When Li Fan stepped into the Carefree Paradise, he was not pulled straight into an illusory dream like an ordinary mortal.
Instead, he beheld the Carefree Paradise of reality.
On the fringes of the real paradise, traces of human activity still lingered. But the deeper one ventured toward the core regions, the fewer signs of human habitation remained.
After flying for a while, he arrived at the heart of the paradise. Spread before his eyes was a primeval natural landscape devoid of all human presence. Sunlight poured down, and the climate was humid. Within the boundless rainforest, winding rivers flowed through the expanse.
The vitality here was denser than anywhere else in the Xuanhuang Realm. Many species seemed to have evolved later, having never appeared in other regions of the realm.
Li Fan also keenly perceived that a force subtly maintained the ecological balance of this natural paradise.
"Wuyou..."
With eyes as sharp as lightning, Li Fan separated a strand of divine sense and sent it shooting straight toward this force in the rainforest.
The instant it was pierced, the faint, wisp-like wailing of an infant brushed against Li Fan's ears.
The surrounding rainforest dissolved in an instant.
In a trance, he seemed to arrive at a small mountain village, and that relentless crying was coming from inside one of the cottages.
Li Fan sized up his surroundings with keen interest. He had seen this mountain village scenery before—it came directly from a painting titled *Chronicle of the Demon Infant Wangyou Devouring Father and Consuming Mother*.
Following the sound, Li Fan pushed open the door and entered.
A thick reek of blood rushed to meet him. The scene inside the room was chilling to the bone.
An infant lay swaddled on a bed.
Beside the bed, a man and a woman were already mangled beyond recognition, reduced to indistinct masses of flesh and blood.
Yet not the slightest agony showed on their faces; instead, they giggled foolishly.
As if completely numb to pain, they gouged out another piece of flesh from their bodies, where ghastly white bones were already exposed, and offered it to the baby on the bed.
"Nannan, eat more, eat until you're full. Hehehe."
Whispering like lunatics possessed by demons, they coughed up mouthfuls of fresh blood.
Treating this blood as though it were something priceless, looks of distress washed over their faces, and they frantically gathered every spilled drop. Mixing it with shredded tissue, they stuffed it into the infant's mouth.
The baby was powerless to stop it, able only to wail feebly.
...
This somewhat sinister scene made even Li Fan frown slightly.
Without question, this was Wuyou's past.
Yet Li Fan, already a master of formations, could tell at a glance that this differed greatly from conventional illusion formations.
*At the very least, this man and woman—Wuyou's parents—actually existed?*
Li Fan's divine sense avatar strolled up beside them.
Under Li Fan's intervention, their movements were forcibly halted.
As if snapping back from a dream into reality, the demented, joyous expressions vanished from the man and woman. Though their bodies could not move, their returned consciousness seemed to recognize their horrific predicament. Endless despair and madness surged into their eyes.
"Ah... ah..."
They wanted to say something, but could not speak at all, only producing meaningless syllables.
Dissatisfied with Li Fan's interference, that force forcibly seized control of the couple once again.
They resumed that nightmare of carving their flesh and stripping their bones to feed the infant.
"This is what they obstinately sought. Why must Senior disturb them?"
"Isn't it good to help fulfill another's wish?"
A smiling voice suddenly sounded, echoing throughout the small room.
"Playing tricks." Li Fan snorted coldly, on the verge of unleashing his wrath.
Yet a figure abruptly materialized and curtsied gracefully, crying out softly, "Senior, spare my life!"
Li Fan narrowed his eyes and inspected her.
She wore not a stitch of clothing, her frame emaciated and flat, bearing no curves. Her long hair seemed never to have been trimmed since birth, blanketing the ground like a winding black river.
Under Li Fan's gaze, the naked Wuyou showed not the slightest trace of embarrassment.
It was as though this were her innate, natural state.
"Does Senior know what happened afterward?" Wuyou asked, pointing at the man and woman feeding the infant with their own flesh and blood.
Li Fan did not speak, so Wuyou answered her own question. "These two learned of a secret art to defy the heavens and change one's fate from the lips of some immortal master. By feeding a newborn infant with the essence and blood of its parents for nine times nine—eighty-one days—and then devouring the infant, one could leap straight into becoming an immortal."
"Hehe..."
The scene before them shifted rapidly.
As the infant fed on flesh and blood grew at an inconceivable rate, her cries grew louder and louder.
