As a secret art created in the past by the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao to hunt down members of the Profound Heaven Sect, Extirpating the Profound possessed its own subtle wonders.
Once Extirpating the Profound was activated, whenever a person or object connected to the Profound Heaven Sect was nearby, melodious chimes would ring in one's ears.
The higher the subject's rank within the Profound Heaven Sect, the greater the number of bell tolls elicited.
Three tolls was the maximum.
Yet now, after Li Fan had eagerly toured the crater mountain while maintaining the secret art of Extirpating the Profound, he heard not a single chime.
"Hmm?"
"Senior Slate doesn't seem like someone who plays practical jokes..."
Though somewhat taken aback, Li Fan did not suspect Senior Slate of trifling with him.
"Indeed. With terrain this peculiar, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals must have searched it long ago. If the secret art of Extirpating the Profound worked here, whatever secret lies hidden would likely have been uncovered ages ago."
Li Fan pondered for a moment and suddenly understood, his anticipation only growing stronger.
After a brief silence, Li Fan withdrew the protection of the Seven-Colored Divine Light and strolled once more into the crater mountain, where flowers drifted throughout the sky.
The spiritual energy blossoms of Dongyong Prefecture's crater mountain were renowned as something to be admired from afar, never trifled with up close.
Although these blossoms formed from dissipated, atypical spiritual energy could not be absorbed by cultivators, drawing too close caused the eerie spiritual energy to resonate with and assimilate the spiritual energy inside a cultivator's body.
If defenses were lacking or cleansing was delayed, it could easily lead to the horrific fate of multicolored blossoms sprouting throughout the cultivator's body.
Moreover, these blossoms were practically pervasive, finding every crack and seam.
Once rooted inside the body, the physical flesh was not the only thing affected; even a Foundation Establishment wonder, or even a Law Golden Core, would be corroded by these spiritual energy blossoms.
Thus, though beautiful, they were exceedingly perilous.
Yet Li Fan could now stride boldly into the swarm of blossoms, allowing them to bloom within his body without concern.
His reliance was naturally the Seven-Colored Jade Void Flowing Light.
As long as he used the Seven-Colored Divine Light to seal off his own grotto-heaven, his physical body could be destroyed a thousand times over without causing him any real harm.
To the touch, these spiritual energy blossoms felt no different from ordinary flowers.
They had a tangible texture, and one could even smell the faint fragrance wafting from them.
As he made greater contact, phantom visions suddenly flashed before his eyes.
One by one, blossoms of spiritual energy materialized sequentially within Li Fan's body.
Far from feeling any discomfort, Li Fan felt his spirits invigorated.
His spiritual energy circulated faster, and even his thought processes turned far sharper.
From Li Fan's perspective, the blossoms before him grew ever more dazzling, vibrant, and enchanting.
He felt increasingly reluctant to leave them.
Blossom after blossom bloomed along Li Fan's meridians, paving a floral path that charged straight for his dantian and the space between his brows.
Yet even while watching the state of his interior with crystal clarity, Li Fan felt not the slightest sense of danger.
He even caught himself thinking, *To die amidst a hundred blossoms would still be a delightful end.*
Li Fan silently watched the spiritual energy blossoms put on their show, sneering in his mind, *So bizarre, bewitching the mind. Indeed, it shares similarities with the Profound Heaven Sect's methods.*
In merely the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Li Fan's dantian was completely taken over by these flowers.
Densely clustered, breathtakingly beautiful yet sinister.
The same was true between his brows.
Only now did these spiritual energy blossoms reveal their true malice.
His body stiffened, and his thoughts seemed on the verge of freezing solid.
Outside his sea of consciousness, the blossoms even extended roots, attempting to dig in and establish a foothold.
Yet before they could succeed—
Li Fan's body detonated without warning.
No flesh or blood sprayed.
Instead, like fireworks bursting, the countless blossoms formed within Li Fan's body scattered in an instant, filling the sky.
It made for quite a scenic sight.
Drifting on the gentle breeze, these newly born blossoms gradually merged with the flowers that had long existed in the crater mountain.
They became indistinguishable from one another.
Beneath this lovely spectacle, a silhouette slowly manifested once more.
It was none other than Li Fan.
"Strange..."
Looking up at the blossoms drifting across the sky, Li Fan frowned slightly.
Even though he had detonated his body ahead of time to avoid being further devoured by the spiritual energy blossoms, Li Fan keenly discovered that his divine soul and cultivation had unavoidably lost a fraction in the process.
Though it was a minuscule amount relative to Li Fan's current strength, his acute perception caught it immediately.
Watching the sea of flowers drifting seemingly at random within the crater, Li Fan's expression grew solemn.
If the devouring of his divine soul could barely be attributed to the peculiarities of these spiritual energy blossoms, then the loss of his cultivation pointed unmistakably to one thing: this sea of flowers was very likely the transformation of a cultivator.
"Neither living nor dead. Bereft of solid form, transformed into flourishing blossoms..."
Recalling that Senior Slate had indicated clues about the Profound Heaven Sect could be found here, Li Fan was now nearly certain that the anomaly here was inextricably linked to a Profound Heaven Sect Dharma King.
"Existing in this non-human form for thousands of years... If this Dharma King is still alive..."
Li Fan drew a sharp breath. "Truly worthy of a legacy from the Immortal Realm."
The location of the secret had been confirmed.
All that remained was to unravel it.
Li Fan contemplated on the spot for a long time, right until his second and third bodies were detonated in succession.
Through repeatedly experiencing the corrosion of the spiritual energy blossoms, he finally discovered a possible method of deciphering the mystery.
Composing himself, Li Fan condensed a fourth body.
He then flew into the air, embracing the sea of blossoms to the fullest extent.
This time, Li Fan paid no heed to the anomalies inside his body.
Instead, he focused his entire attention on the images flashing incessantly before his eyes.
These fragmented images were all brief, fleeting snippets.
Furthermore, they seemed completely disconnected, each recording an isolated incident.
In his sea of consciousness, the Dao Transformation Stone operated at its utmost limit.
Li Fan committed all of these fleeting, fragmented scenes to memory.
Once he had recorded a certain number, his body could no longer endure and exploded.
Unhurried, Li Fan created another body and repeated the process.
Such unusual behavior naturally drew the attention of other cultivators in the area.
Some had intended to approach to make conversation or probe into the matter, but after sensing the pressure Li Fan radiated, these busybodies all blanched and left with their heads lowered.
Time slowly drifted by.
The flashback images Li Fan gathered grew ever more numerous.
Like pieces of a shattered puzzle, as Li Fan collected the fragments, he relied on the formidable computing power of the Dao Transformation Stone to reconstruct the original, complete picture.
Within this crater mountain, the floating blossoms numbered far more than trillions.
The fragmented scenes contained within them were countless beyond reckoning.
Without the Dao Transformation Stone to organize and filter them, it would have been utterly impossible for Li Fan to piece them back together.
Yet now, as the blue light pulsed continuously, coherent stretches of memory imagery began to surface in Li Fan's mind.
Chapter 902