Unable to find a way out of the dream in the short term, Sun Erlang and his companions put their heads together and decided their best course was to first enhance their strength within the dreamscape.
Among the three, Yue Zhenwei possessed the purple-gold gourd, while Sun Erlang commanded the Spirit Devouring Art. Only Wang Xuanba had yet to gain anything in the dream world, making him the obvious weak link.
Pooling their remaining Paradise Coins, the three purchased a protective divine ability tailored for him.
"Indestructible Reincarnation Body (Elementary)."
"A supreme technique of the Reincarnation Sect, an ancient immortal sect of the Xuanhuang Realm. Upon minor attainment, neither Yin, Yang, nor the five elements can harm the user in the slightest. Upon grand attainment, one may be hailed as immortal and indestructible, invulnerable to ten thousand tribulations."
Those brief lines of introduction were enough for Wang Xuanba to choose it without hesitation.
Sun Erlang wore a slightly odd expression and muttered under his breath, "If this Reincarnation Sect's divine ability were truly as formidable as the description claims, how could their sect have been wiped out so easily back then?"
Yue Zhenwei chuckled. "It only cost five thousand Paradise Coins anyway—how incredible could it really be? Still, for our current stage, it should be more than enough for self-defense."
Having completed the exchange, Wang Xuanba felt the changes rippling through his flesh and said, "Actually, there was another protective ability that looked decent, called 'Unfettered Carefree Intent.' Unfortunately, it didn't seem to originate from the Xuanhuang Realm, and I wasn't familiar with its background. Besides, its artistic conception wasn't quite to my taste..."
Sun Erlang grew thoughtful. "Looking through this Heavenly Venerable's Treasury, there are many items that don't appear to be native to our Xuanhuang Realm. Could it be that this Carefree Dream Paradise even encompasses things from beyond Xuanhuang?"
The three exchanged glances, gaining a fresh appreciation of Heavenly Venerable Wuyou's immense power.
Their remaining Paradise Coins were not enough to purchase entry into another dream world, leaving them with no choice but to wait for a free dream trial to open.
It had to be said that the word "Paradise" was no exaggeration.
Even when not inside a tailor-made dreamscape, ordinary paradise was a vast realm where cultivators could revel to their hearts' content.
"It doesn't just include the normal territory of the Five Elders Association. One can travel to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals just as easily. However, inside the Dream Paradise, neither Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa nor the organization of the Alliance exists. Cultivation resources are inexhaustible, free from slaughter and conflict, allowing cultivators to fully enjoy the magnificent scenery of heaven and earth. For a mere handful of Paradise Coins, one can even establish a cave abode anywhere across the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Furthermore, reflected by the Heavenly Venerable's supreme might, countless cave abodes can be layered atop the exact same location. With no need to fight over territory, cultivators coming and going will never run into anyone else..."
A miniature projection of the Xuanhuang Realm appeared before Sun Erlang and the others.
Any location displayed could be reached in an instant for a single-digit fee of Paradise Coins.
What was more...
"We can even leave the Xuanhuang Realm to live in other cultivation realms in the starry skies?"
"Each realm boasts magnificent sights, none falling short of the Xuanhuang Realm."
A look of yearning surfaced on Sun Erlang's face.
"What a pity that one must reach Paradise Experience Level 6 to be qualified."
Attempting to select it ended in failure, leaving Sun Erlang and his companions somewhat disappointed.
***
Through a pair of silver eyes, the experiences of Sun Erlang and the others in the Paradise were revealed in vivid detail.
Acting as Li Fan's own eyes, they allowed him to observe everything unfolding inside without setting foot in the Paradise himself.
"Surviving beneath the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation, and even having the spare strength to provide shelter—this Carefree Paradise is truly remarkable.
"Its dreamscape's reach even extends beyond the Xuanhuang Realm, sprawling out toward the Pitch-Black Star Sea?" That detail genuinely exceeded Li Fan's expectations.
Standing in the Great Qi pocket world and gazing into the territory of the Five Elders Association from afar, his eyes flickered. "The descriptions Wuyou gave in the dream likely aren't fabrications. The depictions of some of those cultivation realms match what I know.
"The Star Sea has long been a void of dead silence.
"Yet Wuyou can recreate the landscapes of bygone cultivation realms...
"There are a few possibilities. First, Wuyou once visited these cultivation realms in person. Second, by relying on ancient records, recreating them by drawing a gourd from its outline.
