In the Great Maelstrom, the wind and rain gradually subsided.
Thanks to the various nourishing methods Li Fan had employed recently, the vitality of the Xuanhuang Realm was far more flourishing than before. Now, directed and channeled by the new Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, Wuming, this wound that had persisted for ten thousand years was healing at a visible pace.
The turbulent energies settled, and previously severed lines of sight were temporarily restored.
Seizing this fleeting opportunity, Li Fan stared intently at the final remnant of the rift before it vanished completely.
Previously, with the aid of the Boundless Mirror's spirit, Sun Luyao, Li Fan had peeked at the scene from ten thousand years ago when the demon race, led by Di Yi, tore open the boundary and departed.
Di Yi had revealed his divine visage, using the key hidden within the giant python coiled around Mount Nanming to unlock the terrifying energy sealed within the mountain, directly piercing through the shackles of time and space.
That power was like a sharp sword. While piercing the spatial conduit, it had also left an imprint belonging to Di Yi within it.
Now catching a fleeting glimpse through the closing rift, Li Fan vaguely made out some indistinct images.
Unfortunately, before he could examine them closely, the rift in the Great Maelstrom had completely healed.
Having repaired the wound here, Wuming did not immediately depart.
Instead, he continued with further transformation work.
An endless stream of vitality continued to pour in from across Xuanhuang. Over the calm sea, rumblings echoed incessantly as islands rose one after another from the seabed.
Upon the formerly barren, desolate seafloor, greenery began to sprout. Caressed by sea breezes, vegetation gradually blanketed the surfaces of these newly born islands.
Like lustrous, translucent pearls, they dotted the ocean.
Li Fan also sensed that across the other waters connected to this sea, countless living beings were rushing toward this place, competing for this pristine, newly born paradise.
From this point forward, the Xuanhuang Realm had lost a perilous, desolate abyss and gained a land teeming with vibrant life.
The Xuanhuang heavenly favor upon Wuming deepened once more. This time, however, it did not originate from Li Fan, but from Wuming's own merit toward Heaven and Earth.
With the Great Maelstrom resolved, Wuming made haste toward the next location.
Looking at his destination, it was precisely the Cangwu Abyss in the southwestern corner of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The scale of this colossal chasm far exceeded that of the Great Maelstrom. It had served as a temporary dumping ground for various materials created by Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician during their surgery and remodeling of the Xuanhuang Realm.
According to the natural course of history, this abyss would perhaps only be filled after the Heavenly Law Realm had truly been reborn by seizing a shell. Yet now, Wuming took the initiative to resolve this chronic ailment.
Capable of marshaling the power of nearly all of Xuanhuang, eradicating the Cangwu Abyss was by no means difficult for Wuming.
However, this also meant Wuming's actions would inevitably alert Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician, who were still across the starry sea.
In fact, ever since the Xuanhuang Realm was sealed off, the Chuanfa disciples hiding within the Heavenly Profound Mirror had been striving to establish contact with Chuanfa. But no matter how they tried, their efforts were ultimately mundane mortal methods. How could they break through the immortal array Li Fan had laid down?
Thus, Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician were still completely unaware of the drastic upheavals in the Xuanhuang Realm.
There was even a three-year waiting period before Wuming truly succeeded as the Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang; prior to that, they would not perceive anything either.
This was not because the two Supremes were incompetent.
Rather, the power of immortal arrays already transcended the mortal realm. Even if a Supreme arrived in person, they would still be deceived, to say nothing of the minor tricks and contingency methods they had left behind.
"An early arrival of Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician would only disrupt my plans. The Cangwu Abyss..."
"Let's put that on hold for now," Li Fan murmured coolly.
There was no one around, yet he was not talking to himself; he was communicating with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
Li Fan keenly sensed a thread of resistance in the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's will. It seemed the existence of the Cangwu Abyss made it intensely uncomfortable.
"Rest assured, I will compensate you. And it will be even better," Li Fan said in a calm tone tinged with a hint of temptation.
The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao seemed to hesitate for a moment. Perhaps out of trust in Li Fan, it ultimately chose to agree.
Mysterious ripples descended from above.
Sensing the meaning conveyed within them, Great Heavenly Venerable Wuming revealed a rare look of surprise on his face.
His flying silhouette paused in midair. He looked up at the sky, filled with confusion.
How could the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao explain? It merely reiterated its demand.
Though unable to understand, Wuming did not disobey the will of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. Changing course, he hurried toward another of Xuanhuang's desolate domains.
Judging by his direction, it was the Ten-Thousand-Li Scorched Sands, a scorched wasteland. Originally a place of thriving life, it had suffered an inexplicable catastrophe a thousand years ago, reducing it to thousands of li of barren, red earth. Compared to the Cangwu Abyss and the Boundary-Splitting Maelstrom, the Ten-Thousand-Li Scorched Sands was indeed far easier to handle. Wuming likely would not need much time.
