549 The Armillary Sphere

"Did someone break into Star Hall?"

"It was probably a higher being, a Martial True Divine or a True Elemental Spiritual knight!"

The island had descended into chaos as the all the dream masters in the Realm Alliance were activated.

In the past, a True Divine or True Elemental spiritual knight would not be too hard to for the dream masters to deal with.

For example, the Elder Smelter dared to challenge the Venerable Longhu all those years ago because of his latent power.

However, times had changed!

"Bang!"

In the midst of all the commotion, a deafening sound rang out from the bronze hall.

A gaping hole had been torn into the rear wall of the bronze hall. A dark shadowy figure had sped out at a blistering speed and there was no way anyone else could keep up.

Of course, it was not like they wanted to or dared to chase after the shadowy figure either.

"Given that he had broken through the Realm Alliance array, could this True Divine be targeting a sage?"

The few remaining elders streamed into Star Hall and saw that the armillary sphere in the middle of the chamber had disappeared. A large hole lay in the place where it had once stood.

Beside the hole lay a dried up corpse. It was that of an old man and the elders could see from the clothes it was wearing that it was the Ancient One!

"The Ancient One...is dead?"

A dream master fell to the floor in a daze.

The dream masters being swept off from their altar was already a huge blow. Now that their foremost sage had fallen, the implications were unthinkable.

"Pass down orders from the elders' council. This hall is to be sealed up! No news is to be leaked out!"

"Not even a word!"

An elder who had recently been promoted sucked in a breath of cold air. He turned around with a stern look.

"What we're looking at right now is the shell that the great sage left behind. The great sage has gone to dream-traverse through the three thousand worlds!"

"Yes! That's right!"

The other elders looked at each other furtively. They knew that if news of this matter got out, the Realm Alliance would fall apart.

"Also...who's the murderer?"

The elder bent down to examine the Ancient One's corpse suspiciously.

"Not many people in the world could make it past the array placed on or perimeters. There are only a few left after eliminating those who have retreated…"

He then thought to himself:

'Unfortunately...whoever it is, the Realm Alliance is not in the position to offend him."

"Elder Song, what do you suggest we do? We are all behind you!"

The core leaders among the dream masters exchanged a look with each other and agreed unanimously.

"Excellent. The most important thing we should do right now is to stay united!"

Elder Song's eyes gleamed.

"We shall spend this time on consolidation and keeping to ourselves. If this piece of news were to leak out, Baize Mountain and the Evil Divine Sect would take the chance to wipe us out!"

Being on different parts of the hierarchy would beget different perspectives.

To others, halting the Realm Alliance's expansion of influence might be a bad move but Elder Song saw this as an opportunity.

As long as he could reinforce his personal authority and gather all the forces of the Realm Alliance to his side, he would become a hegemon in his own right!

Even if he could not do that, wielding some degree of power in the Realm Alliance would ensure that he was well-regarded no matter whom he chose to ally with in the future!

If necessary, he would use the entire Realm Alliance as his bargaining chip.

He had learnt a great many things from having clawed his way up from the bottom!

...

"No one actually bothered to chase after me. The Realm Alliance has reached a new low…"

Fang Yuan had reached the shores of the island and boarded the little canoe unhurriedly. He did not know what to feel as the lights of the island faded into the distance.

The Realm Alliance was loosely organised and relied on the Ancient One together with his team of 7th Tier Illusionary Divine dream masters to maintain order.

The Ancient One had held on to his power despite everything by virtue of his coolheadedness and his status as a True Divine spiritual knight. He was a wily man indeed.

With their stabilising figure gone, it was inevitable that the Realm Alliance was going to fall into disarray.

"My failure to kill the Ancient One will lead to many more problems in the future!"

Fang Yuan decided to stop over at one of the deserted islands, where he found a cave to settle down in. He then took out a few crystals to illuminate his dark surroundings.

Immediately after, he produced the Mountain River Pearl and tilted it gently.

"Kaboom!"

The world around Fang Yuan began to tremble as a simple looking armillary sphere fell to the ground with a dull thud.

This armillary sphere had a bronze base and many runes were inscribed on it with intricacy and precision. There were three large rotating bands held together by a golden bearing.

"Heaven and Earth will define spatial dimensions…"

Fang Yuan muttered to himself as he ran his fingers along the armillary sphere.

"The three rotating bands represent the three-dimensional world...the golden bearing is the long river of time that connects the past to the present...is this what the Realm Alliance had in mind when they designed the armillary sphere?"

Fang Yuan had many achievements and becoming one of the great academics of his age was one of them. Now that Fang Yuan got to examine the latest product of the Realm Alliance's research, he realised that it reinforced the accuracy of much of his knowledge. It was a beneficial experience for him.

