Within the rather dim mural, the Nine-Star Red Beads stood out strikingly. Like so many eyes, they stared eerily at Li Fan all at once.
The very moment this thought surfaced in Li Fan's mind, he genuinely felt as though the thousands of red beads on the mural had come alive, a peculiar aura abruptly surging forth from them.
It was neither righteous nor evil, both ancient and weathered, yet truly fresh as new. What shook Li Fan the most was that merely through the phantom image left behind by the mural, his divine clone experienced a phenomenon where a portion of itself was being drawn away and assimilated.
Li Fan tried numerous methods, yet none could stop it. Only by deploying Source Power Essence was he able to wall off the influence brought by the Nine-Star Red Bead.
"Just what on earth is this Nine-Star Red Bead?"
"If a mere painted image is like this, then were the real red bead present, even the protection of Source Power Essence would likely be useless."
"Hmm..."
Li Fan performed a deduction regarding what might happen after being drained by the red bead.
"It isn't enough to inflict any substantive harm on living beings, but it leaves a unique imprint within the soul and even the life essence of every being drawn upon. And this is merely the function of the Nine-Star Red Bead."
"The concentric rings stand in array, yet the red bead is nowhere to be seen..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, scrutinizing that bizarre apparatus.
"Indeterminate numbers, infinite possibilities."
"The imprint of the Nine-Star Red Bead."
This apparatus was, after all, a part of the Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array.
Its profound mysteries would certainly not deviate or stray too far from the grand array's core purpose.
Li Fan simply simplified the ring apparatus, treating it as an element of an unknown array unit. He then plugged it into the Realm-Protecting Grand Array model that the Terminal Dissociation Disc had calibrated with actual array data.
After tens of thousands of iterative deductions, Li Fan arrived at the most likely purpose of this ring-and-nine-star apparatus.
"Crafting the myriad facets of sentient life..." A strange gleam flickered in Li Fan's eyes.
According to his calculations, the function of this hub within the primordial Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array was to brand every newly born life in the Xuanhuang Realm with a special mark via the Nine-Star Red Bead. Then, using the rings of indeterminate numbers, it adjusted the imprints within the life essence of these creatures to a certain degree,
thereby generating differing temperaments, natural talents, and so forth.
"This..."
"What an exquisite array!"
Even though he had already witnessed the Xuanyuan Primordial Spirit Grand Array—an immortal-grade array capable of resetting earth, fire, water, and wind to reforge a world—now that Li Fan grasped the principles behind the array before him, he still could not help but sigh in genuine admiration.
After all, this was the first time he had truly seen a formidable grand array capable of manipulating the form of "life" itself.
"Even if it is achieved through the indeterminate rings and the Nine-Star Red Bead, it is still remarkable enough."
"Looking at it from another angle, perhaps this array's prototype in the Immortal Realm was even more powerful. It was merely the lack of immortal spirit qi that rendered certain crucial array nodes ineffective, forcing them to substitute this bizarre object."
"Yet now..."
Li Fan's gaze once again focused on the empty space where the Nine-Star Red Bead ought to have rested.
"The Nine-Star Red Bead is the crux."
"Based on my previous discoveries, it is very likely that the red bead was recalled by the 'Return' Formula. But if this occurred after the great catastrophe of the Immortal Realm, with nowhere left to return, the red bead should have journeyed back to the Xuanhuang Realm. It was during that very process that it was forcibly snatched away."
"Going to such great lengths indicates that the mastermind behind this could not directly wield the 'Return' Formula, but rather used its momentum against itself, just as I did..."
The "Return" Formula differed from True Immortal seal characters like Chaos and Hunger. Not only did its power manifest in an entirely distinct manner, but it also could not be cast in a degraded version through crude imitation.
As if some unseen presence were subtly impeding him, Li Fan's current cultivation did not even qualify him to write it, let alone trace it.
"The strictness of immortal law is evident. Even though the Immortal Realm has been destroyed for so many years, the rules still stand."
Having grasped this logic, Li Fan grew even more curious about the red bead's present whereabouts.
"Barring any surprises, the Nine-Star Red Bead likely came into existence alongside the birth of the Xuanhuang Realm. Every native creature of the Xuanhuang Realm was forcibly stamped with its brand. In other words, it is highly probable that the data for all unique life traits of Xuanhuang Realm beings is recorded and stored within the Nine-Star Red Bead..."
