"The Spirit Wood Realm."
Li Fan and Tianyang stood high in the sky, their divine senses slowly sweeping across this pocket world.
He could not help marveling at the wonders of creation.
This was a pocket world devoid of cultivators and mortal humans alike.
Only a race of treemen, born from the Spirit Wood, lived here.
In fact, according to records that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals declassified later in his 115th life, several millennia ago this Spirit Wood Realm was still a desolate, lifeless pocket world.
Yet as a single spiritual tree took root and sprouted here, the pocket world gradually blossomed with vibrant life.
Li Fan gazed at the colossal tree a thousand zhang tall not far away, and at the treemen dwelling upon it, a flicker of regret passing through his eyes.
"It is a pity this tree has bound itself to this pocket world and cannot be transplanted. Otherwise, one would only need to sever its boughs and plant them in other pocket worlds to resolve the spiritual energy shortage once and for all."
Perhaps Li Fan's blatant, unmasked malice drew the great tree's attention.
Without any wind, the thousand-zhang tree suddenly began to sway.
Amidst the rustling branches, tens of thousands of treemen took flight, swarming toward Li Fan like a dark cloud of locusts.
Li Fan gave a cold snort. "Courting death!"
"Tianyang!"
Listless, Tianyang heard his senior brother's call but failed to grasp what he meant, glancing at him with a puzzled expression.
Li Fan's face twitched.
Seeing Tianyang's thoroughly innocent look, Li Fan could only point toward the encroaching army of treemen.
Tianyang finally caught on.
With a furious roar, Tianyang's form instantly expanded until he was as enormous as the spiritual tree.
Black flames erupted all over him, instantly reducing any treeman bold enough to draw near to ashes.
"Take it easy! Don't damage our little sapling!" Li Fan hurried to transmit mentally.
The battle was utterly devoid of suspense.
Most of the treemen in the Spirit Wood Realm possessed strength equivalent only to Qi Condensation.
Treemen at Foundation Establishment were one in ten thousand.
Golden Core treemen were already elder-level figures within their race.
The strongest among them was the treeman chief, who shared a mental link with the spiritual tree itself and reigned almost invincible within this realm.
Yet that was merely Nascent Soul combat strength.
Before Tianyang, who was in the late Soul Formation stage, they had not the slightest power to resist.
After losing nearly half their numbers, they were forced to surrender.
The treeman chief possessed quite a delicate, refined appearance, starkly different from the rough, gnarled look of the other treemen.
"Exalted Immortal, please stay your hand!"
The voice sounded sorrowful and, surprisingly, female.
Li Fan remained completely unmoved. "Submit, or perish!"
The treeman chief bowed low. "We are willing to surrender."
"Hand over the Heart of the Spirit Wood, and your race's safety will be assured. Do not make me take it myself, or this realm will once again be reduced to scorched earth," Li Fan said coldly.
The treeman chief shuddered.
She could not understand how this cultivator, clearly arriving here for the very first time, already knew of the Heart of the Spirit Wood's existence.
Yet things had come to this; she had no choice left.
Opening her mouth, she spat out a cluster of emerald radiance, which drifted slowly into Li Fan's hand.
Refining it in an instant, Li Fan faintly sensed that the spiritual tree of this world had become an extension of his own body.
And the lives of the treemen born from it now hung entirely upon a single thought of his.
With that, the Spirit Wood Realm belonged to Li Fan.
A strike delivered across such disparities in power was never something mere treemen could resist.
By now, Li Fan had arrived at the center of the spiritual tree.
A vast hollow existed here.
Hundreds of millions of root tendrils converged here from every corner of the Spirit Wood Realm.
And the tree's countless branches all originated from this place as well.
The branches and roots served as the Spirit Wood's tentacles and eyes, allowing it to perceive everything taking place within this pocket world.
Now, because ownership of the Heart of the Spirit Wood had changed hands, all these faculties had transferred to Li Fan.
Using the spiritual tree to sense every detail of this pocket world, a familiar feeling welled up within Li Fan.
"It is the same path Xiao Hei took when seizing the Heavenly Dao of the Beast Seed Realm."
"However, the restoration of life in this world was partly the spiritual tree's doing, so by comparison, this is even simpler."
"This is a fine chance to test the Heaven Altering divine ability."
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind.
Following his intent, mountains and rivers suddenly rose across the land of the Spirit Wood Realm.
Li Fan remade the world as he pleased, just as Mr. Bai had once done within his own grotto-heaven.
However, after barely half a day, Li Fan was forced to halt his world-shaping efforts.
It turned out the spiritual tree's innate power could not withstand such squandering and needed time to rest and recover.
"Dull."
Li Fan shook his head slightly, and with a flicker of his form, he arrived at the very crown of the spiritual tree.
Looking down upon the land of the Spirit Wood Realm, a grand, immense formation surfaced before his eyes.
It blended seamlessly into the world itself, devoid of the slightest flaw.
Moreover, at every passing moment, this formation was shifting and advancing.
"The Infinite Method."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
Just a moment ago, drawing upon the immense computational power of the Final Dissociation Disc, he had instantly designed a grand formation tailored specifically for the Spirit Wood Realm within his mind.
Its core concept derived from the Infinite Method of Zhang Zhiliang, the foremost formation master of the Congyun Sea.
With the Final Dissociation Disc, the envisioned Infinite Method finally had its missing piece.
A formation that continuously evolved without limit would be the nightmare of every formation master.
"Once this grand formation is completed, all ordinary methods of breaking formations will prove useless."
"It can only be cracked by brute force."
"Given the scale of an Infinite Method formation blanketing the entire Spirit Wood Realm, breaking it would require nothing less than five or six Dao Integration experts arriving together."
"If it is further reinforced with rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures, and Dao Integration combat assets are stationed at the key array eyes..."
"Then none save a Longevity Heavenly Venerable in person could hope to breach it!"
The illusory diagram of the formation slowly faded from Li Fan's eyes.
"As the defensive formation for the headquarters of the Myriad Realms Association, it carries more than enough prestige."
"What is lacking now are the resources required to build it."
Li Fan's thoughts immediately turned to the Five Elders Association.
At this point in time, the Five Elders Association still harbored all manner of ambitions toward the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
They were itching to make their moves.
And Li Fan possessed far too much information they would be interested in—information that could be traded.
The only thing to consider was whom to approach in this lifetime.
Zhou Qing'ang's superior, or Wang Po of Tianliang?
Or perhaps...
Figures flashed through Li Fan's mind one after another.
These matters, once classified as absolute secrets, had all become bargaining chips in Li Fan's eyes.
Gradually, an idea took shape.
In the many cycles of reincarnation he had experienced, although the two sides were supposedly evenly matched, the Five Elders Association's performance had frankly been quite lackluster.
"Allow me to give you a full push."
"Let us see just how deep the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' foundations truly run."
Li Fan's gaze grew profound and dark.
In this life, he would sit atop the mountain and watch the tigers tear each other apart!
Chapter 809