Chapter 1380: 阵炼玄黄界

Angry Squid

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, the Xuanhuang Realm reached Anchor Year 15 once more.

On this day, Li Fan employed his old trick again, recapturing the Medicine King Cauldron, which had returned from beyond the heavens.

As before, he compelled the members of the Medicine King Sect to pledge their loyalty and service to him.

Simultaneously, he quietly seized Ruan Tianxiao, took him back to the old Medicine King Sect site, and had him swallow the "Stone Pill" once more.

Just like in the previous life, after ingesting the pill, Ruan Tianxiao's physique and demeanor transformed, becoming ethereal and transcendent, like an exiled immortal descending from the heavens.

Concurrently, he began to lecture on the Medicine King Scripture of Pill Refining to his surroundings.

Profound and mysterious sounds resonated, ceaselessly.

Even though he had heard this unparalleled scripture before, Li Fan still experienced various profound and mystical insights. It was as if his mastery of alchemy had subtly progressed further.

The lingering echoes reverberated, persisting for a long time.

Integrating his new understanding of the Medicine King Scripture, Li Fan once again fine-tuned his plan for the sublimation of the Xuanhuang Realm.

"After nearly ten years of careful cultivation and the subtle nourishment from various hidden methods, the Xuanhuang Realm has gradually recovered from its previous weakened state."

"The conditions are ripe; it's time to begin the first step of the alchemy process."

A faint gleam flickered in Li Fan's eyes as his gaze pierced through the Xuanhuang Realm's firmament, revealing countless smaller worlds connected to it.

"Thousands of realms, all shall converge into Xuanhuang."

"All laws shall return to unity, and the world shall achieve great harmony!"

With a touch of an eerie aura in his voice, Li Fan's soft murmur sealed the fate of those myriad small worlds.

At this very moment, the simulated celestial structures within these small worlds began to mobilize their world power. They autonomously expanded their world forms, like extending tentacles, reaching along the channels Li Fan had already prepared. They touched and connected to the Xuanhuang Realm.

First, a single point of light in the darkness became tinged with the Xuanhuang color. Soon after, hundreds and then thousands of golden stars illuminated, encircling the Xuanhuang Realm, shining brilliantly and radiating intense light!

"Distorting the celestial geography..."

At this moment, Li Fan manifested a projection that floated towards the sky. Simultaneously, he muttered softly.

The assimilation of so many smaller worlds naturally required the cooperation of the Xuanhuang Realm itself. Otherwise, the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm would very likely perceive it as an attack from an unknown external enemy.

"While the power of a single small world is almost negligible compared to the Xuanhuang Realm, the sheer number of small worlds surrounding it is immense; this quantitative change is enough to bring about a qualitative transformation."

"If injected directly into the Xuanhuang Realm like a raging torrent, it might trigger a backlash."

"The same approach still applies: a medicinal primer is needed."

As Li Fan's thoughts flickered, blurred figures of Heaven and Earth Spirits descended. After a moment's hesitation, they swiftly flew towards various regions of the Xuanhuang Realm. Their "heavenly duty" was to absorb the annexed smaller worlds.

Li Fan generally assigned them their respective areas of responsibility; given the capacity of the Heaven and Earth Spirits, absorbing and integrating dozens of smaller worlds into themselves was not an issue.

Even so, to complete Li Fan's preliminary plan, hundreds of Heaven and Earth Spirits were continuously generated at that moment. Their emergence was like heavenly devils descending, causing the spiritual energy within the Xuanhuang Realm to churn.

Compared to natural Heaven and Earth Spirits, those falsely summoned by Li Fan appeared even more indistinct. They barely gathered any power of laws. They resembled empty shells, serving as vessels to facilitate the convergence of all worlds into Xuanhuang.

Nevertheless, they still fell within the category of Heaven and Earth Spirits.

These unusual movements, akin to a night parade of a hundred ghosts, naturally and swiftly drew the attention of cultivators within the Xuanhuang Realm. Subsequently, more and more people became aware of the extraordinary changes occurring in the world.

Was it a natural transformation of the Xuanhuang Realm itself, or was someone manipulating it from behind? The populace remained uncertain. However, a greater number of cultivators were restless, eager to hunt these Heaven and Earth Spirits.

After all, for the vast majority, achieving Dao assimilation was already a coveted dream. The quality of the Heaven and Earth Spirits used for such an assimilation was entirely beyond their consideration.

Just as cultivators, in groups of three or five, were calling upon friends and companions to track the Heaven and Earth Spirits, boundless dark clouds enveloped the sky of the Xuanhuang Realm.

Night descended upon the land.

All the cultivators felt various ominous premonitions surge within their hearts. Yet, they could not discern the source of this disquiet.

Soon, the dark clouds vanished. The myriad beings resumed their interrupted activities. Everything appeared to have returned to normal.

However, in Li Fan's eyes, the beings within the Xuanhuang Realm had already fallen into an boundless illusionary dream.

The Ethereal Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings had truly enveloped the inhabitants of the Xuanhuang Realm! With the exception of a very few locations such as Daoyuan Prefecture and Fishing Pond, all living creatures in the Xuanhuang Realm had been caught within the formation.

Enhanced by the boundless power of the Star Sea and the immense essence of source energy accumulated over ten years by the Ancestral You Clan, Li Fan was able to deploy this peerless immortal formation, which encompassed the entire Xuanhuang Realm.

