Chapter 863: Li Fan's Weakness
But Li Fan wasn't angered.
A cluster of intensely pure, seven-colored light bloomed in his hand.
He enveloped the one-eyed paper figure within it.
This seven-colored divine light, which Li Fan had continuously and deliberately compressed, was now so dense that the seven colors were on the verge of fusing into one.
It transformed into a ball of blinding white light.
It was as if he held a miniature sun in his palm, casting a searing, incandescent glow across the surrounding void.
The yellow paper figure within the white light began to twist and distort, squeezed by the immense pressure.
Yet Li Fan continued to increase the output of the seven-colored divine light.
With the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven to supplement his power, even the damaged Seven-Colored Jade Void Gilded Light could unleash a force close to its original potential.
As it began to condense, it relentlessly repelled all foreign matter.
The one-eyed yellow paper figure finally seemed to sense the mortal danger.
Its eye darted frantically, staring at Li Fan.
It appeared to be trying to communicate.
But Li Fan paid it no mind.
Showing no intention of stopping, he once again amplified the output of the seven-colored divine light.
Finally, as the single point of white light was refined to its absolute limit, it erupted.
A cataclysmic explosion, like the one that had sundered chaos at the dawn of time, consumed the figure. In the magnificent flames, the yellow talisman paper was utterly incinerated.
A great weight lifted from his heart. Li Fan let out a long sigh of relief and slowly retracted the seven-colored divine light into his body.
He had only just advanced to the Nascent Soul stage and had not yet fully refined the Seven-Colored Jade Void Gilded Light.
His last move had actually pushed him beyond his limits.
But finally destroying this tool of the Salvation Sect made it all worthwhile.
"The Eternal Calamity World, seeking the one who will face the tribulation."
"It seems that one-eyed yellow paper figure is their method for finding this calamity-bearer."
"As expected of the sect fabled to use averting calamities as a resource for cultivation. Ordinary spells can't even touch this paper figure, let alone destroy it."
"..."
"I wonder where those old bastards are hiding."
Li Fan frowned slightly.
He pondered for a long time but came up with no answers.
He decided to set the matter aside for now.
Now that the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven had been devoured into his body, the passage whose coordinates had been altered was naturally no longer effective.
At this moment, Li Fan was actually floating in the void above Tianling Province.
The instant he concealed his presence, tore open the void, and returned to the Xuanhuang Realm, a bone-chilling sensation suddenly surged through him.
Li Fan raised his head and looked out across the world.
He didn't know if it was just his imagination, but he seemed to see countless one-eyed paper figures made from yellow talismans.
They were scattered in every corner of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Undiscovered, they silently stared with their single, wide eyes, observing the world.
The moment Li Fan broke through the void and returned to the Xuanhuang Realm, they seemed to sense him—the culprit who had destroyed one of their own.
In unison, their eyes swiveled and locked onto Li Fan!
Pinned by thousands of gazes, Li Fan's body instantly froze stiff.
However, before he could even call upon [Truth] in his mind, the gazes simply vanished.
From beginning to end, it was as if he had imagined the whole thing.
His frozen body gradually returned to normal, but Li Fan's expression could not relax.
He knew that what had just happened was no illusion.
It was real.
This Xuanhuang Realm was infested with the eyes of the Salvation Sect!
And, it seemed, almost no one was aware of it!
Li Fan couldn't help but think back to his time as a mortal, on the edge of the Ruins Abyss in the Great Xuan Kingdom.
He had nearly been bewitched by the illusions from the abyss, about to fall to his death.
But then, he was suddenly jolted awake by a different illusion.
He had escaped disaster.
Could this mean...
That even that mortal realm had been seeded with one of those one-eyed yellow paper figures?
The thought that all his actions, for who knew how long, might have been seen by the cultivators of the Salvation Sect sent a chill down his spine.
But he had been through too much to lose his composure.
After some analysis, he gradually calmed down.
First, he could be certain that the surveillance range of each paper figure was not very large.
Otherwise, they wouldn't need such a vast number of talismans to cover the entire Xuanhuang Realm.
Second, besides surveillance, these Salvation Sect talismans probably had no other function.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council must also be aware of these yellow talismans.
But destroying them was clearly no easy task.
So, they most likely chose to turn a blind eye.
"No wonder the headquarters of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is built inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror and not in the Xuanhuang Realm."
"It's almost certainly to avoid these yellow paper figures, which are like a persistent rash."
"And Senior Sister Zhao's One Heart Immortal Sect is also in a separate dimension."
Li Fan recalled his near-abduction into the One Heart Immortal Sect.
"This Salvation Sect has absolutely no class."
Across hundreds of lifetimes, Li Fan had encountered figures like Ink Death, the Heavenly Doctor, Mr. Bai, and True Immortals.
Although each encounter was fraught with peril, Li Fan held a sense of reverence for these truly powerful beings.
And they, in turn, acted with a certain style befitting their status as experts.
Even when Li Fan died at their hands due to a misstep, he felt no resentment.
He would only blame himself for not being careful enough, for lacking the skill.
But this time, for the first time, Li Fan was genuinely disgusted.
Anyone would be furious to learn that this wonderful Xuanhuang Realm was plastered everywhere with such talismans.
Even in his 114th life, when the Xuan Net descended upon the world, it was at least done openly.
A green sky, though eerie, was infinitely better than this dense infestation of pesky patches that choked the heavens and the earth!
Recalling that fleeting, horrific vision, the urge to completely sweep them clean ignited in Li Fan's mind.
But...
It was just a thought for now.
Since the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had let these paper figures exist for so many years, it meant that eliminating them completely was no simple matter.
After all, who would willingly live their lives constantly under someone else's watch?
"Salvation Sect... Salvation Sect..."
A dangerous glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
For the first time, he felt the impulse to actively go on the attack.
"It seems other matters will have to be put on hold for now."
"At the very least, I have to solve this problem of being constantly watched," Li Fan thought to himself.
At the same time, another question surfaced in his mind.
What exactly did the people of the Salvation Sect want?
He had experienced quite a few of the Xuanhuang Realm's possible endings.
He had even seen it destroyed.
But no matter which direction the future of the Xuanhuang Realm took, he had never seen a true cultivator from the Salvation Sect make an appearance.
"Are they just waiting for the calamity-bearer to show up, for the disaster to pass completely?"
Feeling the faint, almost imperceptible gazes that seemed to emanate from the world around him, Li Fan's thoughts churned.
After a long while, he finally took flight, heading towards Nine Mountains Prefecture.
He needed to have a talk with the Five Elders Council.
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