Chapter 1116: Strategic Retreat
It was a grueling victory, though in truth, the Spirit Wood Realm hadn't suffered any significant losses during the three clashes—only a depletion of its stored energy reserves.
If the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance were to retreat now, or if they were intimidated by the Spirit Wood Realm's demonstrated strength and paused their assault, the realm could quickly replenish its energy.
But it was obvious the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance would not be scared away so easily.
The Annihilation Beast, having lost its target, wandered aimlessly for a moment. Then, as if catching the delicious scent of the Xuanhuang Realm on the other side of the spatial passage, it abruptly changed its target.
The spatial rift was stretched wide once more, and the aura that had sent shivers down Li Fan’s spine vanished in an instant.
Before the people of the Spirit Wood Realm could even begin to celebrate, the entire world began to shudder violently without any warning.
"What is this...?"
As the master of the Spirit Wood Realm, Li Fan, even from within the Gloomy Prison, was the first to sense the anomaly.
"The Spirit Wood Realm's anchor point to the Xuanhuang Great World is shifting!"
In the past, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had forcibly relocated the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven from Tianling Province to the central heartlands. The current scale of the Spirit Wood Realm was not yet as vast as the Five Elements Cave-Heaven. Even with the reinforcements from Li Fan's array refining, he knew it would be impossible to stop the Alliance from moving it by brute force.
Moreover, though his main body was far from the battlefield, the tremors felt through his Holy Embryo and other clones told Li Fan exactly what method the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was using.
"The Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation!" A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
He had coveted this magnificent, colossal formation—created by the Xuantian King to capture other cultivation worlds for the Xuanhuang Realm—for a very long time.
Yet, even as his Final Dissociation Disc approached the level of an immortal artifact, it had been powerless to analyze the grand formation, unable to forcibly deduce its secrets.
It seemed that factors beyond mere array science were at play.
When Li Fan had previously inquired with the Tianxuan Mirror about the formation's details, it had repeatedly dodged the question, offering up other, lesser formations as a distraction.
As a result, Li Fan had never seen the true face of this array.
He never expected to encounter it today, while the Spirit Wood Realm was under siege.
Within his main body's sea of consciousness, the Dissociation Disc emitted a faint, excited white light, its patterns shifting and flickering rapidly.
"A glimpse might only reveal a fraction of the whole, but the Dissociation Disc can reverse-engineer the entire design from this very fragment."
"It seems that becoming the enemy of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is the best way to see all their trump cards."
Li Fan was quite pleased with the outcome of this probing attack.
Just as the Spirit Wood Realm's anchor point began to drift, the preliminary deduction of his Dissociation Disc yielded its first results.
"The Tianxuan Mirror wasn't lying. The formation is indeed severely damaged."
"What the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is currently employing is precisely the Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation's ability to span the star sea, lock onto a world, and pull it closer."
"Judging by the speed at which the Spirit Wood Realm is being moved, the formation's power is less than one ten-thousandth of its peak. Even so, pulling the entire Spirit Wood Realm in is a simple matter."
"No, that's not right..."
"Something is still missing."
For the first time ever, the Dissociation Disc's deduction process came to a halt on its own.
With its vast knowledge of formations, no matter how many calculations it ran, it could not construct a formation with the same functionality as the ancient Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation.
This once again confirmed Li Fan's earlier suspicion.
This Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation was indeed more than a mere formation.
"No wonder someone of the Dharma Spreader's caliber has failed to restore this formation after all these years, forcing him to painstakingly scavenge for world fragments in the void himself," Li Fan mused.
Although he couldn't perceive the formation's complete structure, the power the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance wielded was also from a defective remnant.
Following Li Fan's instructions, the bewildered and panicked people of the Spirit Wood Realm quickly sprang into action.
As a formation materialized across the land, an invisible ripple enveloped the entire small world. The Spirit Wood Realm, which had been dragged along at high speed, felt as if a connection had been instantly severed.
The shaking gradually subsided, and the realm finally came to a stop in an unknown location.
Li Fan immediately checked the Spirit Wood Realm's current position.
It had been moved from the Alliance's eastern territories all the way to the south.
Alarmingly, it was now not far from the World Cracking Great Vortex.
"Are they planning to use the natural world-rending power of the vortex to shatter this realm? The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has certainly hatched a clever scheme."
The Spirit Wood Realm's ability to neutralize the power of the Floating Starry Sky Formation was an outcome that had far exceeded the Alliance's expectations.
It seemed a disagreement had broken out within their ranks, as they did not press the attack.
However, Li Fan could faintly perceive that in the surrounding void, Alliance cultivators were continuously emerging, forming a tight encirclement around the Spirit Wood Realm.
Daoist Bai Hua, the members of the Medicine King Sect, and the others also sensed the current predicament, and their expressions turned grim.
"This is the struggle of a cornered beast."
"It seems my planning for this life was still not thorough enough. The next time I build the Spirit Wood Realm base, perhaps I should incorporate the ability for the entire small world to teleport."
"Before today, that would have been difficult. But now, with the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's demonstration... Hmph..." Li Fan sneered inwardly.
Every blade turned against him would be returned a thousandfold.
"Your Excellency, I don't think we can afford to sit back and wait any longer," Liu Ruchen proposed in a somber tone.
"Although the Spirit Wood Realm's defenses are nearly perfect, they cannot withstand a relentless war of attrition against the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. Perhaps charging out to fight for our lives is our only chance of survival."
"After years of modification, the Medicine King True Cauldron's internal capacity has been expanded several times over. It should be able to carry most of us," Fang Zaiji added.
Liu Ruchen's opinion resonated with the vast majority.
All eyes turned to the Holy Embryo of Li Fan.
"Preserve the people and lose the land, and you can reclaim both. Preserve the land but lose the people, and you lose everything."
"If that is the consensus, then everyone, prepare for relocation," Li Fan said, nodding in agreement with their plan.
The crowd roared its assent and dispersed.
One group was tasked with monitoring the entrance to the spatial passage, ready to counter any potential sneak attack from the Alliance.
The other group began the rapid transfer of the Federation of All Worlds' resources and population.
In truth, if the Spirit Wood Realm's anchor point hadn't been shifted, Li Fan had another plan ready: a strategy of cutting off the tail to survive.
They could have retreated into the interconnected small worlds, like the Empire or the Li Realm.
Then, they could have destroyed the spatial passages.
While this wouldn't have completely prevented the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance from tracking them, it would have bought them several days.
Unfortunately, during the forced relocation, the Spirit Wood Realm's own position had shifted, severing all connections to its subsidiary small worlds.
Now, the only possible escape route was to carve a bloody path through the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's encirclement.
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