Secret Operation

The underground sword pool was already pitch black enough, but when Li Kun spat out the bead, it was no exaggeration to say that it was as if a fish was swallowing the sun and moon, and the whole room was suddenly filled with light, as bright as day.

When Li Kun spat the Suihou Pearl onto the Qilin horn, he didn't expect the device to be activated immediately! Click! It flashed out with a burst of light! It was like being hit over the head with a flashbang! It felt like being blinded by a powerful flashlight with hundreds of thousands of lumens of light!

Li Kun was caught off guard and screamed in pain from the light. After all, Kun couldn't close his eyes, so even if he could, it wouldn't have helped. So he instinctively turned his head and tried to hide in the pool to avoid the light.

But this pool of water happens to be a critical surface. Not only does it cause one to leap out of the sword pool on the other side the instant they pass through, but this side of the lake is also reflecting light! The entire pool of elixir water is also radiating a dazzling light! The entire sword pool shines like a giant searchlight, its brilliance soaring into the sky! It even triggers all the golden talismans on the mountain! It's as if stars have fallen to earth! Moreover, the sword pool is also reflected by the dragon pearl, phoenix feather, tiger eye, and Black Tortoise back of the four sacred statues outside! The multicolored light pollution is simply off the charts!

This really put Li Fan in a terrible predicament. "Damn it!" he yelled, turned tail, and ran away. He leaped and tumbled around in the pool for a while before the bright light gradually dimmed, as if the Qilin Magic Treasure had automatically adjusted and suppressed the light.

Holy crap, what the hell is this?! My eyes are going blind!

Xuan Tian said, "The magical Magic Treasure on this is actually activated. I guess those two Divine Lords outside stole the precious pearl that was originally placed here, intending to abscond with the treasure."

So what's the next step? Activate it with the Sword Talismans?

Xuan Tian said, "... What's the point of using Sword Talismans? With you flapping around like that, I guarantee every sword will be covered in Kun marks, the kind you can't wipe off..."

Uh... alright then, as long as the goal of destroying the flying sword is achieved, that's fine.

Xuan Tian said, "Alright, put the bead away and let's get out of here. This is a really good thing! It illuminates the entire universe with Six Combinations, bright light that never fades, saving us a lot of trouble!"

Hmm... well, since we're already going to do this, why not go all the way... and destroy this place? How about setting the outside on fire too?

Xuan Tian said, "Everything in excess is as bad as deficiency. You've already made enough money by stealing and causing damage. You've wasted hundreds of years of their time and a large amount of sword-forging resources. Even the Nine Great Xuan Sects will suffer losses."

But you must understand that Hengshan's status as the Supreme Purity is inseparable from its ability to forge flying swords. There are only a handful of schools in the world capable of forging flying swords, and the Four Great Mystic Sects are naturally among them. Cultivators of the Shangqing lineage all come to Hengshan to forge swords; otherwise, where do you think Hengshan gets so many Hengshan swords to distribute to its disciples? Those are all substandard flying sword blanks with poor yields, simply distributed internally for consumption.

"If we were to destroy the Hengshan sword-making workshop and sever the Daoist Tradition of the Nine Great Xuan Sects, then I'm afraid all the Supreme Purity in the world would want to find out about you and kill you as soon as possible! The risk is too great, it's not worth it."

But if they kept the arsenal, with Hengshan's financial resources, they could easily grit their teeth and cast another batch, right? Wouldn't that Ink Bamboo Mountain with no chance of winning?

Xuan Tian, "Hmm... it's not difficult to delay things. Do you see the Qilin horn and eyeballs? Those components are meticulously crafted and customized; even the slightest deviation is unacceptable. Just touch them with some malevolent energy—yes, just touch them once—and corrode only that one layer. You won't see the problem at first, but once the layers of Sword Talismans stack up, it'll definitely cause trouble! The entire line will be unusable, and you won't even be able to find out! If you're lucky, you can ruin another batch! Hehe!"

Xuan Tian... are you the cunning one...?

Having completed this clandestine operation to sabotage the Hengshan armory, Li Fan prepared to flee. Although he still owed Bai Shuangying a technique for escape, he figured she would need to stabilize her cultivation after this ordeal and go into seclusion for a while. They could discuss it again sometime in the future.

