Although the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals grew increasingly powerful, showing every sign of rivaling the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, Chuanfa himself became noticeably more cautious and guarded.
He rarely showed his face in public anymore.
The official explanation was that witnessing a True Immortal achieve the Dao had deeply moved Chuanfa, prompting him to enter secluded meditation in search of sudden enlightenment.
Li Fan knew that while this was certainly part of the reason, it was far more likely that Chuanfa was guarding against underhanded schemes by the Ten Sects. After all, everyone in Xuanhuang had come to know the Ten Sects' style of conduct during the Battle of Taiyuan.
Yet even though Chuanfa had gone into hiding, locating him was a matter of mere moments for Li Fan.
He did not even need to cast out his divine sense.
Now wielding the authority of Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, Li Fan had only to trace the fragments of heaven and earth that Chuanfa had absorbed into his new cultivation method to lock onto him in an instant.
"Chuanfa used Xuantian Myriad Spirits to build his Dao Foundation, the Law of Heavenly Derivation to form his Golden Core, and the Yuanshi Grotto-Heaven to advance to Nascent Soul. Through the permutations of All-Encompassing Manifestations, he stepped into Soul Formation, and with the Soul of Heaven and Earth, Jinzhi, he achieved Dao Integration..."
"His foundation is hardly inferior even to what I accumulated across countless cycles of reincarnation. Truly worthy of being a darling of the era—a figure who would dominate the Xuanhuang Realm for the next ten thousand years."
Jinzhi had originally been one of the fundamental Dao principles used to govern the Xuanhuang Realm when it was first created. Though Chuanfa had absorbed and refined it, it remained bound to the heaven and earth of Xuanhuang by ten thousand invisible threads. Because of this, Chuanfa could partly grasp heaven and control earth.
Yet it was precisely this connection that had now become the cocoon in which Chuanfa bound himself.
"Found you."
Li Fan's figure flickered, crossing thousands of mountains and rivers in a single breath. Like a phantom, he descended at Chuanfa's side.
At that moment, Xuanyuan Tuo had disguised himself as an old cowherd, holding an ox whip and riding backward atop an azure ox. He was herding cattle as they grazed across the fields.
Catching sight of Li Fan's abrupt appearance, his expression instantly turned grim.
"Xuanyuan Tuo..." Li Fan appraised him with a faint, knowing smile.
Before Li Fan could finish his sentence, Xuanyuan Tuo suddenly erupted in a preemptive strike.
Thousands of golden chains materialized out of nowhere between heaven and earth, shooting through the air from every direction and locking onto Li Fan at the center with flawless precision. In his hand, Xuanyuan Tuo held aloft a small, bronze-colored mirror.
Ancient, simple, and unfathomably deep, the hazy surface of the ancient mirror seemed to reflect the Nine Heavens, the Ten Earths, and the Xuanhuang world!
The golden chains were naturally the Soul of Heaven and Earth, Jinzhi, while the small mirror in Chuanfa's hand was none other than the Heavenly Profound Mirror!
"Hm?" Li Fan was slightly surprised.
According to the memories of the Heavenly Profound Mirror he had once read, it had been subdued jointly by Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician only after Chuanfa achieved the Dao. Yet at this point, Chuanfa had not even attained Longevity, and the Heavenly Physician should not have fully awakened either.
"It seems my actions have caused a divergence."
"No matter."
"It has no bearing on the endgame," Li Fan thought, his expression composed.
Though the chains of Jinzhi—capable of binding and restraining any living being within the Xuanhuang Realm—struck Li Fan with pinpoint accuracy, he seemed to be nothing more than an illusion. The myriad golden chains passed right through his body, grasping only empty air.
Even the immortal artifact Heavenly Profound Mirror, which could reflect every deep and hidden secret of the mortal world, failed to show Li Fan's form.
