Li Fan could not help wondering whether Revert to the True had fallen silent in order to help him break free of the influence of the three intents merging within him. For him, Revert to the True had been with him all through his rebirth and his cultivation. To lose it suddenly as his trump card left Li Fan deeply uneasy.
Fortunately, the decades he had spent in amnesia could just about count as a buffer. It seemed to tell Li Fan that even without Revert to the True, relying on himself alone, he could still carve out a heaven-reaching road of cultivation.
"Only, compared with Revert to the True, which can reverse everything with a single thought, the Retrograde Boat falls far too short. Without my life-saving trump card, I must be even more careful. Otherwise, if I die this time, I'm afraid I really will be dead." A shadow flickered through Li Fan's eyes.
Giving up on pestering the slumbering Revert to the True, Li Fan turned his attention to the Retrograde Boat.
Weak as it was, it was now his only means of preserving his life, and so it still demanded close attention.
After traveling eight thousand years upstream, the Retrograde Boat—already battered and on the verge of its final limit—was now in a state that could only be called pitiful. After Li Fan forced it down to land, all that remained was a bare deck and the stumps of a few posts. If he had not still sensed faint threads of the Dao of Retrograde Travel on that deck, Li Fan would likely have concluded that the boat was ruined.
"The Heavenly Emperor Tai did say that anyone who comprehends the Dao of Retrograde Travel can build a Retrograde Boat. But in the whole Primordial possibility, across countless years, only two Retrograde Boats seem ever to have been made. Clearly it is not as simple as the Heavenly Emperor Tai made it sound. At the very least..." Li Fan sensed at the boat's planks and studied them for a long while, but remained at a complete loss as to how to repair them.
Never mind building a new one.
Revert to the True, the Longevity Great Dao, the Retrograde Boat—at this moment nearly all of them were on strike. Li Fan's present situation was by no means pleasant.
And so the goals for this life became clear, for the time being.
The foremost: find a way to help Revert to the True awaken as soon as possible. Next: repair the Retrograde Boat and rebuild the power of the Longevity Great Dao.
Either one of them was rather beyond Li Fan's present strength.
Several questions now lay before him.
First, Revert to the True had fallen into silence—so were the Transformation of Real and Unreal that he had comprehended, and the divine ability Illusion is Real, still of any use?
Second, with the Heavenly Emperor Tai's help, he had returned to eight thousand years ago. At this point in time, was there another Heavenly Emperor Tai in the sealed village beneath the Mountains and Seas fishing grounds? If there was, could that one sense what had happened to his self of eight thousand years later? And if there was not...
Third, once his strength was restored and his condition fully replenished, where should he go from there? Should he return to Anchored Year 1, the safe time-domain he knew so well, or keep drifting into the past until he found true safety?
...
Even for Li Fan, these questions were rather thorny for a time.
He could only take them one at a time.
Facing the encircling hunt by these people who seemed to be disciples of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, Li Fan first tested the Transformation of Real and Unreal. His present body had no cultivation at all. Still, with the support of what remained of the Longevity Great Dao, it could withstand a force equal to his old Dao Integration stage.
"When the true is taken as false, then the false is also true~"
Li Fan recited silently in his heart.
Yet the sky stayed clear and the breeze light; nothing changed at all.
Li Fan was not alarmed by this. Instead, he let out a long breath.
In fact, in the instant he used the Transformation of Real and Unreal, Li Fan truly had sensed the fluctuation that belonged to it alone. The facts proved that even without Revert to the True, he himself could still work the transformation of real and unreal. After all, it was a path he had comprehended himself. As long as the Dao of Real and False still existed in the Mountains and Seas and the mortal world, he could perform it with ease.
The reason nothing at all changed in his body was simply that the space-time of eight thousand years ago differed markedly from the Great Dao environment of eight thousand years later.
Over nearly ten thousand years, Daos had been born and Daos extinguished, and on top of that came the shaping influence of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation from the outer world. The two could well be regarded as two entirely different worlds.
And so, although Li Fan's false-becoming-true ability had been successfully used, the act of reproducing visualized cultivation within his own body had failed.
As the saying goes, one small slip at the start puts you a thousand li off course. The differences in detail and the upheaval in the environment had caused Li Fan's false-becoming-true ability to fail. Put plainly, the Transformation of Real and Unreal only works when founded on a detailed understanding of the world's Great Dao. The situation now was that the Great Dao had changed. Li Fan would have to come to know it anew.
