From the faint pressure emanating from the woman, Yu Dayi was almost certain she was at the Dao Integration realm without a doubt!
If they had chosen to make a move just now, their entire group would have been the ones to die!
At the thought of having brushed shoulders with death, cold sweat broke out across Yu Dayi's forehead.
*This Myriad Realms Association is truly treacherous! A mere Golden Core cultivator came to conduct the trade, yet they have a Dao Integration expert holding down the fort,* Yu Dayi cursed silently.
*Fortunately, I was cautious enough!*
Just as he was preparing to salute Lin Ling, a layer of green light enveloped the two of them.
Moments later, their figures vanished.
Only the group from the Five Elders Association was left standing in place with lingering fear.
"Did any of you see how they left?" Yu Dayi asked, squinting as he surveyed the area.
"There were no spatial fluctuations. No matter how fast one flies, some trace should remain. Yet they disappeared in the blink of an eye..."
Everyone looked toward the ground in unison.
"Earth veins..." Yu Dayi murmured after a moment of contemplation, a grave look surfacing in his eyes.
***
Traversing the surging earth veins once more, Lin Ling did not return directly to the Spirit Wood Realm.
Instead, under Li Fan's instructions, she sped toward Tianling Province.
Not long ago, word had come from Tianyang: he had arrived near the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
For now, he had not spotted any cultivators from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals guarding the perimeter.
Li Fan told Tianyang to wait nearby and not rush inside.
A little under half a day later, Lin Ling brought Li Fan to meet up with Tianyang.
Lin Ling was quite curious about the dull, witless Tianyang, but Tianyang stood quietly beside Li Fan as if he could not even see her.
Li Fan first observed their surroundings.
At present, cultivators rarely passed by the entrance to the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
*I wonder what trigger led to its discovery in the past.*
Even as the thought crossed his mind, Li Fan's hands did not slow in the slightest.
In his sea of consciousness, the Dissociation Disc emitted a soft white glow.
Li Fan first deployed the secret technique Covering the Sky with One Hand around the perimeter to prevent any aura from leaking out. Then he swiftly laid down an infinite formation derived from the Dissociation Disc, sealing off the entrance.
In truth, doing this was somewhat like trying to hide something only to draw more attention to it; it might even cause other cultivators to notice the anomalies here...
*If I don't do this, the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven will definitely be discovered anyway. Setting up these measures at least buys some time.*
*Besides, with an infinite formation combined with the Covering the Sky with One Hand secret technique, ordinary Dao Integration cultivators probably wouldn't notice it unless they deliberately searched thoroughly.*
*As long as I can stall until I reach the perfection of the Golden Core and devour it, that will be enough.*
Thinking this, Li Fan quickly completed his preparations, cloaking the entrance to the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.
He then led Lin Ling and Tianyang inside.
"Huh?" The moment she entered this grotto-heaven, Lin Ling appeared thoroughly surprised.
Her gaze turned toward the wood-attribute grotto-heaven within.
There, an enormous tree reaching from heaven to earth towered majestically.
Purely in terms of size, it was probably even a notch larger than Lin Ling's true body in the Spirit Wood Realm.
"Is a senior of yours over there?" Li Fan asked.
Lin Ling looked on for a while, then shook her head with a hint of regret.
At the same time, she wore a puzzled expression. "According to Senior Earth Vein, once it's grown this large, it should have awakened its own consciousness. How strange. Could something be missing here?"
Hearing this, Li Fan fell into thought as well.
*The difference between a grotto-heaven and a pocket world isn't merely one of size. This Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven is far vaster than the Spirit Wood Realm, and even surpasses Great Xuan or the Li Realm.*
*Yet it still strictly belongs to the scope of a grotto-heaven.*
Li Fan carefully recalled his 115th lifetime, when Mr. Bai had crafted a miniature Xuanhuang Realm with his bare hands, pondering where the precise boundary lay between a grotto-heaven and a pocket world.
After contemplating to no avail, Li Fan could only set the matter aside for the moment.
Rather than rushing to explore this wood-attribute grotto-heaven, he began searching for traces of the others.
*At this point in time, among the five elements, only the wood-attribute grotto-heaven is revealed externally. The metal, water, fire, and earth grotto-heavens are all concealed.*
*However, the five elements cycle continuously and are fundamentally a single entity. Having previously witnessed the grotto-heavens in their entirety, finding them won't be difficult for me.*
Li Fan closed his eyes and swept his divine sense through the wood-attribute grotto-heaven, tracking the transformations of wood-attribute spiritual energy within this realm.
Before long, he discovered the passages leading to the fire and water grotto-heavens.
Yet Li Fan did not enter directly.
Instead, he sought out the passage and headed into the void beyond where the five grotto-heavens intersected.
Unlike the expansive void channel he had traversed in his past life, it had not yet been opened up by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Not only were the passageways narrow and difficult to find, but even the "void" outside the grotto-heavens formed only a thin shroud.
Li Fan simply used the Furnace of Myriad Manifestations Technique to transform into a Realm-Rifting Whale.
This expanded the void slightly, giving him a more stable foothold.
After considerable effort, Li Fan finally beheld the complete panorama of the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven once more.
Five rings linked head to tail, resembling a blended palette of paints.
Because they had not yet suffered excessive mining and excavation by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the grotto-heavens presently brimmed with boundless vitality.
Looking down upon them from afar, one could even vaguely sense their unified, profound aura.
*Tsk tsk. This sight is completely different from the devastated state I saw before after the Alliance ravaged it.*
*Still, I never found out what the Alliance was doing in that lifetime when they mobilized so massively and nearly hollowed out these Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.*
*However, if they are driven to a dead end in this lifetime, perhaps I'll have the chance to find out.*
Li Fan lingered and admired the spectacle for a long time before flying back into the wood-attribute grotto-heaven.
Along the way, he widened the passageway once more.
Only then did Li Fan and the other two have the opportunity to closely inspect the wood-attribute grotto-heaven in its entirety.
A gigantic tree whose canopy occupied nearly a third of the sky instantly filled their vision.
It exerted an immense sense of oppression.
Even Lin Ling seemed to feel a touch of discomfort.
Curiously, though the spirit tree occupied the vast majority of the wood-attribute grotto-heaven's space, it did not encroach upon the survival of other living things. On the contrary, it released dense streams of life force, nourishing the surroundings in all directions.
The closer one drew to the spirit tree itself, the thicker the vitality became, nearly condensing into a faint green mist.
Myriad diverse plants bloomed in fierce competition.
Even with his thorough knowledge of the Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture, Li Fan could not name the vast majority of them at a glance.
Because of this, Li Fan finally understood what the Heavenly Profound Mirror's announcement had meant when describing the wood-attribute grotto-heaven: *"This grotto-heaven is exceptionally vast in scale, possessing extremely dense wood-attribute spiritual energy and an extraordinary abundance of diverse spirit plants and medicinal herbs."*
Now, this grotto-heaven belonged entirely to Li Fan!
*Compared to the nascent Five Elements Grotto-Heavens from my previous lifetime, the resources here are infinitely richer. I truly wonder how much time the Xuanhuang Realm spent nurturing this place.*
Chapter 826