"What an immense power..."
Feeling the authority and power he wielded at this moment, even with Li Fan's depth of experience and composure, he felt a momentary wave of dizzying exhilaration.
Though a gulf as vast as heaven and earth lay between a Longevity Heavenly Venerable and an ordinary cultivator, when the number of ants reached a certain magnitude, it was enough to bridge that divide!
For instance, having clashed in divine sense with the ancient-method Longevity expert Mo Rubin, Li Fan was certain that now that the divine senses of over a million cultivators were at his command, he could easily crush this Dharma King of the Profound Heaven Sect.
Li Fan even had the feeling that if this expansion continued, once he devoured the vast majority of cultivators across the Xuanhuang Realm...
He might not be unable to clash head-on with Chuanfa and hold his ground.
Once desire sprouted within one's heart, it was difficult to suppress.
Especially as the million imagined gods and demons seemed to sense Li Fan's thoughts, all emitting faint whispers in an attempt to bewitch him.
Under normal circumstances, almost no cultivator could resist the temptation of ascending to heaven in a single bound.
The end would inevitably be losing one's original mind, sinking endlessly into eternal expansion until all cultivators were eradicated.
When that time came, whether the instigator of it all would ascend to immortality or sink into obliteration alongside the world...
No one knew.
But Li Fan was different.
For one, he had the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation to protect him. For another, aside from these million demon gods, he wielded several powers of comparable scale.
He even possessed an existence transcending all else—True Reversion.
How could Li Fan lose sight of the fundamentals, chasing after trifles and losing his mind to a mere million gods and demons?
Never mind a million; even with ten million gods and demons, or the power of a True Immortal, enticing him to abandon True Reversion was nothing but a fool's dream!
It could be said that True Reversion was also Li Fan's greatest spiritual anchor, ensuring he would never be seduced by external things or forget his true purpose.
Unless, one day, he encountered an existence even mightier than True Reversion...
At this moment, Li Fan's expression was as cold as eternal ice. He pushed the power of the Dao Transformation Stone to its utmost, doing his best to manipulate every single god and demon.
Splitting his thoughts into a million avatars placed an immense burden on the mid-grade Dao Transformation Stone.
Yet with the aid of Li Fan's own vast divine sense, he managed to barely maintain basic control.
"If their numbers increase any further, I'll have to leave them to act on instinct. Without my micromanagement, they'll just be mindless beasts, and their combat capability will drop drastically. Still, that's enough to sow chaos."
Within half a day, beacon fires flared across the territory of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Its grassroots forces were essentially paralyzed.
One had to understand that each divine sense avatar possessed combat strength equivalent to the weakest Soul Formation cultivator.
Yet even within the Alliance's four central provinces, Soul Formation cultivators were not numerous.
Facing tens of thousands of gods and demons sweeping over like a tidal wave, they could only choose to lay low and avoid the storm.
If Soul Formation cultivators did so, the choice for Dao Integration cultivators was no different.
After all, their lives belonged to them. Cultivating all the way to the Dao Integration realm was no easy feat.
With the enemy attacking in such ferocious waves, whoever stepped up first to take the brunt would inevitably be besieged.
What if they perished?
...
The objective environment of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals fostered nearly identical mindsets among the cultivators.
This created the illusion that the million gods and demons Li Fan controlled were sweeping through unoccupied territory, completely unopposed.
It seemed as though they were on the verge of bringing down the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals at the peak of its power.
Meanwhile.
Headquarters of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
A boundless space where nothing met the eye but a stark, unbroken white.
A bolt of lightning burst open from the center of the space, followed by world-like projections illuminating various corners.
The sights were varied: continuous mountain ranges hidden beneath seas of clouds, a boundless sea of bamboo radiating vibrant green, solemn and opulent imperial palaces, and even fantastical scenes of towering high-rises bathed in an ocean of neon lights.
Within each world projection, a hazy human face seemed to manifest in this pale expanse.
"Jiang, tell us what the situation is," a rather flippant voice rang out.
It came from the world of the boundless bamboo sea.
Immediately, streams of light and shadow surfaced in the center between the world projections.
They all displayed scenes of gods and demons running rampant and the Alliance suffering devastation.
"It is as you see. These creations of divine sense appeared under extremely peculiar circumstances. With no prior omen whatsoever, they erupted out of nowhere."
"Across the various provinces, aside from the core administrative areas of the Heavenly Cities, virtually everything has fallen."
A solemn voice spoke slowly, briefing the Dharma Transmitters present on the Alliance's current situation.
The voice came from the world of the imperial palace.
"Fascinating. So many divine sense creations... Could they be the lingering resentments of cultivators who fell in Xuanhuang over the years?"
"Useless trash will always be useless trash. They can't even organize a decent counterattack!"
"I'd say it's not that they can't, but that they won't. A bunch of ungrateful wolves that can never be tamed..."
The Dharma Transmitters chimed in one after another. Without exception, their tones were exceedingly relaxed, showing not the slightest concern over the Alliance falling.
"Jiang, what do you think?"
The Dharma Transmitters suddenly fell silent, their gazes turning in unison toward an utterly unremarkable world.
There were no magnificent buildings there, nor any splendid natural scenery.
There was only sheer void.
A solitary figure sat upright amidst the void.
Jiang's gaze remained fixed on the countless images at the center of the space, ignoring the inquiries of the other Dharma Transmitters.
Yet those Dharma Transmitters seemed to hold this Dharma Transmitter Jiang in high regard; all waited patiently, none expressing the slightest displeasure.
After an unknown time, Dharma Transmitter Jiang spoke: "Behind these divine sense creations, there is only one person."
"Drag him out, and this matter will be resolved."
At these words, all the Dharma Transmitters looked startled.
"To wield such might... not even an ordinary Longevity realm cultivator could pull this off, could they? Which of them would cast aside their dignity to pull off such petty tricks?"
"Wait, now that you mention it, I think I remember. Back then, there seemed to be a technique in the Xuanhuang Realm whose manifestations were strikingly similar to this."
"Hm?"
...
Ignoring the reactions of the other Dharma Transmitters, Dharma Transmitter Jiang continued his analysis: "As you all have said, someone of that caliber would never do something meaningless. Releasing these million gods and demons..."
"It is likely just a smokescreen. To conceal his true objective."
"His true objective?"
Dharma Transmitter Jiang's deduction won the agreement of the vast majority of Dharma Transmitters. They, too, fell into thought.
As if struck by a realization, subtle expressions appeared on many Dharma Transmitters' faces.
Their gazes drifted across the others in attendance.
Keeping his eyes straight ahead, Dharma Transmitter Jiang continued, "There is no need to suspect one another."
"At that level of strength, the things one covets are merely those few items."
"Whether he chooses to fish in troubled waters or seize by force, we need only resolve it at the source."
Chapter 968