Looking forward to the path of transformation

“The Materials Jiao Xiuyuan used to make his Clone, did they come from Ruo Wood?”

With a thought, Li Fan held the withered Ruo Wood branch in his hand and carefully sensed it.

After a long while, he seemed to be deep in thought, then shook his head slightly.

“Similar but different, as if from the same source, yet with obvious distinctions.”

“Moreover, with Xiu Mu Daoist’s temperament of hating Cultivators so much, the possibility of him making a deal with Jiao Xiuyuan is unlikely.”

“So this is…”

Before Li Fan’s eyes, the scene of Ruo Wood being besieged by Cultivators, its trunk splitting open, and many branches falling from the sky suddenly flashed again.

“Perhaps, when these separated branches fell into the Xuanhuang World back then, they gained a completely new destiny.”

Plant vitality is always unexpectedly tenacious. It’s common for ordinary plants to regrow from broken branches.

Not to mention a unique existence like [Ruo Wood], which can even give birth to longevity fruit.

“However, it’s currently hard to judge whether Jiao Xiuyuan truly transformed from a fallen branch of Ruo Wood, or if he merely found the remnants of those branches and used them as Materials for refining his Clone.”

With a thought, the withered Ruo Wood branch in Li Fan’s hand suddenly sprouted a new bud.

In an instant, the new bud grew into a tender new branch.

Like a fruit, a small golden spherical object hung from the tip of the branch.

Li Fan’s eyes twitched.

This “golden fruit” was naturally the Golden Core that Xiu Mu Daoist had promised to give him as a bonus.

It was just that the method of storage was quite peculiar.

Li Fan reached out, intending to pluck the Golden Core.

A slight resistance came from the “fruit.”

Li Fan applied a little more force, and the Golden Core was successfully removed.

Due to the reaction, the new branch swung violently backward, then continued to sway in the air.

However, it didn't sway for long before it retracted back into the withered Ruo Wood branch with a whoosh.

Before Li Fan could think further, it emerged again, bringing another Golden Core with it.

Li Fan looked at the withered Ruo Wood branch, which seemed like a living creature, feeling somewhat solemn.

He didn't act rashly, but simply, like picking fruit, took down every Golden Core it produced, one after another.

It took nearly an incense stick’s worth of time.

A total of three hundred and seventy-two Golden Cores.

After all the Golden Cores were handed over, the withered Ruo Wood branch also completed its mission.

It turned into dust, scattering with the wind, leaving no trace.

During the process of “picking fruit,” Li Fan seemingly stored the Golden Cores in his storage ring, but in reality, he had already quietly begun to absorb them using [Huan Zhen].

As speculated earlier, a single-Law Golden Core only increased the anchor charging progress by 0.25%.

A dual-Law Golden Core, on the other hand, was 0.5%.

However, a triple-Law Golden Core had a qualitative leap. One could increase the progress by 2%.

But among these more than three hundred Golden Cores, triple-Law ones were a minority.

The vast majority were single-Law and dual-Law.

And there wasn't a single one with four or more Laws.

Therefore, when Li Fan completed the unlocking of the fifth anchor point, only sixteen specially selected Golden Cores remained.

However, Li Fan did not select them based on the number of Laws condensed in the Golden Core.

Instead, he made his judgment based on the rarity of the Golden Core’s Law.

For instance, some common Five Elements Laws were not as profound as what Li Fan himself had comprehended, so there was no need to preserve them.

However, some involved areas that Li Fan currently knew little about, and for Li Fan, who had just entered the Nascent Soul Realm, they were very valuable.

The entire Nascent Soul Realm is the process of cultivating and perfecting one’s own Cave Heaven Domain.

The more complete the Cave Heaven Domain, the stronger the combat power displayed by the Nascent Soul cultivator.

When one can make it almost identical to the external Xuanhuang World environment, one can then look forward to the Soul Transformation Realm.

Li Fan was not yet entirely clear on the specific details.

However, he had a rough idea of the general process.

The so-called extracting “heaven and earth spirit’s marrow to obtain its divine essence.”

Heaven’s marrow, as the name suggests, its function is roughly equivalent to human bone marrow.

The most important function of human marrow is blood production.

And heaven’s marrow, on the other hand, is Law creation.

The Laws of heaven and earth are like the blood in a human body, the cornerstone that maintains the stable existence of the world.

Without blood, a person dies; without Laws, heaven perishes.

By disguising one’s own Cave Heaven as the true environment of the Xuanhuang World, one deceives the instinctive Law-granting behavior of heaven’s marrow, thereby appropriating a trace of the Law that should have appeared in the world.

Of course, just as human marrow, besides its blood-producing function, also carries immune and defense mechanisms.

Heaven’s marrow also has certain counter-abilities.

Therefore, during the process of [extracting heaven’s marrow], one needs to be constantly wary of heaven and earth’s backlash.

Often, only one Law can be extracted at a time, and one must not be insatiably greedy, but rather act according to the appropriate amount.

If sacrificing the heaven and earth spirit is to openly possess Laws after gaining sufficient strength.

Then extracting heaven’s marrow is to secretly steal Laws when one’s strength is still weak.

It is a means of strengthening oneself and weakening the opponent, narrowing the gap between the two sides.

Thereby making ample preparations for the future Dao Integration process.

Now, standing at the cultivation level of the Nascent Soul Realm, Li Fan re-enacted the process of [extracting heaven’s marrow] in his mind, and indeed, compared to when he was in the Golden Core Realm, he had different, more profound insights.

“Chuan Fa, truly a Heaven-Defying talent.”

“Starting from feigning the wonders of heaven and earth, and peeking into the Laws of heaven and earth, he gradually transformed a Mortal who couldn’t Cultivate into someone capable of being 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, he narrowed the gap between heaven and earth and the self.”

“Sacrificing the heaven and earth spirit, he gained the power to contend with heaven and earth.”

“Finally, defying the principles of heaven and earth, replacing them, and eternally achieving longevity.”

“Step by step, with clear objectives…”

“Truly impossible to guard against. No wonder even with the might of heaven and earth, it suffered a complete defeat in front of the New Law Cultivators. It had no choice but to be forced to retaliate.”

Li Fan sighed again.

Looking back at these Cultivation steps again, Li Fan’s heart suddenly stirred, feeling that this process seemed very similar to something in his memory.

However, when he wanted to ponder it more carefully, the inspiration that had finally appeared in his mind suddenly vanished without a trace.

Even using the hua dao stone, he couldn’t recall it.

A feeling of wistful loss couldn’t help but surge into Li Fan’s heart.

“Strange…”

Li Fan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he instantly fell into contemplation.

He was almost certain that the Epiphany he just had, under normal circumstances, would not have disappeared so quickly.

It must have been influenced by some kind of power, causing that flicker of inspiration to vanish abruptly.

“Just like what I experienced in Senior Sister Zhao’s illusion.”

“Confined in a secret room, whenever I wanted to Cultivate, the walls of the secret room would deliberately emit noisy, mocking sounds, trying to prevent me from entering Cultivation and recovering my state.”

“And this kind of restriction in the Xuanhuang World is even more silent and unnoticed.”

“Celestial Venerable of Dharma Transmission, is it him…?”

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