Year-End Bonus

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience: when you have a dream at night, it feels incredibly realistic and you remember it vividly, but once you wake up, you clearly remember having a dream, but you can't recall the details of the dream at all.

Li Fan is in this situation now. Of course, he remembers perfectly clearly the system's order for him to take down the Japanese Italian artillery. No one can deny the credit for this; it's time to talk about a raise. What Li Fan can't remember is the scenery he saw when he crossed the 'gate'.

The 'door,' or rather, the barrier that transcends space and the rules of physics, is the point from one point in the universe to another. Since it's not something you walk there on, something you fly there in a spaceship, and it doesn't seem like you fold the universe up and stick the two points together, Li Fan can only describe it as 'there's a door, just step through it and you'll arrive.'

Li Fan racked his brains for a long time but couldn't recall what he had seen at the time, and could only come up with a guess.

It's possible that when the Thousand-Faced Immortal's clone suddenly appeared and took him through the "gateway" via spatial teleportation, he also used a "Enlightenment Stage or higher" experience card for a split second. Combined with his comprehension, this allowed him to comprehend a certain Innate Great Dao that involved "crossing the gate."

However, when he returned to the Taiji World and fell to the Nascent Soul Realm, this kind of understanding concerning rules, essence, and touching upon the 'Dao' naturally became unattainable. Perhaps when he attains enlightenment, he will naturally remember this move?

Well, although he paid almost all of his cultivation as tuition, Li Fan truly comprehended a Dao this time. Could this be considered an incredible stroke of luck? This feeling... is almost like making a small profit, he's so happy! ^^

At this moment, Yuepo asked in alarm within her sea of consciousness, "Pharmacist, are you alright?! You've gone mad with demonic possession! What kind of demonic art is this? Why did your Nascent Soul Stage almost dissipate overnight? Isn't this a death sentence? Why would someone at the Nascent Soul Stage have to undergo such a tribulation?!"

"Oh, it's alright, it's alright, the problem isn't serious yet. You can wait in the sword case for a while."

Li Fan was still lost in thought, pondering the Great Dao, when the rabbit called out to him, bringing him back to his senses. Not only his mood and cultivation level, but even his health bar was almost empty.

Because Li Fan crossed the gate twice, both his Nascent Soul Stage and his physical body were greatly depleted, and his true essence was exhausted. He was indeed in a state of demonic possession. Just as Real Person Liang had warned him, his own flesh and blood were dismantled and absorbed by the Gui Xu Nascent Soul.

No wonder Yuepo was worried. Right now, Li Fan was just a skeleton, a piece of bone that a dog had gnawed on, a completely unrecognizable ghost. Luckily, Li Fan had hidden a lot of giant whale Devil Embryo meat in his previous hunting missions and hadn't finished eating it. He quickly took it all out and chewed it up, which finally helped his Gui Xu Nascent Soul recover.

Therefore, Li Fan directly burrowed underground and used the <<Jade Pure Jade Quality Flawless Escape>> to reshape the Thousand-Faced Immortal Dao Body.

That's right. This time, he invested all his savings to learn a skill that he could use in the future, but it wasn't like he gained nothing at all.

Besides his enlightenment-level cross-discipline skills, he also mastered the structure of the Thousand-Faced Immortal's Dao Body. Perhaps it was because he studied and analyzed it too deeply that he attracted attention from that side? But now these insights can be put to use.

The Qingcheng Mountain, "<Jade Pure Jade Quality Flawless Escape>," is the most advanced healing method. It can absorb the spiritual energy of the Return to Dust to heal itself. In a sense, it extracts organic matter from the earth's soil to repair the wounds of the Dao body.

However, the human body is complex and requires a wide variety of organic substances. It needs to be nourished slowly and carefully. If the injury is too severe or the Cultivation Method is too hasty and eager for quick results, too many impurities may be inhaled, and one may even petrify themselves.

However, the Dao body of the Thousand-Faced Immortal was composed of a single element of carbon. This allowed Li Fan to completely disregard the limitations of the Jade Purity Jade Essence, rapidly absorb the Return to Dust spiritual energy, and directly construct the Dao body of the Thousand-Faced Immortal. Thus, in just one day, he reshaped his true form and emerged from the earth!

