I gain ten years' worth of cultivation every day, and even geniuses will only see my doorstep!

"Who would force the leader of the Wanzhen Daoting to write an apology letter?" Yan Lingji asked.

Qin Yuan looked at the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper closed his eyes and thought for a moment, then opened them and said, "The Supreme Elder of the Wuji Dao Court."

Qin Yuan nodded. At the Chaos Assembly, the Supreme Elder had stood up for him, forcing the Myriad Array Dao Court to second his opinion, which had already offended Zhou Yuanli. But the Supreme Elder clearly felt this wasn't enough; he wanted to strike while the iron was hot and make the Myriad Array Dao Court bleed even more. The Myriad Array Diagram was the Myriad Array Dao Court's most prized possession. Although the rubbing wasn't the original, the array knowledge recorded within was enough to elevate the array level of any force by a significant margin. The Supreme Elder's pressure on Zhou Yuanli to hand over the rubbing was to solidify one thing before the Seventy-Two Holy Dynasties of Taixu—opposing the Guixu Palace would not only result in losing face but also in substantial losses.

"Are you going or not?" Su Yao asked.

"Go." Qin Yuan stood up. "If someone gives it to me, I might as well accept it."

On the first day of next month, Qin Yuan brought Su Yao and Yan Lingji to the Wanzhen Daoting Mountain Gate.

The mountain gate of the Myriad Array Dao Court is built atop a massive array plate floating in a sea of ​​stars. The array plate is over three thousand miles in diameter and is covered with dense array patterns, each pattern connecting to a small spirit-gathering array. The entire array plate is a massive complex array, said to be capable of easily annihilating Immortal Realm cultivators when fully activated.

Zhou Yuanli personally greeted them at the mountain gate, followed by eight Immortal Realm elders. This kind of reception would be top-tier anywhere in the Taixu Realm, but the smile on Zhou Yuanli's face looked somewhat stiff. Qin Yuan had humiliated him at the Chaos Assembly, and now he was being asked to personally present the sect's most prized possession as a gift. He would probably never forget this debt for the rest of his life.

"Palace Master Qin's presence is an honor to our humble abode, the Myriad Arrays Dao Court." Zhou Yuanli bowed, beaming.

"The catalog." Qin Yuan got straight to the point, skipping all pleasantries.

Zhou Yuanli's lips twitched, but he quickly regained his smile. He took out a thick jade slip from his sleeve and presented it with both hands. The jade slip was a deep cyan color, with faint golden patterns flowing across its surface. Just holding it, one could sense the vast knowledge of array formations contained within. Qin Yuan took the jade slip, scanning its surface with his Chaos Eye. There were no restrictions, no traps; the jade slip itself was indeed genuine.

But instead of putting it away, he flipped the jade slip over and pointed his fingertip at an inconspicuous corner on the back. The light of the Eye of Chaos condensed into a thin needle, piercing deep into the jade slip. There lay an extremely hidden soul imprint, detectable only by cultivators at the Immortal Realm or higher. The soul imprint was connected to Zhou Yuanli's soul; as long as Qin Yuan brought the jade slip back to the Ruins Palace, Zhou Yuanli could perceive the location of the Ruins Palace and the structure of its defensive formation through this imprint.

Qin Yuan pulled the soul imprint out of the jade slip, and with a gentle flick of his fingertips, he crushed the imprint into nothingness.

Zhou Yuanli's smile finally crumbled.

"Sect Leader Zhou, I won't hold the apology letter against you." Qin Yuan put the jade slip into his pocket, his tone as calm as if he were talking about the weather. "But I've crushed this soul imprint for you. Next time you tamper with my things, I'll crush something else."

After saying that, he turned and left. Su Yao and Yan Lingji followed behind him, one on each side. When Yan Lingji passed by Zhou Yuanli, she deliberately made the flames on her hand leap three inches higher, almost burning Zhou Yuanli's beard. Zhou Yuanli stood at the mountain gate, his face ashen. The eight elders behind him looked at each other, none daring to speak.

Back at the Guixu Palace, Qin Yuan handed Su Yao a rubbing of the Myriad Array Diagram. Su Yao spent a month reading the entire diagram three times, then told Qin Yuan some good news and even better news. The good news was that the array system recorded in the diagram was indeed profound and complex. The existing Seven Star Demon-Locking Array in the Guixu Palace could be significantly upgraded with the knowledge in the diagram, and the upgraded array could simultaneously withstand the siege of three peak Immortal Realm experts. The better news was that at the end of the diagram was a fragment of an ancient array called the "Myriad Realms Guixu Array." Although incomplete, its core concept coincided with Qin Yuan's path of protection—integrating the guardian's will into the array, ensuring the array's undying protection.

"Can you complete it?" Qin Yuan asked.

"I'll give it a try with Sun Yuan," Su Yao said.

After the Battle of the Prodigies, Sun Yuan had been recuperating in the Heavenly Pivot Holy Dynasty. Bai Shuang sent someone to bring him and Han Meng to the Guixu Palace. Although Sun Yuan was blind and his cultivation was completely destroyed, his understanding of formations had actually broken through to a new level after his bloodline for breaking formations was burned out. After arriving at the Guixu Palace, he and Su Yao spent all their time in the formation research room. In his words, "Being blind actually makes me see more clearly. Before, I could only see the surface of the formations; now I can see their bones."

Two months later, Su Yao and Sun Yuan joined forces to complete the core framework of the Myriad Realms Returning to Nothingness Formation. The complete formation still lacked a few key nodes that required further development, but the core framework was ready for testing. Qin Yuan decided to initiate the first test on the outskirts of the Myriad Paths Summit.

The core of the Myriad Realms Returning to Ruins Array is a massive disc over three hundred feet in diameter, engraved with twelve rings of varying depths. Each ring corresponds to the flow path of a different law. The outermost ring represents the law of wind and thunder, corresponding to Ye Wuji's wind and thunder origin; the second ring represents the law of ice soul, corresponding to Bai Shuang's ice soul chaos; the third ring represents the law of sword intent, corresponding to Mu Hongyi's limitless sword body; and the fourth ring represents the law of fire, corresponding to Yan Lingji's heavenly fire holy body. The twelve rings unfold sequentially from the outside in, each ring echoing the origin of a law of a core combatant beside Qin Yuan.

At the very center of the disc, on the core node of the formation, Qin Yuan dripped his own blood essence into a Chaos Stone. The Chaos Stone was forged from his own bones and shared the same origin as the Bone Blade. After the blood essence was dripped in, the Chaos Stone lit up with a warm light, and the twelve rings of array patterns were activated simultaneously. A light curtain a thousand feet high rose from the edge of the array base, enveloping the Pinnacle of Myriad Paths within it.

The light barrier was very thin, almost transparent, but Ye Wuji personally tested its strength—a full-force palm strike from a sixth-level Immortal Realm expert only stirred a shallow ripple on the barrier. The palm force was broken down layer by layer by the twelve array patterns, eventually dissipating into nothingness. Moreover, Ye Wuji discovered an even more astonishing characteristic: after the light barrier of the Myriad Realms Returning to Nothingness Array was struck, the damaged area would automatically absorb the protective will of everyone within the array; the stronger the will, the faster the repair speed.

"Do you know what this characteristic means?" Ye Wuji stood beside the array base, his face full of shock. "It means that as long as there is one person inside the array who has not given up the will to protect it, this array can never be broken."