Chapter 221 — What the Order Noticed

My Dao to Eternity

Chapter 221 — What the Order Noticed

A presence rested deep within a cluster of black stone spires several miles along his path. Its pressure far exceeded that of the Formation-Marked Direwolf and Ancient Jade Ape. Li Fan could not determine its full strength. It remained motionless and gave no indication that his divine sense had touched the edge of its territory. Its existence alone produced a vast, patient pressure.

He remained where he was for a long while, measuring the formation current against the spires ahead. The formation trace passed close to the presence's territory. A direct route would have carried him deep into the range of whatever occupied the spires.

He had already learned this lesson several times during his journey. Knowing where a dangerous existence was did not require him to approach it. He studied the terrain around the spires instead and searched for a route that would allow him to meet the current again beyond its territory.

The detour consumed nearly two weeks. He followed the edge of the broken highland and avoided the spires as well as three smaller fissures that carried faint disturbances detectable through his divine sense. He crossed the distance at a steady pace and preserved his strength for the journey ahead.

When he finally reached the current beyond the spires, the terrain had changed again. The broken highland gradually flattened, and the spiritual pressure in the air increased. The sensation resembled the pressure he had experienced before the central hall of the submerged village, but its density was far greater.

He remained at the edge of the new terrain for a long while and examined the pressure through his divine sense. The formation current he had followed for months was approaching a region of unusual importance within the Realm.

He adjusted his mask, checked the current against the terrain ahead, and continued forward.

The pressure that had begun at the edge of the flattened terrain increased as Li Fan advanced. It entered every breath and remained present throughout his movement.

He crossed the new ground over the following weeks at a reduced pace. The dense spiritual current beneath his feet made each step require greater strength. The formation trace no longer appeared as a single current through ordinary wilderness. Dozens of smaller currents now ran beside it, all moving toward the same region. Their paths gradually converged toward one destination.

The earth had changed beneath the increasing pressure. Packed soil gave way to pale stone that crumbled beneath his boots. Dew gathered heavily across the low branches each morning and soaked the lower hem of his robe before the false sun had cleared the horizon.

Each evening, Li Fan tested the surrounding formations with his divine sense. The artificial sky had become easier to examine as he advanced. Previously, he had needed to direct his awareness toward the false moon to detect its underlying formation script. Now he could perceive faint lines of pale light crossing the visible sky as the false moon took its position at dusk. The boundaries between the formation layers had also become clearer.

On the ninth night, he watched the transition of the artificial sky complete itself and understood that the mechanism controlling the false sun, false moon, and seasonal changes was much closer to this region than it had been in the lands behind him. The formation script within the sky had become clear enough for him to follow without concentrating his entire divine sense upon it.

He sat for a long while that night and examined the conclusion. For months, he had expected the current to lead toward a central structure buried beneath the Realm, similar to the chamber that had housed the Ten-Thousand-Year Spiritual Herb beneath the forest. He now considered another possibility. The structure might extend across such a vast area that its upper formations had already become visible through the artificial sky.

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The wildlife had also changed with the terrain. At a careful distance, Li Fan encountered beasts absent from every manuscript he had studied. Some possessed numerous limbs and moved them in coordinated patterns. Several birds followed flight paths that corresponded to formation lines in the surrounding air. He maintained a wide distance from every unfamiliar creature until he understood its strength and habits.

Three weeks after entering the denser terrain, he found another cluster of waystones. They were smaller than the set along the ridge and showed less weathering. The same recurring mark remained carved at the base of each stone. Li Fan copied the mark and compared it with the drawing he had made from the oldest jade slips in the ancient library. The structure of the character was identical. Only the wear of time differed.

The newer stones stood lower in the ground than the older ones. Soil had accumulated around their bases for several centuries. Pale gray lichen covered two stones, but the carved marks remained visible beneath the growth. Li Fan brushed the lichen aside and examined the inscriptions closely.

Whoever had established these waystones had maintained the same design across the entire route. The ridge stones and these newer stones had been separated by many centuries, yet the carved mark remained unchanged. The path had been maintained according to the same system until the civilization that created it disappeared.

Li Fan remained beside the newest stone for a while and listened to the wind moving through the brush. He heard only the movement of the branches and the faint shifting of loose soil beneath the gusts.

After completing his examination, he rose, checked the current against the terrain ahead, and found it moving toward a low rise. The pressure increased further in that direction.

He adjusted his mask, loosened his shoulders, and continued forward as the artificial sky entered another dusk.

Li Fan finally calculated the full length of his journey on the morning he approached the low rise. He had kept a rough count throughout the journey, but he had never added the days together. At the base of the rise, he stopped beneath the false dawn and examined his remaining provisions. He had enough dried food for roughly three days and needed to replenish his supplies before traveling much farther.

The base of the rise offered little shelter. A shallow depression between two boulders blocked part of the wind while leaving the surrounding terrain visible. Li Fan had counted his remaining provisions by touch during the previous night. Three days remained if he conserved them carefully, and the supply would diminish faster if the terrain ahead required greater exertion.

Eight months had passed since the morning he first entered the narrow fissure beneath the fracture and reached the forest whose trees required many men to encircle.

He sat with the figure for a while. Eight months had brought formation traces, dead ends, beasts, cultivators, and one immense existence whose territory he had avoided. The artificial sky still differed completely from the stars he remembered from Blue Star, and he remained without an answer to the question that had driven him through the fracture.

The duration did not alter his method. The courtyard formations in Myriad Beast City had required nearly two years of work, while Old Sun's medical texts had required even longer study before he understood their contents thoroughly. A task taking longer than expected only indicated that he had underestimated its scale.

He completed the preparations required before resuming his journey. He checked the seal on his storage ring, tested his boots against the altered ground, and circulated qi through his meridians. The circulation revealed no unresolved injuries or foreign energy from the previous weeks.

When the false dawn fully settled, Li Fan rose and began climbing the rise. The spiritual pressure had continued increasing for weeks. At this elevation, it had become dense enough to place resistance against every movement.

Near the crest, the trees thinned and opened his first clear view of the surrounding land in several days. Li Fan stopped and examined the terrain below.

A vast basin extended beyond the rise. It was neither forest nor mountain. Distant peaks surrounded its outer edges, while the basin floor stretched across an enormous distance. The surface reflected the light of the artificial sky and contained broad areas that could have been water, though the distance prevented him from confirming their nature. Pale formation lines crossed the basin floor in precise patterns and converged toward a region near the center. A layer of haze covered that area and remained close to the ground beneath the clear sky.

The basin exceeded every region he had measured before, including the lake surrounding the submerged village. He estimated that the opposite side lay at least a hundred miles away, although the central haze prevented an accurate measurement. Wind crossed the exposed ridge and carried cool mineral air upward from the basin.

Li Fan extended his divine sense as far as the dense terrain allowed. The currents he had followed for eight months all moved toward the same point beneath the central haze. The countless smaller currents joined the larger formation current there, forming a single converging network across the entire basin.