"It is just like an underground reservoir beneath a desert, gathering every seeped droplet of water over millions of years.
"When the day arrives, when the time is right and torrential rains pour from the heavens, drenching the desert with sweet dew, this subterranean reservoir will surge with its underground waters, sweeping across and scouring the entire desert. Aligning with the great momentum of heaven and earth, it will reshape the landscape, transforming the vast, desolate sands into a boundless sea of waters in an instant!"
"This is a method to remake heaven and earth!" Li Fan's eyes flickered, as if trying to peer through the calm river of vitality before him and see the secrets hidden beneath.
Unfortunately, just as he had conjectured earlier, the creator of this river of vitality was an entity far beyond the mortal realm.
Their handiwork, especially since it clearly had not been realized through formations, was truly beyond Li Fan's current ability to comprehend.
The turbulent currents stirred up by Baihua's absorption of vitality gradually settled. By the time it had returned completely to its dormant state, Li Fan's observations had yielded nothing.
It was the same for Master Yin and Baihua. Truly, just like the High Wall, it lay entirely unmasked before their eyes, open to whatever methods they used to pry into it.
Yet one could never decipher the secrets within. The gulf between them was nearly despair-inducing. The three stood in silence above the river of vitality, quiet for a long time.
After who knew how long, Li Fan shook his head slightly. "In the past, people sighed in despair before the boundless ocean; today, we abandon all hope before this river.
"The secrets here are not something we can explore right now. As for Xu Ke, lost within it, we can only hope that heaven favors the worthy."
He had initially thought searching for Xu Ke would merely be a matter of passing convenience, never expecting that beneath the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds lay chasms spanning the entire Star Sea.
Thus, the plan had to change. In reality, if Li Fan were to keep exploring indefinitely, relying on the recording function of the Dao Assimilation Stone and the escape technique of the wooden sword phantom, he might well have been able to map the Star Sea chasms entirely.
However, the priority of this lifetime was still the sublimation of the Xuanhuang Realm. The vitality harbored in the Star Sea chasms was simply too colossal; even if he were to siphon some of it when driving Xuanhuang's sublimation, the charted areas alone would be more than enough.
"Saint Teacher, I intend to remain here for now," Baihua said after a moment's hesitation.
"The vitality here is of immense use in reviving the Wansheng Realm. Although I can only take a tiny amount each time, if I persevere, I can restore my homeland to life in half a year at most!"
Li Fan stared at Baihua, his gaze seemingly piercing through her body to reach the miniature world at her core.
"Even if it is revived, I am afraid not all of your old acquaintances will be able to return to life," Li Fan said with a frown.
Li Fan could naturally tell that the Wansheng Realm and all the living beings within had been refined by Baihua into that golden glazed state.
Even if torrential vitality could wash over them and revert them from the glazed state, it was hard to say how many creatures could withstand such a back-and-forth transformation.
Yet Baihua's eyes remained resolute. "I will simply do all that humanly can be done and leave the rest to fate! Before, there was no way to revive my world at all. Now that an opportunity lies right before me, how could I turn a blind eye?"
Seeing this, Li Fan did not stop her.
Master Yin spoke up as well at this point. "Like Baihua, I don't wish to leave for the time being."
Li Fan raised his brows. "Is this vitality useful to you as well?"
Master Yin shook his head. "No. It's just that near this river of vitality, I feel an unparalleled peace within. Those remnant souls of worlds that used to flare up suddenly in my consciousness from time to time... here, they have all fallen silent..."
This reason left Li Fan at a loss for words.
"Very well. If you have nothing else to do, you can search for Xu Ke while you're here. If you find him, all the better. If not, don't force it—your own safety comes first.
"Xuanhuang's sublimation is a long-term plan anyway. Half a year won't make a difference. Stay here, then; I will return in half a year to fetch you," Li Fan told the two.
The two cupped their hands and bid Li Fan farewell.
Li Fan stepped forward as the wooden sword phantom reflected around his body. A moment later, a strange fluctuation manifested around him.
It was none other than the Ascent Dharma Formation! An awe-inspiring might resembling a cultivator ascending and climbing through the Heavenly Gates caused Master Yin and Baihua to involuntarily back away and take refuge.
Before their eyes, Li Fan's physical position had not changed. Yet they could genuinely feel that Li Fan was growing farther and farther away from them, higher and... higher.
Li Fan's phantom standing within the wooden sword gradually grew insubstantial. In the end, it dimmed completely, vanishing from their sight.
"Such methods..." Master Yin's mind reeled in awe, and he could not help but remark, "If the Saint Teacher doesn't come back for us in half a year, we might be trapped here for the rest of our lives."
