"The sea of the heart is difficult to cross..."
Hearing Qin Tang's words, some of the gathered cultivators wore dazed expressions, seeming to have attained some insight.
Others turned a deaf ear, entirely unconcerned.
Just like that, the second day quickly passed.
Early on the third morning, Qin Tang appeared in everyone's view as usual.
Only this time, he was not drinking. No longer tipsy, he appeared far more spirited.
"Today is the final test." Qin Tang scrutinized the cultivators, his expression solemn. "On the path of cultivation, you will inevitably encounter countless hardships and temptations. Can you truly persevere and stay true to your original aspirations?"
"I shall wait and see."
Amid Qin Tang's voice, everyone's vision went black as they lost consciousness.
***
In a small mountain village, Li Fan lay on a rooftop, watching the setting sun, feeling as though he had forgotten something.
He had grown up in this mountain village, living a life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset.
It had continued for fifteen whole years.
Such days were peaceful and content.
If he continued living like this forever, it seemed nothing would be wrong with it.
Yet a faint tremor persisted in his heart, telling him that his life should never end in such ordinary fashion.
"Fan'er! Fan'er, where are you? Come home for dinner!"
Li Fan remained indifferent to his mother's calls.
He tilted his head back toward the sky, watching the birds soaring freely, watching the eternal sun and moon that moved irrespective of human will, lost in thought.
Until night fell and stars filled the sky.
Beneath the vast starry expanse, he felt his own insignificance even more acutely.
He watched like this for an entire night.
As dawn approached, a sudden flash of realization struck him.
With a roll, he leaped down from the roof.
He rushed into the house and shouted to his mother, who was still fast asleep, "Mother, break off the engagement with Er Niu next door!"
"I'm not getting married. I'm going to cultivate immortality!"
His bleary-eyed mother was startled awake, thinking her son had lost his mind. She hurriedly got out of bed and grabbed Li Fan's hand. "Cultivate what immortality?! Where are there immortals?! Wake up, child!"
Li Fan pulled his hand free, his youthful face brimming with determination. "I don't know where the immortals are, but I will definitely find them."
With that, amid his mother's weeping, he quickly packed a simple bag and strode out the front door.
Half a year later, while exploring deep in the mountains, Li Fan was mauled to death by a tiger.
***
In front of a dilapidated Daoist temple, amid flickering flames and the weeping of the crowd, Li Fan felt utterly lost.
"Eldest Senior Brother, Master is dead. What will become of our Chuyun Temple from now on?" a timid voice asked beside him.
Just as Li Fan opened his mouth to reply, angry shouts rang out from all around.
"What else can we do? We should divide up everything in the temple and go down the mountain!"
"We thought there was a true immortal living on this mountain, which was why we went through all that hardship to come and pay our respects. Who knew this old Daoist was a complete fraud!"
"Exactly! How could a true immortal suddenly fall ill and die just like that?"
As the others grew increasingly agitated, Li Fan did not know how to explain, and could only watch as they looted everything in Chuyun Temple, large and small alike.
A moment later, Li Fan was the only person left on the mountain.
Gathering and burying his master's ashes, Li Fan recalled the gaze his master had cast upon him before dying.
Unreconciled, regretful, melancholy, hopeful...
Was Master a fraud?
Was the *Chuyun Heaven Ascension Chapter* taught by his master completely made up as well?
Li Fan felt that perhaps things were not as everyone believed.
Immortals might truly exist.
In the end, Li Fan never went down the mountain.
He spent the rest of his life alone in the Daoist temple, watching the clouds unfurl and roll back over the peaks, watching the sun and moon cycle.
Day after day, he comprehended the *Chuyun Heaven Ascension Chapter*.
Past fifty years of age, he still failed to make an inch of progress.
He died with deep regrets.
***
Inside the imperial palace.
Li Fan looked at the wooden name plaques arranged on the golden tray before him, an expression of impatience surfacing in his eyes.
"Take it away. We shall continue cultivating the Dao tonight."
"Your Majesty, you have not visited the imperial consorts for three months..."
"Hmm?" A fierce light flashed across Li Fan's eyes.
"...This servant obeys the decree."
