Inside the artifact refinement chamber in the Valley of Longevity, Xu Bai was supervising Fang Zaiji as he reinforced the Medicine King Cauldron.
"Sect Master, the amount of heavenly treasures we've added is already more than enough. I'd wager they didn't even use this many rare materials when the Medicine King Cauldron was first forged back then.
"It's really a bit wasteful.
"Are you planning to use it to block an attack from the Longevity Heavenly Venerable?"
Fang Zaiji spoke with an aching heart.
Yet under Xu Bai's resolute, decisive gaze, he still cast a small lump of Eternal Calamity Fine Gold into the earth fire before him.
Under his strenuous manipulation, it was calcined for a full ten-plus days before the Eternal Calamity Fine Gold finally softened and deformed slightly.
Then, guided cautiously by his mental intent, he embedded and fused it into the surface of the Medicine King Cauldron.
Seeing this, Xu Bai nodded in satisfaction.
He then retrieved some black powder and handed it over.
Fang Zaiji had just let out a breath of relief when he caught sight of the item in Xu Bai's hand, jumping in fright once more.
"What is this? Why can't divine sense perceive it at all?"
Xu Bai smiled faintly. "It's right that divine sense can't detect it. I'll have to trouble you, Mr. Fang, to coat the surface of the Medicine King Cauldron with this material. If there isn't enough, I have more here."
"Something that can shield against divine sense perception shouldn't come cheap," Fang Zaiji grumbled under his breath, though he still complied with Xu Bai's instructions.
The earth fire flickered incessantly, casting shifting shadows across Xu Bai's face.
***
Thirty thousand feet beneath the Beast Seed Realm.
Having quietly returned, Li Fan excavated a deep hidden chamber, sealed it off on all sides, and concealed it behind formations.
Afterward, he brought out a metallic furnace and set it down on the ground before him.
"The Myriad Phenomena Furnace.
"Though it might not truly be able to smelt a Di Yi Beast, having such a formidable demon beast appear in the Xuanhuang Realm will certainly draw out Senior Brother Zhang's Grand Vow Dharma Body.
"Moreover, I won't need to consider how to control the Myriad Phenomena Ancestral Beast once it's created.
"In fact, the crazier it is, the better. That will save me a great deal of trouble."
Li Fan pondered to himself.
Smelting the Myriad Phenomena Ancestral Beast naturally required a sufficient variety of exotic beasts.
Conveniently, Li Fan had them.
They had not come from his recent transaction with the Empire, but had been obtained during his very first trade with Little Qing in this life.
Namely, the Life-Sealing Treasure Box.
Li Fan produced a square red wooden box.
It was only the size of a palm, yet divided inside into tens of thousands of separate compartments.
Within each compartment lay an exotic beast sealed in ice.
"Let's start with the weaker ones first."
Following the technique taught by Little Qing, Li Fan's mind stirred, and he retrieved dozens of palm-sized exotic beasts from the treasure box.
The instant they left the frozen compartments, their consciousness began to awaken.
With a slight pulse of spiritual energy from Li Fan, the exotic beasts were slaughtered one after another before they could react at all.
Their flesh and blood instantly broke down into the tiniest particles while still preserving their original physical forms, whereupon Li Fan cast them into the metallic furnace.
As if recognizing the entry of exotic beast flesh, the ring of intricate beast patterns encircling the furnace slowly lit up.
*I hear that when the Empire forged this item, they also referenced information regarding the Beast Taming Sect's supreme treasure, the Myriad Beasts Reincarnation Wheel...*
*The Beast Taming Sect remains hidden within the Lingxu Realm. Who knows when the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals will discover them.*
While contemplating, Li Fan continually fed exotic beasts from the Life-Sealing Treasure Box into the Myriad Phenomena Furnace.
As the number of beasts grew, Li Fan sensed a mysterious power taking shape within.
His expression could not help turning somewhat solemn.
Ten days later.
Both Li Fan and his avatar Xu Bai suddenly halted their movements.
A peculiar look surfaced on both of their faces at the same time.
"He successfully formed a Nascent Soul...?"
"Yet it's such an inconspicuous grotto-heaven?"
Just moments ago, the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai, roaming through the Xuanhuang prefectures, had finally felt an intuitive resonance.
He had found the grotto-heaven best suited to himself.
Yet somewhat to Li Fan's surprise, leave alone comparing it to his Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven, it was far inferior even to an ordinary single-attribute grotto-heaven.
For this grotto-heaven was barely a few inches across, surrounded by dark, chaotic void.
Only a patch of barren yellow soil stood amid the void, providing a place to stand.
Sharing the same divine sense, Li Fan could perceive with absolute clarity that this grotto-heaven truly held nothing extraordinary.
The sole reason the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai had chosen it was simply that it had only just been born.
"Interesting. This is a perfect opportunity to see how Mr. Bai achieves Soul Formation through the new method.
"As for the impending transformation of heaven and earth, what will you choose?"
While secretly preparing for his desperate gamble, Li Fan diverted a strand of consciousness to closely observe the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai's "natural" behavior.
The Sacred Embryo Xu Bai manifested an illusion from his divine sense, standing upon the yellow soil of the newborn grotto-heaven.
Far from showing any disdain, a faint delight showed on his face.
He personally conjured water to irrigate the barren earth.
Then, motes of green light drifted out from his body.
Before long, green sprouts broke through the soil.
The first wisp of vitality emerged within the grotto-heaven.
Soon after, trickling streams formed around the plants.
Brimming with vibrant life, the grotto-heaven began expanding into the surrounding void.
Taking in each change, Li Fan fell into thought.
*Nurturing a brand-new grotto-heaven from scratch.*
*Custom-tailoring it entirely to one's own vision is indeed superior to roaming outside and relying on luck.*
*Yet a grotto-heaven is not like a mortal. Its growth period is easily measured in thousands or tens of thousands of years—and that is under the most ideal circumstances.*
*In this life, so much time has passed since I formed my Nascent Soul, yet the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven remains nothing more than an embryonic form. That alone shows how difficult it is for a grotto-heaven to mature.*
*Could it be you plan to slowly wait for it to grow?*
*If so, that would be good news for me.*
Such was Li Fan's thought.
Yet the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai's methods far exceeded his imagination.
Catching him completely off guard, it tightened the sense of urgency in his heart.
After forming his Nascent Soul, the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai strolled leisurely through the Xuanhuang Realm, wandering at an unhurried pace.
Upon coming to a stop in a certain prefecture, he gently reached toward the sky.
Then, a profound transformation seemed to ripple through heaven and earth.
It was as though something was drawn out of thin air by the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai, then casually placed into his own grotto-heaven.
*Rumble!*
Roars resounded endlessly within the grotto-heaven.
A mountain range rose straight from the ground in the blink of an eye.
Within the grotto-heaven, earth-shattering changes unfolded at tens of millions of times the normal speed.
"This is..."
"Extracting the marrow of Heaven?"
"So effortless and unconstrained, without the slightest concern over the backlash of heaven and earth. And..."
Witnessing this, Li Fan's eyes narrowed sharply.
What shocked him even more was that the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai walked to the next prefecture, observed for a brief moment, and struck once again.
Yet another impending transformation of heaven and earth was quietly drawn out, without even alerting other cultivators.
Within the Sacred Embryo Xu Bai's grotto-heaven, another miraculous change began anew.
Chapter 778