Xiuxian: I studied abroad in modern times

Chapter 633 Entering the Great Array, the Star Chess Game
"...In the first year of the Celestial Court, Dao Lord Zhang Wuyi of the Taiyi Xuan Shu attained Dao using the Heavenly Evolution Array Plate, and the entire Nine Mountains celebrated for three days..."

"...The Celestial Evolution Array Disk is one of the basic infrastructures of the Celestial Court, and it is widely used in the Celestial Court, the Underworld, and even the myriad realms. According to the laws of the Celestial Court, the Celestial Evolution Array Disk of a public, non-secret institution should meet the requirements of algorithm transparency and public disclosure of results, and any modification to the algorithm must be reviewed by the plenary assembly..."

—Excerpt from *The History of the Nine Mountains Immortal Court*, Volume One

……

"Sect Leader Zheng, what are you laughing at?"

Inside the Jade Pavilion, the Goddess of Rainbow Robes looked at Zheng Fa with a puzzled expression, somewhat bewildered.

"Senior sister... Oh, I, the Nine Mountains Sect Master Zhang Wuyi, have attained the Dao Fruit."

"Master Zhang has attained enlightenment? Congratulations, Sect Leader Zheng." Ni Chang Yuanjun first offered her congratulations with a smile, then seemed to remember something and asked in surprise, "I remember Master Zhang isn't very old, is he?"

"Yes, he's not even three hundred years old now."

“This…” Ni Chang Yuanjun was stunned. “To attain the Dao of a Loose Immortal in just three hundred years? Besides you, Sect Leader Zheng, does the Nine Mountains Sect actually have such a talent?”

Zheng Fa smiled slightly and explained, "My cultivation speed is fast because of various fortuitous encounters... But on the other hand, I also wasted a lot of time when I was creating the Huangting Jing and other teachings."

"Others in my Nine Mountains Sect have the Yellow Court Classic to refer to. Even if their circumstances are not as good as mine, as long as they have enough talent, they will not be too slow. If they have some fortuitous encounters, they will be even faster."

"In fact, it should be that each generation is faster than the last, and the later generations surpass the earlier ones."

This argument sounded reasonable, but it was something that Ni Chang Yuan Jun had never heard of before, and she fell silent for a moment.

But Zheng Fa spoke up again: "Actually, Yuanjun is a member of my Nine Mountains Sect, so it probably won't be too slow."

He would not underestimate Yuanjun or any cultivator who had achieved something in the Four Sects system—perhaps there were differences in knowledge and concepts, but in terms of temperament and talent, they were elites selected from several eras—therefore, his words were extremely sincere.

"Stop talking." Ni Chang Yuanjun waved her hands repeatedly, looking conflicted as if she wanted to cover her ears, and asked, "Can we go find Lady Jellyfish now?"

"I have been waiting for you, Lord Yuan."

Ni Chang Yuanjun was indeed quite considerate. He originally planned to set off after the Nine Mountains Sect's general meeting, but since Senior Sister Zhang was going to prove her Dao, he waited for a while longer. Although Ni Chang Yuanjun was anxious, she did not urge him.

At this moment, his senior sister successfully attained the Dao of the Loose Immortal, and he was finally able to explore the Zhou Tian Star Array with peace of mind.

Ni Chang Yuanjun picked up the token, glanced at Zheng Fa, took a deep breath, and channeled her immortal power into it.

A beam of white light shot out from the front of the token, enveloping Ni Chang Yuan Jun. Zheng Fa then saw that Ni Chang Yuan Jun's body was like a snowman under the scorching sun, slowly melting from head to toe.

A moment later, the figure of Ni Chang Yuan Jun disappeared.

Zheng Fa waited for a while, but no news came from the Jade Tablet of Creation. He sighed inwardly. They had already agreed that when Ni Chang Yuan Jun entered the Zhou Tian Star Array, she would send him a spiritual message to let him know she was safe. But now that Ni Chang Yuan Jun had not been heard from for a long time, either the spiritual communication was interrupted or something had happened to her.

