Fang Yang's sullen departure aside, Li Fan ignored the strange looks from the onlookers and returned to the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
"Cleansing techniques..."
Such arts did indeed exist within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Generally speaking, cultivators only practiced them when other techniques required maintaining a state of absolute purity in body and mind.
They offered no substantial boost to cultivation base, realm, or combat strength.
Consequently, almost no one showed interest in them, and their prices were low.
Li Fan browsed for one that suited him.
Suddenly, his gaze landed on a technique named *Purple Cloud True Thunder Cleansing*.
"The Purple Cloud True Thunder purifies all things and dispels all evils..."
Purple Cloud again, and thunder again.
It was hard for Li Fan not to think of the Purple Cloud Sect's *Purple Cloud Thunder-Commanding True Scripture* in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
This technique cost just over forty thousand contribution points. Li Fan was not stingy and bought it on the spot.
After reading it through, he compared it to the *Purple Empyrean Soul Observation Technique* he had already mastered.
Sure enough, there were similarities.
However, it was clearly far less profound than the *Purple Cloud Thunder-Commanding True Scripture*.
At best, it could only be considered a weakened variant.
"Makes sense. After all, Senior Brother Zhang's method utilizes Purple Cloud Divine Thunder. That sounds a cut above Purple Cloud True Thunder.
"To resolve this latent threat, perhaps I should take a multi-pronged approach.
"Ideally, I would purchase heavenly treasures from the Heavenly Profound Mirror, pair them with the Purple Cloud Sect's methods, and cultivate for a period on Mount Jieli in Great Xuan.
"The heavenly treasures are simple enough; I have no shortage of contribution points. But the Fallen Immortal Realm...
"Senior Brother Zhang's undefeated legend remains unbroken to this day."
At this thought, Li Fan felt a touch of helplessness.
"One step at a time.
"If all else fails, once I break through to Golden Core, I'll take him down by force.
"Then I'll see if I can obtain the *Purple Cloud Thunder-Commanding True Scripture*.
"Without eliminating this hidden danger, my mind will never be at peace.
"Until then, I had better lie low in the Heavenly Profound Mirror with utmost care."
Li Fan sighed softly. While cultivating, he also began preparing an escape route for the future.
When Crimson Flame incinerated the sea, his true body would definitely have to flee the Congyun Sea.
Daoyuan Province was out of the question, and Jiushan Province was far too chaotic.
Of the three provinces bordering the Congyun Sea, Shilin Province became the most suitable destination.
Li Fan began quietly gathering information on Shilin Province within the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
***
In Anchored Year 21, not long after Li Fan went into seclusion, the two Soul Formation True Monarchs, Lancang and Haoxuan, erupted into their scheduled great battle at the edge of the Congyun Sea.
The sky ripped open, and a beam of starlight descended, transferring them away.
"Zhang Zhiliang made his move after all."
Upon learning this news, Li Fan's clone paused his cultivation of the *Creation Furnace Technique*.
He set off alone for Yuandao Province, intending to witness the scene of Blue Feather's fall.
To avoid a repeat of the "What are you looking forward to?" disaster, the clone emptied his mind of all stray thoughts throughout the entire journey. Upon arriving in Zhuoling City of Yuandao Province, he secured a residence.
With the front gates firmly locked, he did not step outside.
While cultivating, he waited for the phenomenon of heaven and earth to manifest.
Half a month later.
Li Fan was mobilizing the secret repository's power within his body to temper his physical form when a sudden tremor seized his heart.
An inexplicable sorrow surged within him, accompanied by waves of startled cries echoing throughout the city.
Li Fan touched his cheek and found that tears were streaming down his face beyond his control.
He stepped slowly out of the house and looked up at the sky.
Across the vast firmament, a small Daoist boy clad in blue Daoist robes looked down upon the earth with a smile.
The boy gradually grew into an adult.
He slowly aged as well.
Finally, the visage of Immortal Venerable Blue Feather, who had ruled and cowed Daoyuan Province for over three millennia, revealed itself before all.
Then, like an autumn leaf, he withered away.
Heavy rain began to pour from the sky.
