A tiny chess piece could evolve into a fragment of an Immortal Domain.
At its root, this was because the so-called chess piece was actually a layering of countless True Immortal seal characters. True Immortal seal characters were fundamentally one of the methods True Immortals used to interpret the Great Dao.
In the past, after obtaining an Immortal Domain chess piece, the Xuan Celestial Vessel had transformed it into the vessel's exterior armor. But at this moment, driven by Li Fan's relentless urging, the thrown chess piece anchored itself to the Dao Net projection in his mind, unfurling and flowing until it took the shape of a humanoid body.
Yet at this stage, it was still a hollow form. A miniature Dao Net, an Immortal Domain fragment—both were external objects. The connection between them and Li Fan's true self was far too tenuous.
Therefore...
Li Fan's true self forcefully tapped between his own brows.
The force of the finger seemed to pierce through his entire body. A portion of his divine soul, carrying along flesh, blood, and bone, was blasted straight out.
Outside Li Fan's true self, it formed a thin yet crimson afterimage.
Enduring dizzying vertigo, Li Fan directed this portion of his body to fly into the form ahead, crafted from the Dao Net projection and the Immortal Domain chess piece.
Relying on his familiarity with both components, Li Fan exerted strained control, almost forcefully stuffing the fleshy crimson afterimage inside.
This refinement was not merely the crafting of a simple avatar. It drew inspiration from Qiaogong's earlier creation of the Sacred Punishment Puppet, as well as the process by which Tianyang had attained immortal puppet status.
Rather than an avatar, it was better described as a perfect fusion of an avatar and the Path of Bodily Transformation.
Furthermore, because the materials used in this refinement were so overwhelmingly powerful, Li Fan also worried that the avatar might lose control, causing a repeat of what had happened with Sacred Emperor Li Ping. Right at the start of the refinement, Li Fan had already set the baseline tone for this mighty avatar.
It would have no self-emotions whatsoever. It would act in absolute obedience to Li Fan's commands. If anyone obstructed it, slaughter them all. If it was no match for an enemy, temporarily avoid their edge, trail them in secret, and seek a solution...
In short, the avatar puppet was designed as an emotionless mission-executing machine. Its mission was singularly defined: to thoroughly uncover the secrets within the High Wall. It even carried a directive to self-destruct once the mission was accomplished.
The Dao Net projection was a reflection of the Great Dao of heaven and earth, while the True Immortal seal characters were the concrete depiction of the Great Dao. Between the two, there was already an inherently strong connection. The fleshy afterimage Li Fan separated from his own body was steeped in his comprehension of the Great Dao. Using this as the binding agent, he slowly melted the three together into one furnace.
"The avatar's mind reflects the Dao Net, and its body is formed from the Great Dao. The moment it comes into being, it has already reached the minor accomplishment stage of a Soul Formation mind and a Nascent Soul physique."
"In pure combat power, it is likely far superior to mine..."
As this powerful puppet gradually took shape, a potent alternate self was slowly tugging Li Fan toward the other side—as if a reflection in the water were reaching out its hands, trying to drag him down into the depths.
Like a toddler wielding a heavy broadsword. If this had been before infiltrating the Shuo Star Sea and making contact with the Dao Net, the emergence of this avatar puppet would likely have slipped beyond Li Fan's control, with the servant usurping the master.
But now...
With a calm expression, Li Fan sent forth Dao Net directives one after another.
Inside the avatar puppet, the Dao Net projection instantly pulsed in synchrony with flickering light, appearing to respond to Li Fan's actions.
The puppet was thus gradually subdued, its overwhelming aura completely reined in as it stood quietly.
Li Fan's action appeared casual and effortless, yet behind it lay the accumulation of countless years of Dao Net research from the Shuo Star Sea. Li Fan had merely adapted it for his own use, applying it to the Dao Net projection within his mind.
Compared to the vast Dao Net spanning the entire Shuo Star Sea, what existed in Li Fan's divine sense could be considered exceedingly meager. Yet it nonetheless possessed the fundamental properties of the "Dao Net."
Coupled with the backing of a powerful physical form, matching a True Immortal would be no difficult feat for this avatar puppet.
"Even better, there is no immortal spirit power within the avatar puppet; it is a creation of Great Dao laws. If deliberately concealed, it hides among heaven and earth just like ice melting into water, leaving no trace behind. Like an ordinary object colliding with the High Wall, it will not receive special treatment and be cast straight outside the High Wall."
Tethering and manipulating a miniature Dao Net solely by one's own power was by no means simple. Even with the strength of Li Fan's current divine sense, he had to dedicate eighty to ninety percent of his attention just to keep the avatar puppet in check.
