My Simulated Road to Immortality

Chapter 449: 421: Stone Transformation of the Heavenly Machine Sect

Li Fan inspected the hollow carefully.

Above, many buildings were seemingly hanging upside down in midair, growing from the top of the stone cave.

Li Fan also spotted stone statues resembling cultivators.

Their feet fused with the buildings, too, hanging upside down, their hands reaching out in desperation for help.

However, their bodies had been permanently frozen in that moment, faces filled with terror.

“This should be one of the sites of the Heavenly Machine Sect, which was swallowed by this Returning Origin Toad by pure chance.”

“Looking at it, it seems to be fossilized as a whole before being swallowed.”

Li Fan became vigilant and flew to the top of the hollow.

Ignoring the petrified cultivators, he navigated through the ruins, heading straight for the most conspicuous stone tower.

“[Tower of Heavenly Gaze], the Heavenly Machine Sect’s crucial site used for predicting fate.”

Arriving in front of the stone tower, Li Fan found that even after thousands of years, there was still a faint glow shining upon it.

“Though the restrictions are ongoing, unfortunately, they are merely nominal.”

As if unobstructed, Li Fan reached the interior of the Tower of Heavenly Gaze.

“Hm?”

The moment he entered, Li Fan’s complexion changed.

Because he felt an intense glare fixed on him.

Following the direction of the gaze, Li Fan saw a disheveled cultivator standing ahead.

His face was fierce, his bulging eye seemed to burst out of his socket, staring intently at Li Fan.

The lower half of the cultivator’s body, like those Disciples of the Heavenly Machine Sect outside, had turned to stone.

However, his upper body seemed to still be in the process of petrifaction, showing a bizarre mix of flesh and stone fragments.

“Dead or alive?”

Li Fan didn’t dare to be neglectful, and swiftly casted the Five Elements Annihilation Sword.

“Boom!”

The black light sword hit the cultivator’s body squarely.

After piercing through the chest, the cultivator’s body instantly shattered into pieces scattered on the ground.

Only the semi-petrified eyeball remained, still floating in mid-air, with its pupil direction tightly locked onto Li Fan.

While cautiously approaching it, Li Fan constantly changed his position.

Finding that this eyeball seemed to sense his presence, it remained locked onto him.

Coming to the front of the petrified eyeball, waiting for a while, it didn’t show any other reaction.

Li Fan held it in his hand for a closer examination.

“It turns out it’s not a real eye, but something implanted in this deceased cultivator’s body while he was still alive.”

“Strange, I don’t remember Xiao Heng and them getting this…”

“Did they not find it? Or did Ling Huchang privately conceal it?”

After playing around with it a little, Li Fan found no particular use for this eyeball.

Temporarily put it in his bosom, Li Fan continued to explore deeper into the Tower of Heavenly Gaze.

The Tower of Heavenly Gaze had a total of nine floors.

On the second to fifth floors, there were jade scrolls and magic tools scattered all over.

However, they were mostly broken.

After finding a storage ring amongst them, Li Fan happily stowed the intact ones in his bag.

“The Subtle Heavenly Numerology”, “The Nine Heavens Unified Qi Technique”, “Divine Descending Technique”, “The Chronicles of a Thousand Mysteries”…

There were cultivation methods and studies about [Heavenly Mechanism].

In the end, Li Fan collected twenty-six cultivation methods and forty-eight books.

Among them were seventeen Golden Core Stage Cultivation Methods and nine Nascent Soul Skills.

“This is a windfall. I just don’t know how many of these are unique.”

“But out of these cultivation methods, only two of them show that someone has been practicing them. The percentage of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals with cultivation methods probably isn’t high.”

Li Fan reigned in the joy in his heart and continued upwards.

From the sixth to eighth floors, there were all sorts of odd items displayed.

Such as lotuses with human faces growing in their petals.

Fruit resembling an unknown dragon-like creature.

Rectangular stones with naturally occurring patterns.

It seemed these odd items were once covered by some special power.

However, with the passage of time, this power had completely dissipated.

Now they only looked rather strange.

“These should be the objects that the Heavenly Machine Sect used to sense fate.” Li Fan pondered.

The Heavenly Machine Sect believed that the Qi mechanism of Heaven and Earth, interacting with each other, would manifest in the world.

