Chapter 1004: Source Power Elevates All Things

After paying respects to the Faceless True Immortal statue, the relationship between the two parties seemed to grow much closer.

"Fellow Daoist Qiaogong, what exactly is the purpose of all your hard work in establishing the Spirit Essence Sect to collect source energy? To be honest, I only took over the great undertaking of the Spirit Essence Sect because I saw the convenience of the 'Common People's Spirit Essence Art' allowing multiple people to cultivate the same method. As for how to extract and utilize source energy, I'm completely clueless right now!"

Li Fan asked congenially while showing Hermit Qiaogong around the Spiritwood Realm, where flesh-and-blood puppets were used to automatically cultivate the 'Common People's Spirit Essence Art'.

"Having a separate mini-world as a base is indeed much more convenient," Hermit Qiaogong remarked with a hint of envy during the tour. "When I was in the Spirit Essence Sect, I wouldn't dare display these flesh-and-blood cultivator puppets so openly in the plaza. I always had to hide them, otherwise, the disciples would get restless, and all sorts of trouble would arise."

He then explained to Li Fan, "Aside from being used to create Heavenly Craft puppets, most of the source energy is stored by me for unforeseen needs."

"Theoretically, purified source energy can be used by any cultivator to rapidly advance their cultivation. Have you heard the legends of immortal sects bestowing gifts, leading to disciples achieving enlightenment overnight and breaking through several major realms consecutively? That's the effect of source energy."

"However, in this Xuanhuang Realm..." Hermit Qiaogong smacked his lips and shook his head slightly.

"This cursed place is indeed unsuitable for cultivators. Not to mention the resources required to break through each major realm, just the bottleneck of the 'Calamity of Heaven' is far more stringent than in other cultivation worlds," Li Fan concurred.

"Unfortunately, there's no choice left," Hermit Qiaogong sighed.

"But these restrictions only apply to cultivators. Simple creations like Heavenly Craft puppets are not subject to them. By extension, artifacts and similar items also have no usage restrictions. Perhaps this is why the Myriad Immortals Alliance always takes a large cut of source energy from me," Hermit Qiaogong hinted.

"Are you referring to... the Heavenly Profound Mirror?" Li Fan instantly realized.

"Not just that. Undoubtedly, the Heavenly Profound Mirror is an immortal-grade artifact. For it, source energy is largely negligible. However, within the Myriad Immortals Alliance, any artifact that hasn't ascended to immortal-grade can be enhanced by absorbing source energy," Hermit Qiaogong smiled.

"So there's such a wondrous use," Li Fan murmured thoughtfully, looking at the 'Disk of Final Disintegration' in his Sea of Consciousness.

Next, with the enthusiastic help of Hermit Qiaogong, a Heavenly Craft Fortress was constructed beside the flesh-and-blood puppet plaza in the Spiritwood Realm.

It was spherical, with two constantly rotating metal rings orbiting its exterior.

Once Hermit Qiaogong finished inscribing the two metal rings, Li Fan vaguely sensed that the overflowing source energy, which had originally surged towards his clone Li Qing, now redirected itself towards the Heavenly Craft Fortress.

Like a trickling stream transforming into a surging river, it formed golden droplets of solid essence, which dripped and were stored within the sphere.

Upon close observation, Li Fan noticed that this golden source energy was clearly of a lower grade compared to the refined source energy, or 'Dao Bloom,' formed through the Faceless True Immortal statue.

Nevertheless, for cultivators, it still possessed a fatal allure.

While it didn't cause one to lose their mind like beholding the 'Soul of Heaven and Earth', it still evoked strong waves of greed from the depths of one's heart.

"Finally, it's done. It seems that the weaker environmental restrictions in this mini-world make it considerably easier to guide source energy than in the Xuanhuang Realm," Hermit Qiaogong said with delight, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"This object is called the Heavenly Craft Fortress. I assume, besides drawing in source energy, it also has defensive capabilities?" Li Fan cut straight to the point.

Hermit Qiaogong did not hide anything: "That's right. Because resources in our Heavenly Craft Realm are limited, when developing creations, we often strive for the ultimate integration of functions."

Hermit Qiaogong lightly tapped the sphere nearby, and a flash of light appeared.

The newly completed structure then suddenly vanished before Li Fan's eyes.

"Oh? Interesting..." Not only was it invisible to the naked eye, but even divine sense couldn't detect it.

Only by moving forward and touching it by hand could one confirm its existence.

"This is its stealth mode, which requires a certain amount of source energy to activate. It possesses a concealment ability almost on par with that of the Ancestor; even a cultivator at the Longevity Realm might not detect it," Hermit Qiaogong stated proudly.

Next, Hermit Qiaogong demonstrated the Heavenly Craft Fortress's offensive and transfer modes to Li Fan.

It truly lived up to its 'Heavenly Craft' name.

Li Fan was very satisfied.

"The only pity is that source energy is hard-won. It must be painstakingly extracted from every cultivator who practices the 'Spirit Essence Art'."

"It cannot achieve the self-sustaining, perpetual motion of the Ancestor."

"When I fled for my life back then, I couldn't bring out the Ancestor's core energy component. Perhaps I'll never have the chance to solve that mystery now." Hermit Qiaogong looked at the Heavenly Craft Fortress before him, seemingly reminiscing about his homeland, his eyes filled with regret.

"Heh heh, there will be a chance," Li Fan said with a smile.

Hermit Qiaogong didn't take Li Fan's words seriously.

After completing his explanation, Hermit Qiaogong voluntarily handed over the highest authority of the Heavenly Craft Fortress to Li Fan.

With a thought, information regarding the amount of source energy stored in the fortress, the estimated duration of various functions, and projected details of the surroundings of the Heavenly Craft Fortress—all appeared in Li Fan's mind in an instant.

This gave Li Fan a peculiar sensation.

After increasing the fortress's source energy output to cover the entire Spiritwood Realm within its protective range, he activated its permanent stealth mode.

As a result, very little source energy could be stored. It was almost a case of expenditures exceeding income.

However, Li Fan was not worried. Instead, he instructed his clone, Li Qing, to intensify the cultivation of the 'Common People's Spirit Essence Art' in the various mini-worlds.

It was foreseeable that with the further popularization of the 'Common People's Spirit Essence Art,' not only would the harvest of source energy increase significantly, but the quantity of refined source energy generated from gratitude towards the 'Merciful Immortal of the Mortal World' would also experience a qualitative leap.

As this matter gradually got on track, Li Fan, adhering to the principle of making the best use of everything, did not let Hermit Qiaogong remain idle.

He summoned Tianyang and asked Hermit Qiaogong to examine him closely.

"This junior brother of mine, due to the limitations of his physical body's aptitude back then, couldn't break through to higher realms. Therefore, he found another path: transforming his body into an artifact and possessing a puppet with his soul. After absorbing the power of millennium-old ground fire, he finally achieved the Soul Transformation stage."

"Although I later helped him devour the 'Soul of Heaven and Earth' and step across the threshold of Dao Integration, this might be his limit."

"Junior Brother Tianyang has been with me for many years and is absolutely loyal. I can't bear to see him stop here..."

"Fellow Daoist Qiaogong, please take a look and tell me if there's any way to help Tianyang advance further?" Li Fan asked somewhat earnestly.