Back in his 119th lifetime, Li Fan had fabricated rumors of so-called "Remains of a True Immortal." Using them as bait, he had lured cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals into the pocket world of the Grand Formation of Inverting Life and Death, exposing Heavenly Venerable Rebirth to the world ahead of time.
He had never imagined that the remains of a True Immortal were genuinely hidden within the Xuanhuang Realm.
Moreover, it was no ordinary immortal.
"The immortal body of the First Great Heavenly Venerable?"
"Interesting."
This single sentence alone concealed countless secrets.
"Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang" was not the specific name of any single cultivator, but rather represented a certain status and title.
Li Fan had already learned this in the deepest depths of the Fallen Immortal Realm.
"My speculation back then was correct. Passing the Fallen Immortal Realm's trials should allow one to succeed as the new Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang—and, most likely, obtain the immortal artifacts left behind by Mr. Bai at the same time."
"Then where did Mr. Bai hide the First Great Heavenly Venerable's immortal body? Could it still be within the Fallen Immortal Realm?"
Li Fan's thoughts raced.
And this First Great Heavenly Venerable piqued Li Fan's interest even more.
For the remains to be referred to as an immortal body, there was no doubt that this Great Heavenly Venerable possessed a cultivation of at least the True Immortal realm.
How had this True Immortal died? Before falling, why had he chosen to leave his remains behind in the Xuanhuang Realm?
Could the birth of the Fallen Immortal Realm be connected to this True Immortal Great Heavenly Venerable?
Currently, his avatar, the Holy Emperor, had already reached the pinnacle of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Taking into account that the Xuanhuang Realm itself had been expanding over the years, the Holy Emperor's strength could be said to be a mere hairsbreadth shy of Mr. Bai's from back then.
With a concrete frame of reference, Li Fan was now certain that Mr. Bai's power alone would never have been sufficient to create the vast, half-illusory, half-real Fallen Immortal Realm.
Yet during the era of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, the world was completely unaware of the Fallen Immortal Realm's existence.
Therefore, what was certain was that even if Mr. Bai had not created it with his own hands, the realm was inextricably linked to him.
The layers of illusory trials proved this beyond doubt.
"Although Mr. Bai 'betrayed' the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, he did not break his word. The immortal artifacts and the immortal body were all returned to the Heavenly Dao. Even his entire cultivation was returned to Heaven upon his demise, during the process of inverting the logic between immortal and mortal."
Li Fan pondered silently, yet he harbored little desire to run around searching for the Great Heavenly Venerable's immortal body.
Though the immortal body could be considered an incomparable treasure, it was of little use to Li Fan at present. Even if he could truly cross the High Wall beneath its protection, Li Fan would never recklessly depart without knowing anything about what lay beyond.
Not to mention that at his current cultivation level, wielding immortal spirit qi was still beyond his capability.
Merely understanding how to detonate an immortal artifact to harness its explosive power to cross the High Wall without harming oneself was something Li Fan had no way of knowing.
"I still need to take things step by step. Regardless, as long as it remains within the Xuanhuang Realm or the bounds of the Pitch-Black Star Sea, it will eventually become mine."
Li Fan had a crystal-clear understanding of his own advantages.
"In this lifetime, the Holy Emperor avatar already possesses the capital to challenge the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. Under manifold blessings, his strength has even surpassed my own. Let us see how he stirs up the winds and clouds."
"The Xuanhuang Realm is like a small pond. Only by thoroughly churning the water will the old fossils lurking in the corners reveal themselves one by one. As for me, I only need to wait quietly right here and watch the world turn."
"However, the divine sliver I left in the Sun Clan can take the opportunity to nurture a future Great Heavenly Venerable."
His attention shifted in an instant.
His divine sliver had now taken complete control of Wu Ninglu's body.
Yet she remained completely oblivious.
It merely influenced her every decision and action in absolute silence.
Most importantly, it made her spare no expense, even sacrificing her own cultivation, to nourish the unborn fetus in her womb.
The former Wu Ninglu would certainly never have done such a thing.
To her, the unborn child had merely been a bargaining chip to rein in Sun Ang.
Now that Li Fan had intervened, things had naturally changed.
Ever since his divine sliver noticed the unborn child's extraordinary nature, he had begun meticulous prenatal education.
Having experienced the pre-birth cultivation phase with the Heavenly Destiny Profound Bird Xiao Hei in the Fallen Immortal Realm, Li Fan was extraordinarily experienced.
With his personal guidance, the fetus absorbed the mother's cultivation essence and gradually replenished the innate deficiency caused by being previously sealed.
Its physique grew sturdier day by day, and its consciousness slowly shifted from feeble to stable.
