As the Stone Slab Scholar spoke those words, Li Fan was actually tense to the utmost degree in his heart.
However, the present Grand Preceptor Li already possessed Dao Integration combat strength, along with formidable divine abilities such as the Seven-Colored Jade Void Flowing Light protecting him.
He was no longer someone who could be frightened into using True Reversion by a few words.
Even if his counterpart was a Longevity Heavenly Venerable!
Li Fan decided...
...to probe deeper into the other party's background!
Thus, Li Fan put on a facade of slight confusion and surprise. "Transcending beyond the Xuanhuang Realm? What does that have to do with me?"
The Stone Slab Scholar smiled faintly. "Since you refuse to admit it, let us see what the stone slab has recorded concerning you."
A burst of azure light surged from the stone slab on his back.
An aura of ancient, weathered eras drifted from the scholar. Around the two of them, myriad images began to swirl and manifest continuously.
As if plunging into the long river of history, scenes of past events in the Xuanhuang Realm unfurled like a painted scroll.
The scholar let out a muffled grunt, and his physique began to swell.
For some reason, his face and clothing rapidly shifted through one guise after another.
One moment he was a handsome scholar, the next a burly woodcutter.
Then an alluring, delicate beauty.
At times, he was not even human:
a tree, a flower,
a bird in the sky, a beast on the ground.
...
Only the stone slab on his back remained constant, glowing with eternal azure light.
Eventually, the images swirling across the surrounding screens of light gradually stabilized.
Bright and shimmering, the figure emerging upon them was none other than Li Fan!
However, there was no scene of him flying out from Great Xuan.
There was not even footage of him initially arriving in the Xuanhuang Realm through the spatial channel and heading straight for Master Tianyang's cave abode to subjugate Tianyang.
It began only when he brought Tianyang into Shilin Province,
found the entrance to the Spirit Wood Realm,
entered and emerged again, then captured Shang Tianci in Jiushan Province,
found Mr. Bai's secret chamber beneath Taihua Province,
and after returning to the Spirit Wood Realm, came out accompanied by Lin Ling, who possessed Dao Integration strength.
He then concluded a deal with the Five Elders Association before heading straight for the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven in Tianling Province.
...
The images shifted continuously.
Yet the wariness in Li Fan's heart relaxed considerably.
*Just as I thought.*
*The Genesis Stone Slab automatically records everything that happens in the Xuanhuang Realm down to the smallest detail. But that applies only to the original Xuanhuang Realm!*
*After all, the present Xuanhuang Realm was formed by merging the Xuanhuang Realm proper with countless grotto-heavens, pocket worlds, and even fragments of numerous other cultivation worlds!*
*For these foreign additions, the Genesis Stone Slab might not be able to record them!*
Returning to the analogy of a house:
The original Xuanhuang Realm was merely a single small cottage.
Yet after so many years of expansion by countless cultivators, the Xuanhuang Realm had grown vastly larger than before.
Within that initial cottage, the Genesis Stone Slab—born alongside heaven and earth—possessed full recording authority.
For these foreign domains, however, the Genesis Stone Slab lost its ability to record!
...
The images continued to shift.
Just as Li Fan anticipated, they were intermittent.
Most critically, places he frequently frequented—the Congyun Sea, the Spirit Wood Realm, the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven...
—fell outside the scope of its records.
Thus, the projections essentially showed him hurrying along on the road, endlessly traveling.
*Then why did this scholar say he came for me...*
*Where did the flaw show?*
Li Fan's thoughts raced.
The scenes displayed by the stone slab were approaching the present moment.
Suddenly, his avatar Ji Shaoli appeared in the imagery.
The moment Ji Shaoli entered Yongyun Province, the imagery abruptly cut off.
Later, after Ji Shaoli emerged from Yongyun Province, he headed straight for the Spirit Wood Realm.
The scene went dim, and next came Li Fan, having advanced to the Nascent Soul realm and emerged from the Spirit Wood Realm, wielding the Seven-Colored Divine Light to streak swiftly across provinces.
*Did the Seven-Colored Divine Light catch his attention?* Li Fan couldn't help thinking.
And what the Stone Slab Scholar said next confirmed his suspicion.
"Whether that Myriad Realms Association of yours is real or fake does not actually concern me.
"What interests me more is where in Yongyun Province you obtained that Seven-Colored Divine Light of yours." The scholar stared at Li Fan, his gaze burning.
"The energy scale of such a thing cannot be nurtured in these remnant provincial lands."
"Could it not be a divine ability I comprehended myself?" Li Fan retorted.
The scholar broke into a wry laugh.
"Bearing the Genesis Stone Slab, I am naturally well acquainted with the aura emanating from your seven-colored radiance. It is power that almost condenses the Heavenly Dao of an entire world. If you possessed such capability, the one asking questions here today would not be me.
"It would be you," the scholar said placidly.
Though there was no real sarcasm in his words, paired with his expression and tone, they still elicited a cold harrumph from Li Fan.
Seeing Li Fan remain silent, the Stone Slab Scholar continued, "Rest assured, I will not rob you of your possessions. Powerful though this Seven-Colored Divine Light may be, to me it is merely a burden.
"What I truly wish to know is the place that birthed the Seven-Colored Divine Light," the Stone Slab Scholar confessed openly.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. "What does Senior mean? How do you know the Seven-Colored Divine Light was produced by something? Could it not simply be an isolated treasure hidden within Yongyun Province?"
The Stone Slab Scholar sighed.
The surrounding light-curtain scenery suddenly plunged into pitch darkness.
Then, a speck of seven-colored light abruptly surfaced.
In the darkness, it was incomparably dazzling and conspicuous.
The scholar looked at Li Fan. "Do you understand now?
"Such a treasure, as long as it exists in the world—regardless of whether anyone has refined it—is like this.
"Once upon a time...
"Certain people scoured the Xuanhuang Realm from top to bottom. Aside from that Heavenly Profound Mirror, there are currently no treasures above the level of a realm vessel left in this world.
"Therefore, your Seven-Colored Divine Light must have appeared only recently..."
Hearing this, Li Fan's expression darkened.
He had not realized that powerful though the Seven-Colored Divine Light was, it would be so glaring in the eyes of true powerhouses.
Faced with the Stone Slab Scholar's inquiry, Li Fan's mind spun as he considered how to answer.
Moments later, a plan formed.
Assuming a conflicted demeanor full of inner turmoil, he finally let out a heavy sigh. "Very well. I knew this matter could not be concealed forever.
"Follow me, Senior, and you will understand once you see it."
With that, he awakened Lin Ling, who had been standing dazed at the side as an onlooker, too afraid to interject.
Then he plunged underground, heading straight for Yongyun Province.
Within the earth veins, the Stone Slab Scholar followed at a leisurely pace, strolling as though taking a walk in a courtyard.
Seeing this, Li Fan clicked his tongue in silent amazement.
In his heart, he thought, *No wonder in my previous life Zhong Shentong didn't guard that fishing pond treasure indefinitely despite possessing it, and instead wandered around all over the place.*
*Presumably, once he left Yongyun Province and displayed the Seven-Colored Divine Light, this Stone Slab Scholar caught scent of it and tracked him down.*
*Leaving him forced to relinquish ownership of the supreme treasure.*
*I was truly careless.*
Chapter 864