Chapter 1355: Elevating the World's Heaven Personality
Chapter 1355: Elevating the World's Heaven Personality
A sudden, dramatic change swept across the skies of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The power of the reviving Star Sea, the panoramic view from a higher plane—both were profound secrets once beyond the reach of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao.
Instinctively, it began to absorb this new knowledge, a ceaseless, unending stream. Subtle transformations rippled through the world in response. Yet, this was destined to be a process as long and gradual as the revival of the Star Sea itself. Having only just begun, it remained in its infancy, a change so nascent that almost no one in the Xuanhuang Realm could detect it.
As the very source of this transformation, and still linked to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, Li Fan could naturally perceive every alteration in the world with perfect clarity.
This was a force of evolution, the very antithesis of the Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformation.
Yet it was just as vast, just as powerful, a sight that stirred the soul.
Li Fan could also feel the Heavenly Dao's favor toward him skyrocketing.
Wielding the might of the Star Sea's origin and offering the tangible benefit of generously imparting the Dao—a combination of awe and reward—he saw its goodwill grow at a rate that far surpassed what the Saint Emperor had achieved in his previous life.
The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao seemed reluctant to let him go.
Li Fan, however, decisively withdrew.
He returned directly to the Great Qi small world, severing his connection with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
As the place of Li Fan's origin and the first site of his lectures in this life, the skies of the Great Qi realm remained clear, untouched by the walls of darkness that now shrouded the other small worlds.
Still, the Lecture Stage stood magnificent and vast, its sheer scale covering nearly every human settlement.
As living beings listened to the Saint Teacher's lectures, their thoughts and epiphanies were simultaneously recorded within the Lecture Stage, all of which Li Fan could perceive.
It was as if billions upon billions of beings were aiding Li Fan in his comprehension of the Dao, all at once.
The subjects of their enlightenment were vast and all-encompassing, leaving no topic untouched.
Now, however, with the exception of the Great Qi Lecture Stage, the chaotic stream of enlightenment from all other small worlds flowed directly into the breach in the High Wall.
This was precisely why Li Fan had chosen to leave the Great Qi realm as it was: to preserve the diversity of these myriad thoughts.
Within the Lecture Stage, the Fabricated Heaven Personality—a creation resembling a silver eye—appeared motionless.
In reality, it completed over a billion rotations every single moment.
Its gaze swept over the enlightened masses of Great Qi, the mountains and forests of the small world, the flowing rivers and drifting clouds.
Compared to when it was first created, the Fabricated Heaven Personality's silver eye had grown far more lifelike.
It no longer resembled an artifact crafted by a cultivator, but a genuine, living creature.
“What, exactly, is the Heavenly Dao of a world?”
It bowed to power and revered strength. The Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao, with a disposition oddly similar to a pet dog, was still fresh in his memory. The thought prompted Li Fan to ponder the question more deeply.
He opened his left hand, revealing a golden, spherical cage. Within it floated wisps of formless consciousness.
These were the consciousnesses of the Heavenly Daos from the small worlds that had dared to resist when he erected the dark walls.
Li Fan had extracted them all, imprisoning them here. He then installed Fabricated Heaven Personalities in their place, ensuring the continued, stable operation of each small world.
“What I extracted wasn't the complete Heavenly Dao of each world,” he mused. “It must have been just the [Heaven Personality]—the unique temperaments these small worlds developed over countless years. Once I removed them, the worlds reverted to a primal state, running purely on instinct. If I hadn't filled the void with my own Fabricated Heaven Personalities...”
“A Heaven Personality's temperament must be linked to factors like the world's size, its resources, and other conditions.”
“This one, for example, comes from a small world plagued by disasters. It feels extremely cautious, wary of anything external. And this one is from a mortal world about the size of Great Qi. That world has everything in abundance, giving this personality a dignified, forthright quality. Disregarding its scale, it feels even more ‘orthodox’ than the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao...”
Li Fan distinguished between the various Heaven Personalities within the cage.
Then, slowly and methodically, he fed them one by one to the silver eye.
Though he still didn't know how a Heaven Personality was born or what specific conditions were required for its formation, Li Fan was certain that its very existence represented a unique form of power.
Almost visibly, as the silver eye slowly devoured these Heaven Personalities, it grew more animated, more alive.
To Li Fan, it felt increasingly "sentient." While it had seemed alive before, it was nothing compared to this. Now, it was almost like a pet with a soul of its own.
