Chapter 593: Gazing Upon The Path To Spirit Transformation

Was the material Jiao Xiuyuan used to craft his avatars sourced from the Ruomu Tree?

The thought stirred within Li Fan. He gripped the Ruomu Tree's withered branch and focused intently on perceiving it.

A long while passed. He seemed to glean something, and shook his head slightly.

Similar, yet different. They seem to share a lineage, but the distinction is clear.

Besides, given Daoist Rottenwood's profound hatred for cultivators, it’s unlikely he would have struck any deal with Jiao Xiuyuan.

So then, this is...

A scene flashed before Li Fan's eyes: the Ruomu Tree besieged by cultivators, its trunk splitting open, countless branches plummeting from the sky.

Perhaps, after those severed branches fell into the Xuanhuang World, they each met a new and independent fate.

The vitality of plants was surprisingly tenacious. Even common grasses and trees could often regrow broken branches, let alone a miraculous existence like the Ruomu Tree, which bore the Fruit of Eternal Life.

However, whether Jiao Xiuyuan truly transformed from a branch that fell from the Ruomu Tree, or simply came across one and used it as material for crafting his avatars, is difficult to determine for now.

At that thought, the withered branch in his hand suddenly sprouted a new bud.

In an instant, the bud swelled into a tender, fresh shoot.

A small golden sphere hung from its tip, as though it had borne fruit.

Li Fan's eyelid twitched.

That "golden fruit" was, of course, the Golden Core Daoist Rottenwood had promised to deliver. Just that the method of delivery was rather peculiar.

Li Fan reached out to pluck it.

The "fruit" resisted faintly.

He applied a little more force, and the Golden Core came free. The shoot, reacting to the pull, snapped back violently and swayed in the air. But it didn't remain for long. With a whoosh, it retracted into the withered branch.

Before Li Fan could consider what this meant, it emerged again, bearing another Golden Core.

A sense of gravity settled in Li Fan’s heart as he observed the withered branch’s animated behavior. He didn't act rashly. Instead, like picking fruit from an orchard, he plucked them one by one, taking every Golden Core it produced.

The process took nearly an incense stick's worth of time.

Three hundred and seventy-two in total.

Once all the Golden Cores had been delivered, the Ruomu branch had fulfilled its purpose. It crumbled into fine dust and scattered on the wind without a trace.

Throughout the "fruit-picking" process, while Li Fan appeared to store the Golden Cores in his storage ring, he had already quietly begun feeding them to Return to Truth.

As he had previously guessed, a Single-Law Golden Core increased the charging progress of the next anchor point by only 0.25%. A Two-Law Golden Core increased it by 0.5%. A Three-Law Golden Core, however, represented a qualitative leap. A single one could advance the progress by 2%.

But among these three hundred-odd cores, Three-Law ones were the minority. The vast majority were Single-Law and Two-Law. Not one had four laws or more.

By the time Li Fan successfully unlocked the fifth anchor point, only sixteen carefully selected Golden Cores remained.

His selection criteria had nothing to do with the number of laws condensed within a core. He judged them by the rarity of the laws they embodied.

Common laws like the laws of the five elements, which were less profound than what Li Fan himself had already comprehended, held no value worth preserving. The ones he kept pertained to laws he currently understood little about, and for someone who had just advanced to the Nascent Soul realm, those were quite valuable.

Cultivation at the Nascent Soul realm was the process of nurturing and perfecting one's own grotto-heaven domain. The more complete the grotto-heaven, the greater the combat power a Nascent Soul cultivator could display. When the environment within one's grotto-heaven could be made nearly identical to the external Xuanhuang World, the path toward the Spirit Transformation realm would open.

Li Fan did not yet know all the specifics, but he had a rough grasp of the general process. It was called "extracting the marrow of heaven and earth to obtain its spirit."

The marrow of heaven functioned, as the name implied, much like marrow within a human body. The most crucial function of human marrow was hematopoiesis—the creation of blood. The marrow of heaven created laws.

The laws of heaven and earth were like blood within a human body. They formed the cornerstone that maintained the stable existence of the world. A person dies without blood; heaven perishes without laws.

By disguising one's grotto-heaven as the true environment of the Xuanhuang World, one could deceive the marrow of heaven's instinctive law-bestowing behavior, thereby appropriating for oneself the laws that should have appeared in the world.

Of course, just as human marrow possessed immune and defensive mechanisms, the marrow of heaven possessed certain countermeasures as well. Therefore, during the process of extracting the marrow of heaven, one had to remain constantly vigilant against backlash from heaven and earth. Only one type of law could be extracted at a time, and one must not be greedy; it had to be done with measured restraint.

If sacrificing the soul of heaven and earth was the act of openly claiming laws for oneself after achieving sufficient strength, then extracting the marrow was the act of secretly pilfering those laws while one's strength was still weak.

It was a method of strengthening oneself while weakening the opponent, narrowing the gap between the two, and laying ample preparation for the future process of Dao Unity.

Now standing at the Nascent Soul realm, Li Fan mentally rehearsed the process of extracting the marrow of heaven once more. Compared to his understanding during the Golden Core realm, he now possessed markedly deeper insights.

The Dao Teacher truly is a heaven-sent genius. Li Fan mused inwardly.

Starting from borrowing the Curios of heaven and earth and peering into the laws of heaven and earth, a mortal incapable of cultivation is transformed, step by step, into someone who could be integrated into the entire cultivation system of heaven and earth.

Then, through seizing the essence of heaven and earth and extracting the marrow of heaven and earth, one narrows the gap between heaven and earth and the self.

Sacrificing the soul of heaven and earth grants one the power to contend with heaven and earth. Finally, by defying the principles of heaven and earth, one can replace them and attain eternal life.

Each step has a clear purpose... It's truly impossible to guard against. No wonder even with heaven and earth’s might, it suffered a crushing defeat before the practitioners of the new methodology and was forced to retaliate.

Li Fan sighed in admiration.

Then, as he looked back over these cultivation steps, his heart stirred. The process seemed remarkably similar to something in his memory. But the moment he reached for the thought more deliberately, that hard-won flash of inspiration vanished from his mind. Even the Dao Transformation Stone failed to jolt it back.

A feeling of loss settled over him.

Strange...

Li Fan narrowed his eyes and sank into deep thought. He was almost certain that under normal circumstances, such a sudden insight would not have dissipated so quickly. Some force must have influenced it, severing that thread of inspiration before it could take hold.

Just like what I experienced in Senior Sister Zhao's illusion. Locked in that sealed chamber, whenever I tried to cultivate, the walls would deliberately erupt with clamorous, mocking noises to prevent me from entering a meditative state.

But the shackles of the Xuanhuang World are far more subtle, going entirely unnoticed.

Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher... is it you?

Li Fan looked up at the sky, his expression unreadable.

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