Chapter 1365: Refining the Dao Medicine King's Scripture

To think he possessed concealment methods similar to the fishing pond, Sun Piaomiao's strength and background might be even greater than imagined. As Li Fan pondered this, the stone pill in his eyes suddenly transformed.

Formations and pills inherently shared the same origin. Li Fan's cultivation in the Dao of Formations had already reached its peak, even allowing him to touch the realm of immortals. With this interconnected understanding, even though he hadn't formally studied alchemy, he was far superior to ordinary alchemists in the world. Furthermore, medicine and alchemy were inseparable, and Li Fan had deeply inherited the true teachings of the Celestial Physician.

At this moment, prompted by Ruan Tianxiao, Li Fan seemed to transform into an alchemist. With heaven and earth as his cauldron, the round stone in his hand truly became a crystal-clear medicinal pill!

In an instant, the faint aroma of the pill intensified a millionfold. Saliva involuntarily seeped into Li Fan's mouth, and his throat stirred with the urge to swallow the pill whole.

"It seems this stone pill truly is a gift from Sun Piaomiao to his descendants..." This thought flashed through Li Fan's mind. Then, he tossed the pill in his hand to Ruan Tianxiao. "Go ahead and try this medicine then!" His tone was calm, completely unaffected by the pill's allure.

Ruan Tianxiao trembled uncontrollably from excitement, fearing Li Fan might change his mind and swallow the stone pill himself. The Medicine King Sect members, who were gradually recovering their senses, all showed looks of deep regret in their eyes.

After Ruan Tianxiao consumed the stone pill, his demeanor and aura instantly transformed, as if he had become a different person. Standing with his hands behind his back, he cast a faint glance over everyone present, his face filled with reminiscence and nostalgia. Though he stood right before them, it was as if they existed in different temporal spaces. He was ethereal and otherworldly, like a banished immortal from the heavens.

Such an obvious change naturally did not escape the notice of Li Fan and the others present. However, the conjecture in their minds was too outlandish, so they suppressed it, daring not to voice it.

"Sun... Piaomiao..." It was Li Fan who slowly uttered these three words. At the same time, the ethereal image of his wooden sword was silently ready, prepared to flee at any moment.

Ruan Tianxiao, whose essence had been altered by the stone pill, as if possessed by the Medicine King Sect's ancestor, Sun Piaomiao, sat cross-legged in the air after a brief moment of contemplation. He began to speak, expounding on the Dao.

"Pills are the transformations of the Grand Dao of Heaven and Earth; medicine saves all beings from their ailments. The Grand Dao is formless, stands alone unchanging, and cycles endlessly without wear. It converges in pills and manifests through medicine. Is it not that heaven and earth themselves are but a single pill recipe?"

Just the first sentence deeply captivated the attention of everyone present, including Li Fan. His vigilance did not wane. Li Fan frowned, engraving every word spoken by Sun Piaomiao firmly into his mind.

"The Dao has birth, and the Dao has death. The Dao is born, the Dao dies; the Dao manifests, the Dao disappears; just as a pill forms, just as a pill is perfected." "At the moment of a pill's perfection, it seems alive yet is truly dead. It is the shadow of the Grand Dao, the corpse of the Grand Dao."

Ruan Tianxiao spoke unhurriedly, and before him, a spectral image of a cauldron appeared. Within the cauldron, the sun rose and the moon set, the sea of stars ebbed and flowed. All living things experienced birth and death, and heaven and earth underwent creation and destruction. As the light continuously extinguished and reignited, the displayed cycle of rebirth accelerated. Ultimately, it converged into a single point. It seemed like desolate darkness, yet also incredibly bright and dazzling. Or perhaps, it was both.

"Life and death are one, merging with the true Dao." "Transcending all things, my pill is thus perfected."

As he finished this last sentence, the spectral cauldron image burst apart and scattered. A searing storm, as if real, swept across the area. Though merely light and shadow, it caused Li Fan's hair and beard to flutter. The onlookers witnessed the birth and destruction of star seas and Grand Daos within it. It was like a magnificent, fleeting fireworks display.

The ethereal and otherworldly aura around Ruan Tianxiao also faded with the disappearance of the light and shadow.

"Ugh..." Ruan Tianxiao groaned in pain, as if waking from a dream. He pressed his forehead, seemingly enduring immense suffering. Blood profusely gushed from all seven of his orifices. Li Fan further observed that Ruan Tianxiao's spirit seemed to have been filled and ravaged, now riddled with cracks. However, the mysterious energy absorbed from the stone pill nourished and aided its healing. Otherwise, with Ruan Tianxiao's mere Dao-integration cultivation, his spirit would likely have been completely destroyed long ago.

Seeing this, the Medicine King Sect members rushed forward to treat him. Li Fan's thoughts, however, still lingered on the profound text that Sun Piaomiao had expounded through Ruan Tianxiao's body.

