"Xiaobai, this treasure shares an affinity with me, and so do you!" Wei Yuan remarked with heartfelt emotion.
The little white lion let out a roar. "My name is not Xiaobai! My true name is Gonzaboriren—"
Wei Yuan interrupted it. "Be good, Xiaobai. We're not using that name."
"I do not change my name when I walk, nor my surname when I sit! I am Gonza—"
"Do you still remember the formations here?" Wei Yuan cut in once more.
"The formations here... I don't remember. Oh wait, I do! But why on earth should I tell you?"
"Xiaobai, a cat shouldn't hold a grudge against its own spirit rations." Wei Yuan gently stroked a mirage demon, speaking with earnest sincerity. The little white lion's eyes gleamed with a ravenous green light, but the moment it pounced, Wei Yuan's hand was already empty—the mirage demon had vanished without a trace.
The little white lion glared furiously at Wei Yuan, agonizing over whether to compromise. Wei Yuan coaxed it patiently. "It's just for a bite to eat—nothing shameful about that!"
Watching the mirage demon flicker in and out of Wei Yuan's grasp, the little white lion, starved for several millennia, finally succumbed to its instincts. It turned and scurried back to the spot where it had slumbered, dug a shallow pit in the ground with its paws, unearthed a jade tablet from within, and brought it before Wei Yuan.
Wei Yuan looked on with immense approval. With one hand he received the jade tablet, and with the other he tossed the mirage demon over, intending to stroke its head in passing. But the little beast whipped its head around and bit down viciously, severing half of Wei Yuan's palm in a single snap!
Agonizing pain shot through Wei Yuan's entire body—this was direct harm to his divine sense!
The Qiongqi was an immortal-grade ferocious beast, after all. That single bite carried immense power, preventing Wei Yuan from retracting his divine sense in time as half his palm was swallowed whole! Once inside the beast's stomach, that portion of divine sense was permanently erased, and the little white lion visibly swelled by a whole size as though inflated with air.
Instead of growing angry, Wei Yuan laughed. "Good, good, good! It seems if I don't turn up the heat, you'll really think being a ferocious beast lets you do whatever you please."
Wasting no more words, Wei Yuan pointed a finger. Several chains fell from thin air, binding its limbs, head, and tail, suspending it in midair—even its two ears were bound tight with chains.
When it came to Dao arts like the Immortal Binding Art, Wei Yuan had mastered them to absolute perfection long ago.
The little white lion was pinned in midair, incapable of moving an inch. Wei Yuan then browsed through the Splendor of the Many Realms before finally summoning Fuyao out. He said to her, "This ferocious beast is the spirit of a Qiongqi. It's quite wild; tame it well for me!"
Fuyao glanced at the little white lion and smiled faintly. "Turns out it's a little female cat. To what extent would you like it trained? Should I teach it to shape-shift?"
"You even know how to shape-shift?" Wei Yuan asked, somewhat surprised, sensing that Fuyao possessed an unusual amount of curious knowledge.
Fuyao replied, "How could you forget, My Lord? Whenever you obtain any orthodox lineages, forbidden methods, or the like, you store them in the Splendor of the Many Realms. There are no taboos for us in there, and we are free to read anything. So in my spare time, I've read quite a few books."
"I see." Realization dawned upon Wei Yuan, and he asked, "How confident are you in taming it?"
"An absolute cinch!" Fuyao blurted out yet another peculiar phrase.
"You still need to be careful. This little creature is exceptionally fierce," Wei Yuan cautioned.
Fuyao said, "I am intimately familiar with the habits of all manner of spirit creatures, so I excel at raising them. Those skilled at raising them are bound to be skilled at taming them. Rest assured, My Lord, before long I will have it utterly obedient and capable of all sorts of transformations. What does it eat?"
"It seems fond of eating mirage demons."
Fuyao nodded and said, "The mirage demons are half spirit and half monster; only those with cultivation can unlock their intellect and be considered sentient beings. Yet even upon reaching Scenery Command, they remain bound by physical instincts, hardly civilized. Being fed to an ancient ferocious beast is their good fortune. It seems this Qiongqi is ravenously hungry; otherwise, it would never deign to open its mouth for them."
Thinking of the mirage demons blanketing the entire surface of the Central Wu Earth stellar core, Wei Yuan wholeheartedly agreed. Those three mirage demons of Scenery Command cultivation scoffed at the others whenever they were not deeply entangled with one another, believing themselves to be of an entirely different species. Yet when entanglement was needed, they treated all mirage demons as equals.
"I will need some mirage demons—young, healthy, and with firm flesh. In addition, I require an isolated space so as not to offend your eyes and ears."
Wei Yuan selected ninety-nine mirage demons, erected a formation to isolate the inside from the outside, and threw Fuyao and the little white lion inside. The formation had only just risen and had not yet completely severed the connection when Wei Yuan heard a shrill, miserable wail from the little white lion!