Watching the panicked chief eunuch retreat, Li Fan snorted coldly.
*There is no point in being an emperor,* the thought suddenly welled up within him.
He had plundered the resources of the entire empire for his cultivation.
On the surface, he still appeared to be a mortal, but in reality, he had already stepped across the threshold of the Golden Core stage.
These secular affairs of the mortal realm were truly tedious!
With that thought, three months later during the morning court assembly, Li Fan tore through the air and departed before the assembled civil and military officials.
Two hundred and sixteen years later, while exploring an ancient cave abode, Li Fan was ambushed.
His body perished and his Dao dissolved.
***
Lingyun Peak.
"Why has this tribulation cloud gathered for so long without striking?"
"The might of this heavenly tribulation seems even greater than when the Sect Master ascended back then, doesn't it?"
"Naturally! In terms of pure combat prowess, Martial Uncle can be called the greatest figure in our Lishan Sword Sect in a thousand years!"
Looking at the tribulation clouds overhead swelling with increasing power, Li Fan felt a surge of heroic pride.
After three hundred years of cultivation, what was there to fear from a mere heavenly tribulation?
A ray of sword light shot into the sky from Lingyun Peak,
cleaving the sky-filling tribulation clouds right down the middle!
Sunlight poured down through the rift in the clouds, shining upon Lingyun Peak of Mount Li.
Heavenly blossoms drifted down, and the immortal gate suddenly opened.
Li Fan soared into the immortal gate without a shred of hesitation.
After entering the Immortal Realm, Li Fan was enraged to discover that the seniors of Mount Li who had ascended in the past had all been mysteriously murdered by an unknown enemy.
He cultivated while searching for the culprit behind the scenes.
A century of searching yielded no answers.
During an expedition into an ancient immortal realm, he was ambushed by the close friend accompanying him, dying in shock and bitter resentment.
***
The Northern Immortal Domain.
Ever since Heavenly Emperor Fan had unified the Azure Sky Immortal Domain two thousand years ago, he had embarked on a bloody campaign of conquest.
Over the years, the severed heads of five immortal emperors and sixteen immortal kings had forged Heavenly Emperor Fan's peerless, terrifying reputation.
In the end, only the Northern Immortal Domain remained in the entire Immortal Realm, clinging to its last breath.
Now, the army bore down on its borders, having sworn to annihilate the Northern Immortal Domain within a year.
In the center of the army, Qin Tang looked at Heavenly Emperor Fan, who was resting with his eyes closed, hesitating to speak.
Li Fan opened his eyes and looked at this trusted general who had fought alongside him all the way from humble beginnings, offering a rare smile.
"Qin Tang, you seem to have a question for me?"
"I won't hide it from Your Majesty. There is indeed one matter I do not understand."
"Speak freely."
"Starting as a mere mortal, Your Majesty weathered countless hardships to finally become a Heavenly Emperor presiding over a domain. Your authority is boundless, striking terror into the immortals across the realm. Yet why does Your Majesty have no intention of stopping? What is it that Your Majesty pursues so relentlessly?"
"Once Heavenly Emperor Zhuan is slain and the Immortal Realm is thoroughly unified, what will Your Majesty's plans be then?" Qin Tang stared at Li Fan, voicing the doubt in his heart.
"Heh." Li Fan chuckled softly.
"All I seek is nothing more than the two words 'eternal life,'" he replied calmly.
Qin Tang froze, seemingly unable to believe his ears.
"Eternal life? With Your Majesty's current cultivation, can you not already be called immortal? Barring any unforeseen mishaps, living another few million years would hardly be difficult, would it?" he asked with a shocked expression, struggling to understand.
"Can a lifespan of a million years dare call itself eternal life?" Li Fan smiled and merely countered.
"In the Desolate Heavenly Tombs, over a hundred ancient immortal emperors have long since become dry bones in graves."
"Even that ancient immortal of boundless might who was said to have created the Immortal Realm—is his corpse not transformed into mountain ranges, suppressed beneath my palace?"
"This time, I intend to unify the Immortal Realm, gather the power of all immortals under heaven, and construct a great array spanning the entire realm. Through it, I will shatter that supposedly eternal prison of immortals."
