"...just like what I saw in my previous life."
"Which means the activation of Revert to the True not only creates something from nothing, carving out a new possibility in illusory spacetime, but also resets every time node in the mortal realm back to the moment of the established anchor."
"Such mighty power..."
Li Fan felt an unprecedented sense of awe.
Especially after witnessing existences like Sinister Su Bai and the Blackened Heavenly Physician, whose might seemed to surpass even Nameless True Immortals.
No matter how formidable they appeared, before Revert to the True, everything was mere illusion! A single thought turning into reality, a single thought turning into falsity!
Going by the deduced might of [Revert to the True], in theory, even the Blackened Heavenly Physician should have been unable to move within the [Dao Concealment] domain after [Revert to the True] activated.
The only plausible explanation was that Li Fan, as its vessel, was too weak, which impaired the efficacy of Revert to the True.
"Weak, am I...?"
Li Fan, having already advanced to the realm of half-immortal, suddenly felt a sour pang in his heart. But a moment later, he remembered that under the Dao Annihilation Tribulation, even countless True Immortals perished like mere ants. By comparison, a half-immortal being "weak" was not all that difficult to accept.
Recalling how his upper age limit had skyrocketed wildly when he encountered the Blackened Heavenly Physician in the previous life, Li Fan's heart stirred.
The Transformation of Real and Unreal suddenly activated.
Having witnessed firsthand the entire process of [Revert to the True] creating a completely new possibility, Li Fan's comprehension of the Transformation of Real and Unreal had advanced by leaps and bounds.
He visualized his own half-immortal cultivation that had existed in the previous possibility.
In accordance with his intent, that cultivation descended upon his body, stacking on top of his current power.
Unlike before, when it could only last a brief instant, Li Fan could now maintain this unreal cultivation without it dispersing for nearly the time it took to drink a cup of tea!
He could even...
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Concentrating with full focus, he attempted to stack the unreal cultivation once more.
Indeed, it worked.
However, the mental burden brought by this act instantly swelled more than tenfold.
The duration of the stacked cultivation also plummeted accordingly, fluctuating wildly with massive instability.
"Merely recreating the cultivation of my single self is already this difficult. It is truly unimaginable what realm is required to create an entire possibility out of nothing..."
Li Fan marveled, looking at the numbers on the panel.
Triple half-immortal cultivation might not be enough to directly surpass a True Immortal,
but it should be very close.
Yet...
7,365,864 years, 13 days, and 8 hours!
Such an increase in strength, in Revert to the True's deduction, could only delay the mortal realm's catastrophe of destruction by a single shichen! Barely better than nothing!
"It seems my current strength is still nowhere near enough to meddle in this."
Li Fan's heart suddenly grew somewhat heavy.
True, Revert to the True could reset the entire mortal realm time and time again to prevent utter ruin from happening.
Yet the mortal realm's decline into decay was the grand trend.
No matter how Revert to the True tried to turn the tide, the Dao Annihilation Tribulation would ultimately swallow everything.
It was strikingly like pushing a boulder up a mountain, only doomed to watch it roll back to the bottom every single time in an endless cycle.
Only by attaining the level of Sinister Su Bai and the Blackened Heavenly Physician did there seem to be any hope of breaking the deadlock.
The problem was that the appearances of these two were far too abrupt and defied all reason.
And they completely exceeded Li Fan's expectations.
In Li Fan's original plan, he was supposed to proceed methodically, using the forces of both the Xuanhuang Realm and the Xuan Celestial Vessel to slowly explore beyond the High Wall, seeking clues regarding the Faceless Immortal, Maobao, and even the fishing pond.
Yet now, the sudden descent of these two had practically thrown Li Fan's plans into utter disarray.
The existence of the Blackened Heavenly Physician in particular left Li Fan with lingering dread.
"Once the Heavenly Physician within the wall is sensed, the Blackened Heavenly Physician will instantly descend."
"Doesn't that mean all these years, the entire Pitch-Black Star Sea has been teetering on the edge of life and death? If the Heavenly Physician hadn't been fixated on his homeland, devoting almost all his energy to reviving the Tianfa Realm, he probably would have drawn the Blackened Heavenly Physician over long ago!"
"Furthermore, going by the comprehension progress the Heavenly Physician demonstrated in the previous life, it wouldn't have taken him long to completely unravel the secret of the High Wall. Even without the variables I introduced, once the Tianfa Realm successfully borrowed a corpse to resurrect its soul, the Heavenly Physician would eventually study the High Wall anyway. The day of his successful revival would have been not far from the day of his death... What an irony."
Li Fan's thoughts spun rapidly.
Suddenly, he remembered the life when the Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock occurred.
Back then, he had transformed into the Formation-Breaking Jade Plate and lived through thousands of years.
In Anchored Year 2078, the world fell completely silent and dead.
It was not until Anchored Year 3024 that long-lost sunlight returned.
