Still, it understood who called the shots in its present situation.
It began rubbing against Li Fan's palm, seeking his favor.
"The Tian beast is an Immortal Realm creation. Looking at its impatient eagerness, it seems capable of devouring this Immortal Domain chess piece..."
"The stone that the Xuanhuang Realm can't stomach raw can be processed through this little turtle first!"
"Once the little thing is fattened up, I'll slaughter it as an offering to Heaven!"
Li Fan's eyes flickered, and he instantly withdrew his protection over the Immortal Domain chess piece.
Overjoyed, the little Tian beast began munching away, huffing and puffing.
The sound of cartilage being crushed inch by inch echoed continuously. Li Fan narrowed his eyes, tracking the drastic transformation taking place within the chess piece.
Based on his earlier observations, an Immortal Domain chess piece was actually composed of countless True Immortal seal characters representing the laws of the Immortal Realm. When the piece was damaged by external force or stimulated, the True Immortal seal characters folded within would unfold once more, revealing a corner of the Immortal Domain.
However, within an isolated piece, the True Immortal seal characters it contained were incomplete—merely severed fragments. Thus, when it unfolded into the world, what appeared was not the true scene of the Immortal Realm of old. Only when all the chess pieces were gathered and the fragments pieced together into complete True Immortal seal characters would the genuine Immortal Domain harboring the Southern Immortal Pillar descend upon the world.
Yet it was still a part of the Immortal Realm after all.
Merely unfolding it or altering its form required massive amounts of energy, let alone damaging it. It was by no means something an ordinary person could achieve.
Yet now, beneath the little Tian beast's gnawing, the True Immortal seal character fragments that made up the chess piece actually disintegrated further, breaking down into tiny shards of energy that the little creature savored as it swallowed them down.
Having only just been born, the little Tian beast began to feel stuffed before long. Looking at the barely diminished chess piece, however, the little creature could not bear to let it go. It stubbornly continued to nibble for a while longer.
In the end, completely unable to eat another bite, it reluctantly pinned the piece beneath its body, terrified that Li Fan would take it back.
Full from its feast, the little Tian beast sank into slumber.
The swallowed shards of Immortal Realm laws silently altered its body.
Its shell grew harder, and its flesh became firmer.
The most prominent change lay in the little beast's eyes.
Although it could not open them yet, Li Fan could already faintly sense the extraordinary nature concealed within.
Even as the little Tian beast slept, those eyes seemed to vigilantly observe their surroundings, focusing mostly on Li Fan—as if having already detected his ill intentions!
"The Eye of the Tian Beast... quite interesting."
"King Xuantian fled from the Immortal Realm with countless treasures. But whether what he fed to the Tian beast was as good as what I'm feeding it is another matter. After all, what I'm offering is a genuine fragment of the Immortal Realm. Even a True Immortal might hesitate to part with such a thing."
Li Fan looked forward with great anticipation to how the Tian beast would perform once fully grown in this lifetime.
Not that he needed its combat strength. According to Mo Rubin, a fully grown Tian beast was merely on par with the Twelve Dharma Kings, which held little value for Li Fan.
What Li Fan truly cared about was the Eye of the Tian Beast.
In his previous life, Li Fan had followed Mo Rubin into the Eye of the Tian Beast and, amidst a world of countless overlapping shadows, seen a concealed humanoid glyph.
This glyph was not crafted by the Dao-Inscribing Immortal, but was another attempt at "inscribing the Dao."
Although its perfection and elegance fell far short of the Dao-Inscribing Immortal's work, the Great Dao law depicted by this glyph was itself of extraordinarily high status. Consequently, that humanoid glyph had given Li Fan an impression virtually on par with the might of the Transformation of Immortal and Mortal.
"The Tian beast was transformed from a jade pendant, yet it is vivid and lifelike, no different from an actual living being. Such methods..."
When Li Fan had contemplated the Living Being Form previously, he had vaguely suspected that the pattern inscribed at the very bottom of the Starry Sea originated from this humanoid glyph.
Now, gently stroking the little Tian beast and comparing its faint aura to Qiu Shui's, his suspicion was further confirmed.
"From the looks of it, the Living Being Form is actually a simplified version of that humanoid glyph. Mortal methods truly cannot compare to those of the Immortal Realm."
"And yet, even a version simplified who knows how many times is so complex..."
Recalling what he had seen in the fissure basin in his previous life, Li Fan frowned slightly.
"The Transformation of Immortal and Mortal was concealed within the Spirit-Gathering Immortality-Ascension Array of the Sea of Endless Gloom."
"The Eye of the Tian Beast conceals the complete Living Being Form."
"Could the other two formations within the Grand Star-Crossing Array also harbor corresponding True Immortal seal characters?"
A thought suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
"The Golden Lock Traversing the Void Array, the Root of Heaven and Earth."
Li Fan had visited the Root of Heaven and Earth space more than once and found no trace of True Immortal seal characters; it relied on the power of an ancient immortal array born alongside Xuanhuang.
As for the Golden Lock Traversing the Void, it had been completely destroyed back during the era of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, and no longer existed in the Xuanhuang Realm today.
"I'm probably overthinking it. The Transformation of Immortal and Mortal and the Living Being Form hold high status even among True Immortal seal characters. Even if King Xuantian reaped vast rewards in the Immortal Realm, obtaining two such seal characters should have been his limit..." Li Fan thought to himself.