After waiting for a while, and still no news from Ni Chang Yuan Jun, he didn't hesitate any longer and reached out to pick up the token.

Zheng Fa has never been to an amusement park. In his early years in the modern world, he was poor. Later, when he became rich, he practiced martial arts and cultivated immortality. Those thrilling amusement facilities were no longer exciting enough for him, which is actually quite a pity.

I have no regrets now.

Upon touching the token, Zheng Fa felt as if he had first been on a pirate ship for two hours, then jumped onto a roller coaster. He rode up and down the coaster, rushed to a cliff, and was then thrown out of the roller coaster, flying thousands of miles into the sky, where he began to parachute.

Once his feet touched the ground, he snapped out of his daze and looked around.

"Sect Leader Zheng, are you alright?"

"I am concerned," said the Lady of the Rainbow Robes.

Zheng Fa turned his head and looked around, only to find himself on what seemed to be an artificial planet.

The reason it is called an artificial planet is that it is obviously not very big. In fact, when Zheng Fa’s divine sense was spread out, it seemed to cover a small part of the planet.

On the other hand, there are countless runes flowing on the surface of this planet. Zheng Fa also found these runes quite familiar; he had seen them in the quiet room where the jellyfish was in seclusion.

He immediately became certain that he had indeed entered the Zhou Tian Star Array, and that this planet was probably a part of the Zhou Tian Star Array.

Zheng Fa looked around, but all around was pitch black. He could no longer see the Xuanwei Realm, and he could not even contact the Creation Jade Tablet which was surrounded by the Primordial Purple Qi.

Or rather, they have distanced themselves from any Taoist civilization.

Looking down at himself and then carefully examining the runes, Zheng Fa suddenly became interested.

"Does the Primordial Lord know how far we are from Xuanwei?"

“I don’t know.” Ni Chang Yuanjun shook her head and said, “Even Golden Immortals don’t dare to travel easily in the Chaos, as they are prone to losing their way. From this perspective, distance in the Chaos is meaningless.”

That's quite true, but measurement is inherently a mathematical property.

"So, this Zhou Tian Star Array must at least have the ability to teleport."

Zheng Fa's eyes were full of inquiry.

He entered the Zhou Tian Star Array originally to find the jellyfish and return to Xuanwei, and also to see if he could get a piece of the Taiyin Laurel Tree.

But this grand formation gave him a small surprise.

Xuanwei doesn't have a teleportation array, I didn't expect to find one here.

Or rather, the Zhou Tian Star Array seems to be a mode of transportation that allows travel through chaos.

This alone makes the Zhou Tian Star Array extremely valuable for research. In fact, if they could understand the Zhou Tian Star Array, they might be able to return even if they couldn't find the jellyfish.

Ni Chang Yuan Jun looked dejected: "But we only have the token to enter, not the token to return."

This is indeed a problem.

Zheng Fa turned his head and looked around. He saw that the planet was barren and devoid of any vegetation or human habitation. It looked as if it had been desolate for tens of thousands of years.

The two of them were in a desperate situation, with no one to turn to for help.

Zheng Fa sensed for a while before he breathed a sigh of relief, realizing that the connection between himself and the Heavenly Emperor was still intact.

After a while, he frowned again.

"What happened to Sect Leader Zheng?"

"Time is strange here..."

"The timing is strange?"

“Sometimes fast, sometimes slow.” He paused, then explained, “Compared to Xuanwei, time here sometimes seems to stand still, and sometimes it’s a hundred times faster than in Xuanwei.”

While the Goddess of the Rainbow Robe was present, she felt nothing, but Zheng Fa, having the Heavenly Emperor as his counterpart, experienced it deeply.

It was like watching two screens: one playing smoothly, and the other constantly pausing, fast-forwarding, and then slowing down, making it incredibly frustrating to watch.