"I want to step above the immortals and take one step further." Li Fan's tone was calm, yet so resolute that no one could refute it.
Qin Tang fell silent.
Because he knew that above the Immortal Realm, there was nothing more.
He could only bow his head in silence.
Everything proceeded according to Li Fan's plan.
In just ten years, Li Fan unified the entire Immortal Realm.
Afterward, he suppressed all dissent with ruthless and bloody methods. Gathering the resources of the entire Immortal Realm, he successfully constructed the great array meant to break the realm's shackles.
As the array was activated, the entire Immortal Realm trembled.
Countless rifts appeared in the sky, and everything in the world seemed to shatter.
Laughing heartily, Li Fan charged into the rift.
Welcoming him was only endless darkness.
***
At this point, the Trial of Perseverance had concluded.
Qin Tang knew there was no further need to test him.
An anomaly had appeared in this trial.
Even if he constructed an infinite number of worlds, it would likely never wear down this person's unyielding resolve.
If Master were here to witness such an extraordinary talent, he would surely be overjoyed.
What a pity...
A flicker of melancholy crossed Qin Tang's eyes.
With a deep sigh, the cultivators awakened from their dreamscape one after another.
They found themselves back on the original square.
Some were bewildered; some came to their senses, their faces turning deathly pale;
others sank into sudden comprehension, having gained some insight.
***
Looking at the cultivators with their varied reactions, Qin Tang said with a smile, "All three trials have concluded."
"Among you, some performed beyond my expectations, while others were utterly pathetic."
"Martial Uncle, the Sect Master, once told me that our Cloud Water Heavenly Palace accepts disciples based on quality, not quantity."
He surveyed the crowd, his expression softening. "Since that is the case, half of you shall remain."
The cultivators, who had just been showing joy on their faces, experienced a drastic shift in expression upon hearing Qin Tang's words.
"What do you mean?!"
They knew full well how they had performed across the three trials.
Hearing that Qin Tang intended to kill half of the cultivators present, they were filled with shock and fury.
Driven into a corner, they launched an attack against Qin Tang.
Qin Tang did not grow angry.
He merely offered a placid smile. "Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, head disciple of the Dharma Transmission Pavilion, Qin Tang."
"May I ask for your guidance."
As Qin Tang spoke, azure silhouettes abruptly appeared beside half of the cultivators present.
They were like exact replicas of their targets, sharing identical appearances, auras, and even cultivation strength.
The moment they appeared, they launched relentless, fight-to-the-death attacks against their targets.
"The Sect Master was a strict man. Yet Master once told me never to push things to absolute extremes. If you can survive the hands of your mirror reflections, I will not make things difficult for you any longer," Qin Tang said slowly, watching the cultivators locked in bitter combat.
The other half who had not been attacked, including Li Fan, chose to back away from the battlefield to avoid being caught in the crossfire.
Li Fan retreated to a safe spot and observed the situation on the field.
These azure mirror reflections struck with immense ferocity, feeling no fatigue and sustaining no wounds.
Ordinary cultivators were simply no match for them. Once engaged, they quickly fell into a disadvantage.
Before long, several cultivators died gruesome deaths beneath their own mirror reflections.
As more cultivators fell, those struggling desperately clearly could not hold out much longer.
Driven to desperation, they began cursing Qin Tang furiously.
"Wake up! What disciples are you accepting? Cloud Water Heavenly Palace was destroyed countless years ago!"
"What bullshit master and martial uncle?! When the Great Catastrophe came, didn't you all slaughter each other anyway?!"
***
"Slaughter each other?" Hearing this, Qin Tang shook his head repeatedly.
"Our Cloud Water Heavenly Palace was united from top to bottom. We respected and loved one another. Even if it meant sacrificing ourselves for our fellow disciples, none of us would hesitate."
"How could we possibly slaughter each other?"
As Qin Tang spoke, his voice suddenly dwindled.
"The Great Catastrophe... the Great Catastrophe..."
His brows furrowed tightly, as if recalling something.
"The Great Catastrophe..."
He muttered continuously under his breath, and the sky above the square instantly darkened.
The azure phantoms attacking the cultivators began to mutate accordingly.
