In Anchor Year 9, Master Tianyang's cave abode had yet to emerge into the world.
Hidden deep within a dormant undersea volcano, it remained completely unknown to outsiders.
Following the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation obtained from Tianyang's lingering thought, Li Fan expended considerable effort before finally pinpointing the cave abode's location.
After activating several protective talismans, Li Fan cautiously slipped inside.
At present, Master Tianyang was suspended in a peculiar state, neither fully dead nor alive.
From the Eternal Lingering Thought, Li Fan had learned the truth.
Back then, everyone from the Path of Bodily Transformation except Tianyang had marched off to participate in that ancient great war, never to return.
Tianyang himself, however, firmly believed in his heart that his master and senior brothers would come back.
Fearing that they would not be able to find him upon their return, Tianyang remained inside the Path of Bodily Transformation's cave abode, refusing to leave.
Unexpectedly, outsiders broke into the cave abode several years later. Tianyang intended to resist, but he was no match for them.
He had barely preserved his life solely by relying on the dharma treasures left behind by his senior brothers before their departure.
Thereafter, the young Tianyang began a wandering existence in the cultivation world.
Through trials and hardships, he gradually came to realize that his aptitude was not at all as his senior brothers had described—extraordinarily gifted, the hope for the revival of the Path of Bodily Transformation.
Far from standing shoulder-to-shoulder with his senior brothers, he was likely inferior even to ordinary Golden Core cultivators.
Yet even so, his master and senior brothers had still left the final hope of survival to him.
Whenever he recalled how they had said things like, "Tianyang, your aptitude is second to none in this world. Recover quickly—the Path of Bodily Transformation still depends on you,"
And contrasted that with his present inability even to protect the ancestral sect's cave abode,
Tianyang's heart was filled with bitter hatred for his own incompetence.
Yet reality did not bend to human emotion.
Tianyang estimated that unless he encountered some extraordinary fortuitous opportunity, the Golden Core stage would likely be his limit in this lifetime.
In order not to fail the trust of his master and senior brothers, Tianyang resolved to stake everything on a single gamble: abandoning his flesh-and-blood body and thoroughly transforming himself into a puppet to defy the heavens and alter his destiny.
The entire second half of his life was spent preparing for this endeavor.
Searching for a suitable location to lay down the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation, gathering materials, refining the puppet...
Once everything was fully prepared, Tianyang resolutely completed his transformation into a puppet.
Afterward, he entered a deep slumber within the earth's veins, intending to draw upon the power of earth fire to temper and elevate the puppet.
If nothing went awry, Tianyang would complete his metamorphosis within five hundred years at most.
He would advance into a formidable entity whose prowess was not beneath that of a Soul Formation Immortal Lord.
Yet as fate would have it...
Things went contrary to his wishes.
Across those five hundred years, dragons and serpents rose across the land, and mountains turned into vast seas.
Shifts in the earth's veins caused the effectiveness of the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation to plummet drastically, and the materials Tianyang had originally used to craft the puppet were merely ordinary.
This also caused the Tianyang puppet's advancement process to become abnormally sluggish.
From the scheduled five hundred years, it abruptly stretched into several millennia.
Across endless years, even while deep in slumber, Tianyang's consciousness slowly eroded away.
He lost the vast majority of his subjective will, leaving behind only the single obsession—*Tianyang throughout his life has never been weaker than anyone else*—lingering in the world.
Li Fan guessed that it was likely that very Heaven-Upending Palm, which had slammed the Congyun Mountain Range into the Congyun Sea, that had caused the failure of Tianyang's plan.
"All your life, Tianyang, you were second to none in misfortune..." Li Fan shook his head and arrived at the plaza outside the cave abode.
After studying it closely for a moment, Li Fan moved like a ghost, transforming into a slender thread of light that wound through the twists and turns to cross safely.
Without triggering any mechanisms or restrictions, Li Fan smoothly reached the depths of the cave abode.
