Toying with the Heavenly Physician in an Illusion Array

Not only had the reversion charging progress jumped directly to 50% after using Trueness, but the charging speed had also increased drastically. It would take less than a year to complete the remaining 50% charge. Even more... "The maximum charge capacity has also doubled, going from 200% straight to 400%. Previously, that was a number I could reach only after first absorbing the drooping-hands figurine, but now it has become my baseline. Furthermore, the defensive power of Trueness is no longer comparable to what it was in the past. It will never again be torn through like paper before a True Immortal." "Indeed, the strength displayed by Trueness is intimately tied to my own power. The moment I stepped into the immortal realm, corresponding changes in Trueness followed. And these are only what can be observed on the surface." Li Fan narrowed his eyes, sensing everything with meticulous care. He gave a slight nod, thoroughly satisfied. At the very bottom of the Trueness panel were the anchors and bound items. Of the three established anchors, the first was set at the moment Li Fan had first arrived in this world. It had been fixed alongside his transmigration, when he was nothing more than an absolute mortal. The second anchor was atop Mount Jieli, with the Canghai Pearl as his Foundation Establishment wonder, at the late Foundation Establishment realm. The third anchor was likewise atop Mount Jieli at the late Foundation Establishment realm, except with Trueness itself as his Foundation Establishment wonder. "The display order of the items bound to Trueness on the panel has also undergone subtle shifts. They are no longer listed in the chronological order of when they were bound, as was the case before. Instead, it seems they are ranked according to their status and tier?" Li Fan looked at the list of bound items, where the "... thigh bone" sat at the very top and the "Essence-Blood of Ten Thousand" sat at the very bottom, lost in thought. A moment later, Li Fan dismissed the panel. Without much hesitation, he planted the final empty anchor right at this point in time. The fourth anchor of Trueness was officially set. Location: Center of the Pitch-Black Star Sea. Cultivation: Half-immortal! "Stepping into the half-immortal realm essentially marks the beginning of an entirely new stage. The Immortal Realm crumbled long ago, and finding the path beyond half-immortal will be no easy feat. My power won't see any substantial leaps in the short term, so for a long time to come, every new cycle will likely need to begin from this anchor..." "The primary goal for this lifetime: collect and consolidate all usable resources within the high wall, and begin attempting exploration beyond it." "Chuanfa, Heavenly Physician, the Archmage, the Hunger Immortal..." Li Fan let out a low sneer. "Right, there is also the Xuanhuang Realm and the Xuan Celestial Vessel. The things I couldn't obtain from those two places before because of insufficient strength can finally be thoroughly scavenged in one go." "Having ascended to the status of a True Immortal naturally broadens one's perspective. Perhaps this time around, I will uncover even more intriguing things within the Xuan Celestial Vessel, as well as the true secrets behind the relics left by Sun Piaomiao." Li Fan's expression turned enigmatic. He cast his gaze toward the far side of the Pitch-Black Star Sea, where the Xuan Celestial Vessel lay. His immortal momentum was already anchored at the highest pinnacle of the starry sea. Looking down from above, the Pitch-Black Star Sea—which had once felt vast and boundless—now seemed no larger than a tiny pond, fully encompassed in a single glance. "Still, I cannot let myself get too arrogant." "It is better to wait until Trueness finishes charging before making a move," Li Fan thought to himself as he slowly withdrew his gaze after a long silence. "In any case, Trueness charges remarkably fast now." With that settled, Li Fan did not return to the Xuanhuang Realm, choosing instead to remain right at the center of the starry sea. While waiting for Trueness to complete its charge, he did not remain idle. Taking advantage of the spare time, he thoroughly reorganized and reviewed everything he had learned and known in the past. Especially the True Immortal seal characters. While still a mortal, across countless cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan had believed he had pushed his study of True Immortal seal characters almost to its absolute limit. Even if a gap remained between his grasp and the characters representing the Grand Dao itself, he thought the difference could not be very large. Yet now, revisiting them from the perspective of an "immortal"... He realized how profoundly mistaken he had been! Even though the pattern being observed was identical, what was perceived through an immortal's perspective differed completely from what a mortal saw. Far too many nuances and details had been overlooked and ignored during his mortal stages. Looking back now on the True Immortal seal characters he had drawn in the past, Li Fan could not help but shake his head repeatedly. "They were practically a child's scribbles!" "Then again, the True Immortal seal characters that caused the catastrophe in the Pitch-Black Star Sea—apparently imitations penned by Immortal He Gan—do not seem particularly elegant either. If I spend a bit more time studying them, surpassing him won't be difficult," Li Fan mused with a derisive chuckle. "Setting aside their specific might and judging solely by their degree of authenticity, the True Immortal characters I know can be divided into three tiers. The first tier consists of Immortal He Gan's imitations, including 'Ancient' and 'Chaos.' The second tier comprises genuine original traces of True Immortal seal characters once preserved from the Immortal Realm, such as 'Hunger' and 'Return.' Whether in aesthetic elegance or practical utility, they are a cut above Immortal He Gan's handiwork." "As for the third tier, which comes closest to the Grand Dao itself, they are those manifested through the nameless True Immortal's thigh bone: 'Restrain,' 'Innate,' the 'Transformation Between Immortal and Mortal,' and the like..." In Li Fan's mind, the greatest contributor to his breakthrough into the half-immortal realm resurfaced once more. Even having attained the immortal realm, he