Chapter 276: Morning Origin Anomaly Resurfaces

Li Fan only managed to catch a glimpse of the children excitedly gathered around a slender figure dressed in green robes before he was forced to leave the Immortal Meteor Realm.

After a dizzying sensation, Li Fan returned to the real world.

"Mr. Bai..."

"Are you the master of this relic space-time?"

Although this exploration yielded no practical gains, Li Fan at least confirmed one thing: there was something peculiar about this Mr. Bai.

In the relic space-time, if Li Fan had not interfered and changed things, the events that transpired each time should have been fixed and unchangeable. According to previous experiences, Mr. Bai should have arrived at the small temple to visit the children shortly after the battle ended.

But this time...

"What a coincidence, he arrived just as I was about to leave?"

Li Fan didn't believe this was merely a simple coincidence. This Mr. Bai was deliberately avoiding him. Or perhaps, due to some special reason, Li Fan couldn't see him, just as he couldn't leave Ningyuan City. It was a specific rule of the entire Ningyuan City relic space-time.

Without delving into why this was happening for now, given this analysis, the probability of Mr. Bai being the master of the relic space-time was quite high.

So the question arose: What was Mr. Bai's obsession? Recalling the children's evaluation of him as "the best good person in the world," and considering that he would actively organize rescue efforts and diligently treat the wounded, the scene of Ningyuan City after the great battle, as if the apocalypse had arrived with corpses everywhere, involuntarily appeared before Li Fan's eyes.

"Affected by the cultivators' battle, his hometown almost became a dead zone."

"How wonderful if this cruel scene had never happened."

"Is this your obsession?"

Li Fan was deep in thought. Although other possibilities could not be ruled out, based on the character profile of Mr. Bai constructed from the currently known clues, this was the most probable one.

"Resolve the Longevity Fruit incident in Ningyuan City while minimizing civilian casualties? That's a bit difficult."

Having deduced the result, the next step was to find a way to verify it. However, achieving this goal seemed more difficult than simply defeating Senior Brother Zhang. Not to mention the mighty Senior Brother Zhang, just capturing Song Hesong, who was in the Middle Core Formation stage, without affecting ordinary mortals, would not be an easy task.

"Fortunately, I have the Insect Binding Divine Ability as a backup. I'll try all sorts of methods first."

"If that doesn't work, I'll wait until I reach the Core Formation stage before coming back to resolve this matter."

At least there was hope of escaping Ningyuan City. As for spending a little more time, it didn't really affect Li Fan much.

After silently formulating his action plan for the next entry into the Immortal Meteor Realm, Li Fan recalled the incredibly mysterious stone in the small temple. He immediately searched for it in the Heavenly Profound Mirror. It wasn't a top secret, and related information was easily found.

Immortal Severing Stone was the name cultivators gave to this type of stone. Its effect was the same as what Li Fan had discovered through experimentation: it could isolate all spiritual power and divine sense. In ancient times, it was generally used to build secret chambers, carve stone statues, or forged into stone nails to imprison criminals. Accompanying the Immortal Severing Stone nails was a needling method called "Immortal Sealing, Spirit Severing." By inserting Immortal Severing Stone nails into dozens of fixed acupuncture points throughout the body, one could block the circulation of spiritual energy within the body and seal off one's cultivation.

However, with the passage of time, the existing quantity of Immortal Severing Stones gradually decreased, and it was now rarely seen. Occasionally, if some were recovered from sect ruins, they could fetch a good price.

"There were still some Immortal Severing Stones remaining in that small temple, just enough to forge a set of stone nails."

He immediately spent contribution points to purchase the "Immortal Sealing, Spirit Severing" needling technique and committed it to memory.

Anchored to year 25, not long after Li Fan went into seclusion again, a piece of news spread from Jiushan Province, once again attracting the attention of cultivators across the land.

The Chaoyuan Sect ruins, whose mysteries had never been fully investigated, had recently undergone strange changes. Initially, within the empty sect ruins, figures would occasionally appear, walking back and forth. By the time cultivators discovered them and arrived, the figures would suddenly vanish. Gradually, the frequency of the figures' appearances became more frequent, and their duration of stay gradually increased. Later, even the sound of their conversations could be heard. Aside from being intangible when touched and lacking physical existence, these figures were almost indistinguishable from real people. The figures could not perceive the presence of actual cultivators, simply appearing to live in their own space-time, moving undisturbed.

The reason for the commotion was that a cultivator happened to encounter an image of a Chaoyuan Sect disciple reciting the "Heavenly Light Yang-Building Art." Overjoyed, the cultivator memorized the entire art. Although it was only a Qi Condensation stage cultivation technique, the significance of this event was extraordinary because it implied the possibility of acquiring other high-level cultivation techniques. Even if no cultivation techniques were found, observing ancient Chaoyuan Sect cultivators refining pills or forging artifacts was equivalent to having free instructors providing direct guidance and live teaching. As a result, the Chaoyuan Sect ruins, which had almost been forgotten, became lively once more.

Of course, the liveliness belonged to the Myriad Immortals Alliance and had nothing to do with the Five Elders Council. Those few Soul Transformation cultivators responsible for guarding the borders, for unknown reasons, had not returned and were still stationed within Jiushan Province. The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Array was routinely activated. Any Five Elders Council cultivators who harbored hopes of getting in would be killed on the spot once they entered. Jiushan Province, which was originally somewhat chaotic, involuntarily became more peaceful under such circumstances.

Meanwhile, on the desolate island in the Cloud Sea, the members of the Li Realm had a rare dispute. The cause of the dispute was precisely the Chaoyuan Sect ruins, which had undergone new changes. When the chubby young man, Ye Feipeng, was out, he occasionally learned about this from the hurried conversations of passing cultivators. After returning to the desolate island, while talking with the others, he casually mentioned this anecdote. To his surprise, upon hearing this, Su Xiaomei and Zhang Haobo simultaneously had a spiritual insight: their opportunity for Core Formation was precisely within the Chaoyuan Sect!

The two had been stuck at the perfected Foundation Establishment realm for some time. Firstly, they were constrained by the bottleneck of "Heaven's Calamity," unable to advance. Secondly, they had not yet decided which heaven-and-earth method to use for Core Formation. Now that the opportunity was at hand, the two immediately had the idea of traveling far to Jiushan Province.

The journey there would be long and fraught with danger. Xiao Heng, as the nominal successor of Fuxian, naturally expressed his objection. Xiao Heng believed that with their talents, the Core Formation bottleneck could only hinder them temporarily, not for an entire lifetime. If they missed the opportunity at Chaoyuan Sect, other opportunities would naturally arise to compensate. However, with their perfected Foundation Establishment strength, venturing out forcefully was truly too dangerous. Even though both had extraordinary talent and impressive combat strength, the gap in major cultivation realms was still there, after all. It would be better to peacefully continue to lie low for a period, and wait until everyone had broken through to the Core Formation realm, with greatly enhanced self-preservation capabilities, before venturing out together to seek opportunities.