Infinite Recurrence

In truth, the moment he saw his own face reflected in the waters of the fishing pond, a myriad of thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind. "Could the body I possessed upon transmigrating actually be the reincarnation of that True Immortal who descended to the mortal realm all those years ago?" "Did I not awaken Revert to the True because of transmigrating, but rather because possessing this body allowed me to seize a treasure that originally belonged to it?" Uncontrollably, this thought spread wildly through Li Fan's mind. Yet... As if sensing Li Fan's thoughts, Revert to the True emitted an almost imperceptible hint of mockery. Li Fan froze slightly, then snapped to full alertness. "No. The original owner of this body was utterly mediocre. How could he have possessed the slightest bearing of a True Immortal?" "Without my arrival, he likely would have spent his entire life failing the imperial examinations, dying as nothing more than a frail, pedantic scholar unable even to truss a chicken." "And even I, without Revert to the True..." Li Fan thought of the end of his very first lifetime after transmigrating. "Though surrounded by children and grandchildren, I was still merely an ordinary mortal, dying an unremarkable death." "I used a portion of Revert to the True to build my Foundation, and throughout so many cycles of reincarnation, the resonance and interaction between us..." "There is no way I am some reincarnated True Immortal, nor was Revert to the True ensnared by any contingency left behind by one." "That leaves only one possibility..." "Even within memory, did the fishing pond reflect my true original appearance?" Having ruled out the creepy hypothesis, Li Fan did not feel any better. Instead, an icy chill gripped his heart. He jerked his head up, looking toward where the fishing pond existed in reality. "Attaining the Nameless Dao means harmonizing with the Dao itself. At any time and in any place, that fishing pond represents that True Immortal." "Does what just happened mean that the Nameless True Immortal also saw me through the water of the fishing pond?" Li Fan's heart pounded. The further he followed this train of thought, the more alarmed he became. For instance, could this be a scheme devised back then by that True Immortal in league with the Nameless, meaning that his possession of Revert to the True had already been exposed? Worse yet, Revert to the True had not finished recharging and could not be activated! If that Nameless True Immortal struck, even with supreme escape arts, Li Fan would hardly be able to escape this catastrophe! Li Fan could not help cursing internally. He had thought he basically mapped out the star sea within the high wall, believing that as long as he did not actively provoke those few existences, there would be no real danger. He never expected that merely studying the flesh and blood of a True Immortal would stir up so many twists and turns out of nowhere! Granted, the experience of the previous lifetime seemed to indicate that even if Li Fan died, Revert to the True could trigger on its own. However... First, Li Fan had never actually died and personally experienced Revert to the True triggering automatically. Second, he had no idea whether its automatic activation would function if its charge had not reached one hundred percent. Cold sweat broke out on his brow. Faced with what seemed to be the greatest crisis he had ever encountered, Li Fan refused to sit idly and await doom. In a flash, countless contingency plans crossed his mind. "Head to the center of the star sea and use the momentum of ascending and plummeting to trigger the black mist of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation..." "Head to the flaw in the high wall and bombard it, drawing the gaze of whatever lies outside..." "If captured into the fishing pond, find a way to locate Maobao..." ... Yet before the realm of a Nameless True Immortal, every one of these options seemed nothing more than futile struggling. "If it were merely a True Immortal, these opportunistic tricks might have some effect." "The Nameless realm..." Recalling the terror and reverence that descending True Immortal felt toward the Nameless in his memories, a sense of powerlessness welled within Li Fan's chest. "In the end, I can rely only on Revert to the True." Ultimately, Li Fan did only one thing. The wooden sword phantom unsheathed, and he flew toward the Xuan Celestial Vessel at the border of the star sea. Infiltrating silently, he retrieved the funerary figurine hidden on the first floor of the secret reservoir. Having assisted in reconstructing the vessel's entire defense system in his previous lifetime, Li Fan moved as if entering an uninhabited place. Without alerting anyone on the vessel, he successfully took the funerary figurine left behind by Sun Piaomiao. To Li Fan's pleasant surprise, even though it had already been devoured once before, Revert to the True still showed an appetite for this funerary figurine. Unable to wait, he fed it to Revert to the True. Watching the charge progress surge to one hundred and fifty percent, Li Fan let out a long breath of relief. "The effect has diminished, but judging by the feedback from Revert to the True, it can actually be consumed once more." "In that case, the Three-Forked Tree might be the same." "Items that can be devoured by Revert to the True three times in a row..." "Just what is the origin of these relics Sun Piaomiao left behind?" Li Fan's brow furrowed tightly. