The sudden burst of light was so blinding that even Li Fan subconsciously narrowed his eyes.
What Li Fan sensed from it was not merely the brilliance itself, but a profound, wondrous cadence that had descended inexplicably into this space and converged upon the silver eye.
Li Fan had encountered a similar cadence in his reincarnations.
It was identical to the one that emerged from the extraterrestrial vortex whenever a pocket world underwent ascension.
Yet the cadence now manifest on the silver eye was far more powerful, elusive, and unfathomable.
Even with Li Fan's current cultivation and comprehension of the Great Dao, he could not fathom its root origin.
Under the shroud of this cadence, it was as if an invisible brush were swiftly painting and adding countless details onto the silver eye.
Though it remained an eye, to Li Fan the onlooker, it grew increasingly "alive."
By the end, even Li Fan, the eye's creator, felt a sense of estrangement toward his own handiwork.
Once this "vitality" reached its developmental peak within the silver eye, it began spreading outward into the Daqi pocket world.
A spring breeze brushed the earth; distant thunder stirred a gentle rain, silently nourishing all things.
A surging power of "ascent" quietly nurtured every inch of the Daqi pocket world's soil.
Even after Li Fan had already propelled the world's transformation using the power of "Creation" along with heaven-and-earth alterations, this force could still elevate it further.
"This is genuine power of Creation. It isn't driven by the 'Creation' True Immortal seal character, but is a phenomenon that naturally manifests and descends through the circulation of the Great Dao.
"It is the very rule depicted by the 'Creation' True Immortal seal character.
"Or rather, merely a fraction of it... yet immensely useful for propelling the ascension of the Xuanhuang Realm in this life!"
Li Fan stared intently at everything unfolding in the Daqi pocket world, striving to engrave every detail into his mind.
From its descent to its dissipation, the cadence of Creation lasted fewer than ten breaths in total.
In the entire pocket world, only Li Fan was capable of discerning this heaven-and-earth transformation.
As the surging cadence settled, the various changes it wrought continued unabated, playing out across the world one after another without the mortal populace ever noticing.
Li Fan remained immersed in the spectacle he had just witnessed, savoring it endlessly.
Once his mind calmed, he looked toward the simulated heavenly persona of the silver eye and instantly noticed its transformation.
Unlike before, when it would frequently gaze at him with a fawning air, it now kept closed most of the time. Only occasionally did it open, and when it did, its gaze was directed not at Li Fan, but down at the myriad phenomena of the Daqi pocket world.
It was as if Li Fan, its creator, were no longer so important to it.
"Interesting..."
Such "rebellion" actually piqued Li Fan's curiosity. After careful inspection, Li Fan confirmed that this simulated heavenly persona remained entirely under his control.
It was merely that, perhaps from devouring so many pocket-world heavenly personas, an inherent "mission" had been added to the eye:
The mission to maintain the normal operation of the pocket world.
The priority of fulfilling this mission was second only to Li Fan's direct commands.
Thus, whenever Li Fan gave no orders, the silver eye instinctively operated on its own in the manner of a "world's Heavenly Dao."
This brought it far closer to a native Heavenly Dao than the earlier "simulated heavenly persona."
Or rather, the silver eye right now was truly and genuinely the pocket world's Heavenly Dao.
It had completed the transition from "simulated" to "real."
In fact, the Heavenly Dao energy level to which the silver eye now belonged surpassed the scope of ordinary pocket worlds, which in turn had altered the world itself.
"If using the Creation character formula and immortal spiritual energy to propel world ascension earlier was an outside-in, brute-force alteration of the world...
"Then the transformation occurring through the silver eye is inside-out, silently and gently allowing the world to undergo a gradual metamorphosis.
"Both achieve the same goal, but the latter is unmistakably more sophisticated."
Li Fan fell into deep thought.
As he comprehended the entire process, he deduced and refined the ascension plan for this life.
"World ascension can generally be viewed as the process of climbing toward a higher potential state.
"An outside-in approach relies on external force to drag it upward. Once that external force vanishes, there is a risk of a sudden plunge. Without anchoring measures, the entire world would crash down and shatter into dust.
