Inside the Transmission Platform, only Lu Fan remained.
He sat cross-legged, chin propped on his hand, brows furrowed in constant contemplation.
Wolong Ridge wasn't a name Lu Fan casually threw out; it was carefully chosen as the debut location for the first mystery realm, after much deliberation and within his manageable range of control.
Crossing the vast plains before Beiluo City, one could see what seemed like a dragon lying across the flatland—the Wolong Ridge.
About a hundred miles from Beiluo City, neither too far nor too close.
For Lu Fan, constructing a realm wasn't actually that complicated; it was like crafting a game instance. However, for this particular realm, he needed to establish some rules.
The first realm represented the dawn of spiritual resurgence.
Lu Fan had to make people feel awestruck.
"Yuwen Xiu and Xiang Shaoyun, one is the Emperor of Great Zhou, the other is the Prefect of Xijing. They wield considerable power, capable of mobilizing large armies. If they were to meet during the realm exploration and it turned into a battle between two armies, it would deviate from the original purpose of realm exploration. So, qualification to enter the realm must be earned..."
On the Transmission Platform, Lu Fan rubbed his slender fingers as he pondered.
His mind raced, continuously considering possible issues.
With a soul strength exceeding 20 points, his mind was exceptionally clear, making his thoughts more coherent and organized.
Hum...
After a long while, Lu Fan began to act.
"Activate Transmission Platform privileges... commence realm construction."
With a surge of his mind, Lu Fan murmured softly.
Spiritual energy surged, swirling around, continuously forming mist.
Lu Fan's robes billowed as he sat amidst the clouds, resembling a true immortal.
Hexagrams floated before his eyes, arranged neatly in an array.
Lu Fan extended his hand, lightly brushing over each character, as if they were engraved in his mind.
In the next moment, Lu Fan's surroundings began to change.
He seemed to be within a chaotic space.
Sky, earth, all around—were chaos and void.
Lu Fan floated within, brows furrowed, raising his hand, with twenty-seven runes encircling his fingertips, arranged in different patterns.
Perhaps because he possessed the Transmission Platform privileges, the meanings of all the rule combinations formed by the characters appeared in Lu Fan's mind.
He could easily arrange and combine them according to their meanings. He even felt he could construct a world.
Of course, constructing a world was still beyond his current capability; after all, his soul strength was too low.
The expenditure to construct a world was something he couldn't afford.
Within the chaotic space, Lu Fan tapped on each character.
The characters were struck into the void, concealed amidst the chaos.
Before Lu Fan's eyes, lines intertwined, appearing as... the Wolong Ridge.
The topography of Wolong Ridge was presented in line patterns before his eyes.
Lu Fan swiped in the void, enlarging Wolong Ridge, while runes were struck into the mountain's abdomen by Lu Fan.
The mountain's abdomen seemed to have been hollowed out.
How should the first realm be presented?
This had been a question Lu Fan had been hesitating over since activating the Transmission Platform.
Now, he finally made a decision.
The first realm, he intended to present it in the form of a graveyard.
He wanted to fabricate the tomb of an ancient Qi Refiner that didn't exist, a tomb with spiritual energy and immortal cultivation methods... these would be the immortal fortunes.
Of course, Lu Fan also tactfully set some difficulties; he didn't initially include "ghosts" or "demons" and such mystical entities.
After all, the Five Phoenix Continent was still a low martial world. If the difficulty of the realm's guardianship was set too high, and all the explorers were killed in the process, there would be no point in the transformation.
So, Lu Fan just made some adjustments to the Qi Refiner corpses he was constructing.
When the entire Qi Refiner's tomb was constructed, Lu Fan felt his soul strength rapidly depleting.
"After establishing the realm, rules for the realm must also be set..."
Lu Fan furrowed his brows, continuing to contemplate.
Currently, Lu Fan's soul strength was limited, so the range of the constructed realm wasn't vast.
Thus, qualifications to enter the realm also needed to be selective.
"Establishing rules: Set ten Qi Tokens, five Heavenly Qi Tokens, five Earthly Qi Tokens. Only those who possess Heavenly and Earthly Qi Tokens are eligible to enter the realm."
Lu Fan's mind surged.
Then, system prompts appeared.
"Do you want to consume 5 points of soul strength to establish realm rules?"
Establishing a single rule consumed 5 points of soul strength, which made Lu Fan somewhat reluctant.
The construction of the entire realm only consumed 6 points of soul strength.
"Confirmed."
However, the existence of rules was necessary and couldn't be omitted.
