Chapter 1431: The Land of Joy Descends upon Xuanhuang
Under normal circumstances, an ordinary cultivator's divine abilities would crumble under the strain of such rapid enlightenment.
"To learn the Dao at dawn and die by dusk" was their inescapable fate.
Yet now, the Return to Ruins Realm was entirely under Li Fan's control.
Life and death were not dictated by the heavens, but by Li Fan himself.
A profound, inscrutable power descended, sculpting and strengthening the soul in his palm.
The speck of light grew ever more crystalline and brilliant, its burgeoning aura becoming increasingly formidable.
Unlike anyone else present, Li Fan could see a string of numbers floating above the speck of soul-light.
It was the work of the [Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number] array, one of the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Arrays, quantifying the soul's enhancement in real-time.
"Without the 'Infinite' attribute granted by immortal spiritual energy, even with all the phantoms of the Xuanhuang Realm's power inside me, I can't use the [Desolate Fall, Void Room Generates Flowers] array with impunity. But applying the [Myriad Spirits Return to Number] array is a different story."
"Still, a strength of merely 90 when approaching the Longevity realm?"
Li Fan glanced reflexively at the number above his own head.
"9999."
One hundred times the strength of a Longevity cultivator.
This, however, wasn't a measure of his true combat prowess, but rather the upper limit of what the [Myriad Spirits Return to Number] array could quantify.
"If a True Immortal were to step into the array, I suppose I'd have to represent them with a row of question marks for the time being."
By combining the [Heaven-Connecting, Its Dao as Me] and [Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number] arrays, he could measure a cultivator's strength with numerical values within an illusion. He could even infuse Dao enlightenment into them, quantified as "experience points."
This would make it possible to mass-produce Longevity-level combatants within the Land of Joy.
The difference between the Land of Joy and a simple illusion was that an illusion could be fabricated and distorted at will with little cost. Conversely, it was nearly impossible for anything from an illusion to manifest in the real world.
The Land of Joy, on the other hand, was built upon a foundation of truth. With sufficient energy, anything within it could be swiftly brought into reality.
"Setting aside the True Immortal tier for now," he mused, "if I were to forcibly tap into the power of the Infinite Star Sea, I could summon countless combatants at or below the Longevity realm into reality overnight."
"That's already remarkably close to what the Fallen Immortal Realm can do."
The Fallen Immortal Realm contained countless worlds, so real they were almost indistinguishable from illusions, and many of them housed Longevity cultivators.
Since objects from the Fallen Immortal Realm could be brought into reality, it stood to reason that its cultivators could be as well.
Yet, throughout history, only the consciousness of Xuanhuang Realm cultivators had ever entered the Fallen Immortal Realm. There had never been a single account of a cultivator from that realm breaking the barrier between the real and the illusory to descend upon the world.
Li Fan suspected this was a restriction put in place by the True Immortal who had created the Fallen Immortal Realm long ago.
"Perhaps one could overcome this restriction only by attaining the True Immortal realm *within* the Fallen Immortal Realm itself."
"A pity, then, that it's practically impossible." Having endured immense hardship just to reach the half-immortal stage, Li Fan understood the staggering difficulty. At the very least, no such being would emerge from the Xuanhuang Realm's Fallen Immortal Realm for several thousand years to come.
The Fallen Immortal Realm, born from a True Immortal's lingering thoughts; the Gloomy Sea of Darkness, formed from a True Immortal's corpse; and the will to survive that slumbered in its depths—all of these still held immense significance for Li Fan.
After all, the opportunity for his own metamorphosis into a True Immortal might lie hidden within them. Of course, becoming a True Immortal would likely attract the lethal attention of powers from beyond the High Wall.
But Li Fan would not let that fear paralyze him or halt his progress.
Besides, he had the aid of [Truth]. He could simply attain the True Immortal realm first, experience its nature firsthand, and if the situation proved too perilous, he could always return to his half-immortal anchor point and begin anew.
As Li Fan pondered, the soul in his palm, judged by sheer strength alone, had become no weaker than Zhao Ruoxi.
Witnessing such a breathtaking display of power, everyone present was utterly captivated.
Wuyou, however, was filled with a faint sense of dread. "If so many powerful beings suddenly appear in the Land of Joy," she whispered, "I fear I won't be able to sustain it..."
Before she could finish, Li Fan cut her off. "It matters not. With my help, the Land of Joy will remain perfectly stable."
