Seeing how thoroughly convinced Lu Ya was of his own conclusion, Xu Ke hesitated for a moment before speaking slowly. "I once heard someone say that sometimes, even what you see with your own eyes might not be the whole truth.
"And when judging a person's character, don't look at what he says—look at what he does.
"Even though I don't know what was going on in that basement, Mr. Bai has always been exceptionally good to us. Without his help, we might have starved to death long ago. That's why I'll always believe that Mr. Bai truly is a good man."
Xu Ke spoke slowly as he gathered his thoughts, taking quite a while to finish this bookish little speech.
Lu Ya chuckled and ruffled Xu Ke's head. "You little rascal, you read a few books and now you're lecturing me? Spouting whole treatises, are we?
"Don't worry, I'm not an unreasonable person. I know what I'm doing. It's just..." That bizarre, uncanny faceless statue seemed to rise before Lu Ya's eyes once more, and his heart grew a few degrees heavier.
After that, Lu Ya chatted with Xu Ke for a while longer. Only after appearing to receive a transmission did he hurry away.
*Lord Profound Bird, how did I do?* Xu Ke finally asked in his mind, eagerly seeking Li Fan's praise.
"Just average. Still plenty of room for improvement," Li Fan replied nonchalantly, instantly deflating Xu Ke's spirits.
*It seems the lingering power of the Faceless True Immortal in this era is far stronger than it will be several thousand years from now. Lu Ya only caught a single glimpse of it, yet he was already tainted by its aura, snared in the Web of the True Immortal, with little hope of escape.*
As the Xuanhuang agent of the Faceless True Immortal in the present age, there was likely no one alive today who understood the nature of His power better than Li Fan.
During the previous illusions, Li Fan had lacked the standing to detect it. Now, however, he could see at a glance that the fundamental cause of Lu Ya's drastic change in attitude toward Mr. Bai was the lingering influence of that Faceless True Immortal stone statue.
All living beings held an instinctive terror of unknown, supreme entities.
Much like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb, unable to break free, it might not have seen the predator descend yet, but it already sensed its impending doom and trembled with dread.
Lu Ya was in precisely that state.
It was just that he had subconsciously linked the Faceless True Immortal stone statue directly to Mr. Bai. Rather than fleeing and keeping his distance from Mr. Bai, he was really trying to escape the clutches of the Faceless True Immortal.
Unfortunately, just as Li Fan had experienced in reality, ordinary methods offered no way out at all.
As for whether Mr. Bai truly had any connection to the Faceless True Immortal...
During their brief encounter just now, Li Fan had not detected the slightest trace of the Faceless True Immortal's aura on Mr. Bai. Of course, it was also possible that Mr. Bai was simply too powerful and had concealed it thoroughly.
While lost in thought, Li Fan noticed that Xu Ke was still looking crestfallen, so he scratched the boy's hair. "Your mental fortitude still needs work. If you can't even handle a tiny setback like this, how are you going to follow behind me and save the world in the future?"
"Lord Profound Bird, I'm not even ten years old yet. Does saving the world really have to depend on me?" Xu Ke asked with a pained, scrunched-up face.
"Who told you to be fated with me?" Li Fan said earnestly.
"Alright, get ready. Next, the Beast Taming Sect will likely assign you a mission," Li Fan predicted.
Having witnessed his foresight time and again, Xu Ke was already utterly convinced of Li Fan's words.
Sure enough, Li Fan's prediction proved accurate once more.
Three days later, Lu Ya brought Xu Ke to a small wooden cabin outside the Beast Taming Sect's Demon Suppressing Pagoda.
On the table inside the cabin lay a wooden carving and a wooden box.
"This carving is a gift left for you by Mr. Bai," Lu Ya said, his expression somewhat conflicted.
Something seemed to have happened to him over these past three days. In his words, he had become far more polite when referring to Mr. Bai, yet Li Fan could keenly sense that the influence of the Faceless True Immortal upon him had actually deepened.
"Wow!" Xu Ke lacked the ability to realize any of this. At that moment, he simply ran excitedly to the table and snatched up the carving.
"Huh? It looks just like me!" Xu Ke examined it up and down closely, shouting in pleasant surprise.
Not caring at all what practical use the carving might have, Xu Ke was already overjoyed simply because it was a gift from Mr. Bai. He had intended to stow it away carefully, but after hearing Li Fan's transmission, he tucked it inside his shirt against his chest instead.
*This carving is truly a good treasure,* Li Fan thought, his eyes fixed upon it as he sensed the power of laws condensed within.
Something coming from Mr. Bai could naturally never be ordinary.
This small wooden carving of Xu Ke represented retaliation.
As long as an incoming attack did not exceed the upper limit of what the carving could endure, it would be absorbed and then reflected right back.
It was quite similar to how Shuo Feng's divine ability had performed after he comprehended the "Sword" wonder of Heaven.
*Even against the full-power strike of someone in the Dao Integration realm, this carving can reflect it perfectly. Though its uses are limited, it is absolutely a life-saving masterpiece.* Li Fan marveled at Mr. Bai's generosity while studying the principles of Heaven and Earth woven into the carving.
And just as expected, Xu Ke received the mission to head to Nanming Sacred Beast Mountain and deliver the red wooden box to the Di Yi Beast.
*Inside this wooden box is the head of Di Erli. If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Bai must have slain him with his own hands. Di Erli wandered abroad, stirring up trouble and refusing to return to the monster race. Although Mr. Bai appears to have killed him, in reality, he is returning him to Di Yi.*
*He is using this favor to trade for the method by which spirit beasts can devour the void to reproduce, all to nurture the Realm-Rifting Whale.*
Li Fan reviewed the sequence of cause and effect in his mind.
*Even though Mr. Bai is an Avatar of the Heavenly Dao, he still cannot grasp the specific evolutionary paths of spirit beasts and must consult the Di Yi Beast.*
*It seems the spirit beasts of the Xuanhuang Realm might not be native creatures at all, but outsiders from beyond.*
*Di Yi sensed that a great catastrophe was about to befall the Xuanhuang Realm and that survival was impossible, which is why he sought to split the boundary and flee...*
The towering white mountain that seemed to stand at the edge of the world surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
*Mount Nanming... according to Di Yi, it is the edge of heaven and the corner of the sea, the very end of the world.*
*Countless stray energies of the Xuanhuang Realm converge there. If detonated through some special technique, it could unleash an immensely terrifying force in an instant—one approaching the power of a True Immortal.*
*A power sufficient to leap over the High Wall and escape the Pitch-Black Star Sea.*
A thousand years later in the present era, Mount Nanming had already turned into the Great Boundary-Splitting Maelstrom. The world wound had remained unhealed for thousands of years, which showed just how terrifying the energetic backlash had been when Mount Nanming split the boundary.
*The principle is identical to the fission divine weapons of the Heavenly Sword Sect. Yet both remain mere theories. Whether they succeeded or failed, whether they escaped the Pitch-Black Star Sea or were reduced to nothingness...*
*No one knows.*
Chapter 1080