Under the impact of the shockwave, Li Fan felt like a withered leaf blown uncontrollably by the fierce wind and was blasted hundreds of miles away before he could barely steady himself.
Fortunately, this shockwave was just for show and didn’t have any real destructive power.
It was as if the power was restrained, only stirring up a huge wave that spread throughout the Cong Yun Sea, without causing any other damage.
It felt like all thunder but little lightning.
But Li Fan didn’t dare to take it lightly at all. This kind of ultimate control over power was even more indicative of the other’s terrifying strength.
The lock-on of the Formless Killing Intent had disappeared, and obviously, the unlucky cultivator had unfortunately died in the fight between the two masters.
But Li Fan was undeterred, and on the contrary, he flew back towards the direction of Cloud Water Heavenly Palace.
Soon, he could see Cloud Water Heavenly Palace again.
Only now, the huge blue transparent building was stained with a layer of black.
Above, dark thick clouds gathered and thunder rumbled continuously.
A huge whirlpool appeared above Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, seemingly wanting to swallow this recently unsealed building again.
The entire sky shook and trembled, the continuous buildings tilted, slowly collapsing towards the center of the whirlpool.
There seemed to be unwilling, angry howls coming out of Cloud Water Heavenly Palace.
But they could not change the reality of its slow disappearance.
After a while, this sect that had only reappeared in this world for a little over five years disappeared again from this land.
Soon after, the dark thunderclouds also gradually dispersed.
The sky and the sea quickly regained the calm scene of light clouds and gentle breeze.
“Cloud Water Heavenly Palace is sealed again? This didn’t happen in my previous life.”
“Is it because of the statue of the Heavenly Doctor that I delivered?”
In that instant, many thoughts flashed through Li Fan’s mind.
“So in my previous life, Sikong Yi privately kept the small carving and didn’t deliver it to Cloud Water Heavenly Palace?”
“He dared to do that? Unafraid of death by virtue of the Sun Stealing Token?”
“No, there’s another possibility. The Heavenly Doctor didn’t give the white statue to Sikong Yi.”
“But he gave it to my clone Fan Lin…”
“If that’s really the case, did he notice something?”
The bizarre wailing scene in Cloud Water Heavenly Palace appeared in his mind again, and Li Fan was also full of doubts.
“What exactly did the Heavenly Doctor do that caused such resentment against him from the entirety of the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace…”
Li Fan recalled the first time he met the Heavenly Doctor.
“I’m just a stubborn old man who should have died but didn’t.”
“…Use this carving to accompany them instead of me…”
When the Heavenly Doctor said these words, his expression was regretful and full of emotion, not at all insincere.
But the more so, the more Li Fan felt a chill in his heart.
“No matter what, this one called Heavenly Doctor is too dangerous. His strength far exceeds my previous estimates. My clone has already appeared in his sights, so my true self must never contact him again.”
“After all, this world is not a static system. Unintentional actions can often lead to many unexpected changes.”
“In the future, I still need to be more careful and prudent.”
“And that sword…”
“Just what other secrets are still hidden in this Cong Yun Sea?” Li Fan sighed and lost the mood to wander around anymore, hurriedly returning to Ten Thousand Immortals Island.
In the Tianxuan Mirror, he searched for more information related to “Heavenly Doctor” and “Master”, but there were only some recent discussions among cultivators.
No valuable information at all.
Li Fan was not surprised.
In the following period of time, Li Fan resumed the leisurely life he had on the island before.
Occasionally when he discovered cultivators on the island who were about to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage, he would use the Formless Killing Intent to lock onto them, using it to comprehend and accumulate the true meaning of Foundation Establishment.
He also took on some tasks from time to time to accumulate contribution points.
He planned to exchange for Heavenly Treasures in the Tianxuan Mirror, then use them to empower [Truth], to unlock the second anchor point.
He already had a rough plan in mind for how to specifically use the second anchor point.
The specifics would have to wait until after it was unlocked.
Monotonous cultivation was not the entirety of a cultivator’s life.
The vast majority of cultivators were not madmen like Zhang Haobo who cultivated 24 hours a day.
They also had their own hobbies and leisure pastimes.
In the Cong Yun Sea, the most popular one was undoubtedly gambling on fish.
On the northwest border of the Cong Yun Sea, there was a solitary island surrounded on all sides by steep cliffs.
Seawater flowed up along the cliffs, against the current, converging in a lake at the center of the island.
Once a month, when the accumulated water in the lake reached its peak, it would burst up towards the sky, pouring the seawater back into the sea.
At this time, countless fish would be carried up, leaping in the air.
And among them, there would definitely be one fish that leaped the highest.
A few years ago, a passing cultivator happened to see this wondrous spectacle and was struck by inspiration.
He refined all the other fish in the lake into spiritual energy and fed it to the fish that leaped the highest.
That fish thus underwent metamorphosis, becoming as strong as a demonic beast, and returned to the sea.
Ever since then, more and more fish gathered in the lake on this lonely island.
Later, this cultivator had a dispute with a friend over the ownership of a treasure.
He remembered this place again and proposed that the two of them each choose a fish from the lake as their representative.
See whose fish leaped higher when the lake water erupted, and the treasure would belong to that person.
His friend thought it was interesting, so he agreed.
This move by the two attracted a few other interested cultivators, who also placed bets and joined in.
They also set up formations around the island to prevent powerful sea beasts from accidentally entering.
They would observe and select their preferred fish within 27 days. In the 3 days before the lake erupted, they had to finalize their choice, no further changes allowed.
The winner takes all, whoever’s selected fish leaped the highest would obtain all the other cultivators’ bets.
And if one was fortunate enough to select the fish that leaped the highest among all, it would be considered a jackpot, with double the winnings.
One had to rely entirely on one’s spiritual sense to subtly observe and select the representative fish, and couldn’t enhance it with spiritual energy. Once cheating was discovered, the other cultivators would jointly execute them.
After the end of the game, all the other fish will be refined into spiritual energy to feed the “fish king”.
…
In the end, the cultivator’s selected fish only ranked second, and he painfully lost the treasure.
But this person was not heartbroken, believing that he had just misjudged, and had found the trick to it.
So they agreed to come here again next month to have a final showdown.
The other cultivators all loudly agreed.
And so, this “fish gambling” gradually attracted more and more cultivators to participate.
Later when there were more people, the rules were slightly adjusted.
A prize pool was added.
Half of each bet went to the reward for the current round, and the other half went to the prize pool.
First place had the biggest prize, and second to tenth places were minor prizes.
The jackpot was split in half, with the first place taking half and the minor places splitting the other half evenly.
And if someone guessed the fish king, they would take all the rewards.
At the end of each year, the accumulated prize pool would be emptied out all at once, producing a super grand prize.