Wuyou's heart sank. She knew that from this day forward, control over the Land of Joy would no longer be hers.
But she also recognized this could be a monumental opportunity for her as well.
Her own power was inextricably linked to the scale of the Land of Joy. Even if she had to relinquish control, the domain was bound to flourish under a True Immortal's guidance, and that growth would surely feed back immense benefits to her.
As these thoughts swirled in her mind, Wuyou could only offer her thanks for the True Immortal's grace.
...
The transformation of Wuyou's Land of Joy was a truly colossal undertaking.
The most critical aspect was ensuring the safety of the countless beings who already inhabited it.
At Li Fan's command, Emperor Sanmo and several other Longevity Heavenly Venerates from the Five Elders Council entered different regions of the Land of Joy to oversee the integration of the arrays.
Wuyou, for her part, simply opened her mind and allowed Li Fan to take the reins.
Following the tendrils of Ink Death's Dao Annihilation aspect, which he had long since implanted and allowed to silently permeate every corner of the domain, Li Fan integrated the power of his fused [Heaven-Connecting, Its Dao as Me] and [Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number] grand arrays into the dreamscape.
Using the Longevity cultivators as nodes, the arrays' power swiftly and firmly took root within the Land of Joy.
The immortal spiritual energy from the Dissociation Disk began to seep through the parasitic arrays, initiating the transformation of the Land of Joy.
With every iota of change, Li Fan's authority over the domain grew.
Though she was its creator, Heavenly Venerate Wuyou was now helpless as her creation changed hands. She could even faintly sense that she still received benefits from her connection to the domain, a connection the True Immortal had mercifully chosen not to sever completely.
Little did Wuyou know that Li Fan had preserved her connection for a single purpose: to use her as a scapegoat should the need arise.
After all, exploring beyond the High Wall in this lifetime was bound to attract the attention of some peerless power, who might then trace their way back to him through the Land of Joy.
With Wuyou as the ostensible master, he would have a brief buffer, allowing him to make a graceful exit instead of a panicked flight.
The takeover of the Land of Joy proceeded with remarkable smoothness.
Through the senses of the Dissociation Disk, Li Fan perceived a phantom ribbon of light, like a delicate veil, floating in the Darkest Star Sea.
It was interwoven with reality, yet existed on a separate plane.
Occasionally, specks of light would be drawn from the real world, drifting toward the Land of Joy. Each time, a new thread would materialize within the ribbon, marking the birth of a new dream.
Seated within the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan sent his consciousness hurtling forward, propelled by the Land of Joy.
His speed was several times faster than even the Wooden Sword's phantom could manage.
In an instant, he reached the edge of the Star Sea, at the foot of the High Wall.
What he saw was vastly different from the formless, featureless void he perceived with his normal senses.
Before him now was a distinct, arcing boundary of shadow, demarcating the space inside the High Wall from what lay beyond.
The boundary still felt like an insurmountable obstruction.
But now that it had a tangible form, crossing the High Wall no longer seemed entirely impossible.
"So the High Wall's blockade is weaker against consciousness," he mused.
"No wonder the Five Elders Council was so determined to use the Land of Joy to escape."
Li Fan observed it from up close for a long while before a strange feeling of unease washed over him.
Previously, whenever he had observed the High Wall from the real world, he had felt its immense pressure. More critically, comprehending its principles came with the terrible property of "once lost, forever lost."
Here in the Land of Joy, however, that property was absent.
Li Fan fell into deep thought, remaining motionless for a long time.
Staring at the shadowy line in the distance, a strange thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"Perhaps it's because only consciousness exists here, in an incomplete state."
"The High Wall is like a mirror, reflecting what stands before it."
"The state in which one views the wall determines what one sees and feels."
Li Fan then recalled how this very wall had been enough to block the prying senses of beings as powerful as the Black Heaven Physician and Evil Su Bai.
"This wall... it's a one-way mirror."
Gazing at it, Li Fan suppressed the growing urge to cross the High Wall from within the Land of Joy.
Based on the insights Mo Rubin and the Heavenly Doctor had gained in the real world, Li Fan had a growing suspicion that the High Wall was something akin to the legendary Dragon Gate.
While it was an impassable chasm for those within, it promised immense rewards for any who could successfully cross it.
With a single thought, he traversed an immense distance in an instant, his consciousness returning to the Xuanhuang Realm.
