When False, the False Is Also Real

After casually eliminating Sun Luyao, Li Fan's divine clone remained standing quietly in this mysterious space, his expression cold and stern as he pondered in silence. "True Reversion, True Reversion, True Reversion..." he murmured repeatedly in his heart. The surrounding scene blurred and dimmed. An instant later, it brightened once more. "When the real is taken as false, the false is also real." Seven large characters, radiating a serene glow that seemed eternal, appeared before Li Fan. That was the sentence that surfaced every time he activated True Reversion. Over hundreds of cycles of reincarnation, he had long grown thoroughly familiar with it. Yet at this moment, in the eyes of Li Fan—who had just uncovered the deepest secret hidden within the Xuanhuang Realm's primordial realm-protecting grand array—these seven words took on an entirely different meaning. "The false is also real... the false is also real..." After a long while, Li Fan let out another low, sinister laugh. Undeniably, the tip of the iceberg revealed by the primordial realm-protecting grand array had presented a certain possibility to Li Fan. One so chilling to contemplate, so hard to accept. "Truth and falsehood, the real and the unreal." "Who is real, and who is false?" "Yes, none of that matters in the slightest. As long as I always command the sole button, I am real!" "I am the one and only!" The madness in Li Fan's eyes gradually receded, and his pitch-black pupils slowly regained their lively spirit. It was as though he had once again become Grand Preceptor Li from back then, the man who had held absolute sway over the imperial court. When the very foundation of the world's reality was shaken, teetering on the edge; When the line between reality and illusion could not be distinguished, could not be verified; The only thing one could do was hold fast to that immutable anchor. True Reversion might inherently transcend the Immortal Realm's arrangements for the lower realm, but it could just as well be a single component in an apparatus left behind by the Immortal Realm. To the current Li Fan, this was simply impossible to verify. Even though he had once attempted to gauge True Reversion's exact scope of influence by steering variables beyond the Pitch-Black Star Sea, thinking about it now, the extra variables outside the High Wall might not necessarily have been exempt from being staged deliberately for the restructured world after True Reversion to see. The truth remained elusive. However... Regardless of whether he had truly fallen into such a predicament, what Li Fan could feel immensely grateful for was that the "restart" button—eternally unchanging amidst infinite variables—had always remained firmly in his grasp. Therefore, to uncover the answer to this riddle, what he needed to do was still fundamentally no different from the longevity and unfettered freedom he had painstakingly pursued all along. Through restart after restart, he would use the infinite variables born within the Xuanhuang Realm, the Pitch-Black Star Sea, and even beyond the star sea to nourish himself. All to attain transcendence. If he ever found an entity capable of contending with him for the button, then he would simply kill them. Once he reached the ultimate end of all things, the answer would naturally present itself. Now, for Li Fan, in addition to Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician, another figure stood in his path forward. An unknown existence who posed an even greater threat, impossible to ignore, and desperately in need of resolution. Namely, the mysterious individual who had snatched away the Nine-Star Red Bead, one of the array eyes of the Xuanhuang primordial realm-protecting grand array. "The Nine-Star Red Bead ought to have recorded the characteristic information of every living being in Xuanhuang before the realm-protecting grand array was shattered. With the red bead in hand, deducing the same conclusions as mine shouldn't be difficult." "Faced with such an immense disparity in strength, before finding a way to counter it, the wise course of action would be to stay hidden first." "Or perhaps, once that person confirmed that the Immortal Realm was truly destroyed, holding a divine artifact would inevitably breed unprecedented ambition, prompting them to lay down separate schemes in secret." Li Fan's gaze swept over the empty array hub. "Perhaps some clues can be gleaned from the primordial grand array's other hubs." However, now that the Boundless Mirror's spirit was destroyed, continuing his search was beyond his ability for the moment. He would have to wait until the next lifetime. Li Fan's divine clone shook his head slightly, his form turning into a streak of black light as he departed from beneath the earth. *** Inside the Sun Clan's secret chamber. An unspeakable sorrow had abruptly welled up in Sun Luyuan's heart, tears unconsciously spilling from his eyes. Rushing back recklessly from the outside and bursting into the subterranean chamber, he saw the Boundless Mirror floating quietly ahead, incomparably familiar, and could not help letting out a sigh of relief. "Little Brother?" Sun Luyuan called out softly. Sun Luyao's figure instantly emerged from the Boundless Mirror. "Brother, were you looking for me?" "What's wrong?" Sun Luyao asked with a hint of curiosity. Sun Luyuan's mind suddenly went into a momentary daze. For some reason, even though the image before him was identical to the one in his memory, he felt a profound sense of unfamiliarity that he could not shake. Sun Luyuan stood frozen for a long time. Only after a good while did he say blankly, "It's nothing. Perhaps I've just been too tired lately and grew a bit paranoid." Sun Luyao looked at him with concern. "Brother, you need to take care of yourself. The future of our Sun Clan still depends on you, after all." Sun Luyuan smiled. After offering a few attentive reminders, he left the underground secret chamber. What Sun Luyuan did not know was that Sun Luyao did not do what he had always done—watching the direction where his elder brother's silhouette vanished, seeing him off. Instead, the emotional expressions on his face vanished in an instant, and without the slightest lingering attachment, he retreated into the Boundless Mirror. The instant the real Sun Luyao died, the sliver of divine thought he had left behind lost its source. Having been integrated into the counterfeit Boundless Mirror, it had become an existence capable of only mechanical responses. Even if those mechanical responses were somewhat lifelike, it was ultimately not real life. It was not the real Sun Luyao. Not long after, Li Fan's divine clone returned, carrying the empty shell of the Boundless Mirror. "Without an artifact spirit, I will simply forge one myself." Li Fan summoned the remnant thought left behind by Sun Luyao. After observing it closely, he made a cold decision in his heart. Within this sliver of divine thought were Sun Luyao's complete memories from life, as well as his personality and way of thinking. Theoretically speaking, "reviving" him was entirely possible. "Although I don't have treasures like the Indeterminate Bronze Ring and the Nine-Star Red Bead on hand," "there is no need to worry about a physical body. If it is merely reproducing a sliver of divine thought in true-to-life detail, the practical execution will be much easier." Recalling the numerous details of the array, guided by the continuous deductions of the Terminal Dissociation Disc, a simplified portion of the primordial realm-protecting grand array gradually took shape. "Simulating the Multitudes of Living Beings." "This name isn't bad." Following the naming conventions of the three Immortal-grade arrays he had already mastered, Li Fan christened the array. He then began attempting to "create" and "revive" Sun Luyao. To be safe, Li Fan first divided Sun Luyao's remnant thought into multiple portions to preserve them. Only then did he cast one of them into the simplified simulation array. An extraordinarily wondrous aura gradually emanated from the array. As the array slowly revolved, Sun Luyao's figure reappeared amidst a lustrous white glow. A touch of vitality returned to his eyes, and his exchanges with Li Fan were completely smooth. In the span of a few breaths, their divine senses communicated tens of millions of times, without revealing a single flaw that shouldn't have been there. Yet Li Fan still shook his head slightly and destroyed it in dissatisfaction. "Too real. So much so that it feels fake."