Fragment
In truth, Li Fan was not lacking in magical treasures. Back when he was at the Golden Core stage, he was confident that he could easily kill anyone below the Divine Transformation with just the Golden Dragon White Star. After all, the Taiyin Haoguang Sword Technique was so domineering that a single sweep would mean certain death, and even Nascent Soul Stage- level Dao Body could not withstand a single ray of Taiyin Sword Light.
Moreover, now that he has broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm, his magical power has reached a new level. After breaking through the bottleneck, the various sword techniques, escape methods, and transformations that he could only use as ultimate moves and trump cards before can now be used casually and combined with tactics. His combat power has increased more than tenfold. Once he learns some methods of attacking with the primordial spirit, he will even be able to fight against those at the Nascent Divine Transformation.
Hua Nu felt a little bad. The Mo Shan lineage only had a few disciples, and Li Fan had reserved his Nascent Soul Realm stage and was considered a personal disciple appreciated by the mountain lord, yet he was only given a broken wine gourd. If word got out, people would really think that the Mo Shan lineage was poor.
So she filled the gourd with the immortal Immortal Spirit Jade Marrow of the Nascent Soul Stage Dao Foundation Establishment, she could still sip it a couple of times to satisfy her craving for wine.
In addition, I heard him say that he wanted to find a destructive Cultivation Method, preferably a palm technique, to take advantage of the Tai Su Dao Body. So I found Li Fan a martial arts technique created by the mountain lord himself, the <Ghost Bone Hand>.
This is a claw technique. After all, within the Daoist body of Tai Su Tai Chi, there are many transformations of clawed and fanged beasts. Practicing this claw technique not only allows one to fight in human form, but also transform into a ferocious beast like Qiongqi, and unleash the power of sharp claws. However, these killing techniques are not considered a great Dao worth passing down, so the Mountain Lord didn't write them down on the centipede's back. He simply jotted them down after comprehending them and gave them to the Flower Slaves to keep, along with experience in using other weapons, for his disciples to take as needed.
However, the Cultivation Method involving the primordial spirit belong to the secret teachings of Moshan. Even after going up to the Moon to see them, Hua Nu didn't have any.
Li Fan was satisfied with getting the <Ghost Bone Hand>. To put it bluntly, the Mountain Lord hadn't practiced many fancy moves; this one was his signature hand-tearing divine skill, which he had summarized over the years. Li Fan flipped through it and found it to be at least Divine Transformation level practical martial art, worthy of careful study. He was very satisfied; feeding the flower slaves was indeed beneficial... cough cough cough cough!
After thanking Hua Nu profusely, Li Fan temporarily left the cave to prepare for his cultivation under the Moon Worship.
My mood at this moment is 666/4550. Cough cough, I was supposed to Moon Worship last night, but I had too much fun and before I knew it, it was already dawn. Li Fan realized that he really didn't have enough self-control. After all, a Nascent Soul Stage level Dao Body is tireless and can't stop once you're immersed in it. If this continues, his nightly revelry will really delay his cultivation. That's why he asked Xiang Xiaoyu and Nie Feilian for help.
You need to pull yourself together, Li Fan! They're all just pretty faces and skeletons! Skeletons, cough cough!
In short, I won't be Moon Worship the Thousand-Faced Immortal this time. I'll just go to the Tai Su Realm first, use the special effects of the Gui Xu Nascent Soul to replenish my mood, and stabilize my cultivation before doing anything else.
So Li Fan searched in the bamboo forest and found a spiritual cave. He landed there and set up a magic array. Then, he made hand seals and chanted incantations. According to the Mo Shan inheritance he learned in <Gu Guan>, he used his primordial spirit to leave his body, absorb spiritual energy and soil, and sculpted a statue of himself as Gui Xu Nascent Soul, riding a tiger and holding a sword, an eight-armed demon god, the Revered Heavenly Demon Statue.
This Revered Heavenly Demon is Li Fan's anchor point coordinate in the Taiji World. No matter where Moon Worship goes in the Void Abyss Tai Su Realm, as long as he remembers this Revered Heavenly Demon's coordinates, he can return.
Alright, the False Moon hangs high in the sky! I bow in reverence!
A gust of black wind swept by, and Li Fan opened his eyes and stood up.
