Chapter 1119: The Significance of the Anchor Point

A jet-black robe, embroidered with nine intertwining golden dragons, covered him.

His imperial crown, adorned with dangling beads, obscured his face, making his features indistinct.

“As expected of the Mandated Holy Emperor; a mortal can hardly gaze upon the imperial visage.”

Sun Erlang felt Li Fan's gaze upon him, and his body trembled slightly. He instinctively lowered his head.

At the same time, he said hesitantly, “Master, your disciple is incompetent. I only just broke through to the first layer of the Qi Refining stage yesterday.”

“Given the meager spiritual energy gathered within the imperial palace, it's not easy for you to guide Qi into your body in such a short time,” Li Fan said, not blaming him but instead nodding reassuringly.

Upon hearing this, Sun Erlang’s face showed even more shame. “If not for the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation imparted by Master, I fear I would still be afflicted by the miasma within my body and unable to embark on the path of immortality.”

After speaking, Sun Erlang kowtowed several times with deep gratitude.

Li Fan did not stop him.

Once Sun Erlang rose again, Li Fan asked indifferently, “What is the overall progress of the Imperial Guard in learning the Immortal Heart Incantation?”

“As of yesterday, a total of one hundred and sixty soldiers successfully entered the path and shed their mortal bodies. The rest, who failed the trials, have all been dealt with cleanly,” Sun Erlang replied, a flicker of reluctance in his eyes, though it was quickly hidden.

“From now on, you will be Our main force in conquering myriad realms. You must diligently cultivate day and night, without slackening.”

“As for the spiritual energy problem, you need not worry. In three days, you will personally take this immortal vessel to Xu Yuan in the east.”

With a casual gesture from Li Fan, a wooden vessel ten zhang long appeared before Sun Erlang.

The vessel’s entire body was inscribed with silver lines, emitting waves of mysterious aura.

“Truly an immortal treasure. Master actually entrusts such a treasure to me so readily.” Sun Erlang’s heart jolted, and he quickly nodded in assent.

The immortal vessel then flew into his embrace.

A feeling of perfect control, as if moving his own arm, immediately arose in Sun Erlang’s mind.

“You may leave,” Li Fan’s voice resounded just as Sun Erlang was experiencing the vessel’s marvels.

Sun Erlang bowed and withdrew.

Only Li Fan remained in the entire Imperial Palace’s rear garden.

His faceless countenance, hidden in the shadows beneath the imperial crown, appeared strange and eerie.

“Heh, if not for the fact that this world is destined not to last long, and my attempt to impart cultivation methods, I probably wouldn’t have discovered for a long time that the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation is not restricted by the rule that different cultivation methods cannot be practiced simultaneously.”

“Is it that the Immortal Heart Incantation doesn't fall within the scope of cultivation techniques, or is it a special privilege left by the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao for the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate?”

“Regardless, the plan to select a suitable person to succeed as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate in the future will be much easier to implement than I imagined.”

Li Fan’s thoughts slowly turned. With a flash, he appeared on the Holy Emperor’s throne in Xuanjing City.

Faint wisps of spiritual energy nourished Li Fan’s body.

This prevented his current late Foundation Establishment realm from regressing due to a lack of spiritual energy.

Having been reincarnated over a hundred times, and reaching the Soul Transformation realm, capable of rivaling Dao Integration cultivators in his peak, Li Fan had now returned to the Foundation Establishment realm. However, the world in his eyes was different from before.

For instance, a mortal small world like Great Xuan was not entirely devoid of spiritual energy; after all, it was still connected to the Xuanhuang Realm.

It was just that due to the unique structure of the small world itself, coupled with the seal of the Immortal Severing Grand Array, the spiritual energy was extremely sparse, almost negligible.

Cultivators generally couldn’t utilize it through ordinary means. Only long-lived animals, accumulating it bit by bit over time, could gather a limited amount of spiritual energy.

For example, the hundreds-of-zhang-long serpent on Jieli Mountain.

“Extracting all the spiritual energy from an entire world can barely sustain a Foundation Establishment cultivator…”

“But borrowing from the Xuanhuang Realm is harmless.”

The Taiyan Vessel Li Fan gave to Sun Erlang had some newly added formations. Their purpose was to automatically fly into the Xuanhuang Realm, absorb and store spiritual energy, and then return.

