Alliance Headquarters

"Heh heh, the Blue Feather Treasure Box is also known by people as the Blue Feather Legacy Treasure." "Long ago, before Immortal Venerable Blue Feather of Yuandao Province fell, he placed the treasures he had accumulated over many years into different small blue boxes. He scattered them throughout Yuandao Province, leaving them for those fated to find them." "And I, naturally, was one of those fated ones." With a smug expression, Han Yi explained to the two of them. "You might not believe it if I told you. At that time, I had just arrived in Yuandao Province, completely in the dark and oblivious to what was going on." "Suddenly, a small blue box plummeted from the sky and flew right in front of me." "I thought it was some magical treasure belonging to another cultivator, and it scared the living daylights out of me. Once I collected my wits, a long time passed without anyone showing up." "Only then did I pluck up the courage to open the little box." "Who would have thought..." Han Yi seemed amazed by his own fortune, clicking his tongue in lingering wonder as he relived the experience. "You mean to say... a treasure like that actually delivered itself to your doorstep?" Dumbfounded, Ximen Yue pointed at Han Yi, his finger trembling slightly. "Heh, Fellow Daoist Ximen, there's no need to be so astonished. It was merely bumping into a treasure while walking down the street. It really isn't that big a deal, is it?" Han Yi extended his folding fan, pushing away Ximen Yue's pointing finger. Sighing with boundless emotion, he said, "Throughout my life, I've had my ups and downs. I've known great heights and terrible lows. Nowadays, I can look at such things with a calm, ordinary mindset." Ximen Yue opened his mouth, but found himself speechless. He could only turn his head away, no longer looking at Han Yi's face. Li Fan, however, suddenly recalled how, back during the fish picking in the Congyun Sea, he had heard that this Han Yi had once been swindled out of all his worldly possessions by a Foundation Establishment Master and had lived an utterly wretched life. *It seems he wasn't born with extraordinary luck. What caused his fortunes to suddenly turn around?* *Or is it something more than pure luck?* As Li Fan pondered, he added Han Yi to his list of key figures to observe closely in his next life. Without showing the slightest hint on his face, he spoke up to comfort Ximen Yue: "Fellow Daoist Ximen, you really don't need to be so disheartened. Being able to obtain an Everlasting Life Fruit proves that your luck is also extraordinary!" "Extending one's lifespan by five hundred years—that's an incredible treasure in its own right." "By the way, where did you happen to obtain that Everlasting Life Fruit of yours?" Li Fan asked casually. "How can that be the same?" Feeling somewhat crushed, Ximen Yue said gloomily, "I risked life and limb to find this Everlasting Life Fruit in the Liling Ruins of Tianhua Province! Meanwhile, his just fell out of the sky!" "Tell me, isn't that infuriating?" Just as Ximen Yue was about to say more, an abrupt dark figure appeared, causing him to freeze. The dark figure's features were obscured, as though veiled behind a layer of black gauze. Yet the chilly aura faintly radiating from him instilled in Li Fan an intense sense of crisis. Han Yi and Ximen Yue's expressions immediately turned grave as well. The figure in black looked Li Fan and the others up and down, then tossed a small round mirror into the air. The round mirror hovered midair, beaming down a silver pillar of light that enveloped Li Fan and the other two. Faint glyphs seemed to drift upward along the beam of light. A moment later, the pillar of light vanished. The figure in black spoke: "Follow me." He pointed toward the small round mirror in the sky. The mirror's circular rim dissolved like melting ice and snow, spreading outward. In an instant, it formed a rectangular portal before coming to a rest. Silver radiance rippled across the portal, within which illusory silhouettes of numerous buildings and cultivators flickered. The sight seemed somewhat familiar. Instantly, Li Fan was reminded of the scene when he had seen the Heavenly Profound Mirror's newborn mirror surface in the Cosmos Courtyard. Before he could give it further thought, Han Yi flew in first. Li Fan followed closely behind. There was none of the dizziness associated with long-distance teleportation. In fact, it was no different from ordinary flight; he could barely tell he had passed through a portal at all. In the blink of an eye, Li Fan had left the Tianji Courtyard and arrived in an unfamiliar place. Looking back, the path he had come from had already quietly disappeared. "Is this the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters?" Seeing Han Yi and Ximen Yue standing dazed beside him, Li Fan took a deep breath to settle the shock in his heart, then carefully observed the scenery before him once more. The first thing that caught his eye was a statue of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable towering between heaven and earth. Unlike the statues seen in other alliance cities and provincial capitals, this statue of the Heavenly Venerable looked, at first glance, virtually indistinguishable from a living person. A head of silver hair, yet skin as tender and fair as a child's. Eyes half-closed, gazing down with profound sorrow and compassion. The robes he wore, the high crown atop his head... Everything looked so real, rendered in vivid, lifelike detail down to the finest hair. Waves of pressure even emanated from the statue of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable. Though it wasn't directed specifically at him, it still weighed on Li Fan's chest like a boulder, suffocating him. The moment he laid eyes on the statue, an inexplicable surge of terror rose within Li Fan. It almost made him instinctively call upon True Reversion to flee this place. Fortunately, he suppressed the urge with tremendous willpower. Only after a long while did he slowly regain the ability to think calmly. Li Fan replayed the moment in his mind, wondering where that sudden terror had come from. It had been an instinctive warning from his physical body and divine soul—a purely visceral reaction from Li Fan's subconscious. Though he didn't understand the reason, Li Fan chose to trust his intuition. Gradually, Li Fan seemed to sense something. Yet the answer left him in disbelief. Because when he had suddenly seen this lifelike statue of the Heavenly Venerable, a feeling of familiarity had welled up within him. It was as though he had seen it somewhere before, and his body's instincts had spontaneously raised an alarm, plunging him into a bone-chilling dread he could hardly contain. *Familiarity?* *How is that possible?* *Where could it have come from?* The astonishment currently on Li Fan's face was no longer feigned. He forced himself to overcome the terror in his heart and studied the statue once more, seeking the origin of that familiarity. However... When he looked again, the towering statue of the Heavenly Venerable seemed to have been a mere illusion. It had completely vanished from his sight. Just as Li Fan's bewilderment deepened, Han Yi's voice of wonder suddenly reached his ears. "The Heavenly Venerable transmits the Dharma, and all living beings prostrate. What a magnificent spectacle! And how fortunate were the cultivators who were present back then!" Li Fan's heart jolted. *The Heavenly Venerable transmitting the Dharma?* *Could it be that what Han Yi saw was completely different from what I saw?* Just then, Ximen Yue's voice rang out in confirmation of Li Fan's suspicion. "The new method is established, the heavens rain black blood, and all creation weeps together. What a cruel yet beautiful scene..." "If only I had been born ten thousand years earlier to witness and experience it myself." At that moment, the dark figure from before appeared beside them out of nowhere. "In this space, a wisp of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's aura lingers. Cultivators who come here for the first time will always be moved by it and see visions," he explained in a quiet voice.