“ jiāo xiū yuǎn yòng lái zhì zuò fēn shēn de cái liào ， jiù shì lái zì ruò mù ？”
“焦修远用来制作分身的材料，就是来自若木？”
"Could the materials Jiao Xiuyuan used to create his clone come from Ruo Mu?"
xīn zhōng yī dòng ， lǐ fán jiāng ruò mù kū zhī wò zài shǒu zhōng ， zǐ xì gǎn wù 。
心中一动，李凡将若木枯枝握在手中，仔细感悟。
Li Fan's mind stirred as he held a withered branch of Ruo Mu in his hand, carefully perceiving it.
xǔ jiǔ zhī hòu ， ruò yǒu suǒ sī ， wēi wēi yáo tóu 。
许久之后，若有所思，微微摇头。
After a long while, he seemed thoughtful and slightly shook his head.
“ shì ér bù tóng ， fǎng fú tóng yuán ， què yòu yǒu míng xiǎn de qū bié 。”
“似而不同，仿佛同源，却又有明显的区别。”
"It seems similar but different. It appears they share the same origin, yet there are clear distinctions."
“ ér qiě yǐ xiǔ mù dào rén rú cǐ zēng hèn xiū shì de pí xìng ， gēn jiāo xiū yuǎn zuò jiāo yì de kě néng xìng bù dà 。”
“而且以朽木道人如此憎恨修士的脾性，跟焦修远做交易的可能性不大。”
"Furthermore, given Dao Ren Xiuyuan's intense hatred for cultivators, the likelihood of him trading with Jiao Xiuyuan is slim."
“ suǒ yǐ zhè shì ……”
“所以这是……”
"So this must be..."
lǐ fán de yǎn qián ， hū de zài dù shǎn guò ruò mù bèi xiū shì men wéi gōng 、 shù gàn cóng zhōng liè kāi ， xǔ duō fēn zhī cóng kōng zhōng zhuì luò de chǎng jǐng 。
李凡的眼前，忽的再度闪过若木被修士们围攻、树干从中裂开，许多分支从空中坠落的场景。
Suddenly, Li Fan's vision flashed back to the scene where Ruo Mu was surrounded by cultivators and its trunk split open, many branches falling from the sky.
“ huò xǔ ， dāng nián zhè xiē fēn lí chū de shù zhī ， zhuì rù jìn xuán huáng jiè hòu ， yòu yǒu le quán xīn de mìng yùn 。”
“或许，当年这些分离出的树枝，坠入进玄黄界后，又有了全新的命运。”
"Perhaps, these separated branches that fell into the Xuanhuang Realm had a completely new destiny."
zhí wù shēng mìng lì ， zǒng shì chū hū yì liào de wán qiáng 。 xún cháng cǎo mù shēn shàng ， dōu shí cháng huì yǒu duàn zhī chóng shēng de shì qíng fā shēng 。
植物生命力，总是出乎意料的顽强。寻常草木身上，都时常会有断枝重生的事情发生。
Plant vitality always proved unexpectedly resilient. Ordinary plants often regrew from broken branches.
huáng lùn 【 ruò mù 】 zhè děng néng dàn shēng zhǎng shēng guǒ de qí yì cún zài le 。
遑论【若木】这等能诞生长生果的奇异存在了。
Never mind the extraordinary existence of Ruo Mu, which could give birth to life-giving fruits.
“ bù guò ， jiū jìng jiāo xiū yuǎn tā zhēn de shì ruò mù shàng diào luò zhī shù zhī biàn huà ér lái ， hái jǐn jǐn shì zhǎo dào le dāng nián de cán zhī 、 yòng lái dàng zuò liàn zhì fēn shēn de cái liào ， zàn shí dǎo shì bù hǎo pàn duàn 。”
“不过，究竟焦修远他真的是若木上掉落之树枝变化而来，还仅仅是找到了当年的残枝、用来当做炼制分身的材料，暂时倒是不好判断。”
"But whether Jiao Xiuyuan truly transformed from a branch that fell from Ruo Mu or merely found a fragment of it as material for his clone, we can't determine this yet."