This is an isolated island in a vast ocean—no, not an ocean, but a mountain peak, its base submerged by the floodwaters.
Li used his Divine Sense to scan the surrounding terrain and was able to detect the forests and vegetation beneath the water's surface. It must have been a sudden flood that submerged the entire mountain range.
Li Fan's mood improved slightly.
Oh~~ malevolent energy! Malevolent energy and spiritual energy are rushing in together! So refreshing!
Li Fan could sense the malevolent energy nourishing his Nascent Soul Stage and the spiritual energy enriching his inner Inner Landscape in this Tai Su World. This cultivation progress was definitely much faster than sleeping for three years in the Taiji Realm. Indeed, Moon Worship is the true path of cultivation!
His mood rises roughly every five to six seconds. Before, he was only worried that his mood would drop too quickly, but now Li Fan complains that it doesn't rise fast enough.
So Li Fan multitasked, using the method of refining the primordial spirit from the "Blind Observation" to cultivate the Gui Xu Nascent Soul, while simultaneously breathing in spiritual energy to replenish his meridians and practicing the "Ghost Bone Hand" claw technique.
Now that his Dao heart is stable, his Gui Xu Nascent Soul can completely suppress those few Golden Core Dao Bodies, so he can also turn the strange strength of his body into his own. As soon as he started using the Ghost Bone Hand, a pure external skill, he could easily exert the advantage of its domineering power. Li Fan's five fingers swept across the mountain peak with the ghost claws, cutting and crushing it like tofu.
Moreover, it wasn't just about the techniques of channeling energy; the Mountain Lord had also Ghost Bone Hand some deadly moves specifically designed to attack the internal organs of enemy leaders, as well as grappling techniques that could break bones and dislocate tendons. With Li Fan's comprehension, he could learn these techniques after just one look, and he also mastered the secrets of channeling and generating internal energy after practicing them a few times. It was likely that after a few practical demonstrations and killing a few more people, he could basically master the Ghost Bone Hand technique.
Excellent, excellent! With this method, you can tear people apart even without a sword. Use a sword to stab from a distance, tear them apart with your hands up close, and unleash a wave when you're neither too far nor too close, covering the entire area!
After about three hours of training, Li Fan became familiar with the basic routines of the Ghost Bone Hand. The remaining variations would require practice in actual combat to hone his skills.
Seeing that his mood was almost full, and since there was still time, Li Fan took to the air and circled around the Tai Su Realm twice, looking for any meat he could use to practice his skills and fill his stomach.
With a sweep of his Divine Sense, he discovered that the nearby spiritual veins were flowing unnaturally towards a nearby mountain, where there seemed to be man-made structures. He flew closer to observe and could tell from afar that the mountain was probably the ruins of an ancient sect. The vegetation on the mountain had been cleared away, and many temples and statues had been piled up to build them. The huge statues, which were two or three zhang tall, were still recognizable as human figures. Although their faces were blurred and corroded, making them difficult to identify, they must have been exquisitely carved and painted deities before. It was unknown how long they had been abandoned, as their spiritual energy had dissipated, and the glaze on their surfaces had oxidized, peeling off their faces as if their sebum had fallen off.
The entire mountain was filled with palaces and temples. Judging from the extent of the damage beneath the water, it must have been a flying celestial peak that fell and crushed the houses and manors below into dust. Later, the mountain was submerged by a flood, leaving only a few palaces and halls on the summit that were barely intact, while most of the others had collapsed.
Li Fan entered the ruins and explored in the direction indicated by the Si Nan, but it was just a wasteland with nothing of value. There were quite a few skeletons, though, probably belonging to the original inhabitants.
Although these skeletons appear to be human-sized, they have bulging horns on their skulls and an extra tail, making them seem like un-evolved monkeys. It's unclear what kind of demons or monsters they are, but the statues of gods covering the mountains outside are more similar to humans in the conventional sense.
Judging from their huddled together posture, Li Fan guessed that they were probably survivors of the flood outside. Although they survived, the land was submerged, and their entire clan was probably wiped out. They had no chance of survival, so they gathered in the hall and committed suicide.
Only in this grand hall where people gathered to commit suicide, the remaining half of a deity resembled the remains of these indigenous people. However, it had been cut in two, leaving only the half-body with a tail attached, the upper part smashed into several pieces, and the head was missing.
