Chapter 408: Chapter 384: External Troubles and Internal Worries

Translator: 549690339

Obviously, Li Fan wasn’t the only one who noticed this.

After the battle, instead of showing any signs of excitement, Yan Hang and the others stared blankly at the fallen wood that was being turned into ashes in the intense flames.

“Damn it, these monsters seem to have grown stronger.” Looking at the pale wound on his arm, Yan Hang’s face revealed a look of disgust as he cursed in anger.

The rest of his group were also more or less injured.

“We need to report all this about the battle quickly. Hopefully, the top command will come up with a good plan soon. Otherwise, I’m afraid we might not hold on much longer.” A cultivator named Li Shifeng sighed and spoke.

Yan Hang let out a cold hum: he did not refute.

He opened up the Heaven Oversight Chronicles and began to report, eyes closed.

Li Fan was also examining the contents of the Heaven Oversight Chronicles.

Compared to when they first entered Five Elements Cave Heaven, the information contained in it was much more detailed.

“The Great Array is now 78% complete.”

“It’s all going according to plan, even faster than we initially thought.”

“But clearly, things here are starting to spiral out of control.”

“It’s hard to tell what moves the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals will make next.”

Li Fan’s eyes flickered, his hands never stopped moving.

Will the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals manage to complete the Tianxuan Soul Locking Array as planned?

Li Fan was almost certain that they would.

At this time, most of the main active forces in the Five Elements Cave Heaven were merely Nascent Soul Monks.

However, the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals didn’t lack God Transforming cultivators.

They obviously hadn’t fully utilized their power.

If they found that the current resources were not enough to complete the mission, the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals would naturally increase their investments.

As for whether the cultivators in the Five Elements Cave Heaven could hang on long enough for the support to arrive— that was another matter entirely.

Just as Li Fan had predicted, the increasingly powerful monsters in the cave world were causing widespread panic.

Soon, Qi Buyi came forward to reassure everyone.

Firstly, she explained that due to the mutual restraint between the five elements, they did not expect any monster with a fusion of all five attributes to emerge.

In the worst-case scenario, only monsters with a fusion of four attributes would be born.

But that is likely to happen only in the final phase of the “Unity of Five Elements” process.

The main threats to deal with were monsters fused with two or three attributes.

Secondly, the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals was already aware of the current situation in the Five Elements Cave Heaven.

Help would be coming soon.

The size of the reinforcements was enormous – there were more people coming than all the cultivators currently working in the cave world combined.

Everyone needn’t worry.

Even though people harbored doubts about Qi Buyi’s explanation…

A definitive assurance finally gave people a sigh of relief.

As tension eased, people continued to work in apprehension, waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

Time continued ticking away amidst this tense atmosphere.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed since they entered the Five Elements Cave Heaven.

In the meantime, cultivators did come to assist.

However, the scale of reinforcements was far from what Qi Buyi had promised.

When questioned, Qi Buyi always sidestepped the issue with various excuses.

However, the arrival of two Integration Cultivators did manage to assuage the people’s worries.

With more reinforcements coming in, through their conversations, people learned why reinforcements were taking so long.

Over the past two years, the outside world had seen many upheavals.

Firstly, there were external worries.

The Five Elders Organization had started relocating their troops to the border area with tests and provocations happening more frequently.

What differed from the past was that they did not seem to have any intention of initiating large-scale conflicts.

Instead, they concentrated all their forces on Wind Thunder Region, which connected with their territories in Sky-Spirit State.

Citizen’s rumors suggested that the Five Elders Organization was covetous of the mysteries of the Tianxuan Soul Locking Array, and they wanted to seize the entire region from the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals to conduct a comprehensive and thorough study of the array.

Li Fan realized this was just an excuse on the surface.

The real target of the Five Elders Organization should still be the Void in the Sky-Spirit State, which gave birth to the Five Elements Cave Heaven.

“It seems that they can’t keep the secret any longer. Indeed, the anomalous activities of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals in Sky-Spirit State over these two years are enough to raise their suspicions.” Li Fan mused.

Besides the pressure from the Five Elders Organization…

The Alliance of Thousands of Immortals’ territories were not peaceful either.

During this period, many voices emerged from different places, opposing the widespread use of the Tianxuan Spirit Locking array.

And the ones voicing out were not nobodies.

Most of them were monks with a cultivation level of God Transformation or higher, holding important positions in various provinces.

It was unclear what had changed, but these monks, who had unequivocally expressed their support for the construction of the Spirit-locking Formation not long ago, unexpectedly switched sides and expressed their opposition clearly.

Moreover, their opposition was not just for the sake of opposition; they had plenty of valid arguments and reasons.

This was their viewpoint:

As everyone knows, no matter how exquisite an array is, there will always come a day when it is deciphered and broken.

In the past, there have been many instances where the Protection Matrix leaked information without the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals realizing it, catching them off guard.

This is why the Protection Matrix must be entirely replaced after a certain period.

Now, the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals is making a great effort and spending countless resources to construct a Tianxuan Soul Locking Array that covers all their territories. Can they guarantee that the Soul Locking Array will always be effective? If the Five Elders Organization were to decipher it soon after it’s built, wouldn’t that be a huge joke?

Apart from that, these people also doubted whether the Tianxuan Soul Locking Array could achieve the effects as advertised.

Because the “Thousand-faced Demon Lord” who had always been lurking around the territories of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals, had become increasingly rampant recently.

Many cultivators in high positions in several provinces couldn’t escape his onslaught.

Even in some provinces where the Tianxuan Soul Locking Array construction was complete, his killing spree was only slowed down a little.

In the end, he still managed to escape.

Moreover, even if he were caught, what then?

If the Five Elders Organization could cultivate one Thousand-faced Demon Lord, they could surely cultivate two or three.

When it was first advertised, the Tianxuan Soul Locking Array’s main purpose was to make all Five Elders’ Monks exposed with nowhere to hide.

Now, the enemy is rampaging in broad daylight in your territory, and you can’t do anything about it.

What is the use of this Tianxuan Soul Locking Array?

It’s undeniable that these people made valid points.

So much so that when they voiced their doubts to Alliance of Thousands of Immortals’ headquarters, it stirred up quite a resonance.

The wave of opposition was heating up, however, the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance headquarters unusually took no punitive action against these objectors, and instead fell into a strange silence.

Under such circumstances, the notorious Thousand-faced Demon Lord’s whereabouts became even more elusive, and his killings even more cruel and ferocious.

Apart from these internal and external worries, Li Fan heard an interesting piece of news.

Despite increasing tensions, a group called the Elemental Spirit Sect, based in Jiushan Province – bordering the territories of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals and Five Elders Organization, was flourishing.

This drew the attention of many cultivators.

All attention was all due to a unique technique within the Elemental Spirit Sect.

The technique in question was peculiar in that the more people cultivating it, the faster their cultivation speed became.