"Or..." A thought struck Li Fan.
"Could that Heavenly Venerable Wuyou be using the countless world remnants within the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds as blueprints? If that conjecture holds true, it means Wuyou—or the power of the Dream Paradise—has already reached beneath the great wall?
"A deep unknown dreamscape..."
At this realization, Li Fan grew solemn.
"The wall's blockade, the transmission from King Xuantian, the flaw in the wall.
"The Dao Transformation Mother Stone, the Taiyan Sect's imperishable information, their entire sect's escape.
"The Carefree Dream Paradise."
Countless pieces of known information converged in Li Fan's mind in an instant. Before long, a bold notion sprang forth.
"Could it be that Heavenly Venerable Wuyou, through the power of the dream paradise, has already touched upon the flaw in the great wall?"
Previously, Li Fan never would have made such a guess.
After all, an anomalous Longevity cultivator who had been suppressed by Chuanfa for millennia suddenly gaining the ability to cross the great wall seemed utterly absurd on the surface.
Yet when combined with the Carefree Paradise's performance beneath the world-extinguishing immortal formation in the previous cycle, the deduction became entirely reasonable.
"Perhaps precisely because in reality, constrained by the New Method, they could only ever remain subservient beneath Chuanfa.
"Which is why the Five Elders chose an unconventional path.
"If they truly possess such power, it would explain why these five Longevity Realm figures have stayed quiet all this time.
"They were merely stalling for time."
Li Fan knew that this was just an ungrounded hypothesis.
Yet to him, the presence or lack of concrete proof hardly mattered. So long as there was even a sliver of suspicion, putting it to the test was imperative.
"The Carefree Paradise turns no one away, provided they pass the dream trials.
"And what I lack least of all are cultivators of every stripe."
In an instant, Li Fan's gaze swept across suitable candidates within the various pocket worlds via the Dao Lecturing Platform.
Without a sound, they received the indistinct guidance of the Saint Teacher. Vanishing from where they stood, they set off on the journey toward the Carefree Paradise, becoming Li Fan's ears and eyes to probe its secrets.
"Vast though the Paradise may be, a single thought traverses it!"
Li Fan was not concerned that Heavenly Venerable Wuyou would turn hostile over his blatant probing.
In this life, he had always remained behind the scenes.
The methods he used to control these cultivator pawns derived from the power of the Immortal Realm's Nine-Star Crimson Bead and ancient immortal formations.
Li Fan did not believe Wuyou could see through his tricks and trace them back to him.
Besides, even if Wuyou did discover his covert hand, what of it?
With numerous divine abilities gathered upon him, unless a True Immortal descended in person, nothing else posed a threat to Li Fan.
There was no longer any need to tread so cautiously.
Li Fan fashioned another simulated personality tasked solely with monitoring the intelligence gathered from the Paradise at all times.
The Paradise harbored too many secrets; these pawns could not uncover them overnight.
Li Fan then shifted his attention to the Terminal Dissociation Disc.
In this lifetime, the ongoing deduction mission assigned to the disc—downgrading immortal formations—had finally achieved a breakthrough.
Originally, the disc's deduction progress had been exceedingly slow. Deducing immortal formations was one thing, but simplifying them without significantly compromising their might was an entirely different challenge.
However, after Li Fan repeatedly ascended to gaze down upon the Star Sea from a higher dimension, a turning point emerged.
"The projection of the Great Dao descends from above, like an inverted cone.
"The principles of the Immortal Realm are indeed extraordinarily profound, far beyond what mortals of the lower realms can fathom.
"Yet mortals are the foundation of the Great Dao.
"The two share common ground."
This was the insight that had welled up in Li Fan's heart while studying the shifts between truth and falsehood.
Taking this theory as its foundation, the Dissociation Disc utilized the intersections between the immortal and the mortal as an entry point, finally completing the initial deduction for downgrading immortal formations.
The first formation chosen for simplification and practical verification was naturally Immortal Descent, All Things Return to Emptiness.
After all, in this life, Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang's legacy of immortal spiritual power had to be reserved to fuel the sublimation of the Xuanhuang Realm.
If this world-extinguishing immortal formation could not be activated, Li Fan's deterrent power would undoubtedly be severely undermined.
Once the plan to sublimate the Xuanhuang Realm succeeded, failing to hold the ultimate trump card would leave Li Fan in an exceedingly passive position.
With a flicker of the wooden sword phantom, Li Fan stepped out into the Pitch-Black Star Sea to begin his experiment.