At first glance, this deduction sounded somewhat fantastical. Yet synthesized with his current exploration of the primordial Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array, it was the hypothesis that best fit the facts.
"This is true immortal craft—unfathomable, an authority akin to that held by creator gods."
"With the trait data of all living beings recorded, it means that if the conditions for energy and technical means are met, recreating any historical figure who ever appeared in Xuanhuang's history would be no problem at all."
"Admittedly, what is created through such a method would merely be like clones. A person's ultimate achievements remain closely tied to their personal experiences."
"However..."
Li Fan's mood abruptly grew heavy.
Discovering that lives like his were nothing more than things True Immortals could casually create, modify, and replicate at will, even with the supreme treasure Trueness in his possession, an inexplicable sensation welled up from within him.
"I view the myriad beings of Xuanhuang as playthings. True Immortals must view me the same way~"
Li Fan laughed self-mockingly.
Of course, this was merely an exclamation born of the immense psychological shock of the moment, not his true inner conviction.
Calming his thoughts, he returned to the previous thread.
"In the Xuanhuang Realm, there exists the Genesis Stone Slab, which records everything in this world."
"Once an identical individual is created, referencing the slab's records allows every past experience of that individual to be completely reenacted."
"The primordial individual is identical; their life experiences are identical..."
"The resulting 'life' will also be identical."
The final answer from his deduction plunged Li Fan into silence.
The findings of the Crossing Adversity Sect unambiguously showed that from the very moment of its ancient creation, the Xuanhuang Realm had been under rigorous surveillance.
And now, it was not merely surveillance.
The entire Xuanhuang Realm resembled a colossal testing ground.
And the nature of this experiment was truly chilling.
"If the conjecture holds true, did the Immortal Realm do this to cultivate a unique cultivator?"
"And once that objective was reached, they could use the data kept under strict surveillance to mass-produce countless instances of the target existence."
Before Li Fan's eyes, the faces of cultivators who had left their names in the history of the Xuanhuang Realm flashed one after another.
Xuanyuan Hong, Su Bai, Xu Ke...
As well as He Zhenghao, Xiao Fan, Zhang Haobo.
All of these "people" could be created once again.
Without unique characteristics, could "people" still be called "people"?
Even though Li Fan possessed Trueness and could continually return to established anchors, in his heart, every person he interacted with possessed a distinct symbol that belonged solely to them.
He Zhenghao was He Zhenghao.
King Xuantian was King Xuantian, and Mr. Bai was Mr. Bai.
Even if they were NPCs, they were NPCs with names and surnames, distinct each and every time.
Yet now...
The world Li Fan perceived had suddenly changed.
Behind every NPC, there might exist countless duplicates.
There was no need for him to press the "Trueness" button; these entities could replace one another on their own. Even if destroyed ten thousand times, as long as the original data records were not lost, they would be created once more.
What he had thought was a single-player world where he alone existed as the player
had now turned into an online game played jointly by countless players.
This induced a nausea in Li Fan that he could hardly suppress.
The more he thought, the more he felt the world spinning.
All things in existence shifted into twisting, coiling lines of every color. Mingled with the whispers of an unknown evil deity, they gradually eroded Li Fan's resolve.
Even with the fortification of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation, he could not maintain a stable, unyielding Dao heart.
Li Fan's avatar shook violently, slowly coming apart like roots unraveling in water.
"Gag... ugh..."
His figure turned ethereal, yet Li Fan could only double over and dry-heave like a helpless mortal.
This sudden turn of events left Sun Luyao entirely bewildered.
He had no idea why this incomparably mysterious and formidable senior, in the middle of deep contemplation, would abruptly deteriorate into this state.
"Ugh..."
Li Fan retched with increasing violence.
What he spat out was not solid filth, but his own essence, qi, and spirit.
"Senior..."
This sight instilled a terror rising from the deepest depths of Sun Luyao's heart.
As though something exceedingly horrific was about to transpire.
"Ugh..."
Li Fan's sounds gradually grew faint.
"Cough, cough..."
They shifted into soft coughing,
and then into a low, slightly deranged laughter.
Accompanying the sinister laughter were Li Fan's muttered words.
"Senior... what are you saying?"
Sun Luyao's skin crawled, and he could not help but ask.
"Hehehe..."
"Hehehehe..."
"Hehehehehe..."
"That is why I say, it's wonderful that you all died!"