lǐ fán xīn niàn yī dòng ， shǒu zhōng ruò mù kū zhī hū de fā chū xīn yá 。
李凡心念一动，手中若木枯枝忽的发出新芽。
Li Fan's thoughts shifted, and the withered Ruo Mu branch in his hand suddenly sprouted new buds.
shùn xī zhī jiān ， xīn yá jiù zhǎng chéng zhì nèn de xīn zhī 。
瞬息之间，新芽就长成稚嫩的新枝。
In an instant, the new buds grew into tender new branches.
zhī tóu rú tóng jié chū guǒ shí bān ， guà zhe yī kē jīn sè de xiǎo xiǎo yuán xíng wù tǐ 。
枝头如同结出果实般，挂着一颗金色的小小圆形物体。
The tips of these branches seemed to bear fruits, hanging a small golden round object.
lǐ fán yǎn jiǎo chōu le chōu 。
李凡眼角抽了抽。
Li Fan's eyes twitched.
zhè “ jīn sè de guǒ shí ”， zì rán jiù shì xiǔ mù dào rén xǔ nuò ， yào shùn dài zèng sòng gěi tā de jīn dān le 。
这“金色的果实”，自然就是朽木道人许诺，要顺带赠送给他的金丹了。
This "golden fruit" was naturally the Golden Core that Dao Ren Xiuyuan had promised to give him as a gift.
zhǐ shì zhè shōu nà fāng shì ， pǒ wèi qí yì 。
只是这收纳方式，颇为奇异。
However, its method of storage was quite peculiar.
lǐ fán shēn chū shǒu ， yù jiāng jīn dān zhāi xià 。
李凡伸出手，欲将金丹摘下。
Li Fan stretched his hand out, intending to pluck one down.
yī gǔ wēi wēi de dǐ kàng zhī lì ， cóng “ guǒ shí ” shàng chuán lái 。
一股微微的抵抗之力，从“果实”上传来。
A slight resistance force came from the "fruit."
lǐ fán zài yī yòng lì ， jīn dān bèi shùn lì qǔ xià 。
李凡再一用力，金丹被顺利取下。
With another effort, he successfully took off the Golden Core.
xīn zhī yóu yú fǎn zuò yòng ， měng dì cháo hòu shuǎi qù ， zhī hòu bù tíng zài kōng qì zhōng huàng dàng 。
新枝由于反作用，勐地朝后甩去，之后不停在空气中晃荡。
The new branch, due to recoil, violently swung backward and continued to oscillate in the air.
bù guò méi huǎng duō jiǔ ， biàn sōu de yī shēng ， chóng xīn suō huí le ruò mù kū zhī zhī zhōng 。
不过没晃多久，便嗖的一声，重新缩回了若木枯枝之中。
But after a short while, it whizzed back into the withered Ruo Mu branch.
méi děng lǐ fán xīn zhōng zài xiǎng ， tā biàn yòu dài zhe yī méi jīn dān ， zài dù zuān le chū lái 。
没等李凡心中再想，它便又带着一枚金丹，再度钻了出来。
Before Li Fan could think further, it reappeared with another Golden Core.
lǐ fán kàn zhuó yǎn qián zhè fǎng fú huó wù yì bān de ruò mù kū zhī ， xīn zhōng yǒu xiē níng zhòng 。
李凡看着眼前这仿佛活物一般的若木枯枝，心中有些凝重。
Li Fan looked at this seemingly living withered Ruo Mu branch, feeling somewhat solemn.
dào yě méi yǒu qīng jǔ wàng dòng ， zhǐ shì rú tóng zhāi guǒ zi bān ， yī kē yòu yī kē ， bù tíng jiāng tā jié chū de jīn dān jìn shù qǔ xià 。
倒也没有轻举妄动，只是如同摘果子般，一颗又一颗，不停将它结出的金丹尽数取下。
He did not act rashly but plucked one Golden Core after another as if picking fruit.
zú zú yòng le jiāng jìn yī zhù xiāng de shí jiān 。
足足用了将近一炷香的时间。
It took nearly a quarter of an hour to complete the process.
yī gòng sān bǎi qī shí èr méi 。
一共三百七十二枚。
A total of 372 Golden Cores were taken off.
dāng jīn dān quán bù jiāo chū zhī hòu ， ruò mù kū zhī yě wán chéng le tā de shǐ mìng 。
当金丹全部交出之后，若木枯枝也完成了它的使命。
Once all the Golden Cores had been given up, the withered Ruo Mu branch fulfilled its mission and turned into dust, scattered by the wind.
huà zuò cùn cùn fēi huī ， suí fēng piāo sàn wú zōng 。
化作寸寸飞灰，随风飘散无踪。
During this "fruit-picking" process, Li Fan seemed to store the Golden Cores in his storage ring while secretly using the True Real Technique to absorb them.