Sun Erlang inside the Taiyan Vessel naturally couldn’t see anything outside. All he needed to do was bring the vessel near Xu Yuan.

Although with Li Fan’s current level of formation mastery, stealing spiritual energy from the Xuanhuang Realm would be difficult to detect under the cover of formations, it was not a long-term solution.

To generate spiritual energy from nothing, he still needed the Dao-One Worms.

Dao-One Worms were peculiar rare beasts that Li Fan couldn’t create from scratch.

However…

Ignoring the prompt that Huanzhen retained options from the previous life, Li Fan looked at his system panel.

Name: Li FanCultivation Stage: Late Foundation EstablishmentBiological Age: 20/399Psychological Age: 1399/9999Void Transformation Charge Progress: 3%Anchoring Charge Progress: 0%Current Anchor Point Count: 3Current Available Anchor Points: 1Bound Items: Source of the Xuantian Mirror (fragmented), Taiyan Vessel, Myriad Beast Condensate, Myriad People's Essence Blood, Dao Transformation Stone, Final Disintegration Disk

“Biological age has returned to the 399 years appropriate for the Foundation Establishment realm, but there’s no need to worry. I should have already completed Huanzhen before my lifespan runs out.”

“The upper limit of psychological age, even after once breaking through to Soul Transformation, hasn't increased accordingly. It seems to have hit a threshold…”

Li Fan merely glanced at these details and skipped over them.

He focused his attention on the number of anchor points and the bound items.

The original available anchor points were two; after absorbing the nascent Five Elements Cavern Heaven, it became three.

As for now, only one remained.

That was because Li Fan used a blank anchor point to replace bound items.

The "Thousand Mechanisms Jade Ring Golden Scroll" became the Source of the Xuantian Mirror.

The Stagnation Stele (damaged) became the Myriad Beast Condensate.

Anchor points were originally hard to obtain, but in the process of absorbing the nascent Five Elements Cavern Heaven and generating anchor points, Li Fan gained a new understanding of their essence.

Heavenly and earthly wonders, Core Formation methods, and Nascent Soul Cavern Heavens.

The reason Huanzhen needed to absorb these things as anchor points was likely because Huanzhen was completing its understanding of external objects.

Just as the Xuantian Mirror perfected itself by measuring heaven and earth, Huanzhen simply and brutally absorbed experience through吞噬 consumption.

“So, it’s exactly the opposite of what I thought before.”

“The closer something is to the essence of the world, the more charge progress it provides. Foundation Establishment wonders, Law Gold Cores, they are too meager and cannot satisfy Huanzhen's needs at all.”

“That’s why the number of anchor points generated is limited.”

“Instead, Nascent Soul Cavern Heavens, the changes of impending birth, and even the Essence of Heaven and Earth, will provide a large amount of charge progress.”

“With the Xuanhuang Realm, that colossal entity, as nourishment, the number of anchor points is not a particularly worrying issue for now.”

So Li Fan unhesitatingly directly used the anchor point replacement function.

The Source of the Xuantian Mirror was acquired by chance in his previous life.

As for the Myriad Beast Condensate…

In his previous life, before finally executing the world-ending plan, Li Fan had traveled to various small worlds for a final inventory.

The Myriad Beast Reincarnation was among the gains from the Empire and Xu Ke’s locations.

Li Fan's thoughts slowly drifted back to that time.

“The Myriad Immortals Alliance launched a surprise attack, and the Federation headquarters was destroyed?” Xiao Qing’s face turned pale after hearing Li Fan’s words.

“If I hadn't timely severed the connection between the Spiritwood Realm and you all, the Empire would probably be a ruin by now,” Li Fan sighed faintly.

The Imperial Daughter and Xiao Hong exchanged glances, both filled with lingering fear.

“However, you don't need to worry too much. Although the Spiritwood Realm was destroyed, most of the headquarters’ members safely escaped and are temporarily in hiding. Once the storm passes, the Federation can rise again instantly,” Li Fan deceptively reassured them without changing his expression.

Despite this blatant lie, the Empire’s people, upon hearing it, paradoxically felt at ease.

While listening to the Empire’s report on recent developments, Li Fan entered the Imperial Treasury.

Just sorting out the plot, one update today.