"Yet how, exactly, are we to do it?" Master Yin asked, his gaze burning as he pinpointed the crux of the problem.
The strength of everyone present was actually comparable.
As old-method Longevity experts, let alone aiding the resurgence of the Star Sea, even reversing the crisis of a single Xuanhuang Realm was beyond their capability.
As if a basin of cold water had been dumped over them, the group quickly sobered up, turning their eyes in unison toward Li Fan.
Seated upon the Sermon Platform, Li Fan seemed to have long anticipated Master Yin's question. He answered unhurriedly, "Do you all know that a world is like a person, and the Star Sea is the same?
"When a person falls ill, medicine is prescribed according to the symptoms, followed by stimulating acupuncture points and meridians.
"When a world or Star Sea suffers calamity, the same can be done..."
A luminous diagram of a human figure slowly manifested before everyone along with Li Fan's words.
Key acupoints and meridians were all clearly marked.
Li Fan waved his hand gently, and the luminous diagram abruptly shifted. It expanded and diffused, ultimately becoming a faintly glowing yellow cloud. The acupoints and meridians originally within the human body distributed themselves across the luminous cloud according to the laws of its evolution.
Having just returned from the starry sky outside Xuanhuang, how could the group fail to recognize that this cloud represented the Xuanhuang Realm? Just as they were watching intently, Li Fan pointed once more.
The luminous cluster expanded once again—a thousandfold, ten thousandfold.
The dazzling spectacle instantly engulfed everyone, leaving them lost in its midst.
It was an expanse of resplendent starry sea.
The group faintly perceived that the points occasionally flickering with a distinctive glow within the starry sea were none other than the acupoints and meridians previously seen within the human figure and the world!
"From person to realm, from realm to domain. It should indeed be so!" Master Yin murmured thoughtfully.
The others also looked as though they had gained sudden enlightenment.
Before they could examine it more closely, Li Fan waved his sleeve, and in an instant, the starry sea reverted to the depiction of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"To revive the Star Sea, one must first revive Xuanhuang. To revive Xuanhuang, one must vitalize these places."
Upon the miniature panorama of the Xuanhuang Realm, location after location was marked out by Li Fan.
"Having been devoured and plundered by cultivators for thousands of years, the Xuanhuang Realm should have been completely depleted long ago. Fortunately, Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa continually gathered world fragments across the Star Sea to nourish it. These ruined realms are like medicine; though Xuanhuang has ingested them, it has not yet fully absorbed them..."
Those scattered glowing marks radiated a ruddy, translucent brilliance, seemingly pregnant with boundless vitality and energy.
From Li Fan's discourse, everyone grasped his meaning.
In short, it boiled down to one sentence: help Xuanhuang digest the medicine's potency!
Li Fan added, "Xuanhuang has been weakened for so long that it risks being unable to absorb nourishment due to its extreme debility. Therefore, it must be gently guided and enticed—using acupoints to drive the meridians, using isolated points to influence the whole..."
The sermon lasted a full seven days and seven nights.
Even after Li Fan's figure faded away, the group remained deeply immersed in the principle he expounded of the trinity of man, heaven, and medicine, unable to contain their awe.
It was Master Yin who sobered up first. "Ruined realms as medicine—this metaphor is truly ingenious. Absorbing, digesting, integrating into oneself. And whatever cannot be absorbed is cast aside entirely. Such are the medicinal dregs..."
Qiaogong seemed absentminded, casually offering a few perfunctory remarks before taking his leave.
Baihua slightly furrowed her brow. "Guiding Xuanhuang to digest the ruined realms won't be easy either. Xuanhuang cultivators have stood in opposition to the Heavenly Dao for so many years; any action involving the power of ruined realms could provoke the hostility of Xuanhuang's Heavenly Dao. Even if we mean well for it."
"Which is why this misunderstanding must be resolved from the outset to win the trust of Xuanhuang's Heavenly Dao," Master Yin said, looking toward the spot where Li Fan had vanished.
Before departing, Li Fan had said he would take care of this matter before delivering his next sermon.
One just wondered what method he would use.
As a nether soul of a ruined realm, Master Yin understood far better than other cultivators just how difficult the Xuanhuang Realm's malice was to dispel.
Seven days later, when Li Fan reappeared, he invited everyone into the sky above the Great Xuan pocket world.
Arriving here, Master Yin felt as if he had stepped into a quagmire; every movement was met with immense resistance. His nature as a world nether soul did not help him at all in neutralizing this obstructive force. He could not even discern the source of this inexplicable resistance.
Baihua and Qiaogong wore equally solemn expressions, showing that they too had perceived the extraordinary nature of this place.
"Everyone, allow me to introduce someone to you," Li Fan said with a smile.
Then, a hunched, white-haired old man appeared before them.
The old man's strength was unremarkable, but the coffin strapped to his back caught everyone's attention.
