye.

As time entered the ten-thousandth year since he had begun breaking the formation, Bei Ming suddenly opened his eyes, divine light blooming within them.

"It's done!"

At the same time, Kun and Peng's phantoms exploded into nothingness, turning into two streams of light that merged back into Bei Ming's body.

Bei Ming's figure also vanished into the void;

The next instant, he landed steadily upon an island filled with hazy spiritual energy and shrouded in lingering immortal mist.

The air was suffused with the fragrant scent of grass and wood;

Not far ahead, an ancient, weathered stone stele stood silently;

Daoist patterns coiled across it, and on its face, the two words "Penglai" were prominently engraved.

Bei Ming's figure flickered, and he instantly arrived before the stone stele. Raising his hand, he pressed his palm against it;

A faint ripple spread from the stone stele.

"So this is the legendary Penglai Immortal Island. It seems the Innate Three Talents Formation uses three immortal islands to suppress the Three Talents positions respectively."

Bei Ming spread out his Spiritual Sense, probing Penglai Immortal Island.

The moment he had set foot here, he had sensed that something about this immortal island was unusual.

The entire island was saturated with spiritual energy to the utmost degree, with Immortal Springs everywhere and Auspicious Clouds filling the sky. Even compared to the many grotto-heavens and Blessed Lands of the Primordial Wilderness, it ranked among the finest.

Yet beneath this flourishing facade lay a strange discordance.

Under the coverage of Bei Ming's Spiritual Sense, the various Innate Spiritual Materials, Spirit Roots, divine flowers, and auspicious grasses on the immortal island were all brimming with Spirituality, yet not a single one had developed intelligence.

It was not that these Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures lacked Spirituality, but that some force had deliberately suppressed them, snuffing out any possibility of them developing intelligence.

Bei Ming's brows furrowed slightly, a trace of confusion flashing through his eyes.

After pondering for a moment, he still decided to first refine the Boundary Tablet and use it to take control of the entire immortal island;

Then, after obtaining the key authority to control the Innate Three Talents Formation, he would explore deeper into the island.

Afterward, Bei Ming sat cross-legged beneath the Boundary Tablet. Spiritual energy gathered around him, forming a faint halo about his body.

Since he had already passed through the formation successfully, refining the Boundary Tablet now posed no obstacle.

In just over a hundred years, he completed its refinement.

Bei Ming slowly rose to his feet, turned around, and faced the sea beyond the island.