"Sect Leader Qu makes a valid point. After all, the Xuanhuang Realm is not merely the Xuanhuang Realm of our Ten Sects." Dao Sect Sect Leader Fang Dingge seemed to imply something.
Qu Yixing, seemingly oblivious, continued: "The leader of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, named Chuanfa. The school of thought he created does indeed have its unique aspects. However, with the Great Heavenly Venerable overseeing the world, it is destined to amount to nothing. If it stirs up an even greater disturbance, there will be no need for us to take action; this so-called Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals will be reduced to ashes in an instant."
"Regardless, they must all die, so we might as well make full use of them. It's just that the Alliance's method is special; Nascent Soul Stage cultivators and above should not be recruited. Otherwise, after they die, the Xuanhuang Realm adrift between heaven and earth might instead nourish the Taiyuan Realm..."
"I'll handle this matter. I will do my best to persuade them." A voice full of heroic spirit rang out as he voluntarily took on the task. It was Tianjian Sect's eldest senior brother, Situ Yao.
Gazing at a certain location in the Xuanhuang Realm, he silently picked up the gourd in his hand and drained it in one gulp.
...
The leaders of the Ten Sects decided the fate of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals in the time to come with just a few simple words.
And in corners they could not see, there was likewise a mastermind weaving their future.
"The Taiyuan Revival Furnace, so that's how it works."
"I keep saying—how could there be a Primordial Possibility that I don't know about!"
In the Anxue Fortress, Li Fan sat cross-legged, a blurry, distorted image of a furnace appearing and disappearing in his palm.
Over the past half year, he had used the Horizontal Golden Lock of the Drifting Across the Stars Grand Array as a medium to complete an analysis of the Great Dao condensed in the Taiyuan Realm.
The results were somewhat unexpected, but upon reflection, they were reasonable.
The so-called infinite resurrection occurring in the Taiyuan Realm was not true resurrection. Rather, it was "manufacturing."
It was the same as the situation in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Deep in the Taiyuan Realm lay a grand and magnificent ancient immortal formation of the Immortal Realm.
Nine-Star Red Pearls, indeterminate rings, endless icebound seas of corpses...
All of this was almost exactly the same as in the Xuanhuang Realm. The only difference was that the Nine-Star Red Pearl of the Taiyuan Realm had not, like the one in the Xuanhuang Realm, gone missing. It remained safe at the core of the ancient formation, maintaining the formation's operation.
After a Taiyuan cultivator died, the Nine-Star Red Pearl, which recorded data on all living beings in the Taiyuan Realm, would pass through the immortal formation and manufacture a new copy once more.
Whether the "resurrected" one or those who fought against them, all would believe they had been "resurrected."
Only those who pierced through layers of concealment and glimpsed the immortal formation behind could see the truth.
"As expected of an experimental dojo once presided over by an Immortal Emperor. A complete ancient immortal formation with Nine-Star Red Pearls as its core has actually reached the level of Drawing the Dao with the Formation."
"Tai Tian Emperor, ah, Tai Tian Emperor, such an important matter, and you didn't even remind me a word."
Of course, this was just Li Fan joking. In Tai Tian Emperor's view, compared with the heavy responsibility of swimming against time and saving the ages, the lives of all beings in the experimental field were not worth mentioning. A mere formation that created living beings naturally had nothing to do with the word "important."
"The so-called resurrection is nothing but a lie. This must not be made known to the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao. Otherwise, once the belief supporting their fight to resurrect companions who died in the Taiyuan Realm vanishes instantly, the Xuanhuang Realm front line would likely collapse at the first blow."
Li Fan examined the furnace illusion in his hand, slowly stroking it.
Clearly just a phantom image, yet it truly rippled with faint waves under his gentle caress.
This was naturally because, after completing the intrusion and cracking of the Taiyuan Realm's ancient immortal formation, he had begun attempting to modify it.
Even though the formation's core was intact, it was ultimately no match for a True Immortal visitor from ten thousand years hence.
Li Fan had not expended much effort to intrude into the core of the Taiyuan Realm's immortal formation.
However, up to now, he had still not made any particularly major moves, merely secretly modifying the formation's details. The reason was that two Immortal Realm formation guardians were still alive within the formation.
Under the concealment of the Ancient Realm-Protecting Immortal Formation, Li Fan glimpsed the true faces of these two figures.
One was an Immortal Realm Watcher who had also appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm. However, this one in the Taiyuan Realm clearly still maintained a complete and clear divine mind.
The other may have existed in the Xuanhuang Realm, but had disappeared along with the damage to the immortal formation.
