The manner in which the Xuanhuang Realm brought about its own internal transformations was exceedingly unique.
The calamity known as "dharmas cannot be practiced concurrently," which had driven ancient cultivators to slaughter one another and brought ruin to countless sects, was precisely the counterattack of Xuanhuang's Heavenly Dao against the new-method cultivators who devoured heaven and earth.
It had indeed proved effective, eliminating over ninety percent of all cultivators in one fell swoop and plunging the Xuanhuang Realm into an era of cultivation wasteland that lasted several thousand years. Only after Chuanfa returned, bringing the intervention of powers above the Heavenly Dao, did cultivators flourish once more.
One could say that in the struggle against cultivators, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao had actually emerged victorious. It was just that Chuanfa subsequently interfered and overturned the outcome of the battle.
Since the calamity of "dharmas cannot be practiced concurrently," the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao had never produced another targeted transformation.
For a long time, the status quo of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao being treated like fish on a chopping block had caused the vast majority of cultivators in the world to lose their reverence for it.
At this moment, Li Fan gazed at the gathering storm across the Xuanhuang Realm and sighed internally. "From this day forth, the tables have turned! In the confrontations to come, I'm afraid it will be the cultivators on the losing end.
"If they even have a future."
Perhaps in all of the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan was the only one who understood why no new transformations had arisen in ten thousand years since the calamity of "dharmas cannot be practiced concurrently."
It was precisely because Mr. Bai had sealed away a portion of the Xuanhuang malice back then. From that point on, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao was no longer complete, thereby losing a certain "trait."
In this life, Li Fan had long since returned the Xuanhuang malice to heaven and earth, further nourishing it with numerous methods. The Heavenly Dao's enduring shortcomings had gradually been patched up.
Now, its formidable might was finally beginning to show.
Li Fan's eyes flickered slightly as rapid deductions unfolded across his sea of consciousness. "Without the interference of a tremendous external force, the Xuanhuang Realm will evolve all manner of wondrous, bizarre changes to stifle cultivators.
"Perhaps anomalies that previously existed only in localized regions will spread to shroud the entire realm. Even more unique life forms, like the chromatic clouds of flowing light, might emerge..."
The adaptive capability of a complete Xuanhuang Realm did not take Li Fan by surprise. After all, if a testing ground suspected to have been forged by the Immortal Realm were truly identical to an ordinary cultivation world, that would be unnatural.
What Li Fan was far more curious about was how this transformative power actually functioned.
As time slipped away, the grand array left behind by the Immortal Realm had long lost its efficacy. Even the Nine-Star Red Bead at the array's core had vanished without a trace.
"It seems the Xuanhuang Realm can produce such changes purely by virtue of its innate traits."
Li Fan tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, observing with keen interest. Because his favorability was sufficiently high, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao made no attempt to conceal anything, allowing him to watch to his heart's content.
The fusion of the Transformation of Real and Unreal with the power of the immortal array allowed Li Fan to craft all sorts of simulated personas.
These ranged from acting as conscious avatars that carried out his orders with absolute loyalty to replacing the original consciousnesses of semi-immortal artifacts and even pocket worlds, serving as extensions of his controlling reach. Their utility was truly boundless.
Yet Li Fan had conducted nearly a hundred million experiments, and one bottleneck remained unbroken. In the foreseeable future, there seemed to be no possibility of advancement.
Namely, every simulated persona he created could only rigidly follow his initial design step by step.
Not that this was inherently bad—at the very least, it ensured his creations would never spin out of control.
However, Li Fan did not particularly care about things spinning out of control. He even looked forward to these simulated personas surprising him in some extraordinary way.
Unfortunately, thus far, not a single one had managed to do so.
"To maintain one's innate traits while naturally adapting to real circumstances, just like the Xuanhuang Realm...
"That is what I truly desire."
Li Fan's thoughts connected to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao as he attempted to discern the source of this transformative power.
He was utterly certain that this mysterious force originated from methods left by the Immortal Realm of old.
If he could comprehend it...
"Even if the Starry Sea were devoid of living beings, I would have an inexhaustible legion of subordinates, advancing wave upon wave, disregarding life and death to explore beyond the High Wall!"
At that thought, Li Fan felt a surge of fervent excitement.
Yet after a thorough investigation, Li Fan discovered that even the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao itself did not understand the significance of this transformative capability.
It simply regarded it as innate, possessing no knowledge of its true origin.
"To study it thoroughly, I would likely have to dissect the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao down to its core. It seems there is no opportunity in this life; I will have to wait for the next."
Li Fan gave a slightly regretful shake of his head.
Entirely unaware that it had just narrowly escaped disaster, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao grew increasingly vibrant with surging vitality, buoyed by Great Heavenly Venerable Wuming's tireless purging of scourges and mending of wounds across the realm.
Like an unpolished stone buffed continuously on all sides, the uncut jade hidden within was finally beginning to show through.
