Chapter 1557: Nourishing the World with Mortal Blood
"From its very inception, the Xuanhuang Realm was imbued with the supreme Dao of Alchemy."
"The Xuanhuang Realm's capacity for self-evolution, its power to reforge immortal artifacts, and even its ability to give birth to Ink Death—all of it is inextricably linked to this innate Dao of Alchemy."
Li Fan's gaze swept across the vast expanse of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The familiar landscapes of mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas were no longer what he saw.
Instead, he saw the great Daos themselves, a lattice of intersecting lines crisscrossing the world.
He had witnessed similar sights before during his moments of enlightenment. In the past, however, the Daos of the Xuanhuang Realm appeared as a vast, intricate web. But now...
All the principles of the Dao twisted and converged.
Ultimately, they coalesced into the form of a single, ethereal pill, shimmering between existence and non-existence.
The image of the pill shattered with a silent boom, and his vision returned to normal. Yet Li Fan knew it was no illusion. He had just caught a glimpse of the Xuanhuang Realm's true essence, revealed during his alchemical refinement of the world itself.
Sun Piao Miao, a reincarnation of a transcendent True Immortal, was a figure of immense mystery. The artifacts he left behind could even interact with [Truth] and possessed numerous wondrous properties. There was the three-pronged tree that could trigger a full simulation, the droopy-eyed doll that increased [Truth]'s charge limit and could serve as a substitute in death, and the broken-winged gray bird that had pointed to a specific time period within the Rotten Axe Dojo.
And, of course, the square alchemy stone that concealed the *Medicine King's Scripture of Dao Refinement*.
All these clues pointed to Sun Piao Miao's extraordinary nature.
"Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any other artifacts, even at this point in time, eight thousand years in the past."
"After all, Sun Piao Miao was active in a far too distant era—a golden age of cultivation when the path to immortality was still open..."
"Perhaps I'd have to travel another ten thousand years up the river of time to find more clues."
As these thoughts raced through his mind, Li Fan's hands never ceased their work on the refinement.
Perhaps Sun Piao Miao had left some hidden gambit within this half-formed pill that was the Xuanhuang Realm. But the Li Fan of today had his own ways to counter it.
The vaporous energy spewing from the Great Heavenly Venerate's puppet mouth began to thin. Just as the alchemical fire reached its zenith, poised to weaken for lack of fuel...
Li Fan's true body suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood, which silently dispersed and rained down upon the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Sealing the world in this furnace, I condense its wondrous rhythm..."
"With my own blood, I refine the Xuanhuang!"
Li Fan's essence blood dissolved into countless imperceptible crimson motes, enveloping the Xuanhuang Realm. As it coalesced into the shape of a nascent pill, it simultaneously sealed the entire world off from the outside.
And "the outside" didn't just refer to its connection with the Rotten Axe Dojo.
It sealed it off from the Mountain and Sea, from the mortal world itself!
That Li Fan could achieve such a feat with his current power...
...was only possible because that single mouthful had drained nearly all the essence blood from his body. Hidden within that blood was the power of the Great Dao of [Longevity], and as the blood was offered, that power was slowly refined and transferred into the Xuanhuang Realm itself!
In his previous life, Li Fan had suffered the calamity of three Daos merging within him. Though [Truth] had protected him, allowing him to narrowly escape death, the price had been severe.
[Truth] had fallen silent, but more importantly, he had never fully escaped the state of the three fused Daos.
His ability in this life, even with a mortal body, to remain unharmed even after losing so much blood was the best proof.
Anyone else would have been ecstatic to possess such a divine power of longevity. But Li Fan, having suffered for it once, was desperate to purge it from his system.
After all, the Great Dao of Longevity ultimately belonged to Shou Qiu. Even with Shou Qiu's blessing and a measure of its divine power, Li Fan was merely a "guest" in its domain.
Since there was no hope of seizing control and becoming the "host," Li Fan decided to discard it entirely.
"As long as I have [Truth], I will feel no reluctance, even in abandoning a Great Dao that stands on par with the Mountain and Sea!"
Shou Qiu's Great Dao of Longevity was truly one of the greatest creations in all the realms. Even though only a faint imprint of it remained in Li Fan's body after the calamitous fusion, it still granted him unimaginable power.
Just now, his essence blood had been completely drained, yet Li Fan felt no discomfort. Within a single breath, new blood, brimming with vitality and power, surged forth from every part of his being.
Perhaps this complete expulsion was what truly activated the latent power of Longevity still within him.
The new blood coursed through his veins with the roar of dragons and tigers, seemingly even more potent than what he had lost.
After expelling his life's blood to refine the world, Li Fan felt no weakness. Instead, it was as if he'd had a deep, restorative sleep and feasted on nourishing tonics. He felt more vigorous than ever.
"So this is Longevity..."
Feeling the latent vitality within him, vast and deep as an endless ocean, Li Fan let out a cold snort.