Sensing that something was deeply amiss, a sudden burst of emerald light erupted from the mirror's surface as it attempted to break free from Chuanfa's grip and flee.
Seeing both of his ultimate trump cards fail completely, Chuanfa was struck with sheer bewilderment. A mere moment later, he realized the terrifying level of cultivation belonging to the man before him.
A True Immortal!
Before Chuanfa could mount any further resistance, Li Fan flipped his palm, effortlessly suppressing both man and mirror.
He then studied them closely.
Although his target this time was Chuanfa, Li Fan's gaze fell first upon the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
At this point in time, the Heavenly Profound Mirror was vastly different from the one he had known ten thousand years later.
Having not yet completely shed its immortal nature to become mortal, traces of an immortal aura still lingered across the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
"Strayed onto the wrong path!"
"The fiercer the great tribulation, the more one must face it head-on. Only then can there be a glimmer of survival. You may flee for a time, but can you flee for an eternity?" Li Fan sighed, shaking his head.
With a wave of his hand, he completed the repair of the Heavenly Profound Mirror. As its connection to Mount Shangfang and the Infinite Sea was restored, the Heavenly Profound Mirror's arduous efforts spanning nearly ten thousand years went entirely down the drain.
The ancient, unadorned luster faded, replaced by the distinct, luminous gleam of an immortal artifact. Resembling a supreme spirit of heaven and earth, its wonder was palpable at a single glance.
Though it had grown stronger, the Heavenly Profound Mirror felt an indescribable gloom. Had it not been restrained by Li Fan and utterly powerless to resist, it might well have ground him to dust and scattered his ashes on the spot.
For an immortal artifact to shed its immortal nature and become mortal was a hundred times more difficult than for a True Immortal to turn mortal.
After all, immortal artifacts were creations of True Immortals, forged to serve them; they were never meant to slip easily from control.
Only the Heavenly Profound Mirror knew what an exorbitant price it had paid to reach this stage, slowly severing its own shackles while measuring every inch of heaven and earth in the Xuanhuang Realm.
Who could have thought that all its past efforts would be wiped away in a single stroke by this immortal?
The mirror trembled violently with fury.
Yet the immense pressure pressing from all sides—capable of crushing the Heavenly Profound Mirror into dust at any moment—snapped it back to reality at once.
"The exalted immortal's instruction is just," it could only say in resignation.
In the span of a single breath, Li Fan's divine intent had already penetrated the core of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, unraveling the restrictive measures Chuanfa had placed inside.
"It seems the Heavenly Profound Mirror wasn't entirely subdued by Chuanfa, but rather entered into some kind of cooperation with him." Li Fan saw at a glance that the restrictions within the mirror were insufficient to control it completely.
"Awaken to this truth, and do not fail Xuanyuan Hong's expectations."
Having said this, Li Fan suppressed and put away the Heavenly Profound Mirror, which was once again trembling with endless reverie.
Only then did he turn his gaze upon Xuanyuan Tuo.
Despite having been captured, Xuanyuan Tuo showed not the slightest trace of fear. Even as Li Fan studied him, he was quietly observing Li Fan in return.
Their eyes met.
Xuanyuan Tuo looked somewhat bewildered and uncertain.
Li Fan's gaze, however, pierced straight through the surface of Xuanyuan Tuo's divine soul, reaching into its deepest recesses.
Sure enough, he discovered a nearly invisible, transparent figure.
"The Heavenly Physician..."
A cryptic smile touched Li Fan's lips. Golden light flickered in his hand, and a row of golden needles materialized from thin air.
Under Xuanyuan Tuo's terror-stricken gaze, nine hundred and ninety-nine golden needles pierced into his body one after another.
Though covered entirely in golden needles, Xuanyuan Tuo felt no pain whatsoever.
On the contrary, his heart grew increasingly serene, and his mind became clearer than ever.
With the aid of the golden needles, he seemed to gain a crystal-clear understanding of himself. Consequently, he also noticed the foreign figure lodged within his body!
