The Di Yi Beast had long since led the beast tribes in escaping the Xuanhuang Realm, while Di Sanmo was deeply ensconced in the headquarters of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, rarely seen by ordinary people.
However, both of them appeared within the Fallen Immortal Realm's Disaster of the Beast Taming Sect; he could simply question them to their faces there.
"Fellow Daoist Sun?"
Elder Zhang Xu's voice transmission broke Li Fan's train of thought.
Returning his attention to the garrison space of the Yanfa Jade, he saw the little girl handling an urgent Dharma-derivation task.
Having been saddled with another errand out of nowhere, she looked puffed up with indignation, her face full of resentment.
The task required only a Dao Integration cultivation method, yet three days and three nights had already passed without her finishing the deduction.
In all likelihood, this little auntie was taking the opportunity to slack off.
Within the derivation space, besides the three Dao Integration garrisons, there was also a young man clad in green.
Though standing ramrod straight and motionless, the anxiety in his heart was plain to see from his expression.
Considering that this Dharma-derivation task was of rather high priority, any real delay might stir up trouble. Thus, Garrison Zhang Xu secretly sent a voice transmission, asking Li Fan to play the bad guy once again.
At any rate, during this period, Li Fan's image in the Yanfa Jade's mind had already been categorized among the most despicable people in the world.
There was no longer any need to conjure a bronze gong to give a warning.
The moment an hourglass silently materialized above the Yanfa Jade's head, the little girl's expression shifted dramatically, and the spinning speed of the luminous sphere of characters multiplied several times over in an instant.
Before long, she had deduced the cultivation method the green-robed youth needed.
The young man offered profuse thanks and then departed in a hurry.
"In such a rush; it seems the Qingxuan Army has run into trouble," Zhang Xu sighed.
After repeatedly stepping in to stop the Yanfa Jade from slacking off, Li Fan had gradually grown familiar with the other two Dao Integration garrisons.
Zhang Xu had entered this place more than a century before Li Fan.
The other was named Hua Yueye. While his name sounded somewhat feminine, he was an outright muscle-bound brute.
Possessing an intense hatred for evil, he had found the conduct of a certain Dharma Transmitter intolerable and actually gotten into a brawl with him on the spot.
The consequences were predictable.
Though he ultimately escaped death with the help of family and friends, he was sentenced to guard the Yanfa Jade here for five hundred years.
By now, not even half that time had passed.
When Li Fan first arrived, Hua Yueye had not even bothered to exchange greetings. Now that they had grown familiar, however, he had turned out to be even more talkative than Zhang Xu.
"Although I really dislike that posture of Young Lord Shang, guarding the demonic abyss in person without leaving for hundreds of years... one can't help but admire him..."
"The Qingxuan Army..."
In the midst of their casual chatter, Li Fan also recalled the identity of the green-robed cultivator from just now.
They had met once before; his name was Yan Huan.
A confidant of Young Lord Shang, he was stationed at Broken Palm Immortal City within the white mist, responsible along with the million-strong Qingxuan Army for watching over and suppressing the Chizha Abyss.
"The Young Lord is even more stubborn than I am. Once he sets his mind on something, I'm afraid not even a Heavenly Venerable stepping in could drag him back. Even though that discarded proposal was rejected across the board by the Dharma Transmitters and Mirror Keepers, so many years have passed and he still shows no intention of giving up."
"Ahem, watch your words!"
...
From the scattered fragments of their casual talk, combined with various confidential records he had browsed before, Li Fan unraveled the layers and reconstructed a past event of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals that had been swept under the rug.
Back then, a proposition to "penetrate deep into the white mist's lost realms and expand exploration" had once gained traction in the alliance.
It differed somewhat from the Era of Great Exploration that Li Fan had experienced.
In that lifetime, the exploration carried out for the Heavenly Profound Mirror's sublimation had been more like an all-map scan of the white mist, marking all the hidden lost realms and secret realms within it.
Yet it had not conducted an in-depth investigation into the lost realms themselves.
The proposal rejected by the Dharma Transmitters, on the other hand, had advocated for a thorough purging of the lost realms.
The appearance of the Xuanhuang Realm's White Mist Barrier was far too suspicious.
Moreover, the lost realms within the white mist were bizarre and fantastical, hiding countless secrets.
Just among what Li Fan had encountered, there were world fragments destroyed by the "Disorder" Formula, an icebound grand formation that reversed life and death, a giant composed of countless corpses...
Setting aside the elements of danger, Li Fan did not believe for a second that the cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals possessed no curiosity toward these lost realms.
Yet this curiosity had been decisively snuffed out by the alliance's upper echelons.
"Chuanfa dismembered and rebuilt Xuanhuang, and combined with such unanimous conduct from the alliance leadership, these lost realms within the white mist clearly have everything to do with Him."
Li Fan recalled that years ago in the white mist, he could always hear groans and murmurs akin to the Heavenly Physician in his ears.
And following the direction of that sound, he had unfailingly discovered unknown lost realms time and time again.
Li Fan immediately had a suspicion.
"These lost realms are likely remnants of the former Tianfa Realm, just like the Congyun Sea and Luoyan Province. Perhaps due to the effects of calamities like the 'Disorder' Formula, however, their surviving laws are even more twisted and chaotic, making them unfit for direct fusion into the Xuanhuang Realm.
"So He hid them within the white mist first. Hmm... perhaps there are remnants of other cultivation worlds as well.
"Chuanfa is waiting. Waiting for the exact moment the Tianfa Realm successfully borrows a corpse to return its soul."
Li Fan's attainments were, after all, not yet at Chuanfa's level, so he could not fully divine the exact purpose of these world fragments for now.
"Still, this gives me an idea. Though the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable covers the sky with one hand, Xuanhuang's cultivators still harbor doubts about the upheavals brought by His reshaping of the world. Perhaps I can guide them to uncover the truth behind it."
Li Fan knew well that the more something was forbidden, the more it aroused people's curiosity.
Once these cultivators discovered that a colossal conspiracy involving the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable might lie behind this, whether they wished to or not, they would already become Li Fan's allies.
"Young Lord Shang... let us begin with him."
Li Fan nodded slightly, concealing the dark gleam in his eyes.
...
Heavenly Sword Sect ruins, Sword Tomb.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan sat cross-legged beside the black sword, contemplating the myriad sword Daos swirling around him.
Though he had already constructed his Dao Foundation with the black sword wonder of Heaven in a previous life, sitting here within the Sword Tomb surrounded by countless swords, new insights continued to well up within Sacred Embryo Li Fan.
"A wonder of Heaven is the embodiment of the Heavenly Dao's laws.
"The world shifts, and laws circulate; nothing is immutable. Arriving here to claim the black sword at different points in time yields subtle corresponding differences in the sword Dao fostered."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan felt delighted in his heart.
His understanding of the world's operation had deepened by another step.
Stirred by this feeling, he let out a long cry, and the tens of millions of swords upon the ground trembled faintly in response.
At the center of those myriad swords, the wooden sword left behind by Mr. Bai even curved slightly.
It seemed to resonate faintly with Sacred Embryo Li Fan's insight.
"Good."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan parted his lips slightly, and the black sword soared into the air, flying straight into his abdomen to become his Dao Foundation.
Chapter 1146