Just like prescribing the right medicine for an illness, the golden needle bestowed by the Heavenly Physician morphed after coming into contact with Li Fan's divine soul.
Following the contours of Li Fan's divine soul, it formed a tightly wrapped protective layer along the outer perimeter.
"No wonder it can be commanded as smoothly as an arm without needing refinement. It is practically a custom-tailored dharma treasure, fitting the divine soul perfectly."
"Furthermore..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly and mobilized his divine soul power, launching an impact against this golden needle protection from the inside out.
The moment the divine soul impact collided with the protective layer, Li Fan felt it being rippled away by a soft gentleness, which then spread around the point of impact like waves of ripples.
It distributed the force evenly and easily neutralized it.
If even the inside of the protective layer offered such defense, its exterior toughness could only be imagined.
After continuous testing, Li Fan gave it an evaluation of four words: an impregnable fortress.
"However, the golden needle's protection is limited strictly to the divine soul. If it is pure physical damage to the body, its defensive utility is actually inferior to ordinary armor treasures."
"'As long as the needle remains whole, the person will not perish'...
"The Heavenly Physician was not exaggerating. As long as the divine soul is intact, with his power, helping someone reconstruct a physical body is nothing more than child's play.
"And to destroy the divine soul, one must first break through the golden needle's protective barrier.
"Furthermore..."
A scene suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
At the moment of a fatal blow, just before the golden needle shattered, golden light would soar into the sky, sweeping up Li Fan's divine soul and flying back into the Heavenly Physician's hand.
Li Fan was certain that the Heavenly Physician definitely retained some degree of control over the gifted golden needle.
While this was undoubtedly out of care for the "sole current successor of the Tianfa Realm," to Li Fan, it was by no means a good thing.
How could one allow another to sleep beside one's own bed?
Given Li Fan's nature, he would never allow something beyond his full control to encase his divine soul.
Other matters were manageable, but if his divine soul were frozen, rendering him unable to trigger True Reversion, that would truly mean eternal damnation!
"Is there any way to enjoy the golden needle's protection while ensuring absolute security...?"
Standing before the faceless stone statue, Li Fan fell into deep thought.
In truth, among the trump cards currently at his disposal, very few could restrain the Heavenly Physician's power.
And all of them were uncontrollable variables.
For instance: Chaos, Hunger, gray mold, and so on.
A single careless slip, and the consequence would be the destruction of Xuanhuang and mutual annihilation.
After mulling it over, Li Fan ultimately set his sights on the golden vow power generated by the faceless stone statue.
The golden vow power had previously been stored within the Tribulation Body inside his dantian. Whenever it was about to reach capacity, without Li Fan deliberately manipulating it, the golden vow power would automatically compress itself.
Therefore, although the golden vow power accumulated over this period was already overwhelmingly vast, it still had not managed to fill even a single Tribulation Body.
This Tribulation Body in Li Fan's likeness merely appeared resplendent with golden radiance, looking extraordinary and sacred.
Golden vow power was an existence that transcended the power systems Li Fan had encountered so far; he had yet to find a way to employ it.
All he could do was guide it.
"Vow power, vow power...
"Could it be that directing it in accordance with the intent of one's mind will allow its power to be invoked?"
With a sudden stir in his mind, Li Fan began to experiment.
The result was self-evident: as if they were entirely different species, the golden vow power remained completely indifferent to Li Fan's summons.
Having attempted to no avail, Li Fan had no choice but to change his approach.
He created another Tribulation Body and slowly guided the golden vow power into it. At the same time, he drove the Tribulation Body to morph into the shape of a long cord.
Like a conduit, loaded to the brim with golden vow power.
As this conduit circled around the golden needle protection enclosing Li Fan's divine soul, it slowly wove an outer garment.
Throughout the entire process, Li Fan was extraordinarily cautious.
Whether it was the Heavenly Physician's golden needle or the golden vow power, both were forces beyond his current mastery.
Only by guiding them to form a mutual check and balance could he feel a modicum of peace of mind.
Admittedly, doing this right outside his divine soul was perilous in the extreme.
A single slip could result in the total destruction of his soul.
Yet with True Reversion backing him, Li Fan was fully qualified to make such a bold attempt!
"If an anomaly truly occurs, the two of them will surely notice each other first—these two colossal behemoths—and instinctively overlook an ant like me. Such is the way of nature.
"In fact, it is safer than facing either of them alone.
"This is what is called the art of checks and balances."
Watching the Tribulation Body, packed with golden vow power like a golden cord, intertwining with the golden needle's protection, Li Fan could not help but nod in satisfaction.
If the Heavenly Physician's golden needle were to erupt, it would inevitably trigger the golden vow power first.
And vice versa.
Furthermore, if Li Fan were struck by a fatal blow from the outside, the attacker would face a double counterattack from both the Heavenly Physician's golden needle and the golden vow power.
To make an imperfect analogy, Li Fan was currently equivalent to having two bombs wired in series strapped to him.
Any action capable of inflicting harm on Li Fan would fully detonate the bombs.
Li Fan believed that even a Longevity Heavenly Venerable would definitely not have an easy time if attacked by these two forces simultaneously!
In fact, when necessary, Li Fan could even actively detonate these two bombs to achieve unexpected results!
"Guiding events along their course, maneuvering across all sides—only this reveals my true colors..."
When the balance between the two was finally achieved, Li Fan quietly admired his masterpiece, unable to keep a hint of smugness from rising in his heart.
However, he quickly cleared his head.
"This is merely a stopgap measure born of necessity. If I can thoroughly research the Heavenly Physician's golden needle and form a divine soul defense truly of my own...
"Since the Heavenly Physician could achieve this, there is no reason I cannot."
Li Fan carefully sensed the energy properties of the Heavenly Physician's golden needle outside his divine soul, quietly pondering it in conjunction with the contents of the Heavenly Physician Immortal Scripture and the Mending the Heavens Record.
In this manner, an unknown amount of time passed.
Li Fan was startled awake by an image appearing in his mind.
It turned out that the task he had assigned to the devotees of the Compassionate Immortal of the Mortal Dust—to search for someone capable of reconstructing a cultivator's appearance in life from a skull—had finally shown progress.
Originally, Li Fan had assumed it would be a very simple matter. In reality, across the vast Xuanhuang Realm, aside from Li Fan, no one had such a need at all.
Since there was no practical value in it, naturally no cultivator would bother researching such a technique.
Only after Li Fan posted a mission bounty did the lure of profit prompt cultivators to try doing so.
"Tongyan Province, Luo Suzhen."
Having acquired the information on the target cultivator, Li Fan thought for a moment and ultimately decided to head out in his true body personally.
This concerned an existence that even True Reversion deeply craved, so he had to treat it with the utmost seriousness.
His figure flew through the air, elusive as a phantom.
Before long, Li Fan arrived outside Luo Suzhen's cave abode.
Like eccentric figures such as Master Yin and Ximen Yu, this Luo Suzhen was also not fond of living in crowds.
Chapter 958