The Original Use

'What did you say!'

Yeah, I never expected to encounter ascension...

'The bell actually works!'

'Find where he was sent! Fragments! Fragments of the tracking disc!'

... By the way, I'm badly injured... Hey! System! System? Sigh...

"Oh, you've encountered the Azure Dragon Immortal Lord? With your affinity for immortality, Pharmacist, it was bound to happen sooner or later... I heard from the Sun Essence Sword that he's one of the more open-minded people in that group; at least you can communicate with him."

"Wow! That's what you call being able to communicate? What does it mean to not be able to communicate?!"

To avoid leaving any hidden dangers, Li Fan took the Bone-Growing Pill to allow his arms to slowly heal. He then used the light of the Moon Soul Sword Light to fly away, braving the wind and snow to fly up Yin Mountain. He found a cave in the snow-covered mountains and only after sneaking inside could he finally breathe a sigh of relief and lick his wounds like a wounded beast.

The moon spirit circled back to Li Fan's divine court to guard it, and transmitted its message.

"The three elders of Emei, Cangbi, Cangsong, and Canglong are of very high seniority. Their grudges are all from the original sect of Nine Yin Mountain. They fought fiercely against our Sword Ancestor Xuantian lineage, mainly the four ancestors of Emei."

Among the four ancestors, Cangbai is said to have killed all of Sword Ancestor Xuantian's fellow disciples. He was later hunted down by the Sword Ancestor and reincarnated twice. He has the worst relationship with our lineage.

Immortal Lord Cangwu also lost a sword duel to the Sword Ancestor, and it was he who went to challenge the Sword Ancestor and discovered his disappearance.

It is said that after his disciples were all killed by his senior brother Huangfu, Dao Lord Cangming only spoke with his Dao Companion, Sword Lord Xuan Ying. He has been guarding Yuntai Peak all these years.

Originally, there was no direct enmity between Cangyun and him; they even fought against the Divine Cult together. However, because Sword Ancestor wanted to kidnap his daughter and give her to Senior Brother Chen as a child bride, they became enemies.

Furthermore, the strongest person at the Golden Summit below the Three Elders and Four Ancestors of Emei, the Tianjue Dao Lord sect leader, is said to have undergone a drastic personality change after witnessing his senior brothers die at the hands of Brother Yan when he was young. He became taciturn and only leaves when he goes down the mountain to slay demons and monsters, without uttering a single word. You, Pharmacist, must also be careful."

"... So, our Beichen Sword Sect and Emei are sworn enemies?"

"It can't be calculated like that. When the Xuanmen method reaches a bottleneck and wants to break through, the best way is to fight against peers of similar strength to overcome the tribulation. However, Emei forbids fighting among its own sects. Among the Nine Great Xuan Sects, only my Sword Sect is on par with them, and there are also those willing to fight. So our two sects often spar with each other. Naturally, we always agree to fair one-on-one duels, stopping when the point is reached. But when you reach that level, it's inevitable that you can't stop and someone will die."

However, logically speaking, the elders of Emei wouldn't lay a hand on the younger generation of the Sword Sect, would they? After all, they want to reserve the opportunity for sword dueling for their disciples...

Oh, so I was actually a disciple of Emei specifically chosen by them to break through their bottlenecks! Damn it! Fine! Since killing Emei members is a fine tradition of the Beichen Sword Sect, then Li Fan will no longer be polite to them!

This time, Li Fan was truly furious, his losses were devastating!

The crowd control artifact, the dog-shaped flying disc, was destroyed; the Gui Xu Dao Yi was damaged; the moment the bell was activated, it almost completely dismantled his Gui Xu Nascent Soul; and all three flowers on his head withered away. Now he's as thin as a dried-up corpse.

The Blood Infant lay listlessly in the arms of the Gui Xu Nascent Soul, seemingly still unable to control the 'Non-Thing' demon god.

The Tai Su Dao Body suffered truly heavy losses this time. Apart from the three fish, almost all the Dao Bodies who came out to help fight were severely injured. Not to mention that two more died later! Otherwise, they might have really taken the opportunity to riot!

The death of the Fuli Demon Wolf wasn't a big deal; what was more damaging was the loss of Gonggong's primordial spirit, which significantly reduced his physical attributes!