Having committed such a major crime, it was natural that he couldn't stay in Hengshan any longer. As usual, he used his pure spirit to escape south from Hengshan, while Li Fan's own spirit left his body and fled to the north to hide and avoid being discovered by the ancestors of Hengshan.

So when Li Fan returned to the sword formation in the north to check how much of Daoist Qiongqi's body had been repaired, he was shocked!

This body can no longer be called human!

Every time he wasn't careful, Tai Su Yuan Shen would give him something new to do. He didn't know if it was because Qiong Qi was too badly injured this time, or because the white evil energy was out of control, or because the pollution of the northern ice plains was too severe. Now, Li Fan's Dao body was undergoing repair Non-Thing!

Daoist Qiongqi's current state is almost identical to Yang Ying's back then, except that he is not half-human and half-sheep, but half-human and half-tiger. His upper body is human, while his lower body is the tiger's mouth and body of Qiongqi. It seems as if a human body has been grown from the tiger's head and jawbone. However, the human body is not completely human. His hands have been replaced with the claws of Guiche, and there are also Guiche's wings on his back. His face is deathly pale, with no mouth or nose, leaving only two eyes. His right eye is still a golden tiger pupil, while his left eye has turned into a blood-red crow eye.

It seems that during Li Fan's absence, the weakened Qiongqi and Guiche reached some kind of agreement, relinquishing some control over their Dao bodies. The two ancient fierce gods joined forces to suppress the Moshan Primordial Spirit of the Five Mountain Gods lineage, which is why this bizarre appearance appeared.

Damn it... how the hell are we supposed to return to the Central Plains?! And the strength of this Dao body...

Li Fan swung his bird claw, unleashing a ghostly claw imbued with fierce fire energy. It scorched open a large section of ice, the fiery claw cutting through the ice and carving four scorched furrows into the snowfield!

Oh no, the Moon has been shining too brightly these past few days, and it's already at the level of a top-tier demon! It's probably only one step away from Divine Transformation!

It should be noted that the Tai Su Transformation is for cultivating the physical body. Therefore, after expelling these Tai Su Primordial Spirits with the white baleful energy, Li Fan was able to control his body better without any constraints. It was as if he had stolen the Dao Body that everyone was cultivating together!

But now the situation has reversed. Because Daoist Qiongqi has been reincarnated and found a new physical body, the Primordial Spirits are no longer suppressed by Li Fan's Gui Xu Nascent Soul. They no longer need to allocate most of their malevolent energy to nourish their Returning Void True Essence, and can refine the physical body without restraint! Now, taking advantage of Daoist Qiongqi's severe injuries and devastation, and the opportunity to reshape his body, Li Fan's clone has lost its human form and completely veered towards the realm of the Primordial Non-Thing! Coupled with the cultivation boost from the double swirling of malevolent energy within his body, he is truly on the verge of spiraling out of control!

If this continues, I fear it will truly Divine Transformation into Non-Thing Devil Embryo!

Damn it! What are we going to do??

Li Fan was starting to panic. He had experienced being dominated by the Qiongqi's consciousness before; it truly treated people like dirt, wanting to devour anyone it saw. If these Non-Thing were to become Divine Transformation first, wouldn't the worst-case scenario be that they would turn the tables and suppress his true form? The best-case scenario, however, would be completely losing control of this clone, and then a new demon god would appear on the icy plains?

Oh dear... so many problems... I'm already overwhelmed and can't even handle the bigger picture...

Li Fan hadn't thought of a better way yet, but he couldn't help but leap into the air, his four pairs of giant wings flapping and whipping up a gale as he flew toward the horizon with a strange howl.

He was starving, unbearably so, so hungry he wanted to tear off his own thigh and gnaw on it. His stomach was churning with hunger. After all, while he could obtain demonic energy from the Moon Worship, the substances that made up his body couldn't be replenished. Now, his non- Material Dao body was several times larger than his human form, and his tiger body was four zhang tall when standing upright. The amount of food he needed was staggering. He could now eat a mountain of flesh if he was hungry!

No! I have to eat my fill! I need to eat quickly! Otherwise, I'll lose my senses!

Where! Where can he get meat to eat... Hmm! Someone's there!

Li Fan sniffed the air and flew rapidly. He hadn't even flown far from the range of the Sun Sword Array when he spotted his target.

