The Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao of this era had not yet been remade by Chuanfa's new cultivation method and its inversion of the natural order. In particular, the Immortal Realm — once the ruling power — had already been destroyed. One could say that this point in time was the moment of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's greatest strength.
It might not be able to tell that Li Fan came from the future, but the strange aura of an “outsider” could not escape it. When Li Fan tried to comprehend the Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm, it naturally resisted him.
Yet at Li Fan's level of cultivation, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao could not stop him simply by refusing to give. Even though the scouring of the River of Time had reduced the present Li Fan to no different from an ordinary mortal, he still had countless ways to give the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao a thorough working-over.
“With the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao rejecting me, cultivation meets resistance at every turn. Twice the effort for half the result. Still, it is easy enough to solve. As the saying goes: if Heaven will not grant it, I will take it myself!”
Richly experienced in cultivating the new method, Li Fan could forcibly comprehend the Heavenly Dao even in a mortal body. And at this point in time, Chuanfa should have only just begun to spread the Dao, and was merely Chuanfa Immortal Venerable.
So long as Li Fan attained the Longevity Dao before him, he could take his place and become another Chuanfa Heavenly Venerable.
But doing so carried enormous risk.
Chuanfa was the Heavenly Physician using the Heavenly Demon to control the body of the Xuanhuang native Xuanyuan Tuo. When the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao investigated Chuanfa's identity, this layer of concealment kept them from treating Chuanfa as a true great enemy at first. It won Chuanfa precious breathing room to rise.
If Li Fan, a complete outsider, jumped out and made himself the first to stick his neck out, he would likely suffer the most ruthless suppression of the Ten Sects acting together, and at once.
Before Li Fan recovered his cultivation, he was still somewhat wary of the Ten Sects at their height.
“Besides, the new method is still the old road, and it has no shortage of flaws. Even at great accomplishment, it could at most let one flaunt power within the Xuanhuang Realm. Once one left this world, one's strength would fall sharply.”
“Nothing compared with my Myriad Aspects Dao Net.”
“If only…” Li Fan sighed inwardly.
Never mind that the insights that formed the Dao Net had been lost and would have to be observed and rebuilt from scratch. Most crucially, the power of the core Immortal Soul of Mo Sha had also been washed away during the crisis of the Mountains and Seas fusing.
“Still, I may be able to use the power of false becoming true to manifest it again, without having to elevate the Xuanhuang Realm into an immortal domain all over again.”
So after going in circles, the key returned to comprehending the Xuanhuang Great Dao. Only by first creating fertile ground for the transformation of true and false to operate could Li Fan's various methods be of use.
“Rejected to this degree, even drawing qi into the body is enormously difficult. Not one bit easier than when I first began cultivating.”
“But there are still remnants of the Longevity Great Dao within me. Perhaps I can use them as a breakthrough point.”
When Li Fan formally restarted his path of cultivation and once again felt the Xuanhuang Realm's intensely powerful rejection, he was furious, but he could not help feeling confused as well.
It was true that this was an instinctive rejection of an outsider, but to suppress Li Fan to such a degree…
“This is not entirely the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao acting on its own.”
“It is as though someone behind it is manipulating and directing it.”
Li Fan suddenly raised his head and looked up again. A realization surged in his heart.
“Who could it be? Who could control the consciousness of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao at this point in time…”
Several figures flashed through his mind in an instant, and finally stopped on one scene.
It was from a past simulation, when Li Fan had driven the Xuanhuang Realm to ascend into an immortal domain.
At that time, even with the endless vitality of the Star Sea nourishing it, there had not been enough to support what the Xuanhuang Realm needed for its ascension. So Li Fan had performed a ritual and summoned the phantom marks left in the heaven and earth of the Xuanhuang Realm by the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerables of past generations.
Eight phantoms stood between heaven and earth.
The last one in the line was the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable, brought about by Li Fan's own hand.
Before the Nameless one was Su Bai.
And before Su Bai…
It was not Heavenly King Xuan.
Between Heavenly King Xuan and Su Bai stood a mysterious Great Heavenly Venerable of unknown identity. Only his figure could be seen; where his face should have been was pure void.
This Great Heavenly Venerable seemed to appear from nowhere and vanish into nowhere. Apart from the phantom mark of the Great Heavenly Venerable, he had left no other trace. Li Fan had once tried to investigate, but even with half-immortal means, he had found nothing.
“At this point in time, before Su Bai comprehends the Dao and succeeds as Great Heavenly Venerable, he should be the one in power…” Li Fan mused.
“With demons from beyond the heavens invading, directing the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao to counter them is also a Great Heavenly Venerable's duty. But doesn't that mean every time I forcibly comprehend the Dao, I am in great danger?” Li Fan's heart tightened.
He had not been exposed yet, but each attempt to comprehend the Dao could be seen as a conspicuous signal sent to the outside world. At a low cultivation level, it was manageable. But at the Nascent Soul or Soul Formation stage, he would be as conspicuous as a lamp in the dark. It would certainly draw that mysterious Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerable.
Of course, that did not mean Li Fan would necessarily be doomed when the time came. If he explained that he had come from the future and bore the heavy responsibility of saving the Mountains and Seas of the mortal world, then, judging by the extremely high moral standards required for the office of Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerable, Li Fan would most likely survive.