There sat a skeleton the size of a child.
In actual history, because Tianyang's innate deficiency was never remedied, he had permanently maintained the body size of a youth.
Li Fan raised his guard and slowly approached.
Suddenly, creaking and grinding sounds rose from beneath the ground.
With a slight stir in his heart, Li Fan retreated explosively.
Immediately after, seventeen puppets clad in black and red charged forth in pursuit.
Circulating the cultivation technique of the Path of Bodily Transformation, Li Fan shouted aloud, "Junior Brother, do you not recognize me?"
The mechanism puppets turned a deaf ear, attacking without the slightest mercy.
Together, they lunged toward Li Fan.
Fortunately, they possessed the property of being "weak against the weak and strong against the strong."
Driving the puppets back with a flash of sword light, Li Fan maneuvered through the gaps between them, continually calling out Tianyang's name at the top of his lungs.
Gradually, the mechanism puppets' movements grew somewhat hesitant.
At this moment, Li Fan retrieved a projection stone, casting Ling Xiao's posthumous writings into the air.
With this, the mechanism puppets slowly ceased their attacks.
They tilted their heads upward, gazing at the text and images displayed in midair.
"Second..."
"Senior... Brother?"
A slightly sluggish, composite mechanical voice rang out.
Li Fan laughed heartily. "Junior Brother, a thousand years apart, I trust you have been well!"
"Second... Senior Brother!"
*Crack!*
Cracks surfaced across all seventeen puppets, and then, like shattered porcelain, every single one of them broke apart.
The fragments covering the ground melted and wriggled, ultimately forming a single small Tianyang puppet.
He flew over to Li Fan, tilting his head as he studied him.
Looking at the man before him who seemed slightly unfamiliar, Tianyang appeared somewhat bewildered.
Li Fan merely patted Tianyang's shoulder. "Come, your senior brother is taking you home!"
The Tianyang puppet froze.
A rumbling sound rose from the depths of the seabed, and the ground trembled ceaselessly, as though something was about to erupt from beneath the earth.
Li Fan chuckled. "Junior Brother, don't be so agitated. In this era, there are still plenty of bad people outside.
"It wouldn't do if someone discovered us."
As if trying to comprehend the meaning behind Li Fan's words, the puppet nodded only after a long pause.
In an instant, the seabed grew tranquil once more.
With Li Fan's assistance, it took three days for Tianyang to retrieve all of his various shattered body components buried deep underground.
Reintegrating them into a single whole, he quietly followed behind Li Fan.
Li Fan cast a secret technique to mask both of their auras.
He also took along Tianyang's skeletal remains, which bore the Eternal Lingering Thought from within the cave abode.
The two hurried along the journey, arriving at that nameless deserted island where the people of the Li Realm had taken shelter in his previous life.
Spending another ten-odd days, Li Fan roughly excavated a cave abode modeled after the original ancestral sect of the Path of Bodily Transformation.
After laying down concealing and protective arrays, Li Fan looked at Tianyang and instructed, "Junior Brother, just wait for me here. I'll be right back."
Tianyang nodded obediently.
After Li Fan departed, Tianyang went to what had been his room and quietly sat down.
Inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
*Awakening Tianyang a few years early does have a slight drawback after all.*
*He hasn't been completely tempered to perfection, and he falls a bit short of the peak Soul Formation stage.*
*However, I can help him make up for it.*
After searching and researching for a while, rare materials were purchased one after another, and contribution points flowed out like water.
Two days later, Li Fan returned to the nameless island carrying several storage rings packed full of supplies.
"Ashen Profound Diamond, Willow-Swaying Profound Stone, Scarlet Spirit Copper..."
"Junior Brother, these can be absorbed by your true body to strengthen yourself.
"As for your daily routine, remain inside this Guili Origin-Returning Array. It will aid your tempering..."
Li Fan patiently guided Tianyang.
Tianyang listened with earnest attention.
Chapter 445