In the memories of the first half of Lu Xichan's life, there was almost nothing but the silhouette of her master, Lu Xia.
The rest was an endless ocean of formation dao knowledge.
Therefore, when Li Fan, disguised as Lu Xichan's master, clashed his divine soul against hers, it did not provoke much resistance.
Instead, Li Fan sensed only pervasive dread from Lu Xichan.
Countless images flickered within her divine soul, blurring truth and falsehood together.
The faces of Lu Xia and Li Fan alternated continuously, shifting faster and faster.
In the end, only Li Fan's face remained, etched immutably into the depths of Lu Xichan's divine soul.
As the silvery power of the Truth Enticement Fruit dissolved completely, Lu Xichan's body shuddered violently before gradually settling into stillness.
Li Fan withdrew his divine soul power. Funneling so much soul force over such a prolonged period was an enormous drain. Even with the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method's ability to endlessly regenerate the divine soul, he found the toll taxing for a moment.
Fortunately, the deed was accomplished.
During the soul communion just now, Li Fan had glimpsed many secrets hidden within Lu Xichan's memories.
For instance, her master, Lu Xia, had never been particularly satisfied with her. Right up until his demise, he had held no hope whatsoever that Lu Xichan could ever inherit his supreme mastery of formation dao.
Back then, taking Lu Xichan as his disciple and later handing her the position of Chief of the Formation Planning Hall had involved certain peculiar considerations.
Though Lu Xia had never explicitly stated it before his death, Lu Xichan suspected she might actually be his daughter.
However, she had never possessed the courage to verify this suspicion. And with Lu Xia's remains reduced to ash and blown away, whether the theory was true or not could no longer be proven.
Lu Xichan harbored many other secrets as well.
For example, growing up under her master's oppressive discipline year after year had subjected her psyche to immense strain. In her search for relief, she had stumbled upon a remarkably effective outlet—which was precisely why she had frequently sought out Xuan Suchang.
...
Thinking up to this point, Li Fan's expression grew faintly peculiar. *So Lu Xuejing's masochistic tendencies were inherited from her mother after all.*
*What a thing...*
Li Fan shook his head slightly.
Speaking of Lu Xichan's daughter, Lu Xuejing, her existence was also tied to Xuan Suchang.
During one of their stress-relieving trysts, Lu Xichan had discovered that Xuan Suchang was somehow pregnant.
Utterly shocked, Lu Xichan had naturally found it unacceptable. Under her relentless pressing, Xuan Suchang had been forced to confess the truth.
"The Method of Giving Life taught by the Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly, glancing toward Xuan Suchang at his side.
Lu Xichan had pestered Xuan Suchang until she, too, employed the Method of Giving Life, conceiving and giving birth to a daughter.
*It seems the human avatar of the Heavenly Profound Mirror truly has something to do with Mirror Keeper Cang.*
Li Fan closed his eyes, taking his time to digest the flood of information he had acquired while continuing to restore his depleted divine soul.
Once he had recovered sufficiently, Li Fan followed the same procedure, invading Xuan Suchang's divine soul.
As expected of a direct descendant of Mirror Keeper Cang, Xuan Suchang possessed divine soul strength and restrictive wards far surpassing Lu Xichan's.
Unfortunately, this was merely a quantitative difference, not a qualitative one.
Through Li Fan's steady, grinding persistence, coupled with an infusion of Lu Xichan's soul aura and the assistance of the Truth Enticement Fruit, her defensive line was breached in an instant—making her cognition all the easier to warp.
Thus, alongside the role of Lu Xichan's master, Li Fan gained yet another identity:
Another avatar of the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Long ago, when the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable re-established the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the Heavenly Profound Mirror had planned ahead by creating a human avatar for itself.
Unfortunately, the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable was wary of the mirror, uncovered this avatar, and suppressed it.
From that point on, the Heavenly Profound Mirror lost contact with the vessel. Left with no choice, it had to reboot its avatar project, ultimately forging a cooperation with Mirror Keeper Cang.
What neither of them knew, however, was that Lu Xichan's master—Lu Xia, the previous Chief of the Formation Planning Hall—had previously chanced upon the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable's seal. Through a stroke of fortune, he rescued the suppressed avatar.
Because it had been sealed away for so long, the Heavenly Profound Mirror avatar was already on the verge of destruction, prompting Lu Xia to willingly sacrifice his own life to save it.
Though it survived, prolonged suppression and the transfer into a new vessel had stripped the avatar of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's divine authority. It was now no different from an ordinary human.
It had originally intended to live out its days under the mortal identity of Lu Xia. Yet, residing within the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters and bound to the Heavenly Profound Mirror by myriad unbreakable ties, its mirrored nature was eventually detected by certain figures. To survive, it had no choice but to fake its death and flee.
It had thought it could roam free and unfettered from then on, only for a new Heavenly Profound Mirror avatar to be born through an unexpected turn of events.
Worse still, immortal treasures possessed unique spirits; only one could exist in the world. Just as there could never be a second Heavenly Profound Mirror, there could not be two human avatars coexisting at once.
Though it had come into being through a series of anomalies, the cosmos was now correcting that error. It could feel itself growing steadily weaker. Before long, it would likely disperse entirely into nothingness.
And its only path to survival was to track down and eliminate the second Heavenly Profound Mirror avatar!
...
This was the colossal lie Li Fan had woven, ensnaring both of these female Dao Integration cultivators and the Heavenly Profound Mirror avatar alike.
Admittedly, under careful scrutiny, the tale had many holes. But as long as he extracted information regarding the Heavenly Profound Mirror's human avatar from Xuan Suchang's mouth, it would not matter in the slightest even if the falsehood were later exposed.
*A pity that all information concerning the Heavenly Profound Mirror seems encrypted, impossible to browse directly from the divine soul. Otherwise, I wouldn't have needed to go to the trouble of concocting such an elaborate lie,* Li Fan mused to himself.
Not long after the cognitive alterations were complete, Xuan Suchang and Lu Xichan slowly regained consciousness.
Seeing Li Fan, the two reacted in starkly different ways.
Lu Xichan shuddered, instinctively ducking her head as she blurted out in a low voice, "Master..."
Xuan Suchang, meanwhile, wore a complex expression and remained silent.
Because when this former Chief Formation Master and human avatar of the Heavenly Profound Mirror had come knocking, he had happened to walk in on her intimate affair with Lu Xichan. Though Li Fan had said nothing at the time, both women had been thoroughly mortified.
...
Amid the dead silence, Li Fan was the first to speak: "I've already given you your chance."
"Me or the second avatar—who do you ultimately choose to help?"
A glimmer of murderous intent flashed in his eyes as Li Fan said slowly, "Were it not for Xichan's sake, I would have searched your souls long ago. Did you truly believe those petty tricks in your divine souls could stop me?"
Lu Xichan dared not talk back, scarcely daring to breathe.
As Xuan Suchang assessed her predicament, her expression shifted several times before she finally made her choice.
Chapter 997