While still in a chaotic state of total ignorance, it was led by Li Fan's divine sliver into one carefully woven illusion after another.
"They say sages are born, not made. Yet in truth, creating a sage through nurture is hardly impossible."
"As the saying goes, judge a person by deeds, not thoughts. No matter what is in one's heart, as long as one strictly maintains unwavering moral standards and codes of conduct without ever breaking them until death..."
"Then in the eyes of outsiders, that person is a true sage."
Nurturing an entity while its consciousness was still in a primordial, chaotic state was certainly far easier than educating it later in life.
What Li Fan was doing now resembled shaping a living being's personality from the ground up.
He lacked specialized experience in this, so he could only explore through practice. If this proved viable, then setting sages aside, mass-producing gentlemen of noble character would certainly be no problem at all.
Li Fan had noticed that although the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao had once been deceived by Mr. Bai, people like Mr. Bai still found it easiest to earn Heaven's trust.
The faceless Holy Emperor of this lifetime was an example.
"And the root reason for this can probably be traced back to Xuan Heavenly King Xuanyuan Hong, or even the First Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang," Li Fan mused.
Li Fan had already planned the fetus's birth to coincide with the moment Wu Ninglu devoured the Soul of Heaven and Earth and broke through to Dao Integration.
"If the method is sound, perhaps the power of heaven and earth laws condensed within the mother's body can be transferred directly to the child through birth."
"Who knows, it might even produce the Xuanhuang Realm's very first cultivator born at Dao Integration..."
"With such a miracle, who would dare say he is not a sage?"
Li Fan could not help feeling a hint of anticipation for the fetus's future as he considered this.
He had even drafted the script of destiny for him in advance.
"Such a prodigy would definitely be regarded as the future hope of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. And yet, when the war between the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty and the Alliance reaches its fiercest climax, this very figure will decisively turn on them."
"And firmly proclaim that he stands on the side of justice."
...
"The scene of everyone in the Xuanhuang Realm forcing Chuanfa's hand will surely be quite interesting."
Vivid scenes flashed through Li Fan's mind.
Even without using the Dao Assimilation Stone for deduction, he could already roughly foresee the trajectory of this lifetime.
Of course, that was under ideal conditions.
Whether nurturing an innate sage or developing the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi to the point of forcing Chuanfa to reveal himself, both would still require a lengthy period of gradual growth.
Also within the Sun Clan.
The strand of divine sense hidden inside the Boundless Mirror enjoyed a far more leisurely existence than the divine sliver.
Aside from continually prying into the secrets of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, most of his energy was spent trying to lure out the obliterating wind calamity trapped inside the mirror.
Because Sun Luyuan had pledged allegiance to the Holy Emperor, he had been granted the privilege of borrowing over a hundred newly born, robust You people.
At this moment, they were hidden in a secret subterranean chamber of the Sun Clan, beside the family's vital blood pool.
These You people were treated even better than their kin in the Sacred Dynasty.
They were even given four hours of rest each day.
Of course, this was not out of benevolence on Li Fan's part; rather, the Boundless Mirror simply could not endure excessively frequent experiments and required time to recuperate.
"My guess was correct. This obliterating wind calamity does indeed actively target power approaching that of an 'immortal.'"
Presently, the Boundless Mirror hovered in midair, radiating faint, eerie pulses of light.
Its surface did not reflect the outside world; instead, scenes of catastrophes destroying myriad civilizations flickered across it in rapid succession.
An ancient, desolate aura emanated from the mirror's frame.
Having only recently recovered by absorbing vital blood, the Boundless Mirror became dilapidated and battered once more.
A black, invisible wind of obliteration was coaxed out from the mirror.
It flew toward a golden square floating not far away.
Naturally, this square was composed of pure Origin Power.
Though it could not match the Holy Emperor avatar's refined Origin Power, it was sufficient to lure the obliterating wind calamity.
The moment the wind calamity entered the range covered by Origin Power, its form shifted abruptly.
The power transcending mortality vanished in an instant; the reduced purity of the Origin Power caused its energy tier to plummet.
Having lost its target, the obliterating wind calamity lingered in place for a brief moment.
It was just about to disperse outward into the surroundings.
However, the Origin Power shifted, forming a grand formation.
It locked the power of the obliterating wind calamity inside.
Li Fan had designed this grand formation by referencing the incomplete Grand Formation of Xuan Primordial Origin Spirit, using the formation to simulate a relatively static space.
Inside the formation was completely devoid of matter—a state of absolute nothingness.
It closely resembled the apocalyptic state after everything had been annihilated.
