"Life and death as one, uniting with the Dao in truth. Carefree beyond material things, only then is my pill formed."
Li Buren carefully pondered the contents of the Medicine King Scripture of Dao Refining, already understanding the reason behind his initial failure.
"My purpose was too intense. It did not align with the spirit of carefree wandering..."
Li Buren shook his head with a wry smile.
"Indeed, I was somewhat too utilitarian."
"The so-called Dao Pill is merely the icing on the cake. Having it is better, but without it, there is no real impact."
To Li Fan, whether the Dao Pill could be successfully formed was not the crucial point.
What mattered was the entire process of concocting it.
After witnessing the magnificence of the true Great Dao with Chengdao, Li Fan was acutely aware that relying solely on his own strength to slowly comprehend the three thousand Great Daos of this world would be an exceptionally long and inefficient undertaking.
He might not even fully comprehend them or weave a true Myriad Manifestations Dao Net by the end of the mortal world.
Therefore, he had to take shortcuts.
Aside from directly absorbing the Great Dao insights of the Archmage, Chengdao, and the others, the Medicine King Scripture of Dao Refining passed down by Sun Piaomiao was also an effective supreme method.
The Great Dao manifested as all things in the world, and through the process of "Dao Refining," all things could gradually be refined back into a state of "Dao."
It was very much like the function of Yuanshi. Yet the Dao after this refining was not the innate chaotic state produced by Yuanshi. Instead, it was as if it had been filtered and organized, becoming clear and distinct.
In short, it was the difference between being able to "see and understand it" or not.
Even if the Dao Pill failed to form, the process of condensing the Great Dao was already enough for Li Buren to scrutinize these Dao principles.
Seven days later, Li Buren opened the furnace to refine pills once more.
Although anomalies still arose frequently, most of the living beings across the Primordial Continent were no longer afraid, having experienced surviving the ordeal the previous time.
Meanwhile, the Five Heavenly Emperors and Thirteen Heavenly Scars, who stood to gain benefits, exerted themselves even harder.
Li Buren directed from afar, and as the flames danced, a Dao Pill began to take shape.
Compared to the previous defective product, aside from being shrouded in swirling purple mist, this true Dao Pill strangely seemed to have birthed an ignorant consciousness.
Facing Li Buren, who was about to swallow it, the Dao Pill not only felt no fear, but even sprouted an eager, willing impulse.
"The essence of a Dao Pill is the condensation of countless Dao principles. It will not simply vanish upon being swallowed by me."
"Rather, from then on, it becomes one with my comprehension of the Great Dao..."
As this realization welled up within him, Li Buren abruptly stopped the Dao Pill right at his lips.
The caution cultivated over a long time ultimately made Li Buren abandon the plan of ingesting the Dao Pill. Even if he was merely an avatar.
"Bestowed upon you all."
He tossed it out casually as before.
This triggered a frantic scramble among the Heavenly Emperors and Heavenly Scars.
For these creations, having a single Dao Pill enter their stomachs was truly worth tens of millions of years of bitter cultivation—and far superior to it.
Because on this Primordial Continent, every duty and authority had already been fixed and set in stone by Li Fan.
Even a Heavenly Emperor presiding over a region could only observe the Dao principles restricted to certain areas. Yet the Dao Pill bestowed by Li Fan could disregard such demarcation of rules.
"True power is precisely this."
"Breaking rules, ignoring rules, and even..."
"Creating rules."
As Dao Pills were continuously concocted, many insights accumulated in Li Fan's mind.
Combining this with what he had learned from Chengdao, his progress was nothing short of rapid.
After the nineteenth Dao Pill, Li Buren ceased bestowing them upon the living beings of the Primordial Immortal Realm.
Instead, he collected and hoarded them himself.
The gathering of Dao Pills was an incomparably intense temptation for any living being, exceeding by thousands and tens of thousands of times what cultivators in the Xuanhuang Realm felt upon seeing an Essence of Heaven and Earth.
Yet from start to finish, Li Buren remained as calm as still water.
As practice makes perfect, in addition to concocting Dao Pills with ease and grace, Li Buren also conceived some unique ideas of his own.
"Since Mo Sha can appear in the form of an Essence of Heaven and Earth, logically speaking, it should also be possible to integrate it into a Dao Pill."
With a thought, Li Buren began invoking the power of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha during another refinement process.
However, Mo Sha itself could erode Dao principles to a certain degree, much like Dao Annihilation. The integration of Mo Sha's power actually caused this pill refinement to fail.
Yet Li Buren saw hope of success instead.
This was because the Dao Pill had not dissipated the instant the power of Mo Sha was incorporated; it had held together for a period of time before breaking down.
"This shows the proportions were merely off. They need to be adjusted."
After a full half-year of attempts, Li Buren finally succeeded in refining the first Mo Sha Dao Pill.
Its exterior was still enveloped in sacred purple mist.
The density of the purple mist was even more than twice that of a normal Dao Pill.
What was even more astonishing was that patterns resembling mountains and seas naturally emerged on the surface of this Mo Sha Dao Pill,
lending it an added touch of miraculous wonder.
Li Buren stared intently at it for a long time, still unable to determine whether this mountain-and-sea phenomenon was a mere coincidence.
Thus, he refined another pill.
The result remained the same.
"A bit interesting." Li Buren cast this "poison pill" out of the Dao Palace.
Having gone without a Dao Pill appearing for a long time, this pill—whose quality appeared extraordinary at a glance—sparked a fierce struggle among the living beings of the Primordial Immortal Realm.
The cruelty of it was even more gruesome than all the previous instances combined.
In the end, an earth spirit that had existed since the Primordial Immortal Realm was first opened was fortunate enough to obtain this Dao Pill.
Overwhelmed with excitement, it swallowed the Dao Pill down.
Amidst the swirling purple mist, this earth spirit uncontrollably rose into the air.
It soared straight toward the Dao Palace where Li Buren resided.
Vanishing entirely from the sight of all living beings, it elicited countless cries of shock and envy.
Li Buren, on the other hand, stroked his chin as he looked at the earth spirit before him, which had completely "transformed into purple mist" and seemed to have lost its own consciousness.
"Is this..."
"Dao assimilation?"
The earth spirit's form of life had already dispersed, leaving only its shape intact. Yet no "Dao of Earth Spirits" existed in the world.
Hence, the scene before Li Buren's eyes was exceedingly bizarre.
This earth spirit should have swallowed and digested the Dao Pill, but now it was the reverse—it had been engulfed by the Dao Pill.
Moreover, Li Buren discovered that within this Dao-assimilated earth spirit, no power of Mo Sha remained.
During the process of Dao assimilation, that already meager power of Mo Sha had been completely consumed.
"So, is this another application for the power of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha?"
A single experiment was not enough to understand how this wondrous transformation had taken place.
Next, Li Buren proceeded to refine fifteen more Mo Sha Dao Pills.
As one bizarre purple statue after another appeared beside him, Li Buren gradually uncovered the reason.
This time, he dispensed with the process of refining Dao Pills altogether. With a shift of his thoughts, the power of Mo Sha leaped forth, descending to the realm below to lock onto a target.
What should have been a near-"annihilation" trait, causing creatures struck by Mo Sha to be eradicated without a trace,
now resulted in "Dao assimilation" instead.
It revealed the original, primal state of the creature when it was first created.
Chapter 1506