Drifting in the star sea for ten thousand years, even without any rupture in its civilization, the Xuan Celestial Vessel's theoretical understanding of cultivation methods had made virtually no progress.
Every realm they encountered was shattered and ruined; only the destructive residual power of various True Immortal seal characters echoed throughout the star sea. As the saying went, one lives off one's surroundings; thus, the Xuan Celestial Vessel pinned its entire future on researching this mighty power. As for other aspects...
Compared to the catastrophe-ridden Xuanhuang Realm, it was weaker by more than just a notch.
At the very least, under the extreme environment where dharmas could not be cultivated concurrently, the various ingenious methods born in the Xuanhuang Realm were, in the eyes of the Xuan Celestial Vessel's cultivators, wonders that would make anyone slap the table in awe.
Backed by the immense repository of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' techniques, Li Fan's divided soul quickly found the most suitable cultivation method for Zhao Xian. Naturally, in Zhao Xian's own view, this was merely one of the vast number of cultivation techniques deduced by the Dao Confirmation Academy in the future via Yanfa Jue.
"Spirit-Soul Harmonious Union Technique. A divine technique still suited for cultivators under conditions of extreme resource scarcity. It can achieve perfect harmony between divine sense and spiritual power; whichever side is stronger can be converted into the weaker side."
"Within the Academy, the supply of spiritual energy is truly limited. Supplying me to advance to the Golden Core is already the limit. To go any further would be utterly impossible. Yet through a secret technique capable of enhancing the strength of divine sense, I can use the growth of divine sense to drive the increase of spiritual energy..."
"In the Academy's exchange directory, the value of the items needed to cast this secret technique is far lower than that of spirit stones."
Zhao Xian, who had been distressed over hitting a bottleneck, suddenly had a flash of inspiration as more memories from that eerie dream of the future surfaced. In his excitement, he immediately spent all the contribution points he had saved over the years to exchange for the resources needed to temper his divine sense.
Black Spirit Gum, Crimson Ancient Slurry, Will-Nurturing Amber...
These ordinary, mind-calming sundries aboard the celestial vessel were calcined and melted by Zhao Xian's flames into a translucent liquid. Then, like a great whale swallowing water, it flowed unceasingly into his sea of consciousness.
A scalding heatwave nearly incinerated Zhao Xian's divine sense clean in an instant.
After a brief blank in his consciousness, Zhao Xian discovered that he had actually adapted to the scorching heat. At the same time, the strength of his divine sense began to undergo a visible enhancement.
"Truly a supreme technique!" Zhao Xian praised inwardly.
What Zhao Xian did not know, however, was that the only reason his fragile Qi Condensation stage divine sense could survive such violent smelting was entirely thanks to Li Fan's divided soul.
In fact, the vast majority of the medicinal potency from the refined slurry of those treasures had also been absorbed and refined by Li Fan's divided soul. Zhao Xian only had a late Qi Condensation stage cultivation after all; diverting merely a sliver was enough to steadily elevate his divine sense.
When Zhao Xian awoke from his cultivation, he felt that his divine sense had multiplied several times compared to before, having reached the mid-Foundation Establishment level.
Compared to this "vast" power of divine sense, his spiritual energy cultivation appeared rather frail.
It felt rather like a giant manipulating a toy body.
Suppressing the wild joy in his heart, Zhao Xian hurriedly circulated the Spirit-Soul Harmonious Union Technique. A shapeless millstone seemed to abruptly manifest within his sea of consciousness, grinding the strength of his divine sense and transforming it into pure power that nourished Zhao Xian's body...
Without absorbing any ambient spiritual energy, Zhao Xian's cultivation advanced madly at a terrifying speed.
Ultimately, after three days, Zhao Xian's divine sense and spiritual power reached a balance at the early Foundation Establishment stage.
"I... succeeded in Foundation Establishment just like that?"
Coming back to his senses, Zhao Xian looked at his hands in utter disbelief.
"This breakthrough was far too easy. I didn't feel any inner demons or bottlenecks at all, unlike what Master and the Academy seniors spoke of."
"After Foundation Establishment, my authority in the Academy has also risen by a huge margin. There are far more resources I can exchange for. My cultivation might be even faster than before..."
He was, after all, only a youth; fantasizing about the future, Zhao Xian could hardly suppress his excitement.
In the end, it was the scene of the celestial vessel plunging to its doom in that dream of the future that pulled him back to reality.
"The road ahead is long, and I still have a great distance to go. I cannot become arrogant."
Zhao Xian was pondering how to better leverage his advantage of "foresight" to achieve a rapid climb in status.
Meanwhile, Li Fan's divided soul was relishing the scene of Zhao Xian's breakthrough earlier.
Zhao Xian had not truly escaped encountering obstacles while breaking through the barrier; rather, Li Fan had blocked them for him.
"That fluctuation that appeared out of nowhere, pointing straight at the heart."
"It wasn't a True Immortal seal character. It was the Heavenly Dao of the star sea..."
At that moment, outside the Xuan Celestial Vessel, Sacred Embryo Li Fan suddenly felt a stir in his heart.
His body was in direct contact with this space filled with the aura of death. During the process of crossing the Pitch-Black Star Sea, Sacred Embryo Li Fan had already realized that this Pitch-Black Star Sea actually shared a set of fundamental principles with the Xuanhuang Realm. In fact, its upper limit was even a bit higher than that of the Xuanhuang Realm.
His Sword Dao, which had already reached its limit in the Xuanhuang Realm, had actually broken through its original bottleneck unnoticed and attained a new height during his journey across the star sea.
And the bottleneck that manifested as the Heavenly Calamity in the Xuanhuang Realm took on a different form of existence in this Pitch-Black Star Sea.
"Urging one to yield to the Dao and return, reducing all thoughts to ashes. To think a mere breakthrough at Qi Condensation perfection would carry such power. If not for having experienced so much, with a tenacity far beyond ordinary people..."
"I would probably have had to use the Immortal Heart Incantation to dispel it," Sacred Embryo Li Fan reflected grimly.
Amid the various illusions carried by that invisible fluctuation, Sacred Embryo Li Fan seemed to witness scenes of succeeding in the breakthrough, only to endure countless hardships and ultimately die in various tribulations.
No matter how hard one struggled, one could never escape the outcome of failure.
"Better to yield your cultivation to the Dao and return, return to the Dao..."
The fixation echoed through the sea of consciousness like demonic music, persuading him to abandon cultivation.
"This Heavenly Dao of the Pitch-Black Star Sea is rather interesting. It bears some resemblance to the ancient inner demons recorded in the classical texts of the Xuanhuang Realm."
"Viewing the whole through a small part, one can see that although this star sea was battered and torn apart by the power of the True Immortal seal characters, its underlying operation is still alive and well."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan pondered continuously, and his vision suddenly broadened, as if beholding a vaster world enveloping the outside of Xuanhuang.
Even though this world was already crippled in heaven and fractured in earth, it nonetheless provided Li Fan with fresh inspiration for comprehending the laws of the world.
He once again reflected on the contents of the Heavenly Physician's *Mending the Heavens Record*.
"If the Xuanhuang Realm's condition is that of a terminally ill patient, a stitched-together monstrosity revived by borrowing a corpse, then this Pitch-Black Star Sea is something that died long ago—most of its body crushed to pieces by immense force, with only a few severed limbs and shattered remnants left behind..."
"The Xuanhuang Realm can still be salvaged a bit, but this Pitch-Black Star Sea is utterly beyond saving."
"From the perspective of the Heavenly Physician when authoring the *Mending the Heavens Record*, that is."
Chapter 1204