On the vast ice plain, a huge open-pit mine suddenly appeared!

In a spiral-shaped open-air diamond mine tunnel with a diameter roughly the size of a dozen football fields, a floating minecart, almost like a 'spaceship,' is suspended in the center of the tunnel, using high-energy plasma to bombard the earth's core, excavating through glacial rock layers and violently digging into the earth's veins!

Hundreds of multi-race drones were also around, busily moving rubble, clearing away powder, and scanning the melted ice to uncover what was buried beneath the ice and rocks, just like worker ants. The project had obviously only started in the last few days, but it was already highly efficient and had made some progress. It was even possible to tell that what these machines were mining beneath the ley lines was not a mineral deposit, but a frozen ancient city complex!

It's the company! And they were clearly mobilized immediately after Zhang Dali was killed! And that underground city! It's definitely not human-made, at least not in the style of the Central Plains! Could this be the company's true purpose?! Could it be that Brother Yan's sword formation is actually guarding this ancient city beneath the ice?! Damn it, I'm starving and my brain can't work!

Li Fan let out a sharp cry, driven by hunger, spread his four wings, and pounced down towards the mine!

The company's drones clearly also have defense mechanisms, reacting instantly. The surrounding swarm of multi-legged drones also reacted, as if opening their eyes, opening the glass lenses on their backs, and flashing a large patch of bright red light in the moonlight!

The next instant, a dense barrage of high-energy rays shot towards Li Fan! These rays were capable of melting ice and rock several meters thick! If he were hit, his Nascent Soul Stage body would likely be torn apart, his flesh and blood fused together! But that was only if the rays actually hit him! Even if they were aimed right at his forehead, they wouldn't be able to hit Li Fan, let alone the fact that Qiongqi could sense the impending danger in advance!

The enormous centaur shrieked through the wind, rapidly swooping and shifting, dodging in an instant, and even transforming into a gale to force its way through the dense barrage of beams and avoid damage!

If Li Fan were truly a monster, he'd probably be enraged by these swarms of metallic ants by now and charge down to fight them, right? But even though he was so hungry he couldn't control his body, his brain still retained its most basic judgment! He knew perfectly well that these wolf-sized machines were unmanned steel creatures! Exuding an enticing, juicy aroma! They were hiding inside that giant iron-hulled spaceship!!

Following the scent, the half-human tiger pounced straight at the huge mechanical mine cart in the mine! It crashed down on the hull of the mine ship, its claws leaving a trail of white marks on the hull.

Not military grade?

A sudden sense of alarm rose from his spine. Li Fan anticipated the threat and transformed into a gust of wind. In the next instant, a shockwave accompanied by strong alternating current erupted from the surface of the ship's hull! This seemed to be an electromagnetic pulse from some kind of defensive mechanism, but it was useless!

Li Fan chuckled and transformed into a storm of Black and White Evil Qi energy, circling the ship's hull before instantly locating the source of the sweet aroma. He then channeled the energy through the air exchange system, forcefully surging into the mine ship's interior! A fierce wind whipped through multiple air valves and fans, and thick Black and White Evil Qi billowed from the central air conditioning system like a blocked chimney, billowing smoke and billowing malevolent energy that surged into the mine ship's core cockpit!

Amidst the thick smoke, malevolent energy gathered, revealing a human form with one golden and one red pupil opening to survey its surroundings.

A series of terrified humanoid figures. The system was right; they were indeed Bio-Human. Each of them looked exactly like the dancer they had seen before. It was possible that the company's apostles had created them themselves. However, while the dancer's physical attributes were at the Golden Core stage, these crew members were only at the Foundation Establishment Perfected Realm, or more accurately, at the level of the Body Domination Technique, the limit of human training. It wasn't that they couldn't, but rather that there was no need for further enhancement, as if they were mass-produced industrial consumables.

The clones' clothing is a uniform-like, tight-fitting latex suit, with interfaces on the joints and torso. It's a very high-tech look, with almost no accessories to distinguish ranks. The colors are slightly different; just guessing, white suits are for pilots, orange for engineers, and black for combatants? I wonder if they taste different...

In the blink of an eye, Qiongqi's tiger body materialized with the baleful aura and emerged from the smoke and dust. Then, hunger struck again, interrupting Li Fan's thoughts.