It was the formation's Mender.
A human body, but with the head replaced by a book whose countless pages were constantly flipping.
The so-called Watcher and Mender—in Li Fan's view, they were nothing more than Immortal Servants.
Of course, in the eyes of ordinary mortal cultivators, even if they were merely "servants," as soon as the character "Immortal" was attached, they were far beyond what these cultivators could handle.
Even though Li Fan had now recovered to the Dao Integration realm, if he confronted them directly, he was temporarily no match for these two.
He merely avoided their sharp edge for now.
However, it was obvious that the immortal servants stationed in the formation did not understand the Ancient Realm-Protecting Immortal Formation itself. They could only use it according to the instructions left by the former True Immortal, step by step.
They were completely unaware of the quiet changes Li Fan was making to the formation under his direction.
"The fact that the Taiyuan Revival Furnace can resurrect Xuanhuang cultivators who died on the battlefield must be firmly established, in order to sustain their belief in continuing to fight." Having been in the battlefield fortress for half a year, Li Fan was very clear about this.
"I've finally managed to set up the stage for the performance; if the audience below just leaves like that, wouldn't it be a dampener..."
"What the immortal formation cannot do, I will do!"
Li Fan lightly raised his left hand, and the furnace illusion flew forward, spinning rapidly in the air.
Every time he moved, countless rays of light surged from it.
Unknown to anyone, changes were slowly occurring in the Taiyuan Realm.
When a cultivator's soul scattered and spirit dissipated, the immortal formation would actively capture their living being data and record it in the Nine-Star Red Pearl. With this data, recreating them was not difficult.
Of course, since it was not the original template data, the living being data captured by the Nine-Star Red Pearl inevitably had some deviations compared to the cultivator's true data.
After Xuanhuang cultivators were "resurrected," they would have some deviations from their original versions. Rather than saying it was resurrection, it was more like reincarnation.
However, even so, it should satisfy the Xuanhuang cultivators.
After several days of careful refinement, Li Fan finally completed the initial modification of the Taiyuan Realm's immortal formation.
During this process, he also relied on the Great Dao contained within the formation to complete a certain degree of calibration between the Great Dao of past and future times.
The boundary of immortal arts, originally as if covered by a layer of frosted glass, became clear again.
Li Fan could almost once again sense the Sea of Infinity beyond the mortal world.
After all, a True Immortal could not be suppressed.
Even with the resistance and suppression of the Xuanhuang Realm, as long as Li Fan was given an opportunity, he could rise again in an instant.
"Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, I'll deal with you after I return."
"First, I will perfectly conclude the grand play I have carefully prepared here."
Li Fan unhurriedly took the nearly materialized furnace illusion into his hand, gently playing with it.
Now, as long as he wished, he could at any time return to the Sea of Infinity and ascend the Mountain Above.
Return to the True Immortal realm.
However, the tragic consequences brought about by the Three Paths Integration still left Li Fan with lingering fear.
Trueness had fallen into silence; if he alone accessed the Sea of Infinity, there would surely be great unknown risks.
"My current cultivation is enough for me to roam freely within the Great Wall. Even if a Hunger Immortal is awakened, I can retreat calmly."
"Whether I become an immortal or not is actually not important to me."
"The most important thing is still the insight into the transformation of true and false."
If everything had gone smoothly back ten thousand years ago, then the impact of this silence was the only place where Li Fan had truly suffered a setback.
His previous insight into the transformation of true and false had not recovered as well as desired.
Compared to half a year ago in the Xuanhuang Realm, there was indeed great improvement. But Li Fan had a premonition that returning to the level he had reached before the Three Paths Integration, swimming upstream, would require walking a very difficult road ahead.
"Originally, my insight into the transformation of true and false could be said to be purely my own comprehension. In fact, it was still established based on Trueness possessing me. With Trueness as this cornerstone, the transformation of true and false that others could not detect at all could be easily mastered by me."
"But now, as Trueness has fallen into silence, I have almost lost the foundation I could rely on."
"To return to my original height, I need to walk back step by step, solidly and steadily, on my own."
"Although it will be much slower. But this time..."
A sharp light flashed in Li Fan's eyes: "What is mine is mine. Even if such a memory-loss encounter comes again, no one can take it away from me!"
After realizing this, Li Fan was no longer anxious at all.
Swimming upstream for ten thousand years was originally a matter of survival with no other choice. For Li Fan, no matter which time he stayed in, there was no great difference.
And the calamity that the entire Mountain and Sea Mortal World suffered erosion and wear before the Dao Annihilation Tribulation... was not something the current Li Fan could consider.