"An inside-out approach relies on the world's own foundations to steadily advance it step by step, free of any risk of plummeting. But its drawback is that the process is far too slow! It takes millions of years at every turn—and I cannot afford to wait that long!"
A glint of enlightenment flashed in Li Fan's eyes. "However, I could pursue both approaches simultaneously."
His divine sense probed into the silver eye, and the entire transformative process of the simulated heavenly persona unfolded in his mind.
Corroborating this with his external observations, he reaped tremendous gains in a short span.
"It seems the optimal solution for propelling Xuanhuang's ascension is to forge a heavenly persona and supplant the original.
"Yet with my current methods, while I can still simulate a pocket world's heavenly persona, creating a Xuanhuang heavenly persona..."
Li Fan shook his head slightly.
It was not merely because the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao had devoured countless other cultivation realms over ten thousand years, but even more so because Chuanfa's rebellious new methods bound the Longevity realm cultivators directly to the Xuanhuang heaven and earth.
To destroy the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao and replace it with a simulated heavenly persona would require exterminating all those Longevity realm experts at once.
Setting aside Chuanfa for a moment, even Heavenly Venerable Wuyou, who governed the Carefree Paradise, had survived the World-Destroying Immortal Formation. That alone was not something the current Li Fan could kill.
"However, over the past ten thousand years, the Heavenly Physician and Chuanfa used the corpses of other worlds to stitch and mend Xuanhuang—which is precisely the second, inside-out method.
"Nourishing Xuanhuang with other worlds.
"As expected, what the Heavenly Physician seeks isn't simply to borrow a corpse to resurrect the Tianfa Realm. He wishes to go a step further, directly propelling the revived Tianfa Realm toward becoming an Immortal Domain.
"This is what was mentioned in the *Mending Heaven Record*: breaking from the cocoon to be reborn, ascending to sprout wings!
"A pity..."
His eyes flashed with a cold light. "All of this is destined to become my wedding garments!"
His consciousness instantly locked onto the Immortal Domain fragment deep within his body, fused from six Go stones.
"When it comes to mass and substance for devouring, even ten million lower realms could hardly compare to a complete Immortal Domain.
"I need only wait for the final stone to return from beyond the heavens, and it should assemble into a complete whole. Then, when Xuanhuang ascends, I can merge it in...
"And I will be the one in control!"
Thoughts churned as he calculated every possible disturbance that could arise when that time came.
"The preparatory work is practically in place.
"Next, I must consider how to prevent the ascension process from being interrupted.
"The Heavenly Physician and Chuanfa are bound to return from the Star Sea. That True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins might even be awoken as well.
"And...
"Archmage Tiandu, the Faceless Immortal..."
In the past, every single one of those names was an existence capable of forcing Li Fan to immediately Return to Truth.
Now, Li Fan could actually plot how to hold them off.
...
Half a month later.
An anomaly from within the Xuanhuang Realm jolted Li Fan from his planning.
It was a reaction from the imprint he had left beside the Tianyang puppet.
In this lifetime, because he was secretly propelling the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension, the sky widened and the earth expanded. Certain things hidden within the Xuanhuang Realm were also quietly undergoing transformations along with the realm.
For example, the ancient mutated immortal-mortal miasma concealed in the underground cavern of Qiling Prefecture.
Or Tianyang, buried deep beneath the Congyun Sea, tempering his puppet body with the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation.
The power of earth fire was far more surging and turbulent than in the previous lifetime, causing Tianyang to show faint signs of awakening ahead of schedule.
Li Fan flashed, arriving at the bottom of the Congyun Sea.
Gazing at the puppet body beneath the earth, he recalled the scene from the previous lifetime where the Tianyang puppet stood alone against Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa.
Though practically powerless to fight back, it had stubbornly stood in Chuanfa's way to the very end.
He mused inwardly, "Tianyang truly is a good helper.
"You were beaten too miserably by Chuanfa in the last lifetime...
"In this one, I'll help you win back your dignity!"
Li Fan's divine sense instantly pierced through the blazing earth fire and touched the Tianyang puppet body buried deep underground.