"It seems that due to the Blackened Heavenly Physician, under normal circumstances, the Xuanhuang Realm would eventually face a dead end."
"Yet when the Blackened Heavenly Physician acted, the Xuanhuang Realm—or rather, the newborn Tianfa Realm—did not completely turn to dust, and there was still a possibility of vitality reviving a thousand years later..."
"It must have been that the Blackened Heavenly Physician was touched by the sight and showed mercy."
Li Fan mused to himself.
Because of the terrifying threat of the Blackened Heavenly Physician and Sinister Su Bai, Li Fan's plans for this life within the wall also had to be altered drastically. At the very least, he could never allow the Heavenly Physician to approach the High Wall again.
"What the situation outside the High Wall really is remains unclear."
"In the previous life, through the straight blank road smashed open by the Blackened Heavenly Physician inside the black-and-white domain of Dao Concealment, I caught a vague glimpse of the scene beyond the High Wall."
"It seemed to be a normal sea of stars, with life scattered like chess pieces across a board. Yet at the end of my vision, something blocked my sight."
"Is there another high wall beyond the High Wall?" Li Fan could not help wondering.
"If I want to understand the current state outside the High Wall, perhaps I should start with that Heavenly Sword Sect descendant."
Turning his attention back to the Revert to the True inheritance options, Li Fan pondered for a moment and chose to accelerate the charging speed.
Revert to the True's charging speed had always been closely linked to Li Fan's strength.
After attaining the half-immortal realm, selecting this option for the first time brought Li Fan a pleasant surprise as he noticed a difference from before.
On the Revert to the True panel, now that his realm had become Immortal, the moment Revert to the True reset him, the reversion charging progress was already at 50%. And when Li Fan once again selected accelerated charging, the progress bar jumped violently.
It shot directly to 99%!
"The required waiting time has been drastically shortened."
"Unfortunately, it's still not 100%."
"That 1% gap is a world of difference!"
If selecting accelerated charging could fill the progress to capacity every time, it would mean Li Fan could activate Revert to the True continuously.
Even if he encountered an enemy capable of traversing possibilities in the future, he could effortlessly slip away in an instant.
Yet now, this 1% gap meant he still had to endure a waiting period of at least around seven days.
"Until I can achieve one hundred percent charge instantaneously, I must remain exceptionally cautious in my actions."
As Li Fan's strength increased, the existences he came into contact with grew increasingly unfathomable.
In particular, someone like the Blackened Heavenly Physician—who could pursue across possibilities and move within the Dao Concealment domain—posed far too great a threat to Li Fan.
"I wonder, if I advance to the realm of True Immortal, will I be able to suppress him?"
As the Blackened Heavenly Physician's utterly cold gaze, so strikingly similar to his own, resurfaced in his mind, Li Fan could not help sinking into thought.
Seven days later.
With Revert to the True fully charged, Li Fan's figure flickered as he soundlessly slipped into the Xuanhuang Realm.
His destination was, naturally, the divine soul named Qiao Sidao hidden within the Museum of Divine Archives at the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters.
Having endured hundreds of billions of cycles of reincarnation, he could still maintain his independent consciousness, and he had even deduced the probable truth behind the Dao Annihilation Tribulation based on Di Sanmo's descriptions.
Li Fan was very interested in him.
"If possible, perhaps I can have him explore beyond the High Wall in my stead."
"Still, I must be wary of whether another Qiao Sidao exists beyond the wall."
When Li Fan passed by Mr. Bai's skull, his steps paused briefly.
Having already absorbed it once, [Revert to the True] indeed gave no further prompt.
As for the phantom trial of Sinister Su Bai inside Mr. Bai's skull, Li Fan was only too eager to avoid it.
Paying it no further mind, he headed straight for the Mount Nanming Sacred Beast ruins inside the Museum of Divine Archives.
"Come to think of it, even though [Revert to the True] can generate an entire possibility out of nothing with a single thought, it still needs to consume certain wondrous curios within these possibilities..."
Li Fan's thoughts drifted.
And [Revert to the True] seemed to sense his thought, seemingly sending a ripple of mockery laced with a hint of helplessness.
Yet afterward, no matter how he tried to sense it, not the slightest fluctuation arose.
Upon arriving at the Mount Nanming ruins, Di Sanmo was already there, having waited for a long time.
Just like his reaction in the previous life, he said with utmost deference, "Greetings, Senior!"
Although Li Fan had not displayed actual combat power in this lifetime, the fact that he could silently ignore all the restrictions of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters and make his way straight into the Museum of Divine Archives was undoubted proof of his formidable might.
From the subtle shifts in Di Sanmo's expression, Li Fan could tell that he possessed no memories of the previous life.
Relaxing slightly, Li Fan said nothing and merely nodded, turning his attention to observing the ruins before him.
Sure enough, just as Di Sanmo had said, faint traces of mysterious energy still lingered here.
And within what little energy remained, an extremely frail divine soul hid concealed.
