At Hand

Li Fan didn't have to wait long. After he finished drinking the evil energy in the Jade Pure Bottle and consuming the ink thread he carried with him, Lin Xiang's problems became apparent.

In fact, the matter is quite obvious. The Taiji Realm itself does not contain any evil energy. 'Non-Thing' cannot survive for long without altering the creation of heaven and earth. The same principle applies to 'non-humans'; they are simply not suitable to exist in this realm for long.

Although Lin Xiang was thoroughly transformed by this elixir, when there was a sufficient supply of malevolent energy, she was just an ordinary little girl, with an extraordinary physique. However, this was also the problem. Just like breathing, her body now required a large amount of malevolent energy to function 'normally,' but she herself did not have the organs or abilities to produce malevolent energy from the spiritual energy of the Taiji Realm. Therefore, she could not, like 'Non-Thing' and ordinary malevolent corpses, modify nature to suit her survival environment.

In fact, Li Fan's Gui Xu Nascent Soul is similar, requiring a large amount of baleful energy to maintain it. If it is insufficient, it may even spontaneously disintegrate its Dao body. However, Lin Xiang's situation is even more thorough, and she does not seem to have the self-decomposition and transformation of spiritual energy like the Gui Xu Nascent Soul.

Therefore, when her malevolent energy was exhausted, she didn't lose control like a madwoman. Instead, she gradually began to lose her functions. She first became dazed and confused, then nodded and dozed off, and later entered a state of shock and unconsciousness. She used only a little remaining malevolent energy to maintain her core organs. Her nails and hair crumbled like dust. Perhaps when this last breath of malevolent energy was exhausted, she would turn to ashes?

Lin Chen was extremely anxious. "Master! Lin Xiang, how is she? Please save her!"

Seeing that this sister-obsessed guy was about to kowtow again, Li Fan quickly wrapped him up with his sleeve, "Calm down, it's alright. There's plenty of malevolent energy these days, but she's consuming quite a lot. I've been storing this bottle for three years, and I've collected quite a bit of malevolent energy..."

Even disregarding the corpse soldiers and corpse kings, there was still a considerable amount of malevolent energy from the remains and scraps of lamb cubs. He had even helped eradicate the demonic coral in the South China Sea, yet Lin Xiang had consumed such a large amount in just two days.

If a newly refined corpse pill forges a non-human demonic weapon that requires such a large amount of malevolent energy to exert its combat power, then in terms of weaponry, the maintenance cost is too enormous, and it is indeed not very cost-effective or useful. Unless in special circumstances, it can only be used as a surprise weapon, like an assassin or death squad, to catch the enemy off guard and be used as a consumable.

Li Fan glanced at the sky and saw that it was getting dark. There was False Moon today, so he said, "I'll take her to collect evil spirits. To avoid affecting mortals, we'll stay far away. It'll just be on the nearby mountain. We'll come back at dawn. You stay on the boat and be careful."

So Li Fan picked up Lin Xiang along with the orange basket, flew away from the waterway, found a feng shui cave on a mountaintop, set up his Gui Xu Nascent Soul, and arranged the Revered Heavenly Demon Array.

Although Lin Xiang currently possesses Golden Core level demonic body, she hasn't cultivated her primordial spirit. Unless she has the comprehension of Li Fan, it's unlikely she'll be able to cultivate in the Void Abyss through Moon Worship on her own in the short term. However, it's not a major problem. Every time a cultivator Moon Worship, it attracts malevolent energy, which, if leaked out, can cause other creatures to mutate. Lin Xiang can simply bask in some of that energy. As long as she doesn't resort to extreme violence like before, it should be enough for her to maintain her life. She can have someone guide her in the early stages, and once her primordial spirit is refined, she can cultivate through Moon Worship on her own without any issues.

So Li Fan placed the orange basket and Lin Xiang beside him, and also placed several Jade Pure Bottle nearby to collect evil spirits. He then sat down on the futon, looked up at the moon, and entered the abyss.

This time, the Void Abyss world seems to be biased towards the Return to Dust faction, with yellow earth and sand everywhere, a desolate wilderness.

Li Fan's current mood is 0.3k/5.9k. With the great battle imminent in the next two days, it's best to replenish his True Essence and mood in case any unruly demons jump out and cause trouble.

