Chapter 1566: Seizing the Seven Miraculous Medicines of the Heavens

It lit up from the darkness, then a moment later released an incredibly blinding brilliance. Wherever it passed, everything was swept away and reduced to ashes in an instant.

“Eternity!”

Witnessing billions of lives on the Merchant Immortal Boat vanish before his eyes, the Saint Merchant Lord remained completely calm. He simply called out with a serene expression.

One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths passed.

As the explosive light gradually faded, the Saint Merchant Lord’s expected scene—the restoration of the Merchant Immortal Boat to its original state—did not occur.

A look of suspicion began to appear on the Saint Merchant Lord’s face.

However, he did not immediately consider that the Dao of Eternity might have failed.

Instead, he called out “Eternity” once more.

The only response he received was the desolate void before him.

Panic began to rise in the Saint Merchant Lord’s heart.

He repeated his calls over and over, even holding the Taiyi Futon as he personally approached the Immortal Remains of Eternity.

His body trembling, he pointed to the spot where the Merchant Immortal Boat had once been.

The Immortal Remains of Eternity, of course, offered no response.

The Saint Merchant Lord had realized what had happened, but he suddenly found it utterly impossible to accept. Losing his reason, he even began to attack the Immortal Remains of Eternity.

“Bastard, bastard, bastard…”

“Restore it for me!”

Endless blue symbols surged from his body, sweeping powerfully towards the immortal remains like a raging storm and towering waves.

This furious strike from the Saint Merchant Lord caused the desolate starry sky to tremble once more. Like a boulder falling into calm water, blue ripples echoed continuously.

And the Immortal Remains of Eternity, which had resided within the Immortal Boat for millions of years and served as its very foundation, unexpectedly burst like a bubble during this upheaval, quietly vanishing without a trace.

The Saint Merchant Lord stood completely stunned.

The Dao of Eternity could not possibly have been defeated so easily by him; his strength was far from that level. Therefore, there was only one answer.

The skeleton he had just destroyed was not Eternity at all!

The true Immortal Remains of Eternity had vanished at some unknown time!

Almost instantly, the Saint Merchant Lord connected this to Wu Xin, the Immortal Boat gatekeeper, who had mysteriously disappeared a short while ago.

Eternity had been hidden within the Immortal Boat for millions of years without a single error. Now, it had vanished concurrently with Wu Xin…

“Ahhhhhhhh!”

The Saint Merchant Lord’s eyes turned blood red from extreme fury. Countless familiar faces flashed rapidly through his mind. The thought that he had personally destroyed the entire Immortal Boat and the billions of lives within it filled him with an indescribable sense of guilt and self-reproach that almost completely crushed his consciousness.

“Wu Xin, I will kill you! Kill you!”

“Kill, kill, kill, kill!”

In just a few breaths, the Saint Merchant Lord, once known for his grand strategy and vision, had already fallen into a state of madness. His mind was consumed by a single thought: to kill Wu Xin and avenge his profound hatred.

However, Wu Xin had already been suppressed by Li Fan within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

No matter what methods the Saint Merchant Lord employed, he could not find any trace of him.

Thus, he grew even more impotently enraged, wanting to destroy everything in his sight.

Dazed and disoriented, he left the starry sky where the Merchant Immortal Boat had once been and headed towards the Shuoxing Sea.

The immense tremor caused by the destruction of the Merchant Immortal Boat also attracted the attention of cultivators within the Shuoxing Sea.

The two sides met and inexplicably engaged in a death match.

The Saint Merchant Lord, devoid of all reason, recognized no one. After being caught off guard and suffering heavy losses, the Shuoxing Sea cultivators were provoked, uniting and vowing to slay the madman.

“That’s why I say, one shouldn’t value external possessions too much,” commented Li Fan, who was watching the unfolding drama from afar, speaking with an air of detached ease. “My entire family died during Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi’s battle back then, and I simply laughed it off. If I had fallen into despair from extreme sorrow at that time, how could I be where I am today?”

Although the Saint Merchant Lord was mad, the information in his mind concerning the many possibilities between the mountains and seas was still extremely valuable. Li Fan naturally could not let him go so easily.

“Let them fight for a while,” he mused. “Once both sides are severely wounded, I’ll deal with them both.”

Neither the Saint Merchant Lord nor the Shuoxing Sea could be easily defeated and suppressed.

Li Fan temporarily withdrew his gaze and looked towards the original site of the Merchant Immortal Boat.

After that violent explosion, the entire starry sky had become utterly desolate. Nothing seemed to remain.

But Li Fan knew that the two Heaven-Stealing Cats, Pipa and Baiqian, had not escaped.

They were still hiding in this area.

“Come out,” Li Fan said faintly, revealing his hidden form to the empty starry sky.

The two Heaven-Stealing Cats showed no reaction whatsoever.

