Barely qualifying as half a technique weaver master himself, he now found the reading quite engaging and not the least bit tedious.
Time passed swiftly. Soon, the previous announcement voice sounded again.
"Cultivator Xiao Fan, your turn is approaching. Please get ready."
Li Fan returned the book to the shelf, took a deep breath, and focused his mind.
The countdown on the wall slowly reached zero.
Everything in the space turned into an illusion, dissolving into motes of light that drifted towards a certain direction.
Li Fan floated within the space, momentarily stunned.
Glancing around, he saw himself in a vast, empty void.
In that instant, a flash of insight struck him. Li Fan followed the previous motes of light, flying forward.
Soon, he beheld a colossal sphere made up of countless characters, perpetually transforming in infinite permutations.
Occasionally, the entire tapestry of characters on the sphere would pause briefly, emit a shimmering light, then vanish. After which, the endless transformation and derivation would begin anew.
Beneath this colossal sphere, a desk floated in the void.
A little girl who looked only five or six years old was sprawled across the desk.
She watched the characters on the desktop with a listless, bored expression.
Is she the Derivation Jade?
Li Fan slowly flew closer, but discovered that upon reaching a certain point, he could advance no further.
Seeing that the little girl showed no sign of noticing him at all, he gave a light cough.
"Might I ask—"
The little girl spoke without looking up, her voice soft and childlike, "What are your requirements for the technique? Do you want to create it from scratch or derive it from an existing blueprint?
"Write it down."
She then patted the tabletop with her chubby hands. A flash of light later, a sheet of paper appeared.
The little girl picked up the paper and tossed it to Li Fan.
The more Li Fan studied the Derivation Jade, the stranger he felt.
But he didn't delay. Taking hold of the paper, his thoughts flowed, and lines of text immediately appeared upon it.
"Blueprint techniques: the Thousand Mechanisms Jade Cosmos Scripture and the Heaven-Swapping Art.
“Reference secret art: Visage Follows the Heart.
"Derive a technique that can completely transform one person into another."