A tyrannical, frenzied intent radiated from the pitch-black giant hand, identical to that of the Heaven Fiend Sword that had just been suppressed.
However, before this fiendish hand could make a move, immeasurable blue light suddenly flared behind Taiyi Hall, deep within the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins, resembling an endless ocean suspended upside down in the sky.
Engulfed and illuminated by the blue light, as if ceaselessly washed by boundless seawater, the pitch-black hue on the giant hand slowly receded, returning to its original color.
The blue light abruptly withdrew, and the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins returned to complete silence.
Many cultivators who witnessed this upheaval assumed some extraordinary treasure had appeared. Plucking up their courage, they edged closer to see what had happened.
Yet the first sight that greeted them was a ground strewn with over a dozen headless corpses.
Their expressions changed drastically.
Recalling the colossal sword that had radiated a sinister black aura earlier, no one dared to make any unnecessary moves, and they hurriedly retreated.
News that an anomaly had occurred deep within the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins and that it was fraught with peril spread rapidly across the Congyun Sea through word of mouth.
***
"It seems tricking people into triggering the Heaven Fiend Sword blade won't be so easy next time," Li Fan thought.
"Still, with the Soul Transformation into Dao Unity secret technique, observing it once versus observing it multiple times makes no practical difference to me."
Having achieved his purpose for the excursion, Li Fan quietly returned to Wanxian Island.
Inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror, he repeatedly replayed the scene in his mind: the Heaven Fiend Sword unsheathing, a mere tremor of a sword hum reaping the lives of over a dozen cultivators.
From his Heaven and Earth perspective, Li Fan saw that the peaceful spiritual energy surrounding the cultivators had erupted into sudden frenzy the moment the sound arrived. Like sharp yet pliable zither strings violently vibrating, it blasted their heads apart.
"Fiend..."
After reliving and contemplating it hundreds of times, Li Fan gradually gained some comprehension.
The scene shifted, and Li Fan redirected his attention to what had happened afterward.
Immeasurable blue light had surged into the sky like an inverted ocean—vast and magnificent.
Li Fan contemplated it in minute detail.
"This blue energy feels extraordinarily familiar. It seems remarkably similar to the Congyun Sea. Yet for some reason, the oceanic imagery represented by this blue light feels far more expansive than the Congyun Sea...
"Hanhai..."
Originally, he had planned to condense his Golden Core using the laws of Heaven Fiend and Mo Sha first. But after unexpectedly witnessing the blue light of Hanhai, Li Fan hesitated.
The blue light of Hanhai seemed to share the same origin as the Congyun Sea. Li Fan was exceptionally familiar with the Congyun Sea, having personally established his Dao Foundation with the Vast Sea Pearl. Condensing a Golden Core through the law of Hanhai clearly offered a far greater advantage.
"From the scene where the Heaven Fiend managed to taint and transform the blue light, relying purely on the law of Heaven Fiend might subtly affect one's mind, making the tyrannical killing intent difficult to suppress.
"The blue light of Hanhai can serve as the perfect buffer.
"Together with the law of Mo Sha—and should the law of Hanhai prove insufficient, supplemented by the law of Blue Flame...
"I can condense a Four Symbols Golden Core all at once."
With the general direction established, Li Fan temporarily cast aside all other matters and plunged into secluded cultivation.
The duration of condensing a Golden Core varied depending on an individual's aptitudes and the methods practiced. Earlier, with the blessing of the Congyun Sea's will, Zhang Haobo had condensed a False Core using the laws of water and wind in barely a month.
For Li Fan, however, things would likely not come so easily.
His Foundation Establishment wonder quietly shifted into the Vast Sea Pearl.
Wisps of blue light, representing the power of water-attribute laws, welled forth from the Vast Sea Pearl. Like strands of silk, they wove and looped around the Foundation Establishment wonder at their center.
Li Fan visualized the scene of Hanhai taking action, weaving his own comprehension of the laws into the process.
In an instant, the blue light surging from the Vast Sea Pearl seemed to change, growing deeper and more ancient.
Because the Vast Sea Pearl forming his Dao Foundation shared so many affinities with the law of Hanhai, the process unfolded much faster than Li Fan had anticipated.
Gradually, a ring of deep blue halo enveloped the Vast Sea Pearl.
An extremely crude "Golden Core" took embryonic shape.
"If this continues, a Golden Core formed purely from the law of Hanhai might coalesce right away.
"However, that is not my goal.
"Next, adding the law of Heaven Fiend."
The moment the Heaven Fiend Sword unsheathed flashed repeatedly in his sea of consciousness.
Wisps of pitch-black suddenly welled from the core of the wonder, diffusing like ink through the blue light.
Yet to Li Fan's slight frown, the pitch-black representing the law of Heaven Fiend could not endure for long. Surrounded by the blue light, it lasted only a brief moment before vanishing without a trace.
Having read through the Core Formation experiences of many cultivators, Li Fan understood at once.
This was because the law of Heaven Fiend lacked a foundation within his body. Like water without a source or a tree without roots, it could only flare up transiently, unable to persist.
The law of Hanhai, anchored by his Dao Foundation Vast Sea Pearl, naturally flowed without end.
This was also why cultivators forming their cores could rarely balance multiple laws. Without one's own Dao Foundation as the root, gathering laws into a core was easier said than done.
Li Fan tried for a long time, but the speed of gathering the law of Heaven Fiend could never keep up with the rate of its dissipation.
After pondering for a while, Li Fan temporarily gave up the attempt.
Instead, he reflected on the scene of Zhang Haobo forming his core back then.
The phantom of the black sword intent had been magnified countless times, towering between heaven and earth.
Cyan wind blew into the blade from the sword tip above.
Blue water flowed into the blade from the sword hilt below.
Cyan, blue, and black mingled, and the sword body slowly solidified.
...
Li Fan's eyes brightened slightly in realization.
"Zhang Haobo formed his core by taking the laws of wind and water that already existed in heaven and earth and combining them with his Heaven Fiend Sword Intent.
"The laws of heaven and earth are endless, so there was naturally no need to worry about dissipation.
"This is probably why so many cultivators travel far and wide when forming their cores, personally comprehending and absorbing the laws of heaven and earth.
"Yet I cannot replicate that.
"The law of Heaven Fiend, the law of Hanhai, the law of Mo Sha—each is more perilous than the last. If I went to observe them in person, far from forming a core, I would likely forfeit my life.
"Fortunately, I have True Reversion."
With a thought, his Foundation Establishment wonder shifted into the Heaven Fiend Sword Intent in the blink of an eye.
The clustered blue law of Hanhai instantly lost its foundation and began to dissipate. Yet because it had already developed its own momentum, its rate of dissipation was far slower.
This window of time was enough for Li Fan to gather the law of Heaven Fiend.
The blackness deepened, like placing layer upon layer of pitch-black shackles over a blue water sphere.
Time slowly flowed by.
Once the embryo of the Heaven Fiend law was established, Li Fan immediately switched his Foundation Establishment wonder back to the Vast Sea Pearl, maintaining the blue law of Hanhai once more.
Repeating this cycle over and over, deep within Li Fan's dantian, the phantom of a Golden Core with True Reversion as its core gradually materialized.
Chapter 242