The "Han Wuyou" who had previously visited Sikong Yi was, naturally, Li Fan's clone.
It had taken quite a bit of effort—feigning an intention to take a forty percent cut of the contribution points, personally resolving the cultivator practicing the same technique for him, strategizing together, and exploring the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins side by side.
The ultimate goal had been to plant a suggestion in his mind:
Once Sikong Yi finished the Heavenly Physician's first task, he would take the initiative to speak up, triggering the assignment to deliver the white jade statue.
Judging by Sikong Yi's recent trip back and forth to the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins, Li Fan's scheme appeared to have succeeded.
In this lifetime, he intended to provoke a clash between Old Man Yufu, the Master, and the Heavenly Physician.
Yet the entire plan hinged on an essential prerequisite: someone had to deliver the Heavenly Physician's statue inside the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins.
Only then would the Master sense the Heavenly Physician's presence within the ruins and drive his ox cart across the sea.
For an undertaking so fraught with peril, Li Fan could not possibly step forward in person.
The Heavenly Physician's four arts—Looking, Listening, Questioning, and Feeling the Pulse—were truly terrifying.
Even a clone that was fully on guard might fail to deceive him.
Sikong Yi, who originally turned in the Cloud Water Chart and Talismans to earn the hundred thousand contribution points, had naturally become the ideal candidate for the task.
However, Li Fan could not be sure whether Sikong Yi, like himself in a previous life, had received a request from the Heavenly Physician to help transport the statue.
To ensure matters followed the intended trajectory, the scene of "Han Wuyou" knocking on his door had played out.
Even if Sikong Yi or the Heavenly Physician harbored suspicions about this abruptly appearing Han Wuyou, Han Wuyou was already dead.
What was more, he had died within the anomaly-ridden Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins.
Li Fan was confident that even if the Heavenly Physician wished to trace the matter, it would not be so easily accomplished.
Besides, in the eyes of the Heavenly Physician, Sikong Yi was at most a greedy cultivator blinded by self-interest, eager to cling to a powerful backer.
He would not necessarily feel inclined to investigate further.
All in all, Li Fan's scheme was seamless and left no trace, completely severing any possibility of leading back to him.
It was nothing short of flawless.
This was a calculation that could only be executed after cycling through several lifetimes of samsara, experiencing all manner of possibilities, and grasping countless threads of information.
No one else could replicate it.
Even a powerhouse like the Heavenly Physician had unwittingly fallen into the invisible web Li Fan had woven.
Though subtle, the mere feat of laying a scheme to nudge an expert beyond Dao Integration into acting along an anticipated course held extraordinary significance.
The gloom in Li Fan's heart was swept clean; he felt the persistent shadow that had weighed upon him for so long finally begin to disperse.
*No matter how heaven-defying your cultivation, don't you still dance to my tune!*
Yet even as his emotions surged, Li Fan did not let a momentary triumph cloud his judgment.
He understood deeply that this small victory was predicated on having gathered enough possibilities beforehand.
From here on, that advantage was exhausted.
He would face a myriad of unknowns once again, requiring every step to be measured and cautious.
*Better to let go than to force the issue.*
*The Heavenly Physician is already in place. The next step, when the Master reveals himself in Year 16 of the Anchor, is to inform Old Man Yufu that the Heaven Fiend Sword is trapped within the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace.*
*For this matter, I likewise need to find a proxy.*
In an instant, Li Fan thought of a suitable candidate.
*Han Yi...*
Li Fan checked the lock of his Formless Killing Intent. Over a year had passed, and the man still had not returned to the Xuanhuang Realm from the sea trench eye.
It seemed his fortuitous encounter this time might have yielded bountiful rewards.
*No matter. He cannot escape the palm of my hand.*
Li Fan gazed for a moment at the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins towering in the sky, gathered his thoughts, and quietly slipped away.
***
Shenhua Island.
Ye Feipeng had been riding high on pride lately.
Some time ago, the immortal master who had ignored them ever since bringing them to the island suddenly reappeared.
And, unprecedentedly, he had inspected the cultivation progress of all the children on the island.
Those who cultivated diligently and made unexpected progress were rewarded with spirit stones and elixir pills.
Meanwhile, those who slacked off and whose cultivation stagnated were punished with fighting the "villain puppet" for three days and three nights.
They called it fighting, but in truth, it was a one-sided thrashing.
"Villain puppet" was the children's private moniker for that silly, blank-looking puppet on the island.
Originally, they assumed the puppet would be very easy to deal with.
After cultivating for some time, a few eager children took the initiative to challenge it.
The first to step forward was Sun Erlang, who was gifted with extraordinary talent and versed in all manner of martial arts.
In less than half a year, he had advanced from an ordinary mortal to the middle Qi Condensation stage.
Coupled with his martial prowess, he could unleash two hundred percent of his combat potential in an actual fight.
In routine sparring, hardly any child on the island could last a single exchange against him.
Thus, an increasingly overconfident Sun Erlang took the lead before everyone's eyes, initiating a challenge against the Tianyang puppet.
The outcome was predictable.
Tianyang strictly followed Li Fan's instructions: so long as he didn't beat them to death or damage the foundation of their cultivation, he was to beat them mercilessly.
While gauging every strike with meticulous restraint, he gave Sun Erlang a harsh taste of the treacherous nature of the world and what it meant to play the pig to eat the tiger.
It seemed only a hair stronger than Sun Erlang, as though just a bit more effort would be enough to defeat it.
Tianyang continuously baited Sun Erlang into launching attack after attack.
Yet each time at the critical juncture, Sun Erlang would narrowly, regretfully fall short.
Possessing a fiercely competitive nature, Sun Erlang fought until he collapsed from sheer exhaustion and blacked out before the battle ended.
The next day, upon waking, Sun Erlang had an epiphany.
After entering closed-door cultivation for seven days and seven nights, he broke straight through to the late Qi Condensation stage.
Ecstatic, he decided to reclaim his lost face and challenged Tianyang once more.
And the result...
Still just a hair short!
Now all the children on the island realized something was amiss.
This seemingly honest, simple puppet was deliberately toying with them!
In his fury, Sun Erlang was beaten unconscious once again.
In the days that followed, no matter what cultivation realm the children displayed when fighting it, the puppet always used just enough strength to edge them out slightly.
While some children fumed with indignation, denouncing Tianyang as a great villain, others came to realize that the Tianyang puppet was the most ideal sparring partner imaginable.
They began seeking out Tianyang for battles continuously.
Ye Feipeng, of course, was one of them.
Fighting was not truly his wish, but as the only person on the island cultivating three methods concurrently, Ye Feipeng refused to let himself fall behind anyone else.
Regrettably, his talent was not top-tier. At the beginning, he could maintain an edge by virtue of training both his physical body and his spiritual cultivation.
Yet as the others steadily advanced in cultivation realm, Ye Feipeng's combat performance against Tianyang was gradually matched and overtaken by the rest.
Just as he was growing anxious, the immortal master arrived.
While meting out clear rewards and punishments, he showed Ye Feipeng special favor.
After inspecting his cultivation progress and conducting a thorough physical examination, the immortal master decided that the Sea-Calming Divine Sword he currently practiced might not be quite suitable.
Thus, he dissolved Ye Feipeng's cultivation and bestowed a new technique upon him: the Wandering Sea Dragon Technique.
Chapter 484