"Come to think of it, this Great Method of Devouring the Heavens and Consuming the Earth is actually quite similar to that Guiyuan Toad."
"Both can devour earth veins, and both do so without restraint."
"It seems many ancient cultivation methods were created by mimicking strange beasts."
Recalling what he had seen in the Contending of Ten Thousand Methods exhibition at the Museum of Divine Archives, Li Fan fell into deep thought.
"What a pity that deriving a technique to inherit the beast's traits also brings along its flaws."
"Still..."
"If it could be modified through the Yanfa Jade to eliminate the drawback of losing one's sanity, it would be quite a powerful divine ability."
At this thought, Li Fan shook his head.
"I'm afraid there will be no chance in this life. I am on the verge of breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm, and the Mountain-Sitting Art has reached its limit. Deriving it into a higher realm is the top priority."
A young cultivator's wild, untamed face instantly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
It was none other than Han Yi, who in his previous life had used the Tiandu Feathering Pill—capable of extending lifespan by eight hundred years—to successfully secure the right to have the Yanfa Jade deduce a Dao Integration cultivation method.
"To reach the pinnacle in a single step and deduce the Mountain-Sitting Art to the Dao Integration level, I'll need to steal this person's opportunity."
"However, something seems off about him. No matter how you look at him, he doesn't seem like someone blessed with immense heavenly fortune."
"In my previous life, my avatar went with him to explore the Tiandu Ruins. Not only did we gain nothing, but we were plagued by constant perils along the way and nearly lost our lives."
"You could say that even my avatar, who had practically no fortune to speak of, had far better luck than he did."
"Yet it is an indisputable fact that he won first prize in fish picking and came into possession of a treasure like the Tiandu Feathering Pill."
Li Fan frowned slightly.
"I recall that before he struck it rich overnight, he was swindled by that Foundation Establishment Master."
"When the time comes, I should keep a close eye on him."
"To see just how he turned his fortunes around from abject poverty."
After long reflection, his avatar finally awoke.
Li Fan stowed away all the spirit stones and Dao Comprehension Pills, leaving the avatar behind to keep watch over Tai'an Island.
He himself assumed another appearance and took a teleportation array, heading toward the northeasternmost corner of the Congyun Sea.
His destination was, of course, Yinyin Island, where Master Yin resided.
In the entire Congyun Sea, there were few people Li Fan cared about.
Master Yin was definitely one of them.
Not only was the method he had comprehended—establishing the foundation with oneself—proven feasible by Su Changyu in the previous life, though still possessing minor flaws that needed perfecting,
what intrigued Li Fan most was that after more than a decade of researching the immortal-mortal miasma, Master Yin had ultimately chosen to end his own life.
Even ants cling to life.
In theory, an obsessive like Master Yin would never easily cast his life away.
Yet that was precisely what he did, which could only mean one thing:
In the end, he truly deciphered the mystery of the immortal-mortal miasma, and that truth proved impossible for him to accept.
In utter despair, having lost all will to live,
he chose to end his own life.
Li Fan was equally interested in this mystery.
Spending three days traveling, Li Fan quietly arrived off the coast of Yinyin Island.
From a distance, the wails of mortals rose and fell in waves.
Li Fan had no intention of alerting Master Yin, intending only to release his Formless Killing Intent to monitor him.
However, the result caught him completely off guard.
The instant the Formless Killing Intent locked onto Master Yin, Li Fan's perspective abruptly split into hundreds of fragments.
Aside from the one on the surface intently conducting experiments,
everything else he saw was inside an underground chamber: mangled, broken corpses bearing faces identical to Master Yin's.
Under the perspective of heaven and earth, Li Fan discovered that these mangled corpses, which appeared as dead as could be, were astonishingly still alive!
While lying quietly in the basement, they would occasionally, almost imperceptibly, shift their bodies or roll their eyes.
Looking into their eyes, Li Fan even had the uncanny sensation that these corpses were actively "thinking."
This bizarre sight sent a chill down Li Fan's spine.
"The perspective locked onto by the Formless Killing Intent split, which means that in the eyes of heaven and earth, these living corpses and Master Yin are all the exact same person."
Thinking this, Li Fan grew increasingly grave.
He remembered well: Master Yin had said he had dissected over a hundred corpses in this basement before finally comprehending how to establish the foundation with oneself.
Looking at the current situation, it was exceedingly likely that while "he" was still conscious, he had dissected "himself" body by body.
"A true madman..."
"No wonder he could comprehend a technique that defies heaven like establishing the foundation with oneself."
"If he had set his mind on cultivation, the Dao Integration realm might well have been within easy reach."
"What a pity he is obsessed with researching the immortal-mortal miasma."
Gazing at the sole Master Yin still capable of moving normally, Li Fan could not help but sigh in awe.
Across all his reincarnations, he had encountered numerous so-called geniuses.
Senior Brother Zhang's Grand Vow Dharma Body suppressing the world for eternity, Mr. Bai ascending from a mortal to Soul Formation in a single instant—these were figures whose names would endure across hundreds of generations.
Yet to Li Fan, none gave him quite the eerie, sinister impression that this Foundation Establishment cultivator, Master Yin, did.
Li Fan watched in secret from outside Yinyin Island for several days.
Master Yin was like a tireless machine: experimenting, recording, pondering,
and then repeating the experiments.
Not a trace of weariness showed on his face, only deep obsession.
Li Fan also noticed that whenever Master Yin sank into thought,
the expressions of "contemplation" on the faces of the hundreds of corpses in the basement became all the more pronounced.
"It's equivalent to hundreds of himself pondering questions at the same time..."
Li Fan realized.
"Perhaps this is how he is able to unravel the mystery of the immortal-mortal miasma."
Li Fan also recalled Master Yin's delirious mutterings to Su Changyu in the previous life:
"Yes, where did these corpses come from?"
"Ah! I remember now!"
"It was such a heavy rain! Countless corpses fell from the sky like rain, and I took the opportunity to scavenge a few..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly. "Hundreds of corpses scavenged from the torrential rain, and all of them were himself?"
"Truly bizarre and grotesque."
After pondering for a long time without recalling any similar cases from the secret lore of the Xuanhuang Realm he had read,
Li Fan had no choice but to set the matter aside for the time being.
He continued observing from outside for a few more days, until the mortal test subjects on Yinyin Island ran low.
Master Yin prepared to head out to hunt for more mortals to serve as experimental subjects.
Only then did Li Fan quietly depart.
"I'll just keep him under constant surveillance for now. In any case, with the secret technique Spirit Unity with Dao Transformation, it won't interfere with my regular cultivation."
Li Fan took one last deep look at Master Yin's hurrying silhouette, shifted back into the appearance of the "Heavenly Mechanism Sect cultivator," and returned to Wanxian Island.
Swallowing a Dao Comprehension Pill, he activated the Spirit Enlightenment state.
Li Fan entered seclusion to cultivate in earnest for a time.
Under this dual boost, even though Li Fan practiced a technique as notoriously difficult to cultivate as the Mountain-Sitting Art, his progress was rapid.
More than two months later, as a surge of pure, feedback cultivation suddenly manifested in his dantian,
Li Fan finally awoke from seclusion.
Chapter 438