Chapter 904: Flourishing Splendor, Hidden Cultivator
The Xuantian Eradication Technique, a secret art created by the Ten Great Immortal Sects in a past age for the sole purpose of hunting down followers of the Xuantian Sect, was profoundly mysterious in its own right.
Upon activating the technique, the sound of melodious chimes would ring in one's ears whenever a person or object related to the Xuantian Sect was nearby.
The higher the target's rank within the Xuantian Sect, the greater the number of chimes.
Three chimes was the highest possible count.
However, as Li Fan now roamed the annular mountain, his anticipation high while the Xuantian Eradication Technique was active, he heard not a single chime.
"Hmm?"
"The Stone Tablet doesn't seem like the type to joke..."
Although taken aback, Li Fan didn't for a moment suspect the Stone Tablet was toying with him.
"Of course," he mused. "This place is so peculiar, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance must have scoured it ages ago. If the Xuantian Eradication Technique worked here, its secrets would have been uncovered long before I arrived."
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan retracted the protection of the seven-hued divine light and resumed his stroll through the annular mountain, a world blanketed in blossoms.
The Flowers of Spiritual Power in the Annular Mountain of Dongyong Prefecture. People said they were to be admired from afar, but never touched.
While cultivators couldn't absorb these blossoms, which were formed from dissipating spiritual power, getting too close was dangerous. The strange energy would cause a cultivator's own spiritual power to resonate and, eventually, be assimilated.
Failure to protect oneself or purge the influence in time could lead to a gruesome fate: having one's body overrun with multicolored flowers from the inside out.
Worse, these flowers were terrifyingly pervasive.
Once they took root, they affected more than just the flesh. Even one's Foundation Establishment Wonder and Golden Core would fall prey to the corrosive influence of these spiritual blossoms.
Thus, for all their beauty, they were exceptionally treacherous.
And yet, Li Fan could now stride boldly into the sea of blossoms, allowing them to bloom freely within his own body.
His confidence stemmed from one thing: the Seven-Hued Jade Void Radiance.
As long as he used its seven-hued light to seal his personal grotto-heaven, his physical body could be destroyed a thousand times over without causing him any true harm.
To the touch, these spiritual blossoms felt no different from ordinary flowers.
They had a tangible texture, and he could even smell the delicate fragrance drifting from them.
But after prolonged contact, phantoms began to flicker at the edge of his vision.
One after another, the spiritual flowers began to appear inside Li Fan's body.
Far from feeling any discomfort, Li Fan felt a surge of vitality.
The circulation of his spiritual energy accelerated, and even his thoughts grew sharper and swifter.
From his perspective, the blossoms around him grew ever more brilliant and dazzling, captivating his senses.
He found himself increasingly unwilling to leave their presence.
Blossom after blossom bloomed along his meridians, forming a vibrant path that raced toward his dantian and the space between his brows.
And even as he observed this happening within him with perfect clarity, not a hint of alarm arose in his mind.
He even found himself entertaining the thought that to die amidst such beauty would be a poet's end.
Li Fan watched the spiritual flowers put on their show, scoffing inwardly. "How bizarre... it beguiles the mind. Just like the techniques of the Xuantian Sect."
In the time it took to brew a cup of tea, his dantian was completely overrun by the blossoms.
They were densely packed—a beautiful yet sinister sight.
The same was true for the space between his brows.
Only then did the spiritual flowers reveal their true, malevolent purpose.
His body grew rigid, and his thoughts seemed to congeal, slowing to a crawl.
Outside his sea of consciousness, the flowers began to sprout tendrils, seeking to take root and invade his very mind.
But before they could succeed...
...Li Fan's body exploded without warning.
There was no gory spray of flesh and blood.
Instead, like a burst of fireworks, the countless blossoms that had formed inside him scattered into the air, filling the sky.
It was a strangely beautiful sight.
Carried on a gentle breeze, these newly formed flowers gradually mingled with the existing blossoms in the annular mountain.
They became indistinguishable.
Amidst this beautiful scene, a figure slowly coalesced back into existence.
It was Li Fan.
"How peculiar..."
Li Fan gazed up at the drifting blossoms, his brow furrowed in thought.
Even though he had preemptively detonated his body to prevent the spiritual flowers from consuming him further, Li Fan keenly sensed that a small, yet unavoidable, portion of his divine soul and cultivation base had been lost in the process.
For someone at Li Fan's level, even the slightest loss was significant, and his sensitivity to such changes meant he detected it instantly.
Li Fan watched the sea of flowers drifting in seemingly random patterns within the annular mountain, his expression turning grave.
The loss of his divine soul might be explained away by the peculiar nature of the spiritual flowers, but the loss of his cultivation base pointed to a far more disturbing conclusion: this sea of blossoms was very likely formed from the remains of other cultivators.
"Alive, yet not living. Dead, yet not dead. Devoid of physical form, transformed into a field of flourishing blossoms..."
Recalling that the Stone Tablet had pointed him here for clues about the Xuantian Sect, Li Fan became almost certain. The strange phenomenon in this place had to be connected to one of the Xuantian Sect's Law Kings.
"To exist in such an inhuman state for thousands of years... If that Law King is still alive..."
Li Fan drew a sharp breath. "A legacy of the Immortal World, indeed."
Now that he had located the secret,
...the next step was to unravel it.
Li Fan stood pondering for a long while, allowing a second and then a third body to be consumed and detonated.
By repeatedly experiencing the flowers' corrosive influence, he finally identified a potential way to break through the illusion.
Focusing his mind, Li Fan manifested a fourth body.
He then flew into the air, embracing the sea of blossoms with abandon.
This time, Li Fan ignored the strange transformations occurring within his body.
Instead, he focused his entire attention on the images flickering constantly before his eyes.
These were shattered scenes, fleeting fragments that vanished in an instant.
They appeared to be entirely unrelated, each depicting a solitary, disconnected event.
Within his sea of consciousness, the Dao Transformation Stone spun at maximum speed.
Li Fan committed every one of these flashing, fragmented images to memory.
Once he had recorded a sufficient number, his body could no longer bear the strain and exploded.
Unhurried, Li Fan created a new body and repeated the process.
Such strange behavior naturally drew the attention of the other cultivators present.
A few curious onlookers considered approaching him to strike up a conversation, but after feeling the oppressive aura Li Fan emanated, their expressions changed, and they quickly lowered their heads and departed.
Time flowed onward.
Li Fan collected more and more of the fleeting images.
It was like assembling a shattered jigsaw puzzle. As he collected the pieces, he relied on the immense processing power of the Dao Transformation Stone to try and reconstruct the original, complete scene.
The free-floating flowers in the annular mountain numbered in the trillions.
The fragmented memories they held were countless.
Without the Dao Transformation Stone to sort and process the data, Li Fan would have had no hope of ever piecing it all together.
But now, as a blue light flickered within his consciousness, complete scenes began to form in his mind, one after another.
——
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