could still feel the endless, boundless profundity contained within those characters. Immersed in them, he lost all track of time. A year slipped by in the blink of an eye. In Anchored Year 2, when Trueness finished charging, Li Fan awoke from his seclusion. A single year was not enough for him to completely finish reorganizing everything he had learned. Fortunately, he could divide his mind among multiple tasks; sorting and refining his knowledge did not hinder him from attending to proper business. Having attained the half-immortal realm, the very first thing Li Fan needed to do was naturally pay a visit to his old acquaintances: the Heavenly Physician and Chuanfa. Li Fan had long since faintly locked onto the positions of those two Supreme experts within the starry sea. True to form, they were diligently wandering the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds beneath the high wall, scavenging materials for the revival of the Tianfa Realm. Li Fan's eyes flickered. With a single stride, he crossed half the starry sea. He appeared directly before the Heavenly Physician. Without giving the Heavenly Physician any warning, a silver halo descended straight over his head. It was none other than one of the ninety-nine immortal array rings Li Fan had previously forged using the Dissociation Disc! The Heavenly Physician, currently traversing various remnant worlds in search of suitable materials, suddenly felt a wave of dizziness wash over him. By the time he came back to his senses, the desolate, dead expanse of the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds around him had vanished without a trace. What appeared before his eyes was a vibrant, thriving world—one he knew intimately well. The Tianfa Realm! The Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, the Tianfa Pavilion, the Tianjian Valley... Gazing upon the homeland he had yearned for day and night, yet had long been severed from by life and death, the Heavenly Physician froze in place. He landed upon the ground and reached out with his own hands to touch every blade of grass and branch of wood. His cloudy eyes brimmed with nostalgic longing and disbelief. Yet he was the Heavenly Physician after all. He quickly snapped out of the beautiful dream Li Fan had woven for him—or rather, Li Fan had intentionally left a flaw in it from the start. For at this moment, the Tianfa Realm before the Heavenly Physician was entirely devoid of people! Nothing existed except for the newborn "world" itself. Beyond that, there was nothing else! The Heavenly Physician's expression grew solemn. Thousands of golden threads shot out from his body, attempting to decipher the true essence of this bizarre, sudden phenomenon. To his shock and alarm, the golden thread probing technique that had never failed him in the past dimmed inch by inch shortly after leaving his body. They dissolved into thin air. The Heavenly Physician took a deep breath, forcing down the turmoil in his heart. Flying at a slow pace while conducting a meticulous search, he scoured the entire Tianfa Realm with extreme caution. Yet he failed to uncover the slightest flaw. And apart from himself, there was not a single living creature to be found. After combing through it three times, the Heavenly Physician finally became certain of his predicament. The shock upon his face could no longer be contained, and his aura inevitably began to turn somewhat ragged. Though the scene before him was something he had yearned for his entire life, he knew with absolute certainty that none of it could possibly be real. It was merely an illusory facade meant to trap and beguile him. The Heavenly Physician attempted to break out of the illusion. Yet no matter how much time passed, every effort proved entirely futile. He looked toward the heavens, his lips parting as if to say something. In the end, no sound escaped his throat. Neither despair nor surrender appeared on his weathered face. If anything, the resolve in his eyes only hardened. This time, he did not wander aimlessly. Instead, standing poised in the empty void, he began to observe the surrounding "illusion" with unmatched precision. His mind became wholly immersed in comprehending the "world" before his eyes. At times his brow furrowed tightly; at other times he looked struck by sudden clarity. After an unknown stretch of time, a voice suddenly rang out beside his ear: "Do you understand it?" It sounded half like an inquiry and half like a taunt. Like a thunderclap, it startled the Heavenly Physician wide awake. A white-robed figure had appeared beside him at some point, unnoticed. It was a slender young man, looking at him with a faint, half-smile. Not the faintest trace of an aura leaked from the young man's body, yet his eyes resembled an unfathomable, boundless starry sea—utterly inscrutable. Even for the Heavenly Physician, a cultivator at the Supreme realm representing the absolute limit that the starry sea could accommodate, the moment the young man appeared, frantic warning bells began screaming within his heart. Suppressing his internal shock and terror, the Heavenly Physician cupped his hands, neither servile nor haughty. "Answering Senior, I understand perhaps ten or twenty percent of it." The young man—who was merely a projection Li Fan had formed within the array—smiled faintly. "Not bad. I never expected that in a lower realm so withered of vitality, a figure like you could still emerge." "Very good indeed!" Li Fan clapped his hands, seemingly in great admiration. "Upon waking, I discovered a high wall enclosing my seclusion grounds. I originally intended to investigate what had happened, only to stumble upon the two of you by chance..." "This world was crafted by me specifically for you. Well? Does it suit your fancy?" In just a few brief sentences, the amount of information conveyed was staggering. In an instant, the Heavenly Physician's thoughts spun rapidly as he analyzed this unfathomable young man before him. He would naturally never gauge the other party's power by mere physical age. *He was able to trap me silently, without a trace. And that intangible aura of absolute authority...* *'Lower realm'... 'waking'...* *He must be a True Immortal without a doubt.* *Not the one comprehending the Dao in the Immortal Ruins.* *When did another True Immortal appear in this starry sea?* The Heavenly Physician's heart was filled with boundless shock and suspicion.