Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect

Compared to Foundation Establishment cultivators, the fall of Qi Condensation cultivators carried far less grandeur. There was no dazzling spectacle resembling fireworks from a wonder of heaven and earth, only two streaks of crimson clouds suddenly emerging across the horizon. "Qi Condensation cultivator Sikong Yi, cultivated the Dao for thirty-five mortal years. Slain in the Congyun Sea by Qi Condensation cultivator Li Fan..." "Qi Condensation cultivator Baili Chen, cultivated the Dao for three mortal years. Slain in the Congyun Sea by Qi Condensation cultivator Li Fan... "Now their bodies have perished and their Dao dissolved, returning the Dao to heaven!" ... Beneath the fiery clouds, Li Fan stood quietly, stroking the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token in his hand. Only after a long while did he suppress the surge of greed rising within his heart. "A fine treasure, but alas..." "It is not my Dao." The Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token was the supreme treasure of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect. The Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect was a secretive sect that had existed since ancient times. Unlike other sects that founded mountain gates and took in disciples far and wide, the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect had no fixed sect grounds, and in each generation, there was often only a single successor. Thus, when the Great Calamity arrived and all other sects met apocalyptic scenes of blood and carnage, it had little impact on the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect. And the reason the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect could maintain its lineage unbroken for nearly ten thousand years with only one member per generation was largely owed to its unique cultivation method. Stealing Heaven: By using essence blood and certain special materials, one could craft an extraordinary clone. Unlike ordinary incarnation techniques, this clone possessed its own unique appearance, aura, divine soul, realm, and cultivation, and even had its own independent providence. This clone could be treated entirely as a separate person. Changing the Sun: When crafting the clone, if one incorporated the bones of a deceased cultivator or mingled in the essence blood of a living cultivator, one could strip away a portion of the other party's innate talent, providence, and the like, grafting them onto the clone. Of course, if that were all, it would not truly demonstrate what made the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect formidable. The *Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Art*, paired with the token in Li Fan's hand, was its complete form. This Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token had been forged several thousand years ago by Sikong Yue, the thirty-eighth successor of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect. Back then, Sikong Yue had witnessed the arrival of the Great Calamity with her own eyes, seeing countless cultivators slaughtering one another like ants. Gripped by terror, she was seized with dread and desperately sought a flawless method of self-preservation. After a century of painstaking research and delving into countless methods of artifact forging, she finally forged this Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token. The token had boundless wonderful uses. Not only did it possess an extraordinarily vast storage space, but once refined, the token could freely shift between the true body and the clone, disregarding all spatial distance. Most importantly, through the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Art, she transferred the true essence of life—both of the clone and even the true body—entirely onto this token. As long as the token was not destroyed, even if the true body and clone were killed, one could reconstruct a new body by expending the essence blood accumulated in the token over ordinary days, thereby achieving "resurrection." Put simply, once the technique was fully mastered, whatever was displayed before outsiders—whether the true body or the clone—was merely an empty shell. That Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token was the true, substantive self. After Sikong Yue's unconventional overhaul, although the technique had turned somewhat sinister, it was very effective. For several thousand years, relying on this bizarre art, the members of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect had been able to emerge unscathed from all manner of peril. Because of this, the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect endured for millennia without falling. That was until Sikong Yi encountered an anomaly like Li Fan, who could reverse time and space. The Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Art was not perfect and suffered from certain fatal drawbacks. For instance, a certain distance had to be maintained between the true body and the clone. The farther apart they were, the more drastically the clone's strength declined. If it exceeded the limit, it would retain only the baseline cultivation of early Qi Condensation. Moreover, because the essence of life was anchored to the token, whenever a member of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect died, a remnant soul would also be bound inside the token, unable to find release. These remnant souls often retained important memory fragments from when they were alive. In times of crisis, the token's master could even unleash them to confront enemies. Li Fan projected his spiritual mind into the interior of the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Token. The enormous storage space was utterly barren. Only Sikong Yi and another remnant soul of indistinct features drifted aimlessly within. Condensing his divine sense into a giant hand, he seized both remnant souls and read their surviving memories. After a long time, Li Fan finally understood why the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect, with its thousands of years of heritage, had fallen to such a pathetic state. The whole affair began with Sikong Yi's nominal master, Sikong Bo. For a millennium, the Stealing Heaven Changing Sun Sect had walked through all kinds of perils and always emerged unscathed. As a result, they had gradually grown arrogant, acting with increasing recklessness. By the time of Sikong Bo, this had reached an extreme. On a distant continent, Sikong Bo, having broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, felt dissatisfied with the clone he had previously refined. Thus, he planned to gather materials and refine a new one. It just so happened that at this time, in a wild mountain village, he encountered a child of five or six years old. The child possessed a Natural Immortal Physique. Not only was he endowed with boundless physical strength, but his cultivation speed was shockingly fast. At that age, he was already at the perfection of Qi Condensation, preparing for Foundation Establishment. This tempted Sikong Bo immensely. After observing in secret for a while, Sikong Bo discovered that the child's providence was even more extraordinary. Every time the child went hunting alone in the deep mountains, he would bring back various heavenly treasures. If he could strip this child's providence, the clone he created would surely be extraordinary! And so, blinded by greed, Sikong Bo took advantage of the child being sound asleep one night to try and steal his essence blood. He never expected... That this child had long been claimed by a Nascent Soul powerhouse. This Nascent Soul powerhouse was approaching the end of his lifespan and felt there was no hope of breakthrough. Thus, he had been searching everywhere for a target to seize via possession. He had coincidentally found this exceptionally gifted child. Ordinary possession techniques would more or less damage the host's foundation. This Nascent Soul cultivator was hoping to climb to greater heights; how could he allow such a thing to happen? Therefore, he adopted an extreme method: turning himself into a wonder of heaven and earth, waiting until the child established his foundation, at which point he could merge seamlessly with him. That was right. According to Sikong Bo's surviving memories, human beings could indeed be refined into wonders of heaven and earth. Or rather, among the Foundation Establishment wonders constantly emerging throughout the world, a large portion was transformed from cultivators who had fallen in the past. After a cultivator fell, the so-called "returning the Dao to heaven" was by no means an empty phrase. A cultivator's "Dao," after years of transformation by heaven and earth, based on their personality and the characteristics of their cultivation arts while alive, would slowly form all manner of bizarre wonders, reappearing between heaven and earth. In life, they could not cultivate the same methods; in death, they must still be put to full use. This was the attitude of this world toward all cultivators.