"Hold your breath and focus your mind. Separate a strand of divine sense and send it into my hand!"
As the wails outside grew louder and louder, Jiao Xiuyuan—having pocketed the contribution points—spoke to Li Fan in a heavy voice.
As he spoke, a tender new branch unexpectedly grew from his palm.
A single green leaf stood all alone, perched proudly on the twig.
Hearing this, Li Fan instantly split off a wisp of consciousness and sent it flying toward the branch in Jiao Xiuyuan's hand.
As soon as it drew near, he felt an inexplicable pull emanating from the green leaf on the branch.
Then, beyond his control, he plunged right into it.
His vision slowly cleared. An instant later, Li Fan felt that in addition to his original self and his clone, he now had another body.
Fortunately, he possessed the secret technique Spirit Unity with Dao Transformation and was long accustomed to multitasking; otherwise, it truly might have been hard to adapt all at once.
Controlling the puppet's body felt little different sensory-wise from an avatar clone technique.
It was just that he could clearly perceive the separation between consciousness and physical form, lacking the seamless integration of a true clone.
It felt more like "piloting" than inhabiting another living body.
"The transaction is complete. This body is at your disposal, Fellow Daoist."
"As long as you don't deliberately do anything disgusting with it, it doesn't matter even if you destroy it."
"By the way, when the puppet body is damaged, a forced destruction measure will activate to prevent the inhabiting consciousness from being captured. You might suffer a slight soul shock then, Fellow Daoist..."
Jiao Xiuyuan's voice sounded in his mind.
Before Li Fan could reply, it grew fainter and fainter, until it was barely audible.
While the split-off consciousness familiarized itself with the puppet body, Li Fan's true self sped along, rushing toward the location of Qingfeng Hall in his memory.
By this time, the entire Wanxian Island had already been dragged before the purple portal in the sky by the Heaven-Moving Earth-Swapping Formation.
It was being steadily swallowed by the teleportation formation, crossing into the territory of the Five Elders Association.
The cultivators who had just attempted to rely on numbers to breach the blockade had already been reduced entirely to ashes.
Under this bloody lesson, the surviving cultivators all slumped onto the ground in dejection and despair, waiting for their unknown fate to arrive.
Li Fan, meanwhile, strode into the inconspicuous shop of Qingfeng Hall.
Inside, it was already deserted, with no trace of that slovenly old man.
He called out a few times, but no one responded.
Li Fan pondered for a moment, then took out a pile of supreme-grade spirit stones from his storage ring and set them on the floor of Qingfeng Hall.
"I wonder if this is enough to buy a way out alive?" Li Fan called out in a clear voice, testing the waters.
A long silence followed, yet there was still no reaction.
Li Fan took out another pile of supreme-grade spirit stones and added it to the heap.
In total, the combined value was now close to a million contribution points.
This time, the seemingly empty Qingfeng Hall finally responded.
A green ripple echoed in the air, then coalesced into a familiar green portal.
Li Fan's heart stirred, and he stepped through it.
His vision blurred, and in the next moment, he appeared in the space he had visited once before.
The ancient tree Jiao Xiuyuan spoke of stood right before Li Fan.
Except that now the human face on the tree had disappeared, leaving it looking no different from an ordinary tree.
"Fellow Daoist, you certainly are generous."
Just as Li Fan was about to speak, a crisp woman's voice suddenly rang out.
"A-Liu, since you've accepted his gift, help him leave this place."
"Understood, Miss." On the ancient tree, a human face suddenly appeared, glanced at Li Fan, and said in a muffled voice.
"Esteemed guest, please come inside." The ancient tree opened its giant mouth, revealing a passage.
"Many thanks, Young Lady!" Li Fan wasted no time, cupping his hands in a salute toward the direction of the voice, and then stepped into the opening on the ancient tree.
As Li Fan's figure vanished, the ancient tree closed its mouth, its features once again blending away.
"Young Lady..."
"Hehe, ancient cultivators speak in such an amusing way."
From the air drifted crisp laughter like silver bells. The branches and leaves of the ancient tree trembled slightly in response.
...
It felt identical to riding an ultra-long-distance teleportation formation: the surrounding scenery turned from darkness to kaleidoscopic colors, and then into brilliant light.
After Li Fan adjusted to the physical discomfort, he surveyed his surroundings.
He found that he was surprisingly still inside a Qingfeng Hall.
However, the presence of one or two cultivators inside Qingfeng Hall, as well as the bustling sounds of town life in the distance—completely devoid of panic—all clearly indicated that Li Fan was now out of danger and no longer within the Congyun Sea.
Inquiring quietly without drawing attention, Li Fan finally figured out his current location.
He had actually arrived in the heartland of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals: Xuanwei Province, which bordered Tianyun Province.
News of Wanxian Island's fall apparently had not reached here yet. For now, Li Fan drew his attention back to the puppet body on Wanxian Island.
Amid the despairing wails of the Alliance cultivators, the island was finally completely engulfed by the purple teleportation formation.
After a long period of dim darkness, when the sky lit up once more, what met everyone's eyes was an exceedingly bizarre sight.
Just moments ago it had been daytime, but after passing through that purple portal and arriving in the territory of the Five Elders Association, it had turned into night.
Above in the sky, there was no bright moon.
Instead, countless radiant stars twinkled, vying with one another in brilliance.
Streams of starry rivers flowed across the expanse, weaving an enchanting, spellbinding play of light and shadow, breathtakingly beautiful.
Every one of them was seeing such a magnificent starry sky for the first time in their lives; nine out of ten were captivated by the spectacle, their minds utterly entranced.
Wanxian Island, which had just been filled with incessant wailing, fell silent as death in an instant.
"Fellow daoists of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, welcome to the Heavenly Realm of Humanity."
A middle-aged cultivator clad in a white Daoist robe flew above everyone's heads and spoke in a clear, resonant voice.
"I know you may harbor deep misunderstandings regarding our Five Elders Association. But do not worry; before long, you will completely dispel those misunderstandings."
"When the time comes, I trust you will make the right choice: leaving the darkness behind to step into the light, joining the embrace of our Five Elders Association."
The white-robed cultivator spoke with a gentle smile.
Seeing that the Five Elders Association did not seem as vicious as rumors suggested, everyone first breathed a sigh of relief.
However, regarding the 'misunderstandings' the white-robed cultivator spoke of, they did not believe a single word.
"First, I must ask everyone to leave this island."
Following the white-robed cultivator's words, a squad of burly cultivators flew forth.
They held sharp blades and wore heavy armor.
Rather than cultivators, they looked more like soldiers.
Sensing their auras, every single one of them possessed a Nascent Soul cultivation.
The Alliance cultivators present all paled. Not daring to resist, they could only allow themselves to be escorted off Wanxian Island under guard.
*It doesn't seem to be aimed at me. Their goal was purely Wanxian Island itself.*
*Strange... what is so peculiar about Wanxian Island?*
Mingling among the crowd, Li Fan watched as the white-robed cultivator flew into Wanxian Island with a grave expression.
Following him, dozens more powerfully imposing cultivators appeared one after another, entering the island.
Explosive booms echoed out as buildings across the island collapsed one after another.
They seemed to be searching for something.
Chapter 489