Ni Chang Yuanjun's expression changed slightly, and she also felt that this place was strange. She frowned and looked around, muttering, "Lord Jellyfish and the others should have been here before. I wonder where they are now, and they didn't leave us any information..."

Upon hearing this, Zheng Fa's heart stirred slightly, and he once again brought out the Mandarin Duck Mirror given to him by the Nine Nether Emperor.

Sure enough, as soon as the treasure mirror appeared, it seemed to be attracted by some unknown entity and flew off in a certain direction.

Zheng and Fa exchanged a glance. As the precious mirror flew forward, it flew for half an hour before standing in the void. Suddenly, Fairy Lingxi on the mirror's surface stepped out of the mirror and landed in the void, bowing in front of her.

A palace appeared from the void, facing the three. "Lingxi..."

A long sigh echoed from the depths of the palace, followed by the emergence of two female immortals.

"Lady Taiyin! Lady Qingnu!" Lady Nishang Yuanjun exclaimed with delight.

Zheng Fa looked at the two Golden Immortals of Yaochi.

Qingnu had the face of a young girl, and her attire was similar to that of Ni Chang Yuanjun: a strapless top and a short skirt, very elegant and wild.

The Moon Fairy was different. She was a thirty-year-old woman with an indifferent expression and dressed in simple yet gorgeous clothes, giving off a somewhat unapproachable vibe.

The Moon Fairy nodded to the two of them, then looked at the true spirit of the Spirit Fairy, and after a long while sighed, "It really is fake..."

"Lord Taiyin, where is Lady Shuimu?"

The Moon Fairy did not answer the question posed by the Goddess of Rainbow Robes, but instead pointed at Zheng Fa and asked, "Who is he?"

"This is Zheng Fa, the sect leader of the Nine Mountains Sect, he..."

“Nine Mountains Sect? Zheng Fa?” The Moon Fairy’s face showed deep disappointment. She waved her hand, interrupting the Rainbow Lady, “What a pity…”

"What's a pity..."

"He is not the one we are waiting for."

Ni Chang Yuan Jun's eyes widened, and she exclaimed in realization, "It was you, Lord Tai Yin, who led us here?"

"I am waiting for the real Lingxi." The Moon Fairy shook her head, her expression turning indifferent again, and led the two inside.

After everyone was seated in the main hall, the Moon Fairy explained, "The disappearance of the jellyfish and the destruction of the Jade Pool Wonderland made us realize that Lingxi from back then was problematic, which is why we came here."

"I left this guidance so that I might wait for the Nine Netherworlds, or even... the Heavenly River, to come."

Zheng Fa then understood.

The Moon Fairy was quite shrewd. She had probably figured out what Lu Yao had done, and therefore judged that the real Ling Xi was the one who could be trusted, and that the real Ling Xi had the Nine Nether Emperor and the other person standing behind her.

The Moon Goddess was waiting for these two.

Zheng Fa's arrival undoubtedly disappointed her greatly.

"Nine Netherworld Emperor, Heavenly River Venerable?" Ni Chang Yuanjun was still puzzled. "Lord Taiyin, are you waiting for them? What about Lady Shuimu? What about Lady Rang Sui?"

The Moon Fairy and the Green Maiden exchanged a glance, their expressions both somewhat somber.

"Lord Jellyfish is trapped in the Zhou Tian Star Array, and we haven't been able to find her," Taiyin said bluntly. "Rang Sui was thrown into chaos by the two of us and his whereabouts are unknown."

"Into chaos..."

Ni Chang Yuan Jun's expression changed slightly.

Has something changed at Yaochi?

"Yes, the Heavenly Maiden of Bliss has become a Golden Immortal, and Yaochi has become an appendage of Leiyin Temple."

"Just as I suspected." The Moon Fairy shook her head and said, "Although we can't sense Xuanwei's condition, he has been frequently suffering from qi deviation in recent days, his mind is restless, and the sound of chanting scriptures is often heard in his mind..."

