However, considering that the Sun Luyao before him was actually his own creation, cursing him as useless would be tantamount to berating his own shoddy craftsmanship.
Thus, Li Fan swallowed the reprimand on the tip of his tongue.
With another cold snort, his thoughts flashed, and the failed "Sun Luyao" was promptly destroyed.
A moment later, an entirely new simulated persona was born once more.
"Senior, that array just now..." The new simulated persona was completely oblivious to the fact that he had only just been created; his memories remained frozen at the moment the Spirit Void Array annihilated the world, and his face was pale. "It is far too profound. This junior has not yet managed to learn it." Sun Luyao spoke with bitter hesitation, terrified of provoking Li Fan's wrath.
Feeling the translucent sphere condensed at the cost of an entire pocket world, Li Fan revealed an amiable smile. "Do not worry. This Beginningless Spirit Void Array is indeed somewhat complex. I shall simply demonstrate it a few more times."
The mild, nonchalant words sent a chill through Sun Luyao's heart. Yet he dared not utter a single objection, only dumbly following him toward their next target pocket world.
The pocket worlds Li Fan selected were all among the smallest of the Xuanhuang Realm's auxiliary pocket worlds—those that had not yet been discovered by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. This was precisely to prevent drawing the Xuanhuang Realm closer to the Immortal Ruins and alerting outsiders.
Even so, he reckoned that this behavior of digging up the Xuanhuang Realm's roots could certainly not continue for long.
Li Fan weighed the heft of the translucent sphere. "Two or three more, and its protection will far surpass what my 119th lifetime's All Beings Spirit Refining could provide. That should be more than enough."
***
The Daqi pocket world.
Daoist Baihua stood at the boundary of the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven, gazing blankly into the void beyond.
All along, she had executed every task assigned by the Sacred Emperor to perfection. Consequently, the rewards of Source Power Essence had never fallen behind, and recently had become downright abundant.
Yet Source Power Essence was really nothing more than that.
Before she had ever obtained it, she thought it extraordinarily precious and felt she had to taste it no matter what. Once she had it in abundance, however, it gradually grew dull and flavorless.
After all, it could not help one transcend mortal limits to ascend to the realm of True Immortals. No matter how much one possessed, it was of little use.
Daoist Baihua felt herself growing increasingly slack.
Once she had achieved freedom from wanting for Source Power Essence, she gradually lost her sense of purpose and drive. What she spent the most time doing every day was tending to the various grotto-heaven worlds, ensuring their spiritual energy circulated smoothly and thrived with vibrant life.
Next came staring blankly.
Emptying her head, thinking of nothing. Occasionally, fragmentary images would flicker past.
Some were of what she had experienced in the Sacred Dynasty of Great Qi since waking.
Others were scenes from before she was caught by the fishing pond, together with the survivors of the various realms.
"I wonder if those fellows are all truly dead," Baihua could not help musing.
Just as Baihua was lost in thought, a ripple in the space before her caught her attention.
Upon sensing that familiar aura, her instantly tensed nerves relaxed once more.
"Senior Baihua."
The newcomer was none other than the Sacred Emperor's eldest disciple, Sun Erlang.
"Are you here looking for a beating again?" Seeing Sun Erlang's expression, Baihua knew his purpose right away and sighed helplessly.
Sun Erlang admitted it openly: "This junior cultivated for a spell after returning and felt I had made further progress, so I have come to seek guidance from Senior once more!"
Baihua smiled faintly. "I told you, don't listen to Qiaogong blowing his trumpet to the heavens, claiming puppets can rival Longevity realm cultivators. In the end, they are nothing more than a pile of dead objects. How could they truly compare with cultivators of our caliber?"
Before Sun Erlang could speak, Layman Qiaogong's voice rang out: "Whether it works or not isn't something to be bragged about. Let's see the truth beneath our fists! Kid Sun, teach her a good lesson!"
Sun Erlang cupped his hands. "Careful, Senior... This time, it really is different from before."
Before his words had even faded, Sun Erlang's figure vanished from Baihua's divine sense.
