With tears streaming down his face, the chubby figure collapsed to the ground with difficulty, begging the immortal master for mercy.
At that moment, Li Fan revealed himself.
"It seems that if outsiders intervene, the rules are invalid. Only if he wins by his own strength will it truly take effect," Li Fan thought.
He said nothing, merely locked eyes with the Fat Ball. An invisible force surged out, crushing the hundreds of thousands of wailing thoughts within the being's mind and converting them into conscious nourishment. Another round of "soul liposuction" followed.
Half a day later, the survivor awakened. His body had returned to a normal shape, and his consciousness—fortified by the minds of over 100,000 Fanyong Island residents—was now nearly comparable to a Nascent Soul monk.
"Jiang Nian'er," Li Fan's voice thundered inside the mind, pouring directly into his consciousness. "You, who occupied the land of heaven but wasted your days in idleness, have suffered this calamity as punishment. But I have seen your pitiful state, and I have come to save you."
"Thank… thank you, Immortal Master… thank you for saving me…" Jiang Nian'er sobbed, kowtowing until his forehead ached. Overwhelmed, he vowed with sincerity, "I will follow you, Immortal Master. I will serve you faithfully, like a beast of burden, to repay this mercy…"
Li Fan did not respond verbally. Instead, he said solemnly, "This is a disaster, yes, but also a great opportunity. You want to be my disciple? Not yet. For now, you are my Taoist boy. Your future will depend on your performance."
He gestured toward the immobile foundation-building monk.
"This is your test. Monks are divided into Qi Refining and Foundation-Building. This one is late-stage Foundation-Building. You must rely on your own strength—defeat him!"
Jiang Nian'er stiffened. He had only recently awakened to a fraction of immortal cultivation. How could he possibly hope to overcome a Foundation-Building monk who could fly, command wind and rain, and manipulate energy? And he had only fifteen days.
Li Fan, noticing his fear, smiled faintly. "Don't worry. I will not let you attempt meaningless death. Observe carefully."
He touched Jiang Nian'er's brow with his finger, transmitting the Golden Elixir Technique and a simplified set of formation introductions. "What I teach you is enough. But if you cannot digest it in fifteen days… then luck may favor him."
Panic surged in Jiang Nian'er's heart as he absorbed the teachings. Yet he did not despair. Over the next three days, he learned not only to perceive multiple things at once, but also to manage multiple techniques simultaneously, combining cultivation with the study of formations.
Li Fan observed silently. "Three days of Qi Refining… mediocre qualifications." He was not disappointed; Jiang Nian'er's goal was not to become a genius but to interact with the strange rules, to test the mechanics of identity devouring under Fanyong Island's peculiar powers.
By the fifteenth day, the moment of truth arrived.
"The deadline has come. Let's begin." Li Fan's voice cut through the stillness of the island, and the Foundation-Building monk instantly sensed it, summoning his own power.
A straight wooden staff materialized in the sky, locking onto Jiang Nian'er with terrifying speed, ready to crush him.
Yet just as the attack was about to land, the monk's eyes blurred. The target had vanished.
"What…?" the monk gasped, scanning the surroundings. Suddenly, he realized he was in a sea of bamboo, as though the desert island and his prior experience were illusions.
Outside the formation, Jiang Nian'er exhaled. Barely maintaining the Bamboo Sea Trapped Dragon Formation, he steadied himself, the faint glow of spiritual energy tracing the outlines of the intricate formation.
Before Li Fan released the restrictions on the foundation-building cultivator, Jiang Nian'er had already awakened from practice in advance. My mind was on high alert, and I began to repeat the formation process over and over again in my mind. Now that he has become a cultivator in the Qi Refining Stage, he knows very well that he cannot sustain a single move in front of an opponent in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Either the opponent kills him with one move, or… he sets up the formation before the opponent takes action!
In the face of life and death, Jiang Nian'er maximized her potential. Although it was the first time to set up the formation, it seemed to have been formed in an instant, as if it had been tempered thousands of times. Looking at his opponent who was confused and searching for a way out in the [Bamboo Sea Trapped Dragon Formation], Jiang Nian'er knew that he had already won half of this competition. Next, it depends on who can endure it better, you or the other person.
A trace of determination flashed in Jiang Nian'er's eyes, and she once again squeezed her potential. The speed of absorbing the spiritual energy of the surrounding world increased slightly.
"There are more than 100,000 people on the island, and I am the only one who has survived! How can I die here!""Even if you are a foundation-building cultivator, don't even think about defeating me!"
Jiang Nian'er suddenly felt a trace of anger in his heart. Correspondingly, the color of heaven and earth changed in the Dragon Formation trapped in the Bamboo Sea. Countless bamboo leaves were like green flying knives, whizzing toward the foundation-building cultivators.
…
"It seems that there is no big problem for him to win this battle."
Every change in Jiang Nian'er was clearly visible in Li Fan's eyes. While helping Jiang Nian'er reshape his body, Li Fan also filled his body with eyeliners. After all, we need to observe the process of strange devouring in detail, so how can we do it without some preparation in advance.
