"So it's not that wonders of heaven and earth can't increase the charging progress, but rather that their effect is too weak."
"It takes more than ten of them just to add one percent."
"Still, with so many here before me, I should be able to unlock another anchor."
Li Fan felt a surge of quiet joy and kept working without pause.
Soon afterward, once all 3,762 damaged wonders of heaven and earth had been absorbed, the number of anchors on Li Fan's True Reversion panel changed to 4.
The anchor charging progress reverted to 0% once again.
"What a pity..."
As the charging progress steadily advanced, the quantity of wonders required had gradually increased as well.
From more than ten needed for a single percent, to more than twenty, then thirty.
By the time he aimed for the fifth anchor, absorbing all the remaining damaged wonders in one go failed to increase the progress by even one percent.
*It seems higher-grade items are needed to unlock the fifth anchor,* Li Fan thought to himself.
As for what items would be needed next, Li Fan had long harbored a guess.
Wonders of heaven and earth were the convergence of the laws of heaven and earth.
Damaged wonders, or even ordinary wonders of Man, could no longer satisfy True Reversion's appetite.
So obviously, finding higher-tier substitutes would do.
Either wonders of Earth and wonders of Heaven, or perhaps he could try using the Golden Cores condensed by cultivators.
As for a wonder of Earth, perhaps in the next life he could test the effect by absorbing the Vast Sea Pearl.
A wonder of Heaven was far too rare to be considered for now.
Li Fan had previously tried purchasing some Golden Core fragments, but faced with such defective items, True Reversion had shown no reaction at all.
Intact Golden Cores were simply not sold in the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
In short, for the near future, Li Fan could forget about unlocking another anchor.
*The fourth anchor must be used somewhere crucial.*
After pondering for a while, Li Fan walked out of the secret chamber.
Instead of throwing himself back into work immediately, he first made use of the Heavenly Profound Mirror in the stronghold.
He searched for news regarding the Chaoyuan Sect ruins.
Not many people were discussing it yet, but it already showed signs of causing a massive sensation.
Not long ago, within the Chaoyuan Sect ruins—which had barely seen a visitor in recent years—abnormalities suddenly broke out.
A rain of blood fell from the sky, and the phantoms that occasionally appeared and endlessly wandered underwent a frightening transformation.
Viewed from the outside, these had originally been perfectly normal images of ancient figures from a thousand years ago.
Yet in a fleeting instant, they flickered, turning into horrifying figures whose facial features had vanished, blood trickling continuously from their pale faces.
It lasted only a few breaths before returning to normal.
It was enough to make onlookers believe it had been an illusion.
However, attentive cultivators noticed that the phantoms shifted with increasing frequency.
And the duration of each faceless, bloody countenance grew longer and longer.
If that alone were not enough, another fact struck terror into the handful of cultivators keeping watch outside the Chaoyuan Sect.
The territory of the Chaoyuan Sect ruins showed signs of expanding outward.
The entire ruins looked outwardly unchanged, yet it seemed to be imperceptibly encroaching upon the space outside.
One had to know that being within the scope of the Chaoyuan Sect carried the risk of being assimilated into a phantom.
If this anomalous ruin kept expanding...
The cultivators sensed danger and hurried to report it to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
To everyone's astonishment, before the cultivators dispatched by the Alliance arrived, a beam of sword light flared within the Chaoyuan Sect ruins.
The entire heavens and earth seemed illuminated, and even the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation blanketing Jiushan Province was faintly disturbed by this peerless sword light.
Ripples cascaded across the sky.
When the sword light faded and everyone reopened their eyes, they were stunned to discover that the eerie Chaoyuan Sect ruins was gradually collapsing and turning ethereal.
In just under half a day, by the time the Alliance envoy arrived late, the Chaoyuan Sect ruins had completely vanished without a trace.
Meanwhile, three figures—two men and one woman—appeared out of thin air, flying out from deep within the ruins.
Seeing this, the Alliance envoy naturally moved to intercept them and interrogate them about the specifics.
Who would have thought that upon hearing the envoy introduce himself, one of the men and the young girl who looked barely in her teens showed slight changes in expression?
Without a word, they turned on their heels and fled.
Both were at the Nascent Soul realm, and their flight speed was astonishingly rapid.
The Alliance envoy wanted to give chase, but was blocked by the remaining male cultivator.
No one knew what he said, but although the envoy looked extremely grim, he surprisingly made no pursuit.
Afterward, the two spoke for a while longer before both vanishing from the sight of the onlookers.
Leaving behind only a crowd of baffled onlookers and the Thousand-Li Swamp, restored to its former state.
When these people conferred among themselves, it suddenly dawned on them.
The three cultivators who had flown out of the ruins were precisely the three who had ventured into the Chaoyuan Sect a decade earlier.
One of them was truly renowned far and wide:
the biological son of Immortal Venerable Feixue, Shuo Feng, who styled himself "Wo Wudi."
Yet rather than him, the cultivators cared far more about the other two whose identities remained unknown.
Ten years ago, those two had been merely at the Foundation Establishment realm.
Yet after a journey inside the Chaoyuan Sect, they were already Nascent Soul cultivators!
The Chaoyuan Sect ruins truly held a great opportunity!
The cultivators who had squatted outside the Chaoyuan Sect for over a decade without daring to enter came to this realization and could not help beating their chests in bitter regret.
At the same time, their curiosity about what had transpired within the Chaoyuan Sect ruins grew even stronger.
Regrettably, the identities of those two cultivators were shrouded in mystery, completely unknown to anyone.
Still, being able to walk alongside the famously aloof Shuo Feng meant their backgrounds were certainly extraordinary.
So the cultivators speculated.
...
*That sword light cleaving through the Chaoyuan Sect was probably Shuo Feng's divine ability,*
Li Fan mused to himself, recalling the seemingly ordinary wooden sword he had once seen in Shuo Feng's hand.
*It seems not only Su Xiaomei and her companion, but even this "Wo Wudi" reaped immense rewards in the ruins.*
*Pity that now they are in the Nascent Soul realm; playing the mystic again might well be seen through.*
*Otherwise, I could have used the guise of "Senior Skull" to question them thoroughly.*
*Well, Xiao Heng is still in the Golden Core stage. Perhaps there will be a chance to sound him out.*
With his curiosity temporarily satisfied, Li Fan prepared to throw himself back into arduous labor.
Before leaving, he glanced at the Grand Competition Gold Ranking out of habit, and his eyelids twitched involuntarily.
In just this short delay, his rank had slipped from ninth place down to fifteenth.
"Why push so hard?"
Shaking his head slightly, Li Fan reassembled the resting cultivators.
He once again commenced the intense formation construction work.
A year later, in Anchor Year 36.
With the successful closure of countless formation units, the internal structure of the Spirit-Locking Formation was completed.
Next came the construction of the most critical central core area.
Chapter 367