"I can't shake the feeling that it's a bit eerie here," Shang Tianci muttered in a low voice.
Li Fan also sensed an unusual aura lingering in the valley.
Tianyang darted forward in a single stride, shielding him.
Li Fan followed behind, closely observing their surroundings.
The valley floor lay at the foot of thousand-zhang mountains, untouched by sunlight year-round and suffused with a thick miasma.
The flora and fauna dwelling here bore no resemblance to those found on Mount Taixu.
It was as though they had abruptly stepped into another world.
"This miasma actually interferes with spiritual sense."
Moving through the valley required cautious footing amid obstructed vision, and even divine sense could not survey the full expanse.
Not long after advancing, Shang Tianci suddenly stopped in his tracks.
"The chimes have stopped."
He abruptly turned back.
Li Fan pondered for a moment. Based on the warning chimes of Extirpating the Profound, he demarcated a rough area within the valley.
It was only about three zhang in radius, fully visible at a glance.
Yet there was clearly no sign of any suspicious Profound Heaven Sect remnant.
"Hmm?"
Li Fan and Shang Tianci exchanged a glance.
Spiritual energy shot forth, completely clearing away the weeds and creatures within this patch.
After wiping away a thick layer of silt, a smooth stone slab was revealed.
"This is..."
Li Fan reached out and touched the stone slab, finding it oddly familiar.
An instant later, he remembered. It was not from the present Xuanhuang Realm, but from the Fallen Immortal Realm, in the "Retrieving Longevity Fruits in Ningyuan" scenario.
In Ningyuan City, within the modest cottage where Mr. Bai lived, he had seen a similar stone slab.
The Dao Transformation Stone flickered with blue light as Li Fan recalled the scene from back then.
Li Fan's expression turned somewhat strange.
To say these two stone slabs were merely similar would be an understatement.
They were completely identical.
"An Immortal-Severing Stone slab."
"Could it be...?" A guess surged in Li Fan's heart.
He ordered Tianyang to lift the slab, while he himself floated back to a safe distance.
Only after Tianyang entered the underground chamber, toured around, returned, and signaled there was no danger did Li Fan fly down.
It was hardly any different from the scene in his memory.
In the modest space, a faceless stone statue stood against the wall.
Perhaps due to the isolation of the Immortal-Severing Stone slab, a long brown wooden table in the center remained untouched by the passage of millennia.
It still looked no different from how it had appeared back then.
One could even faintly smell a lingering tang of blood in the air.
The wooden chest at the corner of the table, the transparent clay jars lined along the walls...
...and the skeletal remains of twenty-eight "beast seeds" buried beneath the corner floor.
Every detail confirmed that this was unequivocally the underground chamber beneath Mr. Bai's home, which Li Fan had visited in the Fallen Immortal Realm!
Something that existed within the Fallen Immortal Realm had inexplicably manifested right before his eyes.
This discovery struck Li Fan with an absurd sense of warped and overlapping time and space.
"Mount Taixu was once Ningyuan City?"
"In that case, the Purple Cloud Sect was not far from here?"
Li Fan's eyes flickered as he swiftly compared the information from Ximen Yu's Studies of Mountains and Rivers Across Past and Present.
"It doesn't match."
A moment later, Li Fan frowned slightly.
According to Jiao Xiuyuan's intelligence from the previous lifetime, the ruins of the Purple Cloud Sect were now located in Linlang Province in the central Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Vastly distant from this place.
Yet back then, Ningyuan City lay within the domain of the Purple Cloud Sect, no more than ten thousand li away.
"It seems there is an error in Ximen Yu's study."
"Still, he can hardly be blamed. Who could have imagined that places once in the same province would end up worlds apart millennia later?"
"This cannot be explained by natural geographical shifts alone. It is as though someone deliberately severed and separated them."
Li Fan had known before that the current Xuanhuang Realm was formed by the merging of the Xuanhuang Realm proper with several other worlds.
"Now it seems that beyond fusion, there was also reshaping."
"What on earth was the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable trying to accomplish?"
"At the end of the 115th lifetime, after the world was obliterated by a single glance from a True Immortal, could that earth-shattering roar have come from Chuanfa?"
"It seems the Xuanhuang Realm holds a special significance to Him."
...
His thoughts gradually settled. For prudence, Li Fan ordered Tianyang to dig three feet into the ground to ensure nothing was missed.
"This faceless Profound Heaven Divine Statue is carved entirely from Immortal-Severing Stone. It is extraordinarily valuable."
"However, rather than selling it, it would serve better as the facade of the Myriad Realms Association. After all, this might very well be the only Profound Heaven Divine Statue left in the entire world."
Li Fan also thought of the Profound Heaven Sect Dharma King still slumbering beneath the Purple Cloud Sect.
"Perhaps it will yield unexpected wonder when the time comes."
Putting away the divine statue, the resonance from the Extirpating the Profound technique also fell quiet.
"Senior, what was that statue? It looked rather creepy," Shang Tianci couldn't help asking.
"It touches upon ancient secrets. Its history stretches far back, predating even the rise of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable. You will understand in due time." Li Fan wore an enigmatic smile, revealing half while concealing half, successfully piquing Shang Tianci's curiosity.
As they were about to leave, a thought crossed Li Fan's mind, and he simply excised and hauled away the entire underground chamber.
Shang Tianci watched, dumbstruck.
Li Fan paid it no mind and subsequently brought Shang Tianci back to the Spirit Wood Realm.
While crossing the provincial borders on the way, they encountered cultivator patrols. Fortunately, Li Fan had the Covering the Sky with One Hand secret technique and went unnoticed.
"Little Shang, what do you think of this place?"
Standing atop the spirit tree, Li Fan asked Shang Tianci beside him.
"It's nice and all, but it feels a bit..."
"Plain."
Shang Tianci struggled for a long moment before squeezing out that word.
"Indeed. It is almost an endless plain with barely any grand mountains or rivers. Compared to the Xuanhuang Realm, teeming with wondrous sights, it pales completely. That is why what comes next depends on you," Li Fan said with earnest gravity.
"Huh?" Shang Tianci froze, clearly failing to grasp Li Fan's meaning.
"Doesn't your purple gourd manifest the wonders of Xuanhuang? Manifest them here in the Spirit Wood Realm, one by one. Even if their scale cannot match the originals, it doesn't matter."
"Recreate Xuanhuang right here in this pocket world!"
"Imagine when newcomers arrive: the first thing they behold will be landscapes identical to the Xuanhuang Realm!"
"How breathtaking that will be!"
Li Fan murmured persuasively.
Shang Tianci's breathing could not help but quicken.
"I'll get to it right away!"
The earnest lad patted his chest and gave his word on the spot.
"Before manifesting them, plan out the orientations and layouts of the landscapes."
"The treeman chief has lived for many years. If there is anything you are uncertain about, you can consult her," Li Fan didn't forget to remind him.
Shang Tianci nodded repeatedly.
"With Little Shang's help, our Myriad Realms Association is looking more and more legitimate."
"Once we complete the transaction with the Five Elders Association and gather all the materials, construction can officially begin."
Li Fan felt a touch of smug satisfaction.
"I wonder if it's possible to refine this Spirit Wood Realm into a portable treasure."
"And then swap the anchor to bind it to True Reversion."
"A solid, secure stronghold seems quite important at the moment."
Li Fan mused to himself.
Chapter 814