Even as he was stunned by this unknown, immense power, the Heavenly Physician felt profound wariness toward the original possessor of this body.
Thus, taking advantage of Xuanyuan Tuo's severe injuries and unconsciousness, the Heavenly Physician gradually began to tamper with the body.
The Heavenly Physician knew that Xuanyuan Tuo was shielded by the mysterious murmuring sound. He therefore refrained from conventional methods, relying solely on the connection between their two souls sharing one body—forged by the Heavenly Soul Reincarnation technique—to treat himself as medicine, slowly and steadily seeping into and tainting him.
In a sense, he was Xuanyuan Tuo, and Xuanyuan Tuo was him. It was only due to that wondrous power shrouding the bloodline of the Xuanyuan clan that Xuanyuan Tuo, who ought to have lost his independent consciousness, managed to retain control of the body.
The stronger Xuanyuan Tuo became, the stronger the Heavenly Physician grew alongside him.
As his injuries gradually healed, Xuanyuan Tuo slowly awakened and escaped from the Sea of Endless Gloom.
The inexplicable disappearance of six Longevity realm powerhouses naturally caused a massive uproar.
Yet the Ten Sects possessed profound foundations; while this loss could be considered a severe blow, it was not enough to cripple them beyond recovery.
Xuanyuan Tuo had a faint premonition that he was about to face the true trump cards of the Ten Sects.
Yet for reasons unknown, Xuanyuan Tuo seemed to have overestimated the Ten Sects. Right up until he attained the realm of Longevity Heavenly Venerable, the Ten Sects never mounted an effective counteroffensive. They merely withdrew their forces, consolidating their respective sect domains, and allowed the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals to encroach upon the peripheral smaller sects under their sway.
And when Xuanyuan Tuo finally proved the Longevity realm, the laws of the Xuanhuang world were permanently altered from that moment on.
The Old Method was no more, and the New Method became the sole path of cultivation available to all cultivators beneath the heavens.
Xuanyuan Tuo's lifelong ideal and ambition were finally realized: anyone in the world who wished to cultivate could do so without impediment.
Although he had already foreseen that as cultivators proliferated in the future, the resources required for advancement in the New Method would become shackles on their cultivation, Xuanyuan Tuo already had a plan in mind.
Having absorbed the power of the Gold Arbiter, he could manipulate the Xuanhuang Realm to continuously generate various curiosities, grotto-heavens, and even Heaven-and-Earth Essences.
Internally, the Xuanhuang Realm would endlessly evolve and flourish unceasingly.
Externally, he would annex and assimilate the cultivation worlds that still survived across the sea of stars, replenishing their resources.
As the number of New Method cultivators grew, Xuanyuan Tuo's own strength would continuously climb. Even though the immortal path had been severed, he would still be able to reach the pinnacle of the star sea. When that time came, he would repair the array left behind by the ancient Xuantian Sect and guide the Xuanhuang Realm out from the shroud of the Immortal Ruins.
Once they reached a relatively safe region for a period of time, he would harness the power to invert the principles of Heaven and Earth—unleashed when a Longevity Heavenly Venerable attains the Dao—to continuously reconstruct the Xuanhuang Realm.
According to Xuanyuan Tuo's calculations, it would take only a double-digit number of Longevity Heavenly Venerables working in concert to construct and transform the Xuanhuang Realm. Combined with awakening the power of the ancient array, they might just be able to leap across the High Wall!
Even as Xuanyuan Tuo—now Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa—steadily accumulated and elevated his own strength, he was secretly scouting cultivators in the Xuanhuang Realm who could shoulder heavy responsibilities.
Aptitude did not matter; he looked solely at their mindset and character!
Those who passed his trials would receive his secret assistance to comprehend the method of inverting natural principles and directly prove the Longevity realm!
Xuanyuan Tuo had indeed singled out several trustworthy youths.
Yet before he could even take action, a catastrophe abruptly befell the Xuanhuang Realm: dharmas could not be practiced concurrently!
Such an anomaly in Heaven and Earth truly caught Xuanyuan Tuo off guard.
He wielded the Dao of the Gold Arbiter; the world of Xuanhuang ought to have been entirely under his control. Yet such a change had occurred out of nowhere...
Xuanyuan Tuo understood that the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao must have been unexpectedly stimulated into producing a power capable of contending with the Dao of the Gold Arbiter.
Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang!
The name instantly surfaced in Xuanyuan Tuo's mind.
Xuanyuan Tuo bore little ill will toward this newly ascended Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang. He even wished to take the initiative to speak with him.
Regrettably, that Great Heavenly Venerable remained exceptionally well concealed with the aid of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
Meanwhile, Xuanyuan Tuo had to divert his attention to dealing with the terrible mess left in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals following the advent of the catastrophe where dharmas could not be practiced concurrently.