ér zài gāng cái “ zhāi guǒ zi ” de guò chéng zhōng ， lǐ fán kàn shì jiāng jīn dān shōu zài chǔ wù jiè lǐ ， shí zé yǐ jīng qiǎo rán yòng 【 hái zhēn 】 kāi shǐ duì tā men jìn xíng xī shōu 。
而在刚才“摘果子”的过程中，李凡看似将金丹收在储物戒里，实则已经悄然用【还真】开始对它们进行吸收。
As he had guessed earlier, a single-method Golden Core only increased the anchoring charge by 0.25%.
hé zhī qián de cāi cè yī yàng 。 dān fǎ jīn dān ， zhǐ zēng jiā le 0.25% de dìng máo chōng néng jìn dù 。
和之前的猜测一样。单法金丹，只增加了0.25%的定锚充能进度。
A dual-method one added 0.5%.
shuāng fǎ jīn dān ， zé shì 0.5%。
双法金丹，则是0.5%。
However, triple-method ones showed significant progress, increasing the charge by 2% each.
dǎo shì sān fǎ jīn dān ， yǒu le zhì dì fēi yuè 。 yī méi jiù néng zēng jiā 2% de jìn dù 。
倒是三法金丹，有了质的飞跃。一枚就能增加2%的进度。
But out of these over three hundred Golden Cores, only a few were triple-method.
bù guò zhè sān bǎi duō méi jīn dān zhōng ， sān fǎ zhǐ shì shǎo shù 。
不过这三百多枚金丹中，三法只是少数。
Most were single- or dual-method.
jué dà duō shù dōu shì dān fǎ hé shuāng fǎ 。
绝大多数都是单法和双法。
And there weren't any beyond quadruple-method.
ér sì fǎ jí yǐ shàng gèng shì yí gè dōu méi yǒu 。
而四法及以上更是一个都没有。
So after unlocking the fifth anchor point, only sixteen specially selected Golden Cores remained.
suǒ yǐ dāng lǐ fán wán chéng dì wǔ máo diǎn de jiě suǒ hòu ， zhǐ yǒu shí liù méi tè yì bèi tiāo xuǎn de jīn dān shèng le xià lái 。
所以当李凡完成第五锚点的解锁后，只有十六枚特意被挑选的金丹剩了下来。
However, Li Fan did not choose based on how many methods each Golden Core had.
bù guò lǐ fán dào bú shì àn zhào jīn dān níng jù zhī fǎ de duō shǎo wèi biāo zhǔn lái tiāo xuǎn de 。
不过李凡倒不是按照金丹凝聚之法的多少为标准来挑选的。
Instead, he judged them by their rarity.
ér shì gēn jù jīn dān zhī fǎ de zhēn xī chéng dù zuò chū pàn duàn 。
而是根据金丹之法的珍稀程度做出判断。
Ordinary five-element techniques were less refined than his own insights and thus not worth preserving.
xiàng yī xiē xún cháng de wǔ xíng zhī fǎ ， shàng qiě bù rú lǐ fán zì jǐ lǐng wù de jīng miào ， zì rán méi yǒu bǎo cún de bì yào 。
像一些寻常的五行之法，尚且不如李凡自己领悟的精妙，自然没有保存的必要。
Some involved fields that Li Fan was still unfamiliar with, making them valuable for a newly formed元婴 cultivator like him.