These abnormal objects are all results of vigorous interactions of the qi mechanisms of Heaven and Earth.

By using these oddities, one can profoundly understand the qi mechanisms of Heaven and Earth.

“Similar to how I sensed the Heaven and Earth using the Ocean Pearl.” Regardless of whether these objects were useful, Li Fan took them all.

Finally, he came to the ninth floor of the [Tower of Heavenly Gaze].

Upon opening it, however, it was completely empty with nothing inside.

“Just as Xiao Heng said it would be.” Expectedly, Li Fan did not feel disappointed.

After searching around thoroughly and finding nothing, Li Fan was about to leave.

Suddenly, he experienced a streak of fortune and turned back.

He stared at the space on the ninth floor.

“Judging from the external circumstances, the tribulation that befell the Heavenly Machine Sect up this mountain, came suddenly.”

“They didn’t have any time to react before they were met with misfortune.”

“They didn’t even have the time to save themselves, let alone transfer their treasures.”

“Why then, is the ninth floor of this [Tower of Heavenly Gaze] empty?”

Li Fan felt a sense of doubt, the more he pondered, the more he felt like there was some secret hidden here.

However, no matter how much he searched, he was unable to find anything valuable.

It seems like it was just his wishful thinking.

After some thought, Li Fan decided to activate the Five Elements Annihilation Sword, directly cutting out the ninth floor of the stone tower.

The black Serenity Radiance, decayed and broken, caused the several thousand years of prohibitions left within the [Tower of Heavenly Gaze] to be destroyed.

Subsequently, amidst a tremendous roar, the top layer of the [Tower of Heavenly Gaze] was taken into Li Fan’s Storage Ring.

“Better to take something mistakenly than to let it go.”

Li Fan nodded satisfactorily.

He then thoroughly searched the remains inside and outside again.

Eventually, within several separate cave mansions, he found four techniques.

Three were for the Golden Core Stage, and one was for the Nascent Soul Stage.

And this Nascent Soul Cultivation Technique was the “The Golden Seal of the Jade Realm of a Thousand Mechanisms”.

“It seems that this cave, located near the edge of the ruins, was accidentally exposed decades later, hence it was discovered by the Kou Hong brothers.”

“But the brothers’ luck was rather poor. They could have easily found the real remains of the Heavenly Machine Sect if they simply searched more carefully.”

“But instead, the sight of a Nascent Soul Cultivation Technique made Kou Hong greedy, causing them to miss out on the treasure house.”

Having realized the reason, Li Fan couldn’t help but feel it was both laughable and tragic.

Having obtained a huge harvest, Li Fan did not linger any longer.

Transforming back into a Stone Spirit Worm, he excavated a tunnel through the resealed wall.

He left the Hundred Stone Cave Heaven and headed towards the direction of Misthaven Ocean.

Liuli Island.

He Zhenghao was recently very troubled, chaotic and panicked.

“Should I go or not go?”

He Zhenghao frowned, heaving a long sigh.

For some reason, while he was practicing “The Mountain-Seating Secret” some time ago, he suddenly sensed something.

Unexpectedly, there was another person cultivating “The Mountain-Seating Secret” in this world.

Originally, the version of “The Mountain-Seating Secret” he was practicing was extremely slow. And now another person was practicing along with him.

Now, what was to be done?

It could essentially be said that it was impossible to continue cultivating.

The technique he had been primarily cultivating suddenly encountered this kind of fluctuation, leaving He Zhenghao unsure of what to do.

He had stumbled upon “The Mountain-Seating Secret” during his youthful explorations of a cave mansion and had never revealed it to anyone.

How then did the other person learn about it?

This situation was strange, and He Zhenghao, not being very courageous in the first place, did not dare to rashly approach and explore, fearing risk.

He had no choice but to hide within the Island Protection Array, agonizing over the situation.

Just at this moment.

“Who is the petty thief who dares to steal my sect’s technique!”

“Come out!”

The voice echoed through the sky above Liuli Island like an explosion of thunder, resounding over and over again.

He Zhenghao was first stunned, he intended to go out and check the situation.

Then, soon afterward, he registered what was happening.

“So the other party has come to find me?”

Sensing the strong aura emitted by the other party, He Zhenghao’s face turned pale.

“The Golden Core Stage?”