Chapter 816: Refining a Treasure with Spirit Wood
"This place feels a little creepy," Shang Tianci muttered quietly.
Li Fan also sensed an unusual aura in the valley.
Tianyang took a swift step forward, positioning himself in front of Li Fan.
Li Fan followed behind, carefully observing their surroundings.
The valley floor, nestled at the foot of a mountain towering thousands of meters high, was perpetually shrouded in shadow and filled with a thick miasma.
The flora and fauna here were unlike anything found on Taixu Mountain.
It was as if they had suddenly stepped into another world.
"This miasma... it can actually interfere with my spiritual sense."
After walking for a short while, Shang Tianci abruptly stopped.
"The ringing sound is gone."
He suddenly whipped his head around.
Li Fan pondered for a moment. Guided by the warning signal, he pinpointed a general area within the valley.
It was an area only about ten meters across, completely unobstructed.
But there were clearly no suspicious remnants of the Xuantian Sect in sight.
"Hmm?"
Li Fan and Shang Tianci exchanged a look.
Spiritual energy shot out, clearing the area of all weeds and creatures.
After wiping away a thick layer of mud, a smooth stone slab was revealed.
"This is..."
Li Fan ran his hand over the slab, a sense of familiarity washing over him.
An instant later, he remembered. It wasn't from the Xuanhuang Realm, but from the Fallen Immortal Realm—from the [Ningyuan Longevity Fruit] scenario.
He had seen a similar slab in the cabin where Mr. Bai lived in Ningyuan City.
The Dao Transformation Stone pulsed with blue light, recalling the memory of that scene.
Li Fan's expression suddenly turned peculiar.
The two stone slabs weren't just very similar.
They were identical.
"An Immortal-Sealing Stone Slab."
"Could it be..." A suspicion rose in Li Fan's mind.
He ordered Tianyang to lift the slab while he himself drifted back to a safe distance.
Only after Tianyang had entered the secret underground chamber, explored it, and returned to report no danger...
...did Li Fan fly down.
The scene was almost exactly as he remembered it from his past experience.
Within the modest space, a faceless stone statue stood against the wall.
Perhaps due to the isolating properties of the Immortal-Sealing Stone Slab, the long, brown wooden table in the center remained unchanged, even after thousands of years.
It looked no different from how it had back then.
He could even faintly smell the lingering scent of blood in the air.
The wooden box at the corner of the table, the transparent clay jars arranged along the wall.
And the twenty-eight skeletons of the [Beast Seeds] buried beneath the corner of the room.
Everything pointed to one conclusion: this was, without a doubt, the secret underground chamber beneath Mr. Bai's house that Li Fan had visited in the Fallen Immortal Realm!
Something that had existed only in the Fallen Immortal Realm had inexplicably appeared right before his eyes.
The discovery abruptly filled Li Fan with a bewildering sense of temporal dislocation and absurdity.
"So Taixu Mountain... was once Ningyuan City?"
"Does that mean the Purple Heaven Sect isn't far from here?"
Li Fan's eyes flickered as he quickly cross-referenced this with the information from Ximen Yu's *A Study of Ancient and Modern Geography*.
"It doesn't add up."
A moment later, Li Fan frowned slightly.
According to the intelligence from his previous life, the ruins of the Purple Heaven Sect were now in Langhuan Province, in the central region of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
A vast distance from their current location.
Back then, Ningyuan City was within the Purple Heaven Sect's sphere of influence, no more than a few thousand kilometers away.
"It seems there's an error in Ximen Yu's study of geography."
"But you can't blame him. Who could have imagined that places within the same province would end up on opposite sides of the world thousands of years later?"
"This can't be explained by natural geographical changes. It's as if someone deliberately cut them apart and moved them."
Li Fan already knew that the current Xuanhuang Realm was a fusion of the original Xuanhuang world and several other realms.
"Now it seems that in addition to fusion, there was also... reconstruction."
"Dharma Spreader, what is your ultimate goal?"
"At the end of my 115th life, after the world was annihilated by the single glance of a True Immortal, that earth-shattering roar... could that have been the Dharma Spreader?"
"It seems the Xuanhuang Realm holds some special meaning for him."
...
His thoughts gradually settled. To be cautious, Li Fan ordered Tianyang to scour the entire area, making sure nothing was missed.
"This faceless statue of the Xuantian deity is carved entirely from Immortal-Sealing Stone. It must be worth a fortune."
"But instead of selling it, it would be better to use it as a symbol for the Federation of All Worlds. After all, this might be the last statue of the Xuantian deity left in existence."
Li Fan then thought of the Xuantian Sect's Law King, still sleeping beneath the Purple Heaven Sect.
"Perhaps it could have an unexpected effect when the time comes."
As he stored the statue away, the warning signal also faded to nothing.
"Senior, what is that statue? It looks a little creepy," Shang Tianci couldn't help but ask.
"It's tied to an ancient secret, from a time long before even the Dharma Spreader rose to prominence. You'll find out one day," Li Fan replied with a mysterious smile, his half-told tale successfully piquing Shang Tianci's interest.
Just before leaving, a thought struck Li Fan, and he simply carved out the entire underground chamber and took it with him.
This left Shang Tianci utterly dumbfounded.
Li Fan paid it no mind and brought Shang Tianci back to the [Spirit Wood Realm].
On their way, they encountered cultivator patrols while crossing provincial borders, but thanks to Li Fan's [Sky-Shrouding Hand] technique, they went undetected.
"So, Shang Tianci, what do you think of this place?"
Standing atop the giant spirit tree, Li Fan asked Shang Tianci, who stood beside him.
"It's nice, but it's a bit..."
"Plain."
Shang Tianci managed to find the word after a long pause.
"Indeed. It's mostly an endless plain, with few majestic mountains or beautiful rivers. It can't compare to the Xuanhuang Realm, with its countless natural wonders. And that's why, from now on, it's all up to you," Li Fan said with great earnestness.
"Huh?" Shang Tianci was stunned, clearly not understanding what Li Fan meant.
"Your Heavenly Scene Treasure Gourd can manifest the wonders of the Xuanhuang Realm, can't it? I want you to manifest them, one by one, right here in the Spirit Wood Realm. It doesn't matter if they're not on the same scale as the originals."
"Recreate the Xuanhuang Realm in this small world!"
"Just think, when new members arrive, the first thing they'll see is a landscape identical to the Xuanhuang Realm!"
"How stunning would that be!"
Li Fan murmured, his voice weaving a spell.
And Shang Tianci's breathing grew rapid with excitement.
"I'll get right on it!"
The earnest young man immediately thumped his chest in guarantee.
"Before you start manifesting anything, you need to plan the layout of the landscapes."
"The treant matriarch has lived for many years. If you're unsure about anything, you can ask her for advice," Li Fan added, not forgetting to remind him.
Shang Tianci nodded repeatedly.
"With Shang Tianci's help, our Federation of All Worlds is starting to look more and more like the real deal."
"Once we complete the transaction with the Five Elders Council and have all the materials, construction can officially begin."
Li Fan felt a faint sense of pride.
"I wonder if I can refine this Spirit Wood Realm into a personal treasure."
"And then use an anchor point to bind it to [Truth]."
"A solid, stable base seems quite important at this stage."
Li Fan couldn't help but muse to himself.
Comments