So after arriving in the Tai Su Realm, Li Fan wasn't in a hurry to explore Fourth Department. Instead, he first cultivated the Returning to Gui Xu Nascent Soul. This time, his mood jumped about every seven or eight seconds. After cultivating for about three or four hours, his mood rose to 3.6k/5.9k. Li Fan estimated that he had probably finished cultivating for the night, so he got up and released his Divine Sense to take a look at the illusion.

There was nothing Fourth Department, just an endless wasteland, but fortunately, his blind Divine Sense had a wide range, and after searching for a while, Li Fan confirmed that he had arrived in another world that had been destroyed.

Beneath this layer of loess lies a buried and destroyed city. Li Fan scanned it with his Divine Sense and discovered that the structures of those buildings did not suffer any destructive damage, suggesting that they must have perished for some reason before being gradually buried by the wind and sand. Moreover, this group also consisted of some kind of humanoid skeleton, but it seemed to have extra organs such as wings.

Li Fan burrowed underground into the rock strata to search. With the enhancement of his Mind Observation Technique, he clearly sensed a signal he had previously encountered. It was a feather wrapped in the dust and dirt of the rock strata, seemingly made of iron. After wiping away the dust and dirt, the veins and textures of the feather were clearly visible.

'A fragment of cause and effect has been detected. Should we seize this fragment?'

Having encountered these fragments of cause and effect time and time again, Li Fan guessed that this was definitely not a coincidence. Perhaps it was the system, or perhaps it was Ink Bamboo Mountain, or perhaps it was the Thousand-Faced Immortal. In any case, there must be some reason guiding him to go to a specific Tai Su World every time he Moon Worship to collect these fragments of cause and effect that led to the extermination of his race.

I wonder what kind of disastrous plot will be triggered once all these fragments are collected...

Li Fan shook his head, grabbed the iron feather, and emerged from the ground before confirming that he had stolen the fragment.

Just as he expected, as soon as the robbery was confirmed, the earth began to shake violently, with massive earthquakes and rifts appearing, as if the entire planet had come to life in anger, with the Earth's crust and mantle trembling and shaking.

Li Fan dodged and weaved among the crumbling rocks and shattered mantle, intending to hold out for a few minutes until he successfully stole the system's loot, then immediately return to the Taiji Realm. He was getting increasingly adept at this "grab and run" routine, hehe...

Suddenly, Li Fan had a thought and abruptly turned his head to look behind him. He saw four beams of light suddenly shooting out from the distant horizon, from the boiling and cracking earth. If he wasn't mistaken, they were clearly the Sword Light of cultivators! Moreover, these four Sword Light seemed to be unaware of each other. Startled by the sudden collapse of the heavens and earth, they detected each other as soon as they ascended into the sky and actually started fighting! The dazzling light and lightning clashed in the sky!

'Ding, the robbery is complete. The host is now destined to possess this treasure.'

Wait, wait, wait! What's going on? Let's go check it out!

The Tai Su Void Abyss is usually deserted, so encountering so many people here is definitely suspicious. Could it be another sword furnace to be found?

Li Fan quickly donned the Gui Xu Dao Yi, harnessed the Moon Soul, and with Sword Light swirling around him, he concealed himself within the boiling, collapsing rock strata, stealthily making his way towards the distant Sword Light.

Li Fan scouted from a distance and saw that the four Sword Light were locked in a fierce battle. Whether these four Sword Light —red, blue, yellow, and green—were even rank-one was unknown, but they were at least Nascent Soul Stage level divine weapons. Judging from the four cultivators' perfect harmony with their swords, their Sword Light intertwining and clashing in the air, seemingly locked in a stalemate, their strengths were probably roughly equal. In other words, there shouldn't be any powerful old monsters at the Divine Transformation level, nor any Golden Core or worthless Nascent Soul Stage level cultivators just there to make up the numbers; they were all legitimate Nascent Soul Stage True Cultivator from the Xuanmen sect. However, Li Fan couldn't recognize the sword techniques they were using...

'The Moon Soul indicates that the Crimson Sword belongs to the Demonic Sect, the Blue Sword to Penglai, the Yellow Sword to Songshan, and the Green Sword to Hengshan.'

Hey rabbit, you finally spoke! Wait, why does the system need to respond for you?

'Moon Soul said, "Enough with the nonsense, let's kill that demonic cult member first.'"

Li Fan was sweating bullets. Even the swords of the Beichen Sword Sect are so clearly defined in their likes and dislikes... Fine, let's fight the Demonic Sect then...

