Having obtained the answer he sought, Li Fan did not depart immediately.
Instead, he waited for the champion spearfish to complete its transformation.
A long time later, the spearfish finally finished absorbing the essential qi of its kind, and now looked several times more robust.
Satisfied and proud, it shook its body and turned to swim back into the open sea.
Yet it remained completely unaware of the five dark figures silently closing in from the depths.
Caught off guard, the spearfish found itself surrounded by former champion fish.
Five vicious, grotesque-looking fish launched successive assaults against it.
Each of these former champions possessed strength no less formidable than the spearfish's own.
Under their coordinated onslaught, the spearfish soon found itself in dire straits.
Flesh and blood scattered everywhere as it hovered at death's door.
Just then, Li Fan, hovering above the water's surface, transferred a concentrated ball of essential qi downward.
This was the purest form of the essence of flesh and blood, something his avatar had gained through research into the human body's hidden reserves.
Drawn from a final-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, this concentrated essential qi was incredibly potent.
For the spearfish, it proved even more nourishing than devouring all its previous kin.
Instantly, its wounds visibly healed before his eyes. Moreover, its body grew even more massive than at its previous peak.
This unexpected change stunned the attacking champions, causing their assault to falter for a moment.
Seizing this opportunity, the spearfish, which had been battered and forced into defense, launched a fierce counterattack.
It moved with overwhelming force, crashing violently into the champion fish that had attacked it most ferociously before.
Swift as lightning, its spear-like snout pierced the champion fish's belly, shaking it violently.
Dark crimson blood slowly drifted upward, staining the surface of the sea.
In that single moment, the former champion fish perished.
The blood-crazed spearfish turned to confront the remaining champion fish, only to discover the other four had already fled in different directions after sensing the shift.
After narrowly escaping death, the spearfish swam around in confusion. But after circling the area for a long time, it was unable to locate the source of the life-saving essential qi. Eventually, it swam off.
Watching the spearfish disappear beyond his senses, Li Fan allowed a subtle, enigmatic smile to touch his lips.
He casually erased all traces of the piscine battle before returning to Myriad Immortals Island.
***
Within the Tianxuan Mirror, Li Fan turned his focus inward toward his dantian.
A translucent miniature figure sat cross-legged atop Return to Truth, which had now taken the form of the Deepsea Pearl.
The tiny figure bore a seventy to eighty percent resemblance to Li Fan himself.
The secret techniques of the Taishang Sect truly are marvelous. This Tribulation Body had already accumulated cultivation equivalent to five years of ordinary practice.
It seems everyone has made significant progress during this time
Li Fan nodded to himself in satisfaction.
The Tribulation Body was a technique he had encountered during the wartime state—a method of storing cultivation progress without triggering a breakthrough to a higher realm.
According to rumor, this secret art originated from the Taishang Primordial True Scripture.
In the ancient cultivation world, cultivators sometimes advanced too rapidly, resulting in unstable foundations. To correct this, they would deliberately suppress their realms while consolidating their cultivation.
Different sects adopted different solutions.
The Taishang Sect’s method was to condense a phantom figure within the dantian to house excess cultivation.
Because the Taishang Sect regarded an unstable foundation as one of the great tribulations of cultivation, this phantom form, created to bear such pressure, came to be known as the Tribulation Body.
With it, Li Fan no longer needed to worry about excess cultivation feedback from his Mountain-Sitting Art.
However, the secret technique didn't specify whether there was an upper limit to how much cultivation the Tribulation Body could contain. He would have to test that for himself.
This method of storing cultivation... Li Fan pondered. It’s remarkably similar to the Purple Core inside Zhang Qianmo of the Purple Firmament Sect. Perhaps Zhang Qianmo has been suppressing his cultivation in this manner all along.
With that thought, Li Fan opened the Seated Dao Discourse forum.
Zhang Qianmo’s record had climbed to 186 victories and 78 draws, yet not a single opponent had managed to defeat him.
Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a trace of frustration.
Meanwhile, I Am Invincible, who had once loudly proclaimed that he had discovered a way to defeat Zhang Qianmo, had vanished without a trace, never appearing again.
He’s probably still preparing . Li Fan thought, forcing himself to remain optimistic.
After a casual glance, Li Fan was about to exit when a particular title caught his eye:
“Dao Unity vs. Dao Unity: Analysis of the Tianling Province Battle!”
His interest stirred, and he clicked into the thread.
“Neither side has publicly released detailed casualty figures from this battle. However, based on the identities of the sixteen Dao Unity cultivators involved and thousands of simulated analyses, it is not difficult to infer that the probability of the Myriad Immortals Alliance losing exceeded 85%...
“Unless there was a peerless expert hidden among the accompanying Spirit Transformation experts whose strength rivaled a Dao Unity cultivator...”
Just as Li Fan was getting engrossed in the text, the text abruptly vanished.
Censored already?
So the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s pursuit force truly did possess combat power comparable to the Dao Unity level.
Interesting.
Li Fan pondered this quietly.
On the path of immortal cultivation, the gap between realms widened the further one progressed.
A Qi Refinement cultivator killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a Foundation Establishment cultivator slaying a Golden Core, or a Golden Core cultivator beheading a Nascent Soul—such feats were not unheard of among extraordinary prodigies armed with talent and divine abilities.
But for a Nascent Soul cultivator to kill a Spirit Transformation cultivator, or for a Spirit Transformation cultivator to slay a Dao Unity cultivator—such things were nearly impossible.
Exceptional anomalies like that tool, Zhang Haobo, did not belong in normal calculations.
As for a Dao Unity cultivator killing an Eternal Life cultivator... the word “nearly” could be removed altogether.
A Spirit Transformation cultivator rivaling Dao Unity... The foundations of the Myriad Immortals Alliance truly run deep.
When I reach the Spirit Transformation realm, would I be able to confront a Dao Unity Immortal Venerable head-on? Even if I couldn’t win, escaping with my life shouldn’t be an issue.
His thoughts drifted for a moment. Finding nothing else of note in the Seated Dao Discourse forum, Li Fan exited.
After great war came rest and recovery.
Anchor Years 17, 18, and 19 passed in peaceful tranquility.
Li Fan had rarely enjoyed such a prolonged period of secluded cultivation.
Over these three years, the Tribulation Body phantom within his dantian grew increasingly vivid and substantial.
Li Fan also fully mastered every Consciousness Jade Slip Zhang Zhiliang had given him.
Meanwhile, the second Dao Transformation Stone had been completely absorbed. The blue crystal within his mind had nearly doubled in potency compared to before, and Li Fan found multitasking growing ever more effortless.
As for the Heavenly Physician’s Immortal Scripture , it was simply too profound. Years had passed, yet he had only comprehended a tiny fraction of its contents.
Still, Li Fan felt no sense of urgency. Time was a resource he possessed in abundance.
After visiting Zhang Zhiliang once more and passing the trial of the Knowledge Appraisal Sphere, Li Fan received a second Consciousness Jade Slip.
Just as he was about to depart, he faintly sensed that Zhang Zhiliang’s aura had subtly changed, as though something indescribable had shifted deep within him.