Five Immortal Sects
Chapter 133: Li Yan’s Deduction (One)

Very soon, the two blue prism crystals returned to Li Yan’s hands. Holding the crystals, he looked toward the gathered crowd.

“I don’t know what each of you saw just now. I’ll soon share everything I’ve discovered in full detail, so we can cross-reference and verify each other’s findings.”

Li Yan wasn’t deliberately trying to be mysterious or show off his capabilities. On the contrary, he himself wasn’t completely certain of the truth and hoped to see what others had observed in order to reach a more accurate conclusion through comparison.

“I saw a multicolored space, with a massive white light cluster at the center. But when my divine sense touched it, I couldn’t penetrate it at all, it was instantly repelled. As for the rest of the space, when I probed with divine sense, it was just a field of multicolored light. Nothing else was there.”

The first to speak was still the bright and graceful Hu Ziyi. She mulled it over, then voiced her thoughts.

“My findings were identical to Ziyi’s, except the central cluster was a deep cyan instead. My divine sense was likewise repelled upon contact, and I found nothing else unusual.”

Just as Hu Ziyi finished, Yu Yiyong also spoke with a smile and glanced toward Hu Ziyi, he had examined the other blue prism crystal, the one with the cyan core.

Hu Ziyi shot Yu Yiyong a sidelong glare upon hearing his intimate tone. That glance, however, carried a hint of charm, which only made Yu Yiyong smile even more broadly.

“You sure speak affectionately... I got the same result, but I noticed that the multicolored space should be composed of five-elemental spiritual energy. I could sense the different elemental attributes within it.

And as for the deep cyan light cluster in the center of mine, it was radiating a dense wood-element aura. I suppose the other crystal’s central light cluster likely represents metal-element energy.”

Mei Caichu murmured to himself first, then spoke aloud after a moment’s thought.

As soon as he said this, quite a few people nodded in agreement, they had also noticed this within the blue prism crystals.

Li Yan’s gaze lingered briefly on the chubby young man. He had already known this fellow was exceptionally gifted, but hadn’t expected his observations to be so sharp as well. Judging by the expressions of the others, more than half of them had picked up on the same thing.

It seemed that what little more he had perceived was thanks to the Guishui True Scripture.

Afterward, the rest of the cultivators gave more or less similar responses. Soon, Li Yan’s gaze turned to Gong Chenying. Earlier, she too had held her own blue prism crystal, so she had likely examined it again.

Gong Chenying gave him a slight nod, apparently having seen the same phenomena.

Li Yan gathered his thoughts, then began to speak:

“The crux of this lies in that multicolored space. Just as we observed, it is composed of five zones made up of the five-elemental spiritual energies.

But did any of you notice, when I handed you the crystals earlier, the five elemental zones were roughly equal in size? If I let you probe them again now, you’d find that they’ve already changed.”

With that, Li Yan pointed at the two blue prism crystals, which floated into the air before him.

The others, puzzled, sent out their divine sense toward the two crystals in front of Li Yan.

As they all began probing again, Li Yan continued:

“Right now, some zones of the space are shrinking, others expanding. Overall, it’s in constant flux. I expect that even Sixth Senior Sister’s crystal is undergoing the same changes as these two.”

Gong Chenying couldn’t help but nod. She had already examined hers and found exactly that.

Her gaze unconsciously turned to the three green gourds lying on the ground. Following her line of sight, many other cultivators also looked toward the gourds.

Li Yan’s voice remained calm as he continued:

“The cause of this lies with those three green gourds. Their function is to store and release spiritual energy. Inside, each one holds the five types of elemental energy, metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. This is the hidden secret behind the unification of those different sects.

"The blue prism crystals we each obtained contain five-elemental zones of varying sizes, this should be the natural state of the Life and Death Wheel. The different core colors at the center of the crystals represent different elemental energies.

"Even though the entrance tunnel displayed twenty different colors, they all fall within the scope of the five elemental forces. For example: white, pale white, green, deep cyan, emerald green, these are all within the metal and wood elements.

"However, the elemental aura and resonance within each of these colors differ, so subtle differences still exist. Even if two members of the same sect chose green and deep cyan paths, both technically wood-attribute crystals, those two paths could still intersect and be considered adversaries.

