Longevity Valley, inside the artifact refinement chamber.
Xu Bai was overseeing Fang Zaiji as he reinforced the Medicine King True Cauldron.
“Sect Master, the amount of rare heavenly materials we’ve added is already excessive. I doubt even when the Medicine King True Cauldron was first forged, such an abundance of precious materials was used.”
“What a waste…”
“Are you planning to use it to withstand the attacks of the Longevity Immortal Heavenly Sovereign?”
Fang Zaiji spoke with a trace of heartache.
Yet, under Xu Bai’s firm and resolute gaze, he had no choice but to toss a small lump of Eternal Calamity Gold into the earth fire before him.
Under his strenuous manipulation, it took more than ten days of calcination before the Eternal Calamity Gold slightly loosened and deformed.
With careful precision, he then embedded and fused it into the surface of the Medicine King True Cauldron.
He then took out some black powder and handed it over.
Fang Zaiji, just having breathed a sigh of relief, was startled once again upon seeing what Xu Bai held.
“This material… why can’t my spiritual sense perceive it?”
Xu Bai smiled faintly. “That’s exactly how it should be. Mr. Fang, please coat this material over the surface of the Medicine King True Cauldron. If it’s not enough, I have more.”
“A material that can block spiritual sense detection… This must be quite expensive,” Fang Zaiji muttered under his breath but still followed Xu Bai’s instructions.
The earth fire flickered, casting a shifting glow over Xu Bai’s face.
Three thousand zhang underground, Beast Realm.
Having quietly returned, Li Fan excavated a secret chamber deep underground.
After sealing all exits and using formations to conceal it, he placed a metal furnace on the ground before him.
“The Myriad Phenomena Furnace…”
“Although it might not truly be able to refine an ‘Emperor Beast,’ a beast of such immense power appearing in the Xuanhuang Realm will certainly draw the attention of Senior Brother Zhang’s Grand Aspiration Dharma Body.”
“Moreover, I won’t even need to worry about controlling the ‘Myriad Phenomena Ancestral Beast’ after refining it.”
“The more chaotic it is, the better—it’ll save me a lot of trouble.”
Li Fan pondered in silence.
To refine the Myriad Phenomena Ancestral Beast, a vast variety of exotic beasts was required.
Fortunately, Li Fan had plenty at his disposal.
These weren’t from his recent dealings with the Empire but from his very first trade with Xiao Qing.
It was none other than the Sealed Life Treasure Box.
Li Fan took out a red, palm-sized wooden box.
Despite its small size, the interior was partitioned into tens of thousands of different spaces.
Each space contained a frozen exotic beast.
“Let’s start with the weaker ones.”
Following the method imparted by Xiao Qing, Li Fan willed the box open, extracting several dozen palm-sized exotic beasts.
The moment they left their frozen confinement, they began regaining consciousness.
Before they could react, Li Fan trembled his spiritual power slightly, instantly slaughtering them all.
Their flesh and blood were disassembled down to their smallest particles, yet they retained their original appearances before being cast into the metal furnace.
Sensing the entry of exotic beast flesh, the intricate bestial engravings around the furnace slowly began to glow.
“I heard that when the Empire forged this artifact, they referenced information from the Beast-Taming Sect’s supreme treasure—the Ten Thousand Reincarnation Beasts Wheel…”
“The Beast-Taming Sect has hidden itself in the Lingxu Realm. I wonder when the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance will discover them.”
While contemplating, Li Fan continued tossing exotic beasts from the Sealed Life Treasure Box into the Myriad Phenomena Furnace.
As more and more exotic beasts were added, Li Fan could sense a mysterious power forming within.
His expression grew solemn.
Ten Days Later.
Both Li Fan and his clone, Xu Bai, abruptly halted their actions.
A peculiar expression flickered across their faces.
“Has the Nascent Soul finally formed…?”
“But such an inconspicuous Cave-Heaven…?”
At that very moment, Xu Bai’s Holy Embryo wandered across the Xuanhuang Continent and finally sensed it—
He had discovered the Cave-Heaven most suitable for himself.
However, what surprised Li Fan was that this cave heaven was nowhere near comparable to his Five Elements Grand Cave Heaven.
It was not even close to ordinary single-attribute cave heavens.
This was because the cave heaven was merely the size of a square inch, surrounded by dark and chaotic void.
There was only a barren piece of yellow land floating in the void, providing a foothold for anyone inside.
Since they shared the same divine sense, Li Fan could clearly perceive that this cave heaven truly had no remarkable features.
The reason why the Holy Embryo Xu Bai chose this place was purely because it had only just been born.
“Interesting. This is the perfect opportunity to see how Mr. Bai employs the new method to achieve Soul Transformation.”
“As the world undergoes a great change, what choice will you make?”
While secretly preparing for a desperate gamble, Li Fan split a portion of his consciousness to carefully observe the “natural” actions of the Holy Embryo Xu Bai.
Xu Bai’s spiritual sense manifested as an ethereal projection, standing on the yellow earth of the newly born cave heaven.
Instead of showing disdain, he had a faint look of delight on his face.
He conjured water with his own power and irrigated the barren land.
Then, tiny green lights emerged from his body and scattered into the soil.
Before long, small green sprouts began breaking through the ground.
The first traces of life had appeared within the cave-heaven.
Then, gentle streams began to form, winding around the newly grown plants.
As the atmosphere became full of vitality, the cave heaven itself started expanding into the surrounding void.
Li Fan observed each scene closely, deep in thought.
“Creating a brand-new cave heaven from nothing.”
“It can be completely tailored according to one’s own will. Compared to relying on luck to find an existing one, this method is undoubtedly superior.”
“However, a cave heaven is not like a mortal being. Its growth spans thousands or even tens of thousands of years—that’s in the most ideal conditions.”
“I’ve already been at the Nascent Soul stage for so long, yet even my Five Elements Cave-Heaven remains in its infancy. This proves just how difficult it is for a cave heaven to mature.”
“Are you planning to slowly wait for it to grow?”
“If so, that would be good news for me.”
That was Li Fan’s thought process.
However, the means employed by the Holy Embryo Xu Bai far exceeded his imagination.
He was caught off guard, and a sense of urgency crept into his heart.
After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, the Holy Embryo Xu Bai strolled leisurely through the Xuanhuang Realm, as if he were merely taking a casual walk.
He stopped in one of the regions and gently reached out toward the sky.
Then, something mysterious and profound seemed to take place between heaven and earth.
It was as if something had been extracted by the Holy Embryo Xu Bai and effortlessly placed into his own cave heaven.
“Boom!”
Within the cave heaven, a continuous rumbling erupted.
In the blink of an eye, a mountain range rose from the ground.
Inside the cave heaven, changes were occurring at a speed a thousand—no, ten thousand—times faster than usual, transforming the landscape dramatically.
“This is…”
“Extracting the Marrow of Heaven?”
“Such ease and grace, without any fear of heavenly backlash. And…”
Upon witnessing this scene, Li Fan’s pupils suddenly contracted.
What shocked him even more was that the Holy Embryo Xu Bai moved on to the next region, observed it for a brief moment, and once again made his move.
Another impending transformation of heaven and earth was quietly extracted.
Not a single other cultivator even noticed.
Inside the Holy Embryo Xu Bai’s cave heaven, another mutation took place.