Chapter 675: Heart’s Desire Aids Heart Refinement

Hearing the Tianxuan Mirror's warning, Li Fan's eyes narrowed.

The Immortal Ascension Heart’s-Desire Pill only ranks 3674th in danger level? What in the world have the cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Alliance been cooking up all these years?

One of his earlier plans had fallen through, but Li Fan felt no real surprise.

The Myriad Immortals Alliance valued stability above all else. Any item capable of stirring chaos would inevitably be tightly controlled.

Just imagine—what devastation could a cultivator at Dao Unity cause while addicted to the Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill?

It would be abnormal if the pill weren't banned.

"What rotten luck! It's actually a damned contraband item." Inside the Tianxuan Mirror, Li Fan scowled.

"Still, I went through a lot of trouble to get this thing. Rather than destroy it..."

A glint of ruthlessness crossed his eyes.

"I might as well swallow it myself!"

He mimed tossing the pill into his mouth right in front of the Tianxuan Mirror, ready to devour it whole.

"Warning: consuming the Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill will result in imprisonment and detoxification for a period commensurate with the cultivator's latent threat level. This process will cause irreversible damage to the cultivator's body and mind.

"Warning..."

Li Fan's body stiffened. The motion of swallowing halted on the spot.

Cursing under his breath, he crushed the pill to dust in his hand.

"Satisfied now?!

"No. I can't let this insult go. That bastard tricked me. I'm going to settle accounts with him!"

Growing angrier the more he thought about it, Li Fan stepped out of the Tianxuan Mirror, left Luoyan City, and flew deep into the wilderness.

Only when he reached a remote, uninhabited spot, and confirmed no one had followed, did he stop.

He turned into a streak of flying light, burrowed into the earth, and carved out a hidden chamber with practiced skill.

In his palm, was a small amount of the pill powder he had deliberately saved. An instant later, a reconstituted miniature Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill, dozens of times smaller than the original, sat in his hand.

He split it in two and swallowed one half.

This was not because he was seized by cravings for the drug, but to verify a certain suspicion.

The miniature pill dissolved on his tongue and spread through his body like a warm current. His head spun with a faint dizziness, and in that haze, Li Fan felt as if he had returned to the moment he contemplated the Dao while using the Man's Dao Stardust, beholding the vast, interwoven net of heaven and earth.

This time it was a hundred times clearer.

It felt close enough to touch, within arm's reach. The ultimate principles of heaven and earth lay bare before him, revealed without reservation.

His eyes widened, straining to see it all.

Then the drug's effect faded.

The scene before him shattered like a reflection in a mirror and vanished without a trace.

An indescribable hollowness surged into his heart.

Damn it, I was so close! The principles of heaven and earth were right there!

Quick, I need to tell Liu San to refine more of this stuff.

Thoughts like these swept through his mind, brutal as a cyclone.

Li Fan shot to his feet, but he didn't leave the chamber. His face twisted with ferocity.

Why must I rely on a mere pill to become Immortal? For an ordinary person, once the chance to Ascend is lost, they might regret it for life. But for me, a moment's opportunity is an eternal opportunity. Limitless, inexhaustible. If I miss it in this life, then the next. If I miss the next life, then the life after that

With sheer willpower, Li Fan fought the pull of the Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill.

His face contorted, and his whole body trembled. He poured every ounce of strength into resisting the rampant desire clawing at his heart.

It went on for the better part of the day.

But this had only been a small amount of powder, not a complete pill. Through sheer stubbornness, Li Fan endured the craving.

The torrent of distracting thoughts receded like a retreating tide. When he thought of the pill again, not a shred of longing remained.

This thing is truly terrifying. If it had been a full pill, my willpower alone probably wouldn't have been enough to resist the temptation. But with the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Sutra to aid me, it will be a different story.

Li Fan let out a long breath, rallied his spirits, and swallowed the remaining half of the pill.

The moment desire surged, he activated the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Sutra.

Just as before, he saw the vast net woven from the principles of heaven and earth. But with the Immortal Heart Sutra supporting him, his mind stayed as still as water, free of any impulse.

He waited quietly for the effects to fade.

The illusions before his eyes vanished, and the emptiness and craving surged back into his heart. But the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Sutra circulated slowly, and before the turbulent desires could touch his mind, it absorbed them and turned them into nourishment for itself.

Claiming to be an Immortal in the presence of an Immortal only invites mockery. Li Fan thought, his heart undisturbed.

Regardless, one thing is now confirmed. Taking this Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill can aid my cultivation of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Sutra, without side effects.

Once the desires vanished, Li Fan stopped operating the Immortal Heart Sutra. For now, he couldn't sustain it as effortlessly as breathing. That might come only once he obtained the complete version of the sutra.

As he left the underground chamber and traveled toward Tianling Province, a thought surfaced in his mind.

The principles of heaven and earth I saw after taking the pill were nothing more than near-real illusions. Even if I consumed more, I couldn't gain any substantive insight. But if I could see the true principles of heaven and earth, the sort that would be incomprehensible to ordinary cultivators, wouldn't that yield even better results? No illusion, no matter how vivid, compares to the real thing.

A pill that truly helps cultivators understand the Dao. Would the Myriad Immortals Alliance really ban something like that? Perhaps among a batch of ineffectual pills, I could slip in one or two that contain principles of heaven and earth a cultivator could actually comprehend...

Lost in his fantasies, Li Fan let a faint, eerie smile creep across his lips.

When he arrived at Tianling City, he set the thoughts aside for the moment and went straight to a shop selling Tianling Flowers.

"Shopkeeper, give me a pot of Tianling Flowers," Li Fan said.

"Please, come this way, Sir. Our shop has every variety you could want, from sixteen petals to twenty petals, all the finest specimens." The shopkeeper greeted him with enthusiasm.

Li Fan swept his gaze across the dozens of Tianling Flowers on display, and his face darkened.

"You scoundrel, are you trying to cheat me because I'm an out-of-town cultivator? You dare call these foul things Tianling Flowers?

"Why are there ominous tendrils of blood-red energy swirling inside these flowers? It ruins the entire aesthetic!"

Li Fan's voice boomed like thunder, drawing the attention of nearby cultivators.

"Ah, good sir, it seems you haven't heard. Ever since a few years back, every Tianling Flower grown around here has looked exactly like this."

The shopkeeper explained with a bitter smile.