With a light tap forward, numerous golden threads sprang into being, dancing through the void like brushstrokes to sketch out the intricate structures of the formation arrays.
Because this trial run of the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation was restricted to a radius of a single zhang, the consumption of source essence was modest.
As the structural details grew more complete, the world-extinguishing immortal formation gradually took shape.
Downgrading an immortal formation did not mean reducing the quality of its power. Rather, at the cost of limited sacrifices, it allowed mortal forms of energy to drive the formation.
Golden radiance spilled outward, and the instant the formation was complete, all light vanished into nothingness.
Sensing the pitch-black void before him and the terrifying destructive power concealed within, Li Fan quietly enveloped himself in a layer of sword shadows.
Only after ensuring no accidents would occur did Li Fan produce a black star-stone and toss it toward the formation ahead.
This black stone was one of the treasures Li Fan had taken from the first layer of the vessel's vault before departing the Xuan Celestial Vessel.
It was formed from the indestructible impurities left behind after the destruction of a cultivation realm—the physical counterpart to a world apparition.
Given that it had endured the power of a True Immortal, the sheer hardness of this black stone could well be imagined.
Yet the moment it entered the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation, it was struck as if by countless razor-sharp chisels carving into it simultaneously.
Clear, visible gashes appeared across the black stone at blinding speed.
With a sharp crack, the black stone shattered into pieces, diced apart by the immortal formation.
Still, the apocalyptic storm raged on with undiminished ferocity.
The tiny stone fragments were whittled smaller and smaller until they were nearly invisible to the naked eye.
"Compared to the world-extinguishing immortal formation from my previous life, its might has indeed diminished somewhat.
"Still, driven entirely by source essence, this is more than acceptable."
Having concluded the test, Li Fan brought the formation to a halt and gathered up the black stone residue, which had been reduced to the size of fine sand.
"An exquisite forging material that cannot go to waste. Anything capable of withstanding the power of a True Immortal for even a moment could save my life at a critical juncture."
Next, Li Fan tested downgrades for the other immortal formations in his repertoire, such as Desolation Fall and Blossoms in an Empty Chamber.
Without exception, every test was an unqualified success.
Formations that had once existed only in the theoretical models of the Dissociation Disc could now be deployed in reality—even before Li Fan grasped the power of a True Immortal.
A wave of satisfaction washed over him.
After savoring the wonder of the immortal formations, Li Fan promptly returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
He began quietly laying out the formation across the lands that had not yet undergone sublimation.
With Li Fan's current mastery of formations, paired with the aid of the Terminal Dissociation Disc, setting up the arrays posed little difficulty even without Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang's assistance.
The primary constraint lay in the raw materials—specifically, the reserves of source essence.
Even though the number of You people accumulated in this life was substantial, source essence still ran short against Li Fan's vast array of demands.
A portion had to be kept in reserve for emergencies.
Once his immediate reserves were depleted, Li Fan had to wait for the You people to produce more before continuing his array laying.
During this time, Li Fan did not forget to check on Mo Rubin, who remained at the foot of the great wall contemplating the flaw.
"Brother Mo, thirty days have passed. Have you made any progress?"
A long while passed before Mo Rubin's faint response returned.
"Not... not yet. But I feel I am not far from true comprehension."
"Brother Mo, you agreed earlier that if there were no results within thirty days, you would turn back immediately and never look upon the great wall's secrets again," Li Fan reminded him with a sigh.
Mo Rubin fell silent for a time.
Then, with an almost obsessed conviction, he swore, "Give me thirty more days. I'm just one step away! If I leave now, I won't be able to rest easy for the rest of my life. Just thirty more days!
"After thirty days, I... I will definitely make my decision!"
Mo Rubin fell silent once more.
Li Fan smiled faintly.
To Mo Rubin, the secrets of the great wall were like the murals on Xiake Island to martial arts masters: an allure far exceeding the value of his own life.
It was not something one could abandon easily.
Even if Li Fan asked again thirty days later, he was bound to receive the exact same answer.
"If not for that bizarre vortex of black qi appearing in the center of the Star Sea, Mo Rubin wouldn't have agreed to this thirty-day limit in the first place."
Thinking of that inexplicable black qi, Li Fan's eyes darkened slightly.
He had already deduced that its appearance was tied to his reckless use of the Ascension Formation.
Yet when Li Fan re-examined the several locations where he had used the Ascension Formation, not all of them had spawned black qi.