"Life and death are one, merging with the true Dao. Transcending all things, my pill is thus perfected." Li Fan repeatedly murmured the last sentence, an uncommonly strong sense of excitement rising within him.

"Wondrous, truly indescribable. This scripture from Sun Piaomiao far surpasses the Celestial Physician's discourse."

"This scripture..." Li Fan frowned. Just as he was about to name the text, a word naturally popped into his mind. It was clearly the only choice that would surface for any sentient being who heard this scripture. "The Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao."

Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly. As he savored these five words, his heart grew exceedingly solemn.

"This Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao is clearly Sun Piaomiao's fundamental grand inheritance. Compared to it, the so-called 'Life-Saving and Longevity Scripture' is like a child's primer, crude and vulgar. It is not a simple cultivation method, but a strategic philosophy that points directly to the origin of the Grand Dao. Like the Heaven-Mending Record, although it doesn't mention any specific cultivation methods, anyone with decent comprehension can derive suitable cultivation techniques and divine abilities from it."

Given Li Fan's current experience and accumulated knowledge, he still found endless inspiration and thoughts bursting forth in his mind while comprehending this Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao. The subtlety and profoundness of this method were evident.

It was as if a storm of thoughts had been unleashed, and it only gradually subsided after three days and three nights. Even then, residual sparks of inspiration continued to flicker intermittently. Li Fan meticulously recorded and saved all the ideas that had emerged. Only then did he have time to review everything that had just happened.

At the same time, various doubts inevitably arose in his mind. "Is Sun Piaomiao still alive in this world?" Ruan Tianxiao's possession earlier seemed to stem from Sun Piaomiao's ancient inheritance left through the stone pill. But for some reason, Li Fan always had a vague feeling that in that instant, Sun Piaomiao had truly descended from an unknown distance, using Ruan Tianxiao's body.

"This Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao makes no mention of ascending to immortality. Yet, it still describes a level of power beyond the mortal realm. I'd rather believe this is a new, genuine scripture created by the present Sun Piaomiao, with his ten thousand years of accumulation, rather than something he had already comprehended back then..."

As Li Fan pondered, the Medicine King Sect members, who were helping Ruan Tianxiao slowly recover, enthusiastically discussed the Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao among themselves. "Refining the Dao, refining heaven and earth, is just like refining pills. My previous understanding of the Dao of Pills was truly too shallow!" "To think our Medicine King Sect's true inheritance is so remarkable! Yet, we allowed it to gather dust for ten thousand years... What a sin, what a sin!"

While the others discussed animatedly, Liu Ruchen quietly approached Li Fan. "Senior, I think I understand why there was an issue when we previously activated the Immortal Realm Chess Piece. If that process is likened to alchemy, it was as if the pill fire was too intense, too hasty, too impetuous. It needs to be nurtured with a gentle flame, proceeded with slowly and steadily," said Liu Ruchen, brimming with confidence from his new insight.

Li Fan didn't expose his thoughts, merely nodding slightly. "No rush. The scripture left by Sun Piaomiao is vast and profound. Even I have benefited greatly. You all should seize this opportunity to comprehend and internalize it thoroughly."

Liu Ruchen cupped his hands and was about to rejoin the other elders to discuss the Medicine King Scripture. Before leaving, Liu Ruchen hesitated, then quietly asked, "Senior, is Ancestor Piaomiao... still alive?" It seemed Li Fan was not the only one who had experienced that illusion.

Li Fan did not answer directly, merely giving Liu Ruchen a meaningful smile.

Subsequently, while exchanging insights, the Medicine King Sect members dug three feet deep into the old site of the Medicine King Sect, attempting to find other relics left by Sun Piaomiao. Unfortunately, the stone pill seemed to be Sun Piaomiao's only legacy. After finding nothing, Li Fan led the Dao-integration cultivators of the Medicine King Sect back to the Grand Qi Minor World. They either entered seclusion or practiced alchemy, eager to transform their insights into tangible gains.

"Refining the Dao..." If even these Dao-integration elders had such profound gains, Li Fan's gains were naturally incalculable.

He gazed into the Xuanyang Realm. The inspirations he had previously suppressed and recorded now burst forth simultaneously.

"In this life, the process I originally planned to elevate the Xuanyang Realm into an immortal domain can, in a sense, also be seen as alchemy. It similarly involves adding materials, tempering with external forces, and then achieving a perfected pill."

Li Fan's eyes sparkled with profound insight, and an unprecedented understanding surged like a tide.

"However, my previous choice to integrate with the spirit of the Xuanyang Immortal Domain was like 'buying the casket and returning the pearls.' I was discarding the most precious pill after its perfection, not consuming it. Instead, I was merely licking its patterns and consuming its dregs..."

