As Yi Shu gradually recovered from his shock, he still refrained from stating his stance.
Yet his concrete actions had already shifted.
He had originally intended to return after a brief tour of observation. Now, however, he submitted a request to Sun Erlang to remain for an extended period of study.
Sun Erlang looked troubled. "I cannot decide such a matter on my own authority. I must request instructions from Master."
Yi Shu nodded. "I believe your master will agree."
Sure enough, the Faceless Holy Emperor granted the Taiyan Sect's request to stay. However, there was a condition.
"Use 'Simulations' to assist cultivators in the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty in growing rapidly?"
Yi Shu hesitated for a moment.
"Master said that even if the Taiyan Sect doesn't help with this, he has other methods—it would merely be slightly more troublesome. What lies at the core of the Taiyan Sect is still the deduction of Xuanhuang's future. Before the final outcome is determined, Master also agrees to let your Taiyan Sect maintain a degree of neutrality. Consider it a sort of transaction," Sun Erlang said, relaying Li Ping's exact words.
Yi Shu fell silent for a moment. Ultimately, after consultations between the Taiyan Sect and the Dao Transformation Mother Stone, he agreed.
To the Taiyan Sect, running a few more simulations was merely putting idle computational power to good use.
Yet it gained them another path for the future. No matter how one looked at it, it was a worthwhile bargain.
Just as back then, before the calamity struck, a portion of the sect's cultivators had chosen to flee. The Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao never put all their eggs in one basket.
From that point on, the Great Qi Sacred Dynasty gained an observer.
Apart from the area beneath the Holy Emperor Throne, the dwelling of the You people, and the Xuanhuang fishing pond, Yi Shu was free to observe wherever he pleased without restriction.
Li Ping was not concerned about this in the slightest.
With the Sacred Dynasty's providence gracing him and the Grand Formation of Heaven and Earth Myriad Spirits growing increasingly refined, Yi Shu's every move lay firmly within his grasp.
Even the life and death of Yi Shu's current body depended entirely on a single thought from him.
Meanwhile, in the distant Xuanhuang Realm, a certain someone had already set his sights on the Taiyan Sect.
"Though I harbor no intention of actively harming others, I must still keep a contingency in reserve."
"The Taiyan Sect abandoned their physical existence in reality and exists collectively within the Dao Transformation Mother Stone. Indestructible information is indeed extraordinary. They could even escape that horrifying disaster when the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins annihilated the world with a single glance. But..."
"As the saying goes, every specialty has its master!"
Within the space of the Dharma Formulation Jade, Li Fan appeared to be meditating in seclusion with his eyes closed.
In truth, thoughts were churning ceaselessly in his mind.
With information indestructible, physical means—and even ordinary immortal arts—would be of little use. But data corruption might very well yield miraculous results.
As far as Li Fan knew, no such method existed among the lineages currently circulating in the Xuanhuang Realm. His idea stemmed from that enigmatic Xuan Primordial Origin Spirit Grand Array.
A composite of nine immortal-grade grand arrays, its might was beyond imagination. It could even re-establish earth, fire, water, and wind in the void to forge an entirely new world.
Fortunately, thanks to the Terminal Dissociation Disc and a confluence of coincidences, Li Fan had already gained a preliminary grasp of three of them:
Xuanji, Myriad Spirits Numerical Reduction; Huangluo, Flowers Blooming in an Empty Chamber; and Wuliang, Primordial Chaos Squared.
Among them, the Xuanji, Myriad Spirits Numerical Reduction Grand Array possessed the profound, wondrous effect of reducing everything within its purview to data and transforming it at will.
"Though it remains purely theoretical, as the lack of materials makes deploying the array fundamentally impossible, the Taiyan Sect fortunately has no physical form. Pure information makes it all the easier for flaws to appear."
"Primordial Chaos Squared and Myriad Spirits Numerical Reduction... if the two arrays work in concert..."