As a result Li Fan sneaked towards the dueling battlefield for a while longer, but the rabbit was still not satisfied.

'Moon Soul says, what are you doing? What are you dawdling for! Charge in on your sword and get them!'

Li Fan's brows twitched wildly. He knew what Yue Po was expecting: a super cool and stylish fighting style where the sword rainbow appeared, the man and sword became one, Sword Light fell, delivering a decapitation strike. Too bad he didn't know that move yet...

Sigh, after all, those flashy moves clearly involved a comprehensive application of sword control techniques, sword energy and sword arts, protective divine skills, enemy-detecting Divine Sense, spiritual light and divine light, sword heart and sword intent, and escape techniques. It was equivalent to a graduation exam level, the most top-level and superior ultimate move. Naturally, the Profound Heaven Sword Intent had never taught him anything so complex, so he just let Li Fan Ruyi Sword Scripture first.

So even though the rabbit responded with a 'heh heh,' Li Fan could only swallow his pride and stealthily approach the battlefield, waiting for an opportunity to secretly unleash a flying sword or use the Taiyin Sword Art to ambush someone.

However, Li Fan was quite lucky. After all, all four cultivators were top-tier Nascent Soul Stage experts who had achieved perfect harmony between man and sword. Before Li Fan could even arrive at the scene from afar, the four of them had already exchanged thirty to fifty sword strikes, and the results of this round of the semi-finals were almost ready.

It must be said that the Divine Sect is indeed quite powerful. The Crimson Sword's Sword Light was the first to win, first cutting the Yellow Sword's sword Sword Light of the Songshan team in half, seemingly severely injuring the Songshan cultivators. The Crimson Sword also transformed into a surging sea of blood, revealing a Dharma body like a demon god, ready to press its advantage and pounce down to finish off the enemy.

Penglai and Hengshan fought for a while, and Penglai had a slight advantage. However, upon seeing this, Penglai quickly separated itself and transformed into a wisp of ice, sweeping out and cutting off the Divine Sect's killing move. Meanwhile, two people from Hengshan and Songshan seized the opportunity to flank from the side and quickly killed the Divine Sect's Dharma Image in a three-on-one attack.

Seeing that they were being attacked by three people, the cultist didn't hesitate. He turned and ran, enduring dozens of wild sword strikes. Finally, in a desperate move, he abandoned his sword and sacrificed himself, leaping out of the Blood River Sword Light as a blood-red figure, disappearing without a trace as if he had activated a speed boost! Ah, the Blood Shadow God Travel Great Technique... just seeing Li Fan from afar makes my skin itch...

Penglai immediately focused its fire on the Dharma body and Dao body abandoned by the Divine Sect cultivator, finishing him off with a blow that turned him into bloody foam. Unexpectedly, the two from Songshan and Hengshan took advantage of the situation and turned their attacks on him, launching a simultaneous assault that killed the unsuspecting Penglai cultivator!

Then, the two Sword Light, one yellow and one green, showed no mercy and, without exchanging any pleasantries, immediately engaged in a decisive battle.

The Hengshan cultivator seemed to think that the Songshan cultivator had been severely injured, giving them the advantage. But who would have thought that the Songshan cultivator was actually a bluffer, revealing his true colors after just a couple of sword strikes. It turned out that he hadn't actually been seriously injured by the Divine Sect; he had only pretended to be weak because he knew the opponent was from the Divine Sect. As a result, he ended up severely injuring one of the stronger Divine Sect cultivators and killing the stronger Penglai cultivator!

Hengshan was the weakest of the four, and he thought he was sure to win. He was caught off guard and underestimated his opponent. He only realized something was wrong after exchanging a few sword strikes with Songshan. As a result, Songshan suddenly unleashed his power and chased after him, killing him on the spot!

But it wasn't over yet. The cult members used Blood Shadow Godly Movement to escape, but they actually circled back!

While the cultivators from Mount Song were laughing wildly as they defeated three powerful enemies, he finished off the corpses of the cultivators from Penglai and Hengshan, chopping their bodies into minced meat. At that moment, the Blood Shadow pounced on them again, rushing straight into the mouth and nose of the Mount Song cultivator to seize his body! For a moment, the Mount Song cultivator's body froze in mid-air, his face contorted in a grotesque expression.

"Wow, is this the typical level of combat in the Central Plains...?"

