Though it was only a formation Li Fan had just derived, it was tailor-made for the people of the Spirit Wood Realm. With the Tianyang immortal puppet at its core and relying on its defensive capabilities at the Longevity realm, it maximized everyone else's combat power.
The formation also possessed an effect akin to Soul Burning, capable of fully awakening the potential of the cultivators within it over a short period—albeit at the cost of burning their divine souls.
Before assembling the formation to evacuate, Sacred Embryo Li Fan took one last look at the Spirit Wood Realm.
"The one in the next life will be even better."
With no lingering attachment, he led the crowd and charged out of the Spirit Wood Realm.
They had expected to be surrounded by layers of forces from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. Yet to the surprise of Li Fan and the others, the void outside the Spirit Wood Realm was completely empty!
Oddly enough, however, the sensation lingering in their hearts—that feeling of being watched at every moment—still remained!
"Watch out!" Daoist Baihua was the first to speak in warning. Her face was deathly pale, and cold sweat actually trickled down her forehead. Even when previously cornered and pressured by Li Fan, she had never been so discomposed or lost her composure to such a degree.
Because back then, what she had felt from Li Fan was merely pure killing intent. But now...
"Pure malice..."
Liu Ruchen of the Medicine King Sect and the others also reacted as if facing a mortal enemy.
Even though the space ahead appeared entirely empty without a single guard, every one of them came to a halt in unison.
Including Li Fan at the front.
Because intuition told them that if they charged forward, they would die.
As though targeted by a natural predator, everyone stiffened, not daring to make an uncalculated move.
Just then, Tianyang's voice reached Li Fan's ears:
"Ahead. Longevity realm. Bizarre."
Terse and grave.
To the ears of Sacred Embryo Li Fan, it fell like a thunderclap.
"Longevity realm?"
"Has Dharma-Transmitting come?"
His heart felt violently seized. Even Li Fan's true body, concealed within the Nether Prison, had his aura falter by a fraction.
*Of course. The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had long known that the Myriad Realms Association possessed an entity at the Longevity realm. After their initial probing, they naturally wouldn't send men to die pointlessly anymore; instead, they would directly deploy a decisive power to settle the matter once and for all.*
*But...*
*Just to avenge a few Dharma Transmitters, would He actually act in person? Isn't that far beneath Him?*
Li Fan was visibly caught off guard by the emergence of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable.
Yet immediately afterward, doubts sprouted in his heart.
Judging from the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's past attitude toward the Dharma Transmitters, He clearly regarded them as mere tools. Perhaps He treated Dharma Transmitter Jiang with slight distinction, but in His eyes, the other Dharma Transmitters were likely no different from ordinary cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Would Dharma-Transmitting personally descend on a campaign for the sake of a mere three Dharma Transmitters?
Li Fan naturally did not believe it.
Moreover, Li Fan had once felt the vast, magnificent power of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable. His aura was sacred, boundless, and unfathomable.
It had absolutely nothing in common with the "malice" surrounding them right now!
*If not Dharma-Transmitting, then who?*
There were only a handful of Longevity Heavenly Venerables in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Excluding the five Heavenly Venerables of the Five Elders Association, it couldn't possibly be Wangsheng, who had only just attained Dao either.
As his thoughts raced, a name buried deep in his memories, almost entirely forgotten, suddenly flashed into Li Fan's mind.
Heavenly Venerable Dongji!
Heavenly Venerable Dongji—even if one searched through every text in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, there were only a handful of sentences recorded about Him.
His life seemed to have been deliberately erased. The only thing known was that He had invented the Purifying Spirit Pool, which the Alliance currently used to purge the immortal-mortal miasma from mortals' bodies.
Beyond that, there was nothing.
A Longevity Heavenly Venerable of a generation, and the only other Heavenly Venerable in the Alliance besides Dharma-Transmitting.
To receive such treatment was truly bizarre and unimaginable.
Unless it had been at His own request, whatever had happened to Him was profoundly intriguing.
Furthermore, the Longevity Heavenly Venerables of the Xuanhuang Realm were all named after their Dao of Contradiction.
Only this "Dongji" seemed to be merely His name.
...
In a fleeting moment, countless thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind.
Meanwhile, the malicious will eyeing them from all sides launched its assault on the cultivators of the Spirit Wood Realm.
The mighty power of a Heavenly Venerable was truly unlike that of ordinary cultivators.
The body of the Tianyang immortal puppet, originally radiating a pure white light, suddenly seemed tainted by a trace of ominous aura. Its glow flickered erratically as Tianyang wore a grave expression, seemingly wrestling with that aura. Across the surface of the puppet's body, patches of black spots began to spread here and there.
The attack of the evil aura bypassed the protection of Li Fan's formation and fell upon everyone from the Spirit Wood Realm simultaneously.
Not everyone possessed the qualifications to resist a Longevity Heavenly Venerable.
In the blink of an eye, they were corroded.
And Li Fan witnessed the fate of those thoroughly contaminated by the evil aura.
Their pupils vanished, leaving pitch-black voids in their eye sockets.
At the same time, they instantly turned and attacked the companions beside them, having clearly lost their sanity and will entirely.
Almost instantaneously, the Spirit Wood Realm's ranks fell into chaotic disarray, showing signs of imminent collapse.
Yet the enemy hidden in the dark still had not revealed himself.
*Is this the combat prowess of a true Longevity Heavenly Venerable?*
*Defeat is acceptable. But to lose without even catching a glimpse of His true face...*
Amidst the turmoil, Li Fan's expression showed not the slightest ripple as he simply looked toward Tianyang.
A dazzling crimson suddenly welled up from within Tianyang.
Like a great sun in the heavens, it illuminated the surrounding pitch-black space.
"Throughout my life, I, Tianyang..."
"Have never yielded to any man!"
The body of the Tianyang immortal puppet swelled millions of times over in an instant. Like a primordial flaming colossus splitting open heaven and earth, he towered in the dark void.
Rings of crimson flame erupted from his form, rolling outward relentlessly, as though seeking to incinerate the entire space to ashes.
Under the scorching blaze of Tianyang's flames, the allied forces of the Spirit Wood Realm remained completely unharmed.
Meanwhile, those cultivators who had been corrupted by the evil aura dissolved into black ash amidst hair-raising, piercing shrieks.
And the culprit who had remained concealed in the darkness was finally forced to reveal his form!
The scene before him made Sacred Embryo Li Fan's eyes narrow slightly.
A tall, naked man stood in midair.
His black hair reached down to his ankles, and his body was carved with black patterns radiating an evil aura.
Behind the naked man, one could faintly see countless threads emerging from the void, sunk deep into his flesh.
The naked man's eyes were pitch-black and his face devoid of expression, just like the cultivators whose minds had been commandeered.
"A Longevity Heavenly Venerable... a marionette..."
This bizarre sight sent an uncontrollable chill through the hearts of everyone from the Spirit Wood Realm.
And Li Fan drew a sharp breath.
*This is...*
*The Heavenly Venerable Dongji, who mysteriously disappeared, has actually ended up in such a state?*
*Though not dead, he lives a fate worse than death...*
*Who did this?*
*Those Dharma Transmitters of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals certainly lack the ability.*
*The only possibility is Dharma-Transmitting!*
Within the Nether Prison, Li Fan's true body clenched his fists unconsciously.
Chapter 1118