The subterranean earth fire, which had already reached its theoretical limit, unexpectedly flared up with renewed vigor.
Raging flames surged forth in a torrent.
Fissures split across the seabed as countless bubbles churned relentlessly.
Yet what alarmed Qiaogong was not this spectacle.
It was another bizarre entity, quietly taking birth before his eyes from within the earth fire.
Having spent so many years in the Xuanhuang Realm, he was no stranger to such existences.
It bore a name known to virtually everyone: an anima of Heaven and Earth!
As the physical embodiment of the Xuanhuang Realm's heavenly laws, any cultivator who absorbed one could ascend to Heaven in a single stride, advancing to Dao Integration.
An anima of Heaven and Earth was an incomparably precious cultivation resource, and its appearances followed no pattern whatsoever.
Yet now, one had actually taken form under a single point of this faceless mysterious man's finger!
"This..."
To Qiaogong's baffled, deeply shaken senses, something even more miraculous occurred.
The anima born of the earth fire did not commit any erratic acts.
Instead, it quietly catalyzed the earth fire. Once the color shifted from orange-yellow to pitch-black, it actually cast itself into the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation of its own accord!
It had sacrificed itself in exchange for the chance of further advancement for the sleeping puppet within the formation!
Black fire flickered silently, melting into the massive puppet body deep underground as the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation continued to turn.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Incessant rumbles of collapse and explosions resonated from beneath the seabed.
They were signs that the impurities within the puppet's body were being smelted away.
"Not only did this anima of Heaven and Earth refrain from attacking cultivators upon its birth, but it acted in accordance with that man's wishes, lending its strength to this undersea puppet?"
"How is that possible?"
It was common knowledge that the conflict between the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao and Xuanhuang cultivators was irreconcilable.
Whenever cultivators laid eyes on an anima of Heaven and Earth, they could hardly suppress their ravenous desire to devour it.
And anima of Heaven and Earth showed no mercy to any cultivator who dared appear before them, delighting in nothing less than their deaths.
Yet the scene unfolding before Qiaogong completely shattered his understanding.
"Even an anima of Heaven and Earth obeys him so meekly... Could it be that the person before me is the Avatar of the Heavenly Dao itself?" Qiaogong thought, bewildered by the absurdity of the idea.
"An anima of Heaven and Earth is born to fulfill a heavenly mandate. This black flame before us is named Mo Yan. Its duty is to assist in the birth of a Dao Integration puppet..." Li Ping explained in a flat tone.
Yet he kept his subsequent thoughts to himself: *Using falsifying transposition on the principles of heaven and earth allows one to fabricate the Heavenly Dao's will and conjure an anima of Heaven and Earth from nothing. But that is the limit. Under normal circumstances, compelling an anima of Heaven and Earth—an existence fundamentally opposed to cultivators—to sacrifice itself for a cultivator's ascension... Such an order completely defies the Heavenly Dao's will and could never be accomplished under ordinary conditions.*
*Yet...*
*I am the Avatar of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. All that I do is for the Xuanhuang heaven and earth!*
*Heaven and earth will naturally assist me!*
Li Ping felt the subtle transformation that had occurred in the will of heaven and earth upon him ever since the You people had resumed their worship of the Sea of Gloomy Darkness under his command.
It was precisely due to the reinforcement of these various factors that the anima born this time was the exceptionally powerful Mo Yan.
That unsettling black flame even stirred a faint trace of danger within Li Ping.
Under Mo Yan's smelting, the undersea puppet advanced at an unimaginable pace.
"It won't be long before this puppet emerges into the world."
"Though its realm is only Dao Integration, in a true battle, I'm afraid I wouldn't be its match by a long shot. And this was merely the result of a casual point of this mysterious man's finger..." Qiaogong stole another glance at Li Ping.
Even as dread gripped his heart, he could not help but feel all the more eager for the two promised favors.
"It seems he wasn't boasting..."
Li Ping and Qiaogong waited for the puppet's emergence.
As Mo Yan continuously fused into the puppet, the violent upheaval in the surrounding waters grew increasingly turbulent.
However, Li Ping masked the disturbance with a formation.
Otherwise, such an anomaly would have drawn swarms of cultivators to investigate long ago.
Another half a month passed.
As though starved of all fuel, the subterranean earth fire beneath the seabed had completely burned out.
The magma cooled and solidified into black crystal.
Only the seabed remained swathed in thick vapor from the lingering heat.
The aura of the anima Mo Yan had vanished entirely. In its place, a newborn, formidable aura emerged from the seabed.
The danger it heralded caused Qiaogong to edge slightly closer to Li Ping.
Suddenly, that aura vanished from Qiaogong's perception.
His expression shifted drastically as a layer of silver-white armor materialized to shield him.
A pitch-black figure quietly appeared beside them.
Its target was not Qiaogong, but Li Ping, the Faceless Holy Emperor of Great Qi!
Having just awakened, Tianyang's vigilance was drawn razor-sharp. Sensing two powerful auras nearby, he had launched an attack without a single word.
With crisis descending upon him, Li Ping did not dodge Tianyang's strike.
He did not even draw upon the power of Source Power Essence to defend himself.
With merely a calm voice transmission, he roused the somewhat disoriented Tianyang and halted his rash action.
"Tianyang, do you wish to avenge your master and senior brothers?"
Tianyang's body shuddered violently. He revealed his form and glared fixedly at Li Ping.
He looked just as he had before falling into slumber, appearing no older than a child in his early teens.
Yet a weathered worldliness completely at odds with his appearance occasionally flickered through his eyes.
As he calmed down slightly, memories from his slumber—of Li Ping assisting him in absorbing the anima of Heaven and Earth—surfaced in his mind.
Realizing that his current strength was entirely thanks to this person's aid, the hostility in Tianyang's heart gradually dissipated.
Even so, his eyes remained glued to Li Ping, waiting for an answer to that question.
"The culprits who waged war against the Xuanhuang Realm back then and caused the tragic deaths of countless sect cultivators still live today..."
"I intend to..."
Li Ping explained in a steady voice transmission.
Tianyang listened in silence, his aura rising and falling.
Then, pulling his aura inward, he flew to Li Ping's side.
"It is unwise to linger here. Let us return first," Li Ping said.
He then looked toward Qiaogong. "Will Fellow Daoist accompany us?"
Ever since Tianyang appeared, Qiaogong's gaze had not shifted away from him for a moment.
*Would I dare refuse...?* Qiaogong muttered inwardly, nodding in agreement.
Only when the three traversed the void and arrived in the Daqi pocket world did Qiaogong finally tear his eyes away from Tianyang.
Led by the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven,
a total of nine grotto-heavens encircled the Daqi pocket world,
providing tractive force for its voyage through the void.
Moreover, the density of spiritual energy in this mysterious pocket world was considerably higher than in the Xuanhuang Realm proper.
An invisible power seemed to shroud it, preventing even Qiaogong from prying into the details within with his divine sense.
...
Just as Qiaogong was plunged into shock once again,
an aura streaked over like a rainbow, sending a sudden jolt through his heart.
Tianyang, who had remained silent all along, snapped to alertness as well.
A Longevity realm cultivator?
How is that possible?
Chapter 1219