Zhang Haobo opened his eyes, and the wandering sword intent flickered back into his dantian in an instant.
As the sharp edge in his eyes slowly faded, he took on an utterly ordinary, completely harmless appearance.
Watching Zhang Haobo's transformation, Li Fan could not help clicking his tongue in marvel.
To already faintly achieve complete restraint of aura and a return to pristine simplicity at the Foundation Establishment stage—that truly was something remarkable.
After lingering on the seabed for a moment to familiarize himself with the newfound power of his breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment stage, Zhang Haobo leapt up and flew to the surface of the sea.
Without resting for even a moment, he immediately began cultivating the Sea-Calming Divine Sword.
One blue water sword after another materialized in succession, dancing in midair.
Under Zhang Haobo's control, blue light crisscrossed the air as water dragons darted and swooped.
Watching from the shadows, Li Fan also keenly noticed something.
After using that nameless sword intent to establish his Dao Foundation, the sword momentum of Zhang Haobo's Sea-Calming Divine Sword had also undergone noticeable changes.
If the Sea-Calming Divine Sword as performed before was majestic, grand, and upright, then the current Sea-Calming Divine Sword, augmented by that mysterious sword intent, concealed a frenzied, vicious murderous aura beneath its vast and peerless momentum.
In fact, Li Fan even faintly sensed that Zhang Haobo was still holding back.
A monstrous baleful aura remained concealed within him, held in reserve.
Should this baleful aura stemming from that black sword hilt erupt, the power of the Sea-Calming Divine Sword would likely multiply several times in an instant.
Upon the deserted sea, Zhang Haobo practiced the Sea Settling Sword Art without pause, tireless.
Sun rose and moon set; come wind or rain, nothing deterred him.
Specks of blue light converged from all across the ocean. In the Congyun Sea, virtually his home turf, Zhang Haobo had no need to worry about expending spiritual energy, allowing him to unleash his moves freely without restraint.
And so, though his realm remained at the early Foundation Establishment stage, his actual combat strength advanced by leaps and bounds.
The most noticeable outward change was the number of water swords Zhang Haobo could condense, which soared upward over the ensuing days from thirty-six.
Thirty-six, seventy-two, one hundred and eight!
In just over a month, Zhang Haobo, freshly stepped into Foundation Establishment, mastered the *Sea-Calming Divine Sword* to great accomplishment!
While external factors had certainly contributed, it was undeniable that Zhang Haobo's natural talent was truly terrifying.
When all one hundred and eight Sea-Calming Divine Swords launched together, water dragons chanted across the heavens.
In Li Fan's eyes, this imposing display already surpassed Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi when the two had been in the late Foundation Establishment stage back then.
And this was without Zhang Haobo even utilizing a Foundation Establishment wonder.
Watching Zhang Haobo advance at such astonishing speed, Li Fan could not help feeling a quiet sense of anticipation.
"What will you do next? The *Sea-Calming Divine Sword* I gave you only goes up to the Foundation Establishment stage.
"Could you possibly deduce the Golden Core portion on your own?"
Li Fan was skeptical.
In this cultivation world, creating one's own cultivation method was naturally possible.
However, that could not be achieved through high talent alone.
It also required an exceedingly profound foundation of knowledge regarding cultivation methods to innovate, to create something from nothing, and to deduce new methods.
In short, it was something only a grandmaster could accomplish.
The cultivation world respectfully referred to cultivators capable of deducing new methods as "law-weavers."
The status of a law-weaver was exalted, far above master artifact refiners, alchemists, talisman makers, and formation masters.
No matter the organization, they were bound to hold vital positions and command great reverence.
There were even grandmaster law-weavers whose skills were so consummate and comprehension so transcendent that they could create custom-tailored cultivation methods for individual cultivators.
Their standing was not inferior even to a Dao Integration Immortal Venerable.
As for Zhang Haobo, exceptional though his talent was, up to now he had only ever cultivated a single technique: the *Sea-Calming Divine Sword*.
The possibility of him successfully deducing the Golden Core chapter of the *Sea-Calming Divine Sword* existed, but the odds were exceedingly slim.
Now Li Fan actually felt somewhat eager to see what Zhang Haobo would do next.
For the moment, however, Zhang Haobo was only in early Foundation Establishment and had no need to worry about a subsequent method.
Like the finest instructor, he repeated every move of the *Sea-Calming Divine Sword* before Li Fan again and again in meticulous detail.
Tirelessly and exhaustively thorough.
Li Fan devoted most of his mind to learning and comprehending the art.
The rest of his attention returned to the Wanxuan Mirror.
Truly, cultivation knew no passage of time.
During the period of cultivation for Li Fan and Zhang Haobo, time slipped quietly by.
Now, Year 16 of Anchoring had arrived.
The curtain was drawing ever closer to rising on the Crimson Flame scorching the sea.
Li Fan first looked up the major events that had occurred over these past two years.
Due to the influence of the Longevity Heavenly Venerable, even though only two years had passed, records of many occurrences had presumably already been lost.
Yet Li Fan subsequently paid visits to cultivators such as Yuwen Xing and, through persistent inquiries, managed to reconstruct several events from subtle clues.
Returning to the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan compiled and recorded them one by one.
Even though before long Li Fan would surely, inadvertently, begin to forget them, it did not matter.
After True Reversion, in the next life, Li Fan would remember them all once again.
Li Fan studied the records before him. Among them, several entries particularly caught his interest.
In Year 14 of Anchoring, shortly after he and Zhang Haobo had entered their epiphany:
In the northwestern waters of the Congyun Sea, near the border between Yongliang Province and Jiushan Province, something major seemed to have taken place.
The price of a local specialty, the gilded flying fish, had surged fiftyfold within a brief span.
It had lasted a mere seven days before plummeting rapidly back down.
Moreover, none of the surviving buyers remembered what had happened back then, nor why they had bought those gilded flying fish.
That was the first.
The second curious matter occurred in Year 15 of Anchoring.
A fiery meteor illuminated the heavens, streaking across the night sky.
None knew where it landed.
Yet every cultivator who saw that meteor felt an unprompted welling of dread, sorrow, and disquiet in their hearts.
People had once tried searching for the fiery meteor's impact site, but seemingly no one could find it.
The third event had happened only recently.
The rumor mentioned by Jiao Xiuyuan—that two other grotto-heavens existed near that wood-attribute spiritual energy grotto-heaven—had been confirmed.
However, the reality was even more astonishing than the rumors.
For hidden away were not merely two grotto-heavens, but four.
The five grotto-heavens corresponded individually to the metal, wood, water, fire, and earth attributes, yet they subtly formed an array, appearing as one unified whole.
The discovery of these Five Elements Grotto-Heavens was simply too sensational.
It had even drawn covetous glances from the Five Elders Association.
The two sides clashed near the grotto-heavens, and in the end, at the cost of the death of a Soul Formation expert, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals repelled the Five Elders Association.
Afterward, to prevent further conflict from erupting and to protect these Five Elements Grotto-Heavens, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals paid an immense price to relocate the entire complex to the heartland of its territory, near Tianyu Province.
...
Li Fan engraved this information firmly in his mind; these would all be crucial avenues for turning a profit in his next life.
Chapter 118