Swimming back to the past in the same time period was already so difficult. Li Fan could almost imagine how great the danger would be to cross through the Eternal Silence Void Realm and head to a completely severed time.
"Even just the upper and lower reaches of the same river have so many Great Dao deviations. Different times severed by the Dao Annihilation Tribulation are almost like two different rivers."
"It can be foreseen that if I easily swim back upstream, I will inevitably suffer the loss of all cultivation and divine powers."
"And by then, in a completely unfamiliar time, it would not be so easy to recover."
By this point, Li Fan roughly understood what Mound-Guarding Lord's difficulty in every step meant.
Perhaps after a long time, Li Fan would have to, for his own safety, unite with powerhouses from different periods in the long river of history to resist the terrifying and dreadful Dao Annihilation Tribulation.
But for now... Since they could still hold on, let them hold on a while longer.
"I'd better look after my own safety first." Li Fan said self-mockingly.
...
With Li Fan secretly manipulating behind the scenes, the Taiyuan Realm's war situation became even more intense.
Even if the Taiyuan Realm pushed the efficiency of manufacturing resurrected cultivators to the maximum.
Even if Fang Dingge had completed persuading Chuanfa; although their realm was only below Nascent Soul, their actual combat power was extremely strong, and the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals cultivators had also joined the battlefield.
But both sides still maintained a state of evenly matched strength.
Truly like a bottomless swamp; once you stepped in, you could never think of escaping.
A small piece of Taiyuan land had become a terrifying Asura battlefield that ceaselessly devoured lives.
Both sides, helpless, could only continue to pour in.
And so it was said that in troubled times, heroes emerge. On this battlefield, several extremely bright new stars rose irresistibly.
Among them, Li Ping, played by Li Fan, was one of them.
In half a year, having experienced over two hundred and thirty major and minor battles, killing dozens of enemies in every battle.
After every battle, there was enlightenment.
Secretly called a natural killing machine, a holy body of conquest, by Xuanhuang cultivators.
He had leapt from Golden Core realm when first entering the battlefield to Soul Formation realm.
Such rapid progress was truly shocking.
However, the cultivation world had the ancient legend of comprehending the Dao in a moment and ascending in broad daylight. Going from Golden Core to Soul Formation in half a year was fast, but not so unbelievable.
Especially since this progress was built upon endless slaughter.
Moreover, the progress of another cultivator by Li Fan's side was even more eye-catching.
Cao Yingyue, who had received Li Fan's Taishang Dao Scripture inheritance, naturally attracted the vast majority of attention.
Perhaps because the death of her beloved Senior Brother Duan left her already devoid of vitality, with only the single thought of killing enemies to avenge him. Other recipients of the Taishang Dao Scripture had to hide and conceal themselves.
But Cao Yingyue completely disregarded all that, fully displaying her progress to the world.
In less than three months, she broke through from Soul Formation to Dao Integration.
In the following two months, she advanced without bottlenecks, forging ahead through slaughter.
Now she had the strength of Dao Integration Perfection.
Compared to her, Li Fan's progress was not so exaggerated.
Although many among the Ten Sects had become curious about why Cao Yingyue's cultivation advanced so quickly, first, this was a special time of great battle concerning the future life and death of the Xuanhuang Realm; even if they had greedy thoughts, they did not dare to act at this time. Second, Cao Yingyue was a core disciple of the Ten Sects.
Without the Taishang Sect Sect Master speaking, no one else dared to act rashly.
Numerous inquiries were all brushed off by that old Taoist with a single indifferent sentence: "The Taishang secret art cannot be personally transmitted."
Others were helpless.
Li Fan knew, however, that the Taishang Sect Sect Master had not spoken falsely.
It had to be said, Cao Yingyue was a smart person. After obtaining the Taishang Dao Scripture and realizing its divine effects, she immediately withdrew and returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
She informed the Sect Master of the Taishang Dao Scripture matter.
That old Taoist truly had some bearing of an immortal sect sect master. Facing the Great Dao starry sky woven by Li Fan, although he was lost for a moment, he did not directly claim it for himself.
"You obtained this thing; it is your opportunity. Keep it well." He only gave a light instruction and sent off the bewildered Cao Yingyue.
This was how Cao Yingyue later came to not conceal anything.
Li Fan could somewhat understand the old Taoist's thinking.
Just like the Longevity Great Dao inherited from Mound-Guarding Lord.
A true powerhouse must walk out a path unique to themselves. What others teach or give does not count as truly "attaining the Dao.""
Chapter 1537