This formation was even more advanced than the one used to trap the Celestial Doctor in the previous life. Although the deductions of the Terminal Dissolution Disc had reached a bottleneck, Li Fan had integrated his insights on the Path of Alchemy and the transformation between reality and illusion into the formation. This further upgraded the Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings.

It was no longer a mere illusion array. If someone unfortunately died within the illusion, their death would truly manifest in reality. Conversely, if one experienced various things and gained insights within the illusion as time passed, these gains would not materialize in reality. Instead, they would be absorbed by this peerless illusion formation, becoming sustenance offered to Li Fan.

Under the shroud of the immortal formation, the myriad beings of the Xuanhuang Realm would, from then on, only regress, never advance. Every minute evolution they made towards a "better" state would be intercepted and harvested by Li Fan. As long as the formation remained unbroken, they would serve as Li Fan's diligent servants for all eternity.

Li Fan would not, however, keep all of these harvested essences for himself. In fact, he would only retain a small portion. The vast majority would be offered to the Xuanhuang Realm.

This was certainly not due to Li Fan suddenly having a change of heart or feeling benevolent.

Firstly, it was to gain more trust from the Xuanhuang Realm. Through Li Fan's various actions in this lifetime, his favorability with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao had reached an almost unprecedented level. This goodwill, especially with the deployment of the Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings which ensnared all cultivators deemed "Heaven and Earth parasites," reached a new peak. When Li Fan had just distorted the celestial geography and summoned thousands of Heaven and Earth Spirits, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao showed not a hint of displeasure. Instead, it conveyed vague, fawning messages, seemingly inquiring if Li Fan desired even more.

"For every moment the Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings operates, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's trust in me will increase by another degree."

"Until..."

"Hehehe." Li Fan sneered inwardly.

Ignoring the intimate overtures from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, Li Fan narrowed his eyes, observing the Xuanhuang Realm within the formation.

"As for the Five Elders' Council, none were spared except those under the protection of the Carefree Paradise."

"The moment the formation descended, Wuyou seemed to attempt to divide his power to shield all beings within the Five Elders' Council, just as he had done previously when the World-Ending Immortal Formation appeared. But for reasons unknown, he ultimately retreated."

Li Fan mused, opting not to engage Wuyou directly.

"Regarding the Myriad Immortal Alliance..."

"The Tianxuan Mirror within the Immortal Alliance headquarters seemed to have evaded the formation's encroachment. Truly an immortal artifact worthy of its name."

"Furthermore, a few other locations surprisingly managed to escape the immortal formation's influence."

Li Fan's interest was piqued, and he examined each one individually. He discovered that most had escaped due to unique spatiotemporal locations, whether a specific secret realm or remnants of shattered cultivation realms assimilated by the Xuanhuang Realm.

"With only minor adjustments, they can all be encompassed next time."

Li Fan was unconcerned by these exceptions. None of them even contained Dao Assimilation cultivators, making it impossible for them to cause any significant disturbance.

Among all the exceptions, only one case garnered Li Fan's slight attention.

In a small mortal town within Liuguang Prefecture of the Myriad Immortal Alliance, nearly a hundred people were surprisingly little affected by the illusion formation. The phrasing "little affected" rather than "not affected at all" was intentional, as they had indeed been caught by the immortal formation and plunged into boundless illusions. Yet, remarkably, these nearly hundred individuals quickly managed to break free from the illusion.

It was noteworthy that even the Celestial Doctor hadn't awakened so swiftly!

Li Fan, with great caution, dispatched a wisp of his consciousness to investigate thoroughly.

"There are many strange occurrences in the world; what the storyteller once said has actually come true!"

"But a dream is still a dream. The storyteller once told us that we only need to remember one thing: if everything seems too perfect, there's a problem. Then we can wake up from the dream!"

"Wait. *Hiss*, if what you say is true, our awakening so smoothly—isn't that also too convenient? Could it be that we are still dreaming?"

Before the words had fully faded, the hundreds of people in the small town were once again enveloped by the power of the Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings, plunging back into the illusion.

"The storyteller," Li Fan mused. His divine sense swept across the area, and he quickly located the person the townsfolk had spoken of.

At that moment, he too awakened from the illusion. His expression showed neither surprise nor fear. As he observed the seemingly frozen world, a hint of pleasant surprise appeared on his face.

"This person... I cannot even discern his cultivation level."

"Could it be that the Xuanhuang Realm still harbors powerful experts?"

"Impossible. He showed no anomalies during the previous two world-ending events."

Li Fan shook his head slightly, dismissing his own fleeting fears. He directly reached out and drew the storyteller towards him.

"Greetings... Immortal Master," the storyteller stammered, initially startled, then bowing respectfully with a mix of surprise and absence of fear.

Li Fan confirmed that the other party was indeed a powerless mortal.

"How did you awaken from the illusion array?" he asked slowly.

The storyteller shook his head vaguely. "I don't know either. I just felt an indescribable disharmony in the world I saw before me."

"Disharmony?"

The storyteller deliberated for a moment, then looked at Li Fan and explained hesitantly, "Although the dream felt real, it was still fundamentally different from reality."

"I know my own capabilities; no matter how hard I try, no more than a hundred people would ever come to listen to my stories. Yet, in the dream, nearly half the town turned up to support me..."

Upon hearing this, Li Fan immediately frowned.

The Grand Formation of Xuanhuang Beings could not possibly make such a low-level error.

"What could have interfered with the immortal formation's judgment?"

A thought struck Li Fan, and he once again meticulously searched the storyteller.

This concludes today's entry.