From the earth came the mournful howls of wild beasts.
Countless mortals also broke into uncontrollable weeping along with it.
"This is..."
Li Fan stood in the rain, letting the downpour soak his body.
He sensed the emotions of all living beings in heaven and earth—or rather, the passive emotions stirred in all living beings through the resonance of heaven and earth's will.
"Heaven and earth are mourning?
"Mourning what? Merely the demise of a single Dao Integration cultivator named Blue Feather?"
Li Fan shook his head inwardly.
"No.
"When Zhang Haobo reached Dao Integration and was slain by Mo Sha, heaven and earth were utterly overjoyed.
"*Fortunate to receive heavenly execution...*"
Li Fan stared at the lingering phenomenon in the sky, suddenly struck by an epiphany.
"What is mourned is that yet another of the few remaining practitioners of the old method has departed this world.
"Or perhaps what brings even deeper grief...
"...is that this Dao Integration Immortal Venerable, who lived for who knows how many ages and built his entire foundation on the old method,
"should have been its most faithful adherent.
"Yet before his death, in pursuit of hope for Longevity, he chose to invert the principles of heaven and earth...
"Another cultivator who walked alongside it for thousands of years has crossed over to the opposing side...
"The Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable is domineering indeed."
Li Fan stood motionless beneath the heavenly phenomenon.
He calmed his heart and quietly contemplated it.
Only long afterward did the spectacle disperse.
The sky regained its tranquility. A wave of heat surged from within Li Fan, instantly vaporizing the rainwater on his body.
Casting one final glance at the firmament, he quietly returned to the Congyun Sea.
***
Though Li Fan's true body and clone remained in secluded cultivation and paid no heed to worldly affairs, the world did not grind to a halt; it continued on its course.
Ever since the chubby Ye Feipeng was gravely injured by Zhang Zhiliang, he had been swept away by the Vast Sea Pearl to sleep deep beneath the ocean floor.
Whenever the Azure Wind drifted down and was on the verge of forming a wind calamity, Ye Feipeng would abruptly snap his eyes open.
Though his gaze was hollow and lifeless, it did not impede his free movement.
Enveloped in blue light, he would arrive wherever the wind calamity raged.
Opening his mouth wide, just as he had when he first swallowed that streak of azure light, he would devour the building energy of the calamity in one massive gulp.
The wind calamity would dissolve into nothingness, and Ye Feipeng, looking as though he had eaten his fill, would return to the sea floor to resume his slumber.
As early as Anchored Year 20, the Heaven Fiend Sword hilt had escaped from the cage of Azure Wind with a desperate, all-out strike.
Where it had gone remained unknown.
The Azure Wind had likewise vanished.
Those scattered streaks of azure light across the region were the last remaining wind calamities of the Congyun Sea.
Originally, these wind calamities would have persisted until around Year 24 before dissipating completely.
Yet under Ye Feipeng's continuous, unconscious devouring in this lifetime, the wind calamities that had long scourged the Congyun Sea vanished entirely by Anchored Year 22.
Having devoured all the energy of the Azure Wind, the intensity of Ye Feipeng's aura had already far surpassed the boundaries of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Yet he seemed to face no limit or bottleneck.
Even though he had not advanced to the Golden Core realm, his strength continued to climb steadily.
From the perspective of heaven and earth, Li Fan could see even more clearly:
The phantom image of a monster resembling both whale and roc surfaced behind him from time to time, letting out ancient, melodious cries.
"Is this why you insisted on protecting Ye Feipeng to the death?
"Going so far as to abandon the other half's chance of escape?
"Do you really have that much confidence in him?"
This was a treatment even Zhang Haobo had not received in the previous lifetime.
Li Fan watched Ye Feipeng intently.
At the boy's dantian, in addition to the Dao Foundation forged from the Azure Wind True Intent, there was also an intensely familiar blue bead resting quietly amid the azure wind.
The blue light in Ye Feipeng's chest had already fused into one with the wondrous item, the Vast Sea Pearl.
"Forging Dao foundations with two wondrous items? What is going on here?"
Chapter 254