"The Great Heavenly Venerable is in position; the next step can begin.
"Having roasted under martial fire for so long, it is time to add the auxiliary alchemical ingredients..."
Li Fan flew to the center of the Xuanhuang Realm and stood suspended in the void, hands clasped behind his back.
With a slight stir of his intent, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth surged forth of its own accord, placing itself at his disposal.
At present, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao trusted Li Fan so implicitly that he merely had to send a passing signal for the realm to offer its full support.
The spiritual veins of the entire Xuanhuang Realm rushed toward Li Fan's location like a raging torrent.
A phantasmal giant brush materialized before Li Fan. Like a great whale swallowing the sea, it absorbed every drop of the world's spiritual energy.
The illusory brush gradually solidified into substance.
Then, guided by Li Fan's intent, it swept across the void in a single stroke.
A second blazing sun abruptly rose within the Xuanhuang Realm.
The instant this sun appeared, the Xuanhuang Realm seemed to transition from dead winter into spring and summer.
A distinct vitality welled up from that mysterious character, quietly flowing into every corner of the realm.
It was precisely the character Li Fan had learned from the Celestial Vessel!
Like a rising sun, energy resounded, and all things revived!
Under Li Fan's meticulous calibration, the character's potency was balanced to perfection. It was like administering a supreme nourishing tonic to the Xuanhuang Realm; Li Fan could clearly see all manner of wondrous phenomena arising across the land as new life sprouted.
Li Fan did not stop there.
He diverted the vitality stored in the rifts and hollows of the Starry Sea once again.
Though both forms were vitality, their natures differed.
The vitality of the character worked from the outside in, triggered passively. A single lapse in control would be like playing with fire and burning oneself, turning vitality into a graveyard.
The vitality from the deep rifts and hollows, on the other hand, worked from the inside out, nourishing things silently. Even if an excess was absorbed beyond what the realm could immediately bear, it would merely be stored away without causing harm. Its drawback was that the change was exceedingly slow, requiring steady, patient cultivation.
The two sources of vitality—one yin, one yang—complemented each other.
Guided by Li Fan's quiet urging, their union gradually fused into the heaven and earth of Xuanhuang.
The sky above the Xuanhuang Realm seemed to become clearer and brighter.
When the character in the sky slowly faded away, the vast quantities of spiritual energy drawn in by Li Fan dispersed once more, returning to their respective places.
Through Li Fan's maneuvers, the deficit left by ten thousand years of continuous predation by cultivators was thoroughly rectified.
Across heaven and earth, the searing vitality was practically visible to the naked eye.
All living things surged forward in vigorous competition!
Yet Li Fan's alchemy was still ongoing.
"Act on opportunity; strike while the iron is hot!"
With the Xuanhuang Realm's vitality flourishing, various transformations naturally began to take shape within.
The birth of native creatures was hardly worth mentioning; the crucial aspect was the gradual development of numerous grotto-heavens.
Now that vitality was abundant, the gestation of new grotto-heavens was as natural as blossoming and bearing fruit.
However, the birth of every grotto-heaven would inevitably siphon away a portion of the Xuanhuang Realm's own power. When Li Fan intended to refine the Xuanhuang Realm into a grand elixir, how could he permit such a thing to occur?
Just as he had severed the rebirth of the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven before, wherever Li Fan's gaze fell, numerous burgeoning grotto-heavens were crushed to dust, turned back into nourishment, and reabsorbed into the heaven and earth of Xuanhuang.
Dull, thundering detonations rang out continuously.
The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao showed not the slightest reproach toward Li Fan's destruction of these grotto-heavens.
Instead, it transmitted faint ripples of delight.
Evidently, it too felt burdened by the innumerable grotto-heavens sprouting across its body, but due to its own inherent constraints, it had been forced to let them be.
Now that Li Fan had stepped in to purge these "parasites," it was more than happy to oblige!
Ignoring the increasingly ingratiating intent sent by the Heavenly Dao, Li Fan observed the world with cold detachment.
Matters were nowhere near as wonderful as the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao imagined.
Such a sudden burst of vitality within heaven and earth naturally required an outlet, and the development of grotto-heavens had been a means of releasing that immense pressure. But now, that relief valve had been ruthlessly severed by Li Fan.
As a result, the Xuanhuang Realm had no choice but to forcefully swallow every bit of that vitality.
It swelled more and more, swelling to its absolute limits.
Eventually...
With a deafening boom, it would burst apart!
It was just like an alchemical refining process where the alchemist blindly added medicinal ingredients without regulating the heat, inevitably leading to a shattered cauldron.
Naturally, Li Fan would not simply sit by and let that happen.
Before the Xuanhuang Realm could burst from an excess of vitality, he would decisively initiate his ascension plan.
Though the present vitality seemed abundant, the moment the Xuanhuang Realm's "momentum" climbed even slightly higher, that vitality would be consumed in massive quantities—it would not even be enough!
"High pressure calls for the addition of auxiliary materials."
