All Essences in One Body

The Tianji Realm cohort's research into the power of gloomy darkness was not proceeding as smoothly as they had imagined. Which made sense—after all, it was a tier of power rivaling Source Power Essence. No matter how brilliant a genius one was, building research from scratch would inevitably demand a great deal of time. Fortunately, Layman Qiaogong and the others were research fanatics; once the study began, they had eyes for nothing else and threw themselves into it completely. All Li Fan needed to do was wait patiently and then reap the fruits of their labor. In the meantime, he had already quietly begun his scheming against the two immortals. Within an underground secret chamber in the Spirit Wood Realm. Over a hundred peculiarly shaped puppets stood motionless in silence. Wearing a solemn expression, Li Fan personally carved formations onto them. "Bait puppets, two per pair, seventy-two pairs in total. One from each pair will fly into the Immortal Ruins, while the other will be stationed in various corners of the Xuanhuang Realm's earth veins. When the seventy-two bait puppets soar toward the Immortal Ruins, the great formations carved upon them will activate, drawing the attention of the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins. "Deduced by the Dissociation Disc, this formation is infinitely close to an immortal-grade grand formation. Its name is 'Bewildering, Confusing Blossoms'. While in secluded cultivation, suddenly sensing a looming threat will inevitably provoke a subconscious reaction, which will trace right back to the Xuanhuang Realm. "And around the bait puppets left in the Xuanhuang Realm, I will lay down an alert net using the Faceless True Immortal's Source Power Essence. The moment the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins' power triggers it, it will draw the gaze of the Faceless True Immortal. "If nothing goes awry... "Once these two unimaginable powers collide, the Xuanhuang Realm will likely be pulverized into ash in an instant. Therefore, my operation to falsely extort the Heavenly Dao and extract Xuanhuang's imminent transformations must be prepared in advance." Inside his mind, the Dao Transformation Stone flashed with rhythmic blue light. The sublimated Dao Transformation Stone's deduction capability had been vastly enhanced. This maneuver of driving a wolf to devour a tiger involved countless angles. Even with myriad tangled threads and frequent variables, it posed no significant burden for the Dao Transformation Stone. Of course, this was only because within the deduction, the Faceless True Immortal and the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins possessed only the capabilities Li Fan had pre-programmed. Li Fan possessed clear self-awareness; with his current strength, deluding himself into thinking he could deduce the true actions of a True Immortal was nothing short of a fool's daydream. All he could do was seek a slim thread of opportunity based on the reality he had already experienced. "The Immortal of the Immortal Ruins shakes the True Immortal's web. "And seizing that moment, I trigger True Reversion and break free at last. "Naturally, that is the most ideal scenario. As the saying goes, plan for defeat before seeking victory. I must also consider what happens if my plan fails—if the gulf in strength between the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins and the Faceless True Immortal is too vast, proving insufficient to shake the bonds of the True Immortal's web... "Then I must immediately retreat into the depths of the You Realm, trigger True Reversion, and escape the crisis. "Now that I possess several things capable of at least slightly affecting a True Immortal, stalling for a brief moment is well within my reach." Li Fan inspected the outer perimeter of his divine soul. The silver protective radiance bestowed by the Heavenly Physician, the golden Source Power Essence, and the Seven-Colored Divine Light encasing the gray mold... These diverse powers maintained a delicate equilibrium. Perhaps only someone like Li Fan could remain completely composed under such conditions, even feeling a faint sense of reassurance. "Borrowing another's force to strike, maneuvering between factions—at its core, it is all because my own strength is too feeble. Yet how could the threshold of immortality be so easily crossed? "Even geniuses like Xuanyuan Hong, Chuanfa, and the Heavenly Physician were barred outside, unable to advance a single inch. "Much less someone like me? If not for carrying True Reversion, I would probably have abandoned this seemingly unrealistic dream long ago," Li Fan murmured with a touch of self-deprecating irony. "Yet since I have the good fortune to possess such a miraculous treasure as True Reversion, no one can obstruct my path to immortality..." A cold glint flashed in his eyes. Li Fan knew that whether it was 'Chaos', 'Hunger', or 'Perish', what he had encountered was never the original version. They were merely crude imitations left by successors. Thus, over the long years, Li Fan had never abandoned his in-depth study of these three True Immortal seal characters. Even if it was an imitation of an imitation, the closer the resemblance, the greater the power. Even an immortal could comprehend the Dao through a single character. It could be said that for Li Fan, exhausting an entire lifetime would still not suffice to fathom even one of them. Li Fan's innate comprehension was limited. Yet he could borrow aid from external things. Aside from the peerless talent of his clone, Li Qing, the Xuanhuang Realm paragons recruited and turned within the Shanhe Pavilion over the recent period had also become Li Fan's nourishment. The Profound Heaven Sect cultivation method obtained from Senior Sister Zhao, the Heaven and Earth Mutual Conquest Rhapsody, could equalize and balance the talent and comprehension of any targets. Once the clone Li Qing attained minor success in it, he began searching for suitable candidates. Outwardly, it was announced that they were being sent to execute secret missions for the Red Dust Compassionate Immortal, but in truth, they had been quietly brought under control to have their innate gifts harvested. Naturally, due to the mutual conquest and equalizing harmonization, these paragons also received half of Li Qing's talent bonus. Li Qing's natural aptitude was by no means inferior to theirs, so the Shanhe Pavilion prodigies, including Shang Tianci, noticed nothing out of the ordinary; they were merely awestruck by the miraculous wonders of the method of establishing the foundation with oneself. With the talent enhancements of over a dozen paragons, the clone Li Qing's comprehension had already reached a shocking, earth-shaking level. He was even vaguely aware that Li Fan's true self had excised part of his memories. Yet he was, after all, only a clone, bearing no division between 'you' and 'I' with his true self. He steadfastly carried out the task of deciphering the True Immortal seal characters. The three True Immortal seal characters continuously surfaced in his mind, like living things. Before Li Qing's eyes, it was as if he could see a blurry figure performing the act of transforming the Dao into script. "Inscribing the Dao..." "An existence even more formidable than the Faceless True Immortal. Perhaps that is my ultimate goal." ... Just as Li Fan was quietly making preparations for the grand culmination of this lifetime, the Heavenly Venerable of Inverting Life and Death, who had previously burst onto the scene, finally manifested His influence upon the Xuanhuang Realm. For people discovered that ever since this Heavenly Venerable descended upon the world, Xuanhuang Realm cultivators had not conceived a single new offspring. Or rather, this was true for the entire human race. At first, people could not be certain it was the influence of this Heavenly Venerable. Yet when a previously fallen cultivator returned in a manner no one had ever imagined, everyone connected all the pieces in an instant. The Lancang River was the largest river along the southwestern frontier of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. One day, a cultivator named Chang Ji suddenly emerged naked from the river waters. Such an abnormal sight naturally attracted onlookers from the surroundings. Yet Chang Ji did not care in the slightest. Instead, he stared at his own body in wild, ecstatic disbelief, muttering under his breath, "I'm alive again? "Inverting life and death... Inverting life and death! The Heavenly Venerable truly did not deceive me!"