He only had time to glimpse the children excitedly swarming around a slender figure dressed in green robes before Li Fan was forced out of the Fallen Immortal Realm.
After a bout of dizziness, Li Fan returned to the real world.
"Mr. Bai..."
"Are you the master of this lingering thought spacetime?"
Although this excursion had yielded no tangible gains, Li Fan had confirmed at least one thing:
There was something strange about this Mr. Bai.
In this lingering thought spacetime, if Li Fan did not intervene to change things, what happened each time ought to remain fixed and constant.
According to his previous experiences, Mr. Bai should have arrived at the small temple to visit the children shortly after the great battle concluded.
Yet this time...
"What a coincidence that he arrived just as I was about to leave."
Li Fan did not believe this was a mere coincidence.
This Mr. Bai was deliberately avoiding him.
Or perhaps, for some specific reason, Li Fan was simply not allowed to see him.
Just as Li Fan could not leave Ningyuan City.
It was a concrete rule of this entire Ningyuan City lingering thought spacetime.
Putting aside for now the question of why this happened, analyzed from this angle, the probability that Mr. Bai was the master of this lingering thought spacetime was quite high.
Then came the question: What was Mr. Bai's obsession?
Li Fan recalled the children's praise of him: the kindest person in the whole world.
Add to that the fact that he proactively organized rescue efforts and actively treated the wounded...
...
The sight of Ningyuan City after the great battle—a scene like an apocalypse strewn with corpses—involuntarily surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
"Caught in the collateral damage of a battle between cultivators, his homeland was reduced almost entirely to a realm of death."
"How wonderful it would be if this cruel scene had never happened."
"Is that your obsession?"
Li Fan pondered.
While other possibilities could not be ruled out, based on Mr. Bai's character profile built from current clues, this was by far the most likely.
"Resolve the incident of collecting the Longevity Fruit in Ningyuan City with as few mortal casualties as possible? That's going to be tricky."
Having deduced this, the next step was finding a way to verify it.
However, achieving this goal seemed even more difficult than merely defeating Senior Brother Zhang.
Setting aside the peerless might of Senior Brother Zhang, merely capturing Song Hesong, who was in the mid Golden Core stage, without harming mortals in the crossfire was no simple feat.
"Fortunately, I have the Insect Binding divine ability as a fallback. I'll test out various methods first.
"If that really fails, I can wait until I reach the Golden Core stage before coming back to resolve this."
In any case, he finally saw hope of breaking free from Ningyuan City. As for expending a bit more time, it hardly mattered to Li Fan.
After silently formulating his plan of action for his next entry into the Fallen Immortal Realm, Li Fan recalled that marvelous stone in the small temple.
He immediately searched for it in the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
It was no top-secret information and proved easy enough to find.
Immortal-Severing Stone was what cultivators called this type of stone.
Its properties were just as Li Fan had tested: it could isolate and block the effects of all spiritual energy and divine sense.
In ancient times, it was generally used to construct secret chambers, carve stone statues, or forge stone spikes to imprison captives.
Paired with these Immortal-Severing Stone spikes was an acupuncture-style technique called "Sealing Immortals, Severing Qi."
Driving Immortal-Severing Stone spikes into dozens of designated acupoints across the body would sever the flow of internal spiritual energy, completely sealing away one's cultivation.
However, with the passage of time, the surviving quantity of Immortal-Severing Stone had steadily dwindled, and it was rarely seen today.
The occasional pieces recovered from sect ruins could fetch a handsome price.
"There's still some Immortal-Severing Stone left in that small temple. It should barely suffice to fashion a set of stone spikes."
He promptly spent contribution points to purchase the Sealing Immortals, Severing Qi needle technique and committed it to memory.
...
In Anchor Year 25, not long after Li Fan went into secluded cultivation again, news broke from Jiushan Province, once again capturing the attention of cultivators across the world.
The ruins of the Chaoyuan Sect, whose mysteries had never been fully unraveled, had recently undergone an uncanny change.
At first, figures would appear from time to time within the empty sect ruins, walking back and forth.
By the time cultivators noticed and rushed over, the figures would suddenly vanish.
Gradually, the appearances grew more frequent, and the duration of each stay lengthened.
Later on, even the sound of them conversing with one another could be heard.
Aside from slipping through fingers without any physical substance, these figures were virtually indistinguishable from real people.
The phantoms were completely oblivious to the living cultivators, going about their routines undisturbed as though living in their own spacetime.
What caused a true sensation was that a cultivator happened upon a spectral recording of a Chaoyuan Sect disciple reciting the *Heavenly Light Yang-Building Formula*.
Overjoyed, the cultivator memorized the formula in its entirety.
Though it was merely a Qi Condensation cultivation method, the significance of this occurrence was profound.
It meant there was a possibility of acquiring other, higher-level techniques.
Even without cultivation techniques, observing ancient Chaoyuan Sect cultivators concoct pills or forge artifacts was equivalent to having free masters providing direct, hands-on instruction.
Consequently, the Chaoyuan Sect ruins, which had been practically deserted, bustled with activity once more.
Of course, this bustle belonged strictly to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and had nothing to do with the Five Elders Association.
For reasons unknown, the several Soul Formation cultivators tasked with garrisoning the border had not returned and remained stationed within Jiushan Province.
The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation was maintained in a continuous state of activation.
Any Five Elders Association cultivators hoping to try their luck were executed on the spot the moment they crossed the border.
Under this ironclad stance, the previously chaotic Jiushan Province could not help but grow peaceful.
Meanwhile, on the deserted island in the Congyun Sea, the group from the Li Realm had a rare disagreement.
The dispute stemmed precisely from the new developments at the Chaoyuan Sect ruins.
While out and about, the chubby Ye Feipeng had overheard cultivators hurriedly discussing the matter as they passed by.
Upon returning to the deserted island, he casually mentioned the anecdote in conversation with everyone.
To everyone's surprise, upon hearing this, both Su Xiaomei and Zhang Haobo felt a sudden premonition.
Their respective opportunities for Core Formation lay within the Chaoyuan Sect!
The two had been stuck at the peak Foundation Establishment stage for quite some time.
First, they were stymied by the bottleneck of the Heavenly Calamity, unable to advance.
Second, neither had decided on which method of heaven and earth to use for Core Formation.
Now that opportunity beckoned right before them, both immediately resolved to make the long journey to Jiushan Province.
The road ahead was vast and perilous.
As the nominal successor of Immortal Restoration, Xiao Heng naturally voiced his opposition.
Xiao Heng believed that given their natural talents, the Core Formation bottleneck could only hold them for a time, not a lifetime.
Even if they missed the opportunity at the Chaoyuan Sect, other opportunities would surely take its place.
Venturing out into the wider world with only the strength of peak Foundation Establishment was simply far too dangerous.
Even if both possessed extraordinary innate talent and formidable combat prowess,
the divide between major cultivation realms was an insurmountable reality.
It would be far better to bide their time in obscurity a while longer, wait until everyone broke through to the Golden Core stage and had significantly greater power to protect themselves, and only then set out together to seek their fortunes.
Chapter 276