"Brother Xingwang, it is I, Mo Rubin!" Even before fully arriving this time, Mo Rubin called out hastily in greeting.
Li Fan merely scoffed coldly. "If you want to act friendly, you should at least recognize the right person!"
With that, he once more launched an assault toward Mo Rubin's newly formed avatar inside his sea of consciousness.
Although he could not draw upon the divine sense of other cultivators, relying solely on those myriad thought devil-gods made the strike formidable in its own right.
Yet it was still a far cry from the blow that had shattered Mo Rubin before. To cover this up, Li Fan deliberately feigned a moment of hesitation.
"Brother Xingwang, hold your hand!" Mo Rubin easily dispersed the offensive.
Sensing Li Fan's hesitation, he hurriedly pressed on: "I know your memories may be fragmented, but you must still have some impression of the Profound Heaven Sect from back then, right?"
"The Profound Heaven Sect..." Li Fan's attacks seemed to slow as if he were lost in thought.
Seeing this, Mo Rubin looked delighted.
"No! There was never any Profound Heaven Sect! There is only the Supreme Compassionate True Immortal of the Mortal Realm!" Suddenly, Li Fan's expression twisted, and he glared coldly at Mo Rubin.
Across the gloomy sky of this eerie spectral realm, the projection of a faceless True Immortal stone statue slowly emerged.
Like a radiant sun, it dispelled the darkness and illuminated the world.
"The Profound Heaven Statue?!" Seeing this stone statue that had long since vanished from the world, Mo Rubin became all the more certain of his judgment.
"Insolent heretic! How dare you distort the Supreme Compassionate True Immortal of the Mortal Realm!" A gleam of madness surfaced in Li Fan's eyes, and the entire spectral realm of divine sense shook violently as if provoked.
The myriad devil-gods glared furiously at Mo Rubin, their visages twisting into ferocious sneers.
"Brother Xingwang, do not harm your own people! This..."
"The statue of the Supreme Compassionate True Immortal of the Mortal Realm is actually the Profound Heaven Statue!"
"You and I were originally of the same family!" Mo Rubin did his best to soothe Li Fan.
"The same family?" Hearing this, Li Fan's frenzied state eased slightly.
"So you too are a believer of the Supreme Compassionate True Immortal of the Mortal Realm?" he asked, sizing up Mo Rubin with suspicion.
Mo Rubin was briefly at a loss for words, but seeing that Li Fan showed signs of slipping back into madness, he helplessly nodded. "Er, you could say that."
"Hmph, why didn't you say so sooner!" Only then did Li Fan completely lower his guard.
In an instant, the myriad devil-gods and the blood moon in the sky vanished entirely.
Upon a vast, blank white expanse of earth, only Mo Rubin and Li Fan stood facing one another.
"How is it that I have never seen you before? Could it be that the True Immortal left behind another lineage elsewhere?"
"Wait, no, didn't I go looking for you not long ago?"
"Who are you? Wait, who am I?"
Li Fan, who had seemed fine just a moment ago, began showing symptoms of madness again in the blink of an eye.
Mo Rubin frowned inwardly. *These symptoms seem far worse than back then. However, the aura of his cultivation technique is identical. There is no mistaking it...*
"Brother Xingwang, no matter what happened in the past, as long as our goals are aligned, that is enough." Mo Rubin attempted to bring Li Fan back to his senses.
Li Fan paused briefly. "Our goals?"
Then realization struck him. "Right! The Heavenly Dao is murky, and the True Immortal's lineage has vanished from the mortal world. I must set things right and allow the name of the Compassionate True Immortal to shine upon the mortal realm once more!"
As he said this, the faceless stone statue in the sky seemed to resonate with Li Fan's words, giving off a faint golden light.
When Mo Rubin saw that golden radiance, his expression shifted dramatically.
He subconsciously backed away a few paces.
Looking at the somewhat entranced Li Fan, he hesitated for a moment before speaking up to draw his attention back.
"With the great enterprise unfinished, what face do we have to see the True Immortal? Brother Xingwang, wait until the day the True Immortal's lineage is truly restored before claiming merit before Him," Mo Rubin said in a deep voice, his words laden with meaning.
Hearing this, Li Fan was immediately filled with solemn respect. "Little Brother, your awareness is actually even higher than mine?"
Hearing the other address him as "Little Brother," Mo Rubin did not object.
Back in the sect, Sun Xingwang had indeed called him that.
*It seems he hasn't gone completely mad,* Mo Rubin thought to himself.
Li Fan looked at Mo Rubin, his expression solemn. "What you say does make sense. Without achieving something great, one truly has no face to pay respects to the True Immortal so often."
As he muttered to himself, the projection of the faceless stone statue in the sky faded away.
Only then did Mo Rubin let out a soft breath of relief.
"Brother Xingwang, do you have any impression of the other brothers and sisters in the sect?" Seeing that Li Fan's emotions had stabilized, Mo Rubin asked.
"Hm?" Li Fan's brow furrowed tightly.
He seemed plunged into deep recollection.
"The others..."
The expression on Li Fan's face shifted continuously as he muttered several names under his breath.
"Yuzhen, Elder Cui, Big Brother Xuanyuan..."
"Xuanyuan? Xuanyuan, Xuanyuan..."
Then he simply kept repeating the name "Xuanyuan," and the sea of consciousness, which had just calmed down, surged into turbulent waves once more.
Seeing that he truly could get nothing more out of him, Mo Rubin could only give up.
"All right, Brother Xingwang. We can speak of the past later. Let me ask you: the 'God Descends upon the Body' incidents across the various provinces, are they your doing?"
Li Fan said proudly, "Indeed! At present, thirty-six thousand five hundred and thirteen cultivators have fallen completely under my control. Under the day-and-night influence of my thoughts, they will soon become loyal believers of the Supreme Compassionate True Immortal of the Mortal Realm!"
"In such a short time, thirty thousand have already gathered! Uniting the world is just around the corner!"
Mo Rubin shook his head slightly. "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals already attaches considerable importance to this matter. Knowing it might be your doing, Brother Xingwang, I took the initiative to take charge of this affair specifically to give you a warning."
"Cease your actions, Brother Xingwang. Thirty thousand cultivators is already enough. If the situation escalates further, it will surely provoke the intervention of other Dharma Transmitters. When that happens, you might even be at risk of exposure," Mo Rubin urged.
Li Fan rejected him on the spot. "Cease? Why should I? I am hidden in the dark, where no one can detect me. God Descends upon the Body is like wild grass—wildfire cannot burn it away, and the spring breeze brings it back to life. Under the whole of heaven, who could possibly do anything to me?"
Li Fan's tone was exceedingly arrogant.
Mo Rubin sighed. "It is not that the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is truly powerless against it. It is simply that the incident has not reached the corresponding priority level."
"If you continue down this path..."
"Think about it. Since even I could trace the bodies of those cultivators back to your sea of consciousness, other Dharma Transmitters can naturally do the same."
Although Li Fan was playing the role of a mad cultivator, he was no fool.
He did not argue back and instead fell into deep thought.
Then he looked at Mo Rubin as if remembering something and suddenly said, "You truly did take over that Dharma Transmitter's body."
Mo Rubin froze slightly. "Brother Xingwang, your memories have returned?"
Li Fan wore a grave expression and did not answer directly. Instead, he spoke urgently to Mo Rubin: "The only way to find Big Brother Xuanyuan is through the sect's supreme treasure, the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror. You must find a way..."
Chapter 964