The demonic cultivator took a step towards Pan, but paused. He spat out a mouthful of purplish blood. Pan stepped forward and pushed a palm forward, breaking almost every bone in the demonic cultivator's body.
He died from a combination of the poison and the attack, shocking the rest of the demonic cultivators and the Buddhists. Despite even this, the demonic cultivators technically had the upper hand in terms of fighters.
But none of them dared stay a moment longer, scurrying away.
Pan was hailed as a hero, but didn't stay at the Buddhist temple for very long before moving on. He got into a few more fights over the next two or three years and experienced life. Eventually, Zhou Fan brought him back.
Pan had benefitted a lot from the trip, and continued steadily on his path to power.
Eventually, he grew up. His strength increased, he matured, and he never stopped practicing palm techniques.
Once he reached the True God realm, Zhou Fan released him from his tutelage. He had taught him all that he would teach. All of Zhou Fan's greatest palm techniques had been imparted into Pan, and Pan's path would be a long and great one. Zhou Fan could see the nearly infinite potential in him.
He only focused on two things, cultivation, and palm techniques. With his talent, it would be hard for him to not at least reach the Buddha's level.
Only time would tell. After the brief intermission, Zhou Fan began to cultivate once again. Three million Sage Years passed. Zhou Fan was ready to break through. However, a battle that was occurring drew his attention.
It was between twenty three Universe Immortals and the Celestial Immortal Pan.
Twenty three Universe Immortals sounded like a lot, and indeed it was. Even to the current Multiverse. It was almost a tenth of the existing Universe Immortals.
Not only Zhou Fan, but many powerful beings throughout the Multiverse were watching. This was a major event.
All twenty three surrounded him tightly, not allowing even the slightest possibility of escape. Although Pan was a Buddhist and never caused trouble, trouble had always had a way of finding him. Over the past millions of Sage Years, he had managed to offend twenty three Universe Immortals to the point of grouping up and attacking him.
Pan stood confidently, despite being a realm lower than everyone else around him.
"No need to waste any words. All of you can come at once."
Without a word, all twenty three launched attacks.
Pan moved his hands together and closed his eyes.
As the attacks descended, he opened his hands and moved them in an unreasonable manner.
Behind him, a silhouette appeared, and around him, a thousand hands appeared.
Each of the attacks were hit away, completely deflected.
Pan forced his palms together, and two palms appeared in the surrounding space. They smashed together, crushing the defenses of the twenty three Universe Immortals. All that remained were a few splats of blood that fell off of the palms as they disintegrated.
These were not just simply Universe Immortals, but some of the most talented people in the Multiverse. How else could someone become one of a group of only a little more than 200 people in the Universe?
Yet Pan had crushed them like ants. He was the most promising cultivator in a long time.
This moment marked his future ascent to the level of the strongest beings in the Universe.
Before Zhou Fan began the breakthrough process, he looked somewhere else, where the System was.
Right now, it was in a sort of hibernation. It had crossed a huge threshold and was undergoing a complete transformation. When it was finished, it would be on an entirely different level than before.
After noting what the System was doing, Zhou Fan began to break through.
The Chaos Immortal realm had been a great one.
As the process began, he felt as if there was some sort of requirement. Something he had to have in order to continue onwards. This realm did not feel like it would grant a complete transformation, but would be the key to entering the realm after it, in which one would experience an unprecedented change.
Zhou Fan held his hand out, and as if he was using a key to unlock a door, turned it.
He instantly broke through. The requirement was impact. To go beyond the Chaos Immortal realm, one needed to have had a great impact on a large number of people and/or places. It did not matter whether or not it was a positive impact or a negative impact.
One could quietly cultivate and break through every single realm, never interacting with a single person, until this realm.
Zhou Fan called it the High Immortal realm, the last realm of the Immortal realms.
Although true Immortality had not been achieved, that was because it was something beyond even the Immortal realms, where Zhou Fan was now heading.
He would need to think a lot about future cultivation realms, even longer than now, but he should have plenty of time. He already knew that this breakthrough would take an extremely long time. Far, far longer than any other before.
With his breakthrough achieved, Zhou Fan took Leaf and collected the green power around the Universes they had created. Those Universes had grown quite powerful, and many of them could contend with the weaker Universes within the Multiverse.
Zhou Fan had considered integrating these Universes into the Multiverse at some point, but had decided against it. They were Leaf's property, not his.
But one thing did change after this trip.
Heaven had returned to the Main Multiverse.
He had done a lot in his time away, and was now ready to continue back where he was born.
As always, with Zhou Fan's breakthrough, the Universe expanded.
It grew so large that Zhou Fan considered splitting it up into multiple Multiverses, but waited. There was still plenty of potential within the idea of a Multiverse, and he wanted to stretch it to its limits before completely changing anything.