"Of course, if you don't believe me and insist on testing the might of the Immortal Ruins for yourselves, I won't stop you,"
"After all, good advice is wasted on ghosts hell-bent on dying."
"It isn't as though our organization desperately needs your meager assistance anyway,"
Li Fan said with complete indifference.
The three were, after all, elites handpicked by the Empire, possessing remarkable resolve.
After a brief moment, the pale tension in their faces gradually softened.
Li Chenfeng replied, "Senior, this matter is of utmost gravity. We truly cannot make this decision on our own..."
Li Fan readily answered, "I'll give you two months."
"Two months from now, I will return here, and I will require a clear answer from you."
Li Chenfeng smiled wryly, having no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.
"Since this involves the organization's secrets, just to be safe, I must take a minor precaution." Li Fan looked at the three and flicked his finger.
Li Chenfeng felt a chill seep into his body. In the blink of an eye, it sank into hiding and vanished, leaving no trace behind.
Even so, they dared not protest and merely nodded to indicate their understanding.
Before departing, Li Fan retrieved a hundred standard superior spirit stones from his storage ring and handed them to the trio from the Empire.
"This is organization protocol. For a first meeting, a token of courtesy is only proper."
"Though with only ten thousand contribution points, you might not think much of it."
Li Fan glanced toward the cultivators at Qi Condensation completion who still slept outside the secret chamber.
"'Foundation Establishment Master.' Hmph, a clever method. Although the profit to squeeze from Qi Condensation cultivators is limited, many grains of sand make a tower. In large numbers, the yield is quite respectable."
Zhu Shaotang looked thoroughly sheepish, at a loss for words.
"Still, no lie remains unbroken forever. Once you join the organization in the future, stop this practice."
"If it's contribution points you want, the organization will assist you."
Li Fan had arrived abruptly, and he departed just as swiftly.
With his words concluded, he soared into the sky and vanished from the three's sight,
leaving behind a deathly silence in the secret chamber.
"What use are contribution points? If we cannot escape the Xuanhuang Realm, establishing a new orthodoxy of our own is utterly impossible." After a long while, Xiao Jin spoke despondently.
Zhu Shaotang turned to Li Chenfeng and asked, "Senior Li, what do you make of this? How much of what that man said was true, and how much was false?"
As Dharma thieves who had infiltrated the Xuanhuang Realm, they harbored supreme vigilance toward everything.
They naturally would not place blind faith in the words of a cultivator who had dropped out of thin air.
Li Chenfeng pondered for a moment before answering, "It is likely true."
"That man's cultivation is unfathomable. The Beast God Armor within me can theoretically contend against a Golden Core cultivator."
"Yet before him, I was toyed with effortlessly, devoid of any power to resist."
"Then there was that method of casting us into dream illusions."
A flicker of lingering dread crossed Li Chenfeng's eyes.
"Had he harbored ill intent, we would have..."
Li Chenfeng shook his head and fell silent.
Everything left unsaid was understood.
"In that case, we must send word back as quickly as possible," Zhu Shaotang said.
"Yes. I will return to the Empire in person to explain this matter. Of course, the ultimate outcome will depend on the decision of the think tank and the Imperial Princess,"
Li Chenfeng said resolutely.
"Sigh, the sacrifices of generations, all for an impossible mission."
"I fear that once word spreads, the Empire will face another great purge,"
Zhu Shaotang sighed softly.
Li Chenfeng did not respond, though he could not suppress the gloom in his eyes.
Daring not delay, he activated his Beast God Armor and sped off in a certain direction.
Li Chenfeng halted above a certain stretch of sea, then plunged straight down, vanishing into the deep waters.
In truth, his Beast God Armor shifted form, making him resemble a bizarre deep-sea fish.
He changed course once more.
After repeating this several times, he finally flew out of the Congyun Sea and penetrated deep into Shilin Province.
Amid the ruins nestled in a mountain valley, his figure ultimately disappeared.
When Formless Killing Intent lost its trace of him, Li Fan smiled faintly.
"Quite cautious. Unfortunately, all in vain."
Now that he knew the entrance to the passage leading to the Empire, Li Fan temporarily withdrew his attention from that matter.
Instead of returning to Wanxian Island, he ventured beneath the deep sea and excavated a secret chamber.
Arranging the ritual in the four corners, Li Fan prepared to conduct his first exploration of the Fallen Immortal Realm in this lifetime.
*After True Reversion, I wonder if the scene I encounter in the Fallen Immortal Realm will differ from my previous life.*
*Will I return to Ningyuan City and meet Senior Brother Zhang again? Or will I appear in the Beast Taming Sect, or perhaps somewhere else entirely?*
With these thoughts in mind, Li Fan chanted aloud, "Heavenly Venerable of Fortune and Xuanhuang!"
His vision gradually blurred.
"Junior Brother? Junior Brother?"
Li Fan opened his eyes, his heart stirring.
Before him was Senior Brother Zhang's concerned face.
"Zhang Qianmo..."
Having already learned of Zhang Qianmo's future achievements, Li Fan looked at this senior brother of his with a completely different gaze.
"Could it be that I've grown even more handsome? Why do I feel like you're looking at me so strangely, Junior Brother?" Zhang Qianmo rubbed his chin and asked with a laugh.
Li Fan concealed his odd demeanor and began chatting with Senior Brother Zhang, just as he had in the past.
When Zhang Qianmo spoke once more of his three grand vows,
Li Fan did not fall silent in shock as he had in his previous life.
Instead, he clapped his hands and marveled in admiration, "If any other cultivator dared make such brazen claims with only a Foundation Establishment cultivation, I would strike them down on the spot with a bolt of Purple Empyrean Divine Lightning."
"Yet hearing these words come from you, Senior Brother Zhang, for some reason I actually find them perfectly natural!"
Zhang Qianmo burst into hearty laughter and clapped Li Fan on the shoulder. "Junior Brother, since when did you learn to flatter? Still, I like what you said!"
Li Fan quietly continued chatting with Senior Brother Zhang amidst subtle praise.
After a moment, Li Fan asked as if casually, "By the way, Senior Brother, if one day all of these vows of yours truly come to pass, what will happen?"
Zhang Qianmo froze.
After pondering seriously for a moment, he replied, "Matters of the world often recur. Resurgence from dead ashes is a common occurrence."
"Take eradicating demons and monsters, for instance. Even if I truly achieved it at a certain point in time, there is no guarantee that demons would never reappear on this earth in the future."
"Given my temperament, I would most likely leave behind a Grand Vow Dharma Body to suppress them for all eternity."
Li Fan couldn't help asking curiously, "Senior Brother, what is this Grand Vow Dharma Body?"
Zhang Qianmo smiled. "Merely an impractical fantasy. You can think of it as my body transforming into an eternal law of heaven and earth."
"If triggered by specific conditions, the Dharma Body will manifest in the world."
"For example, if a great demon were to reappear after demons had been eradicated, the Demon-Slaying Grand Vow Dharma Body would manifest to destroy it."
"That way, one can ensure that the grand vows endure perpetually across ten thousand generations."
"Junior Brother, what do you think of this idea of mine?"
Zhang Qianmo asked.
"Senior Brother, you truly possess peerless genius!" Li Fan praised with utmost sincerity.
Chapter 432