"Everyone is dead, and only I did not die—that is the most perfect reality."
Like demonic whispers from the depths of the Netherworld, amid his mutters, Li Fan's divine sense locked onto Sun Luyao.
Even if the words seemed somewhat nonsensical to Sun Luyao,
they still chilled him to the marrow.
Just as he was about to speak again,
Sun Luyao was horrified to discover that the core source of the array within his body had begun rioting without cause.
As if in the very next moment, he would be completely annihilated in a mutiny of fratricide.
After his initial panic and bewilderment, Sun Luyao finally understood.
He looked toward Li Fan in disbelief. "Senior, why?"
Li Fan's gaze was entirely different from before.
It was genuine indifference.
In his eyes, Sun Luyao truly did not exist at all.
Inside the Boundless Mirror, the body that had only just finished fragmenting and reforming was disintegrating inch by inch.
Yet as the Boundless Mirror spirit, Sun Luyao was entirely powerless against it.
Realizing that his demise was imminent, experiencing the taste of death once again after so many years, Sun Luyao completely lost his composure.
He exhausted every means possible, desperate to save his own life.
"Senior, spare me! I am your most loyal slave, I will do whatever you command!"
"Senior, I was wrong! I shouldn't have harbored disloyalty, I deserve death ten thousand times over!"
"Senior, please spare me! I'm still useful! The array remnants of the Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array haven't been fully explored yet, I still have value to exploit!"
Sun Luyao transmitted his final thoughts faster and faster, weeping bitterly and wailing incessantly in the end.
"Senior, let me live a little longer! Let me..."
*Pop.*
Like a cockroach effortlessly crushed underfoot, Sun Luyao's life came to an abrupt halt.
The archaic mirror surface, which had previously gleamed with spiritual luster, suddenly dimmed.
It fell limply downward.
"So noisy even on the verge of death. In that case, you might as well never appear again in the future..."
Li Fan's pupils were pitch-black. Turning them slightly, he murmured in a somewhat maddened tone.
A single simple sentence had pronounced Sun Luyao's death sentence.
Not merely for this lifetime,
but for all future lifetimes, through endless generations.
So long as Li Fan remained, Sun Luyao would never again appear in the main thread of the story.
Without Sun Luyao,
there was still Sun Lufei, Sun Luchang.
It was merely changing a codename; to Li Fan, it made no difference whatsoever.
Sun Luyao, dying with grievances unavenged in his final appearance, likely never could have imagined that everything had been perfectly fine just moments before. He had been assisting the senior in exploring and analyzing the ancient primordial Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array.
Yet in the very next moment, his existence was erased forever.
And the fundamental reason for all of this was simply that he had witnessed the pathetic spectacle of Li Fan's momentary psychological breakdown.
Perhaps describing it as a psychological breakdown was not entirely accurate.
Ever since obtaining Trueness and tasting the supreme power brought by resetting everything,
almost nothing had been able to truly inflict psychological harm upon Li Fan.
Even so-called True Immortals, and even Nameless True Immortals, were no exception.
Indeed, the power of True Immortals could pose a threat to his life.
Yet that was merely preventing Trueness from occurring by influencing him,
rather than affecting Trueness itself.
Li Fan had originally believed that so long as the supreme authority of Trueness's one-click reset remained unshaken, the defensive lines of his mind would remain impregnable and could never truly be impacted.
Everything paled before the phrase: "It's nothing more than Trueness."
Yet today, Li Fan had encountered something that could genuinely hurt him.
Because his uniqueness had been challenged.
Although this uniqueness had not originally existed for him and had been bestowed by Trueness,
it remained something he simply could not endure.
After a brief period of struggling to hold on, his defenses had ultimately shattered.
Yet Li Fan was truly worthy of being Grand Preceptor Li, who had endured myriad reincarnations and hundreds of tribulations.
He did not remain broken for long, swiftly completing his self-adjustment.
Indeed, what those True Immortals could do to mortals was identical to what Li Fan could do to them.
Yet they were all dead.
Dead!
In this world, in the end, only he remained as the sole player.
Once he realized this, Li Fan gradually returned to normal.
As for the unfortunate Sun Luyao...
and the primordial Xuanhuang Realm-Protecting Grand Array, of which only a portion had been explored...
He could simply return in the next lifetime.
To Li Fan, it mattered not in the slightest.
Chapter 1270