Before devouring the Heaven Personalities, the silver eye had merely followed Li Fan's commands faithfully, monitoring and perceiving the thoughts of all beings in the Great Qi small world.
Now, however, the silver eye would occasionally observe Li Fan in secret.
Its gaze was clearly one of ingratiation.
When Li Fan met its gaze, it seemed encouraged. The eye swiveled, as if performing, putting on a fawning display.
“Interesting.”
In its gaze, Li Fan saw a craving for more Heaven Personalities.
Li Fan remained impassive and beckoned with a slight gesture. The silver eye immediately floated toward him.
It brought itself close to Li Fan's outstretched hand.
In that instant, a flood of thoughts from the Great Qi small world—both present and past—materialized around Li Fan, neatly categorized.
The silver eye had organized them with perfect relevance, making them easy for Li Fan to review.
A single thought from Li Fan was all it took for the silver eye to perceive his intent, and it would immediately collate, sort, and present the exact information he required.
“Far more intelligent and useful than before, no doubt.”
“No wonder cultivators in ancient times would so readily refine entire realms into artifacts. A Heaven Personality is practically the ultimate form of an artifact spirit,” Li Fan mused, gazing thoughtfully at the silver eye.
“A pity, though. Even after devouring so many Heaven Personalities from small worlds, this silver eye still feels leagues behind the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“Replacing it seems rather unrealistic at this stage.”
“What is the key factor that drives its qualitative transformation?”
If he could replace the consciousness of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao with his own creation, it would be a monumental achievement for Li Fan. Only by forging the Xuanhuang Realm into his own unbreachable fortress could it serve as a staging ground for exploring what lay beyond the High Wall.
Li Fan pondered this as he absorbed the stream of mortal thoughts flowing from the silver eye.
Suddenly, a piece of information, specially marked by the silver eye, jumped out at him.
Li Fan's gaze sharpened.
It was a synchronized feed of the experiences of three individuals: Sun Erlang, Wang Xuanba, and Yue Zhenwei.
Previously, following Li Fan's subtle guidance, they had ventured into the territory of the Five Elders Council in search of a Nascent Soul grotto-heaven. However, after a series of setbacks, they had stumbled into the Land of Carefree Joy.
There, they had been trapped in a dream world teeming with man-eating demons and had only escaped after a desperate struggle to find a way to shatter it.
But their escape had not freed them from the Land of Carefree Joy.
To uncover its secrets, they had no choice but to press on toward the two remaining dreamscapes.
“After all this time, they must have found something.”
“The Land of Carefree Joy...”
At his thought, countless flickers of light and shadow surged into his mind.
The recent experiences of Sun Erlang and his companions unfolded before him in an instant.
Having successfully navigated the first dream world, Sun Erlang and his companions expected the next two to be easier.
But they had severely underestimated the dangers of the Land of Carefree Joy.
The second dreamscape they entered was a terrifying, post-apocalyptic world unlike anything they had ever imagined.
Across a vast star sea, civilizations had crumbled and life had faded. A terrifying alien insect species had become the true master of the cosmos. Wherever the swarms passed, they devoured every living thing on the land.
They left behind nothing but hard, indigestible stone.
When Sun Erlang and his companions arrived, they were greeted by a silent, desolate wasteland.
Their mission: to survive for six months against the siege of a massive swarm that had yet to retreat from the planet's surface.
This second dreamscape was completely different from the first. There were no riddles to solve. The moment they entered, a mission prompt appeared in their minds, along with the method to escape the world.
It even listed a reward for completion.
At first, the trio didn't think the task would be too difficult. But when they finally clashed with the overwhelming, world-covering swarm, they realized how wrong they were.
Even armed with the Dao and numerous combat techniques learned from the Saint Teacher's projection, they felt powerless for the first time against the sheer, crushing numbers of the swarm. The insects were simply endless.
No matter how many they obliterated with their techniques, more would burst from the ground to fill the gaps.
Having learned a bitter lesson, the three quickly changed their strategy, fighting a running retreat.
But the swarm infested every corner of the world. No matter where they fled, an endless tide of insects pursued them.
In less than seven days, the trio was on the brink of despair. Wang Xuanba cursed aloud, declaring the mission impossible.
Fortunately, in the last dream world, Sun Erlang had learned the Spirit Devouring Technique from the pig demon's statue.
