Bai Yuan gazed at the crimson world stretching across the sky and couldn't help marveling.
"So this is Red Mountain World? It certainly lives up to its reputation."
A world created by a World Lord might look ordinary on the outside, but in truth, it was far more vast than the ordinary stars beyond it.
Some worlds created by World Lords even looked tiny as dust from the outside, yet contained a whole world within.
However, spaces like this were often left behind by World Lords who had died of old age.
Only after their deaths could their Internal Worlds possibly remain, becoming independent worlds of their own.
Otherwise, the universe would already be scattered with World Lord Worlds.
"System, show me the exact location of the Xuanming Domain Lord."
[Location locked]
Once he received the coordinates, Bai Yuan summoned a spaceship without hesitation and raced toward his destination at full speed.
He couldn't say when the forces outside would send someone to intercept and kill him.
As for the spaceship he was using, he had taken it from Du Yan's storage device. His own spaceship was still at the docking station.
No one had expected Du Yan to possess a premium storage treasure that even Domain Lords coveted.
And that wasn't the only treasure he had.
Bai Yuan suspected Du Yan had probably come across a great opportunity. Otherwise, his soul power wouldn't have been so formidable—far beyond that of others at the same rank.
Unfortunately, his bloodline was too poor, and he lacked the drive to fight for more. That was why he had remained stuck at Star Ninth Rank, unable to break through.
Bai Yuan understood perfectly well that the safest option would be to ask someone for help.
He might not be able to persuade a World Lord, but he had a good chance of finding a Domain Lord.
With his wealth, hiring a Domain Lord to act once wouldn't be difficult.
But after paying, he and the Cloud-Touching Vine would probably be left with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
And it wouldn't help him grow in the slightest.
At the bottom of a deep pit, someone had just raised his head when he caught sight of a streak of light flashing past.
"Big brother, I think I saw a spaceship fly by."
"Don't be ridiculous. The Universe Mercenary Alliance has people stationed outside. A spaceship can't get in. If they could fly spaceships in here, I'd have brought in an excavator long ago instead of digging by hand. Get back to it. If we don't collect ten Red Stones, we'll fail the mission."
The older man beside him spoke without even looking up.
The younger man nodded. Assuming he'd just imagined it, he turned his attention back to the excavation in front of him.
Thanks to the speed of the C9-Class Spaceship, Bai Yuan reached the place where the Xuanming Domain Lord was trapped in just half an hour.
It was a massive Red Stone Mountain. Even a spaceship looked tiny as an ant beside it.
An overwhelming pressure hung over the entire mountain. Ordinary Martial Artists at Star Ninth Rank could hardly approach its depths.
But to a C9-Class Spaceship, that pressure was meaningless.
"Master, shall I continue?" Xingwu asked.
Bai Yuan stared at the oppressive Red Stone Mountain and frowned slightly. The Xuanming Domain Lord was trapped at the very bottom.
"Why do these powerful people always end up trapped under mountains? Is it some kind of tradition?"
"Who are you? How can you pilot a C9-Class Spaceship here...?"
A voice suddenly rang out, seeming to seep in from all directions, at once indistinct and clear.
Bai Yuan's heart jolted, but he quickly composed himself and asked in a low voice, "And who are you?"
Silence fell for a moment.
The voice sounded half amused, half self-mocking, with a faint trace of the authority that had once belonged to a king.
"Heh... You probably wouldn't believe me if I told you."
"I am the Xuanming Domain Lord."
Although he had already suspected as much, Bai Yuan still felt a shock when he actually heard that name.
"You can speak?"
"Of course I can. I'm not mute."
"No, that's not what I meant. Aren't you trapped? How can you still send me a message?"
"Hahahaha!"
A deep, hearty laugh reverberated from the depths of Red Stone Mountain. Though the thick mass of stone stood between them, it still carried the Domain Lord's pride and defiance.
"Those good-for-nothings used every trick in the book to set up this Heaven-Imprisoning Domain-Suppressing Array. Even then, all they managed was to lock me here."
"It's been ten thousand years. Escaping is difficult, but sending a sliver of Spiritual Force through the mountain takes little effort."
At that, Bai Yuan immediately pressed him. "Senior, how can I help you escape?"
"You?"
A hint of helplessness crept into the Xuanming Domain Lord's voice.
"Your cultivation is too low. You couldn't break the Heaven-Imprisoning Domain-Suppressing Array, and you'd struggle even to shake the three outer barriers. Unless you can break those barriers from the outside and work with me from within, there may be a glimmer of hope."
Bai Yuan frowned. The system had no reason to give him a mission that was absolutely impossible to complete, but he couldn't exactly break through to the Domain Lord level on the spot.
Even if he wanted to, he couldn't do it.
As he hesitated, the Xuanming Domain Lord's voice sounded again.
"Actually, there is a way. Those three barriers are connected to the main array. If you can sever their links to it, the barriers will collapse. But this array is quite advanced, and you're only at Star Realm. Your knowledge of formations..."
The Xuanming Domain Lord fell silent for a moment. His tone took on a more complicated note.
"I wasn't familiar with them at first, either. But I've been trapped here for ten thousand years, facing this array every day and studying it day and night. I've come to understand it inside and out. Unfortunately, breaking it from within is more than ten times as difficult, which is why I need someone outside to help."
The next moment, Bai Yuan gathered his thoughts and plunged his entire consciousness into the colossal formation before him.
The control of Telekinetic Weapons already involved the principles of formations.
How blades were arranged and how their power was combined were both, at their core, precise ways of weaving energy and spatial structures together.
So Bai Yuan wasn't completely unfamiliar with formations. But he only knew how to use the basics, and he was still a long way from truly understanding how to "decipher" or "break" one.
As he concentrated on analyzing the barriers, the Xuanming Domain Lord spoke again, sounding distinctly intrigued.
"Since you're willing to try, I'll tell you about this Heaven-Imprisoning Domain-Suppressing Array..."
He didn't directly teach him how to break the formation. Instead, he started with the principles behind formations. His voice rang like the toll of an ancient bell, each word sinking into Bai Yuan's consciousness.
"The art of formations, whether it imprisons the heavens, locks down the earth, traps people, or suppresses souls, never strays beyond the two words 'Dao' and 'method.'"
"The Dao is the foundation of the universe; method is the source of its laws."
"This formation takes Red Stone Mountain as its foundation and draws power from the earth's ley lines. Its three barriers aren't separate structures. They're like the roots of a tree, sharing the same breath and pulse as the main formation..."
The Xuanming Domain Lord spoke at length, explaining everything from the principles underlying formations to the methods of layering spatial dimensions.
He described how the formation's core concealed itself through shifts between the real and the illusory, then explained how the barriers were connected to the main array.
He had spent ten thousand years trapped there, with the formation as his constant companion. Everything he taught came from his own experience. His explanations were easy to understand, yet went straight to the heart of the matter.
Bai Yuan listened with bated breath, engraving every word into his mind.
Gradually, the tangled, overwhelming formation diagram in his eyes began to reveal its clear and orderly structure.
He no longer hesitated. System, use one instance of sudden insight!
In an instant, every mystery of the formation became as simple as a basic math problem. He broke them down layer by layer, then continued to combine and evolve them from the foundation, making them increasingly intricate.
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