Third: If you wish to explore anomalies, gather as many people as possible.
The most effective way to figure out the rules of an anomaly is to pile up human lives.
Have faith in yourself—you certainly won't be the first one to die!
...
Li Fan finished reading the *Survival Guide to Sect Ruins* with great care, feeling that this hundred contribution points had not been spent in vain.
With this experience in hand, he would have far greater certainty when exploring the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace two years from now.
In his previous life, ever since word spread that Sikong Yi had found the *Cloud Water Chart and Talismans* in the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace and earned one hundred thousand contribution points,
it had ignited the passion of Congyun Sea cultivators for exploring the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace.
Although the *Cloud Water Chart and Talismans* had already been claimed, still...
The Cloud Water Heavenly Palace was so vast; its treasures certainly couldn't be limited to just the *Cloud Water Chart and Talismans*, right?
It was with precisely this mindset that the cultivators of the Congyun Sea surged toward the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace wave after wave, heedless of life and death.
Even rogue cultivators from distant continents traveled all the way there, drawn by its fame.
And their reasoning was indeed sound.
In his previous life, right up until Anchor Year 27—the year Li Fan began Qi Condensation—the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace had still not been completely explored.
News of cultivators obtaining treasures from it broke from time to time, making everyone green with envy.
And precisely because so many people constantly explored it, most of the anomaly rules within the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace had long ceased to be secrets.
Li Fan had heard a fair share of them in his previous life.
However...
Opinions had always varied widely, with no definitive consensus, on how Sikong Yi had managed to obtain the *Cloud Water Chart and Talismans* back then.
Therefore, if Li Fan wanted to plot for the *Cloud Water Chart and Talismans* in this life, the best approach was to shadow Sikong Yi in secret and intercept it right as he was about to succeed.
There were still two years before the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace opened. He could first quietly gather all kinds of information on Sikong Yi to know both himself and his adversary.
At the same time, he needed to enhance his own strength as much as possible beforehand.
Li Fan turned his attention to a stack of combat-oriented Qi Condensation cultivation methods in the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
The price of combat methods was far higher than ordinary ones.
The *Lesser Water Derivation Technique* Li Fan had cultivated previously cost only 1,200 contribution points.
Combat methods, on the other hand, generally hovered around 1,500 points.
Li Fan quickly skimmed the technique descriptions, picking one that suited him.
*Flowing Water Sword Technique*, *Lesser Astral Wind Sword*, *Crimson Meteor*...
Suddenly, Li Fan's gaze paused on one method.
*Nether Spirit Illusion Art*.
After reading through the technique's description several times, Li Fan's heart raced.
According to the overview, this was a cultivation method focused on illusion arts.
One would visualize and nurture a "phantom spirit" in the mind; when facing an enemy, one could release the phantom spirit to bewilder them.
Once the phantom spirit grew powerful, it could even burrow into another person's sea of consciousness to launch a direct spiritual sense attack.
This technique was practically tailor-made for him!
Although he did not know how his spiritual sense compared to other cultivators, having undergone several centuries of repeated cycles of samsara, plus the boost from the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation, it surely wouldn't be weak.
Furthermore, as for visualizing and nurturing a "phantom spirit"...
A crimson figure inexplicably appeared in Li Fan's mind.
If he used the crimson flame, Yan, as the archetype for his visualization, the power of the formed "phantom spirit" ought to be extraordinary.
Pondering secretly, Li Fan decided on the spot to purchase this technique.
Only, this price...
Li Fan glanced at it, and his eyelids twitched.
2,500 points!
That was almost the price of a lower-tier Foundation Establishment technique!
No wonder such an apparently formidable technique had sat listed here all this time, completely ignored.
In truth, Li Fan had misjudged this.
The reason the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* was priced so high was merely that illusion-type cultivation methods were relatively rare, not because it was inherently overpowered.
In the present cultivation world, the spiritual sense strength of most cultivators was roughly on par.
After all, even before the great tribulation descended, techniques specialized in strengthening spiritual sense were few and far between.
Not to mention now, when different immortal arts could not be cultivated together.
Lacking the means to enhance and elevate spiritual sense, the vast majority of cultivators had their spiritual sense at the same baseline level.
Under these circumstances, very few would choose to attack others with spiritual sense.
Because that often meant mutual destruction.
This was why the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* was considered rather useless by other cultivators.
At the end of the day, it was merely an illusion art.
It was merely a method for using spiritual sense, not for strengthening it.
Since one dared not deploy spiritual sense attacks lightly, who would be willing to spend 2,500 contribution points just for a bit of illusion?
It was only because Li Fan possessed the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation, combined with having witnessed with his own eyes the figure of Yan, the anima of Heaven and Earth, which aligned well with the path of visualizing a "phantom spirit,"
that the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* could display several times its normal efficacy in his hands.
Regardless, Li Fan gritted his teeth in the end and bought the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art*.
In the blink of an eye, Li Fan was left with only 1,321 contribution points.
Contribution points came quickly, but went even faster!
He had originally wanted to purchase an escape art as well, but his points were running short, so that would have to wait for later.
The pressing priority was to cultivate the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* to the late Qi Condensation stage first.
Activating the Heavenly Profound Mirror's auxiliary cultivation mode and placing the exquisite liuli pearl beside him, Li Fan began his cultivation.
With a mind as clear as a polished mirror, the profound words of the technique seemed as plain and easy to grasp as an elementary school textbook under this double enhancement.
The pure cultivation base converted from the *Lesser Water Derivation Technique* in his dantian served as nourishment, propelling his progress in the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* to soar like a rocket.
In less than a single day, he cultivated the *Nether Spirit Illusion Art* to the middle Qi Condensation stage.
Upon reaching the middle Qi Condensation stage, one could visualize a "phantom spirit" within the mind.
Though it was termed a phantom spirit, the visualized entity could not be fabricated out of thin air.
It had to be based on something that truly existed in the cultivation world.
Thoughts flowed gently, and scenes from the past surfaced before his eyes.
Li Fan seemed to return to that moment in his previous life when he witnessed the blazing Yan incinerate the sea.
An illusory silhouette slowly took shape in Li Fan's sea of consciousness.
With just this incomplete silhouette, Li Fan abruptly felt his body temperature spike dramatically.
Sweat poured off him like rain.
Frowning, Li Fan forcefully circulated the Heart-Refining Incantation to suppress the scorching heat.
He continued to visualize Yan's silhouette.
As the phantom spirit of Yan gradually took form, Li Fan's body temperature climbed higher and higher.
If before he had been in a desert beneath a scorching sun, now it felt as if he were being roasted over a roaring fire.
As Li Fan continued to visualize, the searing sensation grew increasingly terrifying.
Finally, when the temperature reached an extreme limit, the clothes Li Fan wore caught fire without any spark.
*Pfft!*
Unable to maintain the visualization state any longer, the illusory silhouette in his sea of consciousness immediately dispersed.
Li Fan violently coughed up a mouthful of blood.
As if radiating extreme heat, the blood vaporized into a puff of white steam before it even hit the floor.
Li Fan wiped the blood from his mouth, entirely undeterred.
Purchasing a restorative medicinal pill from the Heavenly Profound Mirror and recovering for a short while, he resumed his visualization once more.
Chapter 67