"What an absolute masterstroke!"
The power of the five Heavenly Venerables would indeed recover before long.
When that time came, any advantage built up would vanish into thin air before the Longevity realm.
But if, before that happened, they captured every single person of the Five Elders Association...
All that would remain for the five Heavenly Venerables would be a vast, empty expanse of land.
Though Li Fan knew little of the Longevity realm, he was certain that even the most ordinary cultivator served a purpose for those five.
A slight decrease might carry little consequence.
Yet if all the cultivators—and even the mortals—within the territories under their control were completely wiped clean...
It would undeniably deal them a catastrophic blow.
*Could it be that in this lifetime, the Five Elders Association is truly going to fall just like that?* Li Fan could not help thinking to himself.
Over the next few days, the war progressed smoothly.
The scales of victory steadily tipped toward the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Yet having endured for thousands of years, the Five Elders Association was a colossal behemoth after all. Pushed to the brink of desperation, it finally erupted with fierce resistance.
The image in the Heavenly Profound Mirror suddenly shifted to an expanse of sky.
From within a hazy, oval portal, a squadron of cultivators flew out in unison.
They clearly did not belong to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Yet their attire was also distinctly different from that of the modern Five Elders Association.
Embroidered uniformly across their robes were identical, esoteric insignias.
Looking at the uniform ranks of black-robed figures not far away, eager, excited smiles spread across their faces.
"Is that... the Taishang Sect?"
Li Fan frowned slightly as he recognized the somewhat familiar sect emblem.
The view in the Heavenly Profound Mirror shifted once more.
Portals opened one after another; numerous ancient sects said to have perished long ago actually reemerged into the mortal world at this moment.
And plunged into the battlefield.
Nor was that all.
The Heavenly Profound Mirror refocused, capturing an unbelievable scene.
Somewhere unknown stood a female cultivator with a lithe figure clad in a white, form-fitting bodysuit.
She bowed reverently toward a closed golden door hovering in the void before her, which radiated an ancient, sacred aura.
Then the door swung open with a rumble, casting down a dazzling beam of golden light.
As the light dissipated, what appeared in the mirror were more than a dozen figures identical to the white-robed female cultivator.
Their features were completely identical, differing only slightly in age and strength.
It was as if...
They were the same white-robed female cultivator at different ages.
Without wasting a word, these white-robed figures shot off toward the distance.
"Could that be..."
"The Immortal Sect Armory?" Li Fan's eyes flashed with a sharp light.
Information he had gathered earlier about the Immortal Sect Armory welled up in his mind.
The Immortal Sect Armory was, to the Five Elders Association, an entity akin to the Alliance's Heavenly Profound Mirror.
There, a vast sea of cultivation methods, ancient texts, and treasures originating from ancient immortal sects were available for cultivators to exchange at will.
The required currency was not contribution points, but Divine Soul Points.
Li Fan had already known that within the Immortal Sect Armory existed true illusions of many ancient sects.
The force that created these true illusions was remarkably similar to the power of the Fallen Immortal Realm. Within it, Five Elders Association cultivators could explore many long-extinct ancient sects. Within those sects remained images of many ancient cultivators; most lacked sentience of their own and were mere husks, yet in combat, every gesture and movement carried power almost indistinguishable from a living being.
Five Elders Association cultivators could expend Divine Soul Points to spar repeatedly against these ancient cultivators, honing their combat prowess. Furthermore, within the Immortal Sect Armory, no injury would affect the physical body in reality, causing only minor wear to the divine soul. Better still, even such spiritual wounds could be healed by spending Divine Soul Points.
Theoretically speaking, so long as one possessed enough Divine Soul Points, even a mortal who had just begun cultivating could become exceptionally formidable through battle after battle.
*So those being summoned are the projections of themselves left within the Immortal Sect Armory by spending Divine Soul Points?*
Li Fan instantly understood the origins of these cultivators, who resembled clones.
Evidently, his deduction was correct.
Similar scenes were unfolding all across the Five Elders Association.
As the ancient golden doors continually cast down stream after stream of projections, the remaining resistance of the Five Elders Association swelled more than tenfold in an instant.
Moreover, those capable of leaving projections in the Immortal Sect Armory were all battle-hardened veterans.
With extraordinarily rich combat experience, their entrance dealt heavy casualties to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Furthermore, it seemed that as long as the original self remained alive, after resting for a period, they could expend divine soul power to summon their projections out from the Immortal Sect Armory once more.
It was virtually equivalent to infinite resurrections.
In this way, the numerical superiority of the Alliance's black-robed cultivators was negated.
The Alliance's offensive ground to a crawl.
And not long after the stalemate emerged, yet another force entered the fray.
The view in the Heavenly Profound Mirror shifted once more.
Seemingly disrupted by some interference, the scene displayed in the mirror grew somewhat blurry.
It looked like a continuous city built upon the canopy of the sky.
Cultivators in the city were all deep in slumber.
Amidst slight tremors, the cultivators all awoke.
There was no daze from being abruptly awakened from a long sleep; instead, their faces were filled with fury at having their sweet dreams interrupted.
Cursing under their breath, without any visible movement, their garments transformed into fully enclosing armor resembling liquid metal.
They flew off toward the battlefield.
The view in the Heavenly Profound Mirror abruptly shifted.
It seemed to have been forcibly severed.
"Could that be..."
Li Fan was momentarily taken aback. "Carefree Paradise?"
Carefree Paradise was the most mysterious place in the territory of the Five Elders Association.
It was the dreamland of all cultivators, and only those who passed its trials could enter.
And once one went to Carefree Paradise, rare was the person who ever returned.
In that fleeting glimpse just now, Li Fan had also seen many fascinating things in that illusory city in the sky.
For instance, towering skyscrapers and neon lights reminiscent of a modern city.
For instance, rainbow-like aerial roads linking numerous structures.
For instance, shuttles constantly darting and flying throughout the city.
...
"The power of Wuyou spans almost the entire Xuanhuang Realm. Among the five of them, Heavenly Venerable Wuyou's strength should also be the greatest."
"Fascinating."
That place bore an uncanny resemblance to the scenes of a future cultivation world Li Fan had once seen within the Era.
"If possible, I could send an avatar there to explore."
Li Fan had a feeling that he might be able to discover something interesting in Carefree Paradise.
The arrival of the Carefree Paradise cultivators completely turned the tide of battle.
Though their cultivation levels were nothing extraordinary, the magical artifacts they wore were formidable in the extreme.
That metallic dharma clothing could absorb almost any attack and reflect it back.
Furthermore, every cultivator was equipped with an almost limitless supply of energy beams.
With a single thought, the weapons fanned out behind them.
Then they unleashed a furious, relentless bombardment upon the cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Chapter 935