"Impossible. This vast immortal spiritual energy gathering inside me is clearly no illusion."
Li Fan's thoughts raced, and he quickly used the Water Mirror Technique to inspect himself.
He discovered that, just as he had guessed, his face was no longer that of Mr. Bai, but his own!
"This..."
Li Fan felt a sudden jolt of shock.
"How could this be?"
"How could the immortal spiritual energy obtained from destroying immortal artifacts in the Fallen Immortal Realm actually manifest in reality..."
Just as he felt bewildered, Mr. Bai's face abruptly surfaced in his mind, like a bolt of lightning piercing through the fog.
Li Fan froze on the spot.
"So that's how it is."
Indeed, although everything Li Fan had just experienced in the Fallen Immortal Realm was an illusion, in actual history, Mr. Bai truly had gathered and destroyed numerous immortal artifacts, thereby obtaining the power to leap over the High Wall.
"Mr. Bai ultimately chose not to leave the Xuanhuang Realm. Therefore..."
A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
His heart thumped wildly against his will. "Back then, that vast immortal spiritual energy was preserved intact!
"Stored right here in the Fallen Immortal Realm! In this final trial scene to become Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang!"
"..."
Li Fan felt the majestic power swirling around his body.
He understood now.
He had to make the exact same choice Mr. Bai had faced back then:
Whether to inherit this immortal spiritual energy, leap over the High Wall, and live free and unfettered from then on,
Or choose to let it go, remain in the Xuanhuang Realm, and serve as Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang.
Although he didn't know what reason led Mr. Bai to choose staying behind, Li Fan was not as noble as Mr. Bai.
If there was a chance to leave, why would he ever choose to be bound to the Xuanhuang Realm?
Almost without thinking, Li Fan was about to choose to inherit the immortal spiritual energy.
Yet at the very last moment, he hesitated and pulled back.
"Beyond the High Wall... Beyond the High Wall..."
"Is it really safe beyond the High Wall?"
A huge question mark rose in Li Fan's mind.
His true body's cultivation was merely at the Nascent Soul realm, comparable to an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator.
Within the Xuanhuang Realm, relying on the power of the Spirit Wood Realm, Tianyang, and others, he could barely protect himself.
But once outside Xuanhuang, beyond the High Wall...
The level of danger would likely far surpass when he first arrived in the Xuanhuang Realm with a mortal body.
After all, True Immortals existed beyond the High Wall.
The surge of power unleashed the moment one vaulted the High Wall could very well draw Their gaze.
Especially in this lifetime, Li Fan was still caught in the Web of the True Immortal.
At the Nascent Soul realm, no matter how much he hopped about, he might not attract a True Immortal's attention. But if a speck of dust in the Nascent Soul realm suddenly transformed into an immortal in the blink of an eye...
When that time came, Li Fan might not even have time to react and activate True Reversion before being captured by the Faceless True Immortal and taken away for study.
Li Fan pondered for a long time before finally letting out a long breath.
He completely suppressed the restless urge.
A chance at detachment and transcendence that he had bitterly sought across hundreds of reincarnations was right in front of his eyes.
Yet when the genuine opportunity to escape presented itself, Li Fan stepped back.
At its core, it was because Li Fan was still too weak.
And he was utterly ignorant of what lay beyond the High Wall.
It was not that he could not leave now, but that the risk of leaving was simply too great.
So great that even Li Fan, who possessed True Reversion, dared not attempt it lightly.
"Wait a little longer. Wait a little longer."
"It's not time yet."
"For anyone else, once this chance to leave the Pitch-Black Star Sea is missed, it will never come again."
"But I am different."
"Since I already know this vast immortal spiritual energy exists, I can come and take it whenever I need it."
After a bout of rational analysis, Li Fan's state of mind finally returned to an unruffled calm.
Having temporarily abandoned the plan to leap over the High Wall, another question now stood before him.
Did he need to inherit the title of Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang?
Without much thought at all, Li Fan made a decisive choice.
If, in ancient times, Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang was supreme and answered to no law, times had changed.
The benefits might not amount to much, but the duties and responsibilities one had to shoulder were visibly colossal.
Setting things right, dealing with Chuanfa, restoring normal order to the Xuanhuang Realm, saving the Xuanhuang Realm from its impending fate of being swallowed by the Immortal Ruins...
Li Fan had zero interest in playing savior.
He had no genuine sense of belonging to the Xuanhuang Realm anyway.
Now that he had found the method to leap over the High Wall, what he needed to do next was to increase his strength as quickly as possible, or plan and test whether escaping via this method was truly viable and devoid of peril.
As for this Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, whoever wanted to be it could be it.
Li Fan certainly wasn't going to join in the fray.
Since this trial had been established by Mr. Bai, Li Fan believed it wouldn't force a cultivator to make a choice.
Sure enough, once Li Fan conveyed in his heart the thought that he was renouncing both options, after a long silence, the surrounding scene began to shake violently.
Like boiling water, it shattered with a roar.
After a wave of slight dizziness, Li Fan finally returned to reality.
"Seems like it has a bit of a temper," Li Fan muttered inwardly.
Looking back on this experience in the Fallen Immortal Realm, he found it somewhat regrettable that, just like before, he only retained rough, hazy memories. Wherever specific divine abilities and secret arts were involved, he couldn't recall them at all.
"If I had become Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, perhaps all the history in the Fallen Immortal Realm would have been inherited."
"Still..."
"The losses outweigh the gains. Especially when I am already caught in the Web of the True Immortal in this life."
Li Fan composed his thoughts. After a long while, he checked the time.
He was startled to discover that this trip into the Fallen Immortal Realm had lasted more than a full year.
It seemed the time ratio in this trial illusion was different from ordinary Fallen Immortal illusions, being much closer to reality.
Li Fan had a sudden inkling.
"This trial illusion wasn't created on a whim. It likely requires a certain amount of energy."
"Although Mo Rubin entered the trial illusion more than a year before me, I had already experienced it in advance and knew the plot well. His actions might not have been as swift as mine."
"It's possible he is still inside the illusion right now."
Thinking this, Li Fan began to check what had transpired over the past year.
Having been unable to contact Li Fan for so long, Dharma Transmitter Zhou had guessed that Li Fan had successfully entered the trial illusion.
He had sent several messages intermittently. Beyond inquiring how much Li Fan could disclose about the scenes he experienced once he exited the illusion, the rest pertained to matters concerning the remnants of the Profound Heaven Sect.
Although Dharma Transmitter Chen and the others had passed the Vow of the Dharma Transmitters, everyone knew full well that they were no longer suited to remain in the highest leadership echelon of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Following a renewed vote among the Dharma Transmitters, they had ultimately compromised and departed voluntarily.
Chapter 1089