"In truth, letting go for a short while would not cause much harm either. I would only need to bring it back under the Dao Net's control in time. During that window, it will still act according to the mission objectives I set. It just cannot be left in an autonomous state for too long..."
"Otherwise, errant wills are bound to sprout!"
Li Fan understood this clearly.
The Dao Net directives wove into threads, tightly binding the puppet avatar.
Like a colossal puppet beast held aloft by Li Fan's strings.
"Heaven and earth are unkind, treating all things as straw dogs."
"You too have no need to consider the myriad things of this world; you only need to act on my orders."
"I shall call you..."
"Li Buren!"
With the final directive cast, all the threads retracted into the Dao Net of the avatar's mind, invisible to ordinary means.
Li Fan felt a peculiar connection form between himself and Li Buren before him.
It was more distant than a pure flesh-and-blood avatar.
Yet it was far more intimate than a puppet controlled purely through mental intent.
Li Buren's face was cold as ten-thousand-year glacial ice, utterly devoid of emotional fluctuation.
His eyes fully inherited the truest thoughts within Li Fan's heart—that heartfelt indifference toward all things between heaven and earth. Even when Li Fan looked him in the eye, he could not help but feel a slight tremor in his heart.
Around Li Buren's body, no aura was apparent; he was just like heaven and earth itself. Though bearing the weight of the Great Dao, he could move as light as a gliding swan.
Without laying eyes directly upon him, even if he closed in right before someone, they would fail to notice. But the moment their gaze fell upon him, they would never forget him, while an instinctual terror would well up from the depths of their soul, becoming a lingering nightmare.
Li Fan had no desire to linger in the presence of this pure creation of destruction either.
"Go," he said plainly.
Li Buren's form turned into a sword, vanishing from the Xuanhuang Realm in the blink of an eye.
Three breaths passed.
He had already traversed the entire Pitch-Black Star Sea and arrived at the base of the High Wall.
Formed of the Great Dao, roaming within the Great Dao, he was just like a fish swimming in water.
Compared to Li Fan's sword escape technique, it was dozens of times faster.
Facing the invisible High Wall ahead, Li Buren showed not the slightest hesitation.
He charged straight into it head-on.
From departure to collision with the High Wall, from beginning to end, Li Buren remained like a sculpture without the slightest change, as if this matter of life and death had nothing to do with him.
"He did not appear outside the wall..."
"It seems there truly is something within the wall!" Li Fan's true self, remaining in the Xuanhuang Realm, searched and cross-referenced in concert with the dreamscape power outside the wall, having preliminarily obtained the answer he sought.
Only after a moment did images from Li Buren slowly surface.
"Fortunately, this High Wall cannot entirely sever connections between the Great Dao."
Li Fan exerted himself to sense what the avatar puppet was encountering.
Because Li Buren's own conscious fluctuations had been suppressed to the lowest possible level by Li Fan, despite undergoing the passage into the High Wall, Li Buren himself experienced virtually no mental activity.
He merely served as Li Fan's "surveillance camera," observing the scenery inside the wall in his stead.
It was a wondrous world devoid of any "sky."
What hung overhead was a reflection of the earth below.
Yet as Li Buren stood on the ground, the mirror-sky did not reflect him.
This was not due to Li Buren's concealment trait.
Rather...
Li Buren simply did not belong to this realm!
Sensing the intrusion of an outsider, this realm underwent a sudden, drastic upheaval.
Sky and earth trembled faintly before shifting violently, closing in toward each other.
Closing and converging, they sought to grind this abrupt intruder into dust.
Li Buren merely stretched his right hand straight upward.
In the blink of an eye, his arm swelled like a heavenly pillar, forcefully propping open the converging heaven and earth.
The mirrored sky pressed downward forcefully, unable to advance by even an inch, groaning and creaking. Where the sky met the heavenly pillar, it fractured in layers under the immense crushing force.
Yet behind the shattered mirror was not space leading to the outside world.
It was yet another mirror!
Propping up heaven and earth with his right arm, Li Buren detached his body from the arm and swiftly roved around the space, searching for an exit.
Yet this place seemed boundless.
Even at Li Buren's terrifying flight speed, he flew for nearly half a day without finding any boundary.
It was as though as he moved, the boundaries of this world continually expanded outward.
Yet as Li Buren flew, he committed every visual detail of this world to memory and found no repetition.
Li Buren returned to where his sky-propping right arm stood and grasped the heavenly pillar with his left hand.
Applying slight force.
As if seizing a colossal club, he yanked fiercely. The heavenly pillar tilted diagonally, instantly tearing an opening in the sky.
Gripping the pillar with his left hand, Li Buren swung it ceaselessly.