A flash of solemnity passed through Baihua's eyes. Transforming into a streak of golden light, she flew into the boundless void carved out by the Realm-Rifting Whale.
Faintly, she sensed that behind her, a large number of entities seemed to be tailing her in secret.
"It should be the puppets controlled by that kid, but even my divine sense can't lock onto them?"
Daoist Baihua finally felt a glimmer of interest.
At a thought, a glazed golden flower manifested in her hand.
Then, in an instant, it abruptly burst into bloom.
Petals drifted down one after another, yet the core glazed flower showed no sign of depletion. Before long, the void surrounding Daoist Baihua was enveloped by hundreds of millions of golden petals.
Bang!
Bang!
The petals swirled, continually colliding with the puppets hidden and tailing in the shadows.
Dark-gold-coated puppets were exposed one after another as a result.
There were five in total, and they had already quietly encircled Baihua in the center.
Daoist Baihua teased, "Kid Sun, knowing you can't win alone, you turned a duel into a gang fight?"
Sun Erlang's reply came, yet it did not originate from these puppets: "Senior misunderstands. These puppets are all operated by me alone. So it can still be considered fair..."
Within the void, five virtually identical voices resounded simultaneously alongside Sun Erlang's words:
"Sky-Rifting Metal!"
"Entangling Wood!"
"Life-Extinguishing Water!"
"Will-Burning Fire!"
"Nihility Earth!"
Bizarre powers of the Five Elements surged from the five puppets respectively. Instead of rushing to attack Baihua, they formed a formation in an instant.
Trapped within the array, Baihua felt as though she had suddenly left the void and returned to the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
Only, this Five Elements grotto-heaven was not vibrant with life, but steeped in an aura of chilling slaughter.
Every wisp of five-element aura within the grotto-heaven resembled a sharp sword. Upon sensing Baihua, the outsider, they launched a frenzied assault.
Sky-Rifting Metal was silent and formless, its sharpness capable of tearing space apart.
Entangling Wood sought foes across the void; once it latched on, it was relentless until death.
Life-Extinguishing Water snuffed out all vital force. Even the glazed golden flowers Baihua released withered swiftly upon contact.
***
The five elements generated one another, the five forces transforming into each other in an endless cycle.
Trapped in the array, Baihua seemed to have endured several days of siege, yet the offensive showed no sign of waning.
"This is a Five Elements Killing Array."
"The ones driving the array should be those five puppets. Instead of confronting me directly, they act as the array eyes..."
Just as Baihua was pondering, she failed to notice that another dark-gold puppet had quietly appeared behind her at some unknown point.
Concealed within the tempestuous five-element aura, it struck down resolutely like a golden greatsword.
Ding!
A sound like clashing metal rang through the Five Elements Killing Array. Daoist Baihua's body instantly turned transparent.
A glazed golden flower blossomed inside her.
Under its radiant illumination, the greatsword slashing into her body actually began turning glazed and transparent as well.
The power of Sky-Rifting Metal erupted with a roar, breaking free from the glazed corrosion, and vanished once more into the turbulent Five Elements Killing Array.
"Not bad," Daoist Baihua praised softly, revealing her true appearance before Sun Erlang for the very first time.
"Had it been the old me, I likely would have been heavily wounded by this strike of yours.
"A pity, though..."
Within Daoist Baihua's transparent body, the glazed flower expanded rapidly.
Beneath the pure glazed radiance, the violent five-element forces were all assimilated into solid glazed crystal.
In just a few breaths, the glazed flower swept across everything around her, engulfing the entire array space.
Ding!
A slender finger emerged from the solid crystal.
It tapped gently against the frozen bloom.
A crack appeared, then swiftly spread across the entire body of the flower.
Bang!
The flower shattered into countless fragments with a blast, and the once-raging Five Elements Killing Array turned entirely into void.
Baihua returned to her original form, scanning her surroundings.
Yet to her slight surprise, this "Pure Life Glazed Glass" strike—capable of annihilating a pocket world in an instant—seemed not to have destroyed the Five Elements Killing Array after all.
Amid the void, turbulent auras began welling up once more.
