Inside the World-Rifting Divine Weapon.
Li Fan saw Ji Wangxian’s furious expression suddenly freeze. Not just him— the entire Xuanhuang Realm seemed to have fallen into a state of stillness.
A moment later, the scene accelerated, playing at hundreds or even thousands of times the normal speed.
Li Fan saw several figures arriving late and engaging in battle with Ji Wangxian. In the end, Ji Wangxian was forced to retreat in disgrace, seemingly suffering serious injuries.
Inside this body of “Ji Zhaoxuan,” Li Fan suddenly felt his thoughts clear, his mind and body feeling inexplicably refreshed.
Then, he witnessed the impact of the World-Rifting Divine Weapon tearing through the Xuanhuang Realm. The once spirit-rich and cultivator-friendly Heavenly Sword Mountain had become a perilous place. Thunder and storms raged, and black spatial rifts would occasionally split through the sky— eerily similar to the chaotic rift-vortex Li Fan had encountered in the real world.
And then…
Li Fan vaguely saw a white-robed figure standing alone before the ruins of the World-Rift, silently gazing ahead. With a gentle wave of his hand, the devastation suddenly calmed, the anomalies gradually fading, and space slowly stabilizing.
After finishing this, Mister Bai did not linger and swiftly disappeared.
Various sects sent their cultivators to seize control of the Heavenly Sword Sect’s territory. None were willing to back down, leading to a full-scale war.
A great calamity descended, and countless cultivators slaughtered each other.
The skies darkened, the land was littered with corpses, and for a long time, no living souls could be seen.
…
“These…”
“Are these scenes of the future?” After the images twisted into an unrecognizable mess, Li Fan turned to Situ Yao in a daze and asked.
Situ Yao continued staring intently at the images beyond the divine weapon. After a while, he finally looked away.
Raising his wine gourd, he took a long swig before replying, “Not the future— this is the present.”
Li Fan’s eyes narrowed.
The scene outside had turned completely dark, as if a lost traveler had stepped into an eternal night. The Heavenly Sword Sect now faced an entirely unknown fate.
“Senior Brother, can we truly succeed in rending the realm apart?” In the darkness, a lurking sense of dread and unease rose within Li Fan, compelling him to ask.
Situ Yao took another swig before answering, “Who knows? After all, we’re probably the first ones to try escaping from the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“If we fail, we’ll just die. Staying behind wouldn’t be much better— we’d probably die sooner or later anyway.”
As if in response to Situ Yao’s words, the World-Rifting Divine Weapon suddenly dimmed.
Then, it froze completely.
Like a shattered mirror, it splintered into countless fragments.
Back in the distorted space, Li Fan gazed at the three now-dim orbs of light ahead of him, lost in thought.
“One breath inside the World-Rifting Divine Weapon equals decades or even centuries outside. It’s similar to the Immortal Ruins. Indeed, only a force capable of distorting time and space could break free from the Immortal Ruins’ constraints.”
After pondering for a long time, Li Fan finally returned to the real world.
Having fulfilled Ji Zhaoxuan’s final wish, he should have gained some kind of reward.
However, after checking, he was a bit surprised.
It wasn’t Ji Zhaoxuan’s “Breath-Exhaling Sword Technique,” but rather— a pile of sword embryo essence stones.
Li Fan’s expression grew strange as he counted— there were exactly 326 pieces.
Casually taking one in hand, he felt a sudden surge of insights about the Dao of the Sword flooding into his mind.
Even stranger, he felt a faint sense of familiarity— as if he had once wielded this knowledge before.
“These should be the Sword Embryo Primal Stones that Ji Zhaoxuan once absorbed in real history. They contain the true essence of swordsmanship from the [Sword]. For sword cultivators, they might be quite valuable. But for me, they are of little use.”
“With Xu Bai, that human-shaped Dao comprehension machine, just give him an ordinary wooden sword, and he will comprehend everything on his own. It would just take some time, that’s all.”
“On the other hand, the material of these Primal Stones is quite good. They could be used as forging materials for World-Rifting Divine Weapons or to reinforce the Xuanhuang True Cauldron, so that when we break into the Immortal Ruins in the future, it will last a little longer.”
Li Fan kept half of them and threw the remaining hundred or so to Fang Zaiji.
Fang Zaiji was fully immersed in researching the [Endstone Plate] at the moment, carefully directing Jiang Yushan and Liu San as they cautiously cut into the stone disc. He casually stored the Sword Embryo Primal Stones away without paying much attention to them.
Li Fan observed for a while but did not interfere.
He then returned to the secret chamber.
“The rewards gained in the Fallen Immortal Realm are closely tied to resolving one’s obsessions. These Sword Embryo Primal Stones, in the context of the [Heavenly Sword Sect’s Divine Forging] scenario, are quite ordinary. It seems that the owner of the obsession maintaining that time-space fragment is not Ji Zhaoxuan.”
However, Li Fan already had some suspicions in his mind. He pondered for a moment before setting the matter aside.
He took out two relics of Huangfu Song—the [Dissociation Disc] and the [Heaven-Measuring Mirror].
First, he examined the Heaven-Measuring Mirror.
It had already turned into an ordinary mirror, completely unresponsive no matter how he tried to probe it with his divine sense.
“No wonder, even though Huangfu Song borrowed it from Ji Hongdao, when we went to the Universal Courtyard to inform them of Huangfu Song’s death, they didn’t request to reclaim it. It should be the same as the Tianxuan Branch Mirrors across various prefecture—once its bestowed power is withdrawn, it loses all its mystical properties.”
Li Fan played with it in his hand for a while, feeling a slight sense of regret.
He then turned his attention to the [Dissociation Disc].
Compared to when it was first exchanged, the light of the Dissociation Disc in his hand seemed slightly dimmer.
The difference was subtle—if one didn’t observe carefully, it would be easy to overlook.
But Li Fan knew this was because the other eight Dissociation Discs had already begun their process of iteration and evolution.
As for his own…
No, rather, as for Huangfu Song’s Disc, it was still in its initial state, with its abilities gradually being absorbed by the others.
“Huangfu, oh Huangfu… It’s not that I didn’t preserve it for you—it’s disappearing on its own. You can’t blame me for that.”
Muttering to himself, Li Fan held the Dissociation Disc in his palm.
In an instant, the Dao Deviation Stone in his mind radiated a brilliant blue light, and countless foundational formation patterns were inscribed into the Dissociation Disc.
Under normal circumstances, cultivating the Disc required a cultivator to first outline the basic framework of the formation in their mind and then infuse it with divine sense. Basic formations could be completed in an instant by an Formation Master and were not much trouble.
However, as the formations became increasingly complex, the effort and time required would also grow exponentially.
Yet, thanks to the secret technique of the [Transformation of the Divine Dao], Li Fan had no such concerns.
Since he started learning formations under Zhang Zhiliang, all the countless formations he had encountered were meticulously stored in the Dao Deviation Stone. There was no need for him to recall or outline them manually—he could simply access them at will.
At first, this advantage was not particularly obvious.
But as the Dissociation Disc evolved and required increasingly complex formations, the difference would become more and more apparent.
Of course, anyone capable of exchanging for a Dissociation Disc in this world was already a dragon among men.
The remaining eight individuals must have their own secret techniques as well.
Li Fan would not underestimate any of them.
Aside from the Transformation of the Divine Dao technique, he had other cards up his sleeve.