ér yǒu yī xiē zé shì shè jí dào lǐ fán mù qián zhī zhī shàng qiǎn de lǐng yù ， duì yú chū rù yuán yīng de lǐ fán lái shuō ， jiù hěn yǒu jià zhí le 。
而有一些则是涉及到李凡目前知之尚浅的领域，对于初入元婴的李凡来说，就很有价值了。
The entire Foundation Establishment Realm was about cultivating and refining one's own dao field.
zhěng gè yuán yīng jìng ， jiù shì péi yǎng 、 wán shàn zì shēn dòng tiān fǎ yù de guò chéng 。
整个元婴境，就是培养、完善自身洞天法域的过程。
A more complete dao field meant stronger combat capabilities for an元婴 cultivator.
dòng tiān fǎ yù yuè wán zhěng ， yuán yīng xiū shì biǎo xiàn chū lái de zhàn dòu lì yě jiù yuè qiáng 。
洞天法域越完整，元婴修士表现出来的战斗力也就越强。
When one could make their inner dao environment nearly identical to the outer Xuanhuang Realm, they could aspire to the Transcendence Realm.
dāng néng gòu zuò dào ， hé wài bù xuán huáng jiè huán jìng jī hū yí zhì ， jiù kě yǐ zhǎn wàng huà shén jìng le 。
当能够做到，和外部玄黄界环境几乎一致，就可以展望化神境了。
Though Li Fan did not fully understand the details yet, he had a vague understanding of the general process.
jù tǐ xì jié ， lǐ fán shàng qiě hái bù tài qīng chǔ 。
具体细节，李凡尚且还不太清楚。
The phrase "extracting the essence of heaven and earth to gain its spirit" meant that the essence of heaven was like human bone marrow, responsible for creating dao just as human bone marrow created blood.
bù guò dà zhì guò chéng ， dǎo shì yǐn yuē xīn zhōng yǒu shù 。
不过大致过程，倒是隐约心中有数。
Through disguising his inner dao environment as the Xuanhuang Realm's core, he could trick the instinctive assignment of dao by the essence of heaven, thus appropriating some of the world's rules.
suǒ wèi chōu “ tiān dì zhī suǐ ， yǐ dé qí shén ”。
所谓抽“天地之髓，以得其神”。
However, similar to how human bone marrow also had functions like immunity and defense,
tiān zhī suǐ ， gù míng sī yì ， tā de zuò yòng hé rén zhī gǔ suǐ dà zhì xiāng dāng 。
天之髓，顾名思义，它的作用和人之骨髓大致相当。
the essence of heaven also had certain countermeasures.
rén zhī suǐ zuì wèi zhòng yào de ， jiù shì yí gè zào xuè de gōng néng 。
人之髓最为重要的，就是一个造血的功能。
Thus, during the process of extracting the essence of heaven, one needed constant vigilance against the backlash from nature.
ér tiān zhī suǐ ， zé shì zào fǎ 。
而天之髓，则是造法。
Often, only one rule could be extracted at a time, and one must not overreach; it was necessary to act within limits.
tiān dì jiān de fǎ zé ， jiù xiàng rén shēn tǐ de xuè yè yī yàng ， shì wéi chí shì jiè néng gòu wěn dìng cún zài de jī shí 。
天地间的法则，就像人身体的血液一样，是维持世界能够稳定存在的基石。
If this were compared to invoking the power of heaven and earth, it would be like a cultivator with sufficient strength openly claiming their rights.
rén wú xuè zé sǐ ， tiān wú fǎ zé miè 。
人无血则死，天无法则灭。
But extracting the essence of heaven was more akin to a weak cultivator secretly stealing rules.
tōng guò wěi zhuāng zì shēn dòng tiān wèi xuán huáng jiè běn tǐ huán jìng ， piàn guò tiān zhī suǐ běn néng de fù fǎ xíng wéi ， cóng ér jiāng yuán běn yīng gāi chū xiàn zài shì jiè shàng de yī sī sī fǎ zé ， jù wéi jǐ yǒu 。
通过伪装自身洞天为玄黄界本体环境，骗过天之髓本能的赋法行为，从而将原本应该出现在世界上的一丝丝法则，据为己有。
By strengthening oneself and weakening the opponent, one could narrow the gap between them.
dāng rán ， jiù xiàng rén zhī suǐ chú le yǒu zào xuè de gōng néng yǐ wài ， hái chéng dān zhe miǎn yì 、 fáng yù jī zhì yī yàng 。
当然，就像人之髓除了有造血的功能以外，还承担着免疫、防御机制一样。
This prepared for future unification with dao.