But this was no great problem. Eight thousand years had passed, but after all it was the same possibility, the same world. Given time to rebuild his understanding of the Great Dao environment, Li Fan would again be able to use the Transformation of Real and Unreal smoothly and freely.
"It is only a pity that Illusion is Real, that divine ability, seems to have vanished from me along with Revert to the True's silence." After sensing carefully for a long while and finally confirming it, Li Fan sighed inwardly.
He was not especially surprised, though. Having gained and lost the Longevity Great Dao, Li Fan knew well that what was his own and what others bestowed on him were, in the end, fundamentally different.
Yet even having lost it, Li Fan had not wholly given up on Illusion is Real—a divine ability that could well be called the strongest means of preserving life in the Mountains and Seas. It could alter and conceal his identity even before the Sea of Infinity; once he had tasted that, how could Li Fan be willing to let it go?
"The so-called Illusion is Real is nothing but an extremely advanced application of the Transformation of Real and Unreal. With my comprehension of the transformation of real and unreal..." Li Fan carefully savored the feeling of being under Illusion is Real's protection back then.
It was thanks to its constant presence at the time that he had been left with impressions deep enough to make recalling it somewhat easier now.
"Even if I cannot reproduce the true Illusion is Real, it should not be hard to achieve a weakened version of it."
Li Fan's gaze swept over the unfriendly-faced disciples around him, and after a moment, a change quietly took place.
"You little bastard, you've been holding it in for ages and haven't let out so much as a fart. I think you..." One of the cultivators, already out of patience, slapped Li Fan across the head. He was still cursing and swearing, a vicious light in his eyes.
But as Li Fan's Illusion is Real took effect, the hostile look on his face slowly faded away.
So it was with the several others beside him as well.
They seemed to have forgotten that Li Fan, this "Medicine King Sect disciple" who had fallen from the sky, was an outsider. They simply took him for one of their own.
The cultivator who had just boxed Li Fan's ear, after a spell of dazedness, looked blankly to left and right. A good while passed before he came back to himself. His expression changed drastically and he slapped his thigh. "Damn! Where'd that kid go!"
The others also woke as if from a dream, crying out one after another: "How is that possible? In front of all of us—and he actually got away?"
"I tell you, that man had no spirit-energy fluctuations at all. How in the world did he escape?"
None of them could believe it. They searched the area with their divine sense, but found no suspicious trace.
Just then, Li Fan spoke up: "Smell that? There seems to be a faint wisp of medicine scent left in the air. I've heard that Medicine King Sect disciples are unmatched in the use of medicines. They can heal the living, and they can also take life. We must have fallen for their trick!"
Li Fan's tone was full of regret.
"So it is!"
The other cultivators sniffed at the air and came to their senses as well, all of them full of regret.
Not one of them noticed anything odd about Li Fan—a man who should not have existed at all.
Having thus narrowly averted danger for the moment, Li Fan breathed a small sigh of relief.
At present, this was as far as he could go.
Restoring his strength would have to rest on observation of this past age. It could only be done slowly.
"Though the washing of the River of Time has cost me the feelings of enlightenment I once had, so long as I see that Dao again, I should be able to comprehend it anew quickly."
"Others must open a path from nothing; I need only walk the road again."
Li Fan raised his head and looked at the Xuanhuang sky of this time, and feelings both familiar and strange surged up in his heart.
But he was still surrounded by enemies, and his Illusion is Real could not yet fully rewrite others' understanding. So he made no particular display of it, and merely accumulated strength through comprehending the Dao.
Just as the group of cultivators stood at a loss over having lost their quarry, a streak of flowing light came flying from the distant horizon, approaching fast.
"Damn, Elder Song is here."
The cultivators' faces all changed.
"Brothers, we keep our stories straight. We stick to it that we never saw any other streak of light." Quickly, through divine-sense communication, they reached a consensus.
Li Fan looked up and fixed his eyes on the approaching figure.
He could see clearly that this Elder Song, whom the cultivators feared so much, appeared to be only of Nascent Soul cultivation.
Yet his flying speed was not slow, and he soon descended before them.
He asked about the Medicine King Sect's departure, and about the other streak of light that had flown in the opposite direction.
The group answered according to the story they had agreed on beforehand.
Elder Song's gaze swept over them all, resting longest on Li Fan, and a flicker of doubt passed through his eyes. But he soon dismissed it. He said nothing more.
"The Medicine King Sect's departure was long since expected by the exalted masters of the Ten Sects. Hmph—a pack of fools who don't know death when they see it. Let them go." Elder Song's tone was disdainful, and with that he settled the matter.