This fair duel did not last long. He is just an ordinary foundation-building cultivator, and it may have consumed all his energy just to exchange for the foundation-building technique. It can be seen that he knows nothing about the battle method. He was incompetent and furious in the trapped dragon formation for most of the day, and was finally completely defeated. Qi is like a gossamer, and death is not far away.
Jiang Nian'er did not ask Dao Integration to withdraw the formation directly. Instead, he looked at the opponent silently outside the formation:"I won this competition."
"Here we come…"
Li Fan was shocked. From the perspective of heaven and earth, he could clearly see that as Jiang Nian'er said these words, the originally silent darkness suddenly boiled up. Like an expanding shadow beast, it enveloped the foundation-building cultivators. Then completely engulfed them.
Jiang Nian'er's original body became a little blurry. The strange dark power completely connected him with the foundation-building cultivators. It was like a pair of giant hands, forcibly kneading them together.
A moment later… Jiang Nian'er disappeared on the spot. The foundation-building cultivator who had been dying in the formation suddenly flashed a light in his eyes. Like a dead tree blooming with spring, the aura in his body became a thousand times more prosperous.
He froze on the spot for a long time before digesting all the memories in the mind of the foundation-building cultivator.
"The weak eat the strong, this is the way of heaven and earth. Who let you lose…"
He murmured to himself, his eyes gradually changing from confusion to determination. Li Fan could see that in Jiang Nian'er's sea of consciousness, the consciousness belonging to the original foundation-building cultivator was like a ghost, wailing unwillingly. Apart from this, there was no other means of resistance. He was easily suppressed by Jiang Nian'er.
After getting familiar with his new body, Jiang Nian'er slowly stood up and waved his hand to remove the Trapped Dragon Formation. Then he slowly bowed before Li Fan.
"How do you feel about the strength of the foundation-building cultivators?" Li Fan asked with a smile on his face.
"Very strong. But compared to seniors…" Jiang Nian'er didn't dare to look up.
"Haha, you have this ability. All you have to do is devour it step by step. From foundation building to golden elixir to Nascent Soul…""Sooner or later, he will beat me."
As soon as Li Fan said these words, Jiang Nian'er felt as if he was struck by lightning, and his body trembled slightly, uncontrollably. Because these words were exactly what he was thinking deep in his heart just now! Jiang Nian'er's heart felt cold without saying anything that the younger generation didn't dare to say. He knew that his life depended on the other person's thoughts. Keep your forehead on the ground and don't dare to move.
I don't know how much time had passed, but Jiang Nian'er felt that all his clothes were soaked with cold sweat. At this time, Li Fan's voice was heard.
"Get up."
Jiang Nian'er felt relaxed and relieved.
"The higher the cultivation level of cultivators, the greater the gap between realms.""No one in the world can defeat the golden elixir by building foundations. But those who can defeat immortality by combining the Dao…""There is no such thing in ancient times. If you want to seek revenge from me, then go to the Immortal Realm first."
Jiang Nian'er felt like falling into an ice cave, and the joy of winning the duel completely dissipated in an instant.
"Immortality Realm…" These three big characters were like mountains and seas, and he couldn't breathe under the pressure.
After waiting for a long time, there was still no sound from the other party. Only then did Jiang Nian'er pluck up the courage and look up. I didn't know when, but the figure of the mysterious man had disappeared. Jiang Nian'er was startled and looked around. He was really the only one left on Fan Yong Island.
With his body exhausted, Jiang Nian'er sat down on the ground. Many things that had happened since the strange outbreak came to mind, ebbing and flowing. Eventually, it subsided.
"Wen Nianyu…""From now on, I am Wen Nianyu."
Jiang Nian'er first checked his belongings, and then flew away in the direction of Ten Thousand Immortals Island. At first, the flight path was a little crooked, but later it became a straight line and the speed increased rapidly.
…
Li Fan's figure slowly emerged."This kid has good adaptability.""Let him go back to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance first to see if his strange power will be noticed by the Immortal Alliance officials."
Just now, Li Fan had clearly seen the process of fusion and swallowing. In fact, Jiang Nian'er is no longer of much use to him. However, Li Fan had a vague feeling in his heart that maybe Jiang Nian'er's behavior and methods would bring him some surprises.
"Weird power is actually the law of heaven and earth, and it can also be used.""It has been used to make sky arrows before, and it can even have a large-scale impact on the mysterious network that has taken over the sky.""If it corresponds to the Heavenly Way of the Xuanhuang Realm, it means that the laws of nature are chaotic and weirdness is rampant in several states."
Li Fan, who found and completed a research target, did not leave Cong Yunhai immediately, but continued to travel among many places where weirdness broke out. Occasionally, he saw cultivators from Tianji Hall and Yanwu Hall of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance coming to deal with it, but most of them had fallen into deathly silence.
In the Cong Yunhai area, facing such a large-scale strange outbreak, it was obviously somewhat powerless. However, this situation improved with the return of Gongsun Qixuan.
Gongsun Qixuan, the person in charge of Cong Yunhai Tianji Hall. Frail and sickly, he looked like a scholar. He had been responsible for monitoring the strange situation in Cong Yunhai.