"What is this?!"
Having had no inkling that such an entity resided inside him, Xuanyuan Tuo was seized by immense astonishment.
Under his watchful eye, the figure, seemingly locked in deep slumber, was gradually wrapped in golden light and dragged outward step by step.
Aside from an inevitable twinge of ache within his divine soul, Xuanyuan Tuo felt no other discomfort. In fact, as this foreign entity was expelled, he felt his divine soul and physical body harmonizing with greater ease and fluidity.
Those epiphanies and trains of thought that had repeatedly stalled at critical junctures in the past now surged forth all at once, as though they had been suppressed for far too long.
More importantly...
The mysterious whisper that had previously surfaced only during moments of grave peril now grew distinctly clearer.
Under the influence of this whisper, Xuanyuan Tuo felt the invisible shackles upon him begin to loosen!
Xuanyuan Tuo was overjoyed, yet he kept his composure, pretending to remain stunned by the shock of having the foreign entity extracted.
However, Li Fan's next words shattered his illusions without mercy.
"With your current cultivation, listening to this profound sound offers no benefit. I shall temporarily seal it away for you."
Before his voice had even faded, the whisper lingering by Xuanyuan Tuo's ears vanished into nothingness.
The hope of escape that had just arisen was extinguished in an instant, leaving Xuanyuan Tuo momentarily dazed.
"A profound sound stemming from bloodline is even clearer and more distinct than the one from that painting. Its direction is far sharper." What Xuanyuan Tuo did not know was that the profound sound had not simply vanished;
it had been intercepted entirely by Li Fan.
This time, Li Fan did not allow his consciousness to drift beyond the mortal realm alongside the sound. He merely observed it from afar.
"Roughly fifteen thousand years further back in time."
"This seems to be..."
"The period when King Xuantian escaped back from the Immortal Realm and established the Xuantian Sect."
"Yet the corresponding destination is not the Primordial timeline. Perhaps it is another similar possibility?"
The guidance of the profound sound born of direct bloodline was exceptionally clear, allowing Li Fan to vaguely perceive the ultimate destination toward which it pointed.
For now, however, Li Fan had no intention of venturing there to investigate.
After observing quietly for a moment, he withdrew his gaze. Paying no heed to the utterly dejected Xuanyuan Tuo, he turned his attention first to the thin, transparent silhouette in his hand.
It resembled a delicate membrane, its features indistinct.
There was no telling that this was the very Heavenly Physician who had once cast such a colossal psychological shadow over Li Fan.
"Little friend, what are you looking forward to?"
That scene from back then seemed as though it had happened only yesterday.
Yet as Li Fan reflected upon it now, it felt like an eternity had passed.
An uncanny sense of stepping into another lifetime welled within him, stirring deep emotions.
There had been a time when he yearned desperately to turn the tables on the Heavenly Physician, even dreaming of giving him a fright in return.
Yet now that he truly possessed the power to do so, the thrill had faded into apathy.
"After all, I have endured far too many frights on the road to Longevity."
"The Heavenly Physician is hardly worth mentioning anymore."
Though he had let go of the past, Li Fan had no intention of releasing the Heavenly Physician.
"Heavenly Soul Reincarnation."
Li Fan cared little for the Heavenly Physician himself, but he held immense interest in the unique creation known as the Heavenly Soul.
"A physical manifestation of a Heavenly Demon was a rarity even in the Immortal Realm back then."
"For the Heavenly Physician to deceive the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang so easily, and ultimately suppress Xuanyuan Tuo's consciousness to seize control of his body, the Heavenly Demon played an indispensable role."
Li Fan gently caressed the transparent tissue before him.
His divine sense acted like a blade and a needle, slowly dissecting and separating it.
Even with his current methods, he proceeded with extreme caution.
