NOVPUBLi Fan was just one step away from finally comprehending that divine technique, yet he found himself at a standstill outside its threshold, for half a month.
It was to ensure that his will would not be influenced by the Heavenly Law of the Xuanhuang World Heaven.
"A gentleman is not different by birth, he is skilled at drawing from his surroundings."
Li Fan, who had achieved enlightenment, slowly chanted and with a flicker, his figure appeared outside the Spirit Tree Realm.
Having initially mastered the divine technique, Li Fan sought a suitable place to test its power.
"This technique, [Heavenly Path of Illusion], shares an uncanny similarity to my [Invisible Malice]. Both borrowing the mandate of destiny for their purpose. While one can wield the power of Heaven and Earth, there is also the risk of being discovered and suffering divine retribution."
"For the first test, I must find a place where the Heavenly Law of Xuanhuang World Heaven is relatively weak."
With that thought in mind, Li Fan’s silhouette became a streak in the sky, heading straight for the Misthaven Ocean.
The Misthaven Ocean is a region where fragments of the Heavenly Law Realm and the Xuanhuang World have yet to completely merge.
Like a splinter deep in the flesh, the Xuanhuang World would only through a great purge, the Crimson Blaze Ocean, occurring several years later, be able to wholly assimilate it.
In the Misthaven Ocean, the Heavenly Law of the Xuanhuang World Heaven is significantly weaker than in its native state region.
Before long, Li Fan arrived at an uninhabited sea area.
Standing above the clouds, he held his breath and concentrated his spirit, then began to use the newly comprehended [Heavenly Path of Illusion].
The world as seen through Li Fan’s eyes transformed in an instant.
It was as if he was back within the [Root of Heaven and Earth], where countless intersecting threads made up all beings.
Everything within this vast web had to adhere to the rules of these fine lines.
They represented the existence known as Heaven-Earth Principle.
Li Fan’s physical body seemed to vanish into nothingness, while his spiritual will slowly merged into this vast net.
In that moment, pressure from the countless crisscrossing threads nearly tore Li Fan’s divine soul apart. In that instant, he caught a fleeting glimpse of the basic laws upon which the operation of Heaven and Earth depended.
He seemed to also see the numerous events unfolding within the Xuanhuang World.
However, the fusion with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth only lasted for that split second before Li Fan purposefully stopped.
Continuing such would lead to the shattering of his divine soul under the immense force and its subsequent dissolution into the myriad principles of Heaven and Earth.
Perhaps a Heavenly Dao Li would be born in the future, but that would no longer be Li Fan.
After exiting the state of fusion with Heaven and Earth, Li Fan, while the profound enlightenment remained fresh in his heart, once again operated the [Art of Deceptive Illusion].
This time, he did not reach the point of fusing his soul with Heaven and Earth.
He merely attempted to connect the crisscrossing lines of the Heavenly Earth’s laws to himself.
With each line he touched, Li Fan felt as if a mountain was pressing down upon him.
Limitless Fulfillment and Emptiness along with the Burning Soul Technique were functioning to their utmost, easing the burden on his body.
Li Fan continually drew the lines of law into his body.
It was as though in the vast network of Heaven and Earth, he was drawing out strands to form a self-entwined thread.
Only when Li Fan felt he had reached his body’s limits did he stop the further integration of lines.
"Is this the weight of the Principle of Heaven and Earth…" he thought.
Now, Li Fan felt as though he was pinned beneath the Five Elements Mountain, unable to move.
Only upon personally coming into contact with the grand force of Heaven and Earth, did he truly realize the extent of its formidable power.
"To reach the Immortal Realm is to overturn these mountains, to reverse the Principle of Heaven and Earth…" he reflected.
"I still have quite a distance to go."
Li Fan’s gaze flickered as he temporarily suppressed the thought.
He began to sense his own state.
Though unable to move, Li Fan’s view at this moment was broader than it had ever been.
It was even more expansive and distant than when he once used the Ocean Pearl to watch the transformation of the Misthaven Ocean into a wasteland.
From a high vantage point, the five state regions around the Misthaven Ocean were entirely beneath his gaze.
All beings seemed like ants, fully visible at a glance.
Moreover, he could hear numerous indistinct whispers at his ear.
They did not come from some indescribable monsters but originated from the workings of Heaven and Earth itself.
The so-called Great Dao makes no sound.
Heaven and Earth are like a never-stopping, highly precise machine. During the process of cosmic change, it continuously emits its own thunderous roar.
However, ordinary people are utterly incapable of perceiving it; only someone like Li Fan, who has become a part of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, could hear a little from the mixed chorus of cosmic sounds.
Being located within the Misthaven Ocean, Li Fan was able, after careful discernment, to determine that most of these whispering sounds were about the cosmic evolution of the Misthaven Ocean.
Among these, the most evident was the nascent Crimson Blaze Ocean event.
Li Fan also heard of arrangements regarding the Cyan Wind Sword Trap of Heaven and Earth.
But to Li Fan’s surprise, the cosmic sound of the Cyan Wind Sword Trap was only ranked third amid this noisy sound.
And the second...
Li Fan followed the origin of this sound with his eyes.
It was deep beneath the Ten Thousand Immortals Island, a place so dark that even the Heavenly-Earthly View could hardly penetrate.
Named the [Golden Seal], this Essence of Heaven and Earth spiraled like a chain, constantly suppressing the darkness below.
"Pass Ghost Tunnel?"
The term instantly surfaced in Li Fan’s Spirit Consciousness.
During the 115th cycle, the entire Ten Thousand Immortals Island was snatched away by the Five Elders Organization. The Pass Ghost Tunnel below the island was thus revealed.
While acting as the deputy city lord and having received the task of rebuilding the Immortal City, he also, under the order of the First Weaver, laid down the Mystic Sky Phantom Locking Array to reseal the Pass Ghost Tunnel.
"So as the Pass Ghost Tunnel continued to expand, the suppression by the Ten Thousand Immortals Island had slowly lost its effect."
"Perhaps this is also why strange phenomena often occur in the Misthaven Ocean."
"Unbeknownst to all cultivators, Heaven and Earth have already begun to silently deal with it."
Li Fan suddenly realized.
The style of the Mystic Sky Phantom Locking Array was extremely similar to that of the Mystic Sky Sect.
According to the data that Li Fan found in the Tianxuan Mirror, they all concurred that indeed it was inherited from the Ancient Mystic Sky Sect.
However, with Li Fan’s current insight into the Array Path, he could tell at a glance that although the array was uniquely conceived, it clearly had not reached the level of an Immortal Level array.
It was far inferior even to the Reverse Life and Death Array.
"Strange phenomena are born from the integration process between Xuanhuang World and other Cultivating Immortality worlds."
"The Mystic Sky Sect had this array even back then. This indicates that by that time, issues with strange phenomena had already started to emerge when the Xuanhuang World was capturing other worlds using the Floating Star Crossing Formation."
"However, the Energy Level of the array also shows that the strange phenomena back then were not serious. Such a rough array was sufficient to handle the situation."
"But as the number of worlds merging with it steadily increases, this Mystic Sky Phantom Locking Array..."
"Starts to seem rather insufficient."
Utilizing the remaining computational power of the Dissociation Disc in his Spirit Consciousness, Li Fan almost instantaneously derived a completely new Locking the Abyss Formation with ten times the sealing ability.
Li Fan shook his head slightly: "After so many years, the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals still shows no drive for advancement, treating antiques from a thousand years ago like treasures."
