Whether it was a True Immortal or Qian Ruochang's Dao Net external body, both ultimately relied upon the power of the Dao.
Now, facing the phantom of the Mound-Guarding Lord—an existence whose comprehension of the Dao far exceeded their own—all divine abilities and methods were rendered completely useless.
From Li Fan's perspective, the sparse Dao principles within this starry sky of the Annihilation Lands were instantly drawn toward the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom.
Like a colossal vortex abruptly surging in an ocean, it seized absolute priority.
Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu were inevitably caught in the fallout.
For now, they were merely unable to control themselves. But if they lingered in this twisted Dao vortex for too long, they would likely risk losing their Dao!
Watching the two immortals struggle in utter futility, Li Fan's mind surged with turbulent waves.
'Part of this may be because this expanse of starry sky has suffered the Great Tribulation of Dao Annihilation and is already extremely fragile. But the primary reason is that the Mound-Guarding Lord's true strength has reached an unfathomable realm. Thus, merely channeling a fraction of the power of the five phantoms is enough to instantly suppress two True Immortals!'
While Li Fan was contemplating this, Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu, trapped in place, were already drenched in cold sweat.
Both prided themselves on being among the pinnacle experts of their respective factions, yet they had never expected to be toyed with so effortlessly by this mysterious figure!
Their thoughts raced, each pondering the potential origins of this enigmatic being.
It was at this moment that Li Fan realized he could vaguely perceive the inner emotional ripples of these two True Immortal-level figures.
This was not like the Heavenly Physician's art of Looking, Listening, Questioning, and Feeling the Pulse, which only gave vague, general trends of emotion.
Rather, it manifested as concrete scenes and images appearing in their minds!
Though not every scene was crystal clear as their thoughts fluctuated, this true ability to peer into minds still shook Li Fan profoundly.
One had to understand that the targets of this mind-peering were neither mortals nor weaklings. They were genuine True Immortals! Furthermore, both Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu were already close to the Nameless Realm!
'Presumably, before achieving transcendence, one remains a creation of the Dao. Whether it is an action or contemplation, nothing can escape the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. The clearer one's cognition of the Dao, the more distinctly one can perceive the changes of living beings within the Dao.
'The things one cares about most in one's consciousness cause the most prominent fluctuations. If an expert like the Mound-Guarding Lord appeared before me and I instinctively called upon Revert to the True to restart, I would likely be discovered in an instant, repeating what happened with the Heavenly Physician.
'No wonder my heart gave such an intense premonition back when the Black Heavenly Physician had yet to arrive. Had I not decisively reverted to the true early on, I am afraid...'
Feeling a lingering fear, Li Fan did not wallow in dread. Instead, his immediate instinct was to search for a way to prevent his mind from being peered into.
'Being sensed is entirely due to causing disturbances in the Dao. It is like a drop falling onto a calm surface of water; no matter how tiny, it creates faint ripples. If I wish to avoid this...'
With the empowerment of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom, Li Fan was able to seek a fundamental solution.
Soon, he discovered a method that was currently the most suitable—one that could even be called tailor-made for him.
'As long as I am alive, fluctuations of thought cannot be avoided.
'The Mound-Guarding Lord gazed upon the sea for a hundred epochs. No matter how many miraculous encounters I have, my cognition and understanding of the Dao can never surpass his. An existence like the Black Heavenly Physician, who can span across possibilities to devour other versions of himself, is also bound to be above me. Attempting to disguise myself before them would be difficult, difficult, difficult...
'The only viable method is to conceal the ripples caused by my own divine thoughts within the macrocosm as much as possible. The ripples created by a single falling waterdrop are conspicuous in a narrow pond. But within a boundless ocean, subtle ripples generated spontaneously rather than provoked by external objects will go almost entirely unnoticed.
'Mind Soul Formation, projecting the Dao Net!'
A gleam flashed in Li Fan's eyes. 'The closer my projected Dao Net comes to the genuine Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, the stronger my concealment will be. As for my current level...'
Ma Tiande cooperated, deliberately letting his thoughts wander.
Under the gaze of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom, eight or nine out of ten of those thoughts were immediately captured.
'It seems I am still quite far from hiding my thoughts before transcendent experts.' Li Fan possessed a very clear understanding of his true capabilities, so he felt no discouragement.
His focus returned to the thoughts inside Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu.
Unlike the continuous stream of imagery he could capture from his own mind, what he peered into from the two immortals was intermittent.
Flashing through Qian Ruochang's mind were the True Immortals he suspected might possess the combat prowess displayed by the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom.
He knew neither their appearances nor their names, anchoring them only by their titles and specific deeds.
Qian Ruochang had never personally met these True Immortals either; he had merely heard of them from the Immortal Hunt's top-secret roster.
The three figures Qian Ruochang felt most certain of were the most clearly observed.
The first was Shanhua.