Li Fan gave a sardonic smile, amused that they were playing hide-and-seek with him.

With a grab of his hands, the entire starry sky before him was cut off and transformed into a square cage.

As the Myriad Forms Dao Net rapidly retracted, Li Fan, along with the cage and the cat treasures within, returned to the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

He only left a divine sense to monitor the situation in the Shuoxing Sea, ready to intervene at any time.

It seemed that sensing the vastly different environment of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm compared to ordinary starry skies, the two hidden Heaven-Stealing Cats immediately jumped out upon arrival.

“This method of hiding…” Li Fan’s eyes flickered.

The Heaven-Stealing Cats' bodies seemed to completely dissolve and assimilate with their surroundings, becoming a part of the Great Dao of heaven and earth, allowing them to hide perfectly.

Even though Li Fan knew they were hiding there, he couldn't distinguish them.

However, this disguise of the cat treasures clearly didn't work in the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm. Thus, as soon as they entered, their presence was revealed.

“However, this doesn't mean they can't hide here,” he mused. “They just need some time to adapt...”

Li Fan observed the two Heaven-Stealing Cats before him, one orange and one black-and-white. He noticed that their bodies were undergoing corresponding changes at an incredibly rapid rate, adapting to the environment of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

This kind of adaptability was something Li Fan had only witnessed in the newborn Moshu.

“Pipa's rate of change is even superior to Baiqian's,” he noted.

“So, these are the so-called Seven Heaven-Stealing Prototypes.”

The two Heaven-Stealing Cats nestled together, watching Li Fan warily from a short distance.

As their bodies slowly began to integrate into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, Li Fan, as the "parent" of Xuanhuang, even began to find these two cats increasingly pleasing. If Li Fan felt this way, how much more so would the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao?

The invisible hostility that had accumulated between heaven and earth against foreign invaders thus mysteriously dissipated.

The two Heaven-Stealing Cats so easily achieved the transformation from outsiders to favored beings of heaven.

This was clearly the effect of the cat treasures’ self-evolution.

“If Heavenly Doctor had possessed such means back then, there would have been no need for Heavenly Demon Rebirth,” Li Fan mused, observing all these subtle changes with a hint of awe in his heart.

Only he, as the "parent" of Xuanhuang, truly understood how incredible this transformation of the cat treasures was.

Just moments ago in the Shuoxing Sea, being in a lower realm starry sky, the two Heaven-Stealing Cats' strength was merely at the Unnamed True Immortal level. But now…

It was as if cultivators had ascended in broad daylight to the Immortal Realm. As the Heaven-Stealing Cats rapidly transformed, the aura emanating from them had already surpassed that of ordinary Unnamed True Immortals.

Moreover, this trend of enhancement showed no sign of stopping; it seemed poised to continue ascending towards the state of Transcendence!

“Rather than saying they advanced this far in a short time,” he mused, “it’s more accurate to say that this was the upper limit set for the Heaven-Stealing Cats when they were created. They are merely recovering their original state.”

“It's not surprising that they were entrusted with such an important task by Saint Emperor Taiwei, deployed to other possibilities, and possess Transcendent strength,” he continued. “After all, Transcendence is defined as the ability to traverse mountains and seas and freely travel to other possibilities.”

“But it's only the same realm,” he added. “The Heaven-Stealing Cats' traversing is more like using some clever trick. Compared to Transcendent cultivators, their actual combat power is certainly far inferior.”

The Heaven-Stealing Cats were adapting to the environment and integrating into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

Li Fan also used the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm to perceive the two Heaven-Stealing Cats before him.

Just as he had discerned the true nature of the Merchant Immortal Boat's Immortal Remains of Eternity, as his understanding of the cat treasures' essence deepened, the image of the orange and black-and-white cat treasures before Li Fan’s eyes slowly began to change.

Their fur receded, their skin dissolved, and their bones vanished.

At their core, surprisingly, were two plants!

Or rather, medicinal herbs!

Exactly corresponding to their names.

One was Pipa, the other Baiqian!

Boom! The images of the two medicinal herbs instantly shattered, and Li Fan felt a slight dizziness in his head.

A moment later, he vaguely seemed to see a figure standing.

Tall and imposing, its face unclear, it was holding Pipa and Baiqian, or perhaps other medicinal herbs.

He observed carefully.

And the medicinal herbs that passed through its hands were all instantly reborn, possessing various miraculous effects previously unattainable.

Before the figure, countless medicinal herbs were scattered.

Among them, seven ingredients shone the brightest.

“The Seven Heaven-Stealing Prototypes are actually the Seven Heaven-Stealing Wonder Medicines...” Sensing this, Li Fan's heart suddenly understood.

Since their essence was medicinal herbs, the greatest effect of the cat treasures was naturally inseparable from medicine.

So-called abilities like creating beings and replicating items were merely the most basic functions endowed upon the cat treasures after their creation.