True Fear

He Xinxin clearly knew the worth of what she was looking at. She softly said, "Thank you, Uncle," and smilingly accepted the formation flags. Watching the two of them, the deeply anxious He Zhenghao could not help speaking up. "Haha, though your gift is precious, Fellow Daoist, it may not be of much use to my girl. If we speak of predicting danger and preserving one's life, she is far better at it than her old father." Li Fan's eyes flickered. "Oh? How so?" A touch of pride surfaced on He Zhenghao's face. "To tell you the truth, she has possessed astonishing talent in divination and deduction since childhood. In recent years, she has stayed by Ruoshui's... by her mother's side, studying related techniques, and has already achieved a modest degree of mastery. Not only can she conceal heavenly secrets and prevent others from deducing her affairs to harm her, but she can also catch faint glimpses of future events, thereby turning misfortune into fortune." Li Fan re-examined He Xinxin, who appeared exceedingly frail and quiet, lost in thought. *Concealing heavenly secrets? Could the surveillance function of Formless Killing Intent have failed because of her?* *It seems He Zhenghao wasn't boasting. Such methods truly are extraordinary.* *I wonder what technique she cultivates.* However, a cultivator's cultivation technique was an intensely private matter in this realm, so Li Fan would not ask rashly. Playing along with He Zhenghao's words, he put on a look of sheer astonished disbelief. "I had always heard that Heaven's will is ever inscrutable, yet I never expected Xinxin to actually be able to divine heavenly secrets. Is it truly so miraculous?" "Of course! The accuracy is remarkably high..." He Zhenghao paused, then added, "Though there are times she gets it wrong." He glanced back at He Xinxin and chuckled. "A while back while cultivating, this girl suddenly felt an omen, claiming I would perish before long. Anxious beyond measure, she traveled thousands of li all the way to the Congyun Sea just to warn me to be careful, and to visit me in passing. Haha, I spend every day inside this Mountains and Rivers Starry Array, dedicating myself to cultivation. How could there possibly be any risk of my demise?" He Zhenghao laughed, dismissing it lightly. Beside him, He Xinxin furrowed her brows and said softly, "It was truly strange. That previous omen was definitely not wrong. Yet after I arrived, I performed another divination for you, Father, and for some reason the fatal crisis had vanished." Her eyes were filled with confusion and regret. "I don't know why that happened. If Mother hadn't stopped me and I had come earlier, perhaps I could have figured out where the shift in heavenly secrets had fallen." He Zhenghao patted his daughter's head, comforting her. "The shifts of Heaven are fickle and unpredictable; how could cultivators know everything? You must have simply made a mistake, Xinxin." Li Fan chimed in with praise. "Even if it occasionally errs, this technique is still exceedingly extraordinary. To foresee the future with prescience—just how much initiative does that seize? Xinxin, would you be willing to perform a divination for me, to see what my future holds?" Li Fan asked with a smile. His reason for doing so was to see just what heights the art of divination and deduction could reach in this world. Could she divine that he came from a minor world? Could she divine that he was actually a reincarnator from another world? Could she even divine the existence of True Reversion? If even a young Foundation Establishment girl could detect a trace of a clue, Li Fan would have to act with even greater caution in the future. Otherwise, if an almighty expert cast their eyes upon him, his origins might be deduced directly. Thinking he had hidden well, only to be seized without even knowing how—would that not be utterly disastrous? He Zhenghao was also keen to have his daughter show off her skill in front of Li Fan, so he did not stop her. Instead, he gave He Xinxin an encouraging look. "In that case, please forgive my clumsy display, Uncle," He Xinxin said softly. Immediately, a compass patterned in gold and purple materialized out of thin air. One end of the needle pointed toward Li Fan, while the other pointed toward He Xinxin. As incantations slipped from her lips, the needle began to spin at blistering speed. A miniature projection of Li Fan appeared above the compass. Glyphs drifted out of the compass one by one, circling continuously around the miniature image. The