What shocked Li Fan even more was that when he tried to reforge Gonggong Dao Body, the system prompted that it required consuming 200 points of his mood cap! He was being treated the same way as those ferocious beasts like Qiongqi and Guiche!

However, when Li Fan was creating the North Mountain God Dao Body, he visualized the initial Dao body of a human-faced snake. In other words, he might only be able to evolve the Northern Mountain God back into Gonggong if he climbed into the Gonggong Temple in Lei Marsh again!

All the Jiuli Dance practiced and the Gonggong eggs consumed were wasted!

Ugh, that old Azure Dragon! What a huge loss! What kind of move did he use?! How did he manage to hit Gonggong with just one strike?!

I swear I will not rest until I avenge this! From this moment on, Emei is our enemy!

However, he could only boast in his heart. Now that the evil energy was exhausted, it was not the time to repair the Tai Su Dao Body. Li Fan had no choice but to endure it for the time being and let them hold on for the time being.

Besides the internal and external injuries to his body, his magical artifacts and equipment were also severely corroded by the evil energy. The brick was alright, being a Divine Transformation level artifact, but it looked a bit dirty. The Thunder Seal had also been punched by Yang Ying, cracking and breaking its thunder spell, so it was no longer effective. The Huan family's steel spear was reduced to just a spearhead, and Li Fan searched for quite a while before finally pulling it out.

As for the flying swords 'Golden Dragon', 'White Star', and 'Frost Stone', they are all tainted by evil energy and cannot be used without being repaired in the sword furnace. They can only be kept in the sword box.

And Curly-haired Coyote was probably scared away too; I can't find him anywhere within my Divine Sense. Oh dear, what a tragedy...

Then Li Fan looked at the large gourd beside him.

This was his only harvest this time: a gourd filled with Qiankun Sha Qi.

However, the gourd could not be stored in the Storage Jade, and its mouth was sealed with a talisman, so Li Fan did not dare to open it for the time being.

After all, the true form of the demon god 'Antelope' or 'Yang Ying' is inside. Although there is no flesh and blood around to act as a puppet for it to manipulate, it may be able to replenish some of its evil energy and study the Tai Su Qiankun Dao created by Emei.

But if the seal is broken and the 'Non-Thing' escapes to destroy the world, or if it alarms the people of Emei and attracts several enemies who have reached the Divine Transformation stage to hunt it down, then Li Fan really won't be able to handle it.

After all, Li Fan's condition is really too bad right now. Whether it's the Qiankun Gourd, the Northern Demon God, or the repair of the Tai Su Dao Body, we have to wait until he recovers before we can consider them.

The most urgent task is to repair the original body. The arms created by the Motian Huasheng Dafa can only be used as a temporary measure. We still need to fully restore the original body's hands to prevent long-term damage from the disability.

Although the "<Jade Pure Jade Quality Flawless Escape>" is a superior healing method, it is only good for repairing cracks and damage to meridians and bones. However, if it is to regenerate a severed arm, Li Fan does not have the rapid regenerative ability of an antelope.

Now he can only plan to use Lou Guan's Bone-Growing Pill and Donghua Changchun Pill to first grow back his hand bones and meridians, then use the Sky-Piercing Transformation Method to grow flesh to attach to his hand bones, and finally burrow underground to repair his Dao body using the Jade Purity Jade Essence Method. This will greatly accelerate the repair of his Dao body and prevent that old scoundrel Canglong from coming to hunt him down again after he has been in seclusion for several years.

However, it would take time for the bones to grow back using the Bone-Growing Pill. Now that his emotions were overflowing, Li Fan continued to grow his bones while simultaneously sending his primordial spirit out of his body to the moon to learn a new Ink Mountain Primordial Spirit Technique, <<Original Use>>.

There are those who base their principles on the past, those who trace their origins to the present, and those who apply them to the present. What are their principles based on? They are based on the deeds of the ancient sage kings. What are their origins to? They are based on observing the realities witnessed by the people. What are their applications? They are applied to governance and punishment, and their application is observed to benefit the nation, its people, and its citizens.

This section is still a follow-up to "<Against Fate>," answering the question of how to judge the usefulness and benefits of all Non-Thing without consulting fate or fortune-telling. In layman's terms, it means that if we start from historical experience, from the current situation, and from actual needs, and pass the test of these three criteria, what conforms to people's vital interests is the useful truth.

