Chapter 586: The Power Of Five Elements, Creation And Destruction

Old Sun frowned slightly. "It's best not to spread unsubstantiated rumors. No matter what, those were great warriors who died gloriously for the Immortal Alliance. How could the higher-ups possibly allow those shameless scoundrels to desecrate their remains?"

The lazy cultivator looked immediately indignant. "How is it unsubstantiated? I saw it with my own eyes! That punk Zhang Debiao, hiding behind his Immortal Alliance appointment, openly leads a crew to collect corpses. The storage rings on the bodies, the artifacts still worth using—haven't they all been quietly pocketed? I've even heard they dig out residual Golden Cores and grotto-heaven fragments from the flesh!

"You came from the battlefield too. You know how brutal the Battle of Tianling Province was. Almost every body was mangled chunks of flesh and blood. How exactly are they supposed to be 'collected' properly? They just burn everything to ash and keep a bit of powder as proof. Who would ever find out?

"As the saying goes, if the people don't complain, the officials won't investigate. Most ordinary cultivators are lone wolves. They die, and that's it. Who really cares..."

As the lazy cultivator rambled on, Old Sun's face gradually darkened beside him.

A chill crept up the lazy cultivator's spine. He glanced over, and whatever he saw in Old Sun's expression made his heart seize. He shut his mouth without another word.

Only when that piercing gaze finally shifted away did he let out a silent breath, as if a stone had been lifted from his chest. Familiarity had made him careless. He had nearly forgotten what the legends said about this man.

Old Sun's name was Sun Qi. On the surface, he was just another guard, a Golden Core cultivator.

He carried himself with an easy, honest simplicity most of the time. But Sun Qi was a genuinely ruthless man.

He was a local cultivator from Tianling Province, conscripted at the very start of the war. Whether by luck or something else entirely, he had survived while countless Nascent Soul cultivators perished around him, a Golden Core cultivator who had simply refused to die.

A man who had carved his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood naturally carried an aura that chilled the bones. He kept it buried under ordinary circumstances, but when true anger surfaced, it seeped out beyond his control. The fear it inspired was not pretense. The lazy cultivator wisely decided not to push further.

Meanwhile, Li Fan had been observing from above. He noticed Sun Qi's gaze sweep almost imperceptibly across his hiding spot, and his interest in the man deepened.

On an impulse, he activated Formless Killing Mechanism and locked onto him. Sun Qi's expression shifted with alarm and suspicion, and he quickly took flight to inspect his surroundings, finding nothing. Li Fan smiled inwardly at the sight.

He left the man to it and flew quietly toward a collapsed mountain range, a stretch of peaks that had been crushed flat as though the sky itself had fallen on them, now utterly still.

As he usually did, he burrowed deep underground and excavated a secret chamber. Once it was sealed, he closed his eyes and turned his attention inward.

Name: Li Fan

Realm: Early-Stage Nascent Soul

Biological Age: 34/999 (Heaven's Loathed)

Psychological Age: 1335/9999

Virtualization Charging Progress: 200%

Charging Progress of Next Anchor Point: 0%

Anchor Points In Use: 3

Available Anchor Points: 1

Bound Items: Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Scripture, Taiyan Boat, Halt Stele Fragment (Damaged), Myriad Mortal Essence Blood, Dao Transformation Stone

Techniques: Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Sutra, Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art, Embodiment Transformation Dao, Arcana True Spirit Transformation, Furnace of Myriad Forms, Creation Forge Technique, Mountain-Sitting Art

Divine Abilities: "Chaos,” Reverse Five Elements Life-Death Sword, Interlocking Chains of Life and Death, Formless Killing Mechanism, Insect Binding, One Congyun Sword Strike, Heaven-Overturning Palm

Li Fan exhaled a long breath of turbid air. Vast, pure streams of vitality surged from every corner of his body, nourishing his flesh. The spiritual qi seemed inexhaustible.

Within his dantian, where his Golden Core had once resided, he could now faintly discern the outlines of five interwoven, shimmering grotto-heavens.

So this is the Nascent Soul realm. A single breakthrough, and the world turns upside down.

To gauge how much his power had grown since his Golden Core days, he moved immediately to unleash the most formidable divine ability he possessed.

Using his hand as a brush, he wrote in the empty air, while keeping part of his awareness on the changes within his body.

After completing one quarter of the word "Chaos," he still felt he had strength to spare. An unending torrent of spiritual power and vitality surged forth from the grotto-heavens, fueling the expenditure of the divine ability and keeping his body from collapsing under it.

Li Fan continued, completing half the word in an instant.

The soil throughout the underground chamber began to rise and tremble. Packed densely together like soldiers in formation, the particles seemed uniform at a glance. Yet on closer inspection each one vibrated at a completely different frequency, every particle caught in its own private chaos.

Li Fan narrowed his eyes. His finger stopped mid-air.

I understand now. Having stepped into the Nascent Soul realm, I no longer need to fear bodily damage. I can finally unleash this killing move in its entirety. Even so, I still cannot use it repeatedly without restraint. Otherwise...

He felt the slight tremor within his Five Elements Grotto-Heavens, and a flash of gravity passed through his eyes.

The power of "Chaos" is truly terrifying. Even I, the caster, possessing the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens, suffer such backlash. Upon contact, the Nascent Soul and grotto-heaven of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator would likely disintegrate.

I wonder whether a Spirit Transformation cultivator could withstand it.

"Chaos" was something Li Fan had comprehended within a Lost Domain. It was profoundly mysterious, and as his cultivation advanced he had grown increasingly aware of how extraordinary that single word truly was.

Even my clumsy imitation possesses such power. I can scarcely imagine how terrifying the true "Chaos" would be. It seems to surpass the limits of what any ordinary cultivator can wield. Could it be...

Li Fan frowned, sinking into silent contemplation. After a moment, he set the thought aside and turned his gaze to a new entry on Return to Truth's panel: the Reverse Five Elements Life-Death Sword.

The Reverse Five Elements Life-Death Sword was a divine ability Li Fan had arrived at through epiphany, born from watching the Heaven-Earth Root weave the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens and combined with the vision of five elements convergence from his previous life. It drew on the essence of the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword, carrying not only its devastating power to annihilate all things but also the capacity to create life from nothingness.

He summoned a crawling insect onto his palm, a creature caught in the aftermath of "Chaos" earlier, now on the verge of death. A gentle, milky-white light emanated from his hand and washed over it. A moment later, the insect recovered its vitality, struggled upright, and flew frantically from his palm.

Li Fan watched it go without particular interest. Reviving the near-dead is a minor art. Other healing techniques can achieve the same easily enough. The true power of the Reverse Five Elements Life-Death Sword lies in creation.

He retrieved a spirit stone from his storage ring and held it in his left hand. His right hand began to emit radiant light.

After a considerable time, the light faded. In his right hand, a spirit stone that looked identical to the one in his left slowly materialized.

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