Slowly, they spread from the cottage to every corner of the mountain village.
Her cries seemed to carry a demonic power; anyone who heard them lost their senses. Like walking corpses, they drifted closer and "fed their bodies to the demon"!
In just a few days, every person in the village was reduced to mangled flesh inside the room.
The infant's crying gradually spread across the entire mountain.
Birds in the sky and beasts on the land walked into the small room without fear of death, just like the humans had.
Monstrous fiendish blood aura sealed the cottage, seemingly blocking out even the sunlight.
In the darkness, accompanying the ceaseless cries of the infant was the terrifying sound of chewing.
In the end, all living beings across the mountain range were devoured by the demon infant.
Dead silence.
Only the infant's wails echoed.
...
Such carnage was hardly worth mentioning to Li Fan.
He glanced toward a corner of the illusion.
"As expected of Senior!"
Wuyou's exclamation of admiration rang out at the same time.
As Li Fan's gaze fell, an indistinct, hazy figure grew clear alongside it.
"Marvelous, simply marvelous! The Sacred Infant is growing even faster than planned!"
"In a few more days, this spirit elixir will finally be completed. The thoughts of utmost devotion and love from the parents, the innate will to survive, combined with the innate instincts of myriad beasts..."
"The Patriarch will certainly be immensely pleased with this Sacred Infant."
"Wasted seven times, but this time it will finally succeed." The figure muttered to himself, unable to contain his glee.
Counting the time on his fingers, the cultivator flew down and walked slowly into the small room with high hopes.
"Harvesting the Sacred Infant was what he dreamed of. Why not let him remain in that sweet dream forever?"
"Isn't it good to help fulfill another's wish?"
Yet Li Fan saw that after stepping into the dark cottage, the cultivator's expression shifted drastically.
Confusion and terror intertwined, flickering across his face.
He struggled to break free of his uncontrollable state.
Yet step by inexorable step, he drew closer to the infant.
Then he fell completely, and just like the countless creatures that had perished in the baby's belly, he gouged out his own flesh bit by bit!
"Is Senior satisfied?"
The scenery shattered abruptly. Wuyou asked with an innocent, expectant look on her face.
Li Fan did not answer, merely watching the countless motes of light from the shattered scene flood toward him.
Motes of light as vast as a starry sky, each one a dream.
Some from mortals, some from beasts and birds.
Like an endless river of memories, they washed over Li Fan's divine sense.
This was not merely visual records; it also carried diverse, uneven insights.
There were those of the sentient beings drowning in illusory dreams, and there were...
Wuyou's own.
Her various reflections and comprehensions of inverting the principles of Heaven and Earth of the Xuanhuang Realm!
Normally, a single strand of divine sense was not enough to withstand the baptism of such immense information.
Just as it seemed about to be assimilated and become part of the drowning illusory dreams, the final portion of this soul strand refused to disperse no matter what.
No matter how much will Wuyou poured into washing over it, she could not harm it in the slightest.
A sliver of curiosity surfaced in Wuyou's eyes.
Yet with her strength, she unexpectedly could not see through what was held in this lingering divine sense.
This only piqued Wuyou's curiosity further.
Beyond the starry sky, even more motes of light flared to life. Like a galaxy cascading from the firmament, they pounded like a waterfall against the diamond-like remnant of divine sense.
"Are you certain you truly wish to see?"
After persistent attempts, right on the verge of success, Li Fan's ghostly voice suddenly rang out beside Wuyou's ear.
Hesitating for only a moment, Wuyou continued her action.
The dazzling silver divine sense erupted with a roar.
What appeared before Wuyou was...
Surging floods, fire falling from the heavens, dark clouds blotting out the sun, a frozen world.
Countless scenes of doomsday erupted all at once.
And that was merely the appetizer.
The destruction of worlds was only the beginning.
A monstrous tide of black qi descended upon existence, swallowing everything.
Within the roiling sea of black qi, entire swathes of starry oceans vanished abruptly.
Like a brightly lit room gradually plunging into total darkness.
The very existence of the entire world collapsed in an instant.
Yet the horrific catastrophe was far from over.
Images flared in the darkness, expanding billions of times in the blink of an eye.
As if in a boundless sea, every spray of water was a complete world.
And now, a terrible darkness rising from the ocean's depths devoured them relentlessly.
Every conceivable apocalyptic scenario played out within this sea.
An overwhelming sense of drowning and despair.
The darkness gradually wrapped around her, corroding slowly.