Cloaked beneath the mysterious energy, even with Li Fan being a half-immortal, it would not have been easy to notice without Di Sanmo's specific reminder.
The soul's appearance was no different from what Di Sanmo had described in the previous life.
Li Fan reached out, directly seizing half of the life-saving energy sustaining Qiao Sidao.
Originally clinging to survival like a creature in a pool on the verge of drying up, now that the pool's water had inexplicably diminished by so much, Qiao Sidao's soul shuddered violently, as if subjected to immense agony.
Di Sanmo opened his mouth as if to speak, then stopped.
Faced with the faint aura of authority Li Fan radiated, he ultimately chose to remain silent.
Li Fan had no intention of deliberately making things difficult for Qiao Sidao.
On the contrary, Li Fan intended to save his life!
Drawing the mysterious energy into his body, Li Fan contemplated it carefully.
It was different from the spiritual energy of the Xuanhuang Realm, and unlike immortal spiritual energy as well.
Yet Li Fan still felt a faint sense of familiarity.
This familiarity seemed to stem from the inherited memories when he had transformed into the Profound Bird in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Beyond that, however, Li Fan knew nothing about it.
Still, that did not stop Li Fan from using the Transformation of Real and Unreal on it!
He compressed and enveloped this clump of energy within his dantian.
Standing still for a while, once his comprehension was sufficient, the Transformation of Real and Unreal suddenly descended.
Under mystical, profound fluctuations, an identical orb instantly appeared in Li Fan's hand!
It gave off an eerie verdigris glow laced with faint threads of silver light.
While the Transformation of Real and Unreal was still within its active duration,
Li Fan flicked his finger gently, injecting the verdigris orb into Qiao Sidao's divine soul.
Like parched earth meeting sweet dew, Qiao Sidao's frail soul visibly grew a bit stronger.
Waiting until Qiao Sidao had completely absorbed the energy orb, Li Fan willed it and canceled the Transformation of Real and Unreal.
His divine sense enveloped Qiao Sidao, observing every minute change in him.
Sure enough, it was just as Li Fan had anticipated.
Though the enhancement of the Transformation of Real and Unreal had vanished, because the energy conjured out of nothing during its duration had been absorbed into a vessel, it did not entirely dissipate along with it.
Instead, a portion remained.
Though the proportion was not large, to Li Fan, it was still of tremendous significance.
Resting for a brief moment, Li Fan once again activated the Transformation of Real and Unreal, producing a second orb.
When the first energy orb was taken out by Li Fan, Di Sanmo had assumed it was merely the energy Li Fan had just extracted.
Now, seeing Li Fan produce a new one after that energy had already been used up,
Di Sanmo's usually composed face could no longer maintain its calm.
Li Fan also noticed that from beginning to end, the other man did not seem to perceive the operation of the Transformation of Real and Unreal at all,
even though its fluctuations were so distinct to Li Fan.
"Still, I cannot let down my guard."
"Perhaps besides a vessel like me, there are other almighty figures in this world capable of detecting the activation of the Transformation of Real and Unreal."
"In the future, whenever I employ divine abilities, I must always remain mindful of my safety."
Amidst these thoughts, through repeatedly activating the Transformation of Real and Unreal and continually infusing numerous orbs of mysterious energy,
Qiao Sidao finally showed signs of recovery.
He awakened from his stupor.
"Third Uncle, I am..." Qiao Sidao quickly realized the unusual situation before him.
Reacting quickly, despite his weakened state, he expressed his gratitude to Li Fan for saving him.
Li Fan nodded slightly without stopping his movements.
Drawing materials on the spot from the exhibits of the Museum of Divine Archives, he fashioned a temporary body for Qiao Sidao.
Only after driving Qiao Sidao's divine soul into it did Li Fan cease his actions.
Repeatedly casting the Transformation of Real and Unreal was no small burden for him either.
Though he paused to catch his breath, he revealed not the slightest hint of weariness.
At the same time, he waited for Qiao Sidao to adapt to this new body.
In less than half a day, Qiao Sidao had revived from the brink of death.
In the past, Di Sanmo's myriad efforts had all been like drawing water with a wicker basket—utterly in vain. Yet now, this senior before him had turned the impossible into a miracle with just a casual display of skill...
How could Qiao Sidao fail to understand the terrifying might of the person before him?
Bowing slightly, Qiao Sidao gave his heartfelt thanks. "Thank you, Senior, for saving my life!"
Di Sanmo, meanwhile, seemed not to have fully recovered from the shock just now, his body still trembling slightly.
Li Fan extended his right hand and pressed it onto Qiao Sidao's head.
A strand of divine sense slipped into Qiao Sidao's divine soul.
Confronted by his savior and the absolute disparity in strength, Qiao Sidao's expression flickered slightly, but in the end, he did not resist.
He allowed Li Fan to inspect the memories within his divine soul.
Chapter 1417