Chapter 1129: The Meaning of Anchor Points
Chapter 1129: The Meaning of Anchor Points
He wore a robe of profound black, embroidered with nine golden dragons coiling around one another.
A tasseled crown hung down, obscuring his face and hiding his features from view.
“Such is the majesty of the Heavenly Mandate Sage Emperor; no mortal can hope to gaze upon the imperial visage.”
Sun Erlang felt Li Fan's gaze upon him and shuddered slightly, instinctively lowering his head.
At the same time, he spoke in a strained voice, “Forgive my incompetence, Teacher. I only managed to break through to the first level of Qi Refining yesterday.”
“To complete the initial step of drawing qi into your body in such a short time, relying only on the meager spiritual energy gathered within the imperial palace, is no small feat.” Li Fan didn't reproach him; instead, he nodded reassuringly.
Hearing this, Sun Erlang’s face filled with even deeper shame. “If not for the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra that Teacher bestowed upon me, I fear I would still be afflicted by the miasma in my body, unable to even begin the path of cultivation.”
With that, Sun Erlang prostrated himself again, his forehead striking the ground with several resonant thuds out of immense gratitude.
When Sun Erlang rose to his feet once more, Li Fan asked coolly, “What is the overall progress of the Forbidden Army in learning the Immortal Heart Mantra?”
“As of yesterday, a total of one hundred and sixty soldiers have successfully mastered the basics and shed their mortal forms. The others who failed to pass the trial... have all been dealt with.” A flicker of pity crossed Sun Erlang’s eyes, but he quickly concealed it.
“In the future, you will be the main force of Our campaign to conquer the myriad worlds. You must cultivate diligently day and night, without a moment of laxity.”
“As for the matter of spiritual energy, you need not worry. In three days, you will personally take this immortal boat and travel to the Ruins Abyss in the east.”
With a casual point of his finger, Li Fan summoned a thirty-meter-long wooden boat, which materialized before Sun Erlang.
The boat’s hull was covered in intricate silver lines that pulsed with a profound and mysterious aura.
“A true immortal treasure,” Sun Erlang thought, his heart skipping a beat. “To think that Master would entrust such a priceless artifact to me.” He quickly nodded his assent.
The immortal boat then flew into his grasp.
An immediate sense of perfect control, as if it were an extension of his own limbs, flooded Sun Erlang’s mind.
“You may go.” Just as he was marveling at the boat’s wondrous properties, Li Fan’s voice cut in.
Sun Erlang bowed deeply in farewell and took his leave.
Once again, Li Fan was alone in the imperial garden.
Beneath the tasseled crown, the faceless visage hidden in shadow appeared both bizarre and unsettling.
“Heh. Had I not decided to test teaching this technique, knowing this world was destined for a short existence, it would have taken me much longer to discover that the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra isn't bound by the restriction that prevents a law from being cultivated by multiple people.”
“Is it because the Immortal Heart Mantra doesn't fall into the category of a cultivation technique, or is it a special privilege granted by the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm to its Great Heavenly Venerate?”
“Regardless, this makes the plan to select a suitable successor for the title of Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate far easier to implement than I imagined.”
As his thoughts slowly turned, Li Fan flickered out of sight, reappearing atop the Sage Emperor's Dais that stood tall in Xuanjing City.
Wisps of faint spiritual energy nourished Li Fan's body.
It was just enough to prevent his current late-Foundation Establishment cultivation from regressing due to the lack of energy.
Having lived through over a hundred reincarnations, reaching a peak strength at the Soul Transformation realm—capable of rivaling Dao Integration cultivators—Li Fan had now returned to the Foundation Establishment stage. Yet, the world he perceived was fundamentally different from before.
For instance, he now knew that a small mortal world like the Great Xuan Kingdom was not entirely devoid of spiritual energy; after all, it was still connected to the Xuanhuang Realm.
However, due to the world's unique structure and the blockade of the Immortal-Forbidden Array, the spiritual energy was so incredibly thin as to be virtually nonexistent.
Ordinary cultivators could not utilize it at all. Only long-lived animals, accumulating it drop by drop over vast stretches of time, could manage to capture a limited amount.
A prime example was the massive serpent on Jieli Mountain, hundreds of meters in length.
“Even if I siphoned all the spiritual energy from this entire world, it would barely be enough to sustain a single Foundation Establishment cultivator...”
“But borrowing a little from the Xuanhuang Realm shouldn't be a problem.”