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. "The Three-Forked Tree inexplicably granted Revert to the True an additional simulation." "And this funerary figurine might also be connected to the power of simulation." Before Li Fan's eyes, the scene of the Immortal Realm he had glimpsed not long ago resurfaced. "Before transmigrating, I once heard that if the timescale is stretched to an unfathomable length, the smallest particles comprising all things in the world will recreate everything that ever was after countless permutations and combinations. This is recurrence, and it is also destiny." "False is true, and true is false. Every simulation of Revert to the True can be regarded as another recurrence of all things." "An infinite timescale implies infinite energy..." Li Fan's thoughts drifted once more to that unfathomable, unknown expanse beneath the floating ocean of the Immortal Realm. "Perhaps this funerary figurine is a key to prying open that infinite power." "Or perhaps it is a projection of the Great Dao associated with that infinite power." At this moment, Li Fan became entirely immersed in his contemplation, unable to pull himself away. It was not that he had forgotten the lethal crisis of being hunted by the Nameless True Immortal. Rather, if the Nameless True Immortal had not descended by the time he flew all the way to the Xuan Celestial Vessel, then it would not come thereafter, either. It was merely a false alarm; nothing had happened. When Li Fan slowly emerged from his contemplation, he felt little joy over surviving a brush with disaster. "Where the power of a True Immortal reaches is as if they arrive in person." "The Nameless realm must be even more so." "Within that descending True Immortal's memories, it met my gaze yet did not react." "Either even a Nameless True Immortal cannot perceive or detect Revert to the True within me, or else..." "The situation of that Nameless Fishing Immortal is probably far from good." At the end of the lifetime before last, when Maobao suddenly appeared and effortlessly captured the Hunger Immortal, Li Fan had formed two hypotheses. Either Maobao was the handiwork of the Nameless Fishing Immortal, used to capture True Immortals on the verge of attaining the Nameless Dao to achieve some form of feeding. Or else, whoever fishes is also fished. Maobao had been deliberately cast into the fishing pond by an unknown faction outside the high wall, meant to follow the trail and track down the Nameless Fishing Immortal the moment it revealed any trace of itself. Judging by everything that was happening now, matters seemed to be developing in line with Li Fan's second theory. Even after Li Fan exposed such a massive vulnerability, the Nameless Fishing Immortal still failed to show itself. This was the behavior of someone terrified by the slightest rustle of wind and grass! Li Fan took a deep breath. In this brief span, the True Immortal's blood had stirred up far too many developments. It remained far beyond what Li Fan could currently control. Whether True Immortals or Nameless True Immortals, none were opponents he could match. Li Fan's desire to achieve Dao Integration burned all the brighter. "Once I achieve Dao Integration with the Heaven and Earth Immortal Soul, I will at least go from an ant completely incapable of resistance to a vicious wolf that can tear off a fierce bite." "Besides, I have a premonition. Once I touch the tier of an Immortal, Revert to the True will undergo an unprecedented transformation!" A sharp gleam flashed in Li Fan's eyes. This premonition was also a reassurance, or perhaps a form of encouragement and guarantee, conveyed by Revert to the True after sensing his wild speculations just now. It put Li Fan considerably at ease. "It seems best not to cause any more complications in this lifetime." "I should achieve Dao Integration as soon as possible!" As he pondered, Li Fan made up his mind. "The second floor of the secret reservoir is entirely protected by the Celestial Star Light Lotuses. Since I haven't found a way to crack them yet, I won't force it." "First, I'll loot the entire first floor of the reservoir." As the saying went, a thief never leaves empty-handed. Having come all the way to the secret reservoir of the All-Encompassing Immortal Record, how could Li Fan return empty-handed? He made another meticulous selection, carting away everything useful. Before anyone on the vessel discovered anything, he departed leisurely. Setting aside how the Xuan Celestial Vessel fell into upheaval and nearly tore itself apart in a second schism after discovering the inexplicable theft of the reservoir shortly afterward, Li Fan, returning fully laden, first set about recreating his two Supreme enforcers. Arriving at the border of the star sea, Li Fan held the liquid longsword and executed the Taijia Divine Technique as refined by the vessel's elders. In this lifetime, because ten thousand years had passed without any cultivator contacting the consciousness of the star sea, and backed by the goodwill accumulated in the Taijia Realm, Li Fan's communion with the star sea went far more smoothly than in his previous lifetime. Aside from not feeling the slightest anger over having its power equalized away, the consciousness even expressed wonder that an ant like Li Fan could perform such a divine technique. Along with this, the infinite power of the star sea infused this time was subtly different from the previous lifetime. Under the dual might of the Equalization Formula and the Shape of Living Beings, a new Qiushui was slowly born. "Thank you, Eldest Master, for bestowing life!" She remained an unclad sword spirit, kneeling