In the heat of battle, he finally managed to grasp its fundamentals. He began to feed on the insect corpses, using the battle to fuel the battle.
With an endless supply of resources and no need to fear exhaustion, their situation improved dramatically.
Sun Erlang had turned the tide.
Then, in a stroke of luck, Wang Xuanba discovered a powerful artifact inside the belly of one of the alien insects.
It could summon a mechanical puppet nearly one hundred meters tall.
At first, the summoned puppet was motionless, but after some investigation, Wang Xuanba discovered its true purpose.
His body dissolved into ethereal light and entered the machine, his mind merging with the colossal puppet.
He then used the puppet's immense power to slaughter the insect swarms.
Though their situation had improved, facing the endless sea of alien insects still left them feeling hopeless.
They struggled on like this for nearly three months, their bodies and wills pushed to the absolute limit.
The thought that they wouldn't truly die in this dream world almost made them give up.
At the critical moment, it was the ever-observant Yue Zhenwei who noticed something. While the swarms appeared to move on pure instinct, their attack patterns secretly followed a distinct rhythm.
It was as if something was secretly commanding them.
The discovery galvanized them.
Confident in Yue Zhenwei's observation, the trio decided to risk everything on a single gamble.
Using themselves as bait, they finally lured out the mastermind behind the swarm.
They had expected the mastermind to be some kind of superior insect.
But when it finally appeared, they were completely stunned.
The entity commanding the swarm was, unexpectedly, a cultivator's artifact.
It was a purple-gold gourd, inscribed with unknown runes.
On top of the gourd stood a small, wooden-carved boy.
He pointed a finger at the three companions, who were encircled by the swarm.
The purple-gold gourd below them pulsed with strange light. Instantly, the numberless insects went into a frenzy, surging toward the trio in a suicidal wave.
They knew that if they could defeat the wooden boy and seize control of the gourd, they could command the swarm. The six-month survival mission would become trivial.
And so they launched a desperate counterattack.
Wang Xuanba, in his mechanical puppet, drew the swarm's attention.
Sun Erlang shot forward like an arrow, disregarding his own safety as he charged straight for the wooden boy.
Meanwhile, from the shadows, Yue Zhenwei—the weakest of the three—delivered the final strike.
He shattered the wooden boy.
By the battle's end, all three were on the brink of death, swallowed by the endless insect tide.
But when Yue Zhenwei gripped the purple-gold gourd, the ferocious insects froze, as if flash-frozen in ice.
After that, completing their survival mission was a certainty.
Two more months passed.
They had completed the second dream world.
Upon leaving the dream, not only were their injuries fully healed, but Yue Zhenwei had also managed to bring the purple-gold gourd with him.
Inside the gourd was a swarm of nearly ten trillion [Star-Devouring Insects]!
Of course, at his Golden Core stage, Yue Zhenwei could not yet unleash the artifact's full power.
He could only command the nine hundred million weakest of the swarm.
As his cultivation advanced, the number and strength of the insects he could command would also grow.
But despite obtaining such a supreme treasure, the three of them felt little joy.
Instead, their hearts were filled with endless questions and a chilling fear.
Nine trillion Star-Devouring Insects represented a force capable of destroying worlds, even in the real Xuanhuang Realm.
And now, that power was in the hands of a mere Golden Core cultivator.
Even though it was only a dream, and they couldn't be sure if the artifact would work in reality, the very idea felt absurd to them.
They had been in this dreamscape for such a short time and had already gained so much.
It was hard to imagine what sort of power those who had been trapped here for longer might have accumulated.
With uneasy hearts, they rested briefly before heading toward the third dreamscape.
With a treasure like the purple-gold gourd and an army of nine hundred million Star-Devouring Insects at their command, how could the third world be anything but easy?
But upon entering the third dreamscape, reality dealt them another heavy blow.
The moment they entered, they were all transformed into scarecrows, unable to move or speak.
Their spiritual power and all their treasures had vanished.
They could only communicate through the power of the dream itself.
This time, there were no beasts, no insect swarms.
There was no mission prompt.
Just three scarecrows, lying silently on a black stone slab atop what seemed to be a mountain peak.
They endured the wind and sun, the rain and lightning.
Unable to move, they spent their days pondering what the conditions for completing this task could possibly be.
But as the days dragged on, their resolve began to crumble.
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