Li Fan had added several new arrays to the Tai Yan Boat he gave Sun Erlang. Its purpose was to automatically fly into the Xuanhuang Realm, absorb and store spiritual energy, and then return.
Sun Erlang, inside the Tai Yan Boat, would naturally be unable to see anything outside. All he needed to do was bring the boat to the edge of the Ruins Abyss.
Although, with Li Fan's current mastery of formations, it would be difficult for anyone to detect him siphoning spiritual energy from the Xuanhuang Realm under the cover of his arrays.
Still, it was not a long-term solution.
To generate spiritual energy from nothing, he would still need the Dao One Worm.
The Dao One Worm was a unique and bizarre beast, something Li Fan could not create from scratch.
However...
Skipping past the [Truth] system’s prompt to retain options from his previous life, Li Fan looked at his status panel.
Name: Li Fan
Cultivation: Late-Foundation Establishment
Physiological Age: 20/399
Mental Age: 1399/9999
Void Transformation Charge Progress: 3%
Anchor Setting Charge Progress: 0%
Current Anchor Points: 3
Current Available Anchor Slots: 1
Bound Items: Heavenly Profound Mirror Origin (Fragment), Tai Yan Boat, Myriad Beast Condensation Crystal, Myriad Lives Blood Essence, Dao Transformation Stone, Final Dissociation Disc
...
“My physiological age has reverted to 399, as expected for the Foundation Establishment realm. Not that it matters. I'll likely have used [Truth] to regress long before I reach the end of my lifespan.”
“The upper limit of my mental age didn't increase even after I broke through to Soul Transformation. It seems I've hit a bottleneck...”
Li Fan gave these details a cursory glance and moved on.
He focused his attention on the number of anchor points and his bound items.
Previously, he had two available anchor slots. After absorbing the nascent Five Elements Cave-Heaven, that number had increased to three.
Now, however, only one remained.
That was because Li Fan had used the empty anchor slots to replace his bound items.
The *Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Golden Scripture* was replaced with the Heavenly Profound Mirror Origin.
The damaged Stop Stele Fragment was replaced with the Myriad Beast Condensation Crystal.
Anchor points were originally difficult to obtain, but in the process of absorbing the nascent Five Elements Cave-Heaven and generating new ones, Li Fan had come to a new understanding of their fundamental nature.
Heavenly Wonders, Golden Core techniques, and Nascent Soul Cave-Heavens.
The reason [Truth] needed to absorb these things as anchor points was likely because it was completing its own understanding of the “external world.”
Just as the Heavenly Profound Mirror elevated itself by measuring the heavens and the earth, [Truth] took a simpler, more brutal approach: it devoured things to absorb their experience.
“So, it's the exact opposite of what I initially thought.”
“The closer something is to the world's essence, the more charge progress it provides. Foundation Establishment Wonders and law-infused Golden Cores are too superficial; they can't possibly satisfy [Truth]'s needs.”
“That's why absorbing them yields a limited number of anchor points.”
“On the other hand, Nascent Soul Cave-Heavens, the phenomena of a world's birth, and even the very soul of heaven and earth provide a massive amount of charge.”
“With a behemoth like the Xuanhuang Realm to draw from, the number of anchor points is not something I need to worry about for the time being.”
Therefore, Li Fan had not hesitated to use the anchor replacement function.
The Heavenly Profound Mirror Origin was something he had acquired by a stroke of luck in his previous life.
As for the Myriad Beast Condensation Crystal...
In his last life, before unleashing his world-ending plan, Li Fan had visited each of the small worlds to take a final inventory.
He had acquired the Ten Thousand Reincarnation Beast Wheel from his dealings with the Empire and Xu Ke.
Li Fan's thoughts drifted back to that time.
“The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance launched a surprise attack, and the Federation headquarters was annihilated?” Little Qing's face turned deathly pale upon hearing Li Fan's words.
“If I hadn't severed the connection between the Spirit Wood Realm and your world in time, the Empire would likely be nothing but ruins by now,” Li Fan lamented with a slight sigh.
The Emperor's Daughter and Little Red exchanged a look, their hearts filled with lingering terror.
“But there's no need to worry too much. Although the Spirit Wood Realm was destroyed, the vast majority of our members escaped safely and have gone into hiding for now. Once this storm passes, the Federation will rise again in an instant,” Li Fan lied, his expression unchanging.
Upon hearing this blatant lie, the people of the Empire felt their anxieties ease.
While listening to their reports on recent affairs, Li Fan made his way into the Empire's treasury.
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