"This armillary sphere serves as a calculator of realm coordinates...through deduction, we can obtain the coordinates of the worlds beyond Da Qian!"

Fang Yuan thought for a moment before placing his hand on the machine and exerting elemental energy on it.

"The Da Qian world has shifted, thus rendering all the calculated coordinates useless. Even the Dream Master Astral Projection Technique had been compromised. But the Ancient One had managed to devise an alternative in such a short time!"

With the sturdy injection of dream elemental energy, the whole armillary sphere began to glow up in a multitude of colours.

"The Ye sisters had made an error though...the Realm Alliance had not created a new method for spiritual knights to dream-traverse They still have to use dream elemental energy as well as rely on specialised equipment…"

As Fang Yuan stood thinking, the armillary sphere came to a halt. A dark gap had opened up in thin air where dim spots of light could be seen from within. 　

Fang Yuan also felt a sense of closeness and belonging.

"This feeling of familiarity can't be wrong. It must be the Ancient Realm!"

Lights had begun to dance in Fang Yuan's eyes but he held back from travelling immediately.

"This is the last coordinate that was set on the armillary sphere. It seems that the Ancient One's intended destination was the Ancient Realm...he managed to secure access to the realm because he had gambled on it using his life essence. It was also because the arrays in Star Hall aided his efforts…"

Fang Yuan could not match the Ancient One in terms of resources but Fang Yuan had his own strengths too.

His level of cultivation was unaffected and he could simply make use of the traditional method of dream traversing as long as he had the correct coordinates.

"But...the Heavenly Eye Lake has been seeing quite a lot of action lately. This entire place is within the territorial confines of the Realm Alliance. After causing such a huge commotion, there would probably be a thorough search conducted in the nearby islands. Wouldn't I be looking for trouble then?"

Thus, it was still necessary to find a suitable place in which he could settle his physical body.

Fang Yuan did not even consider Nine Extremes Mountain an ideal location.

Although the defences there were strong, it was a place that was not difficult to locate! It was a place that could capitulate if one had the resolve and resources to make it happen!

"When a true BOSS goes into closed-door cultivation, he does not tell anyone nor stay at his old quarters. Otherwise, this might give others a chance to prey on him...many have died from their carelessness regarding this issue throughout history."

Fang Yuan laughed coldly.

He knew that he probably would not be too concerned if he came out of his closed-door cultivation to find that Nine Extreme Mountain had been destroyed. 　　　　

As long as there were people around him, he would be able to rally them to his side.

"The Ancient One actually dared to make such a gamble. Could it be that he had made a new discovery?"

The Ancient One had left Fang Yuan fuming at his actions.

There was nothing wrong with dream masters engaging in dream-traversing but the Ancient One had betrayed Da Qian with his actions!

Heaven's Will would punish him in due course!

To some extent, Fang Yuan had forced the Ancient One to make that gamble. However, Fang Yuan had a feeling that the Ancient One had already been entertaining the thought of it for a while. Fang Yuan merely provided the decisive push.

"To be honest, I can't say that it was a wrong decision…"

Fang Yuan let out a long sigh.

The Da Qian world had undoubtedly moved towards the Demonic Heart Realm. Fang Yuan had already done his best by growing Green Elemental Grass all over the place.

The Purple Eye Realm had been salvaged from the world-ending crisis but there was no guarantee that there would not be a second time.

As long as the source in the Demonic Heart Realm continued to exist, there was no running away!

"Da Qian has been tainted by the Demonic Heart elemental energy and can no longer break free. However, there is still hope for the Ancient Realm! Especially...since the Ancient One had lost his sage title and became a True Elemental spiritual knight. He has nothing to lose."

"He had taken this opportunity to escape Da Qian and the influence of the Demonic Heart Realm. He also managed to harvest some of the Ancient Realm's energy. Who knows, he might even regain his sagacity."

Fang Yuan had grasped the Ancient One's plan and found it to be sound. It was a rather impressive attempt to start anew.

No matter how powerful the higher beings or sages were, they would abandon ship if the ship they were on met with a mishap.

"To think that I had forced the Ancient One to strengthen his resolve."

Fang Yuan had mixed feelings about this.

The fact that the Ancient One was willing to gamble probably meant that there was a good chance that he might succeed. He had given his everything to the Ancient Realm and had won its favour as a result. The Ancient Realm now treated him the same way it treated Fang Yuan.

They were on level ground now.

Their progress in the Ancient Realm would reflect their true abilities.

It went without saying that Fang Yuan did not fear the Ancient One at all.

The Ancient One was not even Fang Yuan's match back in Da Qian, much less in the Ancient Realm.

The key was to be quick!

It was a race against the clock. The goal was to prevent the other party from harvesting the world's energy by seeking out his physical body and destroying it first!

Without hesitation, Fang Yuan kept the armillary sphere before disappearing into the night.