Chapter 446: 418: Silently Verifying Longevity
Chapter 446: 418: Silently Verifying Longevity
Anchoring one year, Da Xuan, at the peak of the Dissociative Mountain.
Twenty-year-old Li Fan, standing alone on a mountaintop, backhands clasped, was gazing over the distant Cloud Sea.
The morning sun rose slowly from the east, shedding thousands of rays of light, painting the clouds a brilliant red.
Li Fan’s youthful face, yet his eyes revealed an essence of world-weariness.
“It seems that the passing of three thousand years has not been without its effects on me.”
Li Fan heaved a slight sigh.
The very moment he was brought back to the peak of Dissociative Mountain by the auto-reincarnation,
All the experiences he had been through during his transformation into an object rushed at him like a tidal wave.
The period was even longer than the sum of the hundreds of lives he had experienced since his time travel.
Even though, after transforming into an object, he could not recall every detail as clearly as when he was human.
Even though the vast majority of these three thousand years, he was a solitary object, lying on the ground that had become ruins.
Receiving the memory of the “Array Breaking Jade Disc” in a short time indeed allowed Li Fan to feel the terrifying power of time that grinds away at everything.
Fortunately, after about a day, he had completely eliminated the negative impact it brought and rearranged the history of the Xuanhuang World for more than three thousand years after his downfall.
Some events, such as the struggle between the Mystic Net and cultivators, were anticipated before his transformation into an object.
But he did not expect the Xuanhuang World to perish in merely a thousand years.
“What happened after the [Heaven Covering Association] got the blueprint of the Tianxuan Spirit Locking Array?”
“Ideally, no matter how fierce the battle was, there should be one side that would win, albeit miserably. How come it seems like they both perished together?”
At this thought, Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a little helpless.
At the crucial moment, the lights were turned off by that boy Han Wuyou.
Cutting off centuries of information.
“However, I can’t blame him.”
“Facing the imminent battle between the Heaven Covering Association and the Mystic Net, the Array Breaking Jade Disc I sent as an old friend was disconcerting in every way. It even knew about the extremely confidential Spirit-locking Formation blueprint.”
“It was indeed something that needed to be guarded against.”
“By then, he had become a God Transforming cultivator, no longer the naive youth of the past. The final battle was even more about the life and death of many members of the Heaven Covering Association.”
“It was reasonable to choose to seal me.”
“Seeing that I owe it to ‘The Hundred Forms Technique of the Crucible,’ I’ll let it slide.”
Li Fan smiled slightly and reached out to catch a black-feathered, red-tailed bird from a tree on the mountain peak.
Spiritual energy circulated throughout his body and closed his eyes for a moment of contemplation.
Half a day later, Li Fan suddenly opened his eyes.
He released the bird and took a deep breath.
A golden glow instantly enveloped his whole body. In the light, Li Fan’s body began to shrink.
In just a short while, a bird looking exactly like the previous one appeared on the peak of the Dissociative Mountain.
And there was no trace of a cultivator’s aura.
Even the black-feathered, red-tailed bird considered Li Fan a fellow species and curiously flew closer for inspection.
“That boy, Han Wuyou, truly has an extraordinary talent. As a Golden Core Stage cultivator, he can comprehend such divine techniques from ‘The Immortal Scripture of the Heavenly Physician.’”
Li Fan sighed as he returned to his original form.
The sudden transformation scared the black-feathered, red-tailed bird away.
Once the soul entered the object, it was tempered with the heart’s blood of Han Wuyou’s cultivation.
Li Fan developed a magical connection with Han Wuyou.
Allowing him to observe and experience the world through Han Wuyou’s eyes, even if only a smidgen of his True Spirit remained.
Thus, after Han Wuyou came to comprehend and practise the “Hundred Forms Technique of the Crucible”, Li Fan, who was also very familiar with “The Immortal Scripture of the Heavenly Physician”, mastered this amazing technique as well.
“It’s a pity that his character changed with the increase in age and abilities, especially after the tragic deaths of people like Xiao Heng. Even the [Array Breaking Jade Disc] that he carried with him since childhood was guarded with caution.”
“Subsequently, I was unable to synchronise and perceive the God Transformation Technique.”
“However, even if I knew, it would probably be futile, as ‘The Secret Technique of Transcending Tribulations in a Chaotic World’ is under the control of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.”
Li Fan shook his head, refocusing his thoughts on the future of the Xuanhuang World’s history.
“Up until year 711, right before I was sealed, it seemed like multiple things had happened.”
“However, they can essentially be categorised into two.”
“One category involves events destined to occur according to the established historical trajectory of the Xuanhuang World.”
“For instance, in year 51, Immortal Lan Yu’s failure to prove longevity.”
Recalling Lan Yu’s echo of “Who was it” across Heaven and Earth before his complete disappearance, Li Fan couldn’t help but furrow his brows slightly.
“Another example would be, where over the centuries, the anomalies within the Xuanhuang World become increasingly rampant. Even later, it rose to the extent of mass producing [Heavenshatter Arrows].”
“I wonder if the eventual destruction of the Xuanhuang World is in any way related to these anomalies.”
“Also, there were those cultivators from the Alliance of in Ten Thousand Immortals who emerged from the Element Devouring White Fog, appearing to live even though they were dead…”
“Hmm?”
Li Fan suddenly paused.
“Both Lan