Chapter 479: Learning from the Kunpeng

Li Fan, through hundreds of reincarnations, has mastered powerful divine abilities that ordinary cultivators can hardly imagine.

The Raging Word Art, the Annihilation Sword, the Heaven-Overturning Palm, the Cloud-Clustering Sword... each of these is capable of defeating enemies beyond one's cultivation level.

Li Fan generally disdains the divine abilities of ordinary demonic beasts. However, this Nine-Headed Bird is clearly an exception. Li Fan has a premonition that the rank of this fierce Nine-Headed Bird might even surpass that of the Kunpeng.

“Now, we'll see what surprises this young Ye Feipeng can bring me.”

After testing the Nine-Headed Bird's ominous energy, he retrieved a mass of Kunpeng essence blood from his storage ring. He had been extracting a trace of it from Ye Feipeng's body at regular intervals for contemplation. Li Fan's research into the power of the Kunpeng had already achieved initial success.

He activated the Myriad Furnace Art, maintaining his human appearance. Only his stomach had silently transformed into the structure of a Kunpeng beast. After sensing the wondrous effects of the Kun-form stomach for a moment, Li Fan smiled slightly, took out several high-grade spirit stones, each equivalent to one hundred contribution points, and swallowed them.

Almost instantly, these spirit stones, exceptionally rich in spiritual energy, were absorbed and assimilated by Li Fan. The efficiency was several times higher than that of ordinary cultivators. Although not as incredibly potent as the Heaven-Devouring Earth-Swallowing Great Art, it was still remarkably astonishing.

“No wonder Ye Feipeng's cultivation speed increased so rapidly in the previous life; such an extraordinary ability truly cannot be underestimated.”

Activating the Sitting Mountain Art, after all the spiritual energy was converted into his own spiritual power, Li Fan took out a pile of supreme-grade spirit stones to test the current limit of the Kun-devouring divine ability. Each stone was equivalent to one thousand contribution points, and this stack represented fifty to sixty thousand contribution points. Li Fan spared no expense, engulfing them like a whale. The pile of spirit stones flowed into his stomach like rivers merging into the sea.

“Boom!” A pure torrent of spiritual energy erupted from his stomach. Li Fan's expression slightly changed, and he strenuously activated his cultivation technique, attempting to consume it. However, the spiritual energy flow was like a raging mountain torrent, ceaselessly surging. Li Fan's attempts to consume it were truly like trying to put out a forest fire with a cup of water. Fortunately, having practiced the Creation Furnace Art, Li Fan's physique had been somewhat strengthened, preventing his meridians from being damaged by this immense spiritual energy flow. But allowing it to rage unchecked within him was ultimately not a solution.

To avoid drawing attention, Li Fan's clone appeared beside Tian Yang and transformed all the nearly uncontrollable spiritual energy within him into blue Cloud-Clustering Swords, slashing at the puppet's body. After several consecutive sword strikes, the turbulent spiritual energy was finally depleted and slowly calmed down. However, the seemingly powerful sword light, after striking Tian Yang, left not even the slightest trace.

Tian Yang tilted his head, looking at his “senior brother” with some confusion. Thinking Li Fan wanted to spar with him, Tian Yang raised his fists.

“Haha, junior brother, don't misunderstand. Your senior brother just had a minor issue with his cultivation,” Li Fan said, waving his hand with a smile to stop Tian Yang's action. Tian Yang then showed a worried expression.

After reassuring Tian Yang for a while, Li Fan returned to the secret chamber.

“Although I have mimicked the Kunpeng's stomach and gained astonishing devouring speed, a cultivator's body, after all, cannot compare to that of an ancient demonic beast. I can't convert the absorbed energy into resources to strengthen myself quickly enough. However, if I were to cross-reference it with the Heaven-Devouring Earth-Swallowing Great Art...”

Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly, and he instantly had an idea. Improving cultivation techniques was not an overnight task. After using a secret art to split off a portion of his consciousness specifically for this deduction, Li Fan then began to experiment with the Peng-Flight divine ability.

This time, there was no anomaly of bone wings growing from his back. Instead, Li Fan simply moved about the small secret chamber with extreme agility. His speed became progressively faster, almost becoming a blur in the air. He surpassed the range visible to the naked eye.

After some time, Li Fan finally stopped his experiments with satisfaction.

“Excellent! The Peng-Flight method, combined with the incomplete Purple Cloud Divine Lightning Escape, has more than doubled my flight speed. It will continue to increase as my research into the Kunpeng essence blood deepens.”

Next, Li Fan did not experiment with the Startling Peng Transformation divine ability. He still maintained a respectful distance from this type of divine ability, which involved completely transforming into a demonic beast. While its power was considerable, accidentally triggering Senior Brother Zhang's Vow Dharma Body would truly leave him in despair.

In fact, among the many divine abilities demonstrated by Ye Feipeng in the previous life, what Li Fan cared about most was the existence known as Bloodline Transference. From Ye Feipeng's later performance, this Bloodline Transference could not only change a person's physique, slowly transforming a person into a pure demonic beast, but also subtly altering their thoughts without their awareness. Ye Feipeng's description of the transformation from “demonic beast” to “sacred beast” perfectly illustrated this point.

It was not difficult to imagine that Ye Feipeng, influenced by the Kunpeng essence blood, would definitely display “loyalty” stemming from the depths of his bloodline if he were to encounter the Kunpeng demonic beast itself.

What Li Fan currently lacked was precisely such a method of controlling people. At present, he merely used the advantage of foresight and information asymmetry to coerce and entice. While effective, it was inevitably prone to failures. Such a secret art would be far more reliable and reassuring.

“Bloodline Transference, I'm afraid I'll have to wait until the Kunpeng bloodline within Ye Feipeng becomes a bit purer before I can conveniently comprehend it. Hmm, it's time to procure some more elixirs for replenishing qi and blood.”

After entrusting Tian Yang with the remaining elixirs in his storage ring and the task of regular blood extraction, Li Fan leisurely returned to Myriad Immortals Island. He did not return to the Heavenly Profound Mirror but went directly to the Thousand Li Hall.

Almost two years had passed, and there had still been no response regarding the matter of digging up the Small Medicine King Cauldron, which he had entrusted to Jiao Xiuyuan. Li Fan found this somewhat strange, so he decided to visit in person.

Jiao Xiuyuan, upon seeing Li Fan's sudden appearance, was slightly stunned. Then his eyes flickered, and an awkward expression appeared on his face.

“Fellow Daoist Jiao, have you forgotten something?” Li Fan asked.

Jiao Xiuyuan let out a laugh, then quickly produced a chair from somewhere and gestured for Li Fan to sit.

“What happened?” Seeing Jiao Xiuyuan's demeanor, Li Fan already had a good idea. He was in no hurry, merely staring at Jiao Xiuyuan for a long time before finally speaking.

Jiao Xiuyuan felt uncomfortable under Li Fan's gaze. He immediately closed the shop door, lowered his voice, and said, “It's not that I deliberately stalled you; it's just that I have unspeakable difficulties!”

“With Fellow Daoist Jiao's capabilities, is there anything in the Medicine King Sect ruins that could stump you?” Li Fan was somewhat skeptical. Jiao Xiuyuan shook his head and said, “Thousands of years have passed; even if there were any restrictions, they would have long since become ineffective. The key is that someone else intervened!”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?” Li Fan's expression became solemn. Another unknown variable had appeared.

“Just as I was about to pinpoint the location of the Small Medicine King Cauldron, people from the Myriad Immortals Alliance Garrison suddenly appeared.”