Even when they extended their divine sense outward to probe their surroundings, all they sensed was utter void.
Immersed day after day in the lingering aura of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable, the bodies and souls of the thirty-three Immortal Chosen slowly began to transform.
In the darkness, the passage of time was lost.
When they finally emerged from their confinement, their demeanors, actions, and gazes had all become eerily similar.
***
Seeing this, a flash of insight struck Li Fan's mind.
He finally remembered where the familiarity of that middle-aged cultivator had come from.
The cold glint in that man's eyes was almost identical to Diyi Jinglun's!
"Just like these Immortal Chosen, they aren't the same person. But for some reason, they shared a common experience, and so their very spirits began to resemble one another..."
"No wonder I could never find anyone with the exact same face."
"Diyi Jinglun, this middle-aged cultivator... they are subtly distinct from those black-robed cultivators who seemed to have walked out of the Eras, as well as that 'Wu.' Just how many secrets is the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals hiding?"
Countless thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind in an instant. He then resumed reviewing Wei Qizheng's subsequent experiences.
***
After the second lesson concluded came the final training.
The thirty-three Immortal Chosen were taken separately to different provinces.
Confined within special, isolated chambers, they sensed the power of the remnant wills hidden inside the statues of the Heavenly Venerable.
Thanks to their prior training, achieving this goal had become significantly easier.
Relatively speaking, of course.
Within that sealed space, this was the only thing they could do.
There was even a guiding force acting upon their minds, rendering them entirely incapable of thinking about anything else.
Day and night, they did nothing but commune with the remnant wills, striving to reach synchronization as soon as possible.
It had to be said that at this stage, the thirty-three Immortal Chosen were already virtually indistinguishable from one another.
One after another, within an overall variance of no more than two days, all thirty-three accomplished the initial attunement to the Heavenly Venerable's remnant will.
Then, linked by beams of pure light, even though they were scattered across different corners of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, their consciousnesses connected with one another.
It was a wondrous experience.
The thirty-three became as one entity. Without needing words, they could exchange thoughts in an instant.
A single thought surpassed thousands of spoken words.
And the tacit understanding forged over so long a time ensured that the collective mind of this entity was singularly uniform, with almost no ripples of dissent.
***
"Hm?" Li Fan's train of thought was interrupted once again.
"What is this pure beam of light...?"
"Why does it carry a trace of Senior Sister Zhao's 'All Minds as One'?"
A hint of perplexity flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
As the Longevity Heavenly Venerable Li Fan understood best, Senior Sister Zhao possessed the extraordinary trait of "All Minds as One," which he had personally experienced more than once.
Scrutinizing the scenes where the pure light appeared dozens of times, Li Fan finally discerned a clue.
The minds of the thirty-three Immortal Chosen were unified in flawless harmony, leaving absolutely no room for any outside presence.
"This is purely an application of the power of laws, not another Heavenly Venerable Yixin. Has Senior Sister Zhao's power been stolen?" Li Fan frowned slightly. "Does the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals possess such capability?"
And what followed was just as Li Fan had suspected.
As the consciousnesses of the thirty-three Immortal Chosen fused into a single convergent state, the beams of pure light gradually faded away.
In the end, even without external aids, the thirty-three could achieve complete resonance of mind.
Then, after thousands of attempts, they finally stirred the colossal power left behind by the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable for the very first time.
Because the middle-aged cultivator's claim that "a single glance from the Heavenly Venerable rivals a full blow from a standard Longevity realm expert" had left such a profound impression on them, by unanimous, unspoken choice, the debut of the Heavenly Venerable's dharma manifestation took the form of "Opening Eyes to Level Nine Mountains."
After their first success, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals finally granted them a period of rest.
However, this so-called rest was merely a bit of idle time.
They remained confined within those special spaces, forbidden from leaving.
After that brief respite came attempt after attempt.
They grew increasingly proficient, and the power of the Heavenly Venerable they channeled grew ever more immense.
Until that day arrived...
When the Heavenly Venerable dharma manifestation seized the giant net woven from Sky-Patrolling Arrows and hurled it toward the territory of the Five Elders Association, it finally provoked the intervention of the Five Elders Association's Longevity Heavenly Venerables.
According to plan, the thirty-three Immortal Chosen detonated the dharma manifestation, releasing its instantaneous power to the absolute maximum.
They sought to hinder the five Heavenly Venerables and ensure the giant net fell upon the territory.
And they succeeded.
Though exhausted, an involuntary surge of pride welled up within their hearts.
Without having even reached the Dao Integration stage, they had gone toe-to-toe with the five strongest Heavenly Venerables in the present Xuanhuang Realm!
What glory that was!
Yet before they could savor their joy, another order was issued.
"Manifest the dharma manifestation once more!"
A jolt went through all thirty-three of them simultaneously.
Even now, channeling the dharma manifestation of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable was by no means an easy task.
It drained their spirit and mind immensely, requiring a period of recuperation afterward.
Yet the mysteriously appearing voice seemed to carry an eerie magic, leaving the thirty-three Immortal Chosen entirely incapable of disobeying.
All of them instinctively complied.
Thus, another dharma manifestation materialized.
Before they could catch their breath, that cold, merciless voice rang out again.
"Continue!"
The thirty-three Immortal Chosen had already realized something was terribly wrong.
If this went on, they would all die of sheer exhaustion!
Yet they could not defy the command of that voice.
Under repeated orders, five Heavenly Venerable dharma manifestations ultimately stood together between heaven and earth.
Having had vast amounts of their essence, energy, and spirit siphoned away in so brief a time, the thirty-three Immortal Chosen reached the end of their lives.
"Why?"
"Aren't we the hope of the Alliance's revival?"
"Aren't we heroes?"
In the final moments of their lives, the minds of the thirty-three were filled with incomprehension and bitter resentment.
Yet until their consciousness plunged completely into darkness, from beginning to end, not a single person came forward to offer them an explanation.
Not even a single word.
There was not even any mockery.
***
"The world says that I, Grand Preceptor Li, am a villainous scourge."
"I used to think of myself that way too."
"Only today have I realized..."
"Compared to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, I still have much to learn."
Having observed the entirety of Wei Qizheng's fate, Li Fan could not help but sigh with this lamentation.
Returning to reality.
Due to the standoff between the five dharma manifestations and the five Heavenly Venerables, the tremors racking the Xuanhuang Realm continued to intensify.
For a moment, the battlefield seemed frozen in time.
Five rays of brilliance were locked in entanglement with the Heavenly Venerable dharma manifestations.
These manifestations, summoned by consuming the life essence of the thirty-three Immortal Chosen, were vastly stronger than the one that had appeared before.
Facing the combined assault of the five Heavenly Venerables, their forms fractured, but shattered without dispersing.
Only when the giant net of Sky-Patrolling Arrows finally descended upon the territory of the Five Elders Association did the scene displayed in the Heavenly Profound Mirror begin to shift once more.
Chapter 933