A thick blackness continuously surged from within them, dyeing the phantoms into a terrifying, inky black in an instant.
The ink-colored mirror reflections were far more vicious than the azure phantoms had been. In the blink of an eye, the majority of the struggling cultivators were slain.
Only a few remained, clinging desperately to life.
Yet Qin Tang had not broken free of his trance. He continued to mutter under his breath.
The ground of the square began to shake violently, and dark clouds pressed lower in the sky.
Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled endlessly.
The cultivators watching from the sidelines who had not been attacked by the mirror reflections immediately realized that things were taking a turn for the worse.
Yet facing Qin Tang, who had clearly fallen into a trance, none dared make a rash move.
For a moment, no one knew what to do.
Just then, Li Fan slowly walked over to Qin Tang's side.
Carrying a wine gourd, he patted Qin Tang's shoulder and handed it over.
With a smile on his face, Li Fan said quietly, "Senior Brother Qin, drink."
"Pay it no mind. There was never any Great Catastrophe."
Qin Tang turned his head, twitched his nose, and instinctively took the wine gourd, pouring a gulp down his throat.
Then he looked at Li Fan in bewilderment. "No Great Catastrophe?"
Li Fan nodded with certainty and repeated, "Indeed. There was never any Great Catastrophe at all."
Qin Tang's eyes gradually brightened as he continuously muttered, "No Great Catastrophe... no Great Catastrophe... no Great Catastrophe..."
"Hahaha, you're right! There was never any Great Catastrophe!"
After a long while, Qin Tang burst into hearty laughter, finally returning to normal.
The anomalies across the field vanished with it, and the surroundings once again became serene.
Seeing this, everyone present let out a long breath of relief, casting grateful glances toward Li Fan.
Yet Li Fan's heart suddenly stirred.
Because he sensed two faint, indistinct traces of killing intent locking onto him.
Though these two killing intents were extremely faint, Li Fan's perception in this regard was extraordinarily sharp, leaving no room for mistake.
The owners of these two killing intents were none other than Sikong Yi and Baili Chen!
Li Fan pretended not to notice, but secretly used the Formless Killing Intent to trace back and lock onto the two of them.
He merely refrained from unleashing it for now.
The brief interlude soon passed, and the slaughter between the cultivators and the azure mirror reflections came to an end.
In the end, only two fortunate individuals survived.
Qin Tang looked gently at the surviving cultivators. "The trials have concluded. You may go."
The cultivators were bewildered and were about to speak, only to see their figures gradually fade, slowly disappearing from the square.
Soon, Li Fan was the only cultivator left on the field.
Qin Tang looked at Li Fan, a complex emotion flashing across his eyes.
"Why haven't you left?" Qin Tang asked.
Li Fan smiled candidly. "Senior Brother still owes me a jug of good wine."
Seeming not to expect Li Fan to answer this way, Qin Tang paused for a moment before bursting into loud laughter.
"Indeed, I still owe you a jug of good wine!"
His expression abruptly shifted, turning solemn as he looked at Li Fan.
Extending his right hand, he lightly tapped his index finger against the center of Li Fan's brow.
"This *Cloud Water Illusory Dream Technique* is a culmination of everything I learned throughout my life, a painstaking technique of my own creation. I hope you will not let it be buried in obscurity!"
A moment later, Qin Tang withdrew his finger.
Li Fan's figure slowly faded away as well.
On the vast square, only Qin Tang remained once more.
Just as it had been for thousands of years.
"Martial Uncle, Master, Senior Sister..."
Qin Tang looked around in loneliness, but found nothing.
And so, he took another sip of wine.
***
Li Fan gradually regained consciousness.
Ahead of him stood a towering gate bearing four large characters: "Cloud Water Heavenly Palace."
Beneath the gate stood a stone statue.
The statue was battered and covered in scars.
The area where the heart should have been seemed to have been pierced straight through, leaving a gaping hole.
From the blurred features of the stone statue's face, Qin Tang's appearance could vaguely be discerned.
Li Fan quietly gazed at the statue for a moment, then took out a wine gourd from his storage ring.
He gently set it down before the statue.
Then, circulating the Shadow Following Art, he sped off in the direction locked by the Formless Killing Intent.
Chapter 83