Under Ou Daozi's direction, the construction of the Myriad Realms Association headquarters had gradually gotten onto the right track.
Meanwhile, the steady stream of feedback cultivation from the Li Realm and the Congyun Sea Mutual Aid Society had allowed Li Fan's cultivation realm to successfully break through once more.
For reasons unknown, he had not encountered the shackles of the Heavenly Calamity this time.
He swiftly returned to the late Golden Core stage.
Judging by the accelerating momentum, he believed reaching perfection was not far off.
"It is time to consider the matter of Tianyang's Dao Integration."
"However..."
Li Fan took out a Truth Enticement Fruit and pondered for a moment.
In the end, he summoned Tianyang and had him eat the fruit.
Tianyang did not ask why. Without the slightest hesitation, he swallowed the crystal-clear Truth Enticement Fruit in one gulp.
"Good. Without further ado, let us set out. Senior Brother has prepared a grand gift for you this time!" Li Fan finally set his mind at ease, looking at Tianyang with some gratification.
Tianyang tilted his head, seemingly not quite understanding what Li Fan meant.
Li Fan paid it no mind. As usual, he instructed Lin Ling, and together they departed the Spirit Wood Realm and headed straight for their destination.
The target Li Fan had set his sights on this time was an anima of Heaven and Earth—Mo Shi.
Sharing the same prefix as Mo Sha, Mo Shi's strength was beyond doubt.
At present, Mo Shi had been born not long ago. Concealed deep beneath Qiling Province, it remained entirely unknown to the world.
It was thanks to Mr. Bai that Li Fan was able to know of Mo Shi's existence at this point in time.
If Mo Sha's sacred calling was to annihilate everything, then Mo Shi's duty was to fill the void sinkholes left behind by destruction.
Deep beneath Qiling Province, an unknown, terrifying disaster had occurred.
Enormous swathes of void cavities had appeared one after another, like the earth's depths being relentlessly gnawed away by wood-boring insects until it was riddled with holes.
If no outside force intervened, it probably would not be long before Qiling Province was thoroughly ruined in a cataclysmic collapse.
And the birth of Mo Shi was precisely to prevent this disaster from coming to pass.
Its ability was to produce a black, rock-like hard substance that filled the void sinkholes, repairing the gnawed and shattered space.
Yet if Mo Shi's ability were limited to only this, Li Fan would never have taken an interest in it.
Aside from "repair," Mo Shi possessed another overwhelmingly formidable ability: "Shatter Space."
The so-called "Mo Shi" did not refer to an actual stone, but a power capable of affecting and altering space.
Since it could repair a dense network of spatial sinkholes, it could naturally, with a mere thought, reduce a pristine world to a riddled ruin once again.
And this was merely part of the information synchronized from Mr. Bai's memories.
He was confident that once Tianyang truly refined and fused with Mo Shi, even more abilities would awaken.
As for how Li Fan planned to handle such a powerful anima of Heaven and Earth...
Before the group traveled through the earth veins and swiftly arrived beneath Qiling Province, Li Fan had already run a simulated deduction in his mind.
Although the Dao Transformation Stone in his sea of consciousness was merely of mid-grade, Li Fan believed that as long as no unexpected variables intervened, this hunt should remain completely under his control from start to finish.
Emerging from the surging earth veins, the three of them laid eyes upon the shocking, endless sinkholes ahead.
Patchy and intermittent, they resembled the destructive trails gouged out by a writhing giant worm boring through the earth.
"Even the power of the earth veins is severed here." Li Fan grew vigilant.
Having yet to catch sight of Mo Shi, the three did not advance rashly.
Instead, they began laying down a formation outside the bounds of the hollow expanse.
It was none other than the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation that Hongxi had used in the 115th lifetime to restrain the enhanced Crimson Flame!
Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock, Profound Heaven Spirit Sealing.
Two sides of the same coin, reaching the same goal by different paths.
Li Fan possessed the complete diagrams for the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation. Even though he had previously known little about the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation, with the formidable trump card of the Terminal Dissociation Disc in this lifetime, mastering one principle unlocked myriad others.
He had still succeeded in deducing a formation that achieved the exact same effect as the Profound Heaven Spirit Sealing.
Without the Heavenly Profound Mirror as the core element, its power was naturally somewhat diminished.
Nevertheless, the Terminal Dissociation Disc was a supreme creation formed by the superposition of two Heavenly Profound secondary bodies, and was itself specialized in formations.
With its enhancement, sustaining a formation capable of weakening an anima of Heaven and Earth was still well within reach.
"It won't be like Hongxi before, completely stripping an anima of Heaven and Earth of its ability to act the moment the formation is unfurled.
"However, cutting off Mo Shi's connection to heaven and earth, trapping the beast in a cage, and suppressing it shouldn't be difficult."
Li Fan quietly pondered as he laid the formation.
Lin Ling and Tianyang were completely clueless about formations, left only to stare blankly at one another and watch from the side.
Fortunately, Li Fan had spent decades laying formations in succession, engraving the swift deployment of formations into his very instincts.
More than a month later, an enormous, modified Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation covering the entire underground void sinkhole area was finally complete.
Next, he needed to set up formations to seal away the imminent shockwaves of battle, as well as seal space to cut off any chance of Mo Shi fleeing if the tide turned against it.
The Dao of space was not Li Fan's forte.
Fortunately, aided by numerous precious materials obtained from the Five Elders Association, he managed to barely finish after nearly half a month.
Li Fan then had Lin Ling ask Senior Earth Vein Ancient Tree for assistance, requesting that it further seal the area with its dense earth vein power.
When the battle truly broke out, it could deliberately create disturbances to mask any ripples that might leak out.
Faced with Lin Ling's request, the Earth Vein Ancient Tree was somewhat hesitant at first.
However, after being promised some Heavenly Droplet Earth Dew as compensation in the future, it reluctantly agreed.
The two meetings with Lin Ling had been separated by only a short interval.
Seeing with its own eyes how her strength had advanced by leaps and bounds in such a brief span, the Earth Vein Ancient Tree was naturally curious about this Heavenly Droplet Earth Dew.
Having secured outside assistance, Li Fan's next task was to brief Lin Ling and Tianyang.
With merely Golden Core cultivation, there was no way he would risk his own skin in a battle of Dao Integration caliber.
Lin Ling and Tianyang would be the vanguard, while Li Fan would keep his distance and direct from behind.
Considering neither of the two was particularly sharp-witted, Li Fan briefed them in detail on the various scenarios they might encounter in the coming clash.
He then temporarily linked the three of their thoughts through a formation and handed them an array of pre-prepared treasures just in case.
...
Only then did Li Fan quietly step back.
He clapped his hands, activating the formation layer by layer.
"With preparations this thorough, if you two still can't overcome a mere Mo Shi, you can't blame me even if you end up killed."
As a strange ripple spread into the void sinkholes, Mo Shi, who had been diligently repairing the cavities all along, finally noticed the abnormality.
Chapter 835