gracefully in prostration. Only this time, Qiushui's eyes were spirited and lively, resembling a true living creature even more! Li Fan nodded slightly, bestowed the name he had long prepared, and immediately hurried back to the Xuanhuang Realm without pause. The Eternal Lingering Thought, True Immortal flesh and blood, black star stones, bronze crane... Together with the combat memories of the Progenitor, the crucial materials were fully assembled. During the process of crafting Tianyang, Li Fan also had Qiushui continuously channel the infinite power of the star sea into it. The aura atop the puppet's form surged and roiled. Had Li Fan not concealed it with an immortal array, it likely would have alerted many powerful existences within the Xuanhuang Realm. After laborious effort, the Supreme Tianyang emerged into the world once more. Though lacking the combat insights against the ancient Wild God in this lifetime, it had received the infusion of boundless star sea power. Like the Qiushui Sword, Tianyang became flecked with starlight, looking exceptionally divine. With both Supreme guardians now in position, Li Fan could finally breathe a sigh of relief. "Even if a True Immortal descends again, I will have nothing to fear." Having observed the sparring match between Tianyang and Qiushui, this thought settled firmly in Li Fan's mind. Li Fan sat upright upon the Daxuan Sermon Platform. The various treasures acquired from the vessel's secret reservoir were arranged before him like a sky full of stars. "Some treasures that hold nourishing power for a world can be integrated into the pocket worlds." "When those pocket worlds return to Xuanhuang, they will serve as tonic medicines for Xuanhuang's sublimation." "As for those divine weapons and sharp instruments, they can be distributed to the living beings exploring the Wuyou Dreamscape. Nearly all of them are realm vessel-tier treasures, which will greatly accelerate their exploration speed." ... With a thought from Li Fan, streaks of starlight flew toward different pocket worlds. Sensing the myriad points of light growing increasingly brilliant within his sea of consciousness, wave after wave of insight washed over Li Fan's heart. "Now, the elixir represents the transformations of Heaven and Earth's Great Dao; the medicine remedies the ailments of all worldly creatures. The Great Dao is formless, standing alone and unchanging, circulating endlessly without peril. Joined through elixir, revealed through medicine. Is Heaven and Earth not itself a single prescription...?" "The Dao-Refining Medicine King Scripture is truly extraordinary!" If pushing Xuanhuang's sublimation in his previous lifetime had felt merely like completing a routine task step by step, then now, Li Fan genuinely felt as though he were refining a supreme elixir out of the very world of Xuanhuang. "First, simmer it slowly with gentle heat." "The auxiliary ingredients are still somewhat sparse right now." With eyes flashing, Li Fan repeated some of the preparatory work he had carried out in the previous lifetime. In addition, he quietly diverted a fraction of the vitality blanketing the depressions and crevices of the star sea. By regulating the rate of this vast vitality's infusion, Xuanhuang's rapid, mysterious transformation was dimly sensed by only a handful of individuals. Yet how could they ever track down Li Fan, the true mastermind orchestrating it all? Naturally, Li Fan did not forget to sow seeds in advance before Xuanhuang's sublimation. For instance, the ancient immortal-mortal miasma, hidden within the underground cavern of Qiling Province. In his previous lifetime, Li Fan had verified that as part of Xuanhuang's fundamental laws, this immortal-mortal miasma would continuously strengthen alongside the rise of the Xuanhuang Realm's power. However, having used Revert to the True in haste, he had never had the chance to witness true immortal-mortal miasma at the Immortal tier. In this lifetime, he naturally intended to make up for that regret. Beyond the immortal-mortal miasma, Li Fan applied the same principle to collect a variety of items across the Xuanhuang Realm capable of inflicting immense harm upon cultivators, and even upon Xuanhuang's Heavenly Dao itself. One example was the Heaven-Spiting Arrow, forged with bizarre power at its core. It had first appeared in the lifetime where the Profound Net supplanted Heaven, capable of warping and influencing the consciousness of the Heavenly Dao over a broad expanse. Another was the manifold Xuanhuang World-Extinguishing Transformations. In the previous lifetime, Li Fan had proved that the World-Extinguishing Transformation possessed miraculous effectiveness against Mo Sha. To ensure he could hunt Mo Sha down as thoroughly as possible this time, he naturally needed to plan ahead. These numerous forces of worldly transformation were blended into clusters of light, which Li Fan quietly spliced into the Xuanhuang world, just like the remnants of other cultivation realms transplanted by the Heavenly Physician. Under normal circumstances, grafting and stitching foreign elements like this would inevitably trigger rejection from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, invoking various calamities and merging together only through the slow cycles of destruction and rebirth. Yet the brilliance of his method lay in the fact that the Xuanhuang world-extinguishing forces Li Fan implanted had originally hailed from the Xuanhuang Realm itself. Consequently, the Xuanhuang Realm remained completely unaware of this sudden lump of "fat" that had appeared upon its body.