Li Fan was deeply immersed in his study of the Mending the Heavens Record, unable to pull himself away.
He had no idea how much time had passed when a subtle tremor shaking the entire Spirit Wood Realm roused him from his absorption.
"This is..."
Li Fan directed his gaze toward the center of the Spirit Wood Realm.
The giant tree, already verdant, towering, and thrusting into the clouds, was now displaying an astonishing anomaly.
Its branches and leaves stirred gently without wind, enveloped in a hazy, lustrous white radiance.
From the ancient tree's crown, a beam of light shot straight into the heavens, piercing a hole clean through the sky.
This was no hyperbole; an actual void had opened in the sky of the Spirit Wood Realm.
The void seemed to possess a terrifying suction, swirling the surrounding cloud banks into a whirlpool and drawing them in.
Beneath the giant tree, all the treemen halted their labors and threw themselves to the ground in prostration.
There was no panic on their faces—only genuine, heartfelt joy.
"A world elevation?"
The Spirit Wood Realm could now be considered half a dharma treasure to Li Fan. With a brief sweep of his senses, he immediately grasped what was taking place.
Lin Ling's nourishing feedback, Shang Tianci's modifications using the Heavenly Scenery Gourd, and above all, over a thousand Furnaces of Heaven and Earth releasing spiritual energy day and night without pause...
These overlapping factors had finally brought about the metamorphosis of the Spirit Wood Realm.
This was a wondrous spectacle unseen for thousands of years, scarcely documented even in cultivation classics.
Li Fan and everyone within the Spirit Wood Realm held their breath, observing and pondering with rapt attention.
From the void beyond the world, something seemed to be drawn forth and funneled into the Spirit Wood Realm through the hole in the sky.
A low rumble reverberated across heaven and earth. On the surface, the landscape of the Spirit Wood Realm appeared largely unchanged.
Yet as the master of the Spirit Wood Realm, Li Fan keenly sensed that the realm's overall structural strength was surging at astonishing speed.
The most conspicuous change lay in the giant tree that had formed this realm.
Previously, Li Fan needed only make a move to easily destroy the giant tree.
Now, however, from its roots to its trunk and up to its leaves, every single part of the giant tree was continually growing tougher.
In the end, it had grown resilient enough to withstand a strike from Li Fan without its roots shattering or the tree falling.
The swirling void gradually narrowed until it finally vanished.
The elevation of the Spirit Wood Realm had reached completion.
Though the realm's actual physical dimensions appeared unchanged, an inexplicable sensation welled up in the hearts of everyone who witnessed the elevation firsthand.
The sky felt more vast, and the earth felt more expansive.
Even the air had grown more refreshing to the soul.
Vitality was invisible, yet its presence could be felt with unmistakable clarity.
In this elevation, aside from the Spirit Wood Realm itself, the greatest beneficiary was the treeman matriarch.
She had finally crossed that critical threshold, attaining combat prowess on par with a Dao Integration cultivator of the Xuanhuang Realm.
She had shed almost all traces of her treeman appearance, now looking scarcely different from a human cultivator.
Only the natural markings on her face still bore witness to her origins as a treeman.
Manifesting an emerald-green robe, the treeman matriarch issued orders, directing all the treemen to continue prostrating themselves and singing the praises of Li Fan, the Master of Spirit Wood, for his immense grace.
Before long, Li Fan's calm voice drifted down from the heavens.
"The Spirit Wood has elevated, and thou art newly born. From this moment forth, thy destiny shall no longer be confined to this solitary realm..."
"I bestow upon thee the name..."
"Lin Xin!"
Flushed with excitement, Lin Xin led the treeman tribe in another deep prostration.
Meanwhile, Shang Tianci, Tianyang, and the others looked on with deep emotion.
Instructing everyone to continue constructing the Furnaces of Heaven and Earth, Li Fan shifted his attention back to the Spirit Wood Realm itself.
In truth, had it not already been captured by the Xuanhuang Realm, the Spirit Wood Realm's current specifications and tier would likely meet the minimum threshold of a cultivation world.
Synthesizing this with the descriptions of worlds in the Mending the Heavens Record, Li Fan mused to himself:
Before the Immortal Path was severed, an elevation like the one just witnessed would have left an imprint within the Ascension Passage. Cultivators of that world who reached a certain realm of cultivation could then ascend in broad daylight and become immortals. What a pity...
Now that the Immortal Path is severed and the realm has been reduced to a vassal of the Xuanhuang Realm, calling it an elevation merely leaves it as a subordinate pocket world of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Li Fan shook his head slightly. The Xuanhuang Realm has truly brought endless harm!
Then again, if the Spirit Wood Realm can still achieve a world elevation, could the Xuanhuang Realm do the same?
Li Fan furrowed his brows and pondered for a long time, ultimately arriving at a conclusion: In theory, the Xuanhuang Realm still possesses the possibility of elevation.
"Namely... ascending into an Immortal Realm!" A sharp gleam flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
However, the chasm between a cultivation world and an Immortal Realm is simply too immense. Even though the Xuanhuang Realm has already devoured an unknown number of cultivation worlds, it has only expanded its territory somewhat. It remains far from fulfilling the requirements to ascend into an Immortal Realm.
Perhaps...
Only if it grew a hundred times larger than the current Xuanhuang Realm might there be a sliver of hope for ascending into an Immortal Realm.
Yet even then, it might not truly be worthy of the word "Immortal Realm." Describing it as an "Immortal Domain" might be more apt.
Li Fan couldn't help letting his imagination wander.
It must be noted that all of this was merely a conjecture Li Fan had pieced together from fragmented descriptions of the "Immortal Realm" mentioned in the Mending the Heavens Record.
As for the actual truth...
Even the author of the Mending the Heavens Record, the Heavenly Physician, had never seen an Immortal Realm with his own eyes.
Attempting to verify it was simply out of the question.
Nevertheless, based on Li Fan's understanding of the Heavenly Physician, the man was exceptionally rigorous in his scholarship. If something were purely conjecture without substantive supporting evidence, he would not have casually penned it down in his work.
The Venerables of the Tianfa Realm enforce the law on behalf of Heaven. Perhaps they possess secrets from before the severance of the Immortal Path.
Witnessing this world elevation brought Li Fan fresh inspiration—
thoughts concerning the fundamental nature of the world's operation and a cultivation art supremely tailored to himself.
Li Fan was someone who never acted without profit.
Although he had encountered a great many cultivation arts across his cycles of reincarnation, he still felt that the Immortal-Sitting Art, derived from the Mountain-Sitting Art, suited him best.
Yet having reached his current level of cultivation, the opponents Li Fan had to confront were old monsters like the Heavenly Physician, Ruomu, and Senior Stone Slab.
Ordinary practice of a cultivation art could hardly offer him much aid anymore.
If he fell behind others by more than a margin in his fundamental cultivation method, how could he contend against them?
The Heavenly Physician's guidance surfaced in Li Fan's mind once more:
"Remember, techniques are secondary. What truly matters is contemplation on the workings of the Heavenly Dao and the essence of the world."
"No matter how powerful an art may be, it ultimately belongs to someone else. Only that which truly fits oneself is the most flawless art."
Li Fan's eyes flickered, his gaze turning distant and profound.
The Mending the Heavens Record, the Immortal-Sitting Art, the world elevation...
A violent tempest seemed to sweep through his mind, drawing in all his past experiences and insights.
Tempered as if in a crucible, they finally detonated with a thunderous roar!
Within Li Fan's mind, they coalesced into three grand words!
Heaven-Sitting Art!
Chapter 962