After discerning them, Daoist Baihua suddenly realized: "It is not a Five Elements Killing Array, but a Yin-Yang Five Elements Great Array."
Yin and Yang qi flowed in alternating cycles, and from the chaos, five-element auras reemerged in endless succession.
Soon, the newly calmed void became tumultuous once again.
Seeing this, Baihua could not help but frown slightly.
She could destroy the array with ease, but she could not halt this process of Yin and Yang giving birth to the Five Elements.
Even if wiped out again and again, the killing intent directed at her within the void persisted endlessly.
"Combining the powers of Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements with an array may not increase the lethality by much, but it certainly makes it far more troublesome."
Though Baihua possessed some understanding of formations, she could sense no trace of an array structure around her.
"Hahahaha! Baihua, you're out of tricks, aren't you! Surrender meekly while you still can!" Qiaogong's arrogant voice rang out from beyond the killing array.
Baihua let out a cold snort, and a dazzling golden radiance ignited in her eyes.
"Careful, Kid Sun! We finally forced out this move! Let's see how our countermeasures hold up!"
Empowered by Source Power Essence, Baihua's glazed light seemed to grow even purer.
As if space itself were crystallizing, a translucent gemstone slowly formed around her.
The Yin and Yang qi that nurtured the Five Elements, and even the structural foundation maintaining the array, found no place to dwell under the pressure of such pure power.
Light from the outside shone in; the killing array here was on the verge of being broken by Baihua.
"You think you're the only one with Source Power Essence?!"
Right at that moment, Qiaogong's smug voice rang out again.
A finger composed purely of golden light ignored the solidified glazed crystal and appeared inexplicably before Baihua's eyes without warning.
The crystal collapsed with a roar, crumbling into streaming motes of light. Irresistible, the golden finger pressed fiercely down toward her glabella.
Baihua's expression shifted slightly, and her body reverted to a state of pure glazed glass.
Reflecting the same golden radiance, Baihua met the golden finger head-on.
To her astonishment, this golden finger of Source Power Essence, which appeared so terrifying, was nothing more than an empty shell.
It crumbled upon contact, dissolving into countless golden threads that coiled around her body from head to toe.
"Kid Sun, haul in the net!" Layman Qiaogong shouted in wild excitement.
The golden threads expanded in an instant, crisscrossing until Daoist Baihua was trapped within the net before she could react!
The glazed flower tried to unleash its brilliance, only to collide with the golden net and be extinguished into nothingness.
A colossal force surged through the golden net, dragging Baihua forward in an undignified rush.
"Impudent!"
Baihua was truly enraged this time.
"All Beings Are Glazed Glass!"
Amid an icy, soft shout, Baihua's figure, which appeared captured, vanished without a trace.
The glazed flower manifested an extraordinary phenomenon as well. Petals fell one by one, yet this time, once they dropped, they disappeared completely. In an instant, its inner reality was laid bare.
In shifting light and shadow, there lay a glazed world!
Frozen in glazed glass, countless living beings snapped their eyes open simultaneously!
Hiss...
The colossal golden net wrapped around the outside of the world instantly developed spiderweb cracks.
Layman Qiaogong's voice echoed in shock and fury: "Didn't you say you abandoned your realm and fled back then?! To think you actually refined the entire Wansheng Realm into a glazed state!"
"What a vicious woman!"
From within the glazed world, Daoist Baihua's voice rang back: "What do you know! This was for survival!"
"Not just for me, but for the entire Heavenly Lotus Sect!"
Amid Baihua's furious shout, dazzling brilliance erupted from the glazed world, completely tearing apart the golden net binding her.
"Kid Sun, retreat! Quick!"
"Senior, please forgive us..."
She faintly caught Layman Qiaogong's flustered cry and Sun Erlang's helpless apology.
When she returned to the void, the two were nowhere to be seen.
The glazed flower bloomed anew, concealing the glazed Wansheng Realm at its center. Daoist Baihua returned to her original form.
She did not pursue them, instead heading back to the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
"Having that fight finally made things a bit less boring. I wonder when we will truly go to war against the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals?"