When this sea fell into complete dead silence, after a brief pause, what met her eyes were countless parallel threads.
The boundless ocean seen just before was merely an inconspicuous speck of light within one of those threads.
And now, these bright threads began to annihilate in vast swathes.
With the disappearance of each beam of light, corresponding scenes of worlds perishing swarmed into Wuyou's mind.
The Dao Annihilation Tribulation involving countless possibilities drew upon what Li Fan had seen with his own eyes, as well as Evil Su Bai's memories within the Eternal Lingering Thought.
Such a horrific, terrifying, yet utterly real spectacle was far beyond what Wuyou could endure.
Even though, from a spiritual perspective, her strength was not much weaker than that of Chuanfa or the Heavenly Physician, now...
The dark clouds representing doomsday, terror, and despair descended into the Carefree Paradise through Wuyou.
Boom!
One dream world after another plunged into the apocalypse without warning.
The foundation of the entire dream paradise suffered a violent impact, inevitably shaking with fierce tremors.
"Ahhh!" Wuyou shrieked, waking from the nightmare.
Her body shook uncontrollably, drenched in cold sweat.
She tried to halt the spread of the horrific catastrophe across the dream paradise.
Yet the calamity spread far too quickly. Even she could barely protect herself, let alone the multitude of sentient beings within the dreams.
"Senior, spare my life!"
Wuyou exited the illusory dream and returned to reality.
Her body trembling, she knelt before Li Fan in worship.
Even though she had already learned through various channels that his power was terrifying and bordering on inconceivable, to have survived such a horrifying catastrophe... was still far beyond Wuyou's imagination.
All plans were scrapped; the only thought remaining in Wuyou's mind now was an instinctual urge to survive!
"Carefree, carefree."
"When the great tribulation has arrived, how can sorrow be dispelled?"
Li Fan spoke with profound meaning.
Within Wuyou's dream paradise, the catastrophes violently tearing through countless dreams suddenly froze in place.
Then, just as they had come, they vanished without a trace, silent and soundless.
A black speck radiating monstrous fiendish aura appeared in Li Fan's palm.
Then, with a gentle wave of Li Fan's hand, it drifted toward Wuyou's forehead.
Wuyou shuddered, instinctively wanting to evade.
Yet this speck of light swirling with roiling black qi seemed to weigh as much as countless heavens and earths stacked together.
She had no way to dodge at all, and could only allow it to sink into her divine soul.
Like a haze rising over her head, an instant later it hid away within her heart, vanishing without a trace.
Only after a long while did the shaken Wuyou come to her senses in a daze.
Looking at the figure before her, she realized just how laughably absurd her earlier notions of toying with and testing him had been.
"Take me to see the other four," Li Fan ordered indifferently, standing with hands clasped behind his back.
Along the edges of his figure, a layer of silver light seemed to glow, veiling his face and making one dare not look directly at him.
"Yes," Wuyou answered, bowing her head in obedience.
The surrounding scenery shifted once more.
This time, Li Fan felt the power of the dream paradise swirling around him.
However, having already planted a countermeasure in Wuyou's mind, Li Fan knew that with a single thought, Wuyou's dreams would collapse. Thus, he allowed her to pull him into the illusory dream.
*The Mo Sha Heaven-Earth Immortal Soul integrated with the aspect of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation.*
*The power isn't bad.*
Thinking this to himself, Li Fan surveyed his surroundings.
Awed by his methods, Wuyou proved remarkably efficient.
Yixin Heavenly Venerable Zhao Ruoxi was the first to appear before Li Fan.
She was stripped bare just like Wuyou, seemingly having been sunbathing on a beach moments earlier.
Startled by the inexplicable calamity, she had abruptly stood up to investigate, filled with shock and doubt.
Now, the sudden arrival of Wuyou and Li Fan astonished her even more.
Li Fan had seen the alluring figure before him countless times across his past lives.
No matter how graceful and curvaceous it was, it failed to stir the slightest ripple in his emotions.
Through a brief exchange of glances with Wuyou, Zhao Ruoxi grasped the situation.
Even as shock gripped her heart, she donned a robe of white.
"Greetings, Senior," she curtsied gently toward Li Fan.
Li Fan gave a slight nod.
Just then, ripples spread around them once more.
Wuyou's form shifted, returning to the appearance of an infant swaddled in blankets.
The other three Longevity Heavenly Venerables arrived, late as ever.
Chapter 1426