Li Fan's expression was somewhat ferocious as he gritted his teeth and said, "Fellow Daoist, do you know how terrifying it is to spend your entire life trapped in the same dream?"

"These strange little humanoid are to blame! I want to completely rid myself of these nightmares, which is why I came to your Qianli Hall."

"But this is, after all, an ancestral possession. The instructions left by my ancestors clearly state that this object must be properly preserved..." Li Fan's expression became conflicted.

Hearing this, Jiao Xiuyuan nodded along with him, frowning. "The ancestral instructions may be important, but your own life is more important."

"This thing really is extremely sinister. It is an ominous object. But Fellow Daoist, rest assured. Our Qianli Hall has always been fair. We will not deliberately lower the price because of this."

Li Fan hesitated for a while before slowly saying, "I can sell it. But preferably, we should first figure out what secrets lie behind this little man. Otherwise, it will be difficult for me to explain myself to my family."

"Could you let me take a closer look?" Jiao Xiuyuan asked tentatively.

Li Fan hesitated slightly, but in the end, he handed the mechanical humanoid over.

The earlier search had exhausted the humanoid's energy. Thus, even after falling into Jiao Xiuyuan's hands, it showed no reaction whatsoever.

Jiao Xiuyuan examined it from top to bottom, occasionally furrowing his brows.

"Can you tell anything?" Li Fan asked.

"Judging from the appearance of this puppet, it seems to be someone from the ancient cultivation world known as the Dust Abyss. It is said that the cultivators of this world all possessed True Immortal bloodlines and were born with three eyes. They also possessed many innate divine abilities..."

"The strange thing is, I have never seen the material this puppet is made from." A peculiar expression appeared on Jiao Xiuyuan's face.

"The Dust Abyss Realm?" Li Fan pretended as though he had never heard of it before.

"It is an ancient secret, and this realm was destroyed long ago. It is perfectly normal that Fellow Daoist does not know about it." Jiao Xiuyuan waved his hand, showing no intention of elaborating. His attention remained focused on the mechanical little man.

At this moment, Li Fan secretly manipulated the illusion formation.

The mechanical little man seemed to suddenly open its third eye. A beam of brilliant light shot straight out, directly toward Jiao Xiuyuan.

Both Jiao Xiuyuan and Li Fan cried out in surprise at the same time.

By the time they reacted, the golden light had already disappeared, as though it had merely been an illusion.

"F... Fellow Daoist, are you alright? That golden light just now, it was not an illusion, was it?" Li Fan asked, his expression filled with uncertainty.

Jiao Xiuyuan nodded solemnly. "I saw it too. It actually came for me..."

His words seemed to remind Li Fan of something. He suddenly said, "That's right! Previously, whenever I thought about selling this mechanical humanoid, I would become restless and find it difficult to make up my mind. It was only after I came near your Qianli Hall that I finally became determined."

Li Fan's expression became somewhat horrified. "Could it be that Fellow Daoist really has some inexplicable connection with this mechanical humanoid?"

This time, Jiao Xiuyuan did not answer. He carefully examined the three eyed puppet with his hands.

Having seemingly discovered something, his expression became increasingly solemn.

"This thing... may be alive."

After a long silence, Jiao Xiuyuan suddenly spoke, his words causing a sensation.

"Ah?" Li Fan appeared startled, staring at the puppet in disbelief.

"It seems that through some unimaginable supernatural means, a living cultivator from the Dust Abyss Realm was sealed and refined into an object."

"Although it has transformed into an object, it still retains all the magical power and divine abilities it possessed as a powerful cultivator with a True Immortal bloodline!" Jiao Xiuyuan concluded.

"This... This is impossible, right? Even if one could transform a person into an object, I fear that even the Immortal Ancestor could not accomplish such a feat. Besides, didn't Fellow Daoist say that the Dust Abyss Realm had already been destroyed?" Li Fan said doubtfully.

"Beyond Xuanhuang?" Jiao Xiuyuan muttered first.

Then, seemingly wanting to verify his claim, he took out a green bottle from somewhere.

With great reluctance, he poured out a single drop of thick green liquid and fed it to the mechanical little man.

"This bottle contains pure life essence. If it were a dead object, it would certainly show no reaction."

"But if it still possesses the attribute of life, it will instinctively absorb it."

As if proving Jiao Xiuyuan's words, the moment the green liquid approached, the mechanical humanoid's two normal eyes suddenly opened. It quickly absorbed the liquid.

Li Fan still could not sense the slightest aura of a living being from it, yet he watched with his own eyes as the little humanoid gradually came to life.

The target locked onto by the little man was indeed still Jiao Xiuyuan.

Its third eye shot out a beam of golden light. Like chains, they tightly wrapped around Jiao Xiuyuan.

"Fellow Daoist, are you alright?" Li Fan asked nervously, but he had absolutely no intention of helping. He merely watched from afar.

Bound by the golden chains, Jiao Xiuyuan could not move at all. His expression seemed frozen as well, and he gave no response whatsoever.

