Chapter 1154: Only One Hand Covers the World

## Chapter 1164: Turning the World Upside Down Single-Handedly

Daoist Baihua turned his head away, trembling and daring not to respond.

Li Ping waited for a long time, but Daoist Baihua still did not change his mind. He then sighed softly and put away the three True Immortal Seal characters beside him. "Never mind. If you are unwilling, I won't force you," he said. "After all, not everyone has the courage to leverage the power of True Immortals..."

"Regarding the matter of transporting the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven, do you foresee any difficulties?" Li Ping returned to the main topic and asked.

Sensing the terrifying aura of power around him disappear, Daoist Baihua briefly recovered from his panic. The Sacred Emperor Li Ping's tone of inquiry was subtly different from before. Daoist Baihua knew that if he refused again, he might truly enrage this madman. He could only reluctantly agree.

"Please depart as soon as possible, fellow Daoist. By the way, since you'll be going to an unfamiliar place, for safety's sake, I will send a disciple to accompany you," Li Ping said, seemingly offhandedly.

When Daoist Baihua saw Li Ping's so-called disciple, his scalp tingled, and his body trembled once more.

"This is..."

Even with Daoist Baihua's extraordinary insight, having personally witnessed the destruction of various realms, he still found it difficult to accept at this moment: a body that appeared identical to an ordinary human, but whose interior was composed of billions of incessantly wriggling, unknown small insects. Each of these insects was an individual with its own thoughts, yet they collectively formed a "human" entity.

Daoist Baihua's scalp tingled not because he was frightened by the endless, grotesque insects, but due to his body's instinctive reaction. Those insects seemed to have a natural inhibitory effect on bodies composed purely of energy. Even though she was in the Longevity Realm, and even with a distance between her and these insects, Daoist Baihua still felt a sudden surge of anxiety and unease within her. Her body continuously warned her to stay away from this insect-human.

"You can call him Dao Yi," Li Ping replied, not directly answering her question. "Don't worry, although Dao Yi's strength is somewhat lacking, he possesses quite peculiar abilities. With his help, transporting the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven should be much easier for you."

Seeing this, Daoist Baihua could only steel himself and nod slightly. Under Dao Yi's guidance, he headed straight for Tianling Province.

Watching the two figures disappear into the distance, Li Ping felt little joy from having subdued a Longevity Realm cultivator with just a few words. "My own strength is still insufficient. I can only rely on external objects for intimidation. If I could utilize the essence of source power, there would be no need for such trouble."

Dao Yi is a special variant of the Dao Yi insect preserved within the Myriad Beast Coagulation Crystal. Regardless of how much the population expands, they can always maintain a unified collective consciousness. More crucially, these Dao Yi insects don't merely produce spiritual energy. Instead, they seem capable of residing within spiritual energy, using it to reproduce themselves, and then gradually transforming themselves into spiritual energy-like entities.

Given sufficient external reproductive conditions, Dao Yi would only need about a year to transform all the spiritual energy in an entire small world into "itself." This entire process is silent and won't even affect the various creatures in the world that rely on spiritual energy for survival. Even cultivators with weaker cultivation might not notice. Only after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, where an individual grotto-heaven forms within the body, can one perceive this mutated spiritual energy.

Li Fan sent Dao Yi, cultivated from a wisp of his own consciousness, to the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven precisely to enable it to achieve a breakthrough transformation there. By utilizing the immense spiritual energy of the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven, he aims to cultivate a large quantity of mutated spiritual energy capable of shaking the entire Xuanhuang Realm.

Under normal circumstances, Dao Yi could not develop in the Xuanhuang Realm. Once the spiritual energy mutation exceeds a certain scale, it will inevitably alert cultivators and be reported to the Immortal Alliance. Although solving it would be a bit troublesome, eliminating these insects is not truly difficult for the Myriad Immortal Alliance. However, from discovery to containment, a certain reaction time is needed. If there's a sufficiently large quantitative base, it can achieve a complete replacement of Xuanhuang spiritual energy before the cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm can react. This move, akin to "drawing the firewood from under the cauldron" (undermining the foundation), is a killing blow Li Ping prepared for his counterattack on the Xuanhuang Realm.

When spiritual energy gains self-awareness and can distinguish between friend and foe, the advantage gained by the cultivators of the Myriad Realms Alliance in their battles against the cultivators of the Myriad Immortal Alliance will likely be significant.

"Daring to make the sun and moon bring forth a new sky." "The aura of this Xuanhuang Realm is too corrupted; it's time to teach them a harsh lesson."

As Li Fan's clone, Sacred Emperor Li Ping's memories concerning Huan Zhen were removed. In his own self-perception, he was the embodiment of the Xuanhuang Realm's self-preservation consciousness during a world-ending crisis, a product of serendipitous circumstances. He was the so-called Mandated Saint. He knew almost all the secrets within the Xuanhuang Realm perfectly clear. He had even foreseen countless futures of his own destruction. His ultimate pursuit was to transform heaven and earth, to liberate the Xuanhuang Realm from the corrupt rule of the Myriad Immortal Alliance. Sacred Emperor Li Ping firmly believed that he was not far from achieving this goal.

***

The grand finale of the Great Qi's First Fishing Competition officially commenced. A total of ten top contenders would personally demonstrate their fishing skills before the Sacred Emperor. Originally, all three of the Sacred Emperor's disciples participated, but in the end, only the simple-minded Wang Xuanba advanced to the final round. This undoubtedly further demonstrated the fairness of the competition.

After passing through a circular light portal and experiencing a wave of dizziness, the ten participants arrived in what appeared to be a very ordinary garden. The great Faceless Sacred Emperor was sitting by a small pond nearby, fishing with his eyes closed. Most of the ten had never seen the Sacred Emperor's face before. Daring not to disturb him, they lowered their heads and waited anxiously.

After a long while, the Sacred Emperor suddenly reeled in his rod. To everyone's surprise, what was pulled from the pond was not a fish. Instead, it was a white orb of light. Casually putting away the orb, the Sacred Emperor looked at the ten outstanding anglers and explained the rules of the competition.

"I have placed countless treasures in this pond," he announced. "One rod per person, one chance each. The higher the quality of the treasure you fish out, the better your score will be."

These words made everyone incredibly excited, because the Sacred Emperor had promised that, regardless of their ranking, all the treasures they fished out would belong to them!

As everyone eagerly anticipated, Wang Xuanba, the Sacred Emperor's disciple, was the first to act. Wang Xuanba had never been to this fishing pond before. He sat motionlessly for a long time, then reeled in his rod. Ultimately, his hands were empty. An empty cast! This left Wang Xuanba quite disheartened.

Upon seeing this, the other participants were all greatly shaken. They realized that the Sacred Emperor's fishing trial was far from as simple as ordinary fishing. One by one, they became tense and serious.

As they approached the fishing pond one by one, ultimately, one purple, three blue, and five white orbs of light were fished out from the pond.