"If we can truly escape the Immortal Ruins, or even this entire Pitch-Black Star Sea, perhaps there will come a day when the Heavenly Lotus Sect sees the light of day once more." Daoist Baihua's thoughts wandered.
Toward the Sacred Emperor of Great Qi, she harbored a peculiar confidence.
Inadvertently, Baihua glanced toward the void beyond.
There, in the place the Sacred Emperor had visited before, she faintly sensed an energy that made the entire glazed Wansheng Realm tremble in dread.
"Truly a madman..."
Back in the Sacred Dynasty of Great Qi, a somewhat disheveled Qiaogong cursed incessantly under his breath as he looked down at the seven dark-gold puppets before him with heartache.
"I should have fucking known! Anyone who survived the world-ending catastrophe could never be naive! Seeing how submissive she acted before the Sacred Emperor, I actually fell for it..."
"Qiaogong, oh Qiaogong, you've really gone senile!"
Sun Erlang remained silent.
The strength that Senior Baihua—who usually seemed so gentle and affable—had suddenly unleashed was indeed terrifying.
Nevertheless, the purpose of seeking her out for this sparring match had been achieved.
Sun Erlang looked at the seven dark-gold puppets in the field.
Through these puppet bodies, he had not only deepened his familiarity with the powers of the seven Heaven and Earth Vigor souls at their cores, but also taken another subtle step forward in mastering Source Power Essence.
"No! I refuse to believe that I, Qiaogong of the grand Tianji Realm, could be outdone by a tiny Wansheng Realm!" Qiaogong spat fiercely from the side, pulling an object from his robes.
"Kid Sun, install this into these puppets!" Qiaogong said viciously.
"What is this?"
Looking at the square black object in Qiaogong's hand, Sun Erlang asked curiously.
"Hehehe, this is the 'experience' our Tianji Realm extracted back then from the immortal puppet Progenitor. It cannot be replicated, and after the Tianji Realm was destroyed, every use is one less. I couldn't bear to use it before, but now..." Qiaogong looked at it with lingering reluctance, but finally gritted his teeth and declared, "No matter what, I cannot let that woman outdo me!"
Hearing the words "immortal puppet," Sun Erlang felt a slight jolt in his heart.
Just as he was about to take it, he suddenly recalled something and hesitated. "For such a precious item, shouldn't it be saved for Senior Tianyang? Perhaps it would be more useful to him..."
Qiaogong waved his hand. "I gave him a portion long ago! Where do you think he went, not showing his face for so long? He's been in closed-door seclusion contemplating it all this time and hasn't emerged yet!"
"Cut the chatter! Just do as I told you! Hurry, or I might regret it in a moment!"
Hearing this, Sun Erlang hesitated no longer.
Connecting his mind to the seven dark-gold puppets, he crushed the square black object in his hand.
Black fluid seeped from between his fingers.
Like a living creature, it crawled up Sun Erlang's arm until it reached his head. Rising up like a cobra striking prey, it reared back and abruptly plunged straight into Sun Erlang's eye sockets.
Out of trust in Qiaogong, Sun Erlang did not resist.
The instant the black fluid covered his vision, his perception of his surroundings underwent a complete transformation.
A flood of blurred images surged like a tide, accompanied by disjointed memories of battle.
Or more precisely, memories of "getting beaten."
Streaks of enigmatic, unfathomable arts bombarded the immortal puppet's body.
The immortal puppet could only rely on its rigid construction to endure them, with virtually no opportunity to counterattack.
Yet even though it was merely enduring blows, waves of profound comprehension welled up in Sun Erlang's heart.
After being struck countless times, a sort of instinct seemed to take shape within him.
Whenever the mental image of an immortal art's attack appeared, an intuitive sense of how to respond arose within him naturally.
This sensation utterly entranced Sun Erlang.
Unfortunately, just as he seemed on the verge of truly grasping something, the visions abruptly vanished.
The various insights from before receded like a tide, leaving not a trace behind.
"Urgh..."
Veins bulged across Sun Erlang's forehead, his fists clenched tight as he panted heavily.