Li Fan surmised that it was closely linked to the scale of the object falling from "above."
"Like splashes on the surface of water, only when the object sinking to the bottom reaches a certain size will the splash be prominent.
"My own trick of descending from high above is trivial.
"Yet if an entire realm falls...
"The force of that descent is enough to breed black qi.
"The center of the Star Sea is an exception, perhaps due to the unique nature of that particular patch of water."
Li Fan lapsed into silent thought.
He had monitored the expansion rate of the black qi across the Star Sea.
He was certain that in this life, before he completed his plan to sublimate Xuanhuang, the black qi would not affect the Xuanhuang Realm at all.
Leaving it alone for the time being would cause no immediate harm.
"The only concern is that if the black qi grows further, it might disturb the Dao-comprehending True Immortal in the Immortal Ruins."
Past experience proved that the True Immortal was not completely oblivious to the outside world.
Should something occur that affected or threatened Him, He would certainly awaken from His state of comprehension.
In previous reincarnations, His disturbance by the Medicine King Cauldron and the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation was proof enough.
"A harbinger of the approaching Calamity of Dao Annihilation?"
Li Fan murmured Mo Rubin's speculation under his breath.
His mind focused on a mass of black qi sealed in golden light within his body—the remnants of the True Immortal flesh he had disassembled using the White Ring Descends to the Mortal Realm.
Its grade of power was far beyond what was produced by descending from ascension, yet it still sent a tremor of unease through Li Fan.
"What truly caused the Calamity of Dao Annihilation that wiped out the Immortal Realm back then?"
This was not a concern Li Fan needed to shoulder right now, yet as his strength grew, it was an unavoidable reality.
His ascension and descent were by no means the root cause behind the birth of the black qi; they were merely a fuse, prematurely stirring awake the apocalyptic disaster concealed beneath the calm surface.
Li Fan was certain that even without his actions in this life, the lower realm's Star Sea would ultimately follow the path of the ancient Immortal Realm.
"Truly closing in step by step, leaving no room to breathe.
"How difficult it is to achieve genuine, unfettered longevity."
Having no means to counter the black qi for now, Li Fan gave a cold snort and etched its existence firmly into his mind.
After roughly a full month, Li Fan finally completed the deployment of the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation for this life.
The veins of the formation lay quietly beneath the lands of Xuanhuang.
Once the source essence coalesced into a single whole, so long as the formation remained unactivated, no living being within the realm could detect it.
The moment the formation was complete, an overwhelming sense of impending doom welled up in only a tiny fraction of the Xuanhuang Realm's inhabitants.
Yet the premonition vanished almost immediately, making it feel like nothing more than an illusion.
Even the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao possessed only a faint, uncertain awareness of Li Fan's actions, as evidenced by the fact that its affinity toward him barely dropped.
Li Fan looked upon the myriad living beings of Xuanhuang with indifferent eyes, watching them settle from fleeting panic back into calm.
"Sometimes, one ought to trust one's instincts."
Murmuring softly, Li Fan was about to return to Great Qi when his gaze suddenly landed on a figure within the realm.
The man was no stranger to Li Fan.
It was Zhang Haobo.
At the beginning of his reincarnations, Li Fan had shared quite a few dealings with him, He Zhenghao, and others.
Yet as Li Fan's strength reached towering heights, such figures rarely crossed his sight anymore.
This time was merely a casual glance before his departure following the formation's completion.
Yet that single glance reignited Li Fan's interest in Zhang Haobo.
In this life, Li Fan had deployed the Immortal Descent, All Things Return to Emptiness Formation starting habitually from the familiar Congyun Sea.
A month ago, when he first began laying the formation, Zhang Haobo was still an ordinary mortal living on Glass Island in the Congyun Sea.
Yet now, a month later, Zhang Haobo had uprooted his entire household and fled the Congyun Sea.
"Did the Crimson Flame Incinerates the Sea disaster arrive early?" Li Fan paused, slightly startled.
Pinching his fingers to divine the future, he found no sign that the disaster was ahead of schedule.
"Then why did he run?" Li Fan grew curious.
Locking his divine sense onto Zhang Haobo, he noticed that even after fleeing the Congyun Sea, Zhang Haobo remained restless, talking as though he wanted to lead his family even further away.
Yet under fierce protests from his exhausted family, Zhang Haobo ultimately compromised and abandoned the idea.
