Li Fan only had time to glimpse the children excitedly crowding around a gaunt figure in blue robes before he was forcibly expelled from the Fallen Immortal Realm.
A dizzying spin later, Li Fan was back in the real world.
Mister Bai... Are you the master of this spacetime of lingering obsession?
Though this expedition had yielded no tangible gains, Li Fan had at least confirmed one thing.
This Mister Bai was... peculiar.
Within a spacetime of lingering obsession, events should unfold in a fixed, unchanging pattern unless Li Fan intervened to alter them.
Based on prior experiences, this Mister Bai should have come to the small temple to visit the children shortly after the great battle ended. But this time...
What a coincidence. The moment I was about to leave, he arrived?
Li Fan didn't believe this was mere happenstance.
This Mister Bai was deliberately avoiding him. Or perhaps, due to some special reason, Li Fan simply could not meet him, just as Li Fan could not leave Ningyuan City. It was a specific rule governing this entire spacetime.
Setting aside the question of why this was happening for now, this analysis made it highly probable that Mister Bai was indeed the master of this spacetime.
Which raised the next question: what was Mister Bai's obsession?
Li Fan recalled the children's assessment of him: the greatest, kindest man in the world.
Coupled with his initiative in organizing rescue efforts and actively treating the wounded...
The scene of Ningyuan City after the great battle surfaced in Li Fan's mind: an apocalyptic landscape littered with corpses.
His homeland was caught in the crossfire between cultivators and nearly turned into a dead zone.
“If only this cruel scene had never happened.”
Is this your obsession?
Li Fan pondered the idea.
While other possibilities couldn't be ruled out, based on the persona of Mister Bai constructed from the available clues, this seemed the most likely scenario.
Resolve the Ningyuan Longevity Fruits Retrieval incident with minimal mortal casualties? That's... a tall order.
Having formed a hypothesis, the next step was to find a way to test it.
But achieving this goal seemed even more difficult than simply defeating Senior Brother Zhang.
Forget the divinely powerful Senior Brother Zhang for a moment. Just capturing Song Hesong, a cultivator at the mid-stage Golden Core realm, without harming any mortals in the process, was no easy feat.
Fortunately, I have the Insect Binding divine ability as a last resort.
I'll try every other method first. If all else fails, I can always return to settle this after I reach the Golden Core realm.
At least he now saw a glimmer of hope for escaping Ningyuan City. As for the delay, that mattered little to Li Fan.
After silently formulating his action plan for his next entry into the Fallen Immortal Realm, Li Fan's thoughts returned to that mysterious stone in the small temple.
He immediately began searching within the Tianxuan Mirror.
It wasn't some great secret; information on it was easily found.
Immortal-Severing Stone was what cultivators called this type of stone.
Its effects matched what Li Fan had tested: it could block all spiritual power and divine sense.
In ancient times, it was commonly used to construct secure chambers, carve statues, or forge nails for imprisoning criminals.
Paired with Immortal-Severing Stone Nails was a needling technique called Immortal-Sealing, Spirit-Severing.
By piercing dozens of fixed acupoints across the body with Immortal-Severing Stone Nails, one could block the circulation of spiritual qi within, sealing away all cultivation.
However, as the ages passed, the quantity of Immortal-Severing Stone remaining in the world gradually dwindled, and it was now exceedingly rare.
Occasionally, some pieces retrieved from sect ruins could fetch a handsome price.
There's still some leftover Immortal-Severing Stone in that small temple. It should be just enough to forge a set of nails.
He immediately spent his contribution points to purchase the Immortal-Sealing, Spirit-Severing acupuncture method, committing it to memory.
***
In Anchor Year 25, not long after Li Fan had entered seclusion once more, news spread from Jiushan Province, once again capturing the attention of cultivators in the world.
The ruins of the Chaoyuan Sect, whose mysteries had never been fully uncovered, had recently undergone an abnormal change.
At first, within the empty sect ruins, human figures would occasionally appear, pacing back and forth.
But by the time cultivators noticed and rushed to the scene, the figures would vanish abruptly.
Gradually, the frequency of these appearances increased, and the duration of each manifestation grew longer.
Later, the sounds of their conversations with one another could be heard as well.
Apart from being intangible and lacking physical substance, these figures were almost indistinguishable from living people.
They seemed unaware of the presence of real-world cultivators, simply living and moving within their own temporal space, undisturbed.
The reason this caused a sensation was that one cultivator happened upon an image of a Chaoyuan Sect disciple reciting the Heavenly Light Sun-Forging Art.
Overjoyed, the cultivator memorized the entire technique.
Although it was only a Qi Refinement technique, the significance of this event was extraordinary, for it implied the possibility of obtaining other, higher-level techniques.
Aside from the techniques, observing ancient Chaoyuan Sect cultivators practicing alchemy, artifact forging, and so on was akin to having a free tutor offering personal instruction and live demonstrations.
Thus, the Chaoyuan Sect ruins, which had nearly faded into obscurity, grew bustling once more.
Of course, only the Myriad Immortals Alliance took part in the excitement, and it had nothing to do with the Five Elders Council.
For reasons unknown, the several Spirit Transformation cultivators tasked with guarding the border did not return, remaining stationed within Jiushan Province.
The Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array was activated as a matter of routine.
Any Five Elders Council cultivator who dared to enter, hoping to get lucky, would be executed on the spot.
Under such circumstances, the previously somewhat chaotic Jiushan Province grew somewhat peaceful.
Meanwhile, on the desolate island in the Congyun Sea, the people of the Li World were embroiled in a rare dispute.
The reason for the matter was none other than the Chaoyuan Sect ruins, which had recently undergone changes.
The chubby Ye Feipeng, while out and about, had overheard passing cultivators discussing the matter and learned of it.
Returning to the desolate island, he mentioned this anecdote casually during a conversation.
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, both Su Xiaomei and Zhang Haobo felt a simultaneous, profound intuition: their destined opportunity for core formation lay within the Chaoyuan Sect!
Both had been stuck at the final-stage Foundation Establishment realm for some time.
First, they were hindered by the bottleneck of the Heavenly Tribulation, unable to advance.
Second, they had yet to decide upon which laws of heaven and earth to use for their core formation.
Now, with an opportunity so close at hand, they immediately conceived the idea of making the long trip to Jiushan Province.
This journey was far and fraught with peril. Thus, Xiao Heng, the nominal successor of the Immortal Avengers, naturally voiced his opposition.
Xiao Heng believed that given their natural talent, the bottleneck of core formation could only hold them back for a time, not a lifetime. If they missed this opportunity in the Chaoyuan Sect, another would surely present itself.
But venturing out now, with only the strength of the final-stage Foundation Establishment realm, was simply too dangerous.
Even if the two of them were prodigies with formidable combat prowess, the gap between major cultivation realms was an undeniable reality.
It would be far better to continue lying low for a while longer. Once everyone had broken through to the Golden Core realm and they were sufficiently capable of protecting themselves, they could all go out together to seek their opportunities.