Once Su Yuqing digested the contents in her mind, she looked toward the immortal master before her, whose eyes were filled with compassion, and could not help asking, "Immortal Master, when will you depart? If it is just me alone..."
Li Fan raised a hand to cut her off. "No need to worry. Believe in yourself. With your natural talent, you are more than capable of shouldering the great duty of saving the Li Realm."
"Me?" Su Yuqing felt somewhat lost. Yet hearing the immortal master's encouraging words, she could not help but feel confidence swell within her.
"Of course, I will not simply walk away and wash my hands of everything, either." Li Fan passed her another jade talisman.
"The ways of the world are unpredictable, especially when it involves conflicts between worlds. If you truly encounter an insurmountable predicament, you can use this jade talisman to contact this old Daoist's disciples. If any of them are near the Li Realm, they will come to your aid."
Hearing this, Su Yuqing's eyes widened. "Immortal Master, you have many disciples?"
Li Fan stroked the white beard he had manifested, smiling without a word.
Su Yuqing hesitated at first.
Then, finally gathering her courage, she asked, "Immortal Master, I... could I be considered your disciple as well?"
Li Fan neither affirmed nor denied it.
He merely left her with an unfathomable view of his back. "That will depend on your performance here in the Li Realm."
"Walking through the mortal coils of myriad realms, saving common lives with but a thought.
"None knows my true name or surname, for I am a compassionate immortal of the red dust!"
On the small celestial mountain, Su Yuqing stared blankly as the verses lingered in the air for a long time.
"A compassionate immortal of the red dust..."
*It truly suits the immortal elder's deeds so well,* Su Yuqing thought to herself.
And at this moment, the immortal elder who was full of compassion in Su Yuqing's heart was already about to fly out of the Li Realm.
*The corpses of strange beasts stored in the Immortal Spirit Tower are enough to sustain the people of the Li Realm in cultivation for a period of time.*
*However, to truly turn the myriad worlds drifting around Xuanhuang into my pasture, I must thoroughly resolve the source of spiritual energy.*
Li Fan pondered to himself, *I'm afraid that relying solely on the Beast Seed Realm won't be enough, even if it were slaughtered clean.*
*Perhaps I still need to make a trip to the Empire.*
*Right now, at the Golden Core realm, my strength is too low. I urgently need to find a helper.*
In an instant, the towering silhouette of that red-and-black puppet flashed across Li Fan's mind.
"Junior Brother Tianyang, I once said that if I survived, I would treat you well. Now, it is time to fulfill my promise!"
As everyone knew, Grand Preceptor Li had always been a man of his word.
Having made up his mind, once he left the Li Realm, he headed straight for Master Tianyang's cave abode.
As for the Li Realm, with all the cultivation experience Li Fan had imparted to Su Yuqing, nothing should go wrong in the short term.
In Anchor Year 14, Tianyang would awaken from his deep slumber.
Outside Master Tianyang's cave abode right now, silence still reigned.
No one could imagine that in the depths of the ocean floor, an ancient puppet lay dormant, ceaselessly strengthening itself day and night by drawing upon the power of earth fire.
"Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation."
Li Fan's eyes flickered.
Within his sea of consciousness, the Final Dissociation Disc emitted a faint glow, and in an instant, it had already pinpointed the flaw in the formation.
*Truly too fast.*
Even though he had anticipated the power of the complete Dissociation Disc, Li Fan was still somewhat shocked when he actually used it to crack a formation for the first time.
One had to understand that brilliant formation masters often adapted to local conditions, making subtle adjustments to formations based on the surrounding environment.
Thus, even with an intimate understanding of a formation's architecture, unraveling a real-world formation still required careful caution and considerable effort.
Yet the Dissociation Disc had already taken into account the effects various environments could have on formations.
Countless variations already existed in its database.
All it needed was to compare and retrieve, and within moments it could find the method to break through.
Even if a formation was particularly bizarre, with the terrifying computational power of the Final Dissociation Disc, cracking it took only a split second.
An unknown formation would only serve to further augment the Dissociation Disc.
...
Witnessing the entire process of the Final Dissociation Disc breaking the formation, Li Fan even felt a twinge of sorrow as a formation master.
He felt as though the formations he had painstakingly studied across several lifetimes had all become a joke before it.
"With this object in existence, the world's formation masters no longer have anything to take pride in.
"Fortunately, it ended up in my hands."
Li Fan's eyes gleamed as he passed through the Earth Fire Origin-Returning Formation and came to Tianyang's side.
At this time, the Tianyang puppet was not yet as colossal as it would be several years later.
It was only the size of a child, seemingly Tianyang's original appearance.
Under the guidance of the Origin-Returning Formation, raging earth fire turned into wisps of scorching red energy and was absorbed into the puppet's body.
"Junior Brother!"
On his way here, Li Fan had already circulated the Myriad Phenomena Furnace Art, taking on the appearance of Tianyang's senior brother.
Just like in the previous lifetime, he easily gained Tianyang's trust.
However, because Tianyang had emerged so early this time, he seemed somewhat underdeveloped.
His spirit was listless.
His strength had barely reached the late Soul Formation realm.
Yet Li Fan did not mind.
Rather than wasting time slowly absorbing earth fire energy at the bottom of the sea,
it was better for him to follow Li Fan and prepare for an early breakthrough into Dao Integration.
His so-called "good treatment" was not mere talk.
Leaving aside Crimson Flame and Azure Wind in the Congyun Sea,
as well as the black mire that Long Jiuyuan had used to achieve Dao Integration in the previous lifetime,
simply considering the animas of Heaven and Earth hidden throughout Xuanhuang synchronized from Mr. Bai's memories,
Li Fan already knew of no fewer than five locations.
If he were given sufficient strength, producing five or six Dao Integration cultivators in an instant would be no difficult task at all.
"However, the birth of a Dao Integration cultivator will inevitably draw the attention of powerhouses in the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Especially at this point in time, Chuanfa probably hasn't left the Xuanhuang Realm yet. So I need to be prudent."
With these thoughts in mind, Li Fan sat upon Tianyang's shoulder and hurried toward the entrance of another pocket world from his memories.
To form a true Myriad Realms Association, a secure, concealed base was absolutely indispensable.
The place could not be too small and had to possess abundant spiritual energy.
Furthermore, the native resistance could not be too strong.
Thanks to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals scouring the various realms in his previous lifetime,
Li Fan happened to know of a pocket world that met all of these criteria.
The entrance to this pocket world was located in Shilin Province,
within the stone forest where the ruins of the Heavenly Mechanism Sect had once been discovered.
In his previous lifetime, Li Fan had visited this place, yet he had not noticed the slightest trace of a spatial passage.
That alone proved how well concealed it was.
In truth, in his previous lifetime, it was only after the Taiyan Sect surrendered
that the denizens of this pocket world had taken the initiative to come out and submit.
Otherwise, even with the aid of the Heavenly Profound Treasure Mirror, cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals might not have easily found this pocket world.
The underground stone cavern twisted and turned through countless winding paths.
Even with the memories of his previous lifetime, Li Fan spent nearly half a day before locating the exact spot.
Inside a karst cavern filled with hundreds upon thousands of stalactites, Li Fan scrutinized the surroundings for a long time before detecting the entrance.
"It seems the unique terrain here also has some concealing effect on the spatial passage.
"Quite to my liking."
Li Fan nodded slightly and lightly pointed a finger. A faint spatial fluctuation rippled out from within one of the stone pillars.
Carrying Li Fan, the Tianyang puppet flew inside.
Chapter 808