"Unable to cultivate it?"
His avatar, Li Qing, had been forged using the essence blood of Su Yuqing, the Heavenly Dao avatar of the Li Realm, and had established a Dao Foundation using a wonder of Heaven, the black sword. It was impossible for a lack of natural talent to prevent him from taking the first steps into a cultivation technique.
It seemed this was a restriction inherent to the *Common People Lingyuan Technique* itself.
Li Fan turned his gaze toward the Lingyuan Sect disciple slumped limp in the corner.
"Interesting. He clearly knows the contents of the technique, yet not a shred of memory regarding the Lingyuan Technique exists within his soul. It could only be extracted through torture and interrogation. Is the technique stored within the physical flesh?"
Li Fan swept his divine sense over the unconscious disciple, inspecting him thoroughly.
With Li Fan's current depth of understanding of the human body, he swiftly uncovered a clue.
Deep within the disciple's flesh lay a branded imprint, etched into his very sinew and marrow, forming a unique mark. This mark seemed to exert no ill effect on the body, yet Li Fan keenly discerned traces left behind by the circulation of the technique upon it.
Even though this disciple had already switched to the new method, the imprint carved by years of circulating the technique had not faded in the slightest.
"The imprint stores the technique, and it also serves as a kind of authentication. Only those who meet this authentication can practice the *Common People Lingyuan Technique*..."
A short while later, Li Fan withdrew his divine sense from the disciple, who had been reduced to nothing more than a pool of flesh and blood.
Not that he was cruel enough to murder someone just to silence them.
Rather, when he had peered into the Lingyuan Technique imprint, he had triggered its innate defensive mechanism. The imprint had self-destructed, tearing the disciple's body apart in the process.
Fortunately, Li Fan had already memorized the entire imprint beforehand.
No matter how intricate it was, a single glance was all the Dao Transformation Stone needed to replicate it perfectly.
Narrowing his eyes, Li Fan moved his hand like a brush, tracing strokes through the void.
The Lingyuan Technique imprint gradually took shape.
Shaped like a human form, it comprised more than 128,000 distinct "components," interlocking ring within ring.
The moment the imprint was fully reproduced, it seemed to possess a sentience of its own, actually beginning to stir.
First, it oriented itself in confusion, taking in its surroundings, before slowly drifting toward the mangled muck on the ground.
Li Fan did not interfere, merely observing quietly to see what would happen.
Once the humanoid imprint adhered to the flesh and blood, the lifeless lumps of meat began to squirm. With the imprint as its skeleton and the flesh as its outer garment, it robed itself anew.
The entire process was eerie and unsettling, but what astonished Li Fan even more was what followed.
Although the technique's imprint had reshaped a body, it had not brought the disciple back to life. It was merely a walking corpse, and its external appearance had not even been restored.
It was purely a construct cobbled together from flesh and blood. The very first thing it did upon coming into being—and its sole purpose—was to cross its legs and begin circulating the *Common People Lingyuan Technique*.
Spiritual energy slowly converged toward the interior of the flesh construct. Before long, Li Fan sensed the fluctuations of the technique circulating within it.
Like a machine forged of flesh and blood, even without the life of a disciple to serve as a "carrier," it could cultivate the *Common People Lingyuan Technique* tirelessly and without pause.
Mindless and devoid of awareness, the flesh machine ignored both Li Fan and Li Qing, executing its task strictly according to preordained instructions.
"No wonder that enigmatic Lingyuan Sect Master was able to find enough cultivators to practice it back then, driving the technique's benefits high enough to cross the threshold that offsets the backlash of Techniques Cannot Be Practiced Concurrently."
"It turns out he relied on these flesh puppets devoid of conscious will."
A look of keen interest flashed across Li Fan's eyes.
"To still be able to circulate the technique purely on physical instinct even after death must rely on that imprint. I had never heard of such a thing before; it seems this Lingyuan Sect Master was also a man harboring deep secrets."
"A pity that when a Heavenly Venerable's dharma manifestation struck, he was no different from an ant, unable to escape death."
Of course, it could not be ruled out that the Lingyuan Sect Master might not have been in Jiushan Province at the time and had luckily escaped the catastrophe.
He only needed to test it now...
At Li Fan's signal, his avatar Li Qing sat down cross-legged and began engraving the Lingyuan Technique imprint into his own body as well.
The true body carefully observed the subtle changes taking place within as the imprint steadily expanded.
Only when the imprint was fully replicated and connected into a unified whole did Li Fan faintly perceive the effect it exerted on the flesh.
To put it in layman's terms, it was like pressing a stamp onto the body.
"Begin cultivating the Common People Lingyuan Technique," Li Fan said, narrowing his eyes.
Li Qing nodded slightly and once more attempted to circulate the Lingyuan Technique.
This time, there was no obstruction whatsoever; he swiftly crossed the threshold into practice.
"Apart from our side, no one else in the entire Xuanhuang Realm is currently cultivating this technique."
"It seems that Lingyuan Sect Master truly is dead," Li Fan said, shaking his head.
The reason was simple: while the sect master himself might not necessarily cultivate the Lingyuan Technique, the technique was undoubtedly of immense use to him. Otherwise, he would not have gone to such great lengths to establish the Lingyuan Sect and propagate the technique far and wide.
If he were still alive, he would certainly regroup. With this method of using imprints to control flesh puppets, staging a comeback would not be difficult.
Yet so much time had elapsed since the destruction of Jiushan Province, and still no new cultivators had begun practicing the Lingyuan Technique. In fact, all those who had previously cultivated it had abandoned it.
"No matter how many schemes you weave, in the face of an absolute disparity in power, they are ultimately futile."
The Lingyuan Sect Master had died an innocent bystander's death, but the legacy he left behind now played right into Li Fan's hands.
Although there were bound to be other secrets hidden within this Common People Lingyuan Technique, that didn't stop Li Fan from putting it to use first.
He could unravel the rest slowly over time.
"Go manufacture some flesh puppets first and get the Lingyuan Technique running," Li Fan instructed.
Li Qing promptly took his orders and departed.
*If all goes well, the pocket worlds will soon be churning out a steady stream of cultivators.*
*I don't expect them to confront the Five Elders Association directly; they only need to help me 'Mend Heaven.'*
*The blood-colored river is virtually endless, spanning an immense gulf of time. But the vast majority of that history is utterly inconsequential. What matters most are a few crucial junctures...*
*From when the King of Profound Heaven returned through the Immortal Realm passage and founded the Profound Heaven Sect, up until his inexplicable disappearance.*
*And the twilight years of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao's rule, when the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable rose abruptly and Mr. Bai attained the status of Ancient and Modern Dual-Dharma Heavenly Venerable.*
*...*
*First, let's clarify what happened during those two eras.*
Li Fan was well aware that relying on these pocket world cultivators to retrieve historical fragments from the Genesis Historical Records was much like angling in a fishing pond.
It was rife with randomness; what one pulled up was entirely up to luck.
However, with enough attempts, something of value would inevitably be reeled in.
Li Qing was highly efficient.
Cultivating techniques still had to take the influence of immortal-mortal miasma into account. Given the urgency of the situation, he ultimately procured the materials from the Xuanhuang Realm.
In just over ten days, he had created enough flesh puppets.
As for the numerous Foundation Establishment cultivators who vanished without explanation across the territory of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, their disappearances hardly stirred a ripple.
Chapter 978