'When the <Original Use> "Shangli" is triggered, if a buff effect exists in the special state resisted by "<Against Fate>", it will trigger simultaneously with "Shangli".'

Clearly, the Moshan lineage also discovered that '<Against Fate>' could resist all abnormal states regardless of whether they brought benefits or harm, and therefore they improved the Yuan Shen technique.

The current update to '<Original Use>', while not yet perfectly enabling '<Against Fate>' to fulfill its original filtering and identification function, at least retains some of the buff effects, allowing them to be triggered simultaneously with 'Shangli'. This allows multiple buff effects to be stacked, creating a brief burst of damage in conjunction with 'Shangli'.

Of course, we'll have to wait for a chance to test how much practical value this has. At least 'Shangli' isn't easy to trigger. It won't work if Li Fan enters the magic circle he set up himself. It's a pity we can't exploit the bug.

After studying the Primordial Spirit Technique, which greatly depleted his mental energy, Li Fan naturally used it to draw a prize.

I drew a flying spittoon...

'The prototype alchemy furnace robot, No. 1, is designed based on the Penglai alchemy furnace. It is a high-tech, miniaturized, fully automated, clean-energy alchemy drone. This equipment can memorize formula materials, achieving fully automated material collection and rapid alchemy. It currently includes the Donghua Changchun Pill formula.'

Li Fan tried it out. The pill formula of this pill-refining robot was the same one Zhou Chengxue used back then, and the pills it produced were all the Changchun Pill from Penglai. However, the medicinal effects were not as good as those given by the Abbot.

This robot also has an automatic function to collect experimental pill formulas. After it is activated, Li Fan watched as the spittoon flew around the snow mountain, sucking in snow lotus, ice, jade and other things from the mountain's stormy winds, and finally spitting out a dark, murky dregs.

Garbage...

Li Fan hasn't even started learning alchemy yet, and besides, what he has in abundance is the Donghua Changchun Pill. He won't need this spittoon number one for the time being, and it's solar-powered, so he'll save electricity and put it away for now.

I used up all my energy trying to win prizes, but I didn't get any amazing items like the dog frisbee, the bell, or the nuclear bomb.

To avoid being caught off guard by the Emei old dog's pursuit, Li Fan gritted his teeth and directly reduced his maximum power by 3600 to restore the Three Flowers for stability. Then, seeing that the white bone meridians on his hands were almost formed, he sank his physical body into the Yinshan earth veins to repair his Dao body underground.

This time, the injury was truly severe, and it took Li Fan a full month to fully recover his physical body.

Emerging from the ice was a young man of about eighteen or nineteen, thin as a rake and with a sallow complexion. He wore hemp clothes and straw sandals, and his hair was casually tied with a straw rope. Although his features were still quite handsome, his haggard appearance was evident.

This is Qingyue's true form. He has exhausted his magical power, suffered a great loss of cultivation, and even his lifespan has been shortened. If it weren't for the fact that each of his Tai Su Dao Body was more seriously injured than him, he would have been at great risk of going into demonic possession.

This time, they've truly been brought back to square one.

It wasn't that Li Fan didn't want to look flamboyant; it was that he realized he could no longer transform into the likeness of 'Li Datang' or 'Aruba'. Even if he could pinch his face, the flesh would rot away—it was impossible to change his appearance.

The law has been broken.

It seems that these two lives were indeed completely taken by the old dog Canglong.

After much consideration, Li Fan realized that traveling the martial world under the identity of 'Li Yaoshi of the Beichen Sword Sect' was too dangerous, as he had too many powerful enemies. Therefore, Li Fan had no choice but to risk using the true form of 'Qingyue of the Louguandao Lou Guan'. At least if he encountered the patriarch of Emei again, this identity might prevent him from being killed without warning.

Tsk, Emei, the number one in the world truly is the number one in the world. We really should show some respect and stay away. I've learned my lesson this time; I'll get my revenge sooner or later...

Emerging from the snow, Li Fan rode the Moon Soul, using his sword to teleport to the neighboring mountain, where he found the Qiankun Gourd hidden in a cave.

Fearing that the gourd might be used to track the enemy and cause them to misunderstand its location, Li Fan, in order to save his life, naturally dared not take the gourd with him while healed.

Fortunately, his luck wasn't completely bad. No enemies came to hunt him down or harass him for the past month, and the gourd remained safely hidden in the ice cave without being taken away. The talisman seal was also intact.

