NOVPUBThe empty eye sockets of the skull shimmered with a faint dark light.
It seemed as if, through layers of barriers, it was locking gazes with the Sacred Embryo, Li Fan.
Yet Li Fan didn’t feel the slightest chill or fear; on the contrary, he felt a touch of familiarity and warmth.
As if... 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝘣.𝘤𝘰𝑚
he had met the owner of this skull before.
"Strange, this feeling..."
The Sacred Embryo stared at the skull for a long time and didn’t leave.
Unlike the other exhibits in the Divine Collection Pavilion, there was no detailed description about this skull.
The only identifier was that it belonged to the first cultivator to have been infected with the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma.
And it seemed precisely because it had been infected with the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma while alive that it was indistinguishable from the bones left behind by dead mortals.
Compared to the luminously white bones left behind when some powerful cultivators fell, the difference was striking at first glance.
According to the guide, perhaps no one but the director of the Divine Collection Pavilion knew why this item was placed at the very center of the museum.
But since it was displayed in the centralmost position of the entire Museum of Divine Artifacts, that in itself attested to its value.
Be it in terms of practical value or commemorative worth.
Feeling the subtle emotional currents from his original self, Sacred Embryo also knew that this skull was equally important to him.
However, it was clear that now was not the time to take it away.
After casting one last deep look at the skull, Sacred Embryo Li Fan was about to leave when he suddenly thought of something.
Turning back once more, he carefully committed every detail of the skull to memory.
"Perhaps, based on the shape of the skull, it is possible to reconstruct the appearance of that cultivator."
It was for this reason that his original self had issued this command.
Although Li Fan himself did not possess this technique, there were surely cultivators within the vast Xuanhuang World who could do it.
Afterward, the Sacred Embryo spent a long time wandering the Museum of Divine Artifacts.
It was not until he was sure that his original self had fully mastered the entire content of the [Divine Technique of Three Calamities and a Hundred Tribulations] that he left the Divine Collection Pavilion, feigning reluctance.
The guide monk was still dutifully waiting outside the door.
Not until he had seen the Sacred Embryo out of the Immortal Alliance Headquarters did he flash away and disappear.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan, sensing the faint and covert presence of the cultivator trailing him, sneered inwardly.
Without the slightest hesitation, he decisively chose to self-destruct.
His Nascent Soul Cave Heaven exploded in a colossal boom, flaring like a fiery orb, and burst violently.
By the time the tracking cultivator realized something was amiss and hurried over,
the Sacred Embryo, Li Fan, had already turned to ash and was gone without a trace of bones remaining!
The tracking cultivator, clad in black, bore the character for "Law" on his forehead.
His expression was ugly as he looked up at the sky.
To his surprise, no phenomenon occurred that usually surrounds the fall of a cultivator.
"Elder Zhen was right; it indeed was a doppelgänger!"
"Pity, I didn’t expect it to be so resolute and cautious, cutting off all leads!"
"It seems the only option is to start from that [Jade Tablet of Technique Presentation]."
The black-clothed cultivator’s eyes flashed with frustration, but after a thorough examination of the scene that turned up nothing, he could only leave in disappointment.
...
Within the Spirit Tree Realm.
Li Fan was in the secret room, meticulously studying the [Divine Technique of Three Calamities and a Hundred Tribulations].
He had previously used the Faceless God Statue to issue a "divine decree," instructing the cultivators of the United Federation of All Realms to find someone capable of reconstructing a person’s appearance from their skull.
I believe it won’t be long before there are results.
"If the identity of the other party can be confirmed, perhaps we can understand what that Eternal Memento which strongly attracts [Real] is."
For now, Li Fan sets this matter aside and concentrates his entire spirit consciousness on the technique before him.
Since the blueprint for derivation is the [Chronicle of the Three Perils: Ghosts and Hidden Gods], Li Fan’s requirement is also that the characteristics and performance after running the technique are similar to it.
Thus, the [Divine Technique of Three Calamities and a Hundred Tribulations] can almost be regarded as a low-grade imitation of the Dark Record.
The [Chronicle of the Three Perils: Ghosts and Hidden Gods] involves nurturing countless thoughts within oneself into ghostly entities. Each ghostly entity can be seen as an independent individual. However, they are created by the main body and constrained by it.
After the refining of the [Divine Technique of Three Calamities and a Hundred Tribulations], there will similarly be countless "ghostly entities" within the body.
But instead of segmenting one’s own thoughts to form separate entities, it is about cultivating thought constructs through tempering and nurturing.
Strictly speaking, those ghostly entities are still part of Li Fan’s thoughts.
Only, they are unique in their concrete representation.
Though the upper limit of power is lower, there is no risk of losing control.
On the contrary, by transforming stray thoughts into thought constructs, one’s path of cultivation becomes even more purified.
Of course, for Li Fan, who possesses the [Mystic Yellow Immortal Heart Incantation], there are not many stray thoughts to begin with.
Therefore, to cultivate this technique, Li Fan had to specially derive numerous thoughts.
Half a month later.
Before Li Fan, an abnormal transparent creature, resembling neither man nor beast, with two heads and seven arms, suddenly appeared.
Examining the thought construct momentarily, Li Fan felt that something was not quite right.
Although it was also a thought construct, there seemed to be a significant difference from those formed by the [Chronicle of the Three Perils: Ghosts and Hidden Gods].
After pondering for a long time, Li Fan finally had an epiphany.
"My heart is undistracted, and the thought constructs I create are inevitably somewhat noble and virtuous," he realized.
"They do not possess the chilling yin energy like those from the Dark Record."
Once Li Fan recognized the reason for the difference, dark thoughts involuntarily began to emerge in his spirit consciousness.
The subsequent thought constructs he created therefore took on an evil aura.
Li Fan then proceeded in this manner.
Ordinarily, the creation of thought constructs is not the work of a day.
It requires combining the insights from one’s personal calamities and slowly nurturing them.
Day by day, month by month, one could cultivate an army of thought constructs.
But Li Fan is no ordinary person.
In his many experiences through reincarnation, he has witnessed far too much.
The historical trajectories of the various branches in the Xuanhuang World, the myriad experiences therein, all became fodder for creating thought constructs.
Even benefiting from having once witnessed the Xuanhuang World’s destruction by a True Immortal’s glance. The terror and despair of countless cultivators at the end of that world allowed Li Fan to create some thought constructs that looked terrifying and chilling to the bone.
Enhanced by the [Technique of Endless Duality], his own determination is unparalleled in strength.
In just a little over ten days, a fierce army of "ghostly entities" charged with evil and resentful aura occupied Li Fan’s body.
Feeling his own masterpiece, even Li Fan couldn’t help but frown.
"It’s likely that the mere release of a thought would truly bring about a descent of ghostly beings."
With a thought, Li Fan flashed into a vast empty space.
It was the reinforced Two-Yi Microdust Formation used to trap Yan Fangzhou!
At this moment, Yan Fangzhou seemed unable to withstand the non-human torture.
With lifeless eyes, he sat dully on the ground, like a walking corpse, devoid of vitality.
Compared with his past image, full of spirit when he first arrived, the difference was like that between heaven and the abyss.