Next, he would presumably travel across Xuanhuang to smooth over all manner of scars upon the earth.
Li Fan merely had the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao transmit sensory projections at any time; he did not continue to monitor or follow in person.
Instead, he planned to deliver the "benefits" he had promised the Xuanhuang Realm.
With a thought, countless fleeting glimpses of light and shadow within the All-Living-Beings Grand Array surfaced in his sea of consciousness.
All living beings had fallen into the illusory array; everything they thought and felt was simultaneously perceived by Li Fan.
Thus, they held virtually no secrets from him.
Combined with his covert searches throughout his previous life, Li Fan was able to locate all the semi-immortal artifacts within the regions currently under control in the Xuanhuang Realm.
The reason they were called semi-immortal artifacts was that these thirteen items were just like the Boundless Mirror: though once immortal artifacts, after enduring countless tribulations, they had long lost all immortal spiritual energy, retaining only the magical anomalous powers of their past.
For example, a fan capable of peering into and altering a person's emotions; or a blank scroll capable of gradually bringing the objects it depicted into reality;
or a skin capable of almost completely assuming another person's form, matching soul and appearance so closely that ordinary means could never tell them apart.
Though semi-immortal artifacts possessed extraordinary wonder, in Li Fan's eyes today, they held little significant value.
Now, he might as well confiscate them all to nourish the Xuanhuang Realm!
Thirteen clusters of light slowly drifted out from the illusory array, emerging from illusion into reality.
Within the illusory array, their owners still held their anomalous treasures.
Yet in reality, they had quietly fallen into Li Fan's grasp.
As the clusters gathered, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao also seemed to sense what was about to happen.
Surges of boundless excitement reached him, and the slight dissatisfaction it previously harbored toward Li Fan vanished completely.
Li Fan did not immediately move to refine these immortal artifacts, pausing to observe them carefully first.
"Just like the Boundless Mirror, every immortal artifact bears traces of the wind calamity to varying degrees.
"Some even contain considerable remnants of the calamity."
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan used his previous method: using Source Power essence as bait, he lured out all the wind calamity concealed within the thirteen immortal artifacts.
With meticulous care, he gathered them together, sealing and storing them beneath threads of golden light.
"Though the wind calamity seems to specifically target immortal artifacts, it is still a terrifying force capable of obliterating them. Even those beneath True Immortals would flee upon encountering it.
"Even without entering the Dao Annihilation Tribulation, gathering a large quantity of it could serve as a formidable trump card." Remembering how Chuanfa and the other Supremes had reacted to the erupting wind calamity in his life before last, Li Fan thought to himself.
Bereft of the wind calamity, these semi-immortal artifacts appeared all the more appetizing to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
It urged Li Fan incessantly.
Li Fan remained motionless, standing quietly for over half a day to thoroughly whet the Xuanhuang Realm's appetite.
Only under the Xuanhuang Realm's ceaseless yearning did he proceed to the next step.
"Xuanhuang World-Extinction Transformation: The Turning of Years, Seas Turn to Mulberry Fields!"
This was a transformation born only when the Xuanhuang Realm faced an existential crisis. At present, with the realm's vitality flourishing, this transformation did not yet naturally exist.
Just like his previous refinement of the Boundless Mirror.
Under the shroud of mysterious power, time in the space holding the thirteen semi-immortal artifacts seemed accelerated by thousands of times.
The power of Heaven and Earth churned incessantly, digesting these semi-immortal artifacts like a stomach.
The semi-immortal artifacts gradually turned dim and indistinct.
Li Fan looked up slightly, noticing that the Soul of Heaven and Earth, responsible for transmuting immortal artifacts into wonders of Heaven and Earth, had appeared once again.
With a slight stir in his heart, he observed the transparent figure's actions in secret.
In the past, it only needed to "transport" a single immortal artifact remnant at a time, or at most two simultaneously.
Now, fully thirteen items lay before it. The transparent Soul of Heaven and Earth seemed somewhat perplexed.
"It's fine. I am watching over you," Li Fan conveyed a friendly thought to it.
The transparent Soul of Heaven and Earth was a manifestation of the Xuanhuang Realm's laws, naturally inheriting its relationship with Li Fan.
Nodding slightly to Li Fan, it made a selection, then wrapped three of the semi-immortal artifacts and merged back into the world of Xuanhuang.
Seeing this, Li Fan sharpened his focus.
According to what he had observed before, the transparent Soul of Heaven and Earth would transport swallowed semi-immortal artifacts into the bodies of newborns in the Xuanhuang Realm, turning them into companion wonders for the newly born lives.
Yet now, shrouded beneath the immortal array, the vast majority of living beings in the Xuanhuang Realm had fallen into deep slumber. What would it do now?
