Abducting Yanfa Jade

Even though Yanfa Jade appeared before him as a little girl, Li Fan would never actually treat her as a mere child. Ever since the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable reestablished the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals during the Wasteland Era, Yanfa Jade had already existed. If his guess was correct, Yanfa Jade had been working without rest for at least five or six thousand years. This alone was reason enough for Li Fan to show her ample respect. The little girl looked up at Li Fan, nodded, and said, "Yeah. Deriving cultivation methods is exhausting." Suddenly, her eyes widened, and she asked, "You still have a third of a shichen left. Do you want to stay here a bit longer, or leave right now?" Li Fan naturally knew how to take a hint. "I shall wait until my time is fully spent before departing." "To share a room with you is this junior's honor." A look of immense satisfaction instantly appeared on the little girl's face. "Awesome! That means I get to rest for another third of a shichen!" she said with a hint of delight. During the remaining time, Li Fan did not merely stand by idly. Under the surveillance of that faint, indistinct gaze around them, Li Fan began tentatively asking Yanfa Jade a few questions. "May I ask, are you a cultivator?" "A long time ago, yeah. But humans need to rest, you know, and they die. Later, the Heavenly Venerable fused me with Yanfa Jade." Slumped over the desk, the little girl answered lazily, looking thoroughly nonchalant. "Now I can't die anymore. It's just a bit tiring sometimes." "How long have you been deriving cultivation methods? Have you never taken a break?" "How long? I don't remember. It's just always been like this anyway. I'm not allowed to rest, not until every last cultivation method has been derived. Slacking off once in a while is okay, though." A touch of helplessness showed on the little girl's face. "I really wish I could finish up sooner and go outside to relax properly." ... Li Fan and Yanfa Jade conversed back and forth smoothly. And for whatever reason, the entity watching from the shadows never intervened, even when Li Fan's questions grew somewhat presumptuous. Thus, Li Fan gained a preliminary yet relatively thorough understanding of this paramount treasure of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. Amid reluctant farewells, Li Fan's allotted time finally came to an end. "Alright, alright, time to say goodbye." The little girl waved her hand to see Li Fan off. "I hope the day comes when I may see you once more," Li Fan said, bowing respectfully. Then he felt the surrounding light dim abruptly. After a bout of darkness. When he opened his eyes, he had already returned to the outside of the Protector Hall's black stele. The black-robed cultivator who had brought them was still waiting. Ximen Yue was also at the side, eyes closed in contemplation, seemingly studying her newly acquired cultivation method. Han Yi, however, was nowhere to be seen, having not yet emerged. Li Fan did not disturb the two of them, quietly standing off to the side. He cast his mind back to what he had witnessed upon meeting Yanfa Jade. Yet his mind was a complete blank. "As expected..." Li Fan understood in his heart. Aside from the contents of the technique *Wondrous Profound True Spirit Transformation*, which were clearly imprinted in his mind and unforgotten, everything else—from leaving the waiting room to reappearing outside the black stele, that entire stretch of memories of seeing Yanfa Jade—could not be recalled. He could not even remember how he had obtained the technique, or what Yanfa Jade looked like. "The Alliance's paramount treasure truly is guarded with utmost secrecy. "This must be some restriction applied directly to a cultivator's mind to prevent anyone with ulterior motives from prying into Yanfa Jade. "No wonder the world knows only of Yanfa Jade's existence, while all other details remain entirely unknown." "However..." Li Fan closed his eyes to conceal the emotions within. "Such restrictions are useless against me. "All of these memories were synchronized with my true body long ago." Inside the Heavenly Profound Mirror in Tianyu City, Li Fan's true body appeared placid as an ancient well. In reality, his mind was repeatedly replaying the scene of his first meeting with the little girl manifestation of Yanfa Jade. "Forced labor for thousands of years... and to ensure efficiency, they even fused a cultivator with a wonder of heaven and earth, turning her into an immortal, sleepless laborer. "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals truly is heinous beyond measure, utterly unhinged. "Yanfa Jade is far too pitiable; it is only right that I rescue her." From his conversation with the little girl, Li Fan had learned that Yanfa Jade had originally been her companion wonder. However, after