He turned his thoughts back to the little Tian beast before him.
"The Living Being Form carved into the Starry Sea is far too vast; probing it takes an immense amount of time."
"Meanwhile, the one in the Eye of the Tian Beast was poorly inscribed to begin with, and situated within the formation Xuantian laid down, it is far too distorted..."
"By contrast, the one on this little thing might be the closest to its original form."
With this in mind, Li Fan could not resist stroking the little Tian beast again.
Far from accepting his radiated goodwill, the little Tian beast's eyes grew even more tense, threatening to wake the sleeping creature.
It had to be said, it truly lived up to being a creation of the Immortal Realm; its senses were remarkably sharp.
Li Fan did not press too hard; he had plenty of time to work on this little creature.
Never mind an artifact-turned-creature—even when dealing with true living beings, Li Fan had countless ways to manipulate them.
With a shift of his thought, amidst a flash of blue light, Qiu Shui appeared by Li Fan's side.
He immediately sensed the presence of the little Tian beast. Perhaps because they were of a similar nature, the little beast's wariness toward Qiu Shui dropped significantly.
"I'll leave this little fellow to you for now. Take good care of it," Li Fan instructed.
"This humble servant obeys the Great Master's decree!" Qiu Shui dared not dally, stepping forward to scoop up the little Tian beast.
At the same time, he noticed the Immortal Domain chess piece pinned beneath the creature.
Not being an Immortal Realm creation himself, Qiu Shui could not detect the extraordinary nature of the chess piece like the Tian beast could.
Moreover, possessing the infinite power of the Starry Sea, he had no interest in an isolated world anyway, simply carrying out Li Fan's orders faithfully.
Upon discovering that the little Tian beast had no interest in his infinite Starry Sea power, Qiu Shui made a troubled face.
"Having that chess piece to gnaw on is enough. You don't need to feed it anything else."
"Just carry it along and wander around the Xuanhuang Realm and the Starry Sea," Li Fan said indifferently.
Qiu Shui breathed an immediate sigh of relief, taking the little Tian beast and departing to fulfill his orders.
"With how sensitive that little thing is, perhaps it will make some unexpected discoveries." Given Qiu Shui's Supreme realm strength and his ability to communicate with the origin intent of the Starry Sea, Li Fan was not concerned for their safety.
Li Fan turned his gaze back to the transparent Heaven-and-Earth Essence.
After five deliveries in batches of 3, 2, 3, 2, and 3, the transparent Heaven-and-Earth Essence had finally fused all the semi-immortal artifacts into the Xuanhuang Realm.
Across the land of Xuanhuang, besides the little Tian beast, four other peculiar forms of life had emerged: a human-faced snow mountain, a thousand-li dragon-worm, streaming chromatic clouds, and a galloping giant tree.
Among them, the most noteworthy was the bizarre cloud floating in the sky, radiating seven-colored hues.
The cloud cast light and shadows that constantly shifted. Most of the scenes it displayed were from within the Xuanhuang Realm. Yet, in fleeting, careless moments, it would also project scenes of the Immortal Realm of old!
Li Fan was only able to recognize them because he had glimpsed the visage of the Immortal Realm within the True Immortal's memories.
"This is probably caused by devouring three semi-immortal artifacts."
Whenever it manifested an Immortal Realm scene, even for a mere instant, it suffered a fate similar to what Li Fan had experienced. The cloud would boil and churn, its seven-colored glow flashing erratically as if the entire cloud were about to evaporate and vanish.
Upon returning to its normal form, the streaming chromatic cloud had shrunk by a full tenth.
Yet for some reason, rather than ceasing to project the Immortal Realm, the shifts grew even more frequent.
Each projection consumed a portion of its own life.
After eight such cycles, the streaming chromatic cloud vanished completely like smoke.
Vaguely, Li Fan seemed to see the laws contained within the semi-immortal artifacts it had devoured drift into the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm.
By this point, barely half a month had passed since the streaming chromatic cloud's birth.
"Clouds gather and disperse. Half a month is already a long life for a cloud, but for a transcendent creation, it's practically dying in the cradle."
Li Fan looked toward the other three creations.
With the Heaven-and-Earth Essence Crimson Flame hanging high overhead, the human-faced snow mountain was turning into a mountain of flames.
The thousand-li dragon-worm continuously split itself: one into two, two into four. Half a month later, it had multiplied into billions of tiny worms. Yet these tiny worms lacked any survival capabilities, knowing only how to feed and divide again. Once their divided bodies became too tiny to support foraging for food, the swarm's extinction would not be far off.
As for the galloping giant tree, it continued to sprint relentlessly forward. Its leaves withered, and its branches snapped in its wild rush. Its demise drew near as well.
Of the four creations, only the little Tian beast remained sweet in slumber.
"This was done deliberately by the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao..."
"Perhaps it realized the Tian beast's lifespan is too long and devouring the artifact laws would take too much time, so it brought about such peculiar variations instead." Li Fan discerned the underlying pattern.
"It really managed to carve out a new path. From now on, the internal circulation of the Xuanhuang Realm will likely accelerate tremendously."
"Correspondingly, bizarre creatures in the Xuanhuang Realm will emerge in an endless stream."
This was a strange transformation that had not appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm even when facing the crisis of World Annihilation.
Intrigued, Li Fan recorded this development in his notes.
Chapter 1394