What happened next proved that humans, and even animals and plants, were merely a part of Heaven and Earth—and not an indispensable part at that.
Even without them to help the Xuanhuang Realm "digest," the realm still possessed other means.
In Jiushan Province, nine towering mountain ranges spanning the land began to shudder violently without warning.
Boom! Boom!
As if the heavens were collapsing and the earth sundering, the nine mountain ranges collapsed one after another.
The dust and debris kicked up by the falling mountains blotted out the sky and sun.
The earth continued to tremble under the lingering tremors of the collapse.
Had the slumbering beings not been shielded by the immortal array's power, this terrifying catastrophe would have killed more than ninety percent of the living beings in Jiushan Province.
Li Fan watched this scene of self-destruction by the Xuanhuang Realm with great interest.
A moment later, a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.
No longer watching from afar, he drew his wooden sword and personally arrived in Jiushan Province.
As the dust gradually settled, upon the land reduced to rolling hills, a peculiar life-form was being nurtured.
Within its body, Li Fan saw the shadows of the three semi-immortal artifacts the transparent Soul of Heaven and Earth had transported earlier.
What caught Li Fan's attention even more was that this newly born life bore a seventy- to eighty-percent resemblance to the Sacred Beast of the Profound Heaven Cult, the Tian beast!
Just newly born, it was already a fifth the size of Jiushan Province.
It seemed to still be in a deep slumber, its snores resounding like thunder.
Li Fan keenly observed that as the little Tian beast grew in its sleep, its size actually shrank, constantly condensing!
Li Fan felt an inexplicable surge of pleasant surprise: "In my previous life, I learned from Mo Rubin that the Tian beast was originally formed from a jade pendant brought down from the Immortal Realm by King Xuantian.
"Although the Tian beast later died in battle and turned into the Nine Mountains, it seems now that perhaps it merely exhausted its energy and reverted to the state of a jade pendant.
"When the Xuanhuang Realm sought a vessel to digest the immortal artifacts, because virtually all cultivators were asleep, it naturally found this slumbering Tian beast!"
While Li Fan's thoughts surged, the little Tian beast shrank rapidly until it was only the size of an adult's palm.
In this short span of time, the three semi-immortal artifacts within its body were already barely visible!
"Truly a creature from the Immortal Realm—such terrifying digestive capacity."
Even Li Fan was amazed. Concealing his entire aura, he slowly approached the little Tian beast.
He scooped up the still-slumbering creature.
Even in its infancy, the little Tian beast gave Li Fan an impression no weaker than that of a Xuanhuang Realm Dao Integration cultivator.
Between its breaths, faint rumbles of wind and thunder echoed.
Falling into Li Fan's hands, the little Tian beast instinctively felt alarmed.
Unable to open its eyes yet, it simply tossed and turned its body, trying to escape Li Fan's grasp.
Li Fan nourished it with his own spiritual energy, but the little Tian beast held it in disdain, squirming further away.
He then switched to higher-grade Source Power essence.
The little Tian beast poked its head out, sniffed around, and then quickly withdrew it.
No matter how Li Fan tried to tempt it, it showed no interest.
Frowning slightly, Li Fan pondered for a moment before testing it successively with the power of the Boundless Starry Sea and the vitality of the fissure basin.
Though the little Tian beast no longer resisted, its interest remained scant.
"Could it really require immortal spiritual energy?
"Little bastard, quite the picky eater. Even I have to rely on the Great Heavenly Venerable's legacy if I want immortal spiritual energy—where am I supposed to find rations for you?!" Li Fan cursed under his breath.
Suddenly, Li Fan thought of something, and his eyes flickered.
With a flip of his hand, he brought out a gray chess piece.
It was precisely the hidden arrangement left by Sun Piaomiao to revive the Immortal Domain.
In this life, though Li Fan had no intention of gathering the chess pieces to recreate the Immortal Domain, he had gathered most of the chess pieces scattered across the starry sky.
He had merely suppressed them separately in different locations.
"What I need to guard against is only the South Celestial Pillar.
"Unfolding each chess piece individually won't cause it to appear.
"In my previous life, the Celestial Vessel unfolded one of them, generating a horn-like layer adhering to the vessel's hull...
"Yet that was only true in theory. Originally, there was no need for me to take this risk.
"However..."
Sensing the aura emanating from the Immortal Domain chess piece, the little Tian beast scrambled forward rapidly as if smelling some exquisite delicacy.
Opening its mouth, it nibbled at it incessantly.
However, the Immortal Domain chess piece was protected by Li Fan's wards; the speed at which the little Tian beast nibbled could not keep up with the wards' self-repair.
After biting for a long time without tasting what it desired, the little Tian beast grew somewhat anxious.
Chapter 1393