The soaring resentment faintly emanating from the coffin caused Master Yin and the others to narrow their eyes.
"This is Fellow Daoist Xu Ke, formerly a disciple of the Beast Taming Sect. Entrusted with a mission, he concealed himself in a pocket world, sitting in seclusion for thousands of years..." After briefly introducing Xu Ke's background, Li Fan signaled with his eyes, and Xu Ke unstrapped the coffin from his back.
It hovered high in the sky.
As if sensing the temporary departure of its keeper, the sealed entity inside instantly grew even more violent. The coffin lid rattled incessantly, as if whatever was imprisoned within might break through the restrictions at any moment.
"Do you know what is sealed inside this coffin?" Li Fan asked.
Without waiting for their reply, he directly announced the answer: "It is a wisp of Xuanhuang's consciousness.
"However, this consciousness has now been flooded with negative emotions such as resentment, madness, and paranoia. It has transformed into an outright Xuanhuang malice!
"Today, we are going to purify this malice and return it to Xuanhuang!" Li Fan said solemnly.
Xu Ke gave a light cough and added, "When this malice separated from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao all those years ago, it intended to sever itself entirely from then on. For the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, this was by no means as simple as cutting off a piece of flesh. It was more like an avatar.
"If we can return it to the Heavenly Dao and restore the part that was once missing, it will surely draw down Xuanhuang heavenly favor...
"Of course, that is provided we can truly purify the malice within it completely." Xu Ke looked toward Li Fan.
Li Fan, however, brimmed with confidence. "It is merely a wisp of malice. With all of us joining hands, how could we possibly fail to purify it?"
Having listened all this time, once Qiaogong learned the true identity of the sealed entity in the coffin, he grew eager: "How specifically do we do it? I will cooperate fully!"
"What it hates is merely that it failed to leave back then. If so, let us grant its wish and let it traverse the High Wall in that era!" As Li Fan spoke, a horsetail whisk suddenly appeared in his hand.
He raised it high and swept it down forcefully toward the coffin.
The myriad white strands of the whisk shot like ten thousand meteors, piercing into the coffin one after another.
The violently shaking coffin leaped high into the air, then stiffened motionless.
The white strands emitted an illusory silver radiance. Within the silver light, countless distinct scenes flickered.
All were dreamscape visions injected by Li Fan.
Though the dreams differed from one another, without exception, they all depicted scenes of great horror and ultimate oblivion beyond the High Wall.
Whenever the Xuanhuang malice attached itself to Mr. Bai, successfully traversed the High Wall, and escaped from the Pitch-Black Star Sea...
...each time, it failed to survive for even three breaths before perishing in various indescribable, unknown calamities.
In mere blinks of an eye, the Xuanhuang malice had already experienced tens of thousands of deaths in the illusion.
Seeing this, Qiaogong muttered inwardly, 'Isn't this a bit too absurd? The outside of the High Wall is unknown, but surely it can't be like this, can it? Even a seemingly ordinary cat can swallow it whole in one bite? In terms of sheer power, this Xuanhuang malice probably isn't much weaker than an ancient-method Longevity expert. Can this really fool it?'
Having lived alongside the Xuanhuang malice for thousands of years, Xu Ke keenly sensed that the struggling from within the coffin had indeed weakened, and he could not help looking pleased: "It truly works!"
Just then, Li Fan's voice came from above: "You may also help weave dreamscapes. No matter how bizarre or terrifying they are, it does not matter—so long as the Xuanhuang malice ultimately perishes."
The whisk's radiance flared, expanding before everyone. At the end of its handle, a vortex faintly emerged.
Master Yin and the others understood instinctively, projecting the most terrifying dreams they could imagine into it with their minds.
Among them, the dreams woven by Master Yin were the most bizarre and horrifying.
Even with Li Fan's present breadth of experience, observing them sent chills down his spine.
In comparison, the illusory dreams woven by Qiaogong, Baihua, and Xu Ke were much more conventional.
Qiaogong's dreams mostly involved worlds collapsing, turning into puppets, and blurring the line between reality and illusion.
Baihua's dreams pertained to the withering of life and myriad things falling into frozen stillness.
Under the repeated baptism of these diverse, terrifying dreams, the Xuanhuang malice quietly underwent a fundamental transformation.
'The outside of the High Wall is actually this terrifying?'
'If I had known, I should never have left the High Wall. Even if I could only cling to a wretched life, that would be better than dying in an instant!'
Thoughts like these accumulated within the Xuanhuang malice with the conclusion of every dream.
Although each instance was like a nearly negligible scratch, the rate at which dreams were generated and cycled was too rapid.
In every split second, hundreds of thousands of dreams vanished and arose.
More importantly, these dreams were not merely ordinary dreams on the surface; they formed a world-class illusion array infused with a trace of Li Fan's insight into False Becoming True.
