The fall of a Qi Condensation stage cultivator, compared to a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, was much less spectacular. There were no magnificent displays of the Foundational Treasure, only two streaks of crimson clouds that suddenly appeared in the sky.
"Qi Condensation stage cultivator, Sikong Yi, cultivated for thirty-five years, slain by Qi Condensation stage cultivator Li Fan in the Cong Yun Sea region..."
"Qi Condensation stage cultivator Baili Chen, cultivated for three years, slain by Qi Condensation stage cultivator Li Fan in the Cong Yun Sea region..."
"Now they have perished, returning to the heavens!"
Under the fiery clouds, Li Fan stood quietly, fiddling with the Sun Stealing Token in his hand.
After a long while, he suppressed the greed rising within him.
"A remarkable treasure, but... it's not for me."
The Sun Stealing Token was the supreme treasure of the Sun Stealing Sect.
The Sun Stealing Sect was a secretive sect that had existed since ancient times. Unlike other sects that founded schools and accepted many disciples, the Sun Stealing Sect had no fixed base and often had only one disciple per generation.
As a result, when the Great Calamity befell the world, other sects experienced a bloodbath, but it had little impact on the Sun Stealing Sect.
The reason the Sun Stealing Sect survived for thousands of years with only one disciple in each generation, maintaining their heritage, was largely due to their unique cultivation technique.
Sun Stealing Technique: This technique allowed the creation of a special clone using one's blood and some specific materials. Unlike regular clone techniques, this clone possessed its unique appearance, aura, soul, cultivation level, and realm, as well as its own luck and fate.
This clone could be treated as a completely separate person.
Furthermore, when creating a clone, if bones from deceased cultivators or the blood of a living one were added, it could strip away some of the target's innate talents, luck, and more, grafting them onto the clone.
However, this alone did not demonstrate the full power of the Sun Stealing Sect.
The Sun Stealing Technique, when combined with the Sun Stealing Token in Li Fan's hand, was the complete form.
This Sun Stealing Token had been forged by Sikong Yue, the 38th generation disciple of the Sun Stealing Sect, thousands of years ago.
She had witnessed the Great Calamity, where countless cultivators slaughtered each other like ants. Frightened, she deeply desired to find a perfect method of self-preservation.
After more than a hundred years of painstaking research and exploration, she finally created this Sun Stealing Token.
Its uses were endless. It had an extensive storage space. After a sacrifice ceremony, the token could freely transfer between the master and the clone, ignoring spatial limitations.
Most importantly, using the Sun Stealing Technique, she transferred the life essence of her clone and even her true self onto this token.
As long as the token remained intact, even if the master and the clone were killed, they could reconstruct a new body by consuming the blood stored in the token, effectively "resurrecting."
In simple terms, after the completion of the cultivation technique, what was seen by outsiders, whether it was the master or the clone, was just an empty shell.
The Sun Stealing Token was the true essence.
After being modified by Sikong Yue in an unconventional way, the technique had become somewhat unorthodox, but it was effective.
Over thousands of years, with the help of this bizarre technique, Sun Stealing Sect disciples had always managed to escape any perilous situation.
Thus, the Sun Stealing Sect had survived for thousands of years without being extinguished, until Sikong Yi encountered an extraordinary anomaly like Li Fan who was capable of warping time and space.
The Sun Stealing Technique was far from perfect and had some fatal drawbacks.
For instance, there needed to be a certain distance between the primary body and the clone. The farther the clone was from the primary body, the more its power diminished. If the distance exceeded the limit, the clone's cultivation would drop to the minimum, typically at the early Qi Condensation stage.
Another example was that due to their life essence being connected to the token, when a Sun Stealing Sect disciple died, a portion of their lingering soul would be bound within the token, unable to escape. These lingering souls often preserved some crucial memories from their previous lives.
In times of crisis, these memories could be unleashed against enemies by the token's master.
Li Fan's divine sense entered the Sun Stealing Token, and although the storage space was vast, it was empty except for Sikong Yi and another indistinct soul drifting within.
His divine sense transformed into a giant hand, seizing these two lingering souls and delving into their remaining memories.
After a long time, Li Fan finally understood why the millennia-old Sun Stealing Sect had fallen into such a desperate state.
The origins of the situation stemmed from Sikong Yi's master, Sikong Bo.
Over the centuries, the Sun Stealing Sect had traversed numerous dangerous situations without harm, which had made them increasingly arrogant. However, Sikong Bo had taken this audacity to an extreme.
On a distant continent, when Sikong Bo, who had broken through to the Foundation Establishment stage, was dissatisfied with a clone he had previously refined, he decided to gather materials for a new one.
During this time, he encountered a child of five or six in a remote mountain village.
This child had a natural affinity for cultivation. Not only was their strength boundless, but their cultivation speed was astonishing. At such a young age, they had perfected Qi Condensation and were ready to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage.
This piqued Sikong Bo's interest. After discreetly observing the child for a while, he realized that the child's luck was extraordinary. Every time the child ventured into the deep mountains to hunt, they returned with various rare treasures from the earth and heavens.
If he could strip away the child's luck, the clone he would create would undoubtedly be remarkable.
Therefore, Sikong Bo attempted to steal the child's essence during the night when the child was asleep.
However, this child had long been selected by a Nascent Soul stage powerhouse who was approaching the end of their lifespan. This senior had been searching for a host for their next incarnation.
Ordinarily, the process of taking over another's body would somewhat damage the target's foundation. But the Nascent Soul stage cultivator, who had given up on advancing further, didn't want to jeopardize their chances for further progress by allowing this to happen.
So, they chose an extreme method: turning themselves into a Heavenly Treasure, waiting for the child to reach the Foundation Establishment stage, and then perfectly merging with them.
Yes, according to Sikong Bo's residual memories, humans could be refined into Heavenly Treasures. Or rather, a significant portion of the many Heavenly Treasures appearing in the world were transformed from fallen cultivators.
After a cultivator's death, their Dao underwent a transformation over countless years in the natural world. Based on their characteristics, temperament, and the nature of the techniques they had practiced in life, they would gradually form various Heavenly Treasures that would reappear in the world.
In life, they could not practice the same techniques as others, and after death, they still had a role to play. This was the world's way of showing its regard for cultivators.