Amid howling winds, the mirrored sky was smashed to smithereens in moments.
He even inhaled deeply, swallowing all the shattered mirror shards falling from the sky into his belly.
In his mind, the Dao Net projection flashed sequentially, having already analyzed the composition of the mirrored sky.
"The Dao forms a curtain, shielding the eyes of sentient beings."
"The exit lies ahead."
Li Buren simply stated the conclusion without any extraneous thought.
Like a titan opening heaven and earth in creation myths, Li Buren held the colossal pillar as his form swelled rapidly.
In mere moments, he had already surpassed the overturned mirrored sky.
Then, paying it no heed, he continued growing toward the skies beyond the sky.
Using his head as a hammer, he battered layer after layer of mirrors to dust.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Once the final curtain of disguise was shattered, Li Buren leaped out.
His body had already returned to its normal size as he vigilantly surveyed his surroundings.
"No aura of living things."
"No Great Dao energy fluctuations."
"Temporarily safe."
Looking back at the place he had just exited, it was astonishingly just a glass-like transparent sculpture. Because it had been pierced and shattered, its original appearance was unrecognizable.
All around it stood sixteen other sculptures.
"Here, there should be eighteen in total."
"One has disappeared."
"Among the remaining sixteen, five have been smashed. The rest are completely intact."
As always, Li Buren performed his cold analysis.
He flashed over to the nearest intact transparent sculpture.
"Beyond a certain distance, it cannot be seen clearly. One must come right before the statue to discern its features—and the world inside the statue."
"This is not due to the restriction of formation arrays or restrictions..."
"Rather, it is one of the Dao principles of this place."
Li Buren observed impassively, the form of the miniature Dao Net seemingly manifesting in his eyes. He reached into thin air ahead, gently caressing it.
Within the Dao Net, a new light suddenly emerged.
It was a Great Dao law that had not previously existed in the miniature Dao Net.
Now, it was sensed and captured by Li Buren.
And integrated into his own Dao Net projection.
A moment later, the play of light and shadow in Li Buren's eyes went dark.
Within his vision, the eleven transparent sculptures that could not previously be seen clearly were now completely revealed.
They were surprisingly figures of varying faces and appearances.
Or rather, Immortals!
"Each sculpture contains a certain Great Dao of heaven and earth."
"It should be the Dao cultivated by the Immortal depicted."
Li Buren closed in on the sculpture before him, sensing from it the aura of Dao principles related to Guard.
However, this Dao principle was already recorded within the Dao Net projection, so Li Buren disregarded it.
He simply brought his eyes close, peering into the scene within the transparent sculpture.
Had Li Fan's true self been here to see this, his heart would surely race in chilling shock.
Yet Li Buren did not even furrow a brow as he stared eye-to-eye with the wide, staring pupils he saw within: "A corpse."
"The corpse of a True Immortal."
Li Buren withdrew his gaze and proceeded to the other transparent sculptures.
He inspected them up close as well.
Within every sculpture, he saw the corpse of a True Immortal.
"The Daos they cultivated are all different."
"They are not the same True Immortal."
"Where I came from, however, I saw no True Immortal's corpse..."
Stopping before the final transparent sculpture, Li Buren did not hesitate.
He punched straight into the sculpture's face.
The sculpture did not budge in the slightest.
Not even the faintest tremor was produced.
Li Buren's punch, which could have shattered the Xuanhuang Realm to pieces, vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea, completely resisted.
Yet Li Buren persisted relentlessly.
Punch after punch.
What manifested across his body like tattoos were symbols formed from distorted True Immortal seal characters.
"It appears undamaged."
"Yet with each strike of mine, a small portion of the sculpture's Dao principle aura is drawn into my body."
"As one wanes, the other waxes."
"It is effective."
Li Buren continued throwing punches without pause, without end.
The originally transparent sculpture grew even more "faint."
From a glass-like state, it turned into something structured from water.
At last, beneath Li Buren's steady barrage, it burst apart with a crash.
Yet strangely, the True Immortal's corpse Li Buren had peered at earlier did not tumble out as the sculpture shattered.
There were only shards scattered across the ground.
Just like the scene created when Li Buren broke free earlier.
"The True Immortal corpse seen was not actually a True Immortal corpse."
"Rather, it was the condensation of the True Immortal's comprehension of Dao principles during life."
"Though the True Immortal perished, these insights were preserved in this manner by someone, through some method."
Li Buren put one of the shards into his mouth.
After chewing carefully, he delivered his judgment.
"Beneficial to me."
Then, opening his mouth wide, he swallowed every last shard of Dao principle comprehension in this place into his belly.
Chapter 1460