"Don't worry. How could such a trivial trick possibly hurt me?" The voice was still Jiao Xiuyuan's, but it came from another corner.

Li Fan looked toward the direction of the voice. He saw that, at some point, a withered yellow branch had grown out of the ground in the corner.

The branch continued to extend and transform.

Before long, another Jiao Xiuyuan suddenly emerged from it.

"You... Are you human or a ghost?" Li Fan shuddered in fright, his face filled with terror.

"Hehehe, it is merely a small clone technique." Jiao Xiuyuan reassured him.

He had barely finished speaking when the third eye of the Dust Abyss mechanical humanoid once again shot out a beam of golden light.

It locked onto Jiao Xiuyuan.

Once again, Jiao Xiuyuan had no ability to resist and was captured.

"Fellow Daoist!" Li Fan cried out in a trembling voice, his legs shaking as if he were about to flee.

"Don't panic!" Another voice appeared.

A third Jiao Xiuyuan appeared inside Qianli Hall.

His fate was the same. He was likewise bound by golden chains.

"Let's see how many of me you can capture!"

A hint of anger could be heard in his voice, and ten voices appeared simultaneously.

Branches sprang up everywhere throughout Qianli Hall. Ten identical Jiao Xiuyuans appeared one after another.

Faced with such a strange scene, the three eyed little man seemed momentarily stunned.

Only after a while did it shoot out golden chains to capture its targets.

But after releasing only three chains simultaneously, it seemed to have reached its limit.

As if completely drained of energy, it once again returned to its previous dormant state.

"Trying to catch your Uncle Jiao? You're still far too inexperienced!" Jiao Xiuyuan snorted smugly.

Seven voices rang out one after another.

After saying this, six of them once again transformed into withered branches, withering away and retreating back into the ground.

Only one remained, staring at the six captured versions of himself.

He slowly approached and reached out to touch the golden chains.

"This thing..."

The chains seemed to be mere phantoms. Jiao Xiuyuan's hand passed directly through them.

Seeing this, Li Fan also became curious and tentatively reached out to touch them.

He likewise could not touch them.

"They seem to have been formed from an innate divine ability of a cultivator from the Dust Abyss Realm."

"Quite extraordinary indeed."

After experimenting for quite some time and still being unable to touch their true form, Jiao Xiuyuan could not help but sigh in admiration.

"Jiao... Fellow Daoist Jiao. It seems that the target of this mechanical humanoid really is you?"

“Could it be that the infant who appeared in our dreams for generations was you? And the mechanical humanoid came to our world to hunt down Fellow Daoist Jiao as well?” Li Fan's expression was somewhat fearful, and his tone became increasingly alarmed.

“But that does not seem right either. Fellow Daoist, you do not look very old. The timeline does not match either. Could you be a descendant of that infant?” Li Fan sized up Jiao Xiuyuan, his expression filled with uncertainty.

“I should... be that very infant,” Jiao Xiuyuan said frankly.

“What?” Li Fan's eyes widened.

“Old Jiao here has lived far longer than ordinary people. It is just that for the vast majority of that time, I was in a state of ignorance, acting purely on instinct,” Jiao Xiuyuan said indifferently.

“In fact, I still have some vague memories of what happened during my childhood. They were merely sealed deep within my mind, and I had almost forgotten them completely. After what happened today, I have managed to recall some of them.” Jiao Xiuyuan's tone became somewhat distant and uncertain.

“Fellow Daoist Jiao, are you truly a cultivator from beyond the realm?” Li Fan stared intently at Jiao Xiuyuan, as if trying to see through him. His expression was filled with curiosity and excitement.

“I should... be, I suppose.” Jiao Xiuyuan hesitated before finally nodding.

“I have no recollection whatsoever of what happened before I crawled out of that sphere. But since the puppet that was tracking me came from beyond the Xuanhuang Realm, I suppose my homeland must have been beyond the Xuanhuang Realm as well.”

“No wonder I instinctively wanted to cultivate a technique that could transform my body into countless incarnations. Was it to evade pursuit?” Jiao Xiuyuan said with an indescribable tone.

Li Fan, meanwhile, was filled with amazement. He stared at Jiao Xiuyuan and sighed, “It is truly difficult to imagine how Fellow Daoist managed to survive alone from infancy until now, and even establish the Qianli Hall business.”

Jiao Xiuyuan waved his hand. “Actually, it was nothing difficult. In truth, ever since I gained my memories, as long as I acted according to my heart, I almost never encountered any difficulties. Every obstacle would somehow resolve itself. Of course, doing business is an exception.”

“Making money is genuinely difficult!” Jiao Xiuyuan suddenly lamented, completely out of place with the situation.

“I originally wanted to resolve my own calamity, but I never expected to implicate Fellow Daoist Jiao in the process. If not for me, this puppet would have lost its power and probably would not have come looking for you.” Li Fan's face revealed a trace of guilt.

