Chapter 67 – Determined to Cultivate the Phantom Art
by spirapiraChapter 67 – Determined to Cultivate the Phantom Art
Third: If you wish to explore the bizarre, gather as many people as possible.
The most effective method for figuring out the rules of the bizarre is to throw lives at it.
Trust yourself — you definitely won’t be the first one to die!
……
Li Fan read through 《The Sect Ruins Survival Guide》 carefully and felt that the hundred contribution points had been well spent.
With this experience, he would be much more confident when exploring the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace in two years.
In his previous life, after word spread that Si Kongyi had discovered 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 in the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace and earned a hundred thousand contribution points, it ignited the passion of the Layered Cloud Sea cultivators for exploring the palace.
Although 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 had already been taken, still…
The Cloud-Water Celestial Palace was so vast — surely 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 couldn’t be the only treasure inside?
With precisely this reasoning, cultivators of the Layered Cloud Sea surged toward the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace one after another, heedless of death.
Even rogue cultivators from distant continents came, drawn by its reputation.
And their thinking wasn’t wrong.
In his previous life, all the way up to Anchor Year 27 — the year Li Fan had been at the Qi Refining stage — the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace still hadn’t been fully explored.
From time to time, news would emerge of cultivators obtaining treasures from within, drawing the envy of all.
And precisely because so many people were constantly exploring, the rules governing most of the bizarre phenomena inside the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace had long since ceased to be secrets.
Li Fan had heard about them in his previous life.
However…
As for how exactly 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 had been obtained by Si Kongyi, opinions had always varied, with no definitive answer.
Therefore, if Li Fan wanted to claim 《The Cloud-Water Chart》 in this life, the best approach would be to secretly follow Si Kongyi and intercept it just as he was about to succeed.
There were still two years before the Cloud-Water Celestial Palace opened. He could first secretly gather all sorts of information about Si Kongyi, so as to know both himself and his enemy.
At the same time, he needed to improve his own strength as much as possible.
Li Fan turned his attention to the collection of Qi Refining stage combat techniques within the Celestial Mystery Mirror.
Combat techniques were priced considerably higher than ordinary techniques.
The Minor Ripple Water Art that Li Fan had previously cultivated cost only 1,200 contribution points.
But combat techniques generally cost around 1,500 points.
Li Fan quickly browsed through the technique descriptions, selecting one suited to himself.
《Flowing Water Sword Art》, 《Minor Astral Wind Sword》, 《Crimson Meteor》…
Suddenly, Li Fan’s gaze stopped on a particular technique.
《Nether Spirit Illusion Art》.
After reading the technique’s description several times over carefully, Li Fan’s heart raced with excitement.
According to the description, this was a technique focused on illusion arts.
By visualizing and cultivating a “phantom spirit” within one’s mind, one could release this phantom spirit when facing enemies to confuse and bewilder them.
Once the phantom spirit grew powerful enough, it could even burrow into another person’s sea of consciousness and launch a direct spiritual sense attack.
This technique seemed tailor-made for him!
He didn’t know exactly how his spiritual sense compared to other cultivators, but after cycling through hundreds of years of reincarnation, combined with the augmentation of the Xuanhuang Heart-refining Mantra, it surely couldn’t be too weak.
Furthermore, regarding the visualization and cultivation of a “phantom spirit” —
A crimson figure inexplicably appeared in Li Fan’s mind.
If he used Crimson Flame as the prototype for his visualization, the resulting phantom spirit should be quite formidable.
Li Fan pondered this privately and decided on the spot to purchase this technique.
But the price…
Li Fan took a look and his eyelids twitched.
2,500 points! That was nearly the price of a lower-grade Foundation Establishment technique!
No wonder this technique looked so powerful yet remained listed here, completely ignored.
In truth, Li Fan had misjudged this particular point.
The reason the Nether Spirit Illusion Art was priced so high was simply because illusion-type techniques were relatively rare — not because it was especially powerful.
In the current cultivation world, the vast majority of cultivators had roughly similar levels of spiritual sense strength.
After all, even before the Great Calamity descended, techniques specializing in strengthening spiritual sense had been rather scarce.
Let alone now, when immortal arts could no longer be dual-cultivated.
Without methods to strengthen and enhance spiritual sense, the vast majority of cultivators’ spiritual sense remained at roughly the same level.
Under such circumstances, very few would choose to use spiritual sense to attack others.
Because doing so typically meant mutual destruction.
This was also why other cultivators viewed the Nether Spirit Illusion Art as rather mediocre.
When all was said and done, it was merely a phantom art.
It was a method for using spiritual sense, not for enhancing it.
If one didn’t dare employ spiritual sense attacks lightly, who would be willing to spend 2,500 contribution points just for some illusion tricks?
It was precisely because Li Fan possessed the Xuanhuang Heart-refining Mantra, and had personally witnessed the form of the Spirit of Heaven and Earth, Crimson Flame, that his path aligned so well with the Dao of visualizing a “phantom spirit.”
Thus, the Nether Spirit Illusion Art could unleash many times its normal effectiveness in his hands.
Regardless, Li Fan ultimately gritted his teeth and purchased the Nether Spirit Illusion Art.
In the blink of an eye, his contribution points dropped to just 1,321.
Contribution points came fast, but went even faster! He had originally wanted to purchase an escape technique as well, but he was already running short, so that would have to wait.
The most urgent priority was to first cultivate the Nether Spirit Illusion Art to the late Qi Refining stage.
Activating the Celestial Mystery Mirror’s assisted cultivation mode and placing the Exquisite Glazed Pearl beside him, Li Fan began his cultivation.
His mind clear as a still mirror, the profound and abstruse characters of the technique became as easy to understand as an elementary school textbook under Li Fan’s dual augmentation.
The pure cultivation base within his dantian, refined from the Minor Ripple Water Art, became nourishment that propelled the Nether Spirit Illusion Art’s cultivation progress skyward like a rocket.
In less than a single day, the Nether Spirit Illusion Art had already reached the mid Qi Refining stage.
Upon reaching the mid Qi Refining stage, he could begin visualizing the “phantom spirit” in his mind.
Although it was called a phantom spirit, the subject of visualization couldn’t be fabricated from nothing.
It had to be based on something that truly existed in the cultivation world.
Thoughts flowed slowly as scenes from the past surfaced one by one before his eyes.
Li Fan felt as though he had returned to that moment in his previous life when he had witnessed Crimson Flame burning the sea.
A spectral image gradually took shape within Li Fan’s sea of consciousness.
Even though this spectral image had yet to fully form, Li Fan suddenly felt his body temperature rising sharply.
Sweat poured down his entire body like rain.
Li Fan furrowed his brow and forcefully circulated the Heart Refining Mantra to suppress the searing sensation.
He continued visualizing Crimson Flame’s form.
As the Crimson Flame phantom spirit slowly took shape, Li Fan’s body temperature climbed higher and higher.
If before it had been like standing in a desert under the blazing sun, now it felt as though he were being roasted over an open fire.
As Li Fan continued his visualization, the scorching sensation grew ever more terrifying.
Finally, when the temperature reached a critical limit, the clothes on Li Fan’s body spontaneously burst into flames without any fire touching them.
“Pff!”
Unable to maintain the visualization state any longer, the spectral image within his sea of consciousness instantly dissipated.
Li Fan violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.
The blood seemed to radiate an extremely high temperature as well — before it could even splash onto the ground, it turned into a puff of white steam and evaporated.
Li Fan wiped the bloodstain from the corner of his mouth, undiscouraged.
He purchased a healing pill from the Celestial Mystery Mirror, rested for a moment, and then resumed his visualization.