His eyes bloodshot, he stared fixatedly at Layman Qiaogong.
Yet Qiaogong seemed prepared, having already backed far away beforehand. He said coldly, "Kid Sun, clear your head! Don't let yourself be blinded by illusions!"
"That sensation of being on the brink of enlightenment—did it originate from yourself, or from the immortal puppet?!"
Qiaogong's words were like a basin of ice water dumped over his head, snapping Sun Erlang back to sobriety.
Even so, it took him nearly half a day to gradually suppress the urge to snatch the immortal puppet's experience from Qiaogong and resume the comprehension out of a desperate sense of loss.
"I apologize, Senior," Sun Erlang said in shame.
"No matter. Don't blame yourself. Let alone you, even those old fogies of our Tianji Realm couldn't resist that temptation." Qiaogong licked his lips, seemingly reminiscing about the taste of enlightenment.
"Now check again and see what's different from before," Qiaogong instructed.
Sun Erlang turned his attention back to the dark-gold puppets. A moment later, a flash of surprise and delight crossed his eyes.
"Eh? That memory of being struck just now is surfacing again..."
Sun Erlang closed his eyes to feel it.
Qiaogong clapped his hands, and several thousand Sacred Army puppets appeared in succession.
Driven by mechanical instinct, they launched simultaneous attacks against the dark-gold puppets controlled by Sun Erlang.
As if tempered by a thousand trials, every varied art and technique was effortlessly evaded by Sun Erlang.
Such a result left even Sun Erlang stunned.
He could not even comprehend why, when those strikes had clearly landed on the dark-gold puppets he controlled, not a speck of damage occurred in the end.
It was not because the puppets' formidable defense had negated the damage.
Rather, through some exceedingly mysterious method, they had truly and completely evaded every single attack from the Sacred Army puppets.
"Don't space out! Keep hold of that instinctive feeling as best you can!"
"The residue of the immortal puppet's experience will dissipate soon. How much you can ultimately retain depends on your own fortune!"
Layman Qiaogong's words jolted Sun Erlang back to attention.
He discarded all stray thoughts, concentrating fully on engraving the immortal puppet's evasive instincts into his memory.
Yet it was, after all, a divine ability belonging to an immortal puppet, not something mortal methods could permanently fix in place.
Even though Sun Erlang gave it his all, as time crept past, the number of hits taken by the dark-gold puppets he steered inevitably multiplied.
After persevering for seven days, the probability of evasion finally stabilized at a consistent figure.
"One-third."
"Quite a decent result," Qiaogong consoled him.
Sun Erlang was visibly unsatisfied.
"Don't worry. As you slowly comprehend it in the future, your evasion ability will still increase to a degree. But if you want to reach the level of an immortal puppet, moving with thought alone to dodge all divine abilities and magical arts..."
"I'm afraid you would have to break through the limits of mortality," Layman Qiaogong stated frankly.
Sun Erlang let out a long breath, gradually suppressing the regret in his heart.
"Don't look down on this one-third. In life-and-death struggles, it often works wonders. Even if an opponent's strength far exceeds yours, their attacks may be inadvertently dodged by you.
"More importantly, you can operate seven puppets simultaneously. In actual combat, because the seven puppet bodies share sensory perception, the actual performance will be slightly higher than this number..."
Qiaogong began summarizing and analyzing the gains of this session with Sun Erlang.
"If you sparred with Baihua again now, there is a high probability of dodging the glazed golden light of that Wansheng Realm. As long as the array remains intact, she'll be nothing more than a turtle in a jar..." Qiaogong muttered, clearly still unwilling to accept defeat before Baihua.
While the two were talking, they suddenly noticed that the surrounding space was faintly trembling.
"Hmm?"
Both Sun Erlang and Qiaogong were taken aback, then flew outside the testing grounds together.
Not just their location—the entire Sacred Dynasty of Great Qi was plunged into violent trembling.
In the sky, a vortex faintly appeared.
Streaks of thunderclaps boomed within it.
"This is..."
A flash of pleasant surprise crossed Sun Erlang's eyes.
He had experienced a similar scene before.
