Li Fan had been trapped at the middle Qi Condensation stage for several years, unable to make the slightest progress.
Even after cultivating two separate techniques to the middle Qi Condensation stage, he still could not sense where his fortuitous opportunity lay.
Yet as Li Fan looked at the Vast Sea Pearl now, he suddenly felt a vague inkling of a breakthrough in the dark.
It was to do as he had done before: reach out with his own consciousness to touch and comprehend the Vast Sea Pearl.
Li Fan naturally understood how perilous that was—it was virtually no different from seeking his own death.
The *Cultivation Miscellany* contained many records of cultivators sensing their personal opportunities.
Though there was a certain degree of risk, opportunity definitely walked hand in hand with danger.
Why had there been no premonition before, only for it to suddenly emerge now?
Li Fan understood at once.
The *Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation*.
Perhaps channeling the *Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation* could help him resist being assimilated by the will of the Vast Sea.
His mind was made up.
Cradling the Vast Sea Pearl in both hands, Li Fan rested it gently before his dantian.
Sitting cross-legged, he circulated both the *Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos* and the *Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation* at the same time.
Splitting his attention two ways was unfamiliar to Li Fan at first.
However, the Heart-Refining Incantation involved no circulation of spiritual energy, only the tempering of his mind and spirit, so the two cultivation arts did not conflict with one another.
After several hundred attempts, Li Fan finally grew accustomed to running both techniques simultaneously.
A trance washed over his mind. Once again, he seemed to become a boundless ocean, watching the world shift and turn.
Suns rose and moons set; constellations wheeled across the sky; clouds gathered and rain dispersed.
All of it accelerated thousands upon tens of thousands of times over, flashing past Li Fan's eyes in a blur.
A single thought felt as though a century had passed.
An ancient, primordial, weathered aura gradually seeped into Li Fan's consciousness.
He began to grow accustomed to viewing the world from the perspective of an ocean.
He began to forget that he was a human being.
Right at that moment, a cool, refreshing breath suddenly surged forth.
Like a clear mountain spring, it gently washed over the weathered, mottled scars carved by time.
Li Fan's consciousness steadily returned.
*It really works.*
Having confirmed his suspicion, Li Fan felt neither joy nor sorrow.
Though the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation could mitigate his assimilation by the Vast Sea's will to a degree, compared to the will of the vast ocean, he was still far too insignificant.
He had inevitably still been affected.
His lifespan was still burning away at many times the rate of normal cultivation, and mortal emotions like joy, anger, sorrow, and delight were muted into near-nothingness.
Naturally, there were benefits as well.
At this moment, he could already mobilize a sliver of the Vast Sea Pearl's power.
His divine sense was magnified hundreds and thousands of times; with a gentle sweep, it effortlessly encompassed the entirety of Tai'an Island.
Without stopping there, Li Fan's consciousness rippled outward like expanding rings of waves, spreading rapidly into the distance.
Islands devoid of all life surfaced in his mind one after another.
Through his divine sense, he saw an extinguished volcano beneath a certain island reigniting from the dead ashes under the influence of the scorching disaster.
He saw a giant fish skeleton lying among heaps of human remains not far from Liuli Island. At the center of the skeleton, a massive glazed jewel sparkled under the sunlight.
He saw a few lingering immortal cultivators who he had thought were long dead, clinging to life in hidden corners across the Congyun Sea.
He saw countless secrets of the Congyun Sea that were ordinarily concealed, brought to light only by this apocalyptic devastation.
...
However, none of this concerned him anymore.
There was not a shred of greed left in his heart.
Li Fan swiftly withdrew his divine sense and drew upon the Vast Sea Pearl, gathering the sparse water vapor lingering between Heaven and Earth across the Congyun Sea above Tai'an Island.
And so, the surviving mortals on Tai'an Island witnessed dark clouds slowly gathering in the sky.
*Rumble!*
As heavy rain poured down, people wept tears of joy.
They embraced one another, rolling in the rain.
The deluge lasted for an hour.
A faint wisp of clouds lingered above Tai'an Island, never fully dispersing.
This was of Li Fan's doing. Every half-month, it would automatically draw water vapor from the Vast Sea Pearl and bring rain to Tai'an Island once.
This ensured the survival of the mortals on the island.
Having finished all this, Li Fan quietly gazed at the sky.
The reason he felt no desire for the countless secrets and treasures of the Congyun Sea was not that he had suddenly transcended mortality into sainthood, but because he had found something far more worthy of pursuit.
An opportunity to touch the will of Heaven and Earth.
In the theory of the *Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos*, the most ideal state of the cultivation technique was to perceive and refine the qi mechanism of Heaven and Earth.
As the external manifestation of Heaven and Earth's will, the qi mechanism was immense beyond measure.
If ordinary cultivators came into contact with it, the slightest carelessness would result in their lifespan draining away at breakneck speed, just as Li Fan had experienced before.
It was entirely normal to even lose one's sense of self and become a puppet of the Heavenly Dao.
Yet Li Fan now had this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: to touch the will of Heaven and Earth while preserving his own consciousness.
Because right now, he was not merely an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator.
A part of his consciousness was intertwined with the Vast Sea Pearl.
If a cultivator attempting to fathom Heaven and Earth was seeking their own doom,
then for an ocean to fathom Heaven and Earth, there might truly be a path to survival.
A faint flicker of excitement stirred in Li Fan's heart.
*This* was the true meaning of hearing the Dao at dawn and dying content at dusk!
Incarnating as the boundless sea, he quietly observed this world, sensing the various flows of qi circulating between Heaven and Earth, and feeling the will of Heaven and Earth.
One year, two years...
The passage of time no longer mattered to Li Fan.
The more he gazed at the sky, the deeper his comprehension grew.
His previous notions were overturned one by one.
He had thought that the killing intent permeating the Congyun Sea had gradually dissipated.
Only now did he realize that the killing intent of Heaven and Earth had never diminished; it remained present even now.
The violent killing intent Li Fan had previously sensed did not belong to the Heavenly Dao itself.
The killing intent of Heaven and Earth was something mortal cultivators could never perceive.
It was not so violent, not so furious, nor did it harbor such mortal emotions.
It was merely a pure will, a pure rule.
It was: *Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all things as straw dogs.*
It was: *I destroy you, yet what has that to do with you?*
Beneath the Heavenly Dao, all were mere ants.
Mortals, cultivators, the boundless sea...
In Its eyes, there was no difference.
When cultivators pillaged Heaven and Earth, the Heavenly Dao naturally spawned killing intent.
Yet the Heavenly Dao would not act directly, for cultivators were themselves part of the Heavenly Dao.
Corresponding laws would naturally unfold to answer the killing intent of Heaven and Earth.
Such as how immortal arts could not be cultivated together.
Or such as...
The sight Li Fan witnessed at this very moment.
High above the Congyun Sea, a translucent crimson figure looked down with cold indifference.
In Its hand, a tiny flame danced without pause,
scorching the Congyun Sea.
Sensing Li Fan's gaze, the crimson figure turned Its head.
Its eyes met Li Fan's.
The waters within the Vast Sea Pearl boiled in an instant.
Fortunately, It merely cast a single glance before looking away.
Only then was Li Fan's consciousness preserved.
And precisely because of that single glance, Li Fan understood Its identity.
Anima of Heaven and Earth: Yan!
Chapter 58