This True Immortal could conceptually twist and convert all harmful actions committed by the True Immortal faction against the Shuo Star Sea into beneficial ones.
He was active in the early stages of the conflict between the Immortal Hunt and the True Immortals.
Time and again, the Immortal Hunt lost soldiers and commanders, suffering catastrophic casualties. Yet from top to bottom, the Immortal Hunt felt as if they had achieved monumental victories each time, sensing not the slightest crisis and growing ever more blindly optimistic.
They were merely baffled by the state of the Shuo Star Sea resulting from the war.
Clearly, every aspect seemed beneficial, yet reality grew worse and worse.
In the end, the Shuo Star Sea was reduced to practically a bullet-sized pocket of habitat.
Only at the final juncture, after being awakened by someone, did they snap out of it.
The potency of Shanhua was not limited to influencing the macro-battlefield; it also manifested in the ultimate threat of True Immortal Shanhua as an individual.
After failing to shift the overall conceptual war, True Immortal Shanhua had once charged deep into enemy lines alone, intending to end the conflict single-handedly. Even when he slaughtered the relatives and dear friends of the Immortal Hunt right before their eyes, those influenced by the Dao of Shanhua felt not the slightest anger, but instead grew excited, cheering incessantly.
As if being butchered were, to them, a supreme bliss and ultimate liberation.
Shanhua moved as if passing through an unpopulated land, slaughtering indiscriminately.
Had he not been stopped at the eleventh hour, the Shuo Star Sea would likely have ceased to exist in this starry sky long ago.
...
Peering into the mind up to this point, Li Fan could not help but frown slightly.
'This True Immortal Shanhua is indeed terrifying. He is even more overbearing than Dharma Transmitter Jiang's trait of "all things are like me." At the very least, if "I" were to slaughter my own friends and family, I would instinctively step forward to stop it. But under the influence of Shanhua's power, one would likely do nothing but smile and applaud.
'Whenever True Immortal Shanhua comes to mind, Qian Ruochang's thoughts fluctuate with such intensity. Evidently, this Shanhua left no small psychological scar upon the Immortal Hunt.
'Powerful though Shanhua was, the existence within the Immortal Hunt who intervened at the final juncture both times and dismantled Shanhua's power seemed a cut above. Yet that existence appears to have been deliberately erased; every time Qian Ruochang thinks of this figure, he subconsciously glosses over them, yielding practically no useful information.
'Considering such might, could it be the giant hand that pressed down and forged the Dao Net?'
Li Fan continued observing the next True Immortal.
This immortal cultivated Chaos.
The vast majority of the Immortal Hunt's strength had to be exercised through the Dao Net. Yet the Dao principles of Chaos cultivated by this True Immortal could disrupt the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, reverting it to the primordial murk before the world was divided.
Wherever this immortal went, even if he simply stood motionless, the combat prowess of the Shuo Star Sea faction was drastically diminished.
Perhaps because True Immortal Chaos's actions wreaked excessive destruction upon the starry sky and the True Immortal faction had reservations as well, this True Immortal Chaos had actually appeared only a few times. Yet every single appearance brought tremendous trouble to the Immortal Hunt.
As for the final True Immortal in Qian Ruochang's mind...
'Rumored to be the one who crafted the Retrograde Vessel back then?' Li Fan felt a slight tremor in his heart.
The Retrograde Vessel was a creation among the Three Methods of World Avoidance that surpassed even the World-Crossing Mysterious Coffin. It could traverse the river of time and return to the past.
Regarding this True Immortal, Qian Ruochang's thoughts were exceedingly sparse as well.
Many reflections flashed by in an instant.
The moment Li Fan captured those thoughts, he instinctively had Li Buren increase the channeling of the phantom's power.
It lasted only an instant, but it was enough to see more.
The True Immortal who had forged the Retrograde Vessel was referred to internally within the Immortal Hunt as "Ni."
After the Retrograde Vessel was constructed, whether Ni had actually boarded the divine vessel and journeyed to the past became an enigma with the total disappearance of that bygone group of True Immortals.
However, based on various clues and traces, successive generations of the Immortal Hunt judged that this True Immortal, who faintly commanded the power to reverse time, was very likely still in the world. For as the Dao Net grew mightier day by day and the Immortal Hunt launched their counteroffensive from the brink of despair, the True Immortal faction gradually fell into a disadvantage.
Yet every time the True Immortals found themselves trapped in desperate straits, they almost miraculously turned danger into safety.
Having ruled out the possibility of a traitor, alongside deductions from other crucial evidence, the Immortal Hunt now essentially took the existence of this Immortal Ni as a certainty.
...
'Ni.'
If Li Fan, who possessed Revert to the True, was still interested in any Dao principles of Heaven and Earth, it was certainly this power of reversing time.
What was its specific difference from the transformation of true and false of Revert to the True?