Previously, Li Fan only used a carbon coating on his skin to protect against flying swords, but this time he used the Dao Body of the Thousand-Faced Immortal to directly form his dermis and most of his muscles. He really became a black man. Moreover, he was completely and utterly jet black, and his whole body looked like an upright shadow, with even the whites of his eyes gone.

It's alright. In game terms, you were down to zero mana and health, and there was a continuous debuff that kept taking damage. Now at least your HP isn't dropping anymore, and your defense should have increased. You could think of it as the lost health being converted into a shield or something.

'You have a really good attitude, even though it's only 0.05k left.'

Oh, system, you guys finished your work over there? Oh right, the lucky draw, you should give out a year-end bonus this time!

"Don't worry, thanks to you, this time we not only got the mine, the fortress, and a whole bunch of equipment, but even the Thousand-Faced Immortal's research records have been updated. The best is yet to come!"

'Prize being delivered'

Li Fan could keenly sense that the prize being teleported wasn't simply summoned from the void. It was likely composed of particles that were first projected from the other end of the 'gate' and then synthesized, with the matter of the Taiji World also being used in the synthesis. However, the process was extremely fast, so fast that even Nascent Soul Stage cultivator couldn't directly observe it, but Li Fan had already 'comprehended' it.

Indeed, it seems that the technological civilization on the other side of the system also achieved the leap across that door through equipment.

However, considering that he once drew a prototype 'flying sword' from the system, which also had spatial teleportation effects, could it be based on the same principle, with the 'flying sword' directly crossing the 'door'?

Moreover, that flying sword also seemed to be powered by Yuqing Zhenyuan. In this light, the Cultivation Method of Qingcheng Mountain are surprisingly compatible with the Daoist body of the Thousand-Faced Immortal! No wonder it attracted a master who had attained enlightenment to go into seclusion to study it, and even died mysteriously underground...

In the blink of an eye, a shimmering silver cricket cage appeared before Li Fan, instantly attracting his attention.

"Huh? Could this be that...?"

When Li Fan saw the net-like spherical shape and the blue fireball resembling a ghost fire bound inside the cage, he was completely shocked.

The plasma reactor model has been delivered.

"No, aren't you prohibited from handling military supplies?"

'It's not that I can't, it's just that I don't know how.'

'Retrieving information from the database requires the appropriate permissions, but this time we obtained the physical device and the Legion's complete design blueprints, so we can copy and replicate them, rewarding you directly as 'batteries.'

"Didn't you get your hands on a Gauss launcher last time? I even designed the interface for you. All you need to assemble is a portable, man-portable ion cannon."

'Unlimited ammo and unlimited recharge. High power can shoot down warships, low power is for charging. Have some fun with it.'

Holy crap! Is this what it means to be transported to another world and start with a plasma cannon?! That's awesome! That's incredible!

Li Fan was extremely excited, his mood lifting considerably. He quickly rummaged through the spare parts he had collected and assembled the portable plasma cannon. What boy wouldn't want his own plasma cannon? What, you want a flying sword more? But Li Fan already had plenty of flying swords.

In short, that weapon, originally a railgun sniper rifle designed to fire electromagnetically accelerated projectiles, was given an additional device by the system: a portable plasma reactor. With some parameter adjustments, it could now fire plasma projectiles. The entire setup resembled a rifle from a science fiction game, with blue arcs of electricity flickering between the acceleration rails, subtly ionizing into a blue hue.

Damn it! Go ahead and fire a shot and see how powerful he is!

Li Fan aimed at the distant islands and reefs, adjusted the firing rate, and test-fired a shot.

Based on his previous experience watching movies and playing games, he imagined it would be a blue laser beam shooting out. But it wasn't like that at all; there was no sound at all, and the magnetic track only flickered slightly, with a brightness comparable to a high-powered flashlight. It was far from the starlight that had hit him head-on from a celestial body, so it seemed to be a portable, miniature device after all.

Li Fan first scanned the target with his blindness's Divine Sense, then flew over to check the point of impact.

He adjusted the damage power to the lowest setting and aimed directly at the reef. Without a doubt, all the reefs in the path of the projectile were swept away, leaving a clean cut, like butter cut by a hot knife, melting as if it were lava.