As expected, the obliterating wind calamity was deceived; its energy ceased surging riotously and slowly settled into dormancy.
Likewise subsiding was the remnant power of the wind calamity still lingering inside the Boundless Mirror.
"Senior's methods are truly miraculous! Just a few more times, and the latent peril within me can be completely eliminated," Sun Luyao, the Boundless Mirror's spirit, said with overjoyed excitement.
Li Fan ignored him, carefully putting away the small golden cube storing the obliterating wind calamity.
He had already produced more than twenty such cubes.
Due to differences in his technical proficiency, the calamity power contained within each varied.
Yet there was no doubt that if the equilibrium within any of these golden cubes were shattered, a terrifying catastrophe would erupt.
Sun Luyao did not mind Li Fan's silence and continued describing his changes.
"Senior, I have a premonition that once this wind calamity is completely purged, my mastery over the Boundless Mirror will reach an entirely new realm. When that time comes, I might be able to sense the whereabouts of other fragments of the Boundless Mirror and completely restore this immortal artifact."
"Not bad," Li Fan said with a faint nod, his attention remaining on the golden cubes.
Having witnessed Li Fan's capability and eager to earn merit, Sun Luyao hesitated for a moment before blurting out, "Senior, once I am fully restored into an immortal artifact, I might even be able to simultaneously sense the whereabouts of other potential remnant immortal artifacts in the Xuanhuang Realm."
Upon hearing Sun Luyao's words, Li Fan finally turned his head slightly.
"Oh? You are so certain?"
Sun Luyao perked up and hurriedly explained, "Entities of our kind can always sense one another to some degree. In particular, my Boundless Mirror possesses the ability to measure heaven and survey earth. If there really are other immortal artifacts in the Xuanhuang Realm, the chances of locating them after my restoration are very high."
Li Fan smiled. "I think you've just been locked away for too long and can't bear it anymore—you just want to get out and wander around."
Sun Luyao gave an embarrassed smile. "Of course, that is part of it. But my desire to help Senior find immortal artifacts is definitely genuine."
Li Fan glanced at him. "Let's completely purge this wind calamity first before talking about that."
Li Fan's expression grew somewhat somber. "Though it seems extremely weak now, there is still no sign that its root source has diminished in the slightest."
"After all, it is power transcending mortality. We cannot be careless."
Sun Luyao resonated deeply with this and could not help nodding.
...
In the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi.
More than ten days had passed since Li Ping completely devoured the Xuanhuang malice.
Having gained such immense power, Li Ping, whose strength had skyrocketed, also needed some time to digest and adapt to it.
He enjoyed a rare moment of respite.
Within the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi, however, an unprecedented era of prosperity flourished.
Currently, the destiny of the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi was tightly bound to Holy Emperor Li Ping.
Under normal circumstances, cultivating the Heavenly Emperor's Qi Canon meant that the growth of dynastic destiny drove the advancement of the emperor's strength.
Yet at this moment in Daqi, it was the extremely rare occurrence of the Holy Emperor's personal breakthrough feeding back into the Sacred Dynasty's destiny.
And as the people's will and dynastic destiny strengthened further, it in turn provided another round of nourishment back to the Holy Emperor.
Consequently, aside from the boost in strength brought by devouring the Xuanhuang malice, Li Ping's Heavenly Emperor's Qi Canon was once again approaching another transformation soon after his breakthrough.
Only this time, the original canon contained no records of the path ahead.
The road had run out.
"Comparable to just below True Immortal, akin to the Longevity realm—that is already the limit of the destiny path."
"After all, relying purely on dynastic destiny to break the shackles and attain True Immortality..."
"Is simply too difficult."
"Unless it were a great sacred dynasty capable of spanning the star sea."
Li Ping shook his head slightly, suppressing the thought.
With the premise of the Pitch-Black Star Sea in place, even if the Sacred Dynasty of Daqi unified the entire Xuanhuang Realm, it would not suffice to support a breakthrough to the True Immortal realm.
"Since this road is closed, I must find another way."
"Now that the Xuanhuang malice has been devoured, if I want to grow even stronger next..."
"First is the supreme treasure, the fishing pond."
"And second..."
Sitting upon the Holy Emperor Throne, figures of native creations of the Xuanhuang Realm such as Ruomu and the stone slab surfaced in the Holy Emperor's mind.
"As part of the Xuanhuang Realm's laws, when the Heavenly Dao suffered great catastrophe, they lived on unharmed."
"Bestowed by heaven and earth—since they are of no use to heaven and earth, they shall be returned to heaven and earth."
A chilling aura of slaughter surged from the faceless Holy Emperor.
Chapter 1239