Although I don't know where the old dog Canglong was sent by the bell, it seems he won't be back anytime soon. So now we need to deal with this gourd as soon as possible.

During this month, Li Fan not only focused on restoring his physical body, but he also used the system's photo and video recording functions to repeatedly study and ponder the principles of the Tai Su Qiankun in the Divine Court.

Many Daoist methods arise from nothing, and it is very difficult to open up a new path. However, once the principles and results are known, it becomes much simpler to reverse-engineer the process.

Li Fan possesses top-tier aptitude and comprehension, and he has mastered both Lou Guan's <Wuji Guidao> and Emei's <Guizang>, two Daoist techniques for cultivating the Qi of Heaven and Earth. In addition, the Blood Infant had once glimpsed Yang Ying's Divine Sense. Therefore, Li Fan now has a preliminary deduction.

Yang Nanying of Emei and Qin Nanxin are roughly of the same generation. If she cultivates according to the Taiji Xian Dao, she can only reach the Golden Core Perfection Realm at most. Even if she cultivates by Moon Worship, she can only reach the Nascent Soul Stage Divine Transformation Realm. Her Divine Transformation Realm is simply too outrageous.

Moreover, after repeatedly recalling the details of the previous battle, Li Fan was certain that after 'Yang Ying' appeared after destroying 'Antelope', the battlefield was indeed filled with baleful energy. Therefore, Qian Zu and Han Jiu, who could be of some help in the first stage, were powerless to fight back in the second stage. On the contrary, Li Fan himself was able to absorb the baleful energy in the environment to construct his armor and Dao body, just like in the Tai Su Realm. He did not suffer much damage to his Gui Xu Nascent Soul in the early stage. Otherwise, the bell's consumption would have killed him.

Considering that the evil energy could indeed undergo different transformations, such as carbonized skin, ice armor, and mercury, Li Fan made a hypothesis.

Yang Ying said she was "the universe itself," but if she was truly one with the Tai Su Qiankun, how could Li Fan possibly borrow her malevolent energy?

Therefore, the storm of Black and White Evil Qi might just be ordinary malevolent energy on the black side, and 'Yang Ying' is not some kind of 'Qiankun' (Heaven and Earth); at most, it is half of 'Qian' (Heaven).

To put it more clearly, Li Fan suspected that the black stuff was just ordinary malevolent energy, while the special 'white malevolent energy' was the true form of the 'Non-Thing'. It was just that this 'Non-Thing' had absorbed 'Yang Ying's' memories and thus imitated the Emei sect's method of controlling the universe, manipulating the malevolent energy as if it were a Daoist technique.

Of course, there is another possibility: this 'white evil energy' is a special kind of evil energy refined by the Azure Dragon Secret Method, which can be controlled by the Tai Chi Dao Method, and at the same time, it can react with ordinary black evil energy in a way that resembles the Qi of Heaven and Earth.

In short, the key to solving the problem lies in that gourd; once you open it and take a bite, you'll know.

Of course, to be on the safe side, it's best to pray for a month first to recover some stamina. This way, you'll be able to escape and fight back before engaging in combat, which will be safer.

In any case, he had to hurry. Who knew when the old dragon and dog would suddenly appear and snatch this treasure? The Central Plains was Emei's territory, and there were too many people and opinions to take it back for the time being. So he had to open the gourd and study it as soon as possible on this icy plain. Otherwise, he would be unwilling to just carry around a bomb all day and leave it there.

Li Fan glanced at the sky; it would still be dark in a while. He then hoisted the large gourd onto his back, made a hand seal, and the moon's essence transformed into silver light, enveloping Li Fan. He then rode his Sword Light across Yinshan Mountain and continued flying towards the northern ice plains.

Having wasted so much time, I wonder if there's still any buffet left... Hmm? That's...

Li Fan stopped his Sword Light flashing in mid-air and looked out at the tragic battlefield on the ground. The corpses of the vassal army numbered in the tens of thousands, almost covering the entire snowfield. The defeated army, having lost their armor and weapons, had been chased here and collapsed onto the cliffs of Yinshan Mountain, leaving a trail of corpses that stretched to the far north and dyed the glaciers a merciless rust color.

Yokono, the military governor, the Jingsai... well, he missed it after a month's delay. It seems this Northern Expedition is over...