The scene of that demise was somewhat similar to when Blue Feather had faked his death.
Heaven and Earth mourned in unison.
It was not just about helping Heaven and Earth directly. Aiding these cultivators whom Heaven and Earth regarded as allies would likewise increase the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's favor.
Looking at it rationally, serving as a lackey to the Heavenly Dao in the Xuanhuang Realm would never end well. It would only invite ruthless suppression from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association. No cultivator in their right mind would make such a choice.
Yet with the aid of True Reversion, Li Fan had no worries whatsoever.
He had no real intention of becoming an enforcer for the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. All he needed was to swindle its trust.
*If I do your bidding, you at least have to lend me some power. After all, neither the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals nor the Five Elders Association is an easy target.*
As long as he could successfully coax out some of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's remaining strength, Li Fan's objective would be accomplished.
Expecting him to actually fight to the death with the Alliance and the Five Elders Association... was naturally out of the question. Once True Reversion activated, Li Fan would owe nothing to anyone!
*Still, how to win the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's trust step by step requires careful consideration from a long-term perspective.*
*This is strictly forbidden territory, with no written records to reference. I have to tread carefully and test the waters on my own.*
*Come to think of it, pushing the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association into war should count too, right?*
Li Fan abruptly raised his head, his gaze seeming to pierce through the Spirit Wood Realm and reach straight to the firmament of the Xuanhuang Realm.
*No. Toiling in obscurity without a word will never earn recognition from the superiors.*
*Merit left unknown to those above is no merit at all.*
*Perhaps I can reach Heaven's ear through Senior Stone Slab.*
An idea immediately took shape in Li Fan's mind.
Many of his schemes were carried out from within pocket worlds, the Congyun Sea, and similar places. The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao might not necessarily be aware of them.
In the future, he could visit Senior Stone Slab more often, reporting any achievements down to the finest detail. Not only would that build familiarity before Senior Stone Slab, but it would also win favor with Heaven and Earth.
*Wait, if I do that in person, it might look too deliberate.*
*Right, I can leave it to Lin Ling.*
Picturing Lin Ling's naturally airheaded demeanor, Li Fan gave a secret nod.
Within that brief span of thought, he had mapped out two future avenues.
Li Fan then summoned Tianyang before him.
Lately, Tianyang had been staying in the Spirit Wood Realm, assisting Shang Tianci and Ou Daozi with constructing the Federation headquarters. Even though he had never rested, Li Fan noticed that Tianyang's strength had grown considerably compared to when he had first integrated with the Dao.
"Junior Brother, let us spar a bit," Li Fan said genially.
Tianyang looked at Li Fan with some suspicion, glanced at his own fists, and then slowly shook his head, seemingly afraid of hurting Li Fan.
Li Fan chuckled, letting slip a trace of the aura belonging to the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
Tianyang's eyes instantly lit up. He grinned, seemingly delighted by Li Fan's massive leap in strength.
"Rest assured, Junior Brother. My combat strength is no longer inferior to yours."
Those words stirred Tianyang's competitive spirit, and he immediately grew eager to try.
Li Fan looked around the Spirit Wood Realm at the headquarters building complex that had finally begun to take shape.
"The Spirit Wood Realm is not small, but it still cannot withstand the collateral damage of a battle between the two of us."
With a thought, a suitable location immediately occurred to him.
"Follow me."
Leaving the Spirit Wood Realm, the two flew one after the other across four provinces, arriving within what was now Langhuan Province. Hidden in this province was a pocket world named Hunyin.
Back in his 115th lifetime, among the many pocket worlds explored by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the Hunyin Realm had been exceptionally unique. For unknown reasons, all the mortals who had migrated into that world had perished, leaving behind only countless ghostly, soul-like wraiths drifting between heaven and earth.
Those soul bodies seemed connected to spatial power and were extraordinarily nourishing for Realm-Rifting Whales. After a pod of realm-leaving whales discovered the Hunyin Realm by chance, they had regularly visited to feed. Once the soul bodies were consumed, Heaven and Earth would naturally spawn them anew, making them the best natural forage for the Realm-Rifting Whales.
Consequently, among all the pocket worlds where Realm-Rifting Whales existed, the pod in the Hunyin Realm flourished the most. Because the whales ceaselessly forged spatial pathways day and night, the Hunyin Realm was also the farthest from the Xuanhuang Realm.
*In my 115th lifetime, the Alliance exploration team lost contact immediately upon entering. Everyone assumed they had met with disaster, never realizing that it was simply because the distance was so immense that ordinary means of communication ceased to function.*
*The vast emptiness of the void is the perfect place for Tianyang and me to go all out.*
With that in mind, Li Fan located the entrance to the Hunyin Realm. After setting up a concealing formation around the perimeter, he took the lead and flew inside.
A sense of pitch-black depth rushed over him in an instant, completely unlike the sensation of flying through the spatial pathways leading to Great Li or Great Xuan.
A strange, stifling atmosphere weighed down upon Li Fan's chest. Even Tianyang, who was normally somewhat dull, wore an uncharacteristically solemn expression.
"This feeling..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, sensing it carefully.
After a long while, realization dawned on him. "It's like a mortal stranded in the deep sea..."
*Is it because it's too far from the Xuanhuang Realm?*
*The information gathered previously never mentioned this. No wonder none of the exploration team's members were ever seen again after they returned.*
*It seems crossing the endless void is far from as easy as I imagined.*
After pondering for a while, Li Fan set those thoughts aside for the moment. Continuing along the spatial pathway, they flew for nearly half a day. Only when he felt they were far enough did he halt his flight.
"Junior Brother, make your move," Li Fan said in a deep voice.
Tianyang nodded. Without a word, an immense pressure manifested as his red-and-black anima of Heaven and Earth body was revealed.
In an instant, Li Fan felt as though the space around him had been completely locked down. His limbs felt shackled by heavy fetters, rendering him unable to move.
*So this is the power of space.*
Li Fan knew Tianyang was holding back. Otherwise, had that spatial force acted directly upon his body, it could have torn Li Fan to shreds in an instant!
"Junior Brother, I said go all out!" Rather than struggling to break free from the spatial shackles, Li Fan's expression darkened, and he spoke with utter seriousness.
Tianyang was momentarily taken aback.
Then, Li Fan felt the surrounding space grow increasingly profound and dark, as if bitten away by an invisible beast.
Li Fan's head, hands, and feet instantly vanished into the darkness. Only a bare torso was left, floating rather helplessly in midair.
For an ancient cultivator, that instant would have meant their death and the destruction of their Dao. But for a practitioner of the new method who had devoured a grotto-heaven, it was nothing more than an inconsequential, minor wound.
*Bang!*
Li Fan's torso abruptly burst into a cloud of blood mist. Yet his voice thundered like lightning, reverberating through the empty void around Tianyang.
"Junior Brother, now it's my turn!"
Chapter 869