Since Li Fan had begun cultivating the Heart-Refining Mantra, he had never experienced such a wild and frenzied operational speed.
It was as if some special switch had been triggered—the efficiency of the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Mantra had increased not just by a hundredfold but by a thousandfold or more.
If Li Fan’s previous attempts at self-exploration were akin to a slow-moving millstone pulled by a donkey,
Then now, the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Mantra was like a roaring, thunderous mechanical giant, absorbing all the countless surreal and lifelike experiences that had suddenly surged into Li Fan’s mind.
Restoring order, returning to clarity!
It was as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over his head, instantly cooling down the searing heat within.
Li Fan gradually regained his senses, pulling himself out of his trance and confusion.
“This…”
“?”
He had not expected the backlash from the complete “Chaos” Character Glyph to be so terrifying.
Once it took shape, it was several times stronger than his previous simulated attempts, which had always fallen just short of completion.
Once the “Chaos” Character fully formed, it underwent a qualitative transformation, its power now incomparable to the fragmented pieces he had previously grasped.
“If even the backlash is this terrifying, then its actual effects must be…”
Suppressing the turmoil within his body and mind, Li Fan looked up toward the sky.
He saw that where the rain had once fallen and where the corpses had previously dropped, the scene seemed to twist and distort.
It was as if an invisible void existed there—rain and corpses alike disappeared into thin air the moment they came close.
However, after consuming the eerie rainwater, the twisted void seemed to be slowly shrinking.
Thus, the two forces reached a state of mutual balance, constantly neutralizing each other.
Finally, when the rain ceased to fall from the sky,
The influence of the “Chaos” Glyph vanished as well.
A battered and disheveled figure plummeted from the air—it was none other than Master Yin.
At this moment, his body had become semi-transparent. His face, filled with disbelief, stared blankly at Li Fan.
He tried to say something, opening his mouth, but no sound came out.
Master Yin lowered his head, looking at himself as if he had understood something. He no longer struggled in vain.
His body became increasingly faint, yet there was no trace of fear on his face at his impending demise.
Instead, he showed an expression of relief and liberation.
Moments later, Master Yin completely disappeared from this world.
Li Fan had no time to celebrate surviving the ordeal.
Driven by the overwhelming sense of impending crisis in his heart, he endured his injuries, activated the Sky-Shrouding Hand secret technique, and pushed his escape technique to its limits, swiftly fleeing the scene.
Not long after Li Fan’s departure…
A vast and boundless divine consciousness seemed to descend.
The scenery beneath the sea reversed like rewinding time itself, tracing back events and replaying the past.
But just as Li Fan’s image was about to emerge—
A crack suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Then a second, a third—countless cracks followed.
The vision shattered like a broken mirror, restoring the timeline to normal.
The divine consciousness lingered for a long while, as if contemplating something.
Then, it silently scanned the entire Congyun Sea, but ultimately found no anomalies.
And finally, it withdrew into complete silence.
At this moment, far from returning to Congyun City, Li Fan dug out a mineral stone from the seabed beneath him.
Feigning delight, he carefully placed it into his storage ring.
Then, for quite some time, he pretended to continue mining, as if he were just an ordinary cultivator collecting resources.
Only when the ominous feeling of danger completely faded did he stop his act.
Just moments ago, right when he was rushing back to Congyun City…
An unprecedented sense of crisis suddenly struck, and his heart pounded violently as if he would perish in the next second.
There was no time to think. He first dispelled his Sky-Shrouding Concealment, then activated the Mysterious True Spirit Transformation, instantly changing his appearance into that of another cultivator.
Feigning nonchalance, he pretended to be mining ores from the seabed.
Sure enough, his intuition was correct. Moments later, he felt as though he was being watched.
Suppressing his unease, he acted as if he had noticed nothing.
Though the situation was extremely perilous, he ultimately managed to evade the other party’s detection.
“The Chaos Character, the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Mantra, the eerie Duplicating Rain… and that immense divine sense…”
On his way back to Congyun City, Li Fan kept pondering the connection between these elements.
“If I hadn’t unintentionally used the Chaos Character, I would have had no way to escape the ‘Duplicating Me’ Rain. My only option would have been to confront it directly.”
“But to my surprise, the Chaos Character Glyph was actually able to dispel the ‘Duplicating Me’ Rain.”
To Li Fan, Master Yin and the rain that carried countless identical corpses bore a striking resemblance to the eerie anomalies of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Both were phenomena that defied logic—rules beyond rules.
However, this so-called unalterable, ever-present strangeness had been neutralized by the Chaos Character.
What did this mean?
Li Fan repeatedly recalled the moment when the Duplicating Me Rain disappeared.
“Chaos… Chaos…”
“Rather than being dispelled, it felt more like…”
“Chaos upon chaos, canceling each other out?”
A bold idea suddenly surfaced in his mind.
“Could it be that the root of all eerie anomalies in the world originates from this concept of ‘Chaos’?”
Once the thought arose, it became impossible to suppress. At the same time, a deep and inexplicable fear gripped his heart.
“Back in the mist, I saw the word ‘Chaos’ carved into a stone. Its power seemed to have faded over the passage of time.”
“But without a doubt, it was the culprit that destroyed that entire mist-shrouded world.”
“If that was merely a weakened remnant of the original Chaos Character…”
Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
“Furthermore, it seems that powerful beings in the Xuanhuang Realm are extremely interested in this Chaos Character. The moment they sense its presence, they descend to investigate.”
“It seems that unless I am faced with an absolute life-or-death crisis, I should avoid using it as much as possible.”
Li Fan silently contemplated.
After all, he had formed his Nascent Soul through the Five Elements Cave-Heaven, granting him boundless regenerative power.
By the time he returned to Congyun City, his injuries had completely healed, leaving no trace of abnormality.
Additionally, the ‘Momentary Glimpse of Myriad Realities’ that had surfaced in his mind had been absorbed and neutralized by the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Mantra, which had been operating at full capacity.
However, something puzzled Li Fan.
Under normal circumstances, absorbing such a large amount of stray thoughts should have nourished and strengthened his divine soul, based on his past experiences.
Yet, from the moment it happened until now, he hadn’t felt the slightest increase in his soul’s power.
“Could it have been used to repair hidden wounds within my soul instead?”
With a hint of doubt, Li Fan examined himself carefully.
The Heart-Refining Mantra had gradually returned to its normal rhythm, yet he keenly sensed that it had undergone a subtle transformation.
It felt as if it had achieved a form of sublimation—though not yet complete.
A sudden impulse drove Li Fan to open his [Truth] Panel, his gaze locking onto the technique descriptions.
The Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Mantra, previously ranked first, had silently changed its name.
Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra (Incomplete).
Li Fan’s pupils contracted sharply, his heart filled with shock.