The Ten Great Immortal Sects possessed deep heritage, and their disciples cultivated diverse methods. Order still held, preventing them from collapsing outright in an instant.
The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, however, while having expanded at a blistering pace, consisted mostly of cultivators who practiced the Heavenly Net Divine Technique passed down by Xuanyuan Tuo.
This technique—personally deduced by Xuanyuan Tuo to encompass all phenomena and pierce the heavens through a single path—became a death warrant for everyone in the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals when catastrophe struck!
The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had not been established for long. It was originally just a loose confederation formed by New Method cultivators. Aside from Xuanyuan Tuo himself, whose prestige was towering, no one else commanded enough authority to sway the masses. Under the catastrophe's descent, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals descended into horrific fratricide.
Thus, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, once deemed a mortal threat by the Ten Sects, crumbled from within before the Ten Sects without a fight!
Through this ordeal, Xuanyuan Tuo deeply grasped the importance of foundational depth.
When the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals rose, its momentum appeared colossal, yet its accumulation was shallow, and its resilience against risks was utterly fragile. At the slightest gale, it snapped.
Even as Xuanyuan Tuo attempted to salvage and preserve the vital strength of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, he also sought to find that Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang.
Yet having founded the New Method, were it not for his control over the Gold Arbiter's power, he and the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao would have been irreconcilable foes.
That Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang naturally held an irreconcilable enmity toward him as well.
"He misunderstands me deeply. This is a matter of judging deeds rather than intentions," Xuanyuan Tuo felt a trace of regret.
Yet the pride of a peerless powerhouse kept him from coming forward to offer explanations.
Even the Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang could not stop Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa, who had thoroughly and successfully inverted natural principles!
However, not long after, two more things occurred that caught Xuanyuan Tuo entirely by surprise.
The first: though Xuanyuan Tuo was already the strongest being in the world, palpitation-inducing dread surged within him from time to time. The forebodings in his heart were filled with unease and sorrow. After a meticulous investigation, Xuanyuan Tuo discovered to his horror that these emotions did not originate from himself, but from another existence inside his body—another consciousness that had remained undetected for so long!
The second was that before the disaster of dharmas cannot be practiced concurrently had even passed, a calamity known as the immortal-mortal miasma silently descended upon the world. The arrival of the immortal-mortal miasma was accompanied by the passing of that nameless Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang!
This stunned Xuanyuan Tuo even more than discovering another consciousness within himself. For Xuanyuan Tuo understood that this was an inversion of principles launched by that Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang at the cost of his own life.
In attaining the double status of Heavenly Venerable in both Old and New Methods, he had suffered backlash and perished.
Xuanyuan Tuo could not comprehend his actions at all.
Yet Xuanyuan Tuo knew that anyone capable of clothing themselves in the titles of two Heavenly Venerables of both New and Old Methods was certainly no fool. He had to have had his reasons.
Xuanyuan Tuo puzzled over it endlessly without an answer.
It was only later that he discovered that even after cultivators purged and overcame the immortal-mortal miasma, it still lingered in the bloodlines of their descendants.
As part of the laws of Heaven and Earth, it prevented mortals from cultivating.
However, if a mortal could overcome this suppressive force and embark on the path of cultivation, it was equivalent to completing a miniature inversion of principles.
Though it was far from affecting the principles of Heaven and Earth directly, over an extended span of time, countless mortals would step onto the cultivation path one after another.
The birth of every single cultivator was effectively eroding the foundation of Chuanfa!
"He cannot kill me, yet he has largely negated the accumulation that every cultivator practicing the New Method brings to me.
"Originally, every cultivator born under the New Method system would become part of the cornerstone of my cultivation. Accumulated day by day, increasing without pause, it would one day push me into an unknowable, sacred realm!
"Yet now...
"He has severed my path to the Dao!"
Even a clay figurine has three parts temper.
Upon realizing this, Xuanyuan Tuo flew into a rage. But that Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang was already dead—where could Xuanyuan Tuo even go to vent his fury?
Just when Xuanyuan Tuo's mind was shaken as never before, his consciousness was abruptly pulled into a pitch-black space, and he lost control of his body.
Opposite him floated a weathered old man with a full head of white hair.
Even though their facial features were not identical, looking at him felt to Xuanyuan Tuo just like staring into a mirror!
"Heavenly Physician!" For reasons he could not fathom, Xuanyuan Tuo called out the other's name.
The Heavenly Physician wasted no words on him.
Instead, tears of blood streamed from his eyes.
As if possessed, he repeatedly muttered, "Hurry back to the Tianfa Realm... Hurry back to the Tianfa Realm!"
Xuanyuan Tuo realized in a flash that this was the very reason his heart had been persistently troubled throughout this past period.
Xuanyuan Tuo attempted to communicate with him,
but the Heavenly Physician's mind was consumed by the Tianfa Realm, and he could hear nothing.
