With a gentle tap from the immortal master, countless scenes instantly flooded Su Yuqing's mind.
The sight of endless flames rampaging across the Fire Realm made Su Yuqing, who had never once stepped outside the capital, pale with fright.
Yet she also came to fully understand the origin of the Li Realm's crisis.
“The strong prey upon the weak; such is the way of heaven and earth.
“It is true for all living things, and it is true for worlds as well.
“The doom of the Li Realm was sealed the moment it collided with the Fire Realm in the void.”
The immortal master let out a soft sigh.
“Leveling that volcano would be nothing more than lifting a finger for me.
“Yet it cures the symptom, not the root. In fact, it would only incite fiercer resistance from the Fire Realm.
“In merely a few years, an even vaster volcano would surely rise from the earth.”
Hearing the immortal master's words, despair washed over Su Yuqing's face.
“Is there... truly no other way?” she could not help asking.
Observing the expression on the immortal master's face and recalling his earlier actions, Su Yuqing felt a sudden glimmer of realization.
She immediately resumed kowtowing repeatedly. “I beg the Immortal Master to teach me!”
Only after she had performed nine full kowtows did the immortal master lightly wave his hand, stopping her bows.
He spoke slowly: “This is precisely why I require you to cultivate.
“The balance of strength and weakness has never been cast in stone. The Li Realm's crisis today stems entirely from the enemy's strength and our weakness. If the tables were turned, and the Li Realm became stronger than the Fire Realm, not only could you avert the world's destruction, but you might even turn around and swallow the Fire Realm whole.
“Achieving an ascension of the world!”
When Li Fan uttered these words with resounding conviction, he sensed the malice of the world that had previously permeated the air around him.
In a flash, it dissolved into nothingness!
Indeed.
From the moment he assumed the guise of an immortal master, taking action and even spinning half-truths to deceive this young girl Su Yuqing, the Li Realm's malice had surged in from every direction.
It was vastly more intense than the hostility the Xuanhuang Realm harbored toward cultivators!
Li Fan was not even afraid of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, let alone this tiny Li Realm.
Still, being constantly stared at with hostility every waking moment was undeniably unpleasant.
With a bit of maneuvering, he had finally managed to turn it around.
After all, what he had told Su Yuqing was no lie.
It was a thoroughly viable, practical plan.
“How could the Li Realm ever become stronger than the Fire Realm?” Su Yuqing asked, her youthful face clouded with confusion.
The Fire Realm she had seen in her dream was terrifying beyond measure.
Not only was the entire realm filled with churning magma, but it was also inhabited by countless wondrous flames that seemed to possess minds of their own.
It was entirely beyond the power of a purely mortal realm to resist.
Looking at the bewildered Su Yuqing, Li Fan smiled faintly. “As the saying goes, human determination overcomes heaven!
“If you wish to help the Li Realm surpass the Fire Realm, it must rely on you people of the Li Realm yourselves!”
With that, Li Fan extended his hand, and a small white-jade tower appeared in his palm.
“This is the Immortal Spirit Tower. Provided with sufficient raw materials, it can release an endless stream of spiritual energy day and night without ceasing.
“With mortal bodies, you naturally cannot aid the Li Realm. Only by becoming immortal cultivators will you earn the right to participate in—and even command—the struggle between worlds.”
Looking at the Immortal Spirit Tower in Li Fan's hand, Su Yuqing indeed felt waves of spiritual energy pulsing from within.
Yet as she gazed upon it, she also detected a faint, lingering scent of blood, which made her knit her brows.
*This girl's senses are truly keen.* Li Fan saw right through her reaction and took in every nuance of her expression, secretly nodding in approval.
Indeed. This so-called Immortal Spirit Tower was merely something Li Fan had casually crafted using the Empire's spiritual energy synthesis technology.
Its essence was to use vast quantities of flesh and blood from strange beasts to generate spiritual energy crystals, which were then broken down into spiritual energy.
To accomplish this, Li Fan had made a special trip to the Beast Seed Realm to gather a vast supply of strange beast flesh and blood.
As for the Feather of the Profound Bird and Xu Ke's essence blood, they lay deep within the Beast Seed Realm.
Given Li Fan's current Golden Core stage strength, seizing them by force would have been difficult, so he had temporarily set that matter aside.
Although the Empire's spiritual energy synthesis technology had an exceptionally low energy-conversion efficiency, it held the advantage of being cheap to construct.
If strange beasts could be raised on a massive scale to solve the source of beast flesh and blood, it could generate spiritual energy virtually without limit.
For a pocket world devoid of spirit veins, it was indeed an excellent solution.
Li Fan made no effort to conceal how the Immortal Spirit Tower produced spiritual energy.
Instead, he laid bare the inner scene of the flesh-and-blood slaughterhouse before Su Yuqing's eyes in vivid detail.
Having never witnessed such a gruesome spectacle, Su Yuqing turned pale as a sheet and retched on the spot.
Li Fan gave a cold snort. “Compared to the survival of an entire world, what does this meager slaughter amount to?
“How is it any different from the chickens, ducks, fish, and meat that you mortals consume daily?
“Hypocritical pretense!”
He rebuked her without the slightest mercy.
Su Yuqing opened her mouth, instinctively wishing to object.
In the end, however, she fell silent.
With a wave of his hand, Li Fan cleared away the mess in the room and laid out the complete salvation plan for Su Yuqing.
The first step was to select the individuals with the finest talent in the Li Realm and use the Immortal Spirit Tower to nurture them into Great Li's first generation of immortal cultivators.
The second step was to send them deep into the Fire Realm to absorb and bring back the various flames imbued with the world's source power.
The third step was for those cultivators, having fused with the mighty flames, to use their power to transform Great Li.
As one side waned and the other waxed, the Li Realm would inevitably grow stronger by the day, while the Fire Realm would gradually fall into disadvantage.
“This is merely the deduction. As for how it truly unfolds, we must take it one step at a time. After all, a clash between worlds involves far too high a level for cultivators to foresee everything,” Li Fan said with a light sigh.
Su Yuqing committed the immortal master's words firmly to memory.
She had a premonition that the immortal master before her would not remain in Great Li for long.
“The immortal path is fraught with hardship.
“Nor can everyone cultivate the same immortal arts.
“I can only help you take the first step. If you desire more, you may well need to journey to the Xuanhuang Realm and explore it on your own!”
With that, Li Fan tapped his finger against Su Yuqing's brow.
A total of twenty cultivation methods, including the Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos, appeared in her mind.
However, only the Golden Chapter was a Nascent Soul realm method.
The rest were merely at the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment levels—ownerless arts that Li Fan had gathered across his many cycles of reincarnation.
“Cultivate the Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos yourself.
“The rest you may bestow upon suitable individuals,” Li Fan instructed.
“Immortal Master, are you leaving?” Su Yuqing could not help asking.
Li Fan smiled faintly. “I am merely a passerby who arrived in this realm by chance. I acted only because I could not bear to see living beings plunged into ruin. Now that I have done all I can, of course I will take my leave.”
This was nothing more than nourishment for his cultivation of the Immortal-Sitting Art; Li Fan certainly would not waste too much time here.
He needed only to set things in motion. He trusted that with Su Yuqing's talent as an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, she would be more than capable of leading the people of the Li Realm down a new path.
Chapter 806