Chapter 1027: The Bloody Secret of the Chaoyuan Sect
The taste of power was addictive.
Having understood the immense power of high-grade Dao Transformation Stones, Li Fan wasted no time in capturing the other two cultivators.
He didn't strike gold again; the stones they carried were also high-grade, nothing more.
Li Fan repeated the process.
After absorbing a total of three high-grade Dao Transformation Stones, Li Fan once again felt that long-lost sensation of a qualitative leap, akin to breaking through an entire cultivation realm.
Yet, he didn't let the power go to his head. Instead, he meticulously re-analyzed his experiences in this life.
Leveraging his enhanced strategic mind, he began to map out a rough plan for the future: how to break free from the [True Immortal's Web], how to successfully regress using [Truth], and even how to seize benefits from the entire process.
"Still, my deductive abilities haven't reached the level of the Transformation Dao Stone Mother, which could perceive the very fabric of the real world. I'll have to adapt as I go."
Li Fan fell silent, a whirlwind of thoughts spinning in his mind.
"Go to the Cong Yun Sea ahead of me," he instructed. "Prompt the Chaoyuan Sect to flee. If nothing changes, their ruins should still end up flying toward Nine Mountains Prefecture."
"Wait until the cultivators from the various lesser worlds have used the Medicine King Sect's elixirs to force their way into the Golden Core realm. Then, you will lead them to the ruins."
"With you watching over them, they should be able to carve a path through the Chaoyuan Sect's sea of blood and mountain of corpses. Once they emerge, they'll be ready for a collective breakthrough to the Nascent Soul realm. After that, uncovering the secrets of that blood-red river will be far easier."
The clone's mind instantly flooded with memories concerning the Chaoyuan Sect.
The Chaoyuan Sect was an ancient sect whose domain was hidden deep within the three great undersea faults of the Cong Yun Sea.
Just before calamity struck the Cong Yun Sea, the sect's domain had fled, eventually settling in Nine Mountains Prefecture.
Shuo Feng, Zhang Haobo, and Su Xiaomei had once ventured into those ruins together, searching for an opportunity to break through to their next realms.
It was through their experiences that Li Fan had learned the sect's secrets.
The Chaoyuan Sect was a native sect of the Xuanhuang Realm.
After the Great Calamity descended, they vanished without a trace, as if they had simply evaporated from the mortal world.
In truth, the entire sect had been converted into a bizarre state, existing in a liminal space between reality and illusion, completely cut off from the outside world.
Time itself seemed to have frozen within its borders, a desperate gambit to ride out the cataclysm.
That, at least, had been the Chaoyuan Sect's plan.
However, unforeseen complications always arise.
First, the very land they occupied was struck by the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate, a single blow that turned the region into the Cong Yun Sea and buried the Chaoyuan Sect deep beneath the waves.
Later, perhaps influenced by the merging of the two realms, strange and twisted changes began to occur within the sect's domain.
When Su Xiaomei's group entered the ruins, the cultivators within all appeared to be living their lives as usual.
But in truth, every last one of them had become a faceless, bloody horror, their features completely erased.
Worse still, they were utterly unaware of their transformation.
If anyone dared to expose the truth of their monstrous, faceless state to them...
...they would fly into a frenzy and attack without warning.
It was as if all reason had abandoned them. Regardless of their cultivation level, they fought like feral beasts, attacking with only their bare hands and claws.
Though they used no techniques, these faceless creatures were incredibly difficult to handle.
They were unnaturally fast and healed from wounds in moments.
The only way to kill them for good was to slice off their entire bloody visage.
Upon their destruction, each faceless being would dissolve into a crimson light that would attach itself to their killer.
This crimson light was, in fact, the source power of the Chaoyuan Sect's pocket world.
When a cultivator left the ruins, this captured crimson light would depart with them.
It acted as a potent elixir, powerful enough to allow any cultivator below the Nascent Soul realm to advance an entire major stage.
It would even naturally provide the Foundation Establishment Wonder, the Golden Core method, and the Nascent Soul grotto-heaven required for advancement under the New Method.
Furthermore, with a special refinement technique, one could absorb the source power directly within the Chaoyuan Sect's world, essentially fueling their strength through battle.
As for why the Chaoyuan Sect had fallen into such a bizarre state, the reason remained a mystery.
Li Fan, however, suspected it was another consequence of the Xuanhuang Realm's fusion with other worlds.
...
Li Qing processed the entire history of the Chaoyuan Sect and nodded.
"If that crimson source power works on me too, perhaps my cultivation realm might even surpass yours?" Li Qing remarked with a smile.
"Then you'd better kill as many as you can," Li Fan replied, unfazed. "The advancement of a Heavenly Spirit is no small matter. The resources you'll need for the Soul Transformation realm might exceed what a common cultivator needs to reach Dao Integration."
"If you truly reach the Soul Transformation realm, with the power of the Black Sword Heavenly Spirit, you might actually last two or three rounds against me."
The clone simply smiled, offering no reply.
She accepted her orders and departed.
From this point on, the exploration of the blood-red river would be entirely Li Qing's responsibility.
After all, any secret she uncovered would be known to him simultaneously.
There shouldn't be any complications.
...
Bolstered by the power from the upgraded Dao Transformation Stones, the Final Dissociation Disc could finally unleash its full deductive capacity.
While it worked on deciphering the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate's restrictions, it also began constructing a brand-new formation according to Li Fan's design.
Meanwhile, Li Fan turned his attention to the mass of white light within his own body.
It was the Heavenly Profound Mirror Origin, the fragment of the mirror's essence he had received.
The Heavenly Profound Mirror had claimed that its origin was a constant—it could neither be created nor destroyed, only existing as part of the whole.
But Li Fan was intensely curious: what would happen if he used an anchor point from [Truth] to retain this item after a regression?
"The most likely outcome," he mused, "is that a new fragment of the mirror's origin would simply materialize in the world."
"And if the Heavenly Profound Mirror itself couldn't sense this duplicate..."
Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly.
He had reaped countless benefits since obtaining the mirror's origin.
The fact that the Heavenly Profound Mirror was now almost completely defenseless against him was, by itself, worth spending an anchor point to retain the item.
"In the final moments of this life, I can test its reaction."
"If it detects the anomaly, it won't matter. I'll be regressing immediately anyway."
"But if it remains unaware of this duplicate origin... the possibilities would be immense."
Of course, this all hinged on one assumption: that retaining an item with an anchor point created a perfect duplicate in the [Truth]'s inventory.
It couldn't be absorbing the original item from the world.
"This test could reveal the true nature of how [Truth] operates."
For a moment, Li Fan was lost in deep thought.
"But, it's definitely worth a try."
Currently, Li Fan only had two empty anchor points left.
However, he already had a theory about how to increase that number.
Previously, he had gained anchor points by absorbing the Golden Cores of other cultivators.
And before that, at the very beginning, he had absorbed their Foundation Establishment Wonders.
The next logical step was obvious. To gain more anchor points, he likely needed to absorb what cultivators required to form a Nascent Soul: a grotto-heaven.
As for why [Truth] had never prompted him to absorb any of the many grotto-heavens he had already visited...
Li Fan suspected it was because it required a freshly formed one.
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