What follows is the kind of scene often used in low-budget B-movies, where the camera cuts to a window and shows a bloody, restricted image on the glass.

"... Shh... shh..."

"... Advance team calling main cabin, communications jamming, communications jamming, main cabin, please respond."

"... Shh... Main cabin... normal... weather interference... blizzard... advance team... continue mission..."

"... Received, advance team, continue mission."

Normally clone troop don't have systems... but... they actually have souls...

Li Fan flicked his sleeve, pulling the transformed head and the Chang Gui back into his sleeve.

After eating some appetizers and snacks, he temporarily returned to human form and was able to think normally again.

Passing through the blood-stained command center, Li Fan looked at the holographic image of a city on the control panel. This should be the blueprint for the ancient city buried deep beneath the glacier. The information relayed from the Chang Gui also indicated that these company clones seemed to have been recently produced, possessing their own professional abilities from birth, and were directly assigned from the mothership to this shuttle to await orders, directly carrying out the mission of 'recovering company equipment'.

There is now a four-person advance team, which are the four blinking cursors on the city's holographic projection map. Each blink of the cursor updates the real-time terrain and the thickness of the surrounding ice and the hardness of the rocks. By changing the commander's finger and clicking on each cursor, he can also see the audio and video data transmitted back by these soldiers, confirm the equipment and physiological signals of the advance combat team members, and issue corresponding instructions.

These combatants are likely the same type that Li Fan annihilated earlier; equipped with SBS power armor, armed with High-Energy Ray Rifle, and supported by armed drones, they have already entered the underground city to scan the terrain and confirm the environment and the exact location of the equipment. The ship's mission is to use the advance team's reconnaissance feedback to open up a passageway and dig to the top of the 'target' to retrieve the equipment.

Judging from the transmitted city images, this should be a city established by a prehistoric monster civilization. Considering that the thing on Yuntai Peak was indeed taken from the Demon Race, it seems that the company has long been associated with monsters, no, monsters' ancestors.

However, the advance team doesn't seem to have found the target yet. Judging from the analysis of the city ruins, this ancient monster city seems to have been destroyed in some kind of cataclysmic war, or even directly submerged and sunk by a tsunami. The city was disintegrated and buried underground. Although the company has the blueprints and seems confident that the target is nearby, they cannot confirm the exact location in a short time. They can only clear the entrance first and send a small team down to search.

But let's leave the advance team aside for now.

Li Fan walked to the other control panel, and a Chang Gui appeared, asking, "How do I contact the system?"

These clones are subject to considerable restrictions, and their knowledge and skills are also locked away. For example, commanders only have the skills of commanding operations, combatants only have combat skills, and communications personnel can only be responsible for communications. They even have suicide orders, with some kind of time bomb-like poison inside their bodies that can be activated on its own. Many of them choose to commit suicide at the first opportunity.

Of course, Qiongqi is also quite cunning. Not only can it use the Chang Gui) to bind souls and interrogate, but it can also cure itself of poison. It's like comparing who has more cheat codes...

"Unable to contact directly, the task remains silent, periodically uploads monitoring records, and awaits further instructions."

As the Chang Gui spoke, it sat down at the control panel and pointed, mimicking the operations it performed in life.

Li Fan kept it in mind, but he couldn't help feeling a little strange.

Isn't this manual communication method outdated? It completely doesn't fit the company's sophisticated system. Forget about the two aquaculture farmers communicating with him from afar through a 'door' in the Mood System; even that A Xiba member seems capable of digging up some pretty cool junk like the Electronic Ghost Shell. Why are the company's Bio-Human acting like telegraph operators? Is this some kind of military-grade, anti-eavesdropping device unearthed from a grave?

Unfortunately, these Bio-Human can provide very little information and are used like worker ants. Even the 'target' signal is completely blacked out, and there is no permission to view it. It seems that only the advance team carries special equipment that can find and confirm the 'target's' location at close range.

Furthermore, considering the pre-planned poison concealment within the body, the likely outcome was that the body would be destroyed upon completion of the mission.

Let's wait and see what the company is trying to dig out by making such a big fuss.

Having learned how to operate the communicator, Li Fan summoned another Chang Gui and began learning how to pilot the mining ship—no, the shuttle.