That was the anomaly that occurred between heaven and earth whenever the Sacred Dynasty's overall environment underwent a sublimation.
After the last anomaly, the spiritual energy density of the Sacred Dynasty had multiplied several times over. Furthermore, the number of talents born into the world had increased noticeably compared to before.
The current cultivation environment of the Sacred Dynasty was already no worse than the ordinary provinces of the Xuanhuang Realm. If it sublimated once more...
Wouldn't it pull far ahead of the Xuanhuang Realm?
Not only the Sacred Emperor's disciples, but the citizens of the Sacred Dynasty also stepped out from their homes, gazing up at the firmament in excitement.
As the most direct beneficiaries of the world's sublimation, without any summons, the citizens of the Sacred Dynasty fell to their knees in unison, chanting the name of the Sacred Emperor and praying devoutly.
If Li Ping were here, he would be able to see that the Sacred Dynasty's destiny, which had already condensed to the extreme, showed signs of breaking through once again.
Yet taking this step was exceptionally arduous.
For now, it was merely a beginning.
Amid the chants of the Sacred Dynasty's citizens, dense purple mist akin to physical substance drifted from every quarter, absorbed by the vortex in the heavens.
The sounds of wind and thunder intensified, the booming thunderclaps causing even Sun Erlang's heart and mind to tremble.
From above, he felt a crushing pressure growing ever heavier, prompting him to lower his head slightly.
"Master has made another breakthrough."
A flash of enlightenment rose in Sun Erlang's heart.
From the expressions of Su Yuqing, Ou Shangtian, and the other disciples of the Sacred Emperor, Sun Erlang saw that they shared the exact same thought.
The vortex in the firmament spun faster and faster, shooting out streaks of starlight that rained down into every corner of the world.
Vegetation touched by it grew at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Living beings brushed by it felt as if initiated with wisdom, entering instantaneous enlightenment.
There were also several condensed ribbons of vast starlight that shot forth like bolts of silk, flying unerringly toward Sun Erlang and the others.
This included cultivators drafted by the Sacred Emperor, such as Qiaogong and Baihua.
The instant the starlight poured into his body, the scene before Sun Erlang changed drastically.
As if he had truly arrived in the boundless void outside the Xuanhuang Realm, Sun Erlang saw terrifying forces of calamity raging within the dead silence of the dark.
He also saw that even within this horrifying, extinct sea of stars, countless Daos of the starry sea were tenaciously reviving.
"Light lies hidden beneath darkness..."
"Vitality is conceived from dead silence."
Like a devout believer attaining enlightenment, Sun Erlang witnessed the vastness and tenacity of the starry sea with his own eyes, tears streaming down his face.
And so it was for the other cultivators within the Sacred Dynasty.
Waves of wondrous energy surged from their bodies, piercing straight into the sky.
Their collective comprehension and enlightenment intensified the trembling of the Daqi pocket world once more.
This vibration even spilled beyond the world, spreading out into the void.
The Five Elements Grotto-Heaven surrounding Daqi and the other pocket worlds relocated here were all affected as well, vibrating at the same frequency.
Like the rhythmic beat of a heart, something seemed to be conceiving within that pulse.
All living beings of the Daqi pocket world looked up at the vortex in the sky, as if moved by an instinctual calling.
Beneath the gaze of millions, a majestic figure descended slowly into the world, passing through wind, thunder, and lightning, through the purple mist and the hazy, enigmatic starlight.
"We welcome the Sacred Emperor!"
Hundreds of millions of Daqi citizens kowtowed in unison, their cries echoing like mountains falling and seas roaring.
Yet the Sacred Emperor's disciples, as well as Baihua, Qiaogong, Master Yin, and the rest, discovered with shock that their familiar Faceless Sacred Emperor now had features growing upon his previously void face!
After only a momentary hesitation, the aura emanating from the Sacred Emperor confirmed his true identity beyond doubt.
Standing high in the ninth heaven, the Sacred Emperor looked down upon all living beings below.
With a gentle wave of his hand, all the kneeling citizens rose to their feet.
Chapter 1284