Looking from the outside, one might wonder why anyone in the array could fail to distinguish dream from reality. But only by being truly inside the array could one tangibly feel the dreadfulness of this illusion where the false became true.
Looking at his masterpiece, Li Fan could not help feeling a surge of satisfaction: 'It is reborn from the Cloud Water Illusion Dream Technique, yet its effect far surpasses the original.
'And with the amplification of the illusion array incorporated into it... even if it isn't an immortal array, it surpasses immortal arrays.'
With the continuous iteration of dreams, the rate at which the Xuanhuang malice sank deepened ever faster.
At first, feelings of doubt and resistance would occasionally arise.
Later on, all doubts vanished.
All that remained was endless regret and dread.
Watching the Xuanhuang malice finally shivering in fear within the array, Li Fan knew this dish was at last ready to be served.
"Rise!"
Li Fan reached forward, gripping the gigantic whisk across the air.
Then he stirred it gently.
The myriad silver-white strands of the whisk churned incessantly within the coffin along with his movement.
Like sharp blades, they sliced the Xuanhuang malice, which had completely given up resisting, into countless minute fragments.
The sealing coffin also turned illusory as the malice disintegrated.
Li Fan lightly flicked the whisk, and a portion of the strands swept up a part of the dismembered Xuanhuang malice, bringing it before Master Yin.
"Fellow Daoist, please!" Master Yin first bowed in thanks to Li Fan.
Then he solemnly took the partitioned Xuanhuang malice before him.
Next, Li Fan separated another portion and sent it before Qiaogong.
Much like carving up game, before long, Li Fan completed the division of the Xuanhuang malice.
Everyone present received a share.
Li Fan was no exception, taking even slightly more than the others.
Naturally, Master Yin and the others took no issue with this.
"Go!"
Controlling the gigantic whisk, Li Fan wore a solemn expression as he hurled it toward the sky.
It tore through the firmament, opening a passage leading to the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Through the deep, boundless vastness, soul, return home..."
Li Fan chanted under his breath.
Yet there was no need for Li Fan to do much more; from the moment the passage opened, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao consciousness had already noticed the consciousness in Daxuan that had been severed from itself in the past.
Within the passage, tremendous rumbles echoed endlessly, as if the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao consciousness were about to descend.
"Soul, return home!"
Li Fan pointed across the void.
The purified and partitioned Xuanhuang malice before him flew toward the passage.
Its speed accelerated rapidly, vanishing before their eyes in an instant.
Next, Master Yin and the others followed suit.
In less than half a day, the Xuanhuang malice that had been scattered for so many years finally returned completely to the Xuanhuang Realm.
The passage closed, and all anomalous phenomena vanished.
Looking at the sealing coffin that had turned completely ethereal and disappeared, Xu Ke felt a sense of melancholy and loss.
Qiaogong, on the other hand, was somewhat worried: "Is that it? We haven't worked for nothing, have we?"
Li Fan smiled slightly. "Rest assured, everyone. Xuanhuang never ill-treats those who render it service.
"However, the Xuanhuang Realm needs some time to digest it. Before the harvest arrives, all of you need only wait patiently."
Li Fan's figure faded away alongside these words.
Leaving behind the group, each wearing a different expression.
Master Yin looked at Xu Ke and inquired about Mr. Bai.
Xu Ke, who had been feeling somewhat lost, immediately perked up.
The two conversed with great pleasure, hitting it off like old friends.
Baihua and Qiaogong, having somewhat strained relations, went their separate ways to attend to their own affairs.
All of them were waiting for the arrival of the gift from the Xuanhuang Realm that Li Fan had spoken of.
Meanwhile, in the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan's true body concealed his tracks, quietly observing the changes in the Xuanhuang Realm.
If absorbing immortal spirit energy caused changes across the mountains, rivers, and surface of the Xuanhuang Realm, then after absorbing its own lost consciousness, the Xuanhuang Realm's transformation occurred silently and imperceptibly deep within the world itself.
Only a cultivator intimately familiar with the workings of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao could perceive it.
'By analogy to us cultivators, it is like the strengthening of the divine soul and divine sense.
'The first to benefit should be the laws of the Xuanhuang Realm—that is to say, Xuanhuang's Longevity experts...'
Li Fan sensed several colossal consciousnesses sweeping across heaven and earth.
Some of them felt quite familiar.
'Hmph, I'll let you taste some sweetness first. In the end, you'll have to spit every bit of it back out!'
The colossal consciousnesses searched several times, but never found the cause of the Xuanhuang Realm's inexplicable transformation.
They had no choice but to give up.
Li Fan sneered inwardly, paying them no mind.
He continued to carefully contemplate the transformation of the Xuanhuang Realm.
A transformation starkly different from the calamity of world destruction he had comprehended.
Chapter 1308