He had obtained this Great Dao of Longevity practically overnight, yet expelling it now was proving to be an arduous task.
"The fusion of the three Daos was a curse, not a blessing."
"By refining the Xuanhuang Realm, I may not be able to purge it completely, but I can at least minimize its influence!"
Li Fan had long sought a solution to the hidden danger of the fused Daos. After much contemplation, he had devised this plan that would kill two birds with one stone.
Without further hesitation, he once again forced the blood from his body, a crimson torrent gushing forth.
It scattered across the Xuanhuang Realm.
For the Xuanhuang Realm, this essence blood, born of the power of Longevity, was a tonic far more potent than the vitality of the Star Sea or any immortal spiritual energy.
As the Xuanhuang Realm absorbed it, the world's fundamental strength began to climb at an almost exponential rate.
Li Fan continued to offer his essence blood while precisely manipulating the art of alchemical refinement.
"My essence blood surpasses any heavenly material or earthly treasure in existence. It is more than enough to forge a truly solid foundation for the Xuanhuang Realm."
"Truly a Great Dao on par with the Mountain and Sea," Li Fan mused in admiration.
He expelled his blood, condensed the pill, and continued the refinement.
Again and again.
After three cycles, the strength of the Xuanhuang Realm had already surpassed that of the previous Ascended Immortal Domain.
After five, it far surpassed the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm he had created in his previous life.
Yet Li Fan sensed that he had only just begun to draw out the Great Dao of Longevity from his body.
However, as the Xuanhuang Realm grew stronger, the power of Longevity within him began to decline—subtly, yet steadily.
This gave Li Fan all the patience he needed.
"It is merely a matter of time and persistence."
With the Great Heavenly Venerate standing guard, Li Fan sat cross-legged in the void above the Xuanhuang Realm.
With every breath, a mist of blood erupted from him, nourishing the world below.
In this manner, a hundred years passed in silence.
The Xuanhuang Immortal Pill took shape, and all the profound changes were contained within it, not yet manifesting in the world itself.
Across the realm, only a handful of beings could dimly perceive that the world was changing.
But even they, with all their imagination, could not begin to fathom the future that awaited the Xuanhuang Realm.
At the headquarters of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, the Dharma Spreader gazed up at the sky, his heart uneasy.
A century ago, he had learned of his ancestor, the Xuantian King, from the "Grand Ancestor." He had even received the legacy of the [Supreme Dao Scripture]. He had intended to use this power to sweep away the Ten Great Immortal Sects and avenge the grudges of the past.
He never imagined the war would drag on for a hundred years. Though the Ten Sects were often at a disadvantage, they had never been truly defeated.
This slowly wore on the patience of the usually composed Xuanyuan Tuo, making him increasingly agitated.
"If I can't even cleanse this mere Xuanhuang Realm, how can I ever hope to follow in my ancestor's footsteps?" Xuanyuan Tuo sighed.
Theoretically, with the Xuantian King's sonic inheritance and the aid of the [Supreme Dao Scripture], his power should have long surpassed the mundane. The Ten Great Immortal Sects should have been powerless against him.
And in the beginning, that was exactly how it was.
Wherever the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance advanced, the Ten Sects scattered like leaves in the wind.
They abandoned nearly all their outer territories, retreating to the safety of their sect strongholds and a few crucial grotto-heavens.
At the time, it seemed the annihilation of the Ten Sects and the unification of the Xuanhuang Realm was just a single step away.
Then, one day, everything changed.
Overnight, it was as if the Ten Sects had undergone a complete transformation. They launched a fierce and relentless counteroffensive against the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
It was as if a century of pent-up frustration had been unleashed; the killing intent of every disciple from the Ten Sects was terrifyingly potent.
The timid rabbits they had thought incapable of resistance had transformed into man-eating tigers in the blink of an eye. Caught completely off guard, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance suffered devastating losses.
In less than a month, years of accumulated victories were wiped away.
They only managed to weather the storm thanks to the incredible vitality of the New Law cultivators.
Xuanyuan Tuo was utterly mystified by this bizarre shift in the Ten Sects' demeanor.
But what troubled him even more was his own failure to take the final step in the New Law.
Without achieving Longevity, despite all his wondrous techniques and divine abilities, he was still just a Dao Integration cultivator.
He could fight ten opponents, but not a hundred.
The Ten Sects' foundations ran deep; he alone lacked the strength to completely overwhelm them.
Xuanyuan Tuo gazed at the heavens above the Xuanhuang Realm. "Reverse the logic of heaven and earth to achieve Longevity."
"With the number of peak New Law cultivators in the Alliance, I should have reached Longevity long ago. Yet, I have consistently failed."
"I originally thought some unseen force was obstructing my path."
"But after a century of contemplation, I've had a realization."