"Thus, only when two crystals have identical core colors can their paths within the Life and Death Wheel truly converge and be deemed allies.

"At some point, the three sects must have discovered this hidden mechanism. When the five-elemental zones in a blue crystal are made roughly equal in size, the Life and Death Wheel no longer treats its bearer as hostile, it considers them to be on the same path.

"Hence, these green gourds were created. Each gourd contains the five elemental energies, which can be used to adjust and balance the size of each elemental zone within a crystal according to its current distribution.

"Gradually, this creates a five-elemental space of roughly equal proportion. This state can be maintained for about a quarter to half an hour before reverting to its original form.

"The reason this reversion occurs is due to the different-colored core light cluster at the center. That core stores a massive amount of single-element spiritual energy, which constantly erodes and floods the surrounding zones until equilibrium is lost and the original distribution returns.

"This was also why that monk in the first trial shattered his blue prism crystal, he didn’t want us to uncover the truth. But he failed to destroy the green gourds inside his storage pouch in time.

"As for the second trial’s demonic beasts, they didn’t pay any attention to the blue prism crystals, and their pouches contained no green gourds. This is why I previously stated the spirit beasts weren’t involved in the three-sects' conspiracy.”

Everyone instinctively nodded. This explanation did indeed clarify the discrepancies between the first and second trials.

“Then doesn’t that mean… we can also join other groups’ paths?” a cultivator couldn’t help but ask.

Li Yan nodded after hearing the question.

“In theory, yes. But even if we do this, we can’t maintain the state for long. If you probe the crystals again with divine sense, you’ll notice that the balance among the five zones is already visibly shifting. I estimate the merged state will only last for another thirty breaths or so before the convergence rule breaks down.

Only by continuously injecting the five-elemental spiritual energy from the green gourd can balance be sustained. The enemy team was able to maintain this balance in their blue crystals for a long time, I performed a test inside the sphere to confirm this.”

Li Yan didn’t wait for more questions, by now, most of the allotted time had passed.

“I examined four or five corpses of Qi Condensation cultivators from the opposing side. What I found was shocking, they were all of mixed spiritual roots.”

At this point, even Li Yan felt a surge of emotion. The idea had come to him suddenly. Ever since entering the tunnel from Little Bamboo Peak, he had felt a strange sense of familiarity when looking at the enemy’s Qi Condensation disciples.

Only later did he realize this familiarity came from his Guishui True Scripture. And since he wasn’t a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he couldn’t remotely detect others’ spiritual roots, so he had been searching for an answer through direct examination.

At the end of the first trial, he quickly inspected one corpse and discovered that its remaining spiritual energy carried the aura of all five elements. No wonder it had felt so familiar to him.

During the second trial, because the enemies were beasts, he had no opportunity to check further.

Just now, inside the sphere, he had conducted another round of inspection, and was finally able to confirm it: aside from the two Foundation Establishment cultivators, all the Qi Condensation cultivators he examined were of mixed roots.

Because they had died recently, residual spiritual energy still lingered in their bodies, even the Foundation Establishment cultivators, upon examining them, could not find five-elemental traces.

“The balanced five-elemental state inside the blue prism crystals doesn’t last long. The amount of elemental energy stored in the green gourds is also limited. If they wanted to support so many people entering at once, those Qi Condensation cultivators couldn’t afford to deplete the crystal’s elemental balance.

"That’s why these Qi Condensation cultivators were deliberately cultivated by the three sects, for the sole purpose of completing the Life and Death Wheel trial.

"The five-element balance and the green gourds were meant only for the Foundation Establishment cultivators. The elemental energy within the gourds is only sufficient to support their use.

"Why would they do it this way? I thought it over carefully. It’s likely because mixed-root cultivators have a very hard time reaching Foundation Establishment, so none of their Foundation Establishment team are of mixed roots.

"But at the Qi Condensation stage, mixed-root cultivators are more common and they also reduce the elemental consumption inside the blue prism crystals.”

Li Yan finished his explanation in one unbroken flow. His words stirred a storm within every listener’s heart!

(Chapter End)