】
】
Standing at the Foundation Establishment Realm, Li Fan once again mentally rehearsed the process of extracting the essence of heaven.
tiān zhī suǐ yě yǒu yí dìng de fǎn zhì néng lì 。
天之髓也有一定的反制能力。
Sure enough, his understanding was deeper than before.
suǒ yǐ zài 【 chōu tiān suǐ 】 de guò chéng zhōng ， xū yào shí kè xiǎo xīn tiān dì de fǎn shì 。
所以在【抽天髓】的过程中，需要时刻小心天地的反噬。
"Tranmitting techniques truly is a divine talent."
wǎng wǎng yī cì zhǐ kě chōu qǔ yī zhǒng fǎ zé ， ér qiě hái bù néng tān dé wú yàn ， xū zhe liàng ér wèi 。
往往一次只可抽取一种法则，而且还不能贪得无厌，需着量而为。
"Starting from the illusion of a false world to glimpse heavenly laws, transforming an ordinary mortal into one capable of entering the entire cultivation system."
rú guǒ shuō jì tiān dì zhī pò ， shì shí lì zú gòu zhī hòu 、 guāng míng zhèng dà de jiāng fǎ zé zhàn wèi jǐ yǒu 。
如果说祭天地之魄，是实力足够之后、光明正大的将法则占为己有。
"Then through seizing the essence and marrow of heaven and earth, narrowing the gap between oneself and heaven."
nà me chōu tiān suǐ ， jiù shì shí lì shàng qiě ruò xiǎo zhī shí ， tōu tōu mō mō de qiè qǔ fǎ zé 。
那么抽天髓，就是实力尚且弱小之时，偷偷摸摸的窃取法则。
"Offering the soul to heaven and earth, mastering the strength to challenge heaven."
tōng guò qiáng huà jǐ shēn ， xuē ruò duì fāng de shǒu duàn 。 lā xiǎo shuāng fāng zhī jiān de chā jù 。
通过强化己身，削弱对方的手段。拉小双方之间的差距。
"Finally reversing nature's order and replacing it forever, securing eternal life."
cóng ér wèi jiāng lái de hé dào guò chéng zuò chōng zú de zhǔn bèi 。
从而为将来的合道过程做充足的准备。
"Step by step, with clear goals..."
lǐ fán rú jīn zhàn zài yuán yīng jìng de xiū wèi shàng ， zài cì xīn zhōng yù yǎn 【 chōu tiān suǐ 】 de guò chéng ， guǒ rán bǐ qǐ jīn dān jìng shí ， xīn zhōng yǒu le bù tóng de 、 gèng jiā shēn kè de gǎn wù 。
李凡如今站在元婴境的修为上，再次心中预演【抽天髓】的过程，果然比起金丹境时，心中有了不同的、更加深刻的感悟。
"Truly unpreventable. No wonder even the might of heaven and earth failed against new cultivators, forcing them to retaliate."
“ chuán fǎ ， guǒ rán tiān zòng zhī cái 。”
“传法，果然天纵之材。”
Li Fan sighed again.
“ cóng jiǎ tiān dì zhī qí 、 kuī tiān dì zhī fǎ kāi shǐ ， jiāng yí gè wú fǎ xiū xíng de fán rén ， yí bù bù biàn dé néng gòu róng nà jìn tiān dì de zhěng gè xiū xíng tǐ xì zhī zhōng 。”
“从假天地之奇、窥天地之法开始，将一个无法修行的凡人，一步步变得能够容纳进天地的整个修行体系之中。”
Looking back at these steps, Li Fan suddenly felt a familiar connection in his mind.
“ zài tōng guò duó tiān dì zhī jīng 、 chōu tiān dì zhī suǐ ， suō xiǎo tiān dì hé běn wǒ de chā jù 。”
“再通过夺天地之精、抽天地之髓，缩小天地和本我的差距。”
But as he tried to think more deeply about it, that elusive inspiration vanished abruptly.
“ jì tiān dì zhī pò ， zhǎng wò hé tiān dì bān shǒu wàn de lì liàng 。”
“祭天地之魄，掌握和天地扳手腕的力量。”
Even with the aid of the Dao Stone, he could not recall it.
“ zuì hòu nì tiān dì zhī lǐ ， qǔ ér dài zhī ， yǒng zhèng cháng shēng 。”
“最后逆天地之理，取而代之，永证长生。”
A sense of loss washed over him.
