After Joe Di tossed the Immortal King aside, he couldn't be bothered to pay him any attention and walked straight into the depths of the grand array. A mere Immortal King—even if his cultivation hadn't been crippled—was nothing for Joe Di to worry about. Besides, Joe Di knew that even if the Immortal King tried to escape, he wouldn't get far.
Very soon, Joe Di discovered that this grand array still contained corrosive toxins, though they were much weaker than those outside.
"Hey, are you new here?" A similarly frail-looking man spotted Joe Di, exclaimed in surprise, and then shouted, "Greg Palmer, did you take this guy's ring?"
"Another one?" Instead of calling Greg Palmer over, this man summoned another skinny fellow.
Joe Di recognized both of them—they were the ones who had rushed out of the protective array earlier to snatch rings.
At this moment, Joe Di's divine sense had already covered the entire grand array. Aside from one area in the center that his sense couldn't penetrate, there were only three living people in this array.
"That's right, Senior. Only the three of us are left in here." The frail Immortal King Joe Di had tossed aside earlier hurried over, his tone ingratiating.
Joe Di swept his divine sense over the three men and saw clearly that their cultivation was barely a fraction of what it should be—two Immortal Venerables and one Immortal King.
"Go ahead, tell me—what exactly happened here?" Joe Di fixed his gaze on the three frail men before him.
"Let me explain." The man who had called out about another newcomer stepped forward and cupped his fists to Joe Di.
With just that gesture, Joe Di felt a wave of deadly intent sweep over him—the man was trying to ambush him. If this Immortal Venerable were at full strength, he could indeed easily pull off a sneak attack. But now, with this entire place under Joe Di's divine sense, the fact that he still dared to try was simply courting death.
Without hesitation, Joe Di threw a punch. Against someone whose cultivation was only one percent of its former strength, Joe Di could have killed him with a slap. It was the sneak attack that enraged Joe Di, prompting his furious strike. He would never give such trash the chance to reincarnate.
He had no grudge against this man, nor any intention of killing him, but since the man had chosen to attack him first, there was no reason to hold back.
Boom! A mountain-like fist swept in from the void, instantly reversing the oppressive sense of death. The frail Immortal Venerable cried out in terror, "Impossible! How could you sense..."
But just as his Bee-tail Needle was about to shoot out, Joe Di's fist peak was already bearing down on him.
Splurt! A cloud of black blood exploded. The man's primordial spirit had just begun to emerge when a second fist peak blasted it into nothingness, annihilating his soul.
Seeing Joe Di kill Barry Grant with a single punch, the other Immortal Venerable shuddered instinctively. He hurriedly bowed and said, "Senior, I never imagined Barry Grant would try to ambush you. I have nothing to do with him."
As he spoke, the Immortal Venerable didn't even attempt to defend himself. Against Joe Di's power, any attempt at resistance would be useless.
"Senior, I was just helping those two guard the entrance—I have nothing to do with Barry Grant." Greg Palmer, the Immortal King Joe Di had thrown aside earlier, also hurriedly bowed to the ground.
"Speak. What happened here?" Joe Di said coolly.
The Immortal Venerable replied urgently, "Allow me, Senior. My name is Howard Potter, but because my weapon is a blade, many friends call me Seven-Blade Howard."
"Skip the nonsense. Just tell me the important parts," Joe Di said impatiently.
"Yes, yes..." Howard Potter quickly repeated, then more cautiously continued, "I heard that Celestial Blade Steel appeared in the Lunar Celestial Sea, so I rushed here to look for it and hoped to forge a blade..."
Since the man was searching for Celestial Blade Steel, Joe Di couldn't be bothered to scold him. Both Celestial Blade Steel and Violet Silksand are considered top-tier refining materials in the cultivation world, but in reality, neither has a grade—they're ungraded materials, even in the Immortal Realm.
The reason they're ungraded and so precious is because when combined, they can be used to forge blades that can be upgraded. The Azure Veil Blade Joe Di carried was originally made from Celestial Blade Steel and Violet Silksand, and it had now advanced to the rank of a superior immortal weapon.
