Three days later.
The Congyun Sea had reverted to the state it was in when Ink Death had annihilated everything.
Lava raged, and the ground was riddled with holes.
Meanwhile, the coil in the hands of the Holy Embryo, Xu Bai, emitted a brilliant white light before vanishing from the Xuanhuang Realm.
It reappeared within his own personal Cave Heaven, transforming into droplets of spring rain that fell upon the land.
Thus, Li Fan witnessed a remarkable sight—within the Cave Heaven, mountains, rivers, lakes, and forests began to show signs of animal life.
Without any prior warning, fish, birds, and beasts suddenly emerged from various places.
With the arrival of these living beings, the Cave Heaven finally started to display true vitality.
Under normal circumstances, such an evolution would take hundreds of thousands or even millions of years to occur.
“This technique… is truly divine,” Li Fan couldn’t help but sigh in admiration.
In his past life, even the vast Five Elements Cave Heaven, which had been nurtured for an unknown number of years, was still dominated mainly by plant life. It was still far from becoming a fully developed world.
Yet, Xu Bai’s Cave Heaven had accomplished this feat in such a short period.
After leaving the Cloud Sea, he did not stop his efforts to gather the world’s life transformative phenomenon.
However, his work now resembled more of fine-tuning and mending, rather than causing earth-shattering changes.
Subtle transformations were quietly taking place in unnoticed corners.
“I can’t replicate this… I simply can’t.” Li Fan kept replaying the memory of how Xu Bai extracted the power of revival.
Even though he had witnessed the entire process firsthand, he remained completely baffled as to how it was achieved.
This was clearly beyond his current level of comprehension.
“Ordinary Nascent Souls rely on their Cave-Heaven as the foundation of their cultivation. But someone outright devouring a small world? I’ve never even heard of such a thing before.”
“When he truly advances to the Soul Transformation Realm, I can’t begin to imagine how powerful he’ll become.”
“And which Spirit of Heaven and Earth will he choose to merge with in his Dao Integration?”
Li Fan found himself looking forward to the answer.
As Xu Bai traveled across the Xuanhuang Realm, another matter puzzled Li Fan.
Logically speaking, with Xu Bai’s extraordinary appearance and temperament, he should have attracted attention wherever he went.
Not to mention, his continuous absorption of the world’s transformative energy should have drawn intense scrutiny.
Yet, strangely enough, every cultivator he encountered along the way completely ignored him—as if they couldn’t see him at all.
Hiding in plain sight, under the bright sun!
“This kind of divine ability… it would suit me perfectly,” Li Fan thought.
“It seems as if he has completely merged with all things in the world…”
After pondering for a long time, Li Fan’s expression turned thoughtful.
Meanwhile, as Xu Bai was on the verge of advancing to the Soul Transformation Realm, Li Fan himself was also about to refine the “Emperor Beast”.
All the frozen exotic beasts had been placed into the Sealed Life Treasure Box.
Li Fan had even added Red Nine-Headed’s flesh and blood and Kunpeng’s essence blood.
“Boom!”
“Boom!”
Above the Myriad Phenomena Furnace, all the beast patterns erupted with dazzling radiance.
The metal furnace trembled violently, producing creaking sounds from all around.
It seemed as if it could collapse and explode at any moment.
“Another technique is ready.”
Li Fan swiftly pressed his hands together, setting up an formation around the Myriad Phenomena Furnace to temporarily seal it.
Afterward, he stored it inside a separate storage ring.
Then, he took out some materials and, following the method from Tianyang’s memories, began refining mechanical puppets.
“The Chaos Character is the only method I have to potentially disrupt the vision of the Longevity Immortal Heavenly Sovereign.”
“Moreover, it seems that the Longevity Realm experts of this world are highly interested in the Chaos Character. So when the time comes, I won’t just cast it myself—it will also erupt simultaneously in different locations.”
“As the saying goes, ‘The wind rustles, and the crane’s cry startles the army; every tree and blade of grass seems like an enemy soldier.’”
A sharp gleam flashed in Li Fan’s eyes. Within just a few days, a rather crude-looking, pitch-black puppet was completed.
It had no intelligence to speak of, and its function was extremely simple:
At the critical moment, it would execute its predetermined orders without being influenced by any external forces—not even Li Fan himself!
“The Chaos Character is incredibly difficult to execute, even for my true body.”
“Let alone these puppets.”
“I can only divide the word ‘Chaos’ stroke by stroke. When the time comes, the puppets will assemble it into a complete divine ability.”
“If it were the full-power ‘Chaos’ mantra, splitting it apart would likely be beyond my ability. But I don’t seek its full power—I only need to imitate its chaotic aura, which should be feasible.”
Li Fan multitasked, monitoring and recording the activities of the Holy Embryo Xu Bai while continuously refining more puppets and contemplating how to deconstruct the Chaos Character.
Fortunately, with the secret technique of [Transformation into Divine Dao], despite the numerous tasks, his mind remained orderly.
…
Longevity Valley.
Jiang Yushan unleashed a powerful slash of black fiendish energy at the newly reforged Medicine King True Cauldron, but the cauldron’s surrounding black radiance effortlessly neutralized the attack.
Jiang Yushan furrowed her brows slightly, while Fang Zaiji was brimming with pride.
“Sect Master, what do you think of my craftsmanship? This new cauldron is extremely sturdy! Even if the three of us joined forces, we might not be able to inflict any damage on it.”
“And that’s only considering its inherent material strength. If we activate its internal formations for full defense, it might even be able to withstand an attack from the Longevity Immortal Heavenly Sovereign!”
“It’s all thanks to your generosity, Sect Master—you spared no expense on rare heavenly materials. I’ve never had such luxurious resources for artifact refining in my entire life.” Fang Zaiji sighed with emotion.
Xu Bai, who had just tested the cauldron’s durability, was very satisfied. “Thank you for your hard work, Elder Fang.”
“I heard that the small world where the Taiyan Sect is located has recently been formally integrated into the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance. To set an example, the alliance is even allowing its cultivators to visit freely. Elder Fang, since you’ve been working hard on refining artifacts, why don’t you come with me to take a look and see how things stand?” Xu Bai said with a smile.
As he spoke, he ignored the side glance from Liu San and casually stored the now-darkened Medicine King True Cauldron away.
“Taiyan Sect, huh…” Fang Zaiji hesitated.
“They aren’t easy to deal with. Back in the day, I was constantly hunted down with no peace, and it was the Taiyan Sect disciples who calculated my hiding spots and exposed me.”
Xu Bai chuckled. “That was in the past. Now that they’ve joined the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, and there’s no longer any personal vendetta between you, why would they bother chasing you now?”
Hearing this, Fang Zaiji became a bit eager. “I’ve heard that Taiyan Sect has a treasure called the ‘Stone Mother of Dao Deviation.’”
“It supposedly contains an illusion so lifelike that it has nearly deduced an entirely separate real world. I’ve heard of it for a long time, but I’ve never had the chance to see it…”
Xu Bai’s gaze flickered. “Haha, I’ve heard of it too. That item is the Taiyan Sect’s most prized treasure—it won’t be easy to lay eyes on.”
“Whether we get to witness it or not depends entirely on fate.”