“ yí bù yí bù ， mù dì míng què ……”
“一步一步，目的明确……”
"Strange..."
“ dàng zhēn shì fáng bù shèng fáng a 。 nán guài yǐ tiān dì zhī wēi ， dōu zài xīn fǎ xiū shì miàn qián ， yī bài tú dì 。 bù dé bù bèi pò fǎn jī 。”
“当真是防不胜防啊。难怪以天地之威，都在新法修士面前，一败涂地。不得不被迫反击。”
Li Fan narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought.
lǐ fán zài dù gǎn tàn dào 。
李凡再度感叹道。
He was almost certain that this sudden enlightenment would not have dissipated so quickly under normal circumstances.
zài dù huí wàng zhè xiū xíng bù zhòu ， lǐ fán xīn zhōng hū de yī dòng ， zhǐ jué zhè guò chéng ， sì hū gēn jì yì zhōng de mǒu xiē jí wéi xiāng sì 。
再度回望这修行步骤，李凡心中忽的一动，只觉这过程，似乎跟记忆中的某些极为相似。
It must have been influenced by some force, causing that spark to vanish suddenly.
ér rán děng tā xiǎng yào zài dù xì xì sī liáng de shí hòu ， nà nǎo hǎi zhōng hǎo bù róng yì cái chū xiàn de líng gǎn ， què zhòu rán xiāo shī bú jiàn le 。
而然等他想要再度细细思量的时候，那脑海中好不容易才出现的灵感，却骤然消失不见了。
"Just like in Senior Sister Zhao's illusion,"
nǎ pà dòng yòng huà dào shí ， què wú fǎ zhuī yì qǐ lái 。
哪怕动用化道石，却无法追忆起来。
"Trapped in a secret room, once I tried to cultivate, the walls would intentionally emit disturbing and mocking sounds, trying to stop me from entering my cultivation state."
yī zhǒng chàng rán ruò shī de gǎn jué ， bù jīn yǒng shàng lǐ fán xīn tóu 。
一种怅然若失的感觉，不禁涌上李凡心头。
"The Xuanhuang Realm's restrictions are even more silent and unknown."
“ qí guài ……”
“奇怪……”
"Was it you, Transcendence of Law..."
lǐ fán shuāng yǎn wēi mī ， shà shí jiān xiàn rù le chén sī zhī zhōng 。
李凡双眼微眯，霎时间陷入了沉思之中。
Li Fan suddenly looked up at the sky with a mysterious expression.
"Could the materials Jiao Xiuyuan used to create his clone come from Ruo Mu?"
Li Fan's mind stirred as he held a withered branch of Ruo Mu in his hand, carefully perceiving it.
After a long while, he seemed thoughtful and slightly shook his head.
"It seems similar but different. It appears they share the same origin, yet there are clear distinctions."
"Furthermore, given Dao Ren Xiuyuan's intense hatred for cultivators, the likelihood of him trading with Jiao Xiuyuan is slim."
"So this must be..."
Suddenly, Li Fan's vision flashed back to the scene where Ruo Mu was surrounded by cultivators and its trunk split open, many branches falling from the sky.
"Perhaps, these separated branches that fell into the Xuanhuang Realm had a completely new destiny."
Plant vitality always proved unexpectedly resilient. Ordinary plants often regrew from broken branches.
Never mind the extraordinary existence of Ruo Mu, which could give birth to life-giving fruits.
"But whether Jiao Xiuyuan truly transformed from a branch that fell from Ruo Mu or merely found a fragment of it as material for his clone, we can't determine this yet."
Li Fan's thoughts shifted, and the withered Ruo Mu branch in his hand suddenly sprouted new buds.
In an instant, the new buds grew into tender new branches.
The tips of these branches seemed to bear fruits, hanging a small golden round object.
Li Fan's eyes twitched.
This "golden fruit" was naturally the Golden Core that Dao Ren Xiuyuan had promised to give him as a gift.
However, its method of storage was quite peculiar.
Li Fan stretched his hand out, intending to pluck one down.
A slight resistance force came from the "fruit."
With another effort, he successfully took off the Golden Core.
The new branch, due to recoil, violently swung backward and continued to oscillate in the air.
