Falsifying the Heavenly Dao

Li Fan kept these thoughts to himself and did not voice them plainly to Layman Qiaogong. Instead, he simply dispatched another calamity body to accompany him, to be used when forging Tianyang's new puppet frame. With these two sent out, Li Fan had only a single calamity body left inside him, and it was only half-filled. In this life, his arrangements for the Red Dust Compassionate Immortal had been in place for so long, yet this was all he had harvested. This showed just how difficult it was to obtain Source Power Essence. High in spirits, Layman Qiaogong was about to lead the golden calamity body back when Li Fan asked how much time was actually needed to craft an immortal puppet. The answer caught Li Fan off guard. "By my estimate, ten years would be the absolute minimum," Layman Qiaogong said rather uncertainly. "It might take even longer. After all, this is my first time having the opportunity to forge an immortal puppet, so I have no real benchmark." Layman Qiaogong's gaze drifted, avoiding eye contact with Li Fan. "Ten years..." "I wonder if I will even have the chance to see an immortal puppet come into the world in this life." Li Fan shook his head slightly and dismissed Layman Qiaogong. It seemed that once something touched upon the level of an "immortal," the required time increased by hundreds or thousands of times. The same was true for the Terminal Dissociation Disc's deduction and unraveling of the restrictions left by the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable. This did not mean Chuanfa was already at the level of an immortal; rather, Li Fan could clearly discern operational logic and hallmarks within these restrictions identical to those of immortal-grade arrays. "It seems Chuanfa, too, possessed a heritage from the Immortal Realm. Only due to the lack of immortal spiritual qi did he blaze a different trail," Li Fan mused thoughtfully. Then again, it made sense: the Heavenly Profound Mirror was a relic of the Immortal Realm. How could a restriction capable of binding an immortal artifact ever be a mortal method? Among those Li Fan currently knew of who possessed Dao heritages of the Immortal Realm, the King of Profound Heaven was one, and Archmage Tiandu was another. As for the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable, it had previously been only speculation, but judging from the restrictions sealing the Heavenly Profound Mirror, it was now practically confirmed. Out of countless figures throughout the history of the Xuanhuang Realm, there were remarkably only these three who might possess the heritage of a True Immortal. And even that was only because an unknown calamity had struck the Immortal Realm, causing the immortal path to collapse, allowing the King of Profound Heaven and Archmage Tiandu to stumble upon them by chance. Just think: had that calamity never occurred, the mortal realm would likely never have had any True Immortal Dao lineage at all. In a normal cultivation world with an open path to ascension, where communication between the Immortal Realm and the mortal realm could proceed normally, such a state of affairs almost certainly would not have arisen. "Or rather, the very existence of such a situation speaks volumes in itself." Li Fan's gaze turned dark. ... The divide between immortal and mortal was like heaven and an abyss. Originally, he had anticipated that once both the Dissociation Disc and the Dao Transformation Stone completed their evolutions, unraveling the restrictions of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable would take merely the blink of an eye. Yet in actual practice, it gave Li Fan the feeling of running a horse to death chasing a mountain on the horizon. Although complete unraveling seemed right within reach, the Terminal Dissociation Disc had been running for a long time without making even the slightest change in progress. "So this is an immortal method specifically devised for sealing." "Though Myriad Spirits Returning to Enumeration and Empty Chamber Blossoming with Flowers are immortal-grade arrays, they offer no insights I can draw upon in this regard." "I can only rely on the Dissociation Disc to brute-force it." A wave of helplessness welled up within Li Fan. Keeping an eye on the disc's operation, he temporarily shifted his attention elsewhere. In his spare time, Li Fan began pondering how to swiftly extract the marrow of Heaven and Earth. It was foreseeable that when he provoked the collision between the Faceless True Immortal and the immortal of the Immortal Ruins to create the conditions for his True Reversion, the time left for Li Fan would certainly not be long. Very likely, it would be no more than a single instant. According to his prior schemes, if he wanted to maximize his gains, he had to simultaneously extract the Imminent Transformations of Xuanhuang to build up the foundation for his own breakthrough to Soul Formation. Possessing the Mirror Origin of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, Li Fan had been able to read numerous long-forgotten archives of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. Among them were the insights and notes of many cultivators breaking through to Soul Formation. Extracting the imminent transformations of heaven and earth was a drawn-out, meticulous process. Li Fan had also personally witnessed Zhang Zhiliang absorbing the transformations of the Congyun Sea to ascend to Soul Formation. Evidently, it was not something that could be accomplished in a single stride. If just one imminent transformation was like this, what about hundreds or thousands of them? The only thing Li Fan could look to for reference was perhaps how Mr. Bai had once gathered countless animas of Heaven and Earth into his own body in a single instant. That ability known as "falsifying transposition." The reason ordinary cultivators had to tread with utmost caution during Soul Formation was that extracting the marrow of Heaven and Earth inevitably incurred backlash from the world. Yet for an Avatar of the Heavenly Dao, heavenly retribution would not descend in response to its own needs. "Falsifying transposition... seeing him is like seeing me..." Li Fan suddenly remembered the ability of Dharma Transmitter Jiang. A flash of inspiration struck his mind. Seizing this rare opportunity, he swallowed a handful of Dao Comprehension Pills. Scenes from his past cultivation where he had communed with the Heavenly Dao surfaced one by one in his mind. The entire sequence of events when Heavenly Dao Mr. Bai descended by means of his Sacred Embryo, along with every subtle change that had occurred in the Sacred Embryo and his own body... All the details resurfaced completely in Li Fan's mind. It was fortunate that the Dao Transformation Stone had just completed its transformation; otherwise, its original mid-grade quality could never have withstood such consumption. "Right. Because of a momentary lapse, I gave Heavenly Dao Bai an opening to seize my embryo and borrow a body to return to life. "But look at it the other way: the body of Heavenly Dao Bai is, in the end, still my Sacred Embryo. In other words, another me. "It was merely occupied by him. "The Avatar of the Heavenly Dao is me... "I am the Avatar of the Heavenly Dao..." Li Fan's eyes shone brighter and brighter as thoughts surged relentlessly within him. As if possessed, he muttered those two sentences over and over under his breath. If an outsider were present to witness this scene, they might think Li Fan had succumbed to qi deviation. In reality, Li Fan's mind was clearer than ever before. "Just as I once used the Vast Sea Pearl to observe the unfolding of Heaven and Earth's killing intent and comprehended the divine ability 'Formless Killing Intent'— "Heavenly Dao Bai was born using my Sacred Embryo, and through this, I had the fortune to share a body with the Heavenly Dao." Li Fan's gaze seemed to pierce the sky of the Spirit Wood Realm, reaching straight into the Xuanhuang Realm. The countless facets of sentient beings seen within the Heavenly Profound Mirror, the shifts and vicissitudes of the Xuanhuang Realm witnessed across multiple cycles of reincarnation... All manner of realizations lingered around his heart. An inexplicable aura began to emerge from Li Fan's body. Like a stone sculpture, Li Fan froze in place, lost in comprehension of the Dao. No telling how much time passed. At the very brink of attaining full comprehension, a sudden jolt of alarm awakened Li Fan's mind. "No! I don't actually want to become an Avatar of the Heavenly Dao. "I only want to borrow the authority of the Heavenly Dao... "That was close..." Even with Li Fan's current temperament, a cold sweat broke out across his back. For if he truly solidified an intrinsic bond with the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang, a transformation occurring within his very self through his own active doing was unlikely to be undone simply by True Reversion. After all, True Reversion altered the world, while Li Fan himself remained unchanged. "Fortunately, I realized in time."