Yes, the foundation of the divine path is paramount. Now that Buddhist temples are everywhere in Yaochi, even the Moon Fairy and her companions have been greatly influenced.

“The three of us have our own Golden Immortal Daoist temples, which allowed us to resist at first, but Rang Sui is different after all. She was converted by Buddhism, so the two of us could only banish her into chaos…”

Zheng Fa thought for a while and understood. Among the three immortals of Yaochi, not to mention the Moon Fairy, the Green Maiden was a primordial spirit, and they all had different backgrounds.

However, the goddess who was in charge of the year-repelling ritual practiced the purest divine methods, and therefore was most affected.

"It is precisely because of this that we have also suffered serious injuries and our foundations are unstable. We dare not show ourselves easily, let alone enter the great formation."

"That's why we wanted to wait for the Nine Nether Emperor to come and resolve our predicament."

Now Zheng Fa fully understood the Moon Fairy's thoughts. She no longer trusted the people of Yaochi, which was why she hid. Only the true spirit of the Spirit Fairy could find her.

Clearly, the appearance of Zheng Fa and Ni Chang Yuan Jun dashed the hopes of the Moon Fairy.

Although she had heard of his name, she had never set foot in Xuanwei during this era, so how could she trust a mere wandering immortal like herself?

Ni Chang Yuanjun understood as well, and she said urgently, "Lord Taiyin, Sect Leader Zheng is exceptionally talented. Now that Emperor Jiuyou has joined the Jiushan Sect, his arrival here will definitely be of great help."

The Moon Fairy glanced at Zheng Fa, shook her head, seemingly disbelieving, and suddenly said, "You came for the Moon Laurel, didn't you?"

"..."

"The aura of the Fusang tree on your body may fool others, but it won't fool me," the Moon Fairy said, shaking her head. "You intend to cultivate using the essence of the Moon Laurel?"

"That's what the fairy said."

“No.” Fairy Taiyin said decisively, “The essence of laurel is extremely precious, and I have never given it to anyone else. Moreover, I am now seriously injured and cannot afford to lose even a fraction of my essence.”

Zheng Fa fell silent.

Given the current state of the Moon Fairy, it is indeed difficult for her to agree to this.

He didn't persist in pressing the issue, but instead asked, "Then why don't you two go look for jellyfish?"

"Because of the Zhou Tian Star Array."

Qingnu interjected, "We tried it and almost got trapped in the formation and couldn't get back... It was only because Taiyin had a deep understanding of this formation that we were able to escape."

In fact, the Taiyin corresponds to the Moon Goddess, and it is quite related to this Zhou Tian Star Array.

Ni Chang Yuanjun hurriedly asked, "Is this Zhou Tian Star Array really that powerful?"

"This is not the complete Zhou Tian Star Array, but a fragmented array, possibly less than one-tenth of the original array. We don't know who broke this array back then."

The Moon Fairy's tone was somewhat wistful.

"There are only thirty-six stars in this formation now, and the two of us can't break it."

Upon hearing this, Qingnu suddenly complained, "You still talk about breaking the formation? I couldn't play any more moves after the fifth move of your game."

"A chess game?" Ni Chang Yuanjun was taken aback and asked, "What chess game?"

The Moon Fairy pointed in the void, and the scenery in the hall changed dramatically. Everyone seemed to be in a starry sky, surrounded by thirty-six chess pieces that looked like planets.

"This is the Star Chess Formation that I deduced from observing the remaining formations here," the Moon Fairy explained. "If we can place these thirty-six stars within it to form an array, open the Gate of Life, break the array, and rescue the Jellyfish, then there will be hope."

Zheng Fa looked at the thirty-six chess pieces and saw that the runes on them were all different sizes.

"I tried for who knows how long, and at most I managed to make eight moves."

"Breaking the formation is still a long way off."

(End of this chapter)