But after a short while, it whizzed back into the withered Ruo Mu branch.
Before Li Fan could think further, it reappeared with another Golden Core.
Li Fan looked at this seemingly living withered Ruo Mu branch, feeling somewhat solemn.
He did not act rashly but plucked one Golden Core after another as if picking fruit.
It took nearly a quarter of an hour to complete the process.
A total of 372 Golden Cores were taken off.
Once all the Golden Cores had been given up, the withered Ruo Mu branch fulfilled its mission and turned into dust, scattered by the wind.
During this "fruit-picking" process, Li Fan seemed to store the Golden Cores in his storage ring while secretly using the True Real Technique to absorb them.
As he had guessed earlier, a single-method Golden Core only increased the anchoring charge by 0.25%.
A dual-method one added 0.5%.
However, triple-method ones showed significant progress, increasing the charge by 2% each.
But out of these over three hundred Golden Cores, only a few were triple-method.
Most were single- or dual-method.
And there weren't any beyond quadruple-method.
So after unlocking the fifth anchor point, only sixteen specially selected Golden Cores remained.
However, Li Fan did not choose based on how many methods each Golden Core had.
Instead, he judged them by their rarity.
Ordinary five-element techniques were less refined than his own insights and thus not worth preserving.
Some involved fields that Li Fan was still unfamiliar with, making them valuable for a newly formed元婴 cultivator like him.
The entire Foundation Establishment Realm was about cultivating and refining one's own dao field.
A more complete dao field meant stronger combat capabilities for an元婴 cultivator.
When one could make their inner dao environment nearly identical to the outer Xuanhuang Realm, they could aspire to the Transcendence Realm.
Though Li Fan did not fully understand the details yet, he had a vague understanding of the general process.
The phrase "extracting the essence of heaven and earth to gain its spirit" meant that the essence of heaven was like human bone marrow, responsible for creating dao just as human bone marrow created blood.
Through disguising his inner dao environment as the Xuanhuang Realm's core, he could trick the instinctive assignment of dao by the essence of heaven, thus appropriating some of the world's rules.
However, similar to how human bone marrow also had functions like immunity and defense,
the essence of heaven also had certain countermeasures.
Thus, during the process of extracting the essence of heaven, one needed constant vigilance against the backlash from nature.
Often, only one rule could be extracted at a time, and one must not overreach; it was necessary to act within limits.
If this were compared to invoking the power of heaven and earth, it would be like a cultivator with sufficient strength openly claiming their rights.
But extracting the essence of heaven was more akin to a weak cultivator secretly stealing rules.
By strengthening oneself and weakening the opponent, one could narrow the gap between them.
This prepared for future unification with dao.
Standing at the Foundation Establishment Realm, Li Fan once again mentally rehearsed the process of extracting the essence of heaven.
Sure enough, his understanding was deeper than before.
"Tranmitting techniques truly is a divine talent."
"Starting from the illusion of a false world to glimpse heavenly laws, transforming an ordinary mortal into one capable of entering the entire cultivation system."
"Then through seizing the essence and marrow of heaven and earth, narrowing the gap between oneself and heaven."
"Offering the soul to heaven and earth, mastering the strength to challenge heaven."
"Finally reversing nature's order and replacing it forever, securing eternal life."
"Step by step, with clear goals..."
"Truly unpreventable. No wonder even the might of heaven and earth failed against new cultivators, forcing them to retaliate."
Li Fan sighed again.
Looking back at these steps, Li Fan suddenly felt a familiar connection in his mind.
But as he tried to think more deeply about it, that elusive inspiration vanished abruptly.
Even with the aid of the Dao Stone, he could not recall it.
A sense of loss washed over him.
"Strange..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought.
He was almost certain that this sudden enlightenment would not have dissipated so quickly under normal circumstances.
It must have been influenced by some force, causing that spark to vanish suddenly.
"Just like in Senior Sister Zhao's illusion,"
"Trapped in a secret room, once I tried to cultivate, the walls would intentionally emit disturbing and mocking sounds, trying to stop me from entering my cultivation state."
"The Xuanhuang Realm's restrictions are even more silent and unknown."
"Was it you, Transcendence of Law..."
Li Fan suddenly looked up at the sky with a mysterious expression.