Could these demons have been wiped out by someone?
As Li Fan searched through the remains following the direction of the spoon handle, he clearly found a pointed cone resembling a vajra, blackish-red in color, likely a weapon of these indigenous people, stuck in the top of a child's skull.
'A fragment of cause and effect has been detected. Should we seize this fragment?'
First, tell me what this thing is used for.
'This fragment contains the immense karmic cause and effect of the extinction of our race; seizing this fragment can increase the host's destiny.'
Hey, system, what are you saying? How can this be called stealing? This is called "this treasure is destined for me"! Stealing my ass!
'Confirmed, causal struggle in progress.'
Li Fan suddenly became Divine Sense stirring. As he pulled the skull out of the spike, something seemed to have been disturbed. Although he couldn't see or touch it, he could sense, through his Gu Guan Method, that something was being awakened from the bones.
The system also started displaying notifications like "Li Fan's mood has dropped a little!"
It's not that it's invisible due to light refraction, and it doesn't seem to have any physical form... Is it in another dimension? And it's attached to these skeletons... Could these monkey-people also generate Chi Mei Wangliang?
Li Fan was momentarily at a loss. He hadn't learned any soul-binding spells yet. Although he'd learned something called Ghost Bone Hand, it turned people into ghosts, not a technique specifically for fighting ghosts. Before, he'd just casually tossed it away. Now, he had no means to control these things, only a clear sense that they seemed very dissatisfied with Li Fan. "You've all been wiped out, why don't you just lie quietly in the dust of history? Why are you causing all this trouble..."
The surrounding spiritual and malevolent energy began to fluctuate strangely, like ripples suddenly appearing on a once calm lake, gradually spreading out and stirring up towering waves!
Li Fan opened his crimson eye between his eyebrows and scanned the area... it didn't seem to be of much use...
He hesitated for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the child's skull, intending to take a hostage. Unfortunately, he didn't control his strength well and crushed it to dust with a single claw...
Oh ho! Li Fan broke out in a cold sweat. A sudden chill ran down his spine. In an instant, he vanished from the temple, and the mountain collapsed in that instant!
Smoke and dust filled the air, and the entire mountain peak began to collapse as if it were a landslide. Statues fell one after another, and sand and dust tumbled into the water, stirring up a murky mess.
But it wasn't over yet. It seemed that even more things had been awakened and were swarming towards Li Fan! Not only from the temple ruins on that mountain peak, but also from beneath the water! Although Li Fan couldn't see them with his naked eye, he could sense them with his blind eye! They were most likely the ghosts of those monkeys whose race had been wiped out!
'In the process of fighting for cause and effect. Please survive until the progress bar is complete.'
Holy crap! System, you've messed with the host again!
'Ding, the robbery is complete. The host is now destined to possess this treasure.'
Uh... okay then.
Since he was just here to cultivate anyway, and he'd found a treasure by chance, he'd already achieved his goal. Li Fan wasn't going to waste any more time on these wandering ghosts, so he decided to stop exploring here for today.
So he bid farewell to the monkey ghosts, Li Fan returned to the Tai Chi world, thus successfully concluding this ordinary journey.
Li Fan looked into his palm and sure enough, the sharp cone had followed him. However, it wasn't the original, but a replica made of clay from the Taiji Realm, in the same shape. It seemed that what was important was not the material of the fragment itself, but the 'cause and effect of the extermination of the clan' that the fragment carried as a carrier.
Maybe it will be useful in the future?
Li Fan didn't study it much and simply put the items away. This time, his mood was successfully boosted, and his cultivation level Gui Xu Nascent Soul cultivator also increased significantly, far surpassing what he had achieved by sitting in meditation in the Taiji World for a hundred days.
According to the "Gu Guan", the initial stage of the Nascent Soul Realm involves repeatedly refining the primordial spirit. Only when the primordial spirit becomes as pure and stable as the Dao body, allowing the soul to leave the body and manifest in broad daylight, can one proceed to practice Dharma forms and further Divine Transformation.
Generally, this initial stage should be completed within five hundred years before the second tribulation. However, there are many ways to pass the tribulation; the Immortal Palace has a plethora of methods to avoid being struck by lightning. Although, even with such a continuous Nascent Soul Stage, it's practically useless...
