Chapter 331: Changes in Heaven and Earth
After some thought, Li Fan didn't directly ask He Zhenghao.
Instead, he sent a message to Daoist Jingxuan.
As He Zhenghao's immediate superior, Daoist Jingxuan held a higher position.
If Lu Junyi were promoted to become the Chief Commander, he would benefit greatly.
Daoist Jingxuan didn't respond immediately, and Li Fan didn't urge him either.
Next, he checked on the matter of the bounty offered for life-extending treasures rewarded by Immortal Sage Jicheng.
There were only eight months left until the three-year deadline.
According to rumors, apart from the clear winner, the Longevity Fruit which could extend life by five hundred years, competition was fierce.
It had reached the point where professional cultivators were asked to identify the exact time of the life extension, down to the month.
"My Longevity Fruit only extends life by three hundred years..." Li Fan sighed inwardly.
The opportunity to use the Technique Derivation Jade was too tempting, and the competition was beyond imagination.
"It's a bit of a stretch to succeed. But finding another life-extending treasure is impossible now."
"I can only rely on fate."
Closing the information from the Tianxuan Mirror, Li Fan suppressed his distractions, settled his mind, and began his intense cultivation.
However, shortly after he entered seclusion, Li Fan's progress was unexpectedly interrupted by a surge of feedback in his cultivation.
Though not as abundant as when He Zhenghao and Su Xiaomei broke through to the Golden Core stage, it was still a pleasant surprise for Li Fan, greatly accelerating his progress to the mid Golden Core stage.
"What's this..."
After sensing it for a moment, Li Fan was somewhat surprised.
"Xue Mu?"
"He actually gained something from his visit to the Mortal Transcendence Wall?"
"Judging from the quantity of his cultivation feedback, he's at least a Three Law Golden Core?"
"Interesting. The Mortal Transcendence Wall is indeed well-deserving of its reputation. It seems worth taking a look after dealing with the current matters."
While Li Fan was silently pondering, Xue Mu's ecstatic message arrived.
"Haha, fellow Daoist Li Fan, I've done it!"
"I really have to thank you. If it weren't for the miraculous spectacle you recommended, how could I have achieved the Three Law Golden Core?"
"I'll never forget your kindness, fellow Daoist!"
...
Li Fan smiled faintly without responding.
"Your diligent cultivation is the best repayment to me."
Li Fan said to himself inwardly.
Putting away the communication talisman, Li Fan resumed his cultivation.
Unexpectedly, just over two months later, he was once again disturbed by a powerful surge of cultivation feedback, forcing him to stop his cultivation.
This surge of feedback was several times greater than what Xue Mu had brought.
Clearly, this person had a deeper connection with Li Fan.
"This is... Xiao Heng?"
"Has he broken through to the mid Golden Core stage?"
Feeling the connection faintly, Li Fan was somewhat surprised.
"He should be in Shilin Province right now. It's a pity it's too far to use the Formless Killing Intent to check."
"To break through again so quickly, he must have encountered some opportunity."
With another boost, the difficulty of advancing was reduced once more.
"It seems that achieving perfection stage Golden Core before the deadline shouldn't be a problem."
"I just don't know if there will be any trouble with the minor realm's bottleneck."
With a hint of excitement, Li Fan immersed himself in cultivation once more.
However, what happened in the following months, despite bringing Li Fan abundant gains, unexpectedly stirred up a sense of unease in his heart.
Because apart from Xue Mu and Xiao Heng...
In the past half year, apart from Su Xiaomei and Zhang Haobo, who disappeared in the Chao Yuan Sect ruins, He Zhenghao, the Yin sisters, and even Zhang Haobo and Su Changyu all broke through successively.
Su Changyu intended to cultivate using the method of "Self Foundation."
The amount of cultivation he returned this time was far from that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Could it be that he somehow succeeded in "Self Foundation"?
Master Yin dissected hundreds of his own bodies but only succeeded partially.
When did Su Changyu's aptitude become so good?
What's more, what Li Fan was more concerned about was...
If one or two cultivators broke through simultaneously, it could be explained by coincidence.
But the large-scale occurrence of cultivators breaking through realms in such a short time period made Li Fan suspect that something inexplicable was happening.
To verify his guess, Li Fan couldn't care less about cultivation.
In the Tianxuan Mirror, he began to poke around and search for information.
Using "breakthrough" as a keyword, Li Fan found that in the past year, the information that appeared was indeed much denser than before.
There were signs of an outburst.
In the excited words of the cultivators, Li Fan learned that when they broke through this time, the vast majority of them were fortunate enough to not encounter the bottleneck of Heavenly Tribulation.
After their cultivation level was full, they naturally ascended successfully.
And this phenomenon is not isolated.
Even many cultivators who had been trapped in bottlenecks for many years broke through realms inexplicably.
"Cultivation seems to have become easier."
Many cultivators said so.
Because there were too many low-level cultivators, many cultivators had not yet broken through.
Thus, the vast majority of people just regarded their words as showing off after a successful breakthrough.
They did not take it seriously.
But Li Fan didn't think so.
"Could it be that the eagerness of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance to build the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation has something to do with this matter?"
Li Fan couldn't help but link these two things together.
The number of cultivators could not be too many or too few.
Through the task of hunting the red-haired beasts on the island before, Li Fan understood that the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance deliberately controlled the number of cultivators under its command.
The rush to build the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation meant that something that could influence, or even subvert, the rule of the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation was about to happen.
In order to maintain their stability, they had to take such extreme measures.
"Heaven and earth are experiencing strange changes, and the number of cultivators is about to go out of control?"
Li Fan squinted his eyes.
If the speculation was true, then it could be foreseen that in the near future, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Association would definitely start to drastically reduce the number of cultivators through various means.
A plain massacre was probably impossible.
It could be another war.
Or it could be...
As if thinking of something, Li Fan's heart suddenly felt cold.
He stood up straight, as if in a harsh winter.
In the propaganda of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, the establishment of the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation was to expose the spies lurking from the Five Elders Association.
The actual effect of the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation had been fully verified in the Jiushan Province.
Cultivators had great trust in its miraculous effects.
And when the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation was completed, with the appearance of those pillars of light that penetrated the heavens and earth, all spies would have nowhere to hide.
But...
The formation core of the Tianxuan Spirit Lock Formation was the Tianxuan Mirror that had consciousness.
What if the Tianxuan Mirror intentionally marked pure Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance cultivators as Five Elders Association cultivators?
Under the cover of the pillars of light, would other cultivators believe that you were innocent?
The more Li Fan thought about it, the colder his heart became.
A plain massacre might be imminent.