"When I arrived at the Lunar Celestial Sea, I really did find Celestial Blade Essence Gold. But before I could grab it, the Lunar Death Mist rose up. I was swept into this place and only managed to survive by relying on some Antidote Immortal Pills I had. When I entered, there were seven people in this array. But the toxic mist seeped in here too, and the array gate couldn't be closed. That's how I ended up in this frail state—everyone else died, and Yuan Bao and Greg Palmer arrived later..."
After finishing, Howard Potter still looked at Joe Di with lingering fear. He was certain Joe Di hadn't reached Immortal King, but to be this powerful without that breakthrough was simply terrifying.
Joe Di frowned. "Then why were you all fighting over rings?"
Joe Di could still cultivate in here, but he doubted Hu Hou could do the same.
Worried that staying silent would make him seem useless, Greg Palmer quickly spoke up before Hu Hou could, "They're all hoping to find antidote pills in the newcomers' rings. Honestly, even if you hadn't shown up, Senior, we wouldn't have lasted much longer."
Greg Palmer's words implied to Joe Di that whether he killed them or not didn't really matter.
Joe Di nodded. "So what's the deal with the center of this grand array?"
Howard Potter quickly answered before Greg Palmer could, "Senior, no one has been able to enter the array center—I've been here the longest and even I can't get in."
After all his questions, Joe Di learned little of value except that this protective array had existed for a long time. He picked up the rings scattered on the ground and waved his hand, "Go wait over there. Don't disturb me."
"Yes, yes..." Howard Potter and Greg Palmer dared not linger before Joe Di and hurriedly retreated. At this moment, they wanted to be as far from Joe Di as possible.
Joe Di walked toward the center of the array. Even his divine sense couldn't penetrate it, and he had no idea what lay inside.
When he was still several meters from the array center, Joe Di suddenly sensed a familiar aura—was this the lingering aura of the Sacred Yin Pearl?
Very soon, Joe Di confirmed it—there really was lingering aura from the Sacred Yin Pearl here. Since the Sacred Yin Pearl was now in his spiritual sea, its presence here meant it had once appeared in this place.
Just because others couldn’t penetrate it with their divine sense or walk inside didn’t mean Joe Di couldn’t.
Joe Di sat at the center of the array and began to circulate his rules, trying to sense the surrounding laws.
One profound Dao insight after another was captured by Joe Di. In just a few days, his divine sense had already penetrated to the core of the protective array. In the center was a restriction, and its level was extremely high.
If not for his Ninth Dao Principle, Joe Di would never have attempted something so futile. This restriction was definitely beyond a ninth-grade immortal array, and every time his divine sense touched a new foundational law, he felt an overwhelming dizziness.
Joe Di understood the reason—this place’s array principles were simply too advanced. Even with his Ninth Dao Principle, his arraycraft and cultivation were still far too weak.
Immersed in these intricate and profound array patterns, Joe Di hadn’t yet grasped a single foundational law, but his arraycraft was rapidly improving.
Half a year passed in a flash, and Joe Di’s arraycraft soared past Eighth-Tier Immortal Arraymaster, stepping into the ranks of Ninth-Tier Immortal Array Emperor. At the same time, he captured his first foundational law.
The first step is always the hardest—once he started, Joe Di quickly captured a second foundational law. After grasping the first, it took only three days for his divine sense to penetrate the profound restriction and locate the array’s foundation.
This restriction was simply too defiant of the heavens—even though Joe Di had grasped the foundational laws of the grand array, his cultivation was too limited to break it in a short time.
Unless he spent an enormous amount of time, Joe Di simply didn’t have that luxury.
As long as he knew the location of the array foundation, he could forcibly break through the restriction. No matter how powerful it was, with such thin immortal energy around, it wouldn’t last long. Besides, Joe Di faintly sensed the restriction was already damaged, as if it had been torn apart before.
Sure enough, once Joe Di began attacking the restriction head-on, it only took a day before it gave out with a cracking sound. Joe Di stared in surprise at what appeared before him.
All he saw was a dried-up pool of blood, and besides that, a set of withered bones bound in chains.
The moment Joe Di saw those bones, he immediately knew whose remains they were. The owner of that body was the same frail primordial spirit he’d encountered when he obtained the Sacred Yin Pearl.