Xiao Heng opened his mouth, wanting to say something. However, his lips only moved slightly, and when he looked at the stern face of Li Fan, he ultimately remained silent.
On the other hand, Zhao Wen, who had a simple and honest nature, didn’t think much. After his initial shock, his eyes were filled with pure admiration.
Thus, the cultivation path for this group of children was temporarily set, except for Su Xiaomei, who was still in swaddling clothes. Although Su Xiaomei had extraordinary talent, she was simply too young. Being at the stage of babbling, it was unrealistic to expect her to start cultivating yet. However, with the protection of numerous spiritual items purchased by Li Fan, along with the care of Xiao Heng and Su Changyu, there was no need to worry about her health. In fact, she was growing even faster than in her previous lives.
Seven days later, as the children’s cultivation journeys were beginning to take shape, Li Fan gathered them together once again.
“Do you know where you are right now?” Li Fan asked.
After becoming more familiar over the past few days, the children were no longer as reserved as they had been. “It’s the Immortal Realm!” they answered eagerly.
“Correct,” Li Fan nodded. “But do you know that your ancestors originally came from this Immortal Realm?”
“Immortal Master, our ancestors were also immortals?” the children asked, wide-eyed and chattering in excitement.
Li Fan then told them the story of how, in ancient times, their ancestors had been forced to leave their homeland due to being afflicted by a curse that separated mortals from immortals.
“Why should they monopolize this vast and beautiful world full of spiritual energy, while you are left to live in a small, desolate world with no spiritual energy and even the risk of total annihilation?”
“It’s because you are not strong enough!”
Li Fan’s gaze swept over them as he subtly used the power of his Seven Apertures Exquisite Heart to manipulate their thoughts.
“When you become strong enough, this world will respect and accept your opinions.”
“All the humans of the small worlds should unite!”
“Everything that was lost must be taken back by your own hands!”
With these words, full of passionate rhetoric, the children became filled with a shared sense of hatred, eager to strike back at the Immortal Realm as soon as possible.
“Of course, we must also recognize the gap between us and the Immortal Realm. Not only is our overall strength too weak, but the number of cultivators we have is far too small.”
“So…”
“We must endure and lay low!”
“We must seek out fresh blood to strengthen our organization!”
Unconsciously, the dialogue between Li Fan and the children had shifted from “you” to “us.”
“It’s been some time since you left home, and I know some of you miss your parents,” Li Fan said.
“But don’t worry, I’m not an unreasonable person,” he added, pointing to Tian Yang, who was standing quietly to the side. “As long as you succeed in your cultivation and can defeat him, I will allow you to return home.”
“And I will even grant you the authority to recruit people from your homeland to join our Federation Of All World’s!”
Upon hearing this, the children became excited. Who wouldn’t want to return home with newfound power, boasting their immortal techniques? Moreover, the strange man, Tian Yang, seemed a bit dim-witted and didn’t appear to be that difficult to deal with.
With newfound hope and a spark of ambition, the children began cultivating even more diligently.
In secret, Li Fan watched these future pillars of the Federation Of All World’s and nodded in approval.
Of course, he didn’t truly expect to launch a counterattack against the Immortal Realm or overthrow the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. However, his recent profitable dealings with the Empire had given him some new ideas.
Using the banner of the Federation Of All Worlds, he could continue to make contact with small worlds that possessed unique power systems and profit greatly from these exchanges. The value of power at the same level was not equivalent between small worlds and the Xuanhuang Realm. Take, for example, the thousand beast soul beads—500 Foundation Establishment, 490 Golden Core, and even nine Nascent Souls. Assembling a team of this strength in the Xuanhuang Realm would cost more than ten million in contribution points.
But due to the Empire’s urgent need for contribution points to detach from the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan was able to easily secure significant gains.
The same applied to other small worlds. However, since these pocket dimensions and small worlds were all hidden away, to connect with them required a large number of personnel.
Therefore, raising these children was quite necessary. Besides, with the Mountain Sitting Technique in their possession, the stronger they became, the greater the benefits for Li Fan.
He quietly instructed Tian Yang not to hit them too hard, and as long as they reached the combat strength of Golden Core cultivators, he should let them win.
After leaving behind a Formless killing intent to monitor them, Li Fan quietly returned to Ten Thousand Immortals Island.
While he had been away, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance appeared peaceful on the surface, but hidden currents were already surging underneath. After deploying a large number of cultivators, they issued a Call for Recruitment.
Any cultivators with achievements in the field of formations were summoned. They didn’t need to pass the usual entrance exams and could immediately receive the benefits of a formation master in the Strategy Formation Hall. Those who performed exceptionally well could even be rewarded with Dao Integration techniques.
In no time, talented formation masters from all over the world gathered at the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance headquarters. Such a grand assembly naturally didn’t go unnoticed by the Five Elders Association.
On the border, the Five Elders Association continued to provoke and probe the Alliance. From time to time, news of exposed and executed spies from the Five Elders Association would surface.
Both sides remained cautious about war. However, beneath the strange calm, a massive storm seemed to be brewing.
Li Fan sensed something unusual. If they only wanted to construct the Tianxuan Spirit Locking Formation, there was no need for so many formation masters. The deduction of the formation diagram wasn’t something Nascent Soul-level formation masters could even participate in.
“Chief Lu, what are you up to?” Li Fan muttered to himself, his eyes flashing as he quickly reviewed recent events in the Tianxuan Mirror, trying to find some clues.
After a long time, his eyes suddenly stopped on a seemingly ordinary piece of news.
Foundation Establishment cultivator Guo Yezhong died unexpectedly while attempting to break through to the Golden Core stage.
“Guo Yezhong? How did he die so early?”
Li Fan remembered this person clearly from his previous life. Guo Yezhong had relied on contribution points to win first place in the Spirit Locking Formation Competition, so Li Fan had a strong impression of him.
Now, his sudden and unexplained death seemed suspicious. Li Fan decided to investigate the events leading up to Guo Yezhong’s death to see if he could uncover anything unusual.
After several days of effort and spending contribution points like water, Li Fan finally found a potential lead from one of Guo Yezhong’s friends.