But Li Fan was naturally unwilling to take that risk.
To entrust his life and fortune to another's moral standards—
No true gentleman would do such a thing.
“I never thought a simple matter of re-cultivating would be so beset with difficulties.” Li Fan could not help pressing his brow.
“I wonder how the other upstream travelers dealt with this.”
…
After thinking it over for a long while, Li Fan finally settled on a temporary cultivation strategy. Since he could not actively comprehend the Dao of heaven and earth himself, he could only borrow what others had already comprehended.
Just then, the Evergreen Valley was on the verge of a storm, making it the perfect place for a first experiment.
Using Illusion is Real, Li Fan “borrowed” quite a few supplies from the Evergreen Valley's sect storehouse. Then he went to the artifact forging workshop and tricked the formation master Wang Yi into painstakingly forging a hundred palm-sized thin plates for him.
“Brother Ping, what use are these things? They can't protect you, and they can't be used against enemies.” Wang Yi wiped the sweat from his forehead, utterly puzzled.
Li Fan did not answer the chatterbox formation master's question. He only smiled and used Illusion is Real to distort the man's memory of him.
“Hm? Who are you? How did you get in here!”
“Go on, get out! Don't interfere with my research on the sect's grand formation!” Wang Yi rudely drove the stranger Li Fan out.
Most cultivators in the Evergreen Valley were alchemists, while artifact refiners and formation masters were very rare. Wang Yi held a fairly high position in the sect, and he was used to ordering around new disciples of the sort Li Fan seemed to be.
Li Fan quietly withdrew, leaving behind only a sore, exhausted, and weakened Wang Yi, unable to make sense of what had happened.
Back at his residence, Li Fan laid the hundred thin plates out before him in order.
Holding spirit stones, he began to rework them.
Half a day later, the hundred once-bare plates had been completely transformed.
At the center of each plate, in characters resembling True Immortal seal script, were carved four large words: “Supreme Dao Scripture.”
Around the four immortal seal characters, countless intricate patterns and images of strange beasts filled the plates. Looking at the background, one could faintly make out a continuous landscape of mountains and seas.
But that landscape was extremely well hidden within the complex, ornate patterns. An ordinary person would find it very hard to notice.
After finishing the carving of all one hundred plates, every spirit stone on Li Fan's person had been used up.
Li Fan himself was also nearly drained, to the point that he felt faint.
It was partly because he had forcibly created objects in a mortal body. But the main reason was that these hundred “Supreme Dao Scriptures” were the culmination of his current formation skill.
They far surpassed countless generations of the present age. Though they were mortal formations, they could compare with immortal formations!
Because his insights into the Dao had been lost, Li Fan's actual formation skill had fallen sharply. Their power was not even one tenth of what it once would have been.
But his formation-construction ideas remained.
So, with the help of the Evergreen Valley formation master Wang Yi, he had produced many basic formations. Then he rewove and recombined those formations, turning the mundane into the marvelous.
In the end, he created these hundred “Supreme Dao Scriptures.”
Do not be fooled by their being mere thin plates; each had endless wondrous uses.
Most importantly, they served as a medium. Even across the Great Wall and the Star Sea, they could let one communicate with Li Fan in real time!
The four words “Supreme Dao Scripture” were somewhat boastful, but not entirely false.
Whoever obtained this scripture, if troubled during Dao comprehension or cultivation, could beseech the scripture.
Every question was certain to receive an answer.
Having reincarnated through many lives, cultivated again as a True Immortal, and personally experienced the fusion of the Mountains and Seas, Longevity, and Trueness Daos, Li Fan was not boasting when he said that across the whole of Primordial Possibility, there was nothing he could not answer. A mere Xuanhuang Realm was even less of a challenge.
In other words, whoever obtained the “Supreme Dao Scripture” effectively gained a peerless expert as a personal teacher. There was no need to say how much help that would be to their cultivation.
If Li Fan had not temporarily fallen into such a predicament, he would never have thought of such a mutually beneficial method.
After resting for a short while, Li Fan began to act.
Of course, he did not distribute all the Supreme Dao Scriptures at once. Comprehending the Dao valued quality over quantity.
“Brother, please wait!”
Baili Shan, the Evergreen Valley's chief senior disciple, could not help turning around at the voice.
He saw a cultivator lead him to a secluded corner, then mysteriously pull out a thin plate.
“You are…” Baili Shan thought the other looked somewhat familiar, surely someone from the sect. But for the moment, he could not place the exact identity.
Before he could think further, his attention was caught by the plate in his hand.
“This object is called the Supreme Dao Scripture, and it has endless wonders. Though I obtained this treasure, I know I lack the fortune to enjoy it. So I offer it to you, senior brother…” Li Fan said in a low voice.
Baili Shan found it somewhat amusing.
Judging by the other's aura, he was only at the Qi Refining stage, yet he dared make such grand claims about a supreme treasure.
Still, the name “Supreme Dao Scripture” was certainly intimidating.
He examined the plate closely and could not help falling into the profound patterns covering it. By the time he came back to himself, he realized with a start that the one who had offered the treasure had vanished.
“His name was…”
“What was it again?”
Baili Shan frowned. No matter how he tried, he could not remember.
Chapter 1531