Jiao Xiuyuan, however, took it quite calmly. “What is destined to happen cannot ultimately be avoided. Besides, this time, I may have actually gained a blessing in disguise.”

Li Fan was somewhat surprised. “What do you mean?”

“I have lived in the Xuanhuang Realm for far too long. Being constantly influenced by my surroundings, I inevitably followed the path of defying the principles of Heaven and Earth.”

“It indeed helped me tremendously. In fact, if not for the new cultivation method of the Heavenly Sovereign, I probably would have already lost my life when I was young.”

“But because of that, some of the methods from my homeland were also sealed away, making them even more difficult to recall.”

“If not for what happened today...”

Jiao Xiuyuan's expression became somewhat dazed.

It was as if he were trying to recall some crucial information buried deep within his mind. His brows occasionally furrowed.

His eyes grew increasingly bright.

Li Fan also faintly sensed an extraordinarily profound aura emerging from Jiao Xiuyuan's body, fluctuating unpredictably.

Jiao Xiuyuan seemed to notice something. He looked around.

A trace of astonishment gradually flashed through his eyes.

“Freeze!”

Just as he was about to see through the illusion formation, Li Fan spoke coldly.

The scene before Jiao Xiuyuan shattered with a thunderous crash.

“Fellow Daoist Jiao, Fellow Daoist Jiao!”

“Why are you spacing out? What about those Little Medicine King Cauldrons we agreed on? Are you selling them or not?”

An impatient voice urged him from beside his ear.

Jiao Xiuyuan was slightly stunned. In an instant, information surged into his mind like a tide.

It turned out that he had finally managed to excavate some exceptionally well-preserved Little Medicine King Cauldrons from the ruins of the Medicine King Sect.

They could not only be used as storage treasures, but also contained their own spiritual energy spaces where various spiritual plants and medicinal herbs could be cultivated. Their value was extraordinary.

“Selling them, of course I am selling them...” Jiao Xiuyuan instinctively replied.

But at that moment, he suddenly remembered that he had already learned from a cultivator highly skilled in deduction that, before long, a meteor would fall back into the Xuanhuang Realm.

The true nature of that meteor was very likely the Medicine King True Cauldron that had carried the entire Medicine King Sect away back then.

At that time, the surviving Little Medicine King Cauldrons in the world would be the keys to entering the True Cauldron. The Medicine King True Cauldron was filled with the essence and treasures that the Medicine King Sect had taken away in the past.

As the keys to the True Cauldron, the value of the Little Medicine King Cauldrons would inevitably soar!

“Not selling!” The moment he thought of the enormous profits he would soon obtain, Jiao Xiuyuan's heart began pounding. He immediately changed his answer.

“Fellow Daoist Jiao, how can you go back on your word?” The cultivator opposite him became anxious.

Jiao Xiuyuan, however, simply gathered up all the Little Medicine King Cauldrons in one go and directly closed the door on his customer.

His mind was already calculating how to drive up the price of the Little Medicine King Cauldrons as much as possible.

“Hmm?”

Jiao Xiuyuan vaguely felt that he seemed to have forgotten something extremely important.

But faced with enormous commercial profits, he decided to put it aside for the time being.

...

Outside the illusion formation, in the real Xuanhuang Realm.

Li Fan looked at the several golden locks before him, his expression deep and contemplative.

Although everything that had just happened had occurred within the illusion formation, reality and illusion had been intertwined. On the three-eyed puppet, those events had also truly manifested.

It had indeed received a massive infusion of life force and had briefly come back to life. However, that life force had not come from the green bottle taken out by Jiao Xiuyuan. Instead, it had been derived from the power of the Immortal-grade formation.

The stimulation it received was real, so the golden chains shot out by the three-eyed puppet were naturally real as well.

At this moment, they were frozen in midair, and at first glance, they seemed somewhat similar to the golden threads wielded by the Heavenly Doctor.

In truth, however, there was a fundamental difference.

The Heavenly Doctor's golden threads were the “power to drive and alter laws” that the Heavenly Doctor had cultivated after comprehending and penetrating the laws of Heaven and Earth.

But the golden light shot out from the puppet's third eye...

“It is itself a certain kind of law.”

“It seems that it truly originates from the divine abilities of cultivators from the Dust Abyss Realm.”

Li Fan was not particularly interested in this mysterious three-eyed race.

No matter how powerful they had once been, they had now fallen to the point of being refined into puppets.

What interested Li Fan more was the heaven-defying method of transforming life into objects, as well as the force behind it.

“Cat Treasure, Descends into Mortal World, and this three-eyed puppet.”

“Beyond the High Wall, life transformed into objects, laws transformed into objects...”

“They truly have brought the Dao of external objects to its absolute extreme.” Li Fan's heart was heavy, yet he was also filled with awe toward the unknown civilization beyond the High Wall.

“Compared to the White Ring, the method used to forge this puppet is relatively crude. Perhaps this could be a breakthrough point.”

If you find any errors ( Ads popup, ads redirect, broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.