needle spun faster and faster, and amidst the relentless swirling, the glyphs separated into distinct, orderly tiers. Some characters gradually dimmed and vanished. Others grew brighter, radiating a purple-gold luster. They did not resemble ordinary text; each seemed to be a composite of myriad meanings. He Xinxin's divination of Li Fan's future appeared to be hidden within the permutations and combinations of these glyphs. By Li Fan's rough estimate, there were at least ten thousand of these purple-gold characters. He Xinxin seemed to be straining, beads of sweat steadily dripping from her forehead. After a long while, the purple-gold glyphs scattered with a rush, returning into the compass. Meanwhile, Li Fan's illusory silhouette became considerably more solid. He Xinxin's breathing was somewhat hurried. After calming herself a little, she continued to gaze at Li Fan's silhouette to carry out the final calculation. "Huh?" "Uncle, have you been to Yuandao Province?" After waiting for a long time, she suddenly posed this bewildering question. Li Fan was slightly taken aback. Before he could reply, He Zhenghao interjected, "Haha, Brother Li Fan was previously a rogue cultivator from Yuandao Province. He came to the Congyun Sea specifically to seek an opportunity for a breakthrough. What is it, Xinxin? Is there a problem?" Noticing the odd look on his daughter's face, He Zhenghao inquired hurriedly. A rogue cultivator of Yuandao Province had merely been a fabricated origin Li Fan casually gave when he first met He Zhenghao in this lifetime. However... Li Fan knew his own truth best. He knew with absolute certainty that in this lifetime, he had never set foot in Yuandao Province. Why was this girl asking about Yuandao Province? Li Fan's eyes flickered as he stared at He Xinxin, waiting for her explanation. He Xinxin opened her mouth, hesitating. "Haha, feel free to speak your mind, Xinxin," Li Fan said with a warm smile. An apologetic look appeared on He Xinxin's face. "Please forgive me, Uncle. It's not that I refuse to say. It's just that I truly do not know how to interpret this Dao Seal Corrosion Script..." Li Fan raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?" After hesitating for a moment, He Xinxin used her finger as a brush to sketch an image in midair. The figure in the painting was naturally Li Fan. Something seemed to cling to his back. As the scene shifted, that invisible presence sank its teeth viciously into Li Fan. Li Fan seemed completely oblivious, walking away with an impassive face. The thing on his back vanished as well. ... The image faded. Frowning, He Xinxin said, "According to the interpretation of the Dao script, it seems something merely attacked you in Yuandao Province, Uncle. You weren't injured, nor was your life in danger. Yet paradoxically, the overall Dao Seal Corrosion Script indicates a sign of extreme peril. It contradicts itself. That is why I don't know how to interpret it." Hearing this, He Zhenghao chuckled. "Daughter, could you have calculated incorrectly again? A sign of extreme peril... you calculated extreme peril for me before too, which meant a risk of death. Yet Fellow Daoist Li Fan is standing right here, safe and sound..." Li Fan's heart sank. *Yuandao Province...* The blue crystal in his mind began to flash. All his experiences in Yuandao Province immediately replayed in an instant. Once through—no anomalies detected. Twice through—still nothing. ... Under the secret technique of Spirit Unity with Dao Transformation, Li Fan reviewed his past experiences over and over again. Finally, he noticed the anomaly. A chill crept up his spine, plunging him into frigid winter. Even when he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Heavenly Physician, he had never felt such terror. This was true fear—the first time Li Fan had felt it since transmigrating into this world. In his twelfth lifetime, in Anchored Year 29, he founded the Law Crossing Mingyue Palace. Afterward, he went into secluded cultivation to study Zhang Zhiliang's Infinite Method heritage. Chu Xingyang's wedding abduction, followed by Mingyue Palace's law-transference undertaking proceeding in an orderly fashion... These were supposed to have happened in that same year. Replaying the past through the blue crystal yielded the exact same conclusion. Yet in truth... Chu Xingyang's wedding abduction and Mingyue Palace's law-transference achieving its initial results... Had taken place in Anchored Year 39. The ten years in between... Where had they gone?