As for the Nether Prison, after such a massive jailbreak, it existed now in name only.
Once the transfer of the remaining prisoners was complete, the entrance was not even concealed again.
It was simply left abandoned.
Time slipped slowly by, and no one came here anymore, as though the world had forgotten it entirely.
After who knew how long, Li Fan's figure slowly materialized.
"Suppressed in the deepest reaches of the Nether Prison, and even I couldn't see their face clearly."
"The transfer required three Dharma Transmitters to come in person..."
"Interesting."
Rather than escaping immediately alongside the mob of breakout cultivators, Li Fan had hidden himself right at the entrance. He had done so precisely to investigate the figure held in the deepest depths of the Nether Prison, someone he had been unable to approach over the past three years.
It was not that the formations in the deepest reaches were so sophisticated that Li Fan could not crack them, but rather that the guards responsible for watching that prisoner were a trio of Dao Integration cultivators working in unison.
They seemed to exist solely to suppress that single prisoner; even when the upper levels of the Nether Prison were breached and countless vicious criminals broke out, they had remained completely indifferent, never stepping forward to intervene.
When the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' escort party arrived and the transfer was underway, Li Fan had finally managed to catch a glimpse of the prisoner.
The prisoner felt faintly familiar to him.
Yet obscured by secret techniques, he could not be entirely certain.
"Before the Grand Formation of Myriad Spirits is completed, it's best not to stir up further trouble."
"I'll look into it in the next life."
"For now, the only thing left to do is quietly wait for the right moment and watch heaven and earth turn upside down!"
Li Fan looked toward the distant horizon, as if already seeing the Grand Formation of Myriad Spirits lighting up across more than a thousand mortal worlds.
The Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits shown to that mob of thugs was not, in fact, the formation's full name.
It was the product of three years of deduction by the Terminal Dissociation Disc.
It represented the pinnacle of formation deduction currently achievable by the Dissociation Disc.
Using the Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits that had once encompassed the Spirit Wood Realm, the Empire, and the Beast Seed Realm as a prototype, and further deduced from there, this earth-shattering formation had been created.
Its full name was the Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits, All Living Souls Refining Spirit.
The formation's primary function—and the very objective for which Li Fan had taken great pains to liberate the prisoners of the Nether Prison and make them risk their lives for him—lay in those four words: All Living Souls Refining Spirit.
It shared an identical subtlety with the All Living Souls Refining Spirit Formation that Song Hesong had unleashed against Senior Brother Zhang in Ningyuan City within the Fallen Immortal Illusion.
The formation's lethal power derived from the collective will of Heaven and Earth's myriad spirits—the intent of countless living beings.
Only, Li Fan's modified version...
Was hundreds of billions of times stronger.
Because the materials it required and consumed were hundreds of billions of times greater.
Back then, Song Hesong had used the power of mortals from a single city to push Senior Brother Zhang to the brink, forcing him to reveal the secrets of the indestructible purple core.
Li Fan, on the other hand, was using over a thousand pocket worlds in the Xuanhuang Realm and trillions of living souls just to hold off the Faceless True Immortal for a fleeting instant.
Ever since the Spirit Wood Realm was obliterated by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and throughout the three years he spent hiding in the Nether Prison, Li Fan had continually contemplated and reviewed the final World Annihilation plan.
After all, this was his first clash against the power of True Immortals. Even if he deflected force with force and sat back to watch immortals fight, it still carried endless risk.
These two were genuine immortals who had transcended mortal existence, not stubborn Foundation Establishment cultivators.
If they were truly that easy to plot against, how could they possibly deserve the title of True Immortal?
A single failure would mean utter damnation.
Especially after witnessing the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' siege, where they revealed unexpected trump cards and wiped out the Spirit Wood Realm in a single stroke, Li Fan had become more cautious than ever regarding the World Annihilation plan.
He factored every possibility into his calculations.
And in doing so, he discovered a problem he had previously taken for granted and overlooked.
In Li Fan's original conception, he would first trigger the power of the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins, and then use that transcendent power to provoke a reaction from the Faceless True Immortal.
Indeed, living beings instinctively reacted to things that posed a threat to them.
In his simulated predictions, the Faceless True Immortal and the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins ought to spot each other first and clash, overlooking Li Fan, the instigator of it all.
Yet that was only the ideal scenario.
What if, having ascended to immortality, their thought patterns were no longer like those of mortals?
Or what if they sensed the existence of Trueness upon Li Fan?
What if, instead of immediately locking onto a matched adversary, they locked onto Li Fan first?
If he made no preparations whatsoever and was locked onto by a True Immortal when the time came, he feared he would not even have time to flee into the Nether Realm and forcibly activate Trueness.
The more he thought about it, the more restless he became.
Thus, he ultimately resolved that he had to find a way to stall for at least that sliver of time.
And the Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits, All Living Souls Refining Spirit was the ultimate answer provided by the Dissociation Disc.
Though the gap between mortal and cultivator, or between cultivator and True Immortal, was as vast as heaven and earth, when sheer numbers reached a certain threshold, a terrifying qualitative transformation could occur.
"Plunged into an endless ocean of intent from trillions of living beings, even a True Immortal is bound to waver for a fraction of an instant."
"That fleeting moment of distraction bought for me will be my only chance of escape."
The power of a True Immortal could indeed destroy Xuanhuang in an instant.
Yet if things truly unfolded as Li Fan anticipated and the immortal locked onto him, they would not immediately destroy the Xuanhuang Realm, wanting instead to seize the ant scheming from the shadows.
And that would grant Li Fan his opening.
"Heh. Over a thousand mortal worlds, countless living intents."
"What a colossal power. Yet no matter how I deduce it, it can only hold them back for the barest sliver of time."
"This absolute disparity in strength..."
"It truly inspires longing."
With his hands clasped behind his back, Li Fan fell silent.
Bound by the Faceless True Immortal's power, that mob of ruthless convicts would surely construct the grand formation faithfully.
Li Fan did not need to worry about that.
And once the grand formation was complete, it would no longer be under their control.
"The day the All Living Souls Refining Spirit Formation is completed will be the moment of Xuanhuang's world annihilation."
"Soon. Within a year."
In the meantime, all Li Fan needed to do was wait patiently.
In these final stages of this life, however, Li Fan still had a few loose ends to tie up.
He first went to Tianling Province, to the site of the original Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
Ever since that Five Elements Grotto-Heaven—which had nurtured for who knew how many years—was devoured by Li Fan, new Five Elements Grotto-Heavens had begun to take shape within the invisible void known as the Root of Heaven and Earth.
However, this process was exceptionally slow.
Only now was the embryonic form of a grotto-heaven faintly showing.
Li Fan strolled through the void, channeling the Falsifying Transposition of the Heavenly Dao divine ability to contemplate the principles of Heaven and Earth.
Feeling a rhythm akin to a beating heart, Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly and waited attentively for Trueness's prompt.
Yet from this innate treasure born alongside him, Li Fan faintly sensed wisps of dissatisfaction.
Chapter 1123