Half a month later, a crude seawater desalination formation was completed.
Having once again secured an ample supply of drinking water and vegetation, the surviving residents of Tai'an Island kowtowed one after another, kneeling in gratitude to the immortal master for saving their lives.
Li Fan, however, felt little joy in his heart. Instead, he was burdened with deep worry.
After constructing a formation with his own hands, Li Fan could be considered to have barely stepped onto the path of formations.
Only then did he discover that Tai'an Island's Island-Protecting Grand Formation was deteriorating at an extraordinarily abnormal rate.
Generally speaking, an island-protecting grand formation could often operate continuously for hundreds of years.
Yet at the current rate of degradation, in another two or three years, the grand formation would completely lose its efficacy.
Through careful investigation, combined with the descriptions in Introduction to Formations, Li Fan identified the cause of the formation's damage.
The spiritual energy of heaven and earth had become exceedingly violent and scorching.
This blazing spiritual energy seemed almost to have developed a will of its own; after being absorbed by the grand formation, it began to slowly erode the formation's crucial nodes.
The Island-Protecting Grand Formation was now like a machine whose vital components were steadily rusting away—with every cycle of operation, its lifespan diminished further.
Having found the cause, Li Fan still had no good way to remedy it.
The Island-Protecting Grand Formation was far too intricate: over ten thousand critical nodes, each typically compounded from dozens of miniature formations.
It was said that when it was originally constructed, multiple Nascent Soul realm formation masters from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had joined forces to build it.
Now that something had gone wrong, how could a cultivator who had barely scratched the surface of the Dao of formations hope to fix it?
What was more, the root cause lay in the very spiritual energy the formation absorbed.
Even if he managed to temporarily repair the formation, as long as the violent nature of the ambient spiritual energy outside remained unchanged, it would be nothing more than drinking poison to quench a thirst.
"Staying on this Tai'an Island means waiting for death. I must find a way to leave.
"Yet who knows what upheaval has occurred in the outside world. With violent spiritual energy running rampant, charging out rashly is a dead end as well."
Caught between a rock and a hard place, he seemed hopelessly trapped in a checkmate.
"Is this what it means when Heaven releases its killing intent...?" Li Fan stared intently at the sky beyond the Island-Protecting Grand Formation, feeling like a fly caught in a spider's web—unable to move, struggling in vain.
Still, Li Fan did not immediately choose True Reversion.
Not only would reverting waste over a decade's worth of charging time, but without understanding what had actually transpired, he would in all likelihood face the same doom the next time around.
Even if he fled far away from the Congyun Sea, could he guarantee he wouldn't run into a new crisis?
One had to remember that the malice of this world's Heavenly Dao toward cultivators was omnipresent.
Li Fan did not believe that simply switching locations would allow him to escape it.
Therefore, unless pushed to the absolute brink, he would not choose to abandon this life outright.
Over the ensuing period, Li Fan continued cultivating while searching for a way to break the deadlock.
However, not only did the violent spiritual energy outside show no sign of subsiding, but as time passed, it grew increasingly ferocious.
Under its relentless battering, the Island-Protecting Grand Formation became precarious, teetering on the verge of collapse at any moment.
"Is there really no other way?" Li Fan felt a surge of helplessness.
Ending this life so unclearly left him truly unwilling.
Yet there seemed to be no alternative.
"True Reversion!"
Casting a final, reluctant glance at Tai'an Island, Li Fan called forth True Reversion, preparing to bring this life to an end.
Just then, he froze.
For as he looked down at the mortals gradually recovering their vitality, a thought suddenly struck him: the violent spiritual energy outside did not seem to target mortals.
According to the mortals on the island, it was merely hotter than usual beyond the Island-Protecting Grand Formation; aside from that, there was no particular danger.
"The killing intent of heaven and earth is only aimed at cultivators. Mortals should be unharmed."
If he dispersed his magic power and realm, temporarily reverting to an ordinary mortal, wouldn't he be able to survive?
Li Fan recalled the Taishang Primordial Scripture.
With this miraculous technique, dissolving his cultivation to retrain would not cost him much progress. As long as he found a safe place, it wouldn't take long to return to his original realm.
"Is this what they call 'finding life by plunging into death'?" Having conceived a solution, Li Fan could not help feeling a spark of joy.
Following that, further considerations naturally crossed his mind.
He was currently cultivating two techniques.
One was the Lesser Water Derivation Technique exchanged from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals; the other was the ancient Heavenly Mechanism Sect's Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos.
One was a new method; the other, an ancient method.
The cultivation method of the new arts was to plunder heaven and earth.
It was precisely because of this that they incurred the malice of the world.
Now that heaven and earth had laid down dense killing intent, the target was cultivators who practiced the new methods.
What if he only dispersed the Lesser Water Derivation Technique while retaining his realm from the Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos?
Would the killing intent of heaven and earth lessen?
Li Fan was a decisive man.
The formation could collapse at any moment. Without hesitation, he circulated the spiritual energy within him and ran the Taishang Primordial Scripture.
"Taishang has no name, returning to the primordial beginning..."
As the technique circulated, the water-attribute spiritual energy cultivated from the Lesser Water Derivation Technique slowly melted away like ice and snow, transforming into a stream of pure energy that settled in Li Fan's dantian.
In less than half a day, the Lesser Water Derivation Technique had been completely dispersed.
Yet Li Fan felt no discomfort whatsoever.
"This Taishang Primordial Scripture truly is miraculous," Li Fan murmured in admiration, then flew to the edge of the Island-Protecting Grand Formation.
"Indeed, this method works!"
Sensing that the pervasive killing intent of heaven and earth outside had abruptly weakened, Li Fan felt a rush of delight.
"Pity that the Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos was still cultivated through the modern approach of plundering heaven and earth. While the malice of the world is considerably smaller than before—likely due to the technique's underlying philosophy—it hasn't vanished entirely."
Realizing that venturing out now would still put his life in peril, Li Fan steeled his resolve and chose to continue dispersing his cultivation.
Before long, another stream of pure energy joined his dantian.
Though the two streams of energy originated from different techniques, they blended together seamlessly without the slightest conflict.
"According to the Taishang Primordial Scripture, the pure energy gained from dissolving one's cultivation can remain preserved in the dantian for roughly a hundred years." Li Fan's cultivation realm had now reverted completely to that of a mortal.
Yet he was not particularly worried.
"As long as I return to Wanxian Island, I can quickly cultivate it back."
Li Fan hesitated no longer. Boarding the Taiyan Boat, he steered it slowly out of the Island-Protecting Grand Formation.
Violent, scorching spiritual energy raged through the air, staining the distant sky an orange-red hue.
Yet Li Fan was now a mere mortal. The rampaging spiritual energy throughout the heavens merely whistled past him without launching an attack.
Li Fan breathed a sigh of relief. Setting his bearings, he accelerated the Taiyan Boat to maximum speed and flew toward Wanxian Island.
Along the way, Li Fan passed numerous islands.
The mortals on every single one of those islands were completely wiped out, devoid of any aura of life.
Li Fan was secretly shaken.
He hastened his pace even further.
Three months later.
Li Fan arrived at the original location of Wanxian Island.
Unfolding his map, he cross-checked four or five times, yet still could not believe his own eyes.
The once-massive Wanxian Island had completely vanished.
All that remained was a colossal black void, lying empty and desolate across the ocean.
Chapter 55