In short, compared to the more fate-dependent calamity of the previous tribulation, the lightning tribulation is somewhat better. Referring to Fairy Wangshu, the Tai Su Dao of Moshan only needs about two hundred years. Li Fan conservatively estimates his own situation: if he can Moon Worship like this every night, as long as he doesn't doze off or indulge in wine and women, ten years should be enough.
The problem now is that even if Li Fan truly remains unmoved, single-minded, and diligently cultivates, he cannot possibly Moon Worship every night.
The bottleneck currently restricting Li Fan's cultivation is the Moon, or more precisely, the phase of the False Moon.
Whether it's leaving Nascent Soul Stage to learn the Nascent Soul Technique on the moon or Moon Worship Abyss-Gazing to the Tai Su Realm to improve one's cultivation, one cannot avoid waiting for the False Moon to appear at night.
However, the False Moon doesn't appear every night. Sometimes it's the False Moon in the sky, sometimes it's two moons in a spectacular display, and sometimes there's only one Qingyue in the sky. It's different every ten days, which is related to the rotation of the orbit. Sometimes it gets obscured, and when you worship the False Moon then, it might not be enough to be teleported to the Tai Su Realm.
Li Fan hadn't really thought about this issue in detail before, but if he started praying every day, he would definitely face lonely nights without a moon to pray to. What could he do without a moon to pray to? cough cough cough!
However, this would only delay things by a few years, and there's an inevitable possibility of injuries from sword fights, exhaustion, and even three to five years of seclusion and drowsiness. But based on his estimation, Li Fan is still confident that he can stabilize his Gui Xu Nascent Soul within twenty years. Simultaneously cultivating the Limitless Nascent Soul Stage and other Dao bodies shouldn't be a problem; he could even prioritize cultivating another Dao body specifically to practice the <<North Star Taiyin Ice Wheel True Explanation>>, dissolving the Taiyin Sword Force within his body that interferes with his cultivation. This would further improve his efficiency.
After making a preliminary plan for his cultivation, Li Fan flew back to the cave to check on the massage treatments.
Well, actually, there's no need to even think about it. In just one night, Li Fan's cultivation has greatly improved. The two boys have only barely learned a few techniques of massaging meridians and acupressure, and they still can't memorize the meridian diagrams. But the four immortals can open their eyes now, after all, Li Fan gave them a lot of yang energy the night before last, cough cough cough!
In short, Li Fan had anticipated this and didn't have high expectations for Fei Lian and Xiao Yu; he just wanted them to help take care of them. So he borrowed a flying boat from the mountain lord from Hua Nu, and set off for Baiyue Mountain in Xun Kingdom with the four fairies and two children on board.
Of course, if he were to conjure four arms, each grabbing one person, and fly straight to Xun Kingdom to return them, that would be the fastest way. However, that would be too disrespectful to them. After all, they are Nascent Soul Stage level immortal corpses, and Luo Feng Cave Heaven is one of the top sects in Xun Kingdom. It's no joke that they've been able to withstand the power of the Thunder Department for so many years. For the sake of the stability and peace of Ink Bamboo Mountain, it's best for us mountain people to avoid getting too entangled with those mountain ghosts.
Therefore, Li Fan followed protocol this time, traveling as a disciple of the mountain lord and an envoy of Ink Bamboo Mountain, accompanied by his entourage, to revisit Luo Feng Cave Heaven.
At the speed of the flying boat, it would take about half a month to reach the Baiyue Mountain in Xun Kingdom. Before entering the country, the four flying immortals should be able to adapt to their new bodies and get up.
In short, the first month after waking up should focus on consolidating his cultivation level, while also quickly completing some tasks. After all, the main storyline in Moshan is clearly the most rewarding, so Li Fan should prioritize the sect tasks given by the sect leader to gain reputation. This will also help him get through the few days without moon worship. Please call Li Fan a master of time management.
Of course, at this point in time, there should be accurate news from the battle between the Three Great Sects in the Kun Country in the north. So we should focus on stabilizing our cultivation. It would be best if the situation wasn't too dire. If our army is defeated, Li Fan might have to personally rush north to save the day.
I wonder how many of this year's disciples from Ink Bamboo Mountain will survive the trials and tribulations on the battlefield amidst the chaos of the Three Great Sects' battle...