"Yet your Dao of Longevity, Senior Sister, demands me as the price...
"And I refuse!
"I will never allow you to be so utterly alone from this day forward!"
Li Fan's laughter rang across the heavens and earth.
"Over all these years, you came to comprehend 'All Minds as One.' Dull-witted though your junior brother may be, I have hardly sat idle either.
"I have a move of my own. I ask you for your guidance, Senior Sister!"
Amidst an immeasurable, blinding radiance came Li Fan's resounding cry, as clear and resolute as severing metal and stone.
"Heaven!
"And!
"Earth!
"Share Longevity!"
Li Fan's body was completely annihilated in the blazing burst of brilliance.
And for the very first time, Senior Sister Zhao's expression shifted slightly.
No longer so nonchalant, no longer looking as if everything were entirely within her grasp, she wore a look that was both exasperated and amused. "No wonder your cultivation progressed so slowly all these years, Junior Brother. You spent all your wits figuring out ways to restrain me, didn't you?
"You and I cultivated the *Heaven and Earth Mutual Conquest Rhapsody* together, and the boundary between us blurred long ago. This strike of Heaven and Earth Share Longevity could indeed pose a threat to me...
"If only your cultivation had been just a little bit higher."
Thousands upon thousands of Senior Sister Zhaos gazed at the myriad beams of brilliance erupting from Li Fan's form. In unison, they opened their arms and drew the white radiance into their embrace.
"Stop resisting, Junior Brother. Merge into one with me!"
Fissures began cracking across the faces of her countless bodies.
Yet the cracks rapidly mended on their own, while the white light grew increasingly dim, slowly fading into the world.
When every trace of Li Fan's aura had entirely vanished from within the Dadao Sect, everything seemed to come to a standstill.
"Hehe, Junior Brother Li Fan.
"I really must thank you for playing such a wonderful game with me.
"It has been many, many years since I had an experience so delightful."
Senior Sister Zhao's gaze turned dreamy as she stared up at the sky, muttering to herself.
***
"Guiding Immortal Light! That is the Guiding Immortal Light!"
"Who is it? Has another cultivator from our Canhong Province caught the eye of the Heavenly Venerable so soon?"
"Hahaha! In just one short month, three disciples of the immortal sect have emerged back-to-back! Our Canhong Province's fame and prestige will truly shake the world now!"
Clamoring voices seemed to drift in from afar, and Li Fan abruptly woke.
Looking around in a daze, he found his surroundings both familiar and alien.
A moment later, memories long sealed away—as though belonging to a past lifetime—surged back like a tidal wave.
The Five Elders Association. The One Heart Immortal Sect. Canhong Province.
The Guiding Immortal Light.
So he was still in the exact moment when the immortal light had arrived to guide him.
Then what was that experience that had just lasted for centuries and felt incomparably real?
An illusion?
Li Fan could not help looking up toward the sky.
Through the rift in the firmament, he could vaguely make out a sect nestled among continuous mountain ranges.
It was precisely one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects of antiquity: the Dadao Sect.
At this moment, as if to welcome Li Fan as a new member, countless disciples within the Dadao Sect also looked up in unison toward him.
Unlike in the illusion, the Dadao Sect here possessed a vitality that had been missing before.
Not only were the disciples' expressions no longer stiff and rigid—each varied, indistinguishable from real people—but they also conversed with one another in animated discussion.
It was nothing like the dead, eerie silence Li Fan had witnessed in the illusion.
Rising continuously within the Guiding Immortal Light, Li Fan felt his body gradually stiffen and turn numb.
He felt his consciousness slowly dispersing.
*So this is just a wooden puppet...* Li Fan thought, understanding dawning upon him.
Then, his consciousness scattered with the wind.
Only a decaying wooden body remained, drifting up toward the Dadao Sect.
Seeing this, the disciples within the Dadao Sect reacted in starkly different ways.
Some were furious.
Some fell into deep thought.
Some clapped in delight.
Some wore faint smiles.
...
Not a trace could be seen of where the "One" was in their so-called "All Minds as One."
It was unclear who ultimately made the decision, but a beam of white light shot from the rift, completely annihilating the puppet's body.
The Guiding Immortal Light was withdrawn, the rift slowly sealed shut, and the scene of the One Heart Immortal Sect vanished from the world.
Only the clueless cultivators of the Five Elders Association below were left sighing in wonder.
***
Meanwhile, in the Congyun Sea.
At the former site of Wanxian Island, Li Fan's true body—currently overseeing the reconstruction of Congyun Immortal City—froze on the spot.
"What is it, Island Master? Is something amiss?"
"I'll have them fix it right away!" Gao Yuan said hastily.
After a moment, Li Fan waved a hand.
"It is fine. You have all done well! Keep it up!"
He continued inspecting the site as if nothing had happened, returning to his temporary construction residence only after nearly half a day.
After sealing off his surroundings, Li Fan's expression turned solemn.
*"Hehe, Junior Brother. I am truly looking forward to our official meeting."*
Senior Sister Zhao's soft laughter seemed to still echo in his ears.
Was that the final message transmitted by that wisp of divine sense, or had his true body heard it with his own ears?
For a moment, he could not even tell.
*Senior Sister Zhao... what a terrifying illusion.*
Li Fan reminisced over the century or so he had spent within the Dadao Sect.
Though certain details were already growing hazy, the vast majority of events felt as if he had experienced them personally, indistinguishable from reality.
It had even given him the illusion that he truly had been Senior Sister Zhao's junior brother, a member of the ancient Dadao Sect—that he had merely reincarnated to cultivate anew and, after several decades, had finally reclaimed his memories of that bygone era.
He had even felt an impulse to seek out Senior Sister Zhao early on to reunite with her.
If he had possessed only a single lifetime's memories without True Reversion, he might very well have done just that.
Li Fan could not help feeling a secret chill.
Even with just a single wisp of divine sense immersed in the illusion she had woven, the impact on his true body was immense...
No wonder the cultivators of the Five Elders Association within the One Heart Immortal Sect were so fiercely devoted to her.
Circulating the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation, he converted the persistent urge to "defect to Senior Sister Zhao" welling up in his heart into fuel for the reverse cultivation of his Dao heart.
Only after three days and three nights did Li Fan finally purge the lingering influence left by this foray into the One Heart Immortal Sect.
At least on the surface.
Having thoroughly detached himself, Li Fan began analyzing and organizing what he had gained from the experience.
Without a doubt, his time in the Dadao Sect had been fabricated by Senior Sister Zhao.
From beginning to end, Li Fan did not even know her real name.
Yet while inside the illusion, he had not felt the slightest sense of incongruity.
Still, truth was woven into the falsehood, and falsehood into the truth.
At the very least, cultivators like Ji Changxi and Mo Zhiran had once truly existed in the Dadao Sect.
Techniques such as the *Heaven and Earth Mutual Conquest Rhapsody* and the *Soul-Severing Spirit-Illuminating Art* were not necessarily false either.
It was only a pity that, just like returning from the Fallen Immortal Realm, he could not clearly recall the specific details.
There were also the various upheavals of heaven and earth he had witnessed while living as her "junior brother."
*So the immortal-mortal miasma was truly the handiwork of a Heavenly Venerable, rather than a natural evolution of heaven and earth.*
Li Fan's thoughts turned to Master Yin of Yinyin Island.
*Could it be that he discovered traces of this hidden Heavenly Venerable, and was silenced as a result?*
Recalling Master Yin's inexplicable suicides in previous lifetimes, Li Fan could not help arriving at this deduction.
Chapter 526