Because he was waking up gradually of his own accord in a state of culmination, Tianyang's remaining consciousness was not as irritable as when disturbed in the past.
There was no cry of "In life, Tianyang was second to none!"
There was only the bewilderment of crossing ten thousand ages into a new era.
"Even having absorbed ten thousand years of earth fire, this body is still far too weak.
"At most, the peak of Soul Formation...
"Can that truly live up to the words 'second to none'?"
Li Fan's voice suddenly surfaced in Tianyang's sea of consciousness.
Tianyang, gradually waking from slumber, was instantly infuriated by these words.
The earth roared, and subterranean fire erupted.
The colossal puppet body was about to leap up from the seabed.
"In life, Tianyang..."
Tianyang's muffled voice roared in a low rumble, declaring the eternal conviction that had shone undimmed across ten thousand years.
Yet his raging emotions, fierce as a volcano on the verge of erupting, instantly subsided upon hearing Li Fan's soft follow-up:
"Little Junior Brother."
That form of address stirred an instinctive feeling of warmth, grief, and guilt within him.
His fury vanished, replaced by an urge to confirm the speaker's identity.
"Senior Brother will lend you a hand!"
Li Fan's indistinct figure suddenly descended.
"Nine Heavens..."
"Dust Descent Finger!"
Along with Li Fan's whisper, the entire Congyun Sea seemed to calm instantly, resembling a flawless mirror without a single rippling wave.
A finger pressed down slowly from high above the heavens.
Though just a single finger, it carried the might to blot out the sky and sun.
It accurately covered and bore down upon Tianyang's massive puppet body.
Tianyang's puppet body, smelted by ten thousand years of earth fire, had long surpassed ordinary heavenly treasures.
Yet at this moment, beneath Li Fan's single finger, every part of the puppet was effortlessly crushed to powder!
Tianyang was stunned.
His unyielding consciousness froze, on the verge of dispersing completely between heaven and earth.
At that moment, what seemed to be the voice of his master, Guangyangzi, resonated softly in Tianyang's fading consciousness:
"Transform the body into myriad forms; cross the span of ten thousand ages!"
Appearing alongside this figure was a body heavily bound in golden chains.
Looking at that body, Tianyang felt as if he were seeing his past self.
"Go, Tianyang.
"Go and become the strongest in this realm!"
Master Guangyangzi's aged voice echoed continuously.
Tianyang's remaining sliver of thought instinctively drifted toward that body.
At the same time, he began circulating the cultivation technique etched deep into his instincts: Body Transformation at Will.
With virtually no resistance, Tianyang attached himself successfully to that body.
Simultaneously, Tianyang discovered that within the body resided a thought of the same origin as his own, yet devoid of independent consciousness.
Without needing any guidance, that cluster of consciousness actively came forward to nourish his nearly extinguished mind.
In a daze, Tianyang seemed to witness everything that had once occurred in the Path of Bodily Transformation.
Dust-laden memories surged into his heart.
A nameless fire rekindled from the ashes.
Tianyang once again let out a low roar:
"In life, Tianyang!"
"Was second to none!"
With heart and mind aligned as one, Tianyang's lingering thought settled fully into this body.
Tianyang discovered that rather than a physical flesh-and-blood body, it was more like a puppet—
A puppet forged from a blend of wondrous metal and flesh suffused with terrifying, unknown energy.
"Master was right. This puppet body is far stronger than the one I forged in the earth fire.
"Master, I really am as useless as ever."
A flash of guilt passed, and Tianyang's remaining consciousness quietly merged into this flesh puppet.
...
The moment Tianyang's consciousness transferred into the flesh puppet, Li Fan had already shifted them together into the Daqi pocket world.
The ascended simulated heavenly persona, along with the layers of immortal formations deployed in an instant, locked down this flesh puppet.
The aura surging from the puppet forced even Li Fan to temporarily avoid its sharpness.
It was a terrifying power far exceeding the mortal realm, originating from True Immortal flesh!
This puppet was precisely what Li Fan had crafted earlier using the bronze-cast immortal crane as bones, attaching True Immortal flesh, and fusing it with Tianyang's Eternal Lingering Thought.