There's no need for any power tests then. Orbital cannons can hit satellites, meteorites, and starships, as long as you aim accurately. Not to mention Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, from a purely destructive standpoint, they can even destroy the bodies of Divine Transformation and Enlightenment cultivators.

Li Fan fired a few more shots to test the trajectory. First, the advantages: plasma bullets have maximum thermal energy damage. On a single straight path, they are probably faster and more lethal than top-tier flying swords. They are likely unavoidable and unblockable.

As for the drawbacks, it can only fire in a straight line, and if the distance is too far, it may be affected by the Earth's magnetic field and deflect. However, considering the rate of fire, the error beyond visual range, or even beyond the range of Divine Sense detection, is not really a concern.

However, when aiming at a cultivator or locking onto them with Divine Sense, it will definitely alert the other party. If the other party immediately uses a teleportation technique to dodge before pulling the trigger, they might be able to evade. Of course, if they defend on the spot or hesitate even for a moment, they will probably be killed in an instant.

Moreover, because the trajectory is so obvious, this kind of equipment is unnecessary for easily defeating weaker opponents. When fighting against equally matched opponents, you must make an emergency maneuver and change locations after firing a shot, otherwise you may be countered by the flying sword.

Furthermore, all the experts in Penglai have the ability to instantly activate the lotus-shaped protective aura. Except for Zhou Chengxue, who is terrible at it, they can activate it to ten or twenty layers. Now, Li Fan is not sure how effective the plasma cannon will be against this protective aura, so it's better to be conservative (and sneaky) in terms of tactics.

Li Fan roughly figured out the gun's trajectory and rate of fire, and came up with a preliminary tactical plan.

Since he's currently severely weakened and has to fight the Penglai Daoist these next few days, his combat strength definitely won't recover quickly. So, using ranged weapons for support shouldn't be considered cheating, right?

This time, Li Fan decided that if he was going to pretend, he would pretend to be an apostle of the legion and a spy of the cult, and go all the way. He would take advantage of the fact that the range of Divine Sense of the Gu Guan Method exceeded that of ordinary cultivators, and directly snipe Xu Chengyang from a super long distance with a plasma cannon.

Considering that the other party is, after all, the chief Daoist of the Nine Great Xuan Sects, or some kind of reincarnation of a Mystic Sect, and judging from Zhou Chengxue's entourage, he must be surrounded by countless experts when he travels, so he won't be so easily assassinated.

But Li Fan's target wasn't actually Xu Chengyang.

Li Fan originally went to Penglai to avenge the massacre of the Huan family. Fine, Penglai is awesome, and the Manifestation Real Person is powerful; he is indeed no match for them, but he has no intention of letting those who wiped out the family go.

Regardless of who was responsible for the fatal blow, those Golden Core are now dead, and Liu Chengyang of the Taizhen Palace has already been forced to kneel after being hit with a brick. Only two Nascent Soul Stage of the Cheng generation remain from Zhenzhen Palace and Tianzhen Palace. And since they are Xu Chengyang's henchmen, they will undoubtedly be protecting him.

Originally, the assassination attempt on Penglai would have been detected. But fortunately, the artifact given by the Manifestation Dao Lord was set up with a magic spell to conceal the secrets of heaven, allowing Li Fan to probe the inner chambers of the mountain gate!

This way, they can carry out a straightforward assassination, and no one can figure out his background!

Therefore, Li Fan planned to seize this golden opportunity, ostensibly to ambush Xu Chengyang, the Daoist Master of Penglai, but actually to use the chance to assassinate Zhenzhen and the two naive targets, creating chaos before quickly retreating. He figured Penglai would assume the assassins were after Xu Chengyang, and these two were just mistaken accomplices.

Without further ado, Li Fan called out Yue Po, only to be mocked again. "Hey, why are you so dark, like a ghost! You must have gone mad with your cultivation! Your skin is all charred, it looks awful!" Then, he and Yue Po practiced a few guerrilla tactics of exchanging blows and then escaping with Sword Light. After all, his magic power was almost exhausted, and he couldn't use his escape light much longer, saving it for crucial moments to save his life. But his primordial spirit could still hold on, so he relied on Yue Po's positioning.

