Joe Di was certain that Ethan North was by no means a simple character. Although Ethan North's words seemed somewhat dismissive, Joe Di still clasped his fists and said, "If I encounter any difficulties in studying arraycraft, I hope you, senior, will guide me."
Ethan North shook his head. "With your talent, I can't teach you. If you ever find yourself unable to stay here, you can come to my prison. It's not so bad inside."
To reach the rank of Ninth-Level Formation Sovereign in a place like this, Ethan North could only laugh. In another ten thousand years, he’d better worry about surviving the Voidfire.
Joe Di had long noticed the grand array within Ethan North’s prison; it was fully capable of blocking the Voidfire. Joe Di deeply admired this—Ethan North, with his Purple Mansion sealed by Shadowsteel and his cultivation stripped away, could still set up such a formidable array to shield himself from the Voidfire. Truly impressive.
Although he could accomplish the same, and with even greater ease than Ethan North, Joe Di knew it was because his Dao followed the path of rules. Ethan North surely did not have such fortune to obtain the Ninth Prime Law and cultivate the Rule Dao.
Joe Di paid Ethan North no further mind. He began to study the fragments of forbidden techniques within the Silent Abyssal Magma, while simultaneously researching the ninth-rank Killing Formation here.
Once he started delving into arraycraft, Joe Di completely forgot everything around him—even Ethan North was set aside. He continually cast rule array flags and threw out refined array flags, simulating one eighth-rank divine array after another.
While simulating the eighth-rank divine arrays, he simultaneously deduced the array patterns and foundations of the eighth-rank arrays. Through repeated failures and the changes in rule array patterns, he sought the underlying rules of the eighth-rank arraycraft.
At first, Ethan North was speechless at Joe Di’s behavior. But after three months, Ethan North was utterly astonished by him.
Dao resonance flowed around Joe Di, accompanied by array patterns so subtle that they were nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Was this an epiphany? That seemed unlikely. Yet the changes in the array patterns around Joe Di were clear as day—the Dao resonance of those patterns grew deeper and deeper, until they became so profound that even Ethan North could no longer comprehend them. After all, he himself had once been a seventh-rank Formation Sovereign.
Another half month passed. On this day, Ethan North suddenly sensed a shift in the aura around Joe Di—the array pattern aura became even clearer. Not only that, but the number of profound arraycraft rules around Joe Di increased as well. Joe Di himself seemed to have ascended to a higher level.
Ethan North sucked in a breath. He realized that Joe Di’s arraycraft had broken through to a new level—surpassing his own mastery.
If his earlier guess was correct, Joe Di had just advanced from seventh-rank Formation Sovereign to eighth-rank Formation Sovereign.
Such powerful comprehension! Ethan North didn’t know that Joe Di had already been on the verge of breaking through to eighth-rank Formation Sovereign. Now, this breakthrough was simply a matter of course. At this moment, Ethan North even started to believe that Joe Di might truly have a chance to reach the rank of Ninth-Level Formation Sovereign.
Joe Di was well aware that he had broken through to eighth-rank Formation Sovereign, but he felt neither joy nor excitement. To him, this was perfectly normal. His arraycraft had long been at the threshold of eighth-rank Formation Sovereign; this was merely a natural progression. Yet even this natural breakthrough had taken him several months, making Joe Di realize that advancing to Ninth-Level Formation Sovereign would not be so simple.
……
Among the Fivefold Realm, aside from the stagnant Taiji Realm, the Supreme Ease Realm, Prime Essence World, and Prime Origin Realm were all teeming with powerful cultivators, their domains growing more prosperous by the day. Prime Essence World had even leapt to become the foremost of the Fivefold Realm, surpassing Supreme Ease Realm and thriving ever more.
Only the Primordial World remained awkwardly behind. In recent years, aside from the powerhouses of old, almost no new generation of experts had emerged there. For the cultivators of Primordial World, its inability to match the other realms lay in its incompleteness.
Even Li Jiancheng failed to complete Primordial World in the past, but now success seemed possible. The reason was Nora—she was the most determined restorer of Primordial World. Back then, when Sacred Dao Domain produced a peerless cultivator, if Primordial World tried to merge Sacred Dao Domain into itself, it would have been courting disaster.