Even so, he remained steeped in worry, constantly looking up at the sky as if dreading an unseen calamity.
His family naturally could not understand his behavior, leaving Zhang Haobo dejected and troubled day after day.
Perhaps across the entire Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan was the only one who understood the root of his anxiety.
"He actually sensed the world-extinguishing killing intent I laid down?"
Li Fan felt a momentary daze, as though returning to the distant past when Zhang Haobo, then a fisherman, had told him of the impending changes in the Congyun Sea before fleeing with his family.
With a gentle wave of his hand, Zhang Haobo froze like an ice sculpture and appeared directly before Li Fan.
If discerning the shifts in the Congyun Sea could be attributed to a fisherman's sharp instincts, sensing an apocalyptic crisis after the completion of the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation was extraordinary.
"Could this old acquaintance be harboring some hidden secret?"
Li Fan's divine sense swept through Zhang Haobo's body in an instant.
He was still a mortal who had never cultivated; there was no possibility of concealing anything from Li Fan.
Inside Zhang Haobo's brain, almost fused with the neural tissue itself, lay a glittering mirror shard.
It was barely a third the size of a fingernail.
The aura radiating from it was all too familiar to Li Fan.
"This is...
"A Boundless Mirror shard?"
Examining it closely, Li Fan understood immediately.
The mirror spirit Sun Luyao had once said that fragments of the Boundless Mirror remained scattered throughout the Xuanhuang Realm.
In his previous life, Li Fan had helped gather most of them, yet some remained lost, perhaps swallowed by the world and drawn into the reincarnation of heaven-and-earth rare treasures.
The cause of Zhang Haobo's extraordinary premonitions was precisely one of these shards.
The Boundless Mirror possessed the ability to divine the future; accordingly, Zhang Haobo had developed an instinctual sensitivity to impending disasters.
"A single shard can sense the formation I laid down?" Li Fan's brow furrowed.
Extracting the mirror fragment, he held it in his palm to inspect it closely.
"I see. This shard was a core component responsible for external perception and data gathering. Its sensitivity is sharper than even the main body Sun Luyao recovered.
"As an immortal artifact, sensing an immortal formation is only natural."
Li Fan looked back toward the frozen Zhang Haobo.
"Unfortunately, this shard is far too small.
"While Zhang Haobo was a mortal, it could exert an influence on him.
"Yet once he embarked on cultivation—especially upon reaching Foundation Establishment and binding his own rare treasure—the shard's influence would have waned.
"Perhaps there was even some resentment from the shard, feeling slighted that Zhang Haobo failed to recognize its worth and fused with another treasure instead of it."
Li Fan smiled. Within his palm, the Xuanhuang World Extinction Change: Flow of Years, Vicissitudes of Time roared to life.
As if sensing something, the mirror shard flashed with increasingly frantic light.
Yet resting in Li Fan's hand, how could it possibly escape?
As time flowed like the shifting light of rising suns and setting moons, the shard dissolved into streaks of light.
Scattered by the wind, it vanished into heaven and earth.
Like its main body, it met the exact same destiny—becoming nourishment fed to the Xuanhuang world by Li Fan.
Sensing that the slight drop in Xuanhuang's affinity caused by laying the formation had been restored, Li Fan nodded in satisfaction.
With a sweep of his sleeve, he returned Zhang Haobo to his original place.
Without the Boundless Mirror shard stirring trouble in his mind, the ceaseless anxiety that had tormented him would vanish.
From then on, he and his family could live carefree lives upon the lands of Xuanhuang.
Whether that was a blessing or a curse remained unknown.
Zhang Haobo's situation had served as a reminder to Li Fan.
Though ordinary beings could not perceive the completed formation, immortal artifacts like the Heavenly Profound Mirror might still pick up on the crisis it heralded, even if they could not discern the formation itself.
"I must take precautions.
"Yet there is no need to worry overmuch. After all, what can they do even if they sense it?"
A haughty glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
"If they dare jump out, all the better...
"I will burn them all as fertilizer for the Xuanhuang Realm!"
Having mastered the method of downgrading immortal formations, capable of deploying them at any moment, Li Fan was fully entitled to speak with such confidence.
"Furthermore..."
Li Fan's gaze swept across the living beings of Xuanhuang once more, focusing on those who still retained a vague premonition of the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation despite its concealment.
Upon closer inspection, he did indeed uncover a few immortal artifact shards that were still being digested by heaven and earth.
