In a dimly lit hall, countless cyan-black chains covered the ground, reflecting a ghostly green light under the illumination of eerie green flames.

On a pitch-black throne in the center of the hall, a gaunt man draped in a snow-white cloak leaned slightly forward, his purplish-black face shrouded in the shadows of the flames, obscuring his expression.

Just then, a dull thud of a door opening suddenly echoed.

The hall's two heavy stone doors were pushed open from the outside, accompanied by a rumbling sound of dust and sand surging in from the outside world.

Standing at the opened doorway was a tall, burly figure.

He was nearly ten feet tall, with a sallow complexion, a square face, and a wide mouth. He wore an ancient bronze forehead protector and a dark yellow robe resembling a cloak, covered in sand, as if he had traversed a sandstorm to arrive.

He slowly walked into the hall, and the two doors slammed shut again, sealing off all the noise from the outside.

The man with the parched face walked heavily, his footsteps creating a series of "sha-sha" sounds as he stepped on the cyan-black chains.

"Master, I have been to the place where Seventh Junior Brother fell," he said, kneeling on one knee before the pitch-black throne and speaking respectfully to the gaunt man. His voice was like a booming bell, echoing within the hall.

"Oh? And what did you find?" The gaunt man leaned back slightly, his voice hoarse as he spoke.

"The opponent was very thorough and left few clues," the parched-faced man said, his expression grave.

"Seventh's death should be related to a powerful enemy he pursued three hundred years ago. I will leave this matter to you to investigate," the gaunt man said slowly.

"Yes."

...

Night fell.

The courtyard atop Crimson Cloud Peak was brightly lit. After Meng Yungui and the others busied themselves, everything inside and out had been refurbished, and they were still putting the finishing touches on it.

At this moment, in a secret room deep within the cave dwelling, Han Li, now dressed in the inner sect elder robes of the Candle Dragon Sect, sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, with a palm-sized metal round plate placed beside him.

This round plate was the Spirit Inscription Plate that recorded the first level of the Formless True Wheel Sutra.

After an unknown period, Han Li suddenly opened his eyes, a glint of light flashing within. He reached out and grabbed the Spirit Inscription Plate, then pressed it against his forehead.

As the metal round plate shone brightly, a series of dense golden characters immediately appeared in his mind.

These golden characters were roughly divided into two parts. The first part was an introductory section similar to a general outline, while the second part was the first level of the Formless True Wheel Sutra.

According to the outline, the Formless True Wheel Sutra was divided into three levels, and one could cultivate a supernatural ability called the "Mantra Treasure Wheel."

When facing an enemy, one could use this supernatural ability to slow down the speed of all attacks approaching the Mantra Treasure Wheel, causing them to lose their original speed advantage.

According to the outline, the supernatural ability's attribute would not change when cultivating the Formless True Wheel Sutra from the first to the third level. However, the specific power would increase progressively with each level.

It was said that once one cultivated the first level, they could slow down the enemy's speed by almost half after using the Mantra Treasure Wheel. As for cultivating the second level, it could reach more than ten times. The third level was not described, but it was expected that if one could master it, its power would be astonishing.

Seeing this, Han Li was shocked and amazed.

Let alone slowing down the enemy's attack by ten times, even slowing it down by half would already be an incredibly heaven-defying supernatural ability. If he had mastered this supernatural ability earlier, he would not have been so passive when facing Fang Pan.

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Han Li continued to examine the other part of the content in the Spirit Inscription Plate.

After a while, his brows furrowed tightly.

The characters recording the first level were not unfamiliar to him. They were the Golden Seal Script that he had already mastered. However, he could not understand the content formed by all the characters he knew combined.

For some unknown reason, the wording, usage, or writing style of this first level was vastly different from the content on the Gold Inscribed Jade Book Fragments, appearing convoluted, awkward, and difficult to understand.

He pondered for a long time but only managed to read less than one percent of the content. Moreover, he only had a vague understanding of the meaning expressed in it, unable to comprehend it accurately.

Han Li felt somewhat depressed but was unwilling to give up. He carefully recalled the content he had seen in the Gold Inscribed Jade Book, comparing them with each other, and stubbornly continued his research.

The next morning, Han Li, whose mind was quite exhausted, removed the Spirit Inscription Plate from his forehead and rubbed his sore brow, feeling somewhat depressed.

The profoundness of this technique far exceeded his expectations. After a night of comprehension, he still had not understood all the content. He seemed to have grasped something, but it seemed he had not understood anything at all, unable to grasp the key points.

He shook his head, put away the metal round plate, and was about to get up when he suddenly remembered something.

When he left the Scripture Transmission Hall yesterday, Elder Fang had said that he could come to the Scripture Transmission Hall again if he needed anything in the near future.

At the time, he felt something was strange. Now it seemed that there was a hidden meaning.

A helpless smile appeared on Han Li's face. He got up and left the secret room, transforming into a streak of light and flying away.