Baihua did not refute him, merely saying, "Still, this place is brimming with vitality, so there's no need to fear perishing here." She then kept her eyes fixed on the tranquil river of vitality, waiting for the next opportunity to siphon from it.
...
The Great Wall of Remnant Worlds. Outside the node leading to the chasm depression.
Without any warning, Li Fan's figure abruptly materialized.
The moment he returned to the Star Sea, he ceased the Ascent Dharma Formation and used the wooden sword phantom's escape technique to leave the node's vicinity.
In just a few breaths, he had returned from the lowest depression to the normal potential gradient of the Star Sea. The rapid shift in potential altitude in such a short time caused both his body and his divine soul to feel as though they had suffered a violent shock.
Splurt, splurt... Blood splattered as his skin split inch by inch. His divine soul felt as if rolled over by thousands of boulders, compressed and pulverized.
Even with Li Fan's formidable foundation, his face instantly turned pale.
"What I just did was akin to half an ascension. Only, it was ascending from a lower-tier world to the current Star Sea.
"When the shock suffered is already this violent, one can imagine what kind of trial a true ascension would entail.
"Without the protection of immortal spiritual energy, ordinary cultivators would have absolutely no hope of surviving." During the few breaths of Li Fan's musing, his injuries had already fully recovered.
Rather than leaving immediately, Li Fan gazed upon the wonder beneath the High Wall: the invisible High Wall, the sprawling Great Wall of Remnant Worlds, and the endless chasm at the Star Sea's lowest depth.
Intertwined together, they formed a dreamy, elusive, and unfathomable tapestry. Even though Li Fan's strength was nearing the pinnacle of the Star Sea, in his eyes, this Star Sea remained fraught with countless enigmas. Perhaps as he grew stronger and uncovered more, the perplexities in his heart would only multiply.
Until one day, a certain threshold would be breached, and everything would finally be laid bare before heaven and earth.
Li Fan cast one last deep look at this celestial wonder for now. Then, with the wooden sword phantom unsheathed, he flew toward the Xuanhuang Realm.
"There is no rush to deal with the Celestial Vessel's ritual. Accomplishing it too quickly would only arouse suspicion instead.
"However, as progress advances, it is time to formally begin cultivating this lifetime's Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang."
In the plan for Xuanhuang's sublimation, the vast amounts of immortal spiritual energy required could only be mobilized by succeeding as the Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang.
As for the post of Great Heavenly Venerable, the various constraints left behind by the Immortal Realm of old still persisted. The scene of Sun Tianci meeting an untimely death in the previous lifetime was still vivid in his mind, ensuring that Li Fan would never endanger himself in that position.
Fortunately, in this lifetime, there was no need to go through the trouble of creating another Sun Tianci, who had been born united with the Dao.
His sermon-transmitting phantoms had been preaching day and night across multiple mortal pocket worlds, and they had already scouted out a suitable target.
With a flash of his figure, Li Fan arrived in an unnamed mortal world.
The scale of this pocket world, not to mention compared to Great Qi or Great Li, was far inferior even to the Spirit Wood Realm.
A mountain range composed of thirteen peaks was the entirety of the world. Rather than a pocket world, it was more like a small-scale grotto-heaven.
Yet in such a mortal pocket world that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator might not pay heed to, Li Fan had sensed the birth of a faint consciousness of the world's Heavenly Dao, as well as a boy whose disposition could be described as supremely pure and authentic.
Perhaps precisely because the world was so small, it was extremely difficult for the humans here to conceive the next generation.
Thus, the overall human population remained at a low level. For them, the resources in the mountains were virtually boundless.
Across the thirteen peaks, there were only so many people, and everyone knew one another well. Disputes were rare. For most of every day, they were at leisure.
Inevitably, some of the humans here grew curious about what lay beyond the mountains. But just as the living beings of the Star Sea remained trapped behind the High Wall, they could never leave the boundaries of their world in their entire lives.
There was one little boy who, from the day he learned to walk, often climbed the highest peak of this realm.
Standing alone on the summit, he would gaze out at this narrow world, taking in the thirteen peaks at a glance, before lying down on the ground and quietly staring at the sky.
Li Fan had observed this boy before. While climbing and gazing, miscellaneous thoughts still crossed his mind.
Yet the moment he lay down and looked into the sky, his consciousness entered a state of nearly absolute emptiness, his thoughts completely settling into stillness.
Had Li Fan not still been able to sense his life aura, he would have almost thought the boy had passed away.
One had to realize that when living creatures exist in the world, interacting with their surroundings, they inevitably generate thoughts of their own.
Only a tiny fraction of individuals, whether by serendipity or extraordinary talent, could enter such an unthinking, unconscious realm of void.
Yet this state, something cultivators could only dream of encountering, was merely the norm for this boy.