the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable discovered her, in order to maximize its utility, he used a secret technique to alter her. Her physical body vanished, and her consciousness was completely fused with Yanfa Jade. She became a bizarre existence—both human and wonder. From then on, she neither aged nor died. Yet she also had to derive cultivation methods incessantly, without sleep or rest, until there were no more methods left to derive. The Heavenly Venerable had once promised her that the day all cultivation methods were exhausted would be the day she could rest properly. Yanfa Jade naively believed that the "rest" in the Heavenly Venerable's words meant literal rest. To Li Fan, however, that "rest" was by no means a benign word. Whether for public justice or private interest, rescuing Yanfa Jade was an unavoidable duty for Li Fan. For any other cultivator, stealing Yanfa Jade from under heavy guard in a place as heavily fortified as the headquarters of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was an impossible mission. Yet for Li Fan, now that he possessed information about her, it was not necessarily impossible. In fact, in mere moments, Li Fan had already formed a preliminary idea of how to proceed. First, Yanfa Jade was guarded by cultivators. By deduction, the guardian cultivator was at least at the Dao Integration realm. Thus, the first step of Li Fan's plan was to cultivate to the Dao Integration realm within the Alliance, and subsequently become a guardian of Yanfa Jade. The second step: cultivate their bond through day-to-day companionship. The third step: once the time was ripe, activate True Reversion to return to Anchor Year 1. And when choosing what to retain, select the third option: the memories of an individual closely associated with himself. The fourth step: repeat the actions of the previous life and return to Yanfa Jade's side, then have her inherit the memories of that past life. These decades or even centuries of memories would naturally include the process and results of Yanfa Jade's painstaking derivation of cultivation methods. With these memories, Yanfa Jade would have no need to laboriously derive techniques all over again. Whenever she needed to submit her work, she would only have to produce the cultivation methods derived in the previous life from her memory. With this great gift, he could deepen his bond with Yanfa Jade even further. The fifth step: activate True Reversion again and repeat the third and fourth steps. Life after life of reincarnated memories would surely push the closeness between Li Fan and Yanfa Jade to the absolute peak. Li Fan would then have Yanfa Jade recognize him as master. The final step: Li Fan would activate True Reversion and choose to retain an item of his own. He would choose Yanfa Jade. According to past experience, wonders of the world could not exist as identical duplicates. When brought back through True Reversion and coming into conflict, the weaker was erased, while the stronger survived. Having gained an unknown number of lifetimes of memories, Li Fan's Yanfa Jade would undoubtedly be far stronger than the one in Anchor Year 1. Therefore, the ultimate outcome would be that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' Yanfa Jade would vanish, while Li Fan's Yanfa Jade would be retained. This was Li Fan's preliminary plan for abducting Yanfa Jade. It had to be said, it was exceedingly tempting. Of course, all kinds of problems would inevitably arise throughout this process. For example, the first step—becoming a Dao Integration cultivator of the Alliance and insinuating himself beside Yanfa Jade—was currently unimaginably distant for Li Fan. Or for another instance, the Heavenly Venerable had likely left contingencies on Yanfa Jade, making it impossible for her to easily recognize someone else as master. But... Before lifetime after lifetime of reincarnation, none of this amounted to anything. So long as there existed even a theoretical sliver of possibility, for Li Fan, it was an established certainty. Yanfa Jade was the foundation upon which the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was built. And the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was the foundation of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's attainment of the Dao. Even though the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable now roamed carefree beyond the mundane world and paid no heed to earthly affairs, judging from the principle that "cultivators must not be too numerous, nor too few," the Alliance was, at the very least, an important means for the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable to keep the cultivator population stable. Li Fan was very curious: if the Alliance's very roots were dug up, how would this elusive Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable react?