It possessed flesh without life or soul, waiting all this time for Tianyang to awaken.
Before delivering it to Tianyang this time, Li Fan had mixed in a massive amount of black starstone powder.
One could say that purely in terms of hardness, this puppet was likely tough enough to disregard the terrifying gravitational pull of the Immortal Ruins and walk physically upon its surface!
Tianyang's consciousness slowly blended with the True Immortal flesh puppet.
From a distance, Li Fan observed the puppet's shifting expressions.
"Supported by the Eternal Lingering Thought, he should be able to hold out and avoid being completely eroded by the power contained in the True Immortal flesh.
"Still, he is only a mortal after all. In contending with immortal power, the consciousness he can retain won't be much.
"Just like the earlier Tianyang puppet, he will act vaguely on instinct...
"With my earlier forged identity as Guangyangzi, that is enough to make him obedient.
"And this puppet is vastly stronger than the original Tianyang puppet."
Li Fan was quite satisfied as he closely observed the changes occurring in the immortal puppet.
The bronze-cast immortal crane came from the Celestial Vessel's secret reservoir, recorded to have been cast from immortal artifact fragments.
The True Immortal flesh was retroactively generated by Li Fan using the "Ancient" character formula upon the True Immortal bone hand.
The black starstone powder consisted of the world wreckage's finest particles ground down by the World-Destroying Immortal Formation.
All three were things capable of contending with immortal power.
And now, fused with Tianyang's Eternal Lingering Thought...
The puppet before him could truly be deemed worthy of the title "Immortal Puppet"!
The True Immortal flesh, originally merely adhering to the bronze bones, seemed to find a backbone after merging with Tianyang's consciousness. It even sprouted dense, thread-like roots that drove deep into the bronze bones.
Bone and flesh fully integrated.
Tianyang's Eternal Lingering Thought shone in the sea of consciousness like a brilliant, indestructible diamond.
The puppet's features grew increasingly vivid and defined.
The churning aura gradually settled, and the reborn Tianyang stood quietly.
His eyes remained closed.
Without taking down the immortal formation's protection, Li Fan attempted to give Tianyang orders in the guise of Guangyangzi from the Path of Bodily Transformation.
Tianyang proved obedient indeed.
Regrettably, just as Li Fan anticipated, during the process of fusing and clashing with the True Immortal flesh, Tianyang's independent consciousness had suffered severe attrition.
The extent of his remaining instinct was even less than expected.
"A pity.
"Still, with this lifetime's experience, I can appropriately bolster the strength of Tianyang's consciousness before completing the fusion in the next life."
Taking the Tianyang immortal puppet with him, Li Fan headed into the depths of the Star Sea.
He began testing the durability of this immortal puppet body.
He started by unleashing a strike of the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword.
This was a divine ability he had comprehended on his own, but had not used for a long time as he gradually came into contact with near-immortal power.
The black light that once seemed capable of obliterating everything struck the Tianyang immortal puppet, yet failed to leave even a faint scratch!
Li Fan raised an eyebrow, and thousands of black sword beams rained down, surrounding the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Yet this seemingly ferocious, grand-scale assault failed to trigger even Tianyang's instinctive self-defense.
Tianyang stood motionless, allowing the black sword beams to bombard his body.
It was as though he were not facing a lethal strike, but a gentle breeze brushing past.
After a while, Li Fan nodded in satisfaction and ceased unleashing the Five Elements Annihilation Sword.
"The immortal puppet body has truly reached the point of being invulnerable to all mortal power.
"However...
"This does not mean my Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword is useless hereafter.
"The five elements cycle, charging forward to obliterate all things. The artistic conception of this divine ability is by no means inferior. It is merely that when facing immortal-level entities, relying solely on the core of five-element power to drive annihilation is simply too low-level." Li Fan pondered.
"Yet if I could incorporate the transformation of 'Truth as Falsehood'..."
Li Fan curled his finger, intending to slash a sword toward the distant starry sky.
Yet lost in thought, he hesitated to bring down his finger.
"My comprehension is still too shallow. Integrating it into movement techniques is already my limit.
"To use it for slaughter...