All were in the final stages of digestion, reduced to tiny remnants.
To Li Fan, they held no value, so he simply fed them all to the Xuanhuang world.
Scanning once more, he found nothing else.
Li Fan slowly withdrew his gaze.
"It seems there are few secrets remaining in the Xuanhuang Realm that are useful to me.
"As for what remains...
"I can only explore them after advancing with the Heaven and Earth Immortal Soul." Li Fan could not help but sigh.
While preparing for Xuanhuang's sublimation, Li Fan did not neglect his duties for the Xuan Celestial Vessel.
Using a ritual, he earmarked a pocket world with a population of thirty million to fulfill his quota.
Then he paused once more.
He sensed that Wuming, from the Thirteen Peaks world, was about to emerge.
With a shift of Li Fan's thought, the scene from that pocket world materialized before his eyes.
Having completed his fusion with the pocket world's Heavenly Dao, Wuming walked down the mountain with joy.
After bidding farewell to the few relatives he had in that world, Wuming took a step forward, leaping beyond the Thirteen Peaks world.
What appeared before him were over a hundred Realm-Rifting Whales swimming through the dark void.
Moving in pods, they playfully cleaved open paths through the void.
This magnificent spectacle captivated Wuming, who had never seen anything beyond his home mountains.
It took many days before he finally gathered his wits.
With a lingering glance, he began walking step by step toward the Xuanhuang Realm.
Strictly speaking, Wuming had not yet embarked on the path of cultivation; he was merely a fragile mortal.
Yet carrying the Heavenly Dao of a pocket world, he was far more than a helpless human.
Under the covert guidance Li Fan had laid out beforehand, the Immortal Severing Formation naturally could not hinder Wuming.
Step by step, just as Li Fan had done in the past, Wuming breached the layers of arrays.
At last, he descended into the Xuanhuang Realm!
The boundless sky, the white mist spanning heaven and earth.
The blazing sun, the gentle breeze.
Overwhelmed by a grandeur beyond his imagination, Wuming stood transfixed, intoxicated by the beauty.
He remained motionless for a long time.
Just as he had once lain atop the mountain peak communing with the pocket world's Heavenly Dao, a profound aura welled up around Wuming.
In an instant, he successfully drew Qi into his body, stepping directly into the Qi Refining stage.
His aura continued to surge, only to slam to a sudden halt, like a river hitting a massive dam.
Abruptly cut short.
Wuming, who had been meditating with closed eyes, opened them in bewilderment.
Looking up at the heavens once more, he saw the shackles Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa had embedded within this world.
In the past, he could have achieved Soul Formation in a single leap, just like Mr. Bai.
Yet now, the era had changed.
Even so, Wuming did not lose heart.
Like the Heavenly Dao Bai that Li Fan had once summoned, he abided by the current rules of the Xuanhuang Realm.
He began wandering through heaven and earth, seeking the materials required for cultivation.
Wuming reached out a hand, feeling the wind blowing across the Xuanhuang Realm.
He sought the rare treasures of heaven and earth needed to break through to Foundation Establishment.
He stood motionless for a long time.
Then, suddenly opening his eyes, he strode forward.
***
"Instead of initiating the ritual to enter the Fallen Immortal Realm right away, he chose to cultivate," Li Fan observed with interest from the shadows.
He was not worried that Wuming's unexpected choice would disrupt his plans, as he could tell that the psychological suggestion he had planted remained fully intact.
"Since it was merely a suggestion, his personal initiative is far greater than that of a puppet like Sun Tianci.
"If he wishes to cultivate, let him.
"With the immortal path blocked ahead and Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa looming above, no matter how great a genius he is, he can never surpass Chuanfa.
"Even if Chuanfa arrives in person, he must sit down and negotiate with me on equal terms."
Despite his confidence, Li Fan still detached a simulated personality to keep watch over Wuming's movements at all times.
His schemes for this life allowed no room for error.
Turning his attention away from Wuming, Li Fan looked back toward the silver eye before him, floating like an obedient pet.
Having been fed numerous world heavenly personas over this period, this simulated heavenly persona created by Li Fan seemed on the verge of its final transformation.
The aura upon it churned erratically.
The eyeball darted ceaselessly, yet its focus remained anchored entirely upon Li Fan.
After a moment's contemplation, Li Fan carefully selected the heavenly persona of a medium-sized pocket world.
He fed it to the silver eye.
A burst of light erupted from within it.
Chapter 1357