"So it wasn't that Mr. Bai was inferior to the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable, but merely that Mr. Bai attained the Dao later than he did."
"Conversely, had Mr. Bai been the first to transform the Xuanhuang Realm, perhaps the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable would have been utterly helpless as well."
"Unfortunately, there are no 'what-ifs.'"
An aged Xu Ke spoke in a tone laden with deep regret.
Li Fan remained silent for a long time, ultimately responding with a sigh of his own.
"So that was how it was."
"However..."
Li Fan frowned. "Was Mr. Bai's martyrdom really that simple?"
"The birth of the immortal-mortal miasma could naturally preserve the lives of the mortals in the Xuanhuang Realm for a time. But fundamentally speaking, it was merely a stalling tactic."
"In the end, mortals are still treated as beasts of burden by cultivators, and the Xuanhuang Realm remains in imminent peril. Since Mr. Bai could deduce what would happen millennia later, he naturally couldn't have failed to see this."
"With his character, how could he have departed in such haste without making any preparations whatsoever?"
Refusing to give up, Li Fan tried to coax more secrets out of Xu Ke.
For he always felt that there had to be something more hidden behind Mr. Bai's demise.
Unexpectedly, Xu Ke merely smiled and shook his head. "You and I both thought Mr. Bai was an omnipotent sage. But in reality, in his own words..."
"...he was merely an ordinary person who couldn't bear to watch others suffer."
"From his initial helplessness in the face of Miss Liu'er and the innocent people of Ningyuan City dying tragic deaths, to the setbacks he suffered later when attempting to reverse destiny—Mr. Bai spent his entire life in 'powerlessness.' Thus, he never imagined he had the ability to save everything. All he could do was strive with all his might."
"And indeed, he truly gave far too much."
Xu Ke fell silent once more. "Do you know what is inside the coffin behind me?"
Li Fan looked toward Xu Ke's back.
Looking closely now, he realized that this pale coffin was faintly connected to the towering stone mountain beneath him.
Or rather...
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. After observing for a long time, understanding suddenly dawned upon him.
The pocket world before his eyes inverted in an instant.
The earth was above, the sky below.
The towering stone mountain upon the coffin seemed to be propping up the entire sky.
Or rather, the weight of the entire world was pressing down upon the coffin.
And from within this coffin, Li Fan felt a remarkably familiar aura.
It was an aura that no Xuanhuang cultivator could ever find unfamiliar.
He also recalled Xu Ke introducing himself earlier as "someone who is an enemy of the world."
"Could this be...?" Li Fan was shaken with horror. He snapped his head up to stare at Xu Ke.
Xu Ke's expression did not change in the slightest; he merely kept a faint smile.
"Mr. Bai was favored by the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, virtually existing as an Avatar of the Heavenly Dao."
"Not only did he ascend to the heavens in a single bound from a mortal body, directly becoming a Longevity Heavenly Venerable, but he also shouldered the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's mission to abandon the realm and depart."
"Yet Mr. Bai ultimately chose not to leave. Afterward, he simply became a member of the new method and participated in defying the principles of Heaven and Earth. To the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, this was nothing short of an outright betrayal."
"The deeper the Heavenly Dao's favor, the greater the backlash suffered upon betrayal. That was one of the reasons Mr. Bai was killed by his own creation that defied principles. For before that, he had already become exceedingly weak."
Xu Ke patted the coffin behind him and said, "In fact, with the extent of heavenly favor Mr. Bai possessed at the time, it was fundamentally impossible for him to defy principles. Long before the defiance succeeded, he would have perished from the Heavenly Dao's backlash."
"Therefore..."
"Before defying principles, Mr. Bai first stripped away the heavenly favor. Then, he suppressed it."
As if sensing Xu Ke's words, the coffin behind him suddenly produced a muffled thumping sound.
Li Fan's head spun with dizziness, and a face somewhat resembling Mr. Bai's—only paler—abruptly appeared before his eyes.
With deeply seductive words, it urged Li Fan to help open the coffin, promising that once it was done and they returned to the Xuanhuang Realm, he would surely be rewarded a thousandfold.
An ordinary cultivator might have been persuaded in an instant, reduced to a tool for its escape and clashing with Xu Ke.
But who was Li Fan?
Setting aside the sheer tenacity of his mind, the mere fact that he had always maintained a sliver of vigilance toward Mr. Bai meant that he was destined not to be bewitched by this rather unsettling Mr. Bai.
With a cold snort, the vision before him tore apart completely.
Li Fan snapped out of the hallucination, only to find Xu Ke watching him coldly, as if ready to strike at the slightest discord.
Yet upon seeing that Li Fan had not been affected by the illusion, the murderous intent in his eyes faded.
"Suppressed heavenly favor? What on earth is that?" Li Fan feigned lingering fear.
"The ego of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao that had attached itself to Mr. Bai was stripped away by him. After being sealed and suppressed for so many years, it has gradually grown somewhat extreme. If it were released to return to the Xuanhuang Realm proper..." Xu Ke's expression was grave.
"...a catastrophe ten times more terrifying than 'dharmas cannot be cultivated concurrently' would descend in an instant. That is why over all these years, even when Xiao Hei perished back then, I didn't dare take a single step away from here. The stakes are too immense; there is no room for failure."
"An extreme Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao?" In the depths of Li Fan's eyes, a gleam flashed for an instant.
"Indeed. I can sense that over all these years of being sealed, the heavenly will inside has grown more and more bizarre. I truly worry there will come a day when I, too, can hold on no longer." A look of deep worry flitted through Xu Ke's eyes.
"In truth, I have also been secretly scouting for a suitable successor recently. But I have never found anyone I could trust. Today, Fellow Daoist, by twist of fate, you have arrived at my door..."
Xu Ke suddenly shifted the subject. "Could this not be destiny at work in the unseen?"
"From what I have seen of Fellow Daoist's temperament and character, you are beyond question the finest choice." He looked earnestly at Li Fan and spoke with complete sincerity.
Li Fan pondered and did not take up the offer.
"Of course, the mission of suppressing the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao is far too lonely and perilous. If you are unwilling, Fellow Daoist, I can understand. But I have one request..." Xu Ke said.
"Please speak, Fellow Daoist." Li Fan's expression turned solemn.
"If there comes a day when I am controlled by the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao within this coffin and lose my own consciousness, I ask that you step in and strike me down, Fellow Daoist." Xu Ke spoke with utmost solemnity.
Looking into the aged Xu Ke's eyes, Li Fan nodded. "Very well. I promise you."
"Moreover, you need not worry about finding a successor."
Xu Ke froze slightly.
"You might not believe it, but I am not alone. I am a member of the Myriad Realms Association."
Chapter 1092