However, judging from past experience, unleashing the "Disorder" Formula within the Xuanhuang Realm would inevitably draw Chuanfa's attention and summon him back from the void.
With the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable personally holding down the Xuanhuang Realm, virtually nothing could go awry.
Every manner of ghost and monster had to yield before his might, so under ordinary circumstances, Li Fan would never consider such a method.
Within this seven-colored space, apart from the two creations mentioned, there was a third, relatively mature plan for world extinction.
Namely, launching a reinforced miniature craft toward the Immortal Ruins.
Modeled after the principles of Tianyang turning his body into a puppet, this craft was virtually alive.
Beyond the portion that would fly toward the Immortal Ruins to draw the attention of the Immortals within, an identical counterpart remained in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Once the first half entered the Immortal Ruins, its presence—resembling the prying gaze of a human—would alert the Immortals there.
Tracing the connection between the two craft across the void, the Immortals would then lock onto the Xuanhuang Realm.
This would achieve the effect of destroying the world with a single glance.
Just as Li Fan had inadvertently done before.
Aside from these three, everything else was still under research and development. They were merely viable in theory and had not yet undergone actual testing.
For instance, severing the crisscrossing lines representing the principles of Heaven and Earth within the space of Tianling Province one by one. Destroying the cornerstone of the Xuanhuang Realm would cause the world itself to naturally decay and collapse.
Another example was mass-producing artifacts imbued with divine abilities and disseminating them across every corner of the Xuanhuang Realm. Doing so would inevitably throw the operation of heaven and earth into chaos. Flooded with erroneous Heavenly Dao directives, it might even override the natural mechanisms that truly needed to be executed, throwing the entire world into turmoil. The Xuanhuang Realm would then likely undergo a degree of self-correction, which might trigger similar catastrophic upheavals.
***
Li Fan still retained the source origin of the Heavenly Profound Mirror. Possessing the highest level of authority, he could hungrily peruse the sealed archives of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Due to the divine power of Heavenly Venerable Wuyou, the various tribulations and disasters that had occurred on the lands of Xuanhuang in the past had long been forgotten by the people. Only Li Fan retrieved them, treating them like treasures.
The diverse extinction initiatives in this space were currently Li Fan's only key to contending with powers at the Longevity realm and even beyond.
As the only pure land in the Pitch-Black Star Sea to have survived to this day, the Xuanhuang Realm's existence was the prerequisite for cultivators to live.
And mastering the methods to destroy the world meant holding the bargaining chips to negotiate with everyone in the Xuanhuang Realm.
This was not just immensely useful in this lifetime. As long as Li Fan had not broken free of the Xuanhuang Realm, this place would remain vital to him.
Therefore, Li Fan simply manifested a sacred embryo and then used the stone statue of the Faceless True Immortal to bestow cultivation upon it. Forcibly elevating the sacred embryo to the Golden Core realm was enough to sustain its research duties within this space.
Carefully reinforcing the Seven-Colored Divine Light seal around the area, Li Fan then quietly departed.
He arrived in the Empire's pocket world.
Due to the fusion with the Spirit Wood Realm, subtle changes had occurred within the world itself. Unable to adapt to this upheaval of heaven and earth, large numbers of strange beasts in the Empire had perished one after another.
Those that survived had remained listless for nearly two to three years before gradually recovering their vigor.
Now, at the center of the Empire, where the royal castle once stood, an arched dome building had been erected.
It was a testing facility established in the Empire by the Myriad Realms Association.
The apparatuses capable of synthesizing spiritual energy had undergone three generations of refinement, and their production efficiency had now nearly doubled.
Moreover, the probability of random mutations causing a Heaven and Earth Furnace to fail had also been drastically reduced.
A single Heaven and Earth Furnace was now stable enough to release spiritual energy uninterrupted for a century.
It had basically satisfied the needs of the Myriad Realms Association.
Five years had passed, and the overall concentration of spiritual energy in the merged Spirit Wood Realm was no longer inferior to that of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Of course, part of the reason was that the Xuanhuang Realm was simply too vast.
The primary focus of the Empire's Xiao Qing, Xiao Hong, and the others had also shifted to coordinating the integration between the Empire's pocket world and the Spirit Wood Realm.
As for the Imperial Daughter, Li Fan had assigned her a different task.
Inside the domed laboratory, the Imperial Daughter was staring intently at the space before her, where countless Dao-One Worms swarmed like a dense black mist.
She did not even notice Li Fan's quiet arrival.
Li Fan glanced at the experimental logs.
"Ancestral Dao-One Worm variant, seventy-sixth trial."
"After fusing with fission fungi, this variant's lifespan has been greatly reduced, but its reproductive efficiency has increased by more than a hundredfold."
"According to calculations, given sufficient resources, a single Dao-One Worm requires only seven days to multiply its population to the hundred-million scale."
"Key recorded observation: The spiritual energy produced by this variant can be absorbed by cultivators without causing any abnormal sensations initially. However, if excessive amounts are absorbed—exceeding half of the spiritual energy stored within the body—it will subtly influence the cultivator over time. The cultivator will become more irritable and significantly more aggressive."
"More importantly, a form of dependency on this mutated spiritual energy develops, leaving the user feeling that normal spiritual energy lacks potency."
***
Looking at the detailed experimental notes recorded by the Imperial Daughter, Li Fan nodded with great satisfaction.
The Empire's bloodline was indeed derived from the blood of Xu Ke's sacred embryo, handed down through a continuous lineage. The Imperial Daughter had inherited Xu Ke's talent flawlessly.
Over the past five years, many experimental projects she led had achieved impressive breakthroughs.
Particularly the research on Dao-One Worm variants.
The spiritual energy produced by these variants exhibited many subtle variations. The new strain that made cultivators more irritable was just one of them. Previously, there were strains that made cultivators lazy and devoid of ambition, or those where the concentration was so rich that absorbing it produced an effect akin to 'qi drunkenness.' If one continued to absorb it, it could even inflict irreversible damage on the cultivator's sanity.
Such examples were far too numerous to count.
Although these mutated forms of spiritual energy could not destroy the Xuanhuang Realm, they could, to a certain degree, be used to alter cultivators.
They could reshape the cultivators within a specific region to uniformly possess a fixed temperament.
Li Fan was genuinely intrigued by this path.
After sealing and storing the records of this new variant along with over a hundred specimen worms into his grotto-heaven, Li Fan roused the Imperial Daughter, who was still deeply immersed in her research.
"Greetings, Lord Emissary!" A trace of nervousness flashed in her eyes as she hurriedly bowed in greeting.
"How is the search for the Saint Emperor progressing?" Li Fan asked.
"Half of the pocket worlds have already been ruled out, yet no trace of the Saint Emperor has been found. It is estimated that within five years at most, we will be able to explore all the remaining worlds and finally pinpoint his hiding place," the Imperial Daughter answered truthfully.
Chapter 1058