Chapter 982: Uneasy Feelings

"Communicating through divine sense is inconvenient; let's meet here instead."

"And I'll hand over that exotic treasure to you."

"Heh, lately I've had the feeling someone is watching me. It's best to be careful."

After sending his location, Mo Rubing suddenly vanished without a trace.

Li Fan sensed the glowing map point appearing in his sea of consciousness and remained silent.

"Is this a test? Or a trap?"

Ever since he decided to "observe the situation for now and not return to reality immediately," Li Fan had felt a persistent unease in his heart.

Yet, after much thought and self-reflection, he still couldn't pinpoint the source of his anxiety.

"Not returning to reality for now shouldn't be an issue, but what exactly...?"

Li Fan frowned slightly.

His spiritual intuition had always been reliable. The current feeling was like walking through a dense forest: his direction was correct, and there was no immediate danger of beast attacks.

However, an inexplicable sense of crisis told Li Fan that he must have overlooked something.

Li Fan knew the source of the unease was likely the Faceless True Immortal stone statue.

"Xuantian Divine Statue, Xuantian Dharma King..."

Mo Rubing's figure flashed through Li Fan's mind, and he immediately made a decision.

"Although he probably sees me as one of his own now, I still must not let my guard down."

Li Fan recalled the scene where Mo Rubing devoured Transference Master Feng.

During this period, Li Fan had also conducted a preliminary analysis and speculation about Mo Rubing's abilities.

Compared to Senior Sister Zhao's 'unity of purpose', Mo Rubing seemed more like 'mirroring and assimilation'.

"As long as I maintain my original self and don't get tempted by that illusory mirror thread, I should be able to delay the assimilation. With my Seven-Colored Divine Light and the Immortal Heart Spell for protection, even if I can't win, escaping shouldn't be a big problem."

"If worst comes to worst, I can release Daoist Baihua to draw fire. As a Longevity Realm cultivator, he should at least be able to stall for a moment."

The lingering sense of unease, whose source he couldn't pinpoint, made Li Fan's thoughts much more complex than usual, making him even more cautious.

After making thorough preparations, Li Fan quietly arrived at the agreed meeting point.

It was an ordinary peak in Tianchen State, on the outskirts of the Immortal Alliance's Central Four States.

The rocky mountain towered, reaching straight into the clouds.

Hidden beneath the sea of clouds, halfway up the mountain, was an inconspicuous stone cave.

Initially very narrow, barely wide enough for a person, it opened up into a spacious area after walking several dozens of paces.

Mo Rubing had already been waiting there for a long time.

There were no traces of formations or restrictions outside the stone cave, yet from the outside, no cultivator's aura could be sensed within.

It was only after stepping inside the cave and approaching Mo Rubing that one could finally sense his presence.

"This is a safe haven of Transference Master Feng's, a naturally formed hidden grotto-heaven. It's the kind of place legendary for being invisible to those without destiny. Our meeting here will be safe," Mo Rubing explained slowly, having returned to his original appearance and sitting at a stone table.

"What safe haven? I didn't encounter any obstacles; I just waltzed right in," Li Fan scoffed, speaking with disdain.

Mo Rubing smiled. "Brother Xingwang, you don't know the half of it. The reason it was so easy is that I already informed you of this hidden grotto-heaven's location beforehand. If you had come looking alone, without any prior knowledge..."

"Your divine sense wouldn't detect it, and even if you saw it with your own eyes, you'd subconsciously overlook the entrance and search everywhere but here! The wonders of heaven and earth's creation are beyond our complete comprehension, even with our power!"

Li Fan ignored Mo Rubing's exclamation and said impatiently in a cold voice, "Alright, enough with the useless talk. Where's that exotic treasure that can deduce formations?"

Mo Rubing shook his head, then casually tossed an object over.

Li Fan caught it, slightly startled.

The result was a bit different from what he expected; it wasn't one of the Disintegration Discs. Instead, it was a green cube he had never seen before.

"What is this thing...?"

Li Fan lightly touched the cube, and in an instant, it disintegrated into tens of thousands of even smaller cubes.

Like living creatures, they gathered and dispersed in the air, forming regular patterns.

Li Fan carefully observed one of the small cubes and found that it was composed of hundreds of intertwined formations.

"Formation Crown?" A name involuntarily appeared in Li Fan's mind.

But he didn't reveal that he knew about the object; instead, he looked up at Mo Rubing, wanting an answer.

"This is the 'Deathless Formation Crown', recently discovered and submitted by the Immortal Alliance's Lancang State."

"A Formation Crown, simply put, is hundreds or thousands of formations layered together. And this Deathless Formation Crown evolved and transformed from an ordinary Formation Crown."

"It is said to have been left behind by a Nascent Soul formation master who perished due to a strange incident. After research by the Immortal Alliance, it was preliminarily determined that an anomaly occurred during the fusion of a Heavenly Wonder and the rules from outside the anomalous realms, leading to the transformation of the Formation Crown itself," Mo Rubing explained in detail.

Li Fan naturally understood Mo Rubing's meaning instantly. Heavenly Wonders were manifestations of the Xuanhuang Realm's laws, while anomalies were the twisted remnants of laws from devoured worlds.

But when the two fused, incredible changes would occur.

Li Fan had previously imagined this possibility when he discerned the true origin of anomalies. Unfortunately, he hadn't encountered a real instance until now. He didn't expect Mo Rubing to just casually produce one.

Indeed, the sheer volume of resources that a Transference Master could command was an advantage that even his multiple reincarnations and foresight couldn't quickly compensate for.

Li Fan knew about this object, but Sun Xingwang could not possibly know.

Pretending to be confused, he directly interrupted Mo Rubing's explanation: "Alright, alright, stop rambling. Just tell me how to use this thing."

Mo Rubing didn't get annoyed and explained to Li Fan, "The Deathless Formation Crown is constantly evolving. Formations generate formations, endlessly. You just need to engrave the Profound Sky Soul-Locking Formation into it periodically and let it naturally evolve. It's like a beast fight; the one that survives will undoubtedly be the strongest."

"That's easy enough, but it sounds a bit unreliable..." Li Fan muttered, examining the green Deathless Formation Crown.

"There's no problem. Although it's somewhat uncontrollable, it will definitely achieve our goal. Engraving the Profound Sky Soul-Locking Formation is time-consuming and laborious. I'm currently at the Immortal Alliance headquarters, and it's not convenient for me to act under everyone's watchful eyes. I can only entrust it to you," Mo Rubing said solemnly.

"Actually, there's another exotic treasure even more powerful than this Deathless Formation Crown for deducing formations, called the Disintegration Disc. Unfortunately, it suffered heavenly jealousy and split into nine parts. The time required for all nine discs to merge into one is too long; we simply can't wait. So we had to give up on it," Mo Rubing said with some regret.