Li Fan pondered. As this thought emerged, he couldn't help but conceive the ambition of swallowing the future Xuanyang Immortal Domain whole, like a pill. And once the thought appeared, it became unstoppable, difficult to suppress. His heart soared with eagerness, urging him to act quickly.

Li Fan's heart immediately became alert. He closed his eyes, forcefully suppressing the stirring impulse within him. "The idea, the concept, is indeed correct. But unfortunately... This immortal pill, the Xuanyang Immortal Domain, is not something everyone is capable of swallowing. Even with all my trump cards revealed, I probably couldn't do it right now."

Li Fan was not blinded by the immense potential gains; he still had a clear understanding of his own strength. "Even if an immortal pill is swallowed, there's a risk of not being able to digest it and exploding from within." "Hmph, how could I be so unwise?"

Bits and pieces of the Medicine King Scripture of Refined Dao flashed through Li Fan's mind once more. "Sun Piaomiao can be called a top-tier alchemist in the world. But his limit, in the end, is only alchemy for one lifetime. As for me..."

The text of the Medicine King Scripture instantly transformed into myriad starlight, swirling and tumbling, absorbed by Li Fan.

"With the help of Reversion to Truth, I can refine pills for a second lifetime, a third lifetime! From this perspective, I possess an advantage that no one else in the world can possibly compare to! I am inherently a top-tier alchemist!"

His gaze once again focused on the Xuanyang Realm, and thoughts swirled through Li Fan's mind.

"Even if in this lifetime, I'm destined not to directly consume the Xuanyang Immortal Pill... I can use the methods of alchemy to make the process of the Xuanyang Realm's ascension more harmonious and smooth. The previously planned methods would work, but now they seem a bit too crude. Moreover... The experience accumulated in this lifetime can be fully applied to the next life, or even several subsequent lives. Alchemists in the world exhaust their minds and bodies to refine a good batch of pills. Once alchemy begins, there's no turning back. There are only two outcomes: success or failure. But I can continuously refine the same batch of pills until it reaches its theoretical strongest form."

Suddenly, in Li Fan's vision, a gigantic purple-gold cauldron appeared, enveloping heaven and earth. The majestic Xuanyang heaven and earth, with all its myriad beings, transformed into a single pill within this purple-gold cauldron!

"Now, all that's left is to wait for the fire to be lit!"

Sensing the number of beings encompassed by the Grand Heaven Ritual in the minor world had already met the requirements of the Profound Immortal Skiff. Li Fan darted like lightning towards the periphery of the sea of stars. Before long, he had returned near the Profound Immortal Skiff, deliberately releasing his aura.

"Hmm? Your aura... It seems you've gained new insights?"

Perhaps because they had jointly participated in the Grand Heaven Ritual, Zhong Daogong and the other elders of the Immortal Skiff acutely perceived the subtle changes in Li Fan.

Li Fan was not as forthcoming as before, speaking without reservation. He merely responded with a smile. "The target number of beings enveloped by the Grand Heaven Ritual has been reached, and it can be activated at any time. When shall we equalize the power of the star sea? I've waited too long; I'm quite impatient now."

Without asking to enter the Immortal Skiff, Li Fan went straight to the point.

After a brief silence, the Immortal Skiff elders provided their answer. "We... still need to make some preparations. In seven days, it can be done just outside the Immortal Skiff. Daoist friend, why not come in and rest for a while?"

Li Fan shook his head, politely declining: "It's fine, I'll just wait here. Recently, while communicating with the sea of stars, I've gained new insights. Being inside the Immortal Skiff would actually be less ideal."

The Immortal Skiff members did not insist, and the atmosphere settled into an eerie silence. Li Fan stood in the stars, his eyes closed in contemplation, seemingly truly comprehending something.

Seven days later, the elders filed out one by one. After nodding to Li Fan, they began preparing the ritual in the void outside the Immortal Skiff. White paper banners were inserted by them in a peculiar order.

Li Fan clearly saw that the characters inscribed on those banners were strikingly more than ten different True Immortal Seal characters overlaid. Li Fan was familiar with every True Immortal Seal character. But when merged and superimposed like this, they seemed to take on a different meaning.

"Hmm?" Li Fan's heart stirred, and he remembered the Immortal Realm Chess Piece still sealed in Da Xuan. It also involved overlapping True Immortal Seal characters, though the ones on the Immortal Skiff's banners were much simpler. "But they should be sufficient to support the ritual."

In Li Fan's perception, each of these banners was like a sharp, long needle. They stood proudly in the void, piercing deeply into the sea of stars.

"Yi Xu Xi!" With the ritual arranged, the elders returned to their positions. Zhong Daogong, the leader, flew into the center of the ritual formation. He tilted his head back and let out a mighty cry.