What was more... the world of the Thirteen Peaks was exceedingly tiny, yet by sheer coincidence, it had birthed a Heavenly Dao consciousness of its own.
Among the extremely limited living beings, the little boy's habit of lying all day at the highest point of the world, gazing into the sky, naturally caught the attention of this world's Heavenly Dao.
However, the Heavenly Dao consciousness of the Thirteen Peaks world was also in an infant, budding state, approaching purely out of instinctive curiosity.
Thus, the boy's divine soul was like a sheet of blank paper, slowly rubbing off and imprinting the Heavenly Dao of the Thirteen Peaks world that drew close.
The traces left in his divine soul by the world's Heavenly Dao did not alter the boy's original nature. Day after day, he still climbed to the summit to gaze at the sky.
And without his realizing it, the Heavenly Dao consciousness descended with ever-increasing familiarity, leaving behind its imprints...
Li Fan had observed countless people and pocket worlds, and even he had to admit that this was a miracle incapable of being replicated.
"Resembling man yet resembling heaven; resembling heaven yet truly man. Unity of heaven and man; man seizing heaven's wonder!
"'Observe the Dao of Heaven, execute the movement of Heaven, and that is all!'"
This little boy, who did not even have an official name, had inadvertently attained the perfect state that cultivators of the ancient method had dreamed of in their records.
Even though the scale of the world was too small and the completeness of its Heavenly Dao could not be mentioned in the same breath as that of the Xuanhuang Realm, there was no question that to Li Fan, this little boy was an absolute, flawless seed for the Great Heavenly Venerable.
The Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang was, in essence, a human supervising heaven.
The Heavenly Dao operated normally, and only at certain necessary moments would the Great Heavenly Venerable step in to intervene and regulate.
For Li Fan, all he needed was a puppet to serve as the key to opening the former Great Heavenly Venerable's legacy.
The puppet's degree of autonomy should certainly be as low as possible. Yet, if it were merely a spineless puppet, it would be incapable of passing the trials of succession.
The appearance of this little boy resolved Li Fan's dilemma completely.
"Given his current state, once he becomes the Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, he will take no autonomous action whatsoever. He will strictly abide by the original operation of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, governing through non-action.
"And for the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, a Great Heavenly Venerable who interferes with nothing is precisely what it would be delighted to see. Perhaps his degree of harmony will not be inferior to Mr. Bai's..." The more Li Fan looked at the boy, the more pleased he felt.
With a flick of his finger, a wisp of light and shadow silently flooded into the boy's pure, flawless, blank consciousness, without even disturbing the world's Heavenly Dao consciousness hovering near.
This time, Li Fan did not directly instill all the details of the Great Heavenly Venerable's Fallen Immortal Realm trial, but only a few hints and subtle guidances at key decision points.
The boy's thoughts were exceedingly simple. With these guidances, it should be enough for him to complete the trial through instinctive choices.
"A future Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang cannot go without a name.
"From now on, you shall be called Wuming."
To maintain Wuming's purity and innocence, Li Fan did not even plant his own presence within the boy's sea of consciousness.
Departing from the Thirteen Peaks, performing the ritual to enter the Fallen Immortal Illusion, succeeding as the Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, and in the future detonating immortal artifacts to infuse the Xuanhuang Realm with immortal spiritual power and catalyze the birth of the first heavenly and earthly immortal soul after sublimation...
All of it would rely on silent guidance and suggestion.
This meant that Li Fan would have to adapt to Wuming in turn to carry out the Dao-joining plan. However, Wuming's nature of governing through non-action would minimize unpredictability to the greatest extent.
"For a long time to come, Wuming's presence will be virtually negligible.
"However, in this lifetime, if the sublimated Xuanhuang Realm still exists after I join the Dao..." A look of wonder appeared in Li Fan's eyes. "As time flows on and his body merges with the Heavenly Dao consciousness of a super-Xuanhuang Realm, perhaps Wuming can rely on such an opportunity to achieve power comparable to a True Immortal!"
It was foreseeable that under Li Fan's various maneuvers in this lifetime, the Xuanhuang Realm could almost ascend to become an Immortal Domain.
And being able to unite with an Immortal Domain's Heavenly Dao consciousness... even True Immortals of the past might not have been able to achieve that! By then, his strength would surely far surpass the Celestial Vessel's Equal Star Sea consciousness!
It was just that the time required would be unimaginably vast, and only an innocent soul born through such sheer coincidence like Wuming could accomplish it.
Had it been Li Fan, before long, his sense of self would inevitably clash with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
Hence, from the very beginning, Li Fan had discarded any thought of substituting himself.
"I wonder, once the Xuanhuang Realm is sublimated into an Immortal Domain, what changes will occur to the position of Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang?
"Will the shackles left behind by the Immortal Realm of old disappear, or will they only deepen?"
Chapter 1351