Wu Ninglu put away the jade talisman Li Fan handed to her, looking as though she wanted to speak but hesitated.
"It is merely three hundred years! I am off!"
Li Fan simply waved his hand, saying no more.
Following the Sun Family Head, he departed for the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters.
In truth, beyond functioning as a communication talisman, the jade talisman he had given Wu Ninglu was essentially a miniature convergent array.
It contained a split soul from Li Fan.
While it allowed him to keep Wu Ninglu under comprehensive surveillance, its primary purpose was to plant an eye on the outside, keeping constant watch on the movements of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
This split soul possessed the origin of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, enabling it to lurk within the mirror and monitor the Alliance's situation at all times.
After all, during his time garrisoning the Yanfa Jade, he might be in complete isolation, unable even to use the Heavenly Profound Mirror easily.
Meanwhile, his avatar was in the Daqi pocket world and would not venture out lightly.
Leaving behind a contingency was indeed necessary.
With Li Fan's current strength, the actual combat power of this split soul was barely any different from that of an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator.
The only drawback was that, unlike a normal cultivator, it could not swiftly recover after battle.
Without replenishment from his true body, every bit of power expended was one bit permanently lost.
As for the friend Li Fan had mentioned to Wu Ninglu...
Naturally, it was the Holy Blood Conception he had created.
However, without the infusion of the True Immortal's Net and Source Power Essence, the holy embryo had only barely broken through to the Qi Condensation realm.
Li Fan had sent it into the ruins of the Heavenly Sword Sect, where it was currently subduing the wonder of Heaven, the black sword.
With his prior experience, there would be no trouble; it merely required slow, painstaking effort.
***
Sun Xingyao, the Head of the Sun family, had reached Dao Integration over five hundred years ago.
In his youth, he too had garrisoned the Yanfa Jade.
On the way to the Alliance headquarters, he explained the details of this "job" to Li Fan.
"The Yanfa Jade is the very foundation of our Alliance. Do not think it is completely safe just because it is inside the Alliance headquarters. In truth, one must constantly be on guard against the machinations of scoundrels."
"Over the past thousand years, the Five Elders Association has plotted no fewer than three operations targeting the Yanfa Jade. They devised ways to draw near it, and then used arts known as evil curses to launch mental and spiritual attacks against it."
"The Yanfa Jade, she..."
"Her defenses against that sort of attack are practically nonexistent. Once struck, it means at least a century of stagnation. The last time the Five Elders Association succeeded, it dealt the Alliance a catastrophic blow. Yet the matter could not be publicized; the exchange prices of cultivation methods in the Heavenly Profound Mirror simply nearly doubled. The Alliance's cultivators voiced endless grievances, boiling with fury..." Recalling the events of his youth, Sun Xingyao shook his head inwardly.
"So your assignment is not as simple as it appears."
"Family Head, what happens if, during my tenure, I fail to fend off these malicious attacks and the Yanfa Jade is damaged?" Li Fan asked.
Sun Xingyao halted in his tracks.
He looked back at Li Fan, paused for a moment, and said, "In any case, our promise will not change. We will take good care of Ninglu. You may go with an easy mind."
Li Fan was left momentarily speechless.
He had not realized before that Sun Xingyao possessed quite a sense of humor.
Amid shifting light and shadow, Li Fan returned once more to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters.
Just like before, a vision surfaced before his eyes.
Only...
This time, it differed from the image of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable he had seen previously.
Across an endless expanse of fields, wisps of cooking smoke curled upward. Atop the roof of one of the farmhouse cottages lay a boy who appeared quite honest and simple.
His eyes were vacant as he stared at the sky, seemingly pondering something.
"Goudan, come down and eat!"
The scene cut off abruptly.
Pulling himself from the vision, Li Fan was momentarily stunned.
Sun Xingyao assumed he was shaken by the sheer realism of the illusion, and explained, "A wisp of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's aura lingers at the Alliance headquarters, so..."
Li Fan naturally knew this.
He was thinking about something else entirely.
*That honest, simple boy named Goudan...*
*Was that Chuanfa as a child?*
Replaying the scene in his mind, it indeed bore a slight resemblance to the elderly Chuanfa.
*Could it be that Chuanfa was born and raised right here in the Xuanhuang Realm?*
*No.*
Li Fan replayed that brief snippet of imagery repeatedly in his mind.
*No matter how one looks at Goudan's features, they have nothing in common with the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable who dominated the entire Xuanhuang Realm for an era.*
*Those bewildered eyes, and the monumental turning point of his later life's trajectory, resemble...*
A single word could not help but surface in Li Fan's mind.
*Transmigration.*
*If my previous conjecture was correct, then was this youth named Goudan actually the Heavenly Physician who had transmigrated in soul?*
*Coming from the Tianfa Realm, slumbering his consciousness within the womb, only awakening several years later.*
*Did he use this method to evade the pursuit of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao and the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao?*
Just as Li Fan now appeared to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao as an undeniable native cultivator.
At that time, no matter how the outside world investigated Chuanfa, his true origins remained completely unexposed.
Li Fan did not yet understand the exact mechanics behind this so-called "transmigration."
Yet he knew full well that it was definitely not the same as mere body possession.
*Using some secret technique to deceive the heavens and cross the sea, reincarnating as a native of the Xuanhuang Realm...*
Li Fan's thoughts churned slowly.
While he was lost in thought, Sun Xingyao casually asked about the illusion he had witnessed.
Li Fan naturally answered with the image of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable he had seen previously.
Sun Xingyao nodded slightly at his reply. "It seems, Lu'er, your future accomplishments are destined to surpass mine."
Without waiting for Li Fan to ask, he volunteered an explanation: "Every cultivator sees a different illusion when they first come here."
"It is said to be closely tied to one's fundamental Dao path. As everyone knows, the cultivation methods practiced by the world's cultivators all originate from the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable. Thus, the closer the scene one witnesses is to the Heavenly Venerable, the more limitless one's future prospects will be."
"It is said that true geniuses can witness the scene of the venerable elder's very first Dao discourse back in the day..." Sun Xingyao said with no small amount of envy.
Li Fan remained silent in thought, a sudden sense of vigilance rising in his heart.
This time, his strength had skyrocketed so much that he had actually caught a glimpse of Chuanfa's childhood.
If he advanced any further, he might directly trigger the alertness of Chuanfa's lingering aura.
The two shuttled through the void of the Alliance headquarters by means of formation arrays, soon arriving at the headquarters of the Protector Hall.
"Follow me," Sun Xingyao said in a low voice, forming a subtle hand seal.
An invisible force field instantly enveloped him and Li Fan.
The spiritual energy within Li Fan's body, which had fallen dormant because of the Spirit-Dissolving Stones beneath his feet, became active once again.
*It exerts a certain suppression on me, but the effect is no longer as pronounced as it was when I was at lower realms.*
*If it really comes down to fighting, I remain unmatched among Dao Integration cultivators.*
Li Fan felt completely at ease as he followed Sun Xingyao into the Protector Hall.
Unlike the waiting space he had occupied when using the Law-Audience Jade Plaque before, this was the true Protector Hall.
A circular dome, densely covered with countless points of starlight.
Chapter 1140