"I might need two or three more cycles of reincarnation. Or perhaps the assistance of that wondrous object capable of letting Return to Truth simulate reincarnations on its own."
Li Fan shook his head slightly, calmed his mind, and slowly drew back his finger.
He resumed testing the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Next came the power of various True Immortal seal characters.
"Chaos," "Suppress," "Submerge"...
Using Source Power essence as ink, Li Fan unleashed all that he had mastered.
With immortal formations sealing the surroundings to prevent energy fluctuations from leaking out, layer upon layer of True Immortal power descended entirely upon the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Confronted with pseudo-immortal destructive power, the Tianyang immortal puppet finally displayed a reaction.
The True Immortal flesh billowed like bellows, emanating a force field that repelled all effects brought by the True Immortal seal characters.
This was not done under Li Fan's orders; it was entirely the puppet's instinctive response to a threat.
Sensing this invisible force field, Li Fan's pupils contracted sharply.
Yet his hands did not pause in invoking the True Immortal seal characters.
Stream after stream of True Immortal rule power was absorbed and neutralized upon nearing the force field.
The storm of True Immortal seal characters was like a gust of gale-force wind, doing nothing more than fluttering the Tianyang immortal puppet's clothes.
It could not inflict the slightest injury.
"Is this the power of a True Immortal?
"And this is merely the spontaneous defense of True Immortal flesh..."
Li Fan's eyes gleamed. He wished to comprehend and study this invisible True Immortal force field.
To his slight disappointment, however, this force field was just like the flaw in the high wall:
Plainly right before his eyes, plainly existent, yet still beyond his touch—unseen and unknowable.
An image suddenly floated into Li Fan's mind:
An eagle in the sky looked down upon prey on the ground. Unfurling sharp talons, it swooped down swiftly.
Just as it was about to seize the prey, it slammed headfirst into a sheet of transparent protective glass.
Dizzy and disoriented, the eagle barely steadied itself.
It flapped against the glass in front of it, unable to comprehend why, with the prey right before its eyes, it could not advance an inch.
It could not comprehend the existence of glass.
Just as the present Li Fan could not comprehend the existence of the high wall or the force field.
"True Immortal power is not something I can touch for now.
"Yet 'the gentleman is not born different; he is merely adept at utilizing external things.' To temporarily wield it by means of the Tianyang immortal puppet is quite enough.
"This way, even if I must confront the Celestial Vessel, I possess the capital to flip the board."
Li Fan ceased wasting effort on futile pursuits.
He commenced his final test.
With a solemn expression, he chanted in a low voice:
"Soaring above the nine heavens, the True Immortal descends to the mortal realm!"
Once again, he unleashed the Nine Heavens Dust Descent Finger.
Only this time, it was performed with full power.
Burning a mass of True Immortal flesh under the augmentation of the Ascension formation, Li Fan's perspective shot upward at blinding speed.
In an instant, he felt as though he stood at the apex of the Star Sea, looking across from afar at the high wall.
The Tianyang immortal puppet before him, despite having "immortal" in its name, had flesh but lacked immortal spiritual energy.
Thus, it remained down in the mortal dust.
From this elevated dimension of perspective, the Tianyang immortal puppet appeared tiny as an ant.
The solemnity and caution from earlier vanished entirely.
A sensation suddenly arose in Li Fan's heart of a True Immortal seated beneath high heaven, looking down upon the myriad mortals below.
Locking onto the Tianyang immortal puppet, his expression haughty, he pressed a finger downward.
Boom!
A violent tempest whipped up within the sealing immortal formation.
The cloud-scaling intent to crush all living beings, mixed with the momentum of falling from high heaven, manifested as an index finger anomaly. From the size of a soybean, it swelled in an instant into a sky about to collapse.
Like a crumbling firmament, it bore down ruthlessly!
Facing a divine ability of such terrifying power, the Tianyang immortal puppet finally sensed a sliver of danger by instinct.
A glint of crimson light burst from both eyes, and the Tianyang immortal puppet raised his hands to hold up the heavens!
Li Fan let out a muffled grunt as his finger felt as if it had pressed against an unyielding boulder.
Trembling, it could not advance another fraction of an inch!