Unexpectedly, a twist of fate occurred—the Creation War wiped out all the Prime Realm powerhouses of Primordial World, but it also caused the top cultivators of Sacred Dao Domain to vanish as well.
This, in turn, gave Primordial World the opportunity to be completed. In recent years, aside from her relentless cultivation, Nora has focused on fully merging Primordial World with Sacred Dao Domain, striving to make it a true great realm—one that might even surpass Prime Essence World.
The plan was slow but steady. What Nora and all the powerhouses of Primordial World did not expect was the arrival of Joe Di in Celestial Beyond.
It would have been fine if it were just Joe Di—though formidable, he was not invincible. In the end, Nora joined forces with several other Prime Realm Saint Emperors to gravely injure him, and he vanished without a trace.
But how many years have passed since then? The same Joe Di returned to Celestial Beyond, not only slaughtered all the Prime Realm powerhouses there, but also seized control of Celestial Beyond and destroyed the Lifeforce Altar used for the realm fusion. He nearly wiped out everyone Nora sent.
When Nora received the news, she was grateful not to be in Celestial Beyond. She was not the reckless sort—judging by Joe Di’s displayed strength, she believed that had she been there, she would have fallen to him just like the other Prime Realm cultivators.
As for how Joe Di became so powerful in such a short time, Nora did not question it or ponder the reason. She had seen such people before—back in the day, wasn’t Damian Ning of Prime Essence World just like this?
Moreover, Nora was certain that Joe Di would come to Primordial World to eliminate her completely.
Having survived in the cosmic void for so many years, and having contended both openly and secretly with powerhouses like Damian Ning, Nora naturally had her own survival strategies.
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Back then, she had instructed Jack Nie that any cultivator from Sacred Dao Domain who was captured must have their Commsphere copied and preserved. A Commsphere is imprinted with a trace of the cultivator’s spirit mark, making duplication difficult. But Nora happened to know this technique, and taught it to Jack Nie. Jack Nie was obedient—he did not put away Vera Tang’s Commsphere, but used her spirit mark to make a copy, which he stored in the warehouse.
After learning of Joe Di’s sudden surge in power, Nora began seeking ways to survive—one to save her own life, and one to preserve Primordial World.
In the end, she decided to take the initiative and lure Joe Di into a trap array to kill him. As bait, she happened to have Vera Tang’s Commsphere. Her original reason for instructing Jack Nie to copy the Sacred Dao Domain cultivators’ Commspheres was as a backup, in case Lord Ye suddenly appeared. Unexpectedly, Lord Ye did not show up, but Joe Di did.
She had the bait, but the trap array to confine Joe Di was another matter.
Back then, she and several Prime Realm powerhouses trapped Joe Di in Celestial Beyond, and even after severely injuring him, they still failed to keep him there. Nora did not believe that a mere trap array could finish Joe Di off.
But there was one place Nora was certain could kill Joe Di: Sovereign’s Vale. Dao resonance shrouded the entrance year-round, and spiritual sense could not penetrate it. Yet any cultivator who entered never returned.
It was said that Sovereign’s Vale contained the Silent Abyssal Magma. Not only that, but it also held the highest-ranked Deathtrap Arrays. Not even Joe Di, nor even a Third Step powerhouse, could enter Sovereign’s Vale and survive.
At that moment, Nora stood at the outskirts of Sovereign’s Vale in Primordial World, her voluptuous figure, blue eyes, and golden hair striking even after all these years. She still felt a hint of excitement and relief in her eyes. She had succeeded—three years ago, she had truly lured Joe Di into Sovereign’s Vale. For the past three years, she had personally guarded the entrance, certain that Joe Di showed no signs of coming out.
Even so, Nora did not plan to leave just yet. She intended to guard the entrance to Sovereign’s Vale for ten years. If, after ten years, Joe Di still did not reappear, she would resume the plans that had been ruined by Joe Di before.
Her purpose in staying here was to ensure that, should Joe Di somehow escape, he would be left with only a sliver of life. She would be here to claim that last breath.
Without Joe Di, Celestial Beyond was nothing but a gathering of useless people to Nora.