Li Fan hid far beyond the range of the four people's Divine Sense before sneaking over. The four cultivators were almost wiped out, so he could only spit at them from afar.

The moon's essence transformed into a streak of silver light, arriving in the blink of an eye. Like a white ribbon, it circled the cultivator from Mount Song, spinning seventy or eighty times like a storm. The Sword Light shredded the man to pieces; let alone escaping by skinning him alive, there probably wouldn't even be a trace of bone left...

Wait, why wasn't there a mood alert? Could it be that those two are still alive?

'The system has determined that the Ten Absolutes God Sect's protector was killed by Sword Pill Moon Soul.'

The system has determined that the thirteen elders of Mount Song were killed by Yue Po.

'The Moon Spirit has not formally submitted to the host; therefore, no reward points will be awarded to the host.'

"Hiss—the points don't even count for the people my sword kills! What kind of logic is that?!" Li Fan roared. "Hey rabbit! You're such a huge lump of energy and mental strain sitting in my head, what more do you want in return for submission?!"

"Moon Soul says, 'Only if you can defeat four Nascent Soul Stage cultivators single-handedly without my help, proving yourself to be the true successor of the Beichen Sword Sect, will you be worthy of my submission.'"

"Hey, that's it!? You said you wouldn't go back on your word!"

Okay then, I'll accept the task since it's relatively simple.

In short, these four powerful sword cultivators from the Divine Sect and the Profound Gate, though somehow they had taken up residence in the Void Abyss Tai Su Realm, were startled and bumped into each other, resulting in a fierce battle that left blood and flesh flying everywhere. All of them fell into the deep abyss below, leaving no trace of their bodies.

Li Fan probed further and found that the earthquake below was intensifying and showed no signs of stopping. The equipment of the four people had also been swept into the earth's crust by quicksand and gravel and was difficult to find. So he didn't bother to linger there any longer and returned to the human world.

When Li Fan opened his eyes, he found that Lin Xiang had climbed out of the orange basket and was dozing off with her head on his knees, drooling all over his hand. However, her breathing had returned to normal, and the Jade Pure Bottle next to her were full. If they fought against different people, this amount should be enough to support them to Ink Bamboo Mountain.

So Li Fan grabbed Lin Xiang by the collar and threw her into the basket, then packed up and flew back to find Lin Chen. But as soon as he reached the river, a sudden thought struck him, and he felt a sense of unease.

Someone else is using their Divine Sense to probe him.

Here we go again? Is the fighting in the Xun Kingdom starting up again?

Li Fan dared not be careless. Even the Tai Su Realm had four True Cultivator cultivators fighting with swords. At this crucial moment and location, anything could happen on the way. Without hesitation, he unfolded his Blind Observation and went back to scout. At the same time, he held the Moon Soul in his mouth, prepared to kill with a sword no matter what.

What Li Fan saw next almost shocked him. Everywhere he looked—in all directions, from east to west and north to south, along both banks of the Li River, above and below—there were the auras of Nascent Soul Stage and Golden Core Stage cultivators! "Wow, how come so many people have appeared around this mountain overnight?!"

This made him instinctively swallow, almost choking on the sword pellet!

Fortunately, these people weren't targeting him, but rather a large ship anchored on the river. There were probably four or five Nascent Soul Stage cultivators on board, and many other cultivators were on guard outside the ship.

A person nearby on the riverbank noticed Li Fan suddenly dispelling the magic array and flying into the sky. He immediately kept a watchful eye on him from a distance. However, he saw that it was an old beggar carrying a basket of oranges, and his aura was unremarkable. He seemed to be a rogue cultivator who had come to join in the fun, so he did not immediately make a move.

Li Fan also noticed that although many cultivators had gathered around, they belonged to different factions and their strengths varied greatly. Most of them were rogue cultivators or Fake Nascent Soul from the Immortal Palace, and none of them possessed the imposing aura of a Sword Immortal from the Tai Su Realm. They were probably all rogue cultivators from the surrounding area, and it was unknown how many were there to complete a mission or how many were simply there to join in the fun.

Before Li Fan could use his Divine Sense to scan and lock onto the surrounding targets one by one, more than a dozen figures emerged from the top of the large ship's platform in the middle of the river.

Besides the many Nascent Soul Stage cultivators guarding them, the leader was a scholar, followed by a maid.

"Thank you all for accepting the invitation. I, Yang Fu, have a great opportunity to share with you all!"