After obtaining another fragment of the Opening Seal, Zhang Yu's true body continued its secluded meditation, while his avatar remained outside, continuing to lay out the formation.
Time slipped by unnoticed. One day, while the avatar was assigning sections of the formation across the plains, he suddenly sensed something. Looking up, he saw densely packed flying vessels emerging from the southern horizon. They came from afar, passed overhead, and sped all the way north.
It was already dusk. Yet this boundless fleet did not darken the heavens further. On the contrary, the spiritual radiance blooming from every flying vessel made heaven and earth brighter and more resplendent, as though morning and evening had been overturned in an instant.
After nearly two years of preparation, Xi Emperor had finally moved against the north.
After watching for a while, Zhang Yu withdrew his gaze and turned his attention back to the grand formation.
His formation had now reached its fifth layer. Only one layer remained before the six-layer grand formation he had envisioned was complete.
With every additional layer, the formation's power doubled. But to add a seventh layer, he would need another several decades, perhaps even a century. It was not that it could not be done, but there was no need to wait that long, nor did he have that much time to wait.
If he could cultivate here without end, then sooner or later he would reach, and even surpass, the level of the "Upper Self." But if that were the case, then the higher path would not be so perilous. Just as he had thought before, since the "Upper Self" surpassed him in cultivation and Dao techniques, it was possible for it to break through into a still higher level first.
He did not know how long this