On the mountaintop.
After surveying his surroundings under the cover of night, Chu Fan sat down cross-legged.
Below the mountain, after waiting for a while and seeing Chu Fan not descend, the crowd began to murmur and speculate about what the young man with formidable strength intended to do.
Qi Shan hesitated for a moment before asking Liu Yunqing, "Sect Master, what does he want to do?"
"He probably wants to find a way to break through the Nine Gates Array surrounding the secret realm!"
Liu Yunqing's eyes gleamed, and he continued, "This Brother Wuming is more extraordinary than we imagined. I wonder which family he hails from!"
"This time, the Yunshan Sect can only befriend him, not offend him."
Upon hearing this assessment, Qi Shan’s expression was clearly surprised.
As Liu Yunqing’s trusted subordinate, Qi Shan knew his sect master had high standards and rarely praised anyone so highly. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Sect Master, how does this person's strength compare to yours?"
Earlier, Chu Fan had defeated a Half-Grandmaster with a single move.
Everyone was curious about the level of his strength.
"He is stronger than me!"
What?
His strength was actually greater than the Sect Master’s?
Qi Shan and the others around them gasped in unison.
Qi Junhao, who harbored considerable resentment, finally understood why the Sect Master had reprimanded him earlier about watching his words and not provoking that person.
Envy slowly began to creep into his heart.
When comparing oneself to others, one could be angered to death.
Qi Junhao knew very well how much effort and heart he had poured into reaching the Half-Grandmaster stage.
Furthermore, he understood that with the passage of time and his advancing age, he might never have the chance to enter the long-desired Grandmaster realm.
He felt that heaven was too unfair.
How could Chu Fan, so young, possess the realm he dreamed of?
The more he compared, the stronger Qi Junhao’s inner envy grew.
The night passed quickly.
In the early morning, as the first ray of sunlight illuminated Heavenly Sword Mountain, Chu Fan suddenly opened his eyes and got up.
He formed a hand seal, bringing his index and middle fingers together and sweeping them across his eyes.
A faint golden light surged in his vision.
Chu Fan had specifically studied the Nine Gates Array within the Eternal Hall. He knew that its continued efficacy over the years was primarily due to its harnessing of Feng Shui energy as a power source.
In essence, as long as the surrounding mountain ranges were not subjected to large-scale destruction and the Feng Shui energy remained unaffected, the Nine Gates Array could persist indefinitely.
It would take too long for a few half-baked experts from the Yunshan Sect to break it.
Chu Fan had no patience to wait.
Therefore, he prepared to take the initiative. From the summit of Heavenly Sword Mountain, he intended to leverage the nascent Feng Shui energy of the morning to locate the array points of the Nine Gates Array below Heavenly Sword Mountain.
Array points were akin to the pillars of a house.
If the pillars were destroyed, the house would naturally collapse.
This was the principle behind breaking the Nine Gates Array.
To those who did not understand Feng Shui or possess the ability to open their celestial eyes, the mountains appeared as they always did.
However, to Chu Fan, whose attainments in metaphysics were on par with his medical skills, the world appeared in a different light.
In less than ten minutes, the faint golden light in Chu Fan’s eyes receded and vanished.
Then, he leaped off the cliff, descending the mountain in an extremely rough manner.
With a resounding bang, the earth trembled.
"What happened?"
"Was there an earthquake?"
The Yunshan Sect members, who were still resting, were startled and rushed out of their tents.
As dust dispersed, Chu Fan emerged from the deep crater in the ground, dusting the dirt off his clothes.
Witnessing this scene, the crowd realized Chu Fan had jumped directly from the summit of Heavenly Sword Mountain. Their expressions were complex, and their gazes towards Chu Fan were filled with reverence.
Liu Yunqing also emerged from his tent and gave Chu Fan a thumbs-up, "Brother Wuming, you're amazing!"
Jumping from a mountain several hundred meters high, Liu Yunqing knew he would never dare to do it himself.
While it might not have been fatal, he would definitely have been injured.
Yet, Chu Fan was completely unharmed.
Was this the difference between the first and fifth ranks?
"Find a few people, to that spot, that spot, that spot…"
Chu Fan pointed to several locations and assigned people to dig. Once whatever was found beneath was destroyed, the Nine Gates Array outside the secret realm would naturally crumble.
Liu Yunqing, who already greatly admired Chu Fan, did not harbor any doubts and immediately arranged for personnel to excavate.
During this time, a group of people walked to one of the designated spots to observe.
Seeing that they had already dug more than a meter deep without finding anything, Qi Junhao couldn't help but mutter, "Isn't this a mistake? There's nothing down there."
"And how could this place, so far from Heavenly Sword Mountain, be connected to the arrangement below Heavenly Sword Mountain?"
Chu Fan, facing ignorance, was too lazy to explain and merely watched calmly.
In the blink of an eye, the excavation depth reached two meters, and still, nothing was found. Doubts began to surface, with everyone believing Chu Fan might have made a mistake, and there was nothing beneath.
Liu Yunqing also couldn't help but ask, "Wuming, could there be a mistake?"
To this, Chu Fan calmly and resolutely replied, "Keep digging!"
Qi Junhao, impatient to wait, went to a distant spot with another person, grumbling.
"Hmph, acting all high and mighty when you know nothing."
"Do you really think you know everything just because your strength is a bit better?"
"If we keep wasting time like this, who knows when we'll get into the secret realm!"
"And the Sect Master, even if he wants to make friends with him, does he need to be so accommodating?"
"He's practically shaming the Yunshan Sect!"
…
With existing envy in his heart and Chu Fan's methods yielding no immediate results, Qi Junhao's complaints grew more frequent.
Dozens of meters away.
Chu Fan's brow twitched.
"We found something!"
A shout suddenly came from the other side. Liu Yunqing's face lit up, and he directed the people digging in the deep pit, "Keep digging!"
Subsequently, everyone rushed to the location where something was found.
A stone pot was quickly unearthed.
Everyone stared at the stone pot with curiosity, also wondering how Chu Fan knew there was something there.
"What is it, what is it…"
Qi Junhao hurried over, and upon seeing the stone pot unearthed from the pit, he pushed through the onlookers and impatiently examined it.
Seeing that the diggers were still excavating at a leisurely pace, he confidently declared, "Why bother digging any further? Just pull it out!"
With that, he rolled up his sleeves, cupped the stone pot with both hands, and exerted all his strength to pull it upwards.
Liu Yunqing wanted to speak but hesitated, worried that the stone pot might have some kind of trap. However, seeing Chu Fan's calm expression, he said nothing more.
With a muffled thud, the stone pot was pulled out of the soil by Qi Junhao.
Everyone gathered around the stone pot in curiosity, discussing what might be inside.
"Wuming, do you know what's inside?" Liu Yunqing asked Chu Fan, believing that since he found it, he should have some idea.
Chu Fan shook his head.
"I only discerned that this location is a base point of the Nine Gates Array."
"However, things used as base points for formations are generally not ordinary."
Upon hearing this explanation, everyone's eyes lit up. Qi Junhao, who was protectively guarding the stone pot and preventing others from touching it, had his eyes shine even brighter. He shouted, "I dug this thing out of the ground, so it belongs to me. No one else can have it!"
Then, he hastily carried the stone pot towards the tents.
Chu Fan's lips curved slightly.
They took the bait!