"Oh?" Li Fan looked surprised; he had not expected Fang Zaiji and the others to make such swift progress.
Led by the All-Seeing Eye, Li Fan arrived at the testing grounds.
The End Stone Platter, which originally looked no different from an ordinary stone, was currently hovering above the heads of Fang Zaiji and his two companions. Around it, space seemed separated according to different rules, forming concentric, motionless rings of diverse colors. It made for an extraordinary sight.
Under Jiang Yushan's control, a strand of black baleful qi was slicing through the rings surrounding the End Stone Platter.
Li Fan did not disturb them, merely stopping nearby to observe.
Before long, he caught on to the technique. The way Jiang Yushan was cutting was not carving off a chunk from the platter, but rather slicing off a single plane, much like peeling away a sheet of Xuan paper.
It seemed this was not her first time doing so, for her movements appeared exceedingly practiced.
Before long, a wafer-thin "End Stone slice" separated from the main body.
The instant it broke away from the main body, the stone slice—originally the size of the disc—fell into a state of rapid shrinkage.
Both the surrounding rings attached to it and its own volume dwindled continuously.
"Quick! Quick, feed it!" Fang Zaiji shouted hurriedly.
Even as he spoke, he tossed several stones toward Jiang Yushan.
Li Fan took a closer look and saw that they were none other than the sword embryo prime stones he had casually handed to Fang Zaiji earlier!
Upon approaching the End Stone slice, the prime stones melted away like snow and ice falling into water.
Meanwhile, the stone slice slowed its rate of shrinkage and gradually stabilized.
Once a total of six prime stones had been fed to it, the ring-shaped space encircling the slice drew inward, returning into the stone itself.
Just like that, a miniature version of the End Stone Platter formed right before Li Fan.
"Damn, that wasn't easy! Harder than delivering a baby. Wouldn't you say so, Yushan?" Fang Zaiji let out a long breath, delightedly holding the disc in his hands as he spoke offhandedly.
"You really have no filter on your mouth! How could you even make such a comparison?!" Liu San scolded, his brows bristling with ire.
At that moment, Li Fan spoke up: "Elder Fang, you said you discovered the specific use of the End Stone Platter?"
Fang Zaiji waved the disc in his hand with some swagger and said, "Indeed. It's all thanks to those strange stones you gave me before, Sect Master..."
He then proceeded to explain everything to Li Fan.
It turned out that after spending a long time unable to make any sense of it, Fang Zaiji had ultimately decided to follow Li Fan's guidance and attempt slicing the End Stone Platter.
However, they discovered that any section sliced from the stone platter would disperse into thin air almost instantaneously. Try as they might with every method, they could not halt the process. Flustered and exasperated, Fang Zaiji decided to treat a dead horse as if it were alive, tossing out everything in his storage ring that might be of any use.
By a stroke of sheer luck, he had actually stumbled upon a method to keep the disc stable.
And that was to feed it items containing insights into the principles of heaven and earth.
Not only sword embryo prime stones, but any treasure condensing enlightenment insights proved effective.
Fang Zaiji had tossed prime stones just now purely because they had more of those remaining. After all, secret treasures containing insights into the principles of heaven and earth were exceedingly rare.
"This thing is just like a cultivator. When it's first born, it knows nothing, so it doesn't display anything unusual. But as long as you nourish it with insights into the principles of heaven and earth to let it 'grow up,' its true talents will finally reveal themselves!" Fang Zaiji stroked the disc in his hand, speaking with heartfelt emotion.
"Just as you said, Sect Master: it has no other use, but its sole ability is that it can, to a certain degree, shield against the perception of the Heavenly Profound Mirror!"
Even as he spoke, a Medicine King Sect disciple walked in.
Holding a Lesser Heavenly Profound Mirror, he had a cautious, constrained look on his face.
"Greetings, Sect Master!" He bowed first to Li Fan, and then paid his respects to Liu San and the other elders in turn.
Li Fan recognized him. The man was named Meng Wushi, one of the earliest Medicine King Sect cultivators to awaken. He had long since obtained cultivator status in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, and after switching to the new method, had even broken through to the Golden Core realm.
"Give the Sect Master a demonstration!" Fang Zaiji instructed.
Meng Wushi nodded. First, he took out a pile of supreme-grade spirit stones and arranged them around the End Disc.
Then, he activated the Lesser Heavenly Profound Mirror's exchange function.
A beam of faint light shot forth from the mirror surface, shining first upon the spirit stones.
"Exchange items?" A prompt from the Heavenly Profound Mirror appeared.
Once Meng Wushi confirmed, the spirit stones vanished on the spot.
Then, Meng Wushi placed the End Disc within the coverage of the faint light.
Yet this time...
The Heavenly Profound Mirror showed no reaction at all.
It was as though it could not perceive the disc's existence whatsoever!
"Spawned by the Heavenly Profound Mirror, yet its sole function upon growing up is to turn right around and oppose it. Truly an unfilial child!" Fang Zaiji remarked, though his eyes brimmed with deep appreciation.
"For now, we have only tested it with the Lesser Heavenly Profound Mirror. It remains to be seen whether it can still guarantee a shielding effect when facing the Heavenly Profound sub-mirrors of the various provinces, or the Heavenly Profound Mirror's true body," Liu San added prudently.
Li Fan drew the disc into his palm and inspected it closely for a moment. He found that it was indeed remarkably close to the Bane Stones created by the Heaven-Overturning Alliance in his previous life.
"How many discs can be sliced from this End Stone Platter?" This was a crucial question. If only a small number could be produced, they could only be provided to key personnel. But if they could be churned out in a steady stream...
Faced with Li Fan's question, Fang Zaiji answered with rigorous care: "From the current indications, the End Stone Platter does not appear to diminish because of our slicing. But that might also be because we have cut off too few discs so far. As for specifics, we will have to wait and see."
Li Fan nodded and handed all of the remaining hundred-plus sword embryo prime stones to him. He then instructed Liu San, "You can acquire treasures that condense insights into the principles of heaven and earth through Jiao Xiuyuan. With the contribution points we've accumulated over the years, we should be able to sustain disc production for a while. The more of these, the better. They will be of great use to us in the future..."
As if bearing out Li Fan's words, a line of golden characters suddenly surfaced upon the Lesser Heavenly Profound Mirror before them.
"Due to exceptional circumstances, the functions of the Heavenly Profound Mirror are temporarily unavailable. Please try again later. We apologize for any inconvenience caused."
Liu San and the others were all momentarily stunned.
They well knew that the Heavenly Profound Mirror was a supreme immortal treasure. Yet now, an outage had actually occurred...
In unison, they locked their gazes upon Li Fan.
"Is the final transformation of the Heavenly Profound Mirror finally upon us?"
A sharp glint flashed through Li Fan's eyes.
Yet suddenly, a sense of danger surged unbidden within his heart.
Chapter 741