Fortuitous Encounter, Marvelous Technique

The young men watched Li Fan depart as if riding the clouds and mist, and only then did they awaken to the truth. He Immortal Master's words had contained neither deception nor exaggeration, and they all felt somewhat ashamed.

"Those who enter the spirit pool first will receive more spirit liquid. Hurry and go," He Immortal Master said to the youths, his expression softening.

The youths immediately rushed toward the sea of clouds, scrambling to be first.

Surrounded by the dense sea of clouds, Li Fan felt as though he had lost his sense of direction.

The white clouds around him continuously gathered toward him, growing denser and denser.

In but a moment, they condensed into white spirit liquid and wrapped around Li Fan.

Within the spirit liquid, Li Fan not only felt no suffocation, but instead felt incomparably warm and comfortable.

Like a fetus within its mother's womb, Li Fan's mind gradually relaxed completely.

Streams of warm, gentle breath flowed across every inch of his skin, drilling in through his pores and entering his body.

His entire body, soul included, seemed to be soaking in hot water, making Li Fan nearly unable to suppress a blissful moan.

But then, the warmth turned scorching.

The scorching turned searing.

The searing turned into the roasting of blazing flames.

Caught off guard, Li Fan let out a miserable howl.

In that instant, he lost control over his own body.

He could only feel magma-like currents surging wildly through him, destroying everything in their path and tearing, burrowing through every inch of his nerves.

Such agony was simply beyond human endurance. Li Fan instinctively wanted to invoke Return to Truth, but he forcibly held himself back.

"Had I not painstakingly pursued this moment for three hundred years?"

"No matter what, I will never give up."

"I want to cultivate immortality. I want eternal life!"

Li Fan's consciousness shattered beneath the excruciating pain, but a single obsession supported him, keeping him from collapsing.

The hot current circulated endlessly through his body, as though it would never come to an end.

With every cycle, the destruction and pain deepened by another degree.

By the end, the agony had reached a point beyond words.

Pain became blades, carving Li Fan's soul into a thousand pieces, then carving those pieces into a thousand more—endless and unceasing.

No matter how strong Li Fan's will was, before pain of this magnitude, he gradually began to lose the strength to resist.

Slowly, Li Fan's consciousness began to drift.

His awareness began to dissipate.

Even at this point, the obsession in Li Fan's heart kept him holding on, without activating Return to Truth.

His consciousness became almost entirely blank.

Cultivating immortality, eternal life, Pestilence Removal, the spirit pool, Liuli Island, Heavenly Earth Marvel, Return to Truth...

All these thoughts slowly faded away along with the sinking of Li Fan's consciousness.

Instinct replaced the self. Thus, the Profound Yellow Heart Cleansing Mantra that Li Fan had cultivated day and night, almost without pause, ever since arriving on Liuli Island, began to circulate naturally.

As the Heart Cleansing Mantra circulated, Li Fan's consciousness seemed to find a backbone, gathering once more and growing stronger.

Though he remained in a state of ignorance and unawareness, he gradually became like a reef by the sea—no matter how fierce the wind or how high the waves, he stood firm and refused to fall.

In the blink of an eye, three days passed.

Of the thirteen people who had entered the Purification Spirit Pool, eleven had already emerged.

Of those eleven, only four had successfully removed the miasma within their bodies. The remaining seven had failed to endure that agonizing pain, and their removal had failed.

Apart from that unlucky fellow who had died, the one remaining person who had yet to appear was naturally Li Fan.

Sensing that faint yet steady presence within the spirit pool formation, He Zheng Hao grew increasingly astonished.

As the cultivator presiding over the spirit pool formation, he knew full well just how agonizing it was when the Immortal-Mortal Miasma was extracted from a mortal's body.

The Immortal-Mortal Miasma lay deeply hidden within a mortal's bloodline, present alongside flesh and blood from the moment a fetus took shape.

As mortals gradually grew older, the Immortal-Mortal Miasma became ever more inseparable from their flesh and blood.

