Vegetation clung to Blue rocky terrains, painting the mountain slopes in lush shades of emerald green. Thick forests covered the lower slopes, forming a stark contrast to the bare, blue-gray stone that made up the higher reaches. From afar, the mountain range looked like a canvas of an artist's masterpiece, nature's perfect blending of earth, foliage, and sky.
Waterfalls cascaded down the sides of the mountains, sparkling like silver threads against the blue. Their distant roars echoed through the valleys, adding a sense of life and movement to the tranquil scenery. The air around the mountains was fresh, imbued with the crisp scent of pine, the earthiness of moist soil, and the sweet fragrance of blooming alpine flowers.
At night, the Blue Mountains would wear a cloak of indigo, lit only by the gleaming moon and stars. The sight was profoundly serene, the sky's vast canvas of twinkling stars mirrored in the crystal-clear mountain lakes, while the moon's silvery light bathed the peaks in a hauntingly beautiful glow.
One of the peaks of the Blue Mountains housed the new department of the Alchemy Hall of the Azure Dragon Sect. The department was named Spirit Pill Department.
This department was set up by the elder Du of the basic department of the alchemy hall. No one knew how or why this new department came into existence for a while.
Soon, the Administration Hall of the sect officially announced that the outer sect's Alchemy Hall had one more department, the Spirit Pill Department, and that this department would be creating Spirit Pills and Earth-grade pills.
This was very big news for the sect; so far, Earth-grade and Spirit-grade pills were developed only by the inner core sect's Alchemy Department.
There was always a shortage of these pills in the sect as the materials they required to concoct were very expensive, and the failure rate to concoct them was very high. Even with many talented alchemists, the inner sect's Alchemy Hall had to put in a lot of effort, and they couldn't create more than a few Earth-grade pills. Concocting spirit pills were relatively easier, but the sect had only three high-grade alchemists who could concoct these spirit pills.
Now that the outer sect alchemy hall had a department that could concoct spirit-grade pills, everyone was interested in these pills. Spirit-grade pills were desired by cultivators of every level as they could assist any cultivator, be they below or above earth-grade.
Tianlong turned out to be making a significant effort, as he gifted Han Cai the entire blue mountain area.
The first thing Han Cai did after receiving the mountain was to have Elder Du select five thousand contracted disciples to relocate them to the Blue Mountains. The second thing he did was arrange for the construction of individual houses for each of them.
Han Cai claimed a separate and quiet mountain for himself. Since the old man was kind enough to offer such a location, he was going to make the most out of it.
Once accommodations were established, Han Cai set up a grand array called the "Mirage of the Vast Expanse." A masterful deception array, this array elevated his art of array creation to its pinnacle.
Primarily designed to disorient and confuse anyone who ventured into its influence, once activated, it should transform the serene environment of the Blue Mountains into an intimidating illusion of an endless desert, a sight far removed from the lush greenery and cool, clean air typical of a mountainous region.
From a distance, the array should have been imperceptible to the naked eye, blending seamlessly with the natural surroundings. However, the moment someone stepped into its radius, they would instantly be engulfed by the desert illusion. The crisp, clean mountain air would be replaced by the dry, hot breeze of the desert, and the lush greenery would be exchanged for endless stretches of sand.
This illusion was so convincing that one could almost feel the scorching heat of the sun overhead and the warm, shifting sand underfoot. The Blue Mountains would vanish in the blink of an eye, replaced by a sprawling desert with undulating dunes extending as far as the eye could see.
The Mirage of the Vast Expanse was more than just a visual illusion. It also affected one's sense of direction and perception of time. A person trapped within the array would find themselves lost, with the landscape appearing the same in every direction. The sense of time would distort, making it feel as though they had been wandering for hours, or even days, within the desert.
When Han Cai created the array, everything went in the right direction except for one thing: his cultivation was too low to activate such a high-level array. As such, he had to use Yongnian, and Yongnian's death Qi caused a mutation in the array. The ordinary mirage array had transformed into something else.
The moment someone entered the radius of this modified array, they would find themselves standing at the edge of a daunting expanse of a barren landscape. The warm golden sand of a typical desert was replaced by an eerie grey.
The sky overhead was no longer the bright, cloudless blue of a desert day. Instead, it was an oppressive, inky black that seemed to swallow the sunlight, casting an eternal night over the wasteland. The sun was replaced by an eerie, spectral moon that hung low in the sky, casting long, distorted shadows over the desolate landscape.
The heat, instead of being a scorching burn, was a cold, lifeless chill that penetrated to the bone, a stark contrast to the hot wind one would expect in a desert. This illusory wind carried the faint whispers of lost souls, their haunting voices echoing in the perpetual night, further enhancing the atmosphere of desolation and despair.
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