Li Fan observed for a while, ensuring that the Xuanhuang Realm had settled into a temporary equilibrium.
Immediately after, he flashed away to Luoyan Province.
This place had once been part of the Tianfa Realm, but the Heavenly Physician had quietly implanted it into the Xuanhuang Realm. The rejection reaction between the two worlds was now fading away, and their fusion was nearing complete integration.
Li Fan lightly tapped the ground with his foot, and from the Great Array of Xuanhuang Sentient Beings concealed deep underground, a figure flew forth.
It was none other than one of the Dao Integration cultivators previously chosen to serve as a medicinal guide.
"A remnant world as medicine, infused into Xuanhuang."
As Li Fan murmured softly, his form seemed to elevate infinitely.
He had already laid down the Ascending Array.
However, he did not unleash the divine ability of the Nine Heavens Dust-Descending Finger. Instead, from his elevated vantage point, he retrieved a world fragment obtained from the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds.
From Li Fan's current perspective, the Xuanhuang Realm appeared only as large as an ordinary human.
And that remnant world resembled a small medicinal pill.
He pinched it lightly, pressing it slowly into the body of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Ascending to such high momentum, Li Fan radiated an aura that caused the living creatures within the Xuanhuang Realm to tremble in fear, even in their dreams.
Even the Xuanhuang Realm itself no longer dared to send so much as an ingratiating thought.
It could only comply submissively.
It was as if an ancient memory from long ago had been awakened within it.
Exercising great care, he successfully implanted the remnant world.
Li Fan's momentum then plummeted sharply.
"Go!"
He pointed lightly at the obedient Dao Integration cultivator beside him.
The cultivator detonated uncontrollably with a deafening boom.
There was no splatter of flesh and blood across the sky, only a phantasmal silhouette resembling a Heaven-and-Earth Essence that expanded ten million times in an instant.
It formed a thin membrane, wrapping layer upon layer around the remnant world Li Fan had just implanted.
"Transform!" Li Fan commanded in a low voice.
Streams of shimmering light rapidly circulated through the phantasmal membrane.
Li Fan was drawing upon the power of the immortal array to assist the phantom in devouring and digesting the enveloped remnant world!
The world fragment, having endured ten thousand years of tribulation and survived to this day, dissolved into streaks of flowing radiance that surged into the phantasmal membrane.
Yet this was not the final destination.
It was merely an intermediate stepping stone.
In the sky above, the phenomenon of a Dao Integration cultivator's demise began to manifest.
Compared to normal circumstances, however, this demise phenomenon appeared exceptionally slowly.
Even its duration was unusually long.
As the phenomenon persisted, the process of the Dao Integration cultivator returning their Dao to Heaven progressed in tandem.
The moment the phenomenon vanished entirely would be the precise moment the remnant world was fully digested by the Xuanhuang Realm.
This was Li Fan's method of using a Dao Integration cultivator as a medicinal guide and buffer, and a remnant world as the medicine to nourish Xuanhuang!
The core concept had been learned from the Heavenly Physician.
Yet without a doubt, the pupil had already surpassed the master!
Although a Dao Integration cultivator served as a buffer, this method was still far too violent compared to letting the Xuanhuang Realm slowly consume the fragment on its own. Had it been the feeble Xuanhuang Realm of before, it certainly could not have endured it.
Only because Li Fan had stacked numerous methods in this lifetime to reinforce the Xuanhuang Realm's constitution to an adequate degree could such a prescription be administered!
And that was merely the prerequisite.
Setting aside the compatibility between the remnant world and the Xuanhuang Realm, retrieving a suitable world from the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds was no easy feat. Extracting a remnant world recklessly would incite upheaval across the Great Wall and even the entire Starry Sea; action had to be taken at precisely the right moment.
Li Fan's smooth execution in this lifetime was backed by his prior experience.
More importantly, treating a remnant world like a medicinal pill with such effortless mastery was something even a Supreme of the Starry Sea might not accomplish easily. Only with the support of True Immortal flesh and the immortal array could Li Fan appear so relaxed and composed.
Having completed the first instance, Li Fan pressed on without pause.
He continuously implanted the prepared remnant worlds into various regions across the Xuanhuang Realm.
Even before the energy of these remnant worlds could be fully absorbed by the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan could already faintly perceive the impending transformations brewing across heaven and earth.
"The Xuanhuang Realm is an extraordinarily unique existence within the Starry Sea. But that does not mean it possesses every law.
"Compared to the laws permeating the Starry Sea, it still has deficiencies.
"Yet these deficiencies can be made whole by devouring the remnant worlds I provide.
"The principle is just like when it devours immortal artifacts."
Li Fan's eyes burned brightly as he worked without stopping.
He only halted when he sensed that the Xuanhuang Realm had reached its present limit.
"As it continues to grow stronger, I can resume after a period of time.
"Repeating this over and over until it reaches its true limit.
"When that time comes, it will be the moment of transformation."
Chapter 1395