Once Li Fan had mastered sniping while in motion with his flying sword, achieving a 100% hit rate against static targets, he felt invincible again. So he set off to ambush in the waters near Yingzhou.

As Manifestation Dao Lord was indeed a master of enlightenment, and his timing was very accurate. He said he had accurately predicted Xu Chengyang's itinerary, and the other party indeed came out of the mountain on time. Moreover, he was indeed very grand, traveling in a large treasure ship pulled by four dragons, with flying dragons and phoenixes all around, and a large group of protectors following him.

Li Fan used his Gu Guan Method to take a look from afar and was somewhat astonished.

Not counting the guardians of the Spirit Race surrounding them, there were at least a dozen experts at the Nascent Soul Realm on this treasure ship! That's not all, there were even two Divine Transformation Lords at the Divine Transformation stage!

Wait a minute? Why are there still so many people in Yingzhou? Weren't all the Divine Lords supposed to be repairing factories in Penglai? Shouldn't the rest be guarding their mountain gates? Don't they cultivate themselves anymore, and instead have to escort a junior the whole way? Don't they need to cultivate themselves? And why are they making such a big fuss over travel between their own mountain gates, like they're going to Jiangnan? Isn't that a bit too cautious?

Although things have changed a bit, the situation isn't dire. After all, Li Fan is now known as a man who's taken a direct hit from an orbital cannon, so this is nothing new!

In any case, there are only two targets to be eliminated. The enemy will definitely not be able to defend against the first shot. At worst, we can kill one of them first, then immediately escape underground, and deal with the other one when there is another opportunity.

Moreover, there were at least twelve Nascent Inner Sect Nascent Soul Stage on the ship, and Li Fan dared not immediately lock onto them lest he alert the opposing experts. He could only sense their approximate location with his Divine Sense. He had never encountered them before and could not discern their presence with his Divine Sense. Now, he could only roughly identify the people who had previously wiped out the Huan family by comparing their body types with the drone footage.

One of the two men was of average build, and Li Fan could recognize him if he saw him in person, but he was too far away to be easily identified. The other man, however, was tall and had a more distinctive physique, and immediately became Li Fan's first target.

Considering that there was a divine being guarding the ship, Li Fan simply turned the plasma cannon to its highest setting, aimed it at the direction of the treasure ship, and pulled the trigger the instant he locked onto the target.

A blinding blue light flashed across the magnetic track, as if a burst of flame had suddenly erupted. Then, the target signal perceived by Li Fan's Divine Sense disappeared. Faint explosion sounds could still be heard from afar, along with what appeared to be fireballs. Theoretically, a plasma cluster shouldn't cause a large explosion; it was probably just some explosive material on the ship. But it was too far away for Li Fan to be entirely sure.

Li Fan's mood improved slightly.

Overall... it seems to be going pretty smoothly?

Following the rehearsed procedure, Li Fan fired a shot, immediately wrapped it in the light of his Moon Soul Sword Light, and nimbly changed positions.

He originally planned to run away immediately, but after scanning with his Divine Sense, Li Fan was stunned.

The dragon boat appears to have exploded. It's unclear what the plasma cannon hit and detonated it, but it's clearly on fire. Despite the attack, not only did no one chase the assassins, but the cultivators from Penglai started fighting amongst themselves!

Although the distance was far and the scene was chaotic and uncertain, it seemed to be two Divine Transformation cultivators, accompanied by their outer protectors, attacking a dozen Nascent Soul Stage cultivators near the dragon boat in the middle.

Oh right, there aren't any left, only eleven... oh, ten... nine, eight, seven...

Wait, wait, what's going on? Is there another group also preparing to make a move? Are they trying to alert him and lure him out so they can attack directly?

Li Fan was taken aback at first, but then he immediately realized what was happening and took out the four God Lord Jade from his hand to examine them. He saw that the four jade pieces were flashing with blood-red light, shining directly towards the direction of the treasure ship!

It's definitely related to the cult! But was it the cult that launched the attack, or was the cult itself attacked?

Li Fan was conflicted. He wasn't entirely clear on the situation, but he realized that if he didn't hurry up and throw a brick, he might miss the chance to complete the sect leader's task.

Never mind, just go in and see what happens! With a cannon in hand, I'm invincible! Let's blast that bastard to pieces!