The Truth Enticement Fruit dissolved into wisps of silvery-white light, pouring into the bodies of the two Dao Integration cultivators.
Li Fan had expected things to proceed as smoothly as every previous time he used a Truth Enticement Fruit. To his surprise, however, the moment the silver light was about to breach their seas of consciousness, it suddenly ground to a halt.
As though encountering some barrier, the power of the Truth Enticement Fruit was held entirely outside their divine souls.
The fruit vanished from the air, yet it had not altered the perceptions of either Xuan Suchang or Lu Xichan.
Instead, the silver radiance merely clung tightly around their divine souls, wrapping them completely.
"This is..."
Li Fan's expression shifted. Observing closely, he discovered that the power of the Truth Heavenly Venerable had not failed.
Rather, their divine souls possessed a special layer of protection that warded off the influence capable of twisting cognition.
*As expected, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' higher-ups have a specialized defense mechanism on their divine souls.*
*It makes sense. Otherwise, simply by mass-producing Truth Enticement Fruits, the Five Elders Association could have conquered the Alliance long ago.*
Having failed in his initial attempt at inducement, Li Fan did not give up.
Nor did he intend to ask Mo Rubin about this soul defense mechanism.
"Xuan Suchang is tied to the secret of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's avatar, so I suppose I can only experiment on you." Li Fan turned his gaze to the slumbering Lu Xichan.
To be safe, in addition to Mo Rubin's shadow seal, Li Fan laid down several successive arrays around the two women.
This ensured that even if something went awry during the experiment and they somehow woke up, they would be unable to contact the outside world or break free within a short span of time.
Then, separating out a strand of divine sense, he slowly probed inward, drawing near Lu Xichan's divine soul.
Truth be told, Lu Xichan's soul strength fell rather short of her title as Chief Array Master of the Alliance's Formation Planning Hall.
In the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, Li Fan had once treated Hanhai, coming into close contact with his divine soul.
Though both were Dao Integration experts, Lu Xichan was vastly weaker than the former sect master of the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace.
Li Fan felt not the slightest threat, calmly and attentively inspecting it.
Outside her divine soul, patterns traced in dark-gold lines seemed to be engraved.
Flickering in and out of view, they resembled chains binding the divine soul while simultaneously forming a defensive layer akin to armor.
Yet as he observed, Li Fan keenly realized that beyond protection, these dark-gold patterns likely possessed a self-destruct function.
*If I forcibly breach the protection of these dark-gold patterns, these chains that have virtually fused with her soul will shatter to pieces in an instant...*
These overgrown branches were, in truth, also part of the primordial divine soul.
To purge them without damaging the primordial soul or provoking a violent backlash from the divine soul as a whole...
The Heavenly Physician had offered the optimal solution.
Namely, the divine soul of a person of closest kin would make contact with and wash through these overgrown soul branches.
Using their own soul as shears, they would prune them away completely.
Throughout the entire process, the divine souls of the patient and the practitioner would blend into one.
Yet precisely because they were closest kin, there would be no resistance from start to finish.
It would merely be as though they had lived together for a vast span of years.
The sole cost was that the practitioner's divine soul would suffer exceptionally severe trauma.
Plummeting several cultivation realms was inevitable.
When the Heavenly Physician explained this remedy to them, the husband and wife had visibly divergent reactions.
Interestingly enough, however, the Heavenly Physician never revealed in the *Mending the Heavens Record* which one had been willing and which had harbored resentment.
There was only an extremely fierce quarrel, and in the end, the couple chose not to treat their child.
And to spare him future suffering, the couple slew the child with their own hands.
Afterward, this pair of immortal companions gradually drifted apart, united in appearance but divided at heart.
Later, pursued by mortal enemies, each fled for their own life. In the end, both met sudden, violent deaths.
...
*This divine sense restriction seems remarkably similar to the overgrown soul branches in that case.*
*Symbiotic with the soul, almost one and the same. Hyper-sensitive to any outside force; if its structure is damaged, it will drag the primordial soul down into destruction with it.*
*Yet precisely because it is intertwined with the soul, it is far less guarded against soul power itself.*
*Therefore, to remove this soul restriction, the method is essentially identical.*
Li Fan already had a plan in mind.
Moments later, a continuous stream of soul power quietly poured into Lu Xichan's divine soul.
Facing the dark-gold pattern defense that stood like a majestic dam, it crashed head-on like surging tidal waves.
Because the restriction naturally had to accommodate the ebb and flow of soul power, such soul impacts were commonplace and did not trigger a retaliatory response from the restriction.
However, in the course of this incessant washing, the soul power Li Fan expended was soon entirely depleted.
Yet before long, circulating the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method, Li Fan channeled freshly replenished soul power back into the fray.
Even coastal reefs are slowly ground down under the relentless wash of seawater year after year.
The same applied to this dark-gold pattern restriction.
Li Fan closed his eyes, continuously outputting soul power. Before long, a section of the dark-gold pattern gradually faded and vanished.
The power of the Truth Enticement Fruit, which had been lingering outside Lu Xichan's divine soul all along, mingled with Li Fan's soul power and surged mightily through this breach into her interior.
Crashing into Lu Xichan's divine soul!
Had it been Li Fan's soul alone, the intrusion of a stranger would inevitably have triggered Lu Xichan's vigilance and counterattack.
Even while unconscious, it would have been no different.
Yet at this moment, the Truth Enticement Fruit contained a lie painstakingly fabricated by Li Fan:
Lu Xichan's master had not fallen all those years ago. Instead, he had feigned death, shedding his cicada shell to escape—and had taken the guise of Li Fan!
Chapter 996