"The problem isn't with the New Law I developed. It's the Xuanhuang Realm itself—it's also growing stronger."
"And it's growing stronger at a rate that far outpaces the combined progress of all New Law cultivators."
"Cultivators across the land can use my method to devour the heavens and the earth, but their pace of consumption can no longer keep up with the world's growth. Even if we had ten times the number of New Law cultivators, it would be but a drop in the ocean."
A flicker of dread crossed Xuanyuan Tuo's eyes. "What is happening..."
This situation was far beyond his comprehension.
After a long hesitation, Xuanyuan Tuo once again abandoned the idea of seeking help from the "Grand Ancestor."
He gritted his teeth. *It's not over yet. There must be another way!*
"If the world itself has changed, then the New Law must change with it!"
As if reliving the day he first conceived of the New Law, Xuanyuan Tuo felt a stir of inspiration. He sat down cross-legged and sank into deep thought once more.
Xuanyuan Tuo was lost in confusion, and so were the leaders of the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
"Brother Xingji, what is the verdict? The Dao Transformation Stone Mother has been divining for so long. Is there any result?" The voice of Fang Dingge, the sect master of the Great Dao Sect, held a rare, unconcealable urgency.
Not even when surrounded on the battlefields of the Taiyuan Realm had he ever shown such agitation.
Daoist Xingji sighed. After a long silence, he finally spoke in a low voice. "My Tai Yan Sect has possessed the Transformation Dao Stone Mother for nearly ten thousand years, and never have we encountered a situation this bizarre."
"The Stone Mother's divinatory power is almost completely exhausted. Even by overdrawing on its own essence, it cannot produce a divination that aligns with reality."
His words fell into a dead silence.
"Bizarre. Utterly bizarre."
"We thought the return of the Xuantian King was a false alarm, but these last hundred years have been filled with one strange event after another."
"The Divine Tree went out of control, and the Longevity Fruits vanished. The star road to the Taiyuan Realm was inexplicably severed, leaving the Xuanhuang Realm completely isolated."
"And most importantly..." Situ Yao, the eldest disciple of the Heavenly Sword Sect, raised his wine gourd to his lips, only to lower it with a sigh. It seemed even his finest vintage had lost its sweetness.
Fang Dingge continued, "As cultivators, our comprehension and control over the great Daos of the world are diminishing. If it were just one of us, we could dismiss it as a personal delusion."
"But it's happening to all of us..."
The cultivators exchanged heavy glances, each seeing the same burden reflected in the others' eyes.
"If this decline continues," Xiahou Yan, the master of the Indeterminate Prison, said with startling gravity, "I fear one day we may not even be able to fly."
"Surely it won't come to that?" The other sect leaders exchanged uneasy looks, a wave of uncontrollable agitation washing over them.
Compared to this, the threat of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance seemed trivial.
"Fortunately, before the True Immortal of Xuanhuang achieved his Dao, he left us with numerous improved cultivation techniques," said Jiang Yingshan of the Supreme Oneness Sect. "By studying them, we've managed to slow the rate at which we're losing our connection to the Dao." A wave of relief washed over the others at her words.
They all found themselves reminiscing about the figure who had once stood tall on the battlefields of the Taiyuan Realm.
...
As if sensing the countless thoughts and wills across the Xuanhuang Realm that were focused on him...
Li Fan, who had spent a century with closed eyes and a focused mind, finally opened them.
In his vision, the ethereal, phantom pill that had once shimmered outside the Xuanhuang Realm now looked as solid and real as any physical object.
Though it had been forged from countless mouthfuls of Li Fan's own essence blood, it bore no trace of a sanguine aura. Instead, it radiated a pure, warm, and crystalline white light.
Within that brilliance, Li Fan felt a profound familiarity, and a convergence of vitality so immense it defied description.
For a moment, even Li Fan himself was lost in awe.
"I never expected the remnants of the Great Dao of Longevity within me to be so potent."
"I drained and expelled it with every breath, over and over again, for a full century!"
Amid his astonishment, Li Fan finally gained a concrete, quantifiable understanding of Shou Qiu's power and the sheer magnitude of the Great Dao of Longevity.
"Fortunately, after a century of painstaking effort..."
"...the hidden danger of the fused Daos has been temporarily resolved."
Without the resonance of the fused Daos, his keen perception of the Mountain and Sea's infinite immortal power and [Truth]'s True False Transformation had diminished significantly.
The most tangible effect was a sharp decline in his own aptitude for comprehension.
It was as if he had gone from being a peerless genius to a dullard overnight.
The change was jarring, but Li Fan felt no regret.
"The Mountain and Sea is a boundless ocean, and I alone must be my own vessel."
"The Great Dao of Longevity is magnificent, but in the end, it belongs to another."
"Unless I can seize control and make it my own, I am better off without it."
Li Fan's expression remained placid, his resolve unshaken by the loss of the Great Dao of Longevity.
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