More importantly, if Li Fan mastered it, could he return to and anchor a time prior to Anchored Year 1?
Unfortunately, this Ni was truly shrouded in mystery.
Even within the Immortal Hunt, his existence was merely deduced from vague traces. As for anything else, they were entirely in the dark.
Compared to Qian Ruochang's various speculations, the mind of Immortal Wu was far more singular.
Everything pointed toward a single possibility:
The Dao-Inscribing Immortal!
Judging from the images flashing through Immortal Wu's mind, back when the Immortal Realm still existed, he had personally seen genuine scriptures of the Dao Scripture left by the Dao-Inscribing Immortal.
Hence, he was acutely aware of how formidable the Dao-Inscribing Immortal was.
Therefore, after achieving success in his cultivation, upon being effortlessly suppressed like a plaything, his very first reaction was that the other party had to be the Dao-Inscribing Immortal.
'In Immortal Wu's thoughts, there are also rumors that the Dao-Inscribing Immortal has passed away.
'Yet he has always scoffed at them.
'Interestingly, Immortal Wu has also heard of the Mound-Guarding Lord's great name. As for why he did not guess the Mound-Guarding Lord...
'"Even with transcendent might, the Mound-Guarding Lord would never treat the weak with such cruelty."'
Li Fan could not help but shake his head faintly.
Peering into the minds of True Immortals gave Li Fan a taste of what the strongest in the mortal world felt.
However, it was by no means without consequences.
Upon Li Buren's body, the weathered aura of facing mountains and seas grew steadily denser.
Meanwhile, myriad cubic experimental spaces, including the Pitch-Black Star Sea, emitted faint rumbles—like omens of an impending tide.
Through the ubiquitous perception of the Wuyou Dreamscape, Li Fan even detected a wisp of Dao Annihilation black qi spontaneously manifesting within the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
'The Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom is like a flood-control dam. Now that I have merely utilized a fraction of it, the boundless deluge has inevitably begun seeping through.'
Li Fan had anticipated this, yet he had not expected the Dao Annihilation to arrive so swiftly.
With a shift of thought, Li Buren sprang up from the armchair.
His body trembled uncontrollably as he attempted to break free from the aura of mountains and seas, minimizing the impact brought by the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom as much as possible.
Having lost the intimidation of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom, Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu were finally able to move again.
Yet they did not dare leave rashly.
Looking at Ma Tiande's half-smiling expression, they instinctively showed restraint.
After hesitating for a moment, they bowed in unison.
They believed an expert capable of suppressing them in an instant would never toy with them without reason.
At the same time, looking at this newly promoted "celestial vessel" before him, a flicker of oddity crossed Qian Ruochang's eyes. 'His body must have been possessed and controlled.'
"Can this World-Crossing Mysterious Coffin truly cross the world?"
Controlling Ma Tiande's body, Li Fan skipped pleasantries and polite greetings, asking directly.
Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu were slightly taken aback.
"It indeed can," Qian Ruochang quickly reacted and affirmed.
Immortal Wu added, "It is said this coffin was forged from the remnant mortal shed left behind by a transcendent expert; hence, it can traverse the Infinite Sea to reach the other shore. That was why, at the final moment, I braved great peril to charge in.
"Little did I know I would still fall into a trap."
Hearing this, Qian Ruochang gave a cold sneer. "It can hardly be called a trap. Had you not revealed yourself, I truly would have crossed the world and departed."
Li Fan remained noncommittal regarding their dispute.
Even without reading minds now, he could tell Immortal Wu seemed somewhat disappointed.
Presumably, through some method, he had confirmed that the "senior" Li Fan was roleplaying was not the Dao-Inscribing Immortal.
Paying no heed to their petty thoughts, Li Fan merely imitated the Mound-Guarding Lord, standing with his hands clasped behind his back as he sighed softly.
"With the great tribulation reaching this stage, what place could truly be safe?
"Crossing the world, crossing the world. It is nothing more than self-deception—leaping from one depression into another."
Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu did not seem surprised by Li Fan's remarks.
"We will eventually find the true shore," Immortal Wu said in an enigmatic tone.
"Indeed. Regrettably, with only seven million years remaining, it may not be enough," Li Fan added along with the flow.
Having Li Buren channel the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom power once more, Li Fan lightly waved a hand and stored away the World-Crossing Mysterious Coffin.
Faced with Li Fan seizing the treasure right before their eyes, neither Qian Ruochang nor Immortal Wu dared display the slightest displeasure.
From their words, Li Fan surmised that perhaps regarding the great tribulation of the mortal world, the Shuo Star Sea and the True Immortals might know more.
Yet when it came to the specific remaining lifespan of the mortal world, they might not necessarily know.
Sure enough, the moment the phrase "seven million" was uttered, neither of them could conceal their inner shock.
Chapter 1470