"They may be gone, but their mountain gates and foundations remain. Evergreen Valley may be the closest, but swallowing all that the Medicine King Sect left behind is still beyond us. We can only pick the choicest areas. Come back to the mountain gate with me at once, and prepare to deal with the conflicts to come."
"This world is about to become troubled." Elder Song heaved a long sigh.
The others all acknowledged the order. They exchanged glances, and in every eye rose a trace of gladness at having survived a calamity.
Li Fan mingled among them and returned with them to this so-called Evergreen Valley.
With Illusion is Real at his disposal, he was like a man coming home wherever he went. After some asking around, he soon had the situation clear.
Evergreen Valley was a subordinate sect of the Taishang Sect, one of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao. Subordinate was only a label, a name hung upon them. They enjoyed few of the benefits, yet the tribute they had to deliver each year could not be short by the slightest fraction. If the Ten Sects issued a summons, they had to answer it without the least negligence. One could well call them the slaves of the Ten Sects.
But the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao were powerful, and though the disciples of Evergreen Valley all harbored resentment, there was nothing they could do. They could only endure it in silence.
Evergreen Valley bordered the Medicine King Sect. The Medicine King Sect healed the world and saved countless lives with its medicine. And Evergreen Valley, relying on the convenience that sect brought, had built up no small foundation of its own.
For a small sect, its strength—one Soul Formation sect master and three Nascent Soul elders—was quite good within ten thousand li.
Not long before, the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had apparently sensed the Medicine King Sect's intention to flee, and so issued an order to keep watch. Any abnormality was to be reported at once.
That was how the Evergreen Valley disciples had come to spot Li Fan falling from the sky.
...
"Elder Song, this disciple has something important to report." Just as a tense atmosphere was settling over Evergreen Valley amid the scramble for the Medicine King Sect's former territory, Li Fan sought out Elder Song in secret.
"Oh? What is it?" Elder Song recognized Li Fan, and a sharp light flashed through his eyes. "You were one of the disciples guarding the mountain that day? What was your name again?"
"Replying to the elder, this humble one is named Li Ping, and entered the sect not long ago." Li Fan answered without hesitation; with Illusion is Real upon him, this elder, only of the Nascent Soul stage, could not see through him.
"What do you have to report?"
"That day, a streak of light from the Medicine King Sect did in fact return to the Xuanhuang Realm. It landed right in the midst of us. We captured it, but unfortunately the scoundrel slipped away..." Li Fan put on a look of fearful unease.
Elder Song's eyes narrowed at once.
"Those few actually dared to band together and deceive the elder. They even threatened me. I agreed at the time, but after I came back and thought it over, I could never rest easy."
"You have been conscientious." Elder Song rose abruptly and walked out the door.
It was only a short while before he returned.
Only now there was a faint smell of blood about him.
"You may have gone along with the deception, but you repented in time. And you have the merit of exposing it as well."
"You deserve a reward!"
"What do you want?" Elder Song asked mildly.
"This humble one would not presume to ask for anything. I leave it to the elder to bestow." Li Fan replied.
A faint smile appeared on Elder Song's face, and after a moment's thought he awarded Li Fan a defensive artifact. With conflicts about to rise, the protection of such an artifact would surely improve his chances of staying alive considerably.
"Elder Song isn't a bad sort, actually." Li Fan toyed with the dragon-patterned fire shield in his hand and smiled as well.
Naturally he cared nothing for such a reward of a magic treasure; the reason he had gone before Elder Song again was simply to test how good his Illusion is Real really was.
At their first meeting, Elder Song had instinctively felt doubt. But now he had been completely deceived, and took Li Fan for a disciple of Evergreen Valley.
"To fool a Soul Formation cultivator will still take some time."
"The more I comprehend the Great Dao of this point in time, the sooner that will come."
The spiritual energy around him seemed to be drawn in, swirling about his sides.
But Li Fan deliberately did not absorb it.
He merely kept looking up at the sky.
His brows knitted, and a flicker of puzzlement passed through his eyes.
Clearly it was the same Great Dao, yet he—once a True Immortal—felt a sense of powerlessness when he tried to comprehend it.
It was not that his memories of past enlightenment had failed him.
Rather, the Dao principles of the Xuanhuang Realm were instinctively refusing to let him comprehend them.
"Hmph. Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao."
A thread of keen light welled up in Li Fan's eyes.
Chapter 1530