Xuanyuan Tuo tried to suppress him, only to discover in horror that the other was practically a replica of himself, possessing nearly identical strength.
In fact, bolstered by an overpowering obsession to return to his homeland, he was actually a fraction stronger than Xuanyuan Tuo!
He gradually seized control of the body!
The appearance of Chuanfa's body also slowly shifted into the Heavenly Physician's original likeness!
As though sealed within a dark room, Xuanyuan Tuo could only faintly sense what transpired in the outside world.
He saw that when the Heavenly Physician finally returned to the Tianfa Realm after enduring countless hardships,
the living beings of the Tianfa Realm had already been slaughtered to extinction.
The horrific scene was hard even for Xuanyuan Tuo to bear.
With his homeland suffering such a catastrophe, the Heavenly Physician plunged into madness.
A terrible storm seemed to rage within his heart, severing the connection between Xuanyuan Tuo and him.
Xuanyuan Tuo accumulated his strength, attempting to reclaim control over the body.
After an unknown passage of time, a transparent figure apart from the Heavenly Physician also appeared in this space.
What filled Xuanyuan Tuo with an endless sense of crisis was that this transparent figure seemed devoid of sentience,
yet it could latch onto and corrode his consciousness.
This was a bizarre, eerie power Xuanyuan Tuo had never seen before.
Though he resisted with all his might, he could not stop it from eroding him step by step.
Before this transparent entity could fully possess Xuanyuan Tuo,
that ethereal, elusive murmuring voice once more echoed in his mind.
Relying on this miraculous power, Xuanyuan Tuo barely managed to keep his consciousness clear.
Time lost all meaning within the dark space.
After who knew how long, Xuanyuan Tuo finally sensed an opportunity arriving.
The body seemed to have entered a peculiar space.
And here, the wondrous murmuring voice became clearer than ever before.
Marshalling the power he had gathered for so long, Xuanyuan Tuo struck back in a single burst, miraculously regaining control of the body for a fleeting instant.
Though it was only for a moment, after understanding his present state, Xuanyuan Tuo devised a countermeasure.
The space where the body currently resided appeared to be the interior of an immortal artifact. It was precisely this that resonated with the murmuring voice—a power of the immortal tier.
Xuanyuan Tuo softly chanted, engraving the murmuring sound from his mind into the interior space of the immortal artifact.
Relying on this wondrous murmuring power's heaven-defying ability to influence future reality through past memories, Xuanyuan Tuo felt confident that he could make use of the latecomers who would repeatedly enter this artifact space in the future
to find a way to free himself.
After branding the murmuring voice into the space, Xuanyuan Tuo lost control of the body once more.
He was sealed away again into the boundless darkness of consciousness.
Years flowed past uncounted.
During this time, he attempted several more counterattacks. Yet for reasons unknown, the power suppressing and sealing him grew stronger and stronger, until it seemed he would never turn the tables again.
Still, Xuanyuan Tuo never gave up.
For the murmuring voice he had previously implanted was steadily gathering energy for his counterstrike.
It was merely that the time required for his complete escape would be somewhat longer.
...
Time returned to the present.
As Li Fan watched the scenes playing out in the illusion array, derived from the memories of Chuanfa's body, his expression shifted several times.
Even though he had believed himself quite familiar with the tale of Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician, he had never anticipated the truth behind it to be so convoluted, and so full of...
the cruel twists of fortune.
Yet what caught Li Fan's attention most were the various anomalies surrounding the Xuanyuan clan.
Not merely that singularly wondrous murmuring voice,
but also that mad uncle Xuanyuan Tuo had met in his youth, Xuanyuan Sheng.
"Goudan, you must know that everything in this world has already happened countless times..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, mulling over the words.
"Was that the meaningless babble of a madman, or did it truly hold a deeper meaning?"
What was described in those words made it hard for Li Fan not to think of Revert to the True.
Furthermore, in Xuanyuan Tuo's memories, on the night Xuanyuan Sheng vanished, whether he had truly died remained far from certain.
"The Xuanyuan clan enshrined the memorial tablet of Xuanyuan Hong. That ought to be a contingency left behind by King Xuantian.
"Could King Xuantian have actually commanded such a heaven-defying method as that murmuring voice?
"Or rather... is that the true majesty a half-immortal ought to possess?"
Although Li Fan had already advanced to half-immortal, his only technique on the immortal tier was array arts.
In other respects, there was no qualitative difference between him and a mortal cultivator.
"Branded into the Heavenly Mystery Realm?"
Li Fan's gaze pierced the Pitch-Black Star Sea, looking into the Xuanhuang Realm.
More than once had he stepped inside the Heavenly Mystery Realm as well as the memorial hall.
He had also experienced various illusions portraying Chuanfa's past.
"It appeared to be experiencing Chuanfa's past.
"In truth, it was being eroded by the murmuring voice..."
Chapter 1410