Fortunately, the Tianyang immortal puppet had only defended instinctively rather than counterattacking.
Otherwise, Li Fan would surely have suffered grievous injuries from this clash!
Li Fan had not come away unscathed, but the Tianyang immortal puppet was hardly better off after enduring Li Fan's current strongest divine ability.
After all, it was not a genuine immortal puppet, but a fusion of several near-immortal items.
The momentum of plunging from high elevation caused portions of the puppet's flesh to break down, and the bronze bones even sputtered with sizzling noises, having clearly sustained an immense shock.
His objective was only to test the Tianyang immortal puppet's actual combat prowess, not to destroy it.
Seeing that it had nearly reached its limit, Li Fan finally withdrew his divine ability.
Dismantling the Ascension formation, Li Fan slowly descended from the peak of the Star Sea back down into the mortal world.
Regulating his breathing, he dispelled the abnormalities within his body.
Looking at the Tianyang immortal puppet, Li Fan frowned slightly. "It is only a puppet after all, not a true living being, and lacks self-repair capabilities.
"The True Immortal flesh consumed in battle cannot replenish itself..."
Just as Li Fan thought this, Tianyang seemed to sense his thought.
Driven by the Eternal Lingering Thought core, the True Immortal flesh clinging outside the bronze bones suddenly churned anew.
Like one generating two, two generating three, and three generating all things, the wounds on the puppet's body from the test were erased in an instant.
The battered puppet returned once more to its peak state.
Li Fan was left dumbfounded by the sight.
The memory of previously using the "Ancient" character formula to induce True Immortal flesh flashed through his mind—how the flesh, once stimulated, had multiplied endlessly out of nothing.
He remained silent for a long time.
Only after a good while did he sigh from the bottom of his heart, "The divine might of a True Immortal is truly unfathomably profound and not to be underestimated."
Then he furrowed his brows. "Were it not for Tianyang's Eternal Lingering Thought serving as the core to suppress this mass of True Immortal flesh, the slightest misstep would have caused this immortal puppet to spiral out of control."
At the same time, Li Fan understood that it was not that the puppet lacked regenerative capabilities, but that its autonomy was far too poor to initiate self-repair on its own.
Only when Li Fan prompted or directed it would it perform the action.
"It still stems from the Tianyang consciousness having been worn down too severely.
"Its resilience against damage is sufficient. But expecting him to restrain Chuanfa, the Heavenly Physician, or even the Immortal Ruins True Immortal is somewhat forced.
"It seems that to unleash its maximum combat power, I must enhance its initiative and autonomy."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. "I recall that Qiaogong still possessed the combat experience of the Tianji Realm's immortal puppet 'Progenitor' from back then...
"Though that fellow, like Xu Ke, was likely swept into the Star Sea's chasm depression."
Li Fan turned to face the borderlands of the Star Sea, sensing from afar the imprint he had placed on Qiaogong.
Just like before, Qiaogong's aura was very stable, not flickering and unpredictable like Xu Ke's.
Furthermore, compared to before, he seemed slightly closer.
"Intriguing.
"It appears that without me having to seek him out, he will be able to return on his own.
"All the better!"
Li Fan glanced around. The sealing immortal formation suddenly shifted, transforming into the All Things Return to Emptiness Formation and whipping up a howling storm that erased all traces of the battle.
"Downgraded immortal formations are indeed handy."
Having done all this, Li Fan was in no hurry to leave.
Instead, he stood quietly, seemingly waiting for something.
In the Star Sea reigned eternal blackness and dead silence.
Li Fan waited patiently for over half a month, yet what he anticipated never arrived.
"It seems my hypothesis was correct: the fall of an ordinary individual after ascension does not attract black mist.
"Only the weight of an entire realm, or a fall occurring in a special region like the center of the Star Sea, will trigger the black mist.
"This is the observed phenomenon. But what on earth is the cause behind it?
"The Dao Annihilation Tribulation..."
Murmuring to himself, Li Fan returned to the Xuanhuang Realm alongside the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Though an eagle might initially fail to comprehend the existence of glass, once it begins attempting to touch and study its properties, change will inevitably follow.
Chapter 1358