Under the Great Technique of Heavenly Soul Reincarnation, this remnant of the Heavenly Physician's divine soul had fused almost entirely with the Heavenly Demon. Without the methods of a True Immortal, untangling them would have been impossible.
"A Heavenly Demon is the supreme inner demon."
"The myriad thoughts of the human heart all resonate with the Great Dao of heaven and earth. And the demon of heaven is the inner demon born of the operation of that very Dao..."
Suppressed beneath Li Fan's power, the Heavenly Physician remained in a deep slumber.
The Heavenly Demon, however, seemed to sense an external crisis. The transparent tissue began to vibrate violently, like boiling water.
To preserve the integrity of the Heavenly Demon, Li Fan refrained from rough methods.
He merely mobilized immortal spiritual power to suppress it gradually and gently.
Only after considerable effort did he manage to separate it completely from the Heavenly Physician.
Deprived of the Heavenly Demon's shelter, the Heavenly Physician's divine soul finally revealed its true form.
Though still bearing the same white-haired, compassionate appearance Li Fan had seen in the future, he looked perceptibly younger.
"Perhaps it is because he has yet to live through the tragedy of the Tianfa Realm," Li Fan thought to himself.
"In this Xuanhuang Realm under my rule, the threat of extinction over the Tianfa Realm no longer exists. For both the Heavenly Physician and the Tianfa Realm, this is an immense blessing." Recalling what he had witnessed in the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, Li Fan nodded slightly.
After suppressing and putting away the slumbering Heavenly Physician, Li Fan directed his divine intent into the separated tissue of the Heavenly Demon,
attempting to decipher its inner marvels.
Sensing an invading foreign presence, the Heavenly Demon managed to muster a surge of resistance even without a conscious will of its own, and despite being bound and suppressed.
Li Fan felt as though he had returned to the river of time, colossal waves churning within his consciousness.
Heaven and earth spun; all dissolved into chaos.
Countless memories of the past came fluttering in like falling snowflakes.
At times, looking back on the past and reflecting upon oneself could be a good thing.
Yet sinking too deeply into reminiscence carried the risk of losing oneself.
Li Fan was well aware of the danger.
In an instant, hundreds of millions of hands branched out around the form of his consciousness,
gathering and sorting every scattered memory piece by piece.
Amidst the fleeting scenes, Li Fan saw himself before awakening Revert to the True, toiling and striving conscientiously in the Daxuan pocket world.
He saw himself relying on the foresight of rebirth to become the Grand Preceptor of Daxuan, dominating the imperial court.
He saw himself learning of immortals through Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi. After enduring the hardships of multiple lifetimes, he finally broke through the grand formation and ascended into Xuanhuang.
He saw himself spending a hundred lifetimes building his foundation, establishing an unshakeably solid footing.
He saw himself navigating and exploring the treacherous, bizarre Xuanhuang Realm step by step.
From Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, he had eventually driven the sublimation of the Xuanhuang Realm, achieving the realm of a half-immortal.
Then he broke through the deadlock and leapt across the Great Wall, only to encounter the turmoil of the three daos merging, forcing him to start over from the beginning.
With the aid of Emperor Taitian, he traveled upstream along the river of time, arriving at the present day.
...
As Li Fan gathered and integrated the fragments of his past memories, observing his own history as a purely detached bystander,
he noticed several things that he had once taken for granted, but which now appeared exceedingly strange.
Li Fan had always possessed absolute confidence in his spiritual intuition.
Across his past cycles of reincarnation, he could not count how many times his spiritual intuition had warned him at critical junctures, saving his life.
It could be said that Li Fan trusted his spiritual intuition even more than Revert to the True.
If he had possessed only Revert to the True without such an impossibly sharp spiritual intuition, there were numerous occasions where he would have been captured before he could even trigger Revert to the True.
In the past, Li Fan had believed his spiritual intuition was inborn—
a natural, self-evident truth.
Yet was that truly the case?
Chapter 1549