The initial transformation of the Land of Joy was complete.
The next step was to open it up to a wider audience.
Previously, due to Wuyou's own limitations and the deterrent presence of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerates, only beings from a small portion of the Five Elders Council's territory could enter the Land of Joy.
But now, at Li Fan's direction...
The phantom ribbon floating above the Xuanhuang Realm extended countless luminous tendrils.
They radiated out, touching the entire Xuanhuang Realm and its many vassal worlds and grotto-heavens.
The ethereal light flickered, and in that moment, countless beings were pulled into the dreamscape.
As they fell into slumber, their physical bodies were consumed by the Land of Joy, which held them in safekeeping.
They now moved through the domain in new bodies of pure consciousness, fabricated from the essence of their souls.
The number of cultivators was substantial, but they were dwarfed by the sheer multitude of mortals.
The updated Land of Joy's most significant change was the addition of a colossal floating city in each region—an enhanced version of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's celestial cities. These hubs offered everything from training arenas and rest areas to markets, and even allowed inhabitants to choose which dream region they wished to enter.
Newcomers were dazzled by the spectacle before them.
For the domain's veterans, the greatest surprise was the removal of the death penalty. No matter how many times they died, they would now simply respawn in the main city.
Furthermore, unlike the traditional cultivation methods that mirrored reality, the dream now featured something called "Enlightenment Value."
This value could be earned by completing dream-world quests and various other activities, and it could be used to directly increase one's cultivation base and realm.
The pace of a cultivator's growth was now on a completely different level than before.
Moreover, an announcement declared that a host of new dream worlds would soon be available. Pioneers who made early achievements would receive bonus rewards.
...
With the infusion of so many new elements, the Land of Joy was a scene of burgeoning prosperity.
In the real world, however, Heavenly Venerate Wuyou was not faring so well.
Even with Li Fan's modifications, the nearly hundredfold expansion of the dreamscape placed an unbearable strain on her.
If not for the protective phantom of the Xuanhuang Realm that Li Fan had granted her, she would have been instantly crushed by her own creation.
Now, to prevent her consciousness from dissipating, Wuyou had regressed to the state of an infant, falling into a deep slumber.
Only her furrowed brow and occasional cries betrayed her suffering.
There are two sides to every coin.
If Wuyou shouldered the vast majority of the pain from the dream's expansion, then Li Fan reaped nearly all the rewards.
As the true master of the dreamscape, Li Fan could observe a staggering number of living beings up close.
Their every action, every joy and sorrow, every flicker of emotion.
Li Fan perceived it all with absolute clarity.
He was gradually gaining a more profound understanding of the creature known as "man."
If the endless cycles of [Truth] had once reduced all living beings to meaningless symbols and codes in his eyes...
...then this intimate observation within the Land of Joy...
...was making those symbols vivid and distinct once more.
They were still symbols, yes, but now they were sharp and clear.
Li Fan sensed that this more concrete, practical understanding was immensely helpful for his comprehension of the [True False Transformation].
Ultimately, to turn illusion into reality or reality into illusion...
...one first needed a complete understanding of a thing's fundamental nature.
While the power of [Truth] allowed him to bypass this prerequisite and successfully execute the transformation...
...if he could grasp that essence himself, the power [Truth] "saved" in the process could perhaps be used to accomplish even greater things.
With this in mind, Li Fan split his consciousness into myriad threads, immersing himself completely in the Land of Joy.
Exploring beyond the High Wall was not a task for a single day. The Xuanhuang Realm still needed time to build its strength.
The countdown to the world-ending calamity ticked steadily downward.
Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
Immortality and Enlightenment Value. The existence of these two factors allowed cultivators in the Land of Joy to increase their strength at a terrifying rate.
In just ten short years, the domain had been pushed to the brink of collapse over thirty times.
Li Fan had to personally intervene on several occasions just to maintain its stability.
After dozens of such iterations, the Land of Joy now completely filled the space within the High Wall.
A few of its vanguard tendrils had even managed to push beyond it.
Albeit only on the level of consciousness.
The stark difference between the inside and outside of the High Wall still came as a great shock to Li Fan.
To put it simply, in the dream worlds outside the High Wall, the "Enlightenment Value" that the Heaven-Connecting Grand Array could draw upon was, on average, five to six times greater than within.
(End of Chapter)
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