Chapter 331: The World is in Trouble Again

After some thought, Li Fan did not directly question He Zhenghao.

Instead, he sent a message to Fellow Daoist Jingxuan.

As He Zhenghao's direct superior, his status was far above He Zhenghao's.

If Lu Junyi was promoted to Chief Commander, he should have benefited greatly.

Jingxuan did not respond for a while, and Li Fan did not rush him.

Next, he checked the matter of Immortal Venerable Jicheng offering rewards for longevity treasures.

Only about eight months remained until the three-year deadline.

According to unofficial rumors circulating among the people, apart from the already clear longevity fruit, which could extend life by five hundred years and was almost certainly in first place, the competition below was extremely fierce.

It had reached the point where professional Cultivators were invited to identify and confirm the exact duration of life extension, precise to the month.

“The Lifespan Transformation Fruit only grants three hundred years…” Li Fan sighed inwardly.

The Opportunity to use the derivation law jade was too tempting, and the fierceness of the competition was truly beyond imagination.

“It’s a bit of a stretch. But it’s impossible to find another longevity treasure now.”

“I can only see what fate holds in this life.”

Closing the tianxuan mirror information, Li Fan suppressed his distracting thoughts, settled his mind, and began cultivating in a state of self-forgetfulness.

However, shortly after entering seclusion, Li Fan was interrupted by a sudden burst of feedback Cultivation.

It was continuous and endless, though not as much as the feedback from He Zhenghao, Su Xiaomei, and others when they broke through to Golden Core previously.

But for Li Fan at this moment, it was definitely a pleasant surprise, greatly accelerating his progress toward breaking through to Golden Core Middle Stage.

“This is…” After sensing for a moment, Li Fan was somewhat surprised.

“Xue Mu?”

“He went to observe the Transformation into God Wall and actually gained something?”

“Judging from the amount of feedback Cultivation, he must have achieved at least a Three-Law Golden Core?”

“Interesting. Transformation into God Wall truly lives up to its name. It seems that after this matter is settled, I can indeed go and observe it.”

While Li Fan was secretly contemplating, he received an ecstatic message from Xue Mu.

“Haha, Fellow Daoist Li Fan, it’s done!”

“I really have to thank you. If it weren’t for your recommendation of this wonder where myriad laws resonate, how could I have achieved Golden Core with three laws?”

“Your kindness, Fellow Daoist, I will never forget!”

Li Fan smiled slightly, but did not respond.

“Your diligent Cultivation is the best repayment to me,” Li Fan said to himself.

Putting away the communication talisman, Li Fan once again calmly Cultivated.

Unexpectedly, after only two more months, he was once again disturbed by a powerful surge of feedback Cultivation, forcing him to stop Cultivating.

This feedback Cultivation was several times greater than what Xue Mu brought.

Clearly, this person had a deeper bond with Li Fan.

“This is Xiao Heng?”

“He broke through to Golden Core Middle Stage?”

Feeling the connection from the ethereal Realm, Li Fan was pleasantly surprised.

“He should be in Shi Lin Province right now. Unfortunately, the distance is too great, so I can’t use Formless Killing Intent to check.”

“Breaking through again so quickly, he must have encountered some Opportunity.”

With another boost, the difficulty requirement for promotion was further reduced.

“It seems that reaching the Golden Core Early Stage Perfection before the deadline should not be a problem.”

“I just don’t know if the Heaven’s Calamity Bottleneck for this minor Realm will be troublesome.”

Li Fan, with a hint of excitement, once again immersed himself in Cultivation.

However, the events of the next few months, while bringing Li Fan a great harvest, also filled his heart with an inexplicable sense of dread.

Because besides Xue Mu and Xiao Heng, in the past half year, apart from Su Xiaomei and Zhang Haobo who disappeared in the Chaoyuan Sect Ruins, He Zhenghao, the Yin Sisters, and even Zhao Dabao and Su Changyu, all successively broke through.

One must know that Su Changyu was planning to Cultivate using the Foundation Establishment with Myself method.

The amount of Cultivation he fed back this time was far from that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Could it be that he successfully achieved Foundation Establishment with Myself?

Yin Shangren dissected hundreds of his own corpses and only succeeded halfway.

When did Su Changyu’s Aptitude become so good?

Moreover, what concerned Li Fan even more was that if one or two Cultivators breaking through at the same time could be explained by coincidence, then the large-scale phenomenon of Cultivators breaking through their Realm in such a short period of time made Li Fan suspect that some unknown change was occurring.

To verify his guess, Li Fan no longer cared about Cultivating.

He began to inquire and search for information in the tianxuan mirror.

Using “Breakthrough” as a keyword, Li Fan found that the information appearing in the past year was indeed much denser than before.

There was even a sign of a surge.

In the excited words of the Cultivators, Li Fan learned that most of them had fortunately not encountered the Heaven's Calamity Bottleneck during their Breakthroughs this time.

After their Cultivation was full, they naturally and smoothly succeeded in advancing.

And this phenomenon was not an isolated case.

Even many Cultivators who had been trapped in Bottlenecks for years inexplicably broke through their Realm.

“Cultivation seems to have become easier,” many Cultivators said.

Because the number of low-level Cultivators was too large, many Cultivators still had not broken through and advanced.

So most people only took their words as boasting after successful Breakthroughs.

They didn’t take it to heart.

But Li Fan didn’t think so.

“Could it be that the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance’s urgency in building the Tianxuan Locking Spirit Formation is related to this matter?”

Li Fan couldn’t help but connect these two events.

The number of Cultivators should not be too many, nor too few.

Through the previous mission of hunting the Red-haired Exotic Beast on the Barren Island, Li Fan understood that the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was intentionally controlling the number of Cultivators under its command.

And the urgency to build the Tianxuan Locking Spirit Formation meant that something that could affect, or even subvert, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance’s rule was about to happen.

To maintain its own stability, it had no choice but to adopt such an extreme Formation.

“The world is changing again, and the number of Cultivators is about to get out of control?” Li Fan narrowed his eyes.

If the guess was true, then it was almost foreseeable that in the near future, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Old Men Association would definitely begin to massively reduce the number of Cultivators through various means.

An overt massacre should be impossible.

It might be another war.

It might also be… As if thinking of something, Li Fan’s heart suddenly turned cold.

He stood up straight, feeling as if he had fallen into a bitter winter.

In the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance’s propaganda, the establishment of the Tianxuan Locking Spirit Formation was to expose the spies lurking within the Five Old Men Association.

The actual effect of the Tianxuan Locking Spirit Formation had been fully verified in Nine Mountains Province.

Cultivators had extreme trust in its miraculous efficacy.

And when the Lock Spirit Array was completed, with the appearance of those pillars of light piercing through heaven and earth, all spies would have nowhere to hide.

But… The core Array Pivot of the Tianxuan Locking Spirit Formation was the Tianxuan Mirror, which possessed its own will.

What if the tianxuan mirror intentionally marked pure Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance Cultivators as Five Old Men Association Cultivators?

Under the shroud of the light pillars, would other Cultivators believe that you were innocent?

The more Li Fan thought about it, the colder his heart became.

A righteous massacre might be about to arrive.