NOVPUBLong before Li Fan had lifted the restriction over the Foundation Establishment Cultivator, Jiang Nianer had already prematurely awakened from her cultivation.
Her spirit was highly alert, and the process of setting up the array started repeating over and over in her spirit consciousness.
Now that she had become an Energy Refining Cultivator, she was very clear that in front of an opponent at the Foundation Establishment Stage, she couldn’t withstand a single move.
Either the opponent would kill her in one move, or...
She would have to set up the array before the opponent made their move!
In the face of life and death, Jiang Nianer pushed her potential to the extreme.
Although it was her first time setting up an array, she did it as if she was tempered a thousand times, instantly completed.
Watching her opponent, who was puzzled and seeking a way out within "Bamboo Sea Trapping Dragon Array," Jiang Nianer knew she had already won half of this competition.
What followed would be a test of endurance between her and her opponent.
A trace of determination flashed in Jiang Nianer’s eyes as she once again tapped into her potential.
The rate at which she absorbed the surrounding Heavenly and Earthly Spiritual Energy increased.
"Over ten thousand people on the island, and I was the only one to survive! How can I die here!"
"Even if you are a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, don’t think you can win against me!"
A sliver of ferocity abruptly arose in Jiang Nianer’s heart.
In response, the Bamboo Sea Trapping Dragon Array underwent a change as the sky and earth changed colors. Countless bamboo leaves, like emerald green flying knives, whistled towards the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
...
"It seems he won’t have much of a problem winning this battle."
Every slight change in Jiang Nianer was clearly captured in Li Fan’s eyes.
While helping Jiang Nianer reconstruct her body, Li Fan had also planted his eyes within it.
After all, to observe the process of the Strange Phenomena’s absorption comprehensively, how could he not come prepared in advance?
This fair duel did not last very long.
Just an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he might have barely managed to exchange for a Foundation Establishment Technique and already expended all his energy.
It was apparent that he knew nothing about array techniques, raging powerlessly and furiously within the Encircled Dragon Array for the better part of the day, only to be thoroughly defeated in the end.
Hanging by a thread, he was not far from death.
Jiang Nianer did not arrogantly remove the array immediately.
Instead, she quietly watched her opponent from outside the array, "I won this competition."
"It’s here..." Li Fan’s spirit invigorated.
From the Heavenly-Earthly View, he clearly saw that as soon as Jiang Nianer uttered those words, the earlier dead silence and darkness abruptly boiled over.
Like an expanding shadow behemoth, it enshrouded the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
And then completely swallowed him.
Jiang Nianer’s original body subsequently became somewhat blurred.
Strange dark power completely linked her with the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
Like a pair of giant hands forcibly kneading them together.
A moment later...
Jiang Nianer disappeared from where she stood.
In the array, the original Foundation Establishment Cultivator, whose life was hanging by a thread, suddenly had a gleam flash in his eyes.
Like dead wood meeting spring, the aura on his body flourished a thousandfold.
He stood there stunned for a long while, only then digesting all the memories in the brain of the Foundation Establishment Cultivator.
"Survival of the fittest, this is the way of Heaven and Earth. Who let you lose..." he muttered to himself, his eyes gradually changing from perplexed to resolute.
Li Fan, however, could see that within Jiang Nianer’s spirit consciousness, the consciousness belonging to the original Foundation Establishment Cultivator, like a spectre, wailed unwillingly.
Besides that, there were no other means of resistance. Easily suppressed by Jiang Nianer.
After getting used to her new body, Jiang Nianer slowly stood up, waving her hand to dismiss the Trapping Dragon Array.
Then, she slowly kowtowed in front of Li Fan.
"How does it feel to have the strength of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator?" Li Fan asked with a smile.
"Very strong. But compared to senior..." Jiang Nianer dared not raise her head.
"Hehe, with your ability, you just need to move forward step by step, devouring from Foundation Establishment to Gold Core, and then to Nascent Soul..."
"Would you not eventually surpass me one day?"
As soon as Li Fan said these words, Jiang Nianer felt like he had been struck by lightning; his body uncontrollably began to tremble slightly.
Because this sentence was exactly what he had just been thinking deep in his heart!
Not uttering any excuses of a junior not daring to do so, Jiang Nianer’s heart turned ice-cold.
He knew his life hung by a thread, at the mercy of the other’s single thought. He maintained his position with his forehead to the ground, not daring to move.
Not knowing how much time had passed, Jiang Nianer only felt his entire clothing soaked through with cold sweat.
It was then that he finally heard Li Fan’s voice again.
"Rise."
Jiang Nianer’s body relaxed all at once, as if a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.
"The higher the cultivation base of a cultivator, the greater the gap between realms becomes."
"There are those who can defeat Gold Core cultivators while at the Foundation Establishment level, not the ordinary. But those who can triumph over the Longevity realm while at the Unity-Path..."
"Have never existed throughout ancient times."
"If you wish to take revenge on me, then first reach the Immortal Realm."
Jiang Nianer felt like he had fallen into an ice cave, any joy from his recent victory in the duel completely dissipated in an instant.
"Immortal Realm..."
These three characters loomed over him like a mountain and an ocean, pressing down so hard he could hardly breathe.
He waited a good half a day and still heard no further sound from the other.
Only then did Jiang Nianer muster up the courage to lift his head and look around.
He saw that, at some unknown time, the mysterious individual’s figure had disappeared without a trace.
Jiang Nianer was stunned, looking around he found that he was truly the only person left on Fanyong Island.
His strength leaving his body, Jiang Nianer sat down on the ground.
All the strange events that had occured since the explosion of strange phenomena in his spirit consciousness ebbed and flowed like a tide.
Eventually, they subsided.
"Wen Nianyu..."
"From now on, I am Wen Nianyu."
Jiang Nianer first checked the items on his person and then flew in the direction of Ten Thousand Immortals Island. 𝑛𝑜𝑣𝑝𝑢𝘣.𝘤𝑜𝘮
At first, his flying trajectory was a bit wobbly, but it eventually straightened into a line, and his speed increased.
...
Li Fan’s figure slowly emerged.
"This kid’s adaptability is not bad."
"Let him go back to the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals first and see if the official body of the Immortal Alliance will detect the strange power he carries."
Just now, Li Fan had watched the entire process of merging and devouring very clearly.
In truth, Jiang Nianer was already of little use to him.
However, Li Fan had a faint feeling that perhaps, given Jiang Nianer’s style and methods, he might bring him some surprises.
"The power of strangeness is actually a rule of Heaven and Earth as well, and can be utilized."
"Previously, there was a way to forge it into the Heavenshatter Arrow, even causing widespread influence on the net that has replaced the heaven."
"If applied to the rules of heaven in the Xuanhuang World, that would mean chaos in the principles of Heaven and Earth and rampant strangeness across multiple states."
Having identified and completed a research objective, Li Fan did not immediately leave the Misthaven Ocean area but continued to travel among the various locations of the strange phenomena outbreaks.
Occasionally, he saw cultivators from the Myriad Immortal Guild Sky Machine Hall and the Martial Arts Battle Hall dealing with it, but the vast majority had already plunged into deathly silence.
In the Misthaven Ocean Area, facing such a large-scale outbreak of strangeness, they were clearly overwhelmed.
However, the situation began to improve with the return of Gongsun Qixuan.
Gongsun Qixuan, the person in charge of the Hall of Celestial Mysteries of the Misthaven Sea.
Fragile with illness, bearing the appearance of a scholar.
He was always responsible for monitoring the strange conditions within the Misthaven Ocean.