...

The rising sun shone on Dragon Control Peak, and the exposed rocks and palace tiles all reflected a faint golden light, not dazzling but rather soft and warm.

On the white jade square in front of the Scripture Transmission Hall, Han Li, dressed in elder robes, floated down from the sky, bathed in the morning sun. A faint halo surrounded his body, making him look somewhat like an immortal.

After landing, he did not stop at all and walked directly into the hall.

Almost the same as what he saw yesterday, it still seemed empty and deserted. Elder Fang Zhuan was still sitting behind the desk, reading the ancient book with the cyan cover.

The slight difference was that there was a Zisha teapot on his left-hand side, filled with emerald green tea, emitting a faint fragrance that filled the entire hall.

Seeing Han Li walking into the hall in a hurry, Fang Zhuan put down the book in his hand, picked up the teacup, took a light sip, put it down slowly, looked up at him with a smile, and said with a smile:

"Elder Li, you've come."

"Elder Fang, you must have known what I came here for, right?" Han Li cupped his fist towards Fang Zhuan and said.

"Hehe, to tell you the truth, almost everyone who has exchanged for the Formless True Wheel Sutra will come to my Scripture Transmission Hall again within seven days. Fellow Daoist Li, you are considered to be one of the faster ones." Fang Zhuan said leisurely without beating around the bush.

"Oh, may I ask why this is?" Han Li asked in confusion.

"The content of the Formless True Wheel Sutra is difficult to understand. Without the Annotation Sutra to aid understanding, let alone practicing the technique, it is almost impossible to even get started. These people either come to exchange for other techniques or to exchange for the Annotation Sutra." Fang Zhuan said with a smile.

"There is such a thing, then why didn't Elder Fang tell me yesterday?" Han Li asked speechlessly.

"In the past, I would remind everyone every time, but some people are too confident in their talent, which makes me, a mere Mahayana cultivator, seem to be meddling in other people's business, so I simply stopped saying it. Waiting for you to discover the problem yourself and come back, it saves me my breath and is more convincing. Wouldn't you agree?" Fang Zhuan said with a smile.

"Elder Fang is right, that is indeed the case. I wonder how many contribution points are needed to exchange for this Annotation Sutra, and whether it is really useful?" Hearing this, Han Li could only smile bitterly and asked again.

"No more, no less, exactly ten contribution points. After all, this Annotation Sutra is also summarized from the cultivation insights of many predecessors. The content is mixed and uneven, and I don't know how useful it is." Fang Zhuan crossed two index fingers to form a "cross" and replied.

"Okay, I'll exchange it." Han Li handed over his elder token without much consideration.

After receiving the copied Annotation Sutra, Han Li chatted casually with Fang Zhuan for a few words and quickly returned to Crimson Cloud Peak.

Back at the cave dwelling, he was also decisive and plunged into the secret room again.

Comparing it with the Annotation Sutra, Han Li studied for half a day, and after reading many people's annotations on the first level of the Formless True Wheel Sutra, he finally realized.

It turned out that the original name of the Formless True Wheel Sutra was the Mantra Transformation Wheel Sutra. The original essence of the technique was even more obscure and difficult to understand, and the difficulty of cultivation was too great. The hurdle of condensing the Mantra Treasure Wheel alone directly blocked nine out of ten cultivators.

Among the remaining ten percent of cultivators, even if they were lucky enough to condense the Mantra Treasure Wheel, they could only cultivate this technique to the second level at most. It was impossible to truly comprehend the law of time and condense the law threads that represented the beginning of controlling the law. At least in the known rumors, no one in the Candle Dragon Sect had cultivated this technique to the third level.

Therefore, many people, when they saw no hope of breaking through, accidentally discovered another very clever method, which allowed them to avoid the difficulty of condensing the Mantra Treasure Wheel.

They used materials containing the power of law to directly create a physical Mantra Treasure Wheel. Then, they engraved some special runes that they had comprehended on the Treasure Wheel, so that the Treasure Wheel could exert various unexpected and amazing powers.

Because it was very different from the orthodox method, the effect of slowing down the attack speed of the Mantra Treasure Wheel made in this way became negligible. However, because of the different law attributes attached to the materials used, it could also exert the effects of other law forces.

For example, if the material used to refine the Mantra Treasure Wheel had the law of metal attribute, the sharpness of the Treasure Wheel could be greatly increased. If the material had the law of speed, the attack speed could be increased several times.

In addition, effects such as attached flame supernatural power, illusion effect, freezing attribute, and lightness and weight as desired could also be achieved through this method.

After that, almost without exception, everyone who chose to cultivate this technique chose this clever method.

It was also for this reason that the Mantra Transformation Wheel Sutra was changed to the Formless True Wheel Sutra, which meant that this technique had no original form and could change into all kinds of forms according to needs and at will.

Seeing this, Han Li couldn't help but fall into deep thought. After a long time, he continued to comprehend it slowly according to various annotations.