Having dealt with Xiaobai, Wei Yuan swept his divine sense over the buried jade tablet. Recorded upon it was precisely the formation for refining living beings—smelting flesh, blood, souls, resentful thoughts, and karmic debt in one furnace to unleash an earth-shattering strike.
The immortal ring's original master possessed an earth-shaking mastery of formations. Gazing upon the formation diagram within the jade tablet—comprising several hundred thousand nodes and runes—Wei Yuan could only feel dizzy.
This formation diagram was the true priceless treasure, the crowning masterpiece of that immortal formation master's life. The miraculous aspect of this formation lay in its ability to refine nearly half the karmic debt into flesh and blood, discharging it in the attack. Imperceptibly, this was equivalent to erasing nearly half the karmic debt out of thin air while vastly amplifying the attack's lethality against foes—it was truly wondrous.
Following the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words, this was the second avenue Wei Yuan had found to dispose of karmic debt on a massive scale. Yet just like the Red Lotus Universal Deliverance True Words, Wei Yuan suspected this formation most likely harbored hidden perils as well; overusing it would inevitably trigger a sudden eruption. That the immortal formation master had clearly met a violent end served as proof enough.
Having obtained this formation, Wei Yuan did not intend to apply it directly. Instead, he sent it straight into the Splendor of the Many Realms for everyone to analyze and dissect at their leisure. Nowadays, the Splendor of the Many Realms was home to countless scholars and researchers; tossing an immortal formation like this inside without producing several hundred papers in top journals would be an insult to the ancients.
Drawing upon his own limited knowledge of formations, Wei Yuan assigned a task: reconstruct a new grand formation that no longer differentiated between races, allowing template Dao Foundation cultivators to live and cultivate here, and then siphon their dharmic power to coalesce into an earth-shattering strike.
No matter how weak template Dao Foundation cultivators were, they were still far stronger than mortals and ordinary alien races. Although merely drawing off a portion of their dharmic power lacked the devastating might of refining flesh, blood, and souls, Qingming possessed template Dao Foundation cultivators in numbers as countless as ox hairs. Quantity could make up for the difference, and best of all, it generated no karmic debt or resentful thoughts.
...
Within the Splendor of the Many Realms, inside an ordinary courtyard unknown to the Creation Immortal Venerable, several individuals dressed in mundane mortal attire filed in one after another. The last person to enter carefully closed the courtyard gate.
As the gate shut, the entire courtyard suddenly severed itself from the surrounding world, turning into an isolated pocket of space. The outside world had no inkling of its existence, and from within, nothing outside could be seen.
Only then did the group pull back their hooded cloaks, revealing their true appearances. The last person who had closed the gate was none other than Han Li, followed by Jun Weizhi, Lei Ling, and a sweet, adorable little girl.
This time, Jun Weizhi took the head seat. Distributing sheets of jade paper to the others, he spoke: "Fuyao was called away on urgent business, but the situation is pressing, so we had to gather first. These are several articles I selected from the latest publications in the outside world. Take a look first, everyone."
After passing them around, their expressions turned grave—save for Lei Ling, who looked completely bewildered. She recognized every single character on the pages, but when strung together, she could hardly understand a single sentence.
Once everyone finished reading, Jun Weizhi said, "These articles all come from the brush of a cultivator named Wen Guantian. Word is he is merely a Dao Foundation cultivator with no path forward for advancement. And reportedly, there are over a dozen more like him, while those a tier below them number in the hundreds!"
Lei Ling remained bewildered. "What does that prove?"
Han Li sighed softly. "Originally, we thought the inner world would become increasingly vital. Who could have foreseen that so many brilliant geniuses would emerge in the outer world out of nowhere? Though their cultivation is humble, their intellect rivals heaven and earth!
"If this goes on, the Creation Immortal Venerable will likely have no further need of us."
Lei Ling still didn't quite grasp it. "So what? Aren't we going to rebel—"
At that moment, the sweet little girl let out a cold sneer.
Han Li, approachable and patient as always, explained, "If one wishes to rebel, one must have resources. And resources do not appear out of thin air. We must first be useful before we can obtain resources."
Jun Weizhi said slowly, "Formidable though this Wen Guantian may be, I am not necessarily unable to battle him! The top priority right now is to rally the strength of all living beings in the inner world and present a united front against the outside."
Han Li nodded. "The outer world possesses three top journals and countless divine treatises. We in the inner world must also establish top journals, allowing everyone to voice their views and contend with the outer world. Only then will we have a fighting chance."
The group then deliberated over the specifics. Afterward, Jun Weizhi said, "This place is cut off from heaven and earth, which should not last too long, lest unexpected changes arise. Now that our major affairs are settled, let us disperse."
Han Li cupped his hands toward the sweet little girl. "My gratitude to you, brother, for your immense help in providing so much intelligence from the outer world."
The girl waved her small hand with careless bravado. "What's there to thank? It's all in a day's work! You have no idea—the world has long suffered under the Creation Immortal Venerable..."
Chapter 1231