This Purification Spirit Pool formation had been created by one of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's leaders, the Eastern Extremity Celestial Lord.

It forced out the miasma by utterly destroying the physical body, then reshaped that body with regenerative power.

This process repeated again and again until all miasma within the body had been completely removed.

The older one was, the harder it became to separate the miasma from flesh and blood.

The more cycles of destruction and reconstruction were needed to completely remove the Immortal-Mortal Miasma.

The pain endured in the process was unimaginable!

He Zheng Hao had presided over the formation on Liuli Island for more than fifty years. The oldest person he had ever seen successfully complete purification had been no more than thirty-one years old.

For someone Li Fan's age, He Zheng Hao had believed there was no hope of success at all.

Yet Li Fan's performance had greatly exceeded his expectations.

"This man's will is so unyielding that it is simply horrifying. If he succeeds in purifying his body, reaching the Foundation Establishment Realm will certainly be no hardship for him. Perhaps even the Golden Core..." He Zheng Hao's gaze flickered. "Perhaps I should forge a good connection with him early."

With that, He Zheng Hao sent the others out of the formation first, remaining inside to wait for Li Fan alone.

Another three days passed. Looking at Li Fan, who still had not emerged, He Zheng Hao was so shocked that he was nearly speechless.

If he had not still been able to sense Li Fan's steady life force within the formation, He Zheng Hao would have rushed inside long ago.

But there was nothing he could do now. The purification formation could not be interrupted rashly, so he could only continue waiting.

Another three days passed.

He Zheng Hao's expression became somewhat unsightly. He did not know what sort of monster he had encountered, one who could actually persist within the Purification Spirit Pool formation for so long.

Worse still, the materials sustaining the formation were about to run out.

If there were insufficient materials, the formation would be forcibly terminated, producing unpredictable consequences. It might even cause all previous efforts to go to waste.

Under normal circumstances, even if the formation stopped now, it could only be considered Li Fan's bad luck. It would have nothing to do with He Zheng Hao.

But when he thought of Li Fan's terrifyingly resolute will, He Zheng Hao's expression shifted repeatedly.

"Fine, fine. I'll treat it as a gamble that this brat will achieve something extraordinary in the future!"

With that, He Zheng Hao formed hand seals. One item after another flew from his Storage Ring and vanished into the depths of the sea of clouds.

"Good thing I secretly kept an extra set of these materials for myself every time..." He Zheng Hao muttered, looking pained as he stared at the Storage Ring that was nearly half empty.

Two more days passed, and the rolling sea of clouds finally began to settle.

The white clouds leaped joyously, clustering around Li Fan as they sent him back to the mountaintop.

Sweeping him with Divine Sense and seeing that there was no longer any miasma within Li Fan's body, He Zheng Hao finally let out a breath of relief.

"Congratulations, little friend! From this day forth, all shackles are gone, and eternal life is within reach!" He Zheng Hao said warmly.

Feeling that his body was better than it had ever been, Li Fan was still adjusting to his brand-new physique.

Seeing He Immortal Master's attitude change so abruptly, he found it rather strange.

Although he had removed the Immortal-Mortal Miasma from within his body, he had not yet formally begun cultivation. In the end, he was still merely an ordinary mortal.

Why was he being so polite to him?

Li Fan looked at He Zheng Hao with puzzled eyes.

He Zheng Hao understood at once and told Li Fan that he had remained within the Purification Spirit Pool for a full eleven days.

"What? I was in there for that long?"

Li Fan was truly somewhat shocked this time.

"Yes, little friend, you have no idea. The formation materials were about to be exhausted long ago. I was the one who paid a heavy price to add another set for you..." He Zheng Hao claimed credit for himself.

Li Fan's heart was deeply shaken.

Not because of He Zheng Hao's "selfless contribution," but because he discovered that an additional cultivation technique had appeared on his Return to Truth panel.

It was not the Profound Yellow Heart Cleansing Mantra that Li Fan had always cultivated.

It was the Profound Yellow Heart Refining Mantra.