5 points of soul strength instantly dissipated.
The next moment.
Before Lu Fan, spiritual energy gathered, intertwining continuously, forming ten palm-sized tokens.
Five white, five black. On the white tokens, the character "Heaven" was engraved, representing Heavenly Qi Tokens. On the black tokens, the character "Earth" was engraved, representing Earthly Qi Tokens.
"Establish rule: Set the guardian spiritual pressure strength outside the realm to be twenty-five times that of a hundred strands of spiritual energy pressure."
Lu Fan once again consumed 5 points of soul strength to establish the rule.
With two rules in place, Lu Fan's soul strength was pitifully reduced to only 3 points.
Shaking his head, he suppressed the dizziness.
Lu Fan's mind tugged, and he flicked his fingers.
The ten Qi Tokens beside him instantly exploded and disappeared into nothingness.
"Realm construction complete."
"Begin realm deployment, reflecting reality."
...
Boom!
Above the dark night, thick black clouds suddenly surged.
The once radiant moon disc was obscured, shrouding the sky and earth in darkness.
A hundred miles outside Beiluo City.
Wolong Ridge.
Within the narrow and desolate Wolong Ridge, violent tremors shook it, swaying back and forth, with rocks skipping as if in anger.
Deep within Wolong Ridge, night ravens were startled, birds flew in all directions, flapping their wings. In the night, the atmosphere was endlessly eerie.
The entire Wolong Ridge seemed to be brewing something, emitting a faint blue light.
...
Exiting the Transmission Platform, Lu Fan opened his eyes.
He was drenched in cold sweat, panting slightly, waiting for a while.
"No rewards?"
Lu Fan leaned back on the bed and let out a sigh.
It was a bit regrettable that he didn't receive attribute rewards like when he created the "Ten Thousand Methods Furnace" modifier.
Rubbing his face, he looked at the system panel, with only a meager 3 points of soul strength left, causing Lu Fan to furrow his brow.
On the bed were five volumes of secret techniques.
Among them were Blood Transference Art, as well as martial techniques.
Gathering five volumes of secret techniques wasn't easy. After all, Blood Transference Art manuals were rare in this world, and moreover, the grade of the secret techniques Lu Fan needed couldn't be too low.
After all, if the grade was too low, even if he used the "Ten Thousand Methods Furnace" to modify them, they might not be able to be upgraded to spiritual cultivation techniques.
Among them, Lu Fan collected three volumes of Blood Transference Art, namely "Earth Encompassing Scripture", "Zhongnan Sword Transcript", and "Haoran Blood Transference Art". Among them, "Earth Encompassing Scripture" was copied by Lu Changkong for Lu Fan and had always been his Blood Transference Art.
"Zhongnan Sword Transcript" was the Blood Transference Art of the sword sect, spoken when Jing Yue surrendered to save his life.
And "Haoran Blood Transference Art" was inquired from those Confucian scholars that Lu Fan had exterminated.
In addition to Blood Transference Art, there were also two martial techniques: "Sword Sect Flying Sword Art" and "Darting Sword". These were both martial techniques of the sword sect, also spoken by Jing Yue shamelessly.
It just happened to have five volumes, so Lu Fan didn't waste any time.
His mind sank.
A palm-sized, faintly visible "Ten Thousand Methods Furnace" appeared in his palm.
"Do you want to consume 25 strands of spiritual energy to modify and deduce the provided Blood Transference Art and martial techniques?"
The system prompt appeared.
Lu Fan's gaze sharpened.
"Yes."
A mere 25 strands of spiritual energy, he could afford it.
In the system panel, spiritual energy instantly evaporated 25 strands.
The faintly visible Ten Thousand Methods Furnace in his hand also began to operate, and the scrolls on the bed underwent a transformation. The characters on them seemed to come to life and jumped into the Ten Thousand Methods Furnace one after another.
After a long while.
Everything returned to calm.
"Modification complete, provided techniques deduced and upgraded, grade: Yellow Grade High."
A system prompt popped up in front of Lu Fan.
The five scrolls exuding spiritual brilliance quietly lay on the bed.
Lu Fan's eyes brightened.
Just as he picked up one scroll, preparing to read it.
Suddenly, another system prompt appeared before him.
"Side quest 1: Deduce and upgrade the five Blood Transference Art or martial techniques (current task progress 55, completed)."
"Congratulations, host, for completing Side Quest 1. You are rewarded with 5 attribute points and the chess manual "Yitian Tactics"."