Within his sea of consciousness, empowered by the computational power of the Dao Transformation Stone, the Terminal Dissociation Disc was rapidly deducing an entirely new form of array.
Over the past half year, Li Fan's divine soul clone had largely completed the analysis of the Primordial Chaos Squared array within the Boundless Mirror.
After a round of repairs by the clone, the damaged Boundless Mirror's capabilities had seen a substantial leap.
The corresponding price was that the divine soul clone had weakened slightly once more.
Even so, Li Fan was not worried.
Sun Luyuan had long delayed completing the mission assigned by Mirror Keeper Fu, and his deliberate stalling had not gone unnoticed. The pressure bearing down on him was growing by the day. Before long, he would inevitably be forced to yield and attempt once more to use the Boundless Mirror to pry into the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Having sensed the sights and experiences on clone Li Ping's side, what Li Fan was pondering now was an entirely different matter.
He was contemplating the origins of the Dao Transformation Mother Stone.
When the Taiyan Sect first inherited the legacy of Archmage Tiandu, the Dao Transformation Mother Stone likely did not exist among them.
Only later did they somehow unearth such a treasure, which directly transformed the Taiyan Sect's cultivation technique from one suited to only a select few into one everyone could practice. That was what thoroughly solidified the Taiyan Sect's place among the Ten Sects.
"There are many treasures capable of deduction in the Xuanhuang Realm. Take that Boundless Mirror, for instance; though damaged, it can still predict certain events that will unfold in the future. Yet the marvels of the Boundless Mirror, and even the Heavenly Profound Mirror, seem more like the result of being refined through immortal-grade power. They are 'artifacts.'"
"The Dao Transformation Mother Stone, however, is more like a pure 'natural object.'"
"Is it a heavenly material or earthly treasure spoken of in legend...? Vast though the Xuanhuang Realm is, it doesn't seem capable of naturally giving birth to such a divine object."
Li Fan suddenly recalled an anecdote he had heard earlier from the people of the Crossing Adversity Sect.
An alien star crashed into Xuanhuang, rendering all spiritual energy throughout the Xuanhuang Realm completely inert.
"Could it be that this Dao Transformation Mother Stone also came from beyond the starry sky?"
Li Fan could not help speculating.
Yet it was merely a guess. Unless he could one day infiltrate the stone, he would never truly know the answer.
"The Mother Stone deduces the future solely through its own formidable computational power. Even so, it has already reached a certain pinnacle, which shows just how immense that power is. If it were supplemented by external objects to further optimize its deduction methods, who knows what heights it could reach?"
For example, the Dao Transformation Stone in Li Fan's sea of consciousness had already ascended to high grade after multiple fusions. Yet if he wanted it to deduce arrays on its own, it struggled immensely—not to mention an immortal-grade grand array, but even an existence like the Grand Formation of Inverting Life and Death.
Similarly, if he relied solely on the Dissociation Disc itself, it was, after all, merely a mortal creation; attempting to deduce an immortal-grade grand array was likewise a stretch.
Yet when the two combined their forces, the result was entirely different.
"Complementing each other, bringing out the best in both."
Such harmonious synergy prompted Li Fan to let his imagination wander: if the Dao Transformation Mother Stone were paired with something like the Terminal Dissociation Disc, and not just for arrays...
What kind of spectacle would that be?
The cultivation techniques of the Dharma Formulation Jade, the future revealed by the Boundless Mirror...
If all of these were coupled with the terrifying computational power of the Dao Transformation Mother Stone, a qualitative transformation would inevitably take place.
He could even use endless reincarnation across each life to infinitely stack improvements onto an already peerless Dao Transformation Mother Stone.
He could push it to an unimaginable realm.
The help the Terminal Dissociation Disc provided Li Fan throughout his reincarnations went without saying.
If other things were added to it...
Li Fan's heart could not help but race.
"Perhaps the way to break this impasse lies right within it."
"With such a treasure before me, it all comes down to how I scheme for it."
Li Fan's eyes flickered with resolve.
Chapter 1201