Every Man a Child of Destiny

Li Fan held the radiant orb in his hand, detached a thread of divine sense, and plunged it inside. In the next instant, his field of vision shifted abruptly. His connection to his true body was severed. The detached thread of divine sense plunged into a physical body. At the same time, boundless information surged in like a tidal wave. The body he possessed was merely that of a mortal. It took several full days of throbbing headaches to completely absorb all the information. A peculiar expression appeared on Li Fan's face. Inside this radiant orb was an entirely fabricated realm of time and space. It was set in the dying years of a dynasty: corrupt officials, desperate commoners unable to make a living. Disasters raged everywhere, and corpses of the starved littered the realm. The common folk wished only to fill their bellies, yet even that was an extravagant hope. Thus, out of despair, they rose up in revolt. Beacon fires blazed across the land, and the person Li Fan possessed was an unremarkable nobody within one of the rebel armies. Because he had been in a daze while digesting the influx of information, he was assumed to have fallen ill with some strange affliction. He had been sent to the military surgeon for treatment. This surgeon knew his craft; with just a glance, he prescribed a calming herbal decoction. Just as Li Fan came to his senses and prepared to leave, a prompt suddenly floated before his eyes: "Discovered an aide fit for a king: Bai Moxiu." "Current Favorability: 1." Li Fan's expression turned even more peculiar. "What kind of trick is the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals playing?" Without interacting further with the army surgeon Bai Moxiu for the moment, Li Fan took a stroll through the rebel encampment. In just three or four days, he discovered one "peerless general" and two "ancient divine armaments." As for other individuals of promising talent, they were beyond count. Some came with only crude favorability prompts, but others even had strategy guides. The other party's preferences, temperament, and weaknesses could all be known with crystal clarity. Li Fan's interest was piqued. Following the prompts, he approached them one by one, catering to their tastes. From an unknown nobody in the rebel army, he quickly rose to some renown. Over ten days later, he even received a warning that imperial troops were going to launch a night raid. Yet he gave no warning to the camp; instead, he gathered a band of confidants and prepared in secret. When the night raid struck, the rebel army collapsed in an instant. Li Fan led his group and managed to escape by the skin of their teeth. Having led them to survival, Li Fan gradually established his prestige. Then, following another prompt that appeared, with fewer than a hundred men and after a long-distance forced march, he captured a small city whose garrison had marched out to suppress bandits, leaving it hollow within. He thus secured a foothold. Using this as a starting point, he gradually swallowed up neighboring forces. In just five years, he swept across the realm, overthrew the corrupt dynasty's rule, and became a founding monarch. The scenery before his eyes shattered layer by layer. Everything returned to nothingness. Just as Li Fan was pondering the purpose of this illusory scenario, the scene shifted once again. Another illusory realm of time and space. This time, it was an imagined cultivation world. The body he possessed was a mortal youth rejected by the Taichu Sect due to lacking a spirit root. The boy had pleaded bitterly, finally obtaining only the status of an odd-job chore disciple. He had thought he would spend his entire life scraping by in hardship. Little did he expect that one day he would happen to pick up a stone bead in the rear mountains. This stone bead possessed the heaven-defying effect of devouring external objects, feeding back spirit liquid, and improving natural talent. Relying on this treasure, Li Fan formally transformed from a mortal into a cultivator. Step by step, he advanced through Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul... Along the way, he not only won three Dao companions of peerless beauty and an ancient divine beast as a mount, but also encountered continuous fortuitous encounters, discovering the tomb of an immortal and obtaining an immortal artifact unmatched throughout the cultivation world. After roaming the cultivation world for a century, he ultimately became the strongest existence of his era. Flanked by beauties, he shattered the void and departed. The scene shattered once again. Returning from the illusion this time, Li Fan faintly felt that a subtle change had occurred in his mindset. But before he could analyze it, he was plunged once more into the cycle of illusions. In the time that followed, Li Fan experienced ninety-seven more cycles of reincarnation. The encounters were all largely the same. Mostly the clichéd story of humble beginnings, followed by an accidental stroke of fortune, and then a counterattack all the way to becoming the realm's strongest. When all the cycles came to an end, the radiant bead in Li Fan's hand dimmed completely and vanished without a trace. "..." Experiencing ninety-nine lifetimes of reincarnation, even if illusory, felt far too real. It was exceedingly similar to what he had experienced through Senior Sister Zhao—an illusion so vivid it felt real. After so many cycles, even with Li Fan's current mental fortitude, he could not help but be slightly affected. Slowly circulating the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation, he allowed those experiences to gradually fade. "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' move is truly intriguing." Li Fan's expression was unreadable. Not long ago, these radiant beads had suddenly rained down like a torrential downpour across certain territories of the Five Elders Association. Driven by curiosity, countless cultivators and mortals there had their minds drawn into the beads. They fell into the ninety-nine cycles of reincarnation. When they slowly awakened, though their physical bodies were unharmed, their mentalities underwent an earth-shattering transformation. That was... Under the influence of the illusions, people who had once been utterly mediocre inexplicably came to believe upon waking that they were the "Chosen of Heaven." If they merely believed so privately, it would not have been a big deal. Yet they had all come to realize that they lived in a world forcefully altered by the five Longevity Heavenly Venerables defying the principles of Heaven and Earth. And so, they made great vows one after another to overthrow the rule of the Five Elders Association. To deliver the cultivators of the world from their miserable existence. Furthermore, after being baptized by ninety-nine lifetimes of reincarnation, these people truly had become somewhat different. Instead of choosing to clash head-on, they learned how to bide their time. First cultivate, then sabotage. Though it hadn't been stated in detail, judging from the Five Elders Association's tone, the fallout caused by these radiant white spheres had given them quite a headache. Li Fan murmured thoughtfully, "Besides causing cultivators to awaken faintly, there is also something akin to a spiritual brand. "'How could a Child of Destiny ever bow beneath another!' "To actually implant the notion of overthrowing the Five Elders Association's rule right under the influence of the five Heavenly Venerables... "What a fine thing!" Li Fan naturally wasn't affected by the radiant orb. In truth, even if he were affected... it wouldn't be a big deal. After all, unlike everyone else, with [True Reversion] in his hands, he could be considered a true Child of Destiny! Li Fan looked at the storage ring sent over by the Five Elders Association, packed densely with what he estimated to be no fewer than a thousand radiant beads... He stroked his chin. "The production cost of these items must not be high. Otherwise, they wouldn't have scattered them on such a massive scale." He retrieved another one and began studying it. Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Dissociation Disc emitted a faint glow, unraveling its secrets. "There are traces of an illusion formation. "Yet what makes up more of it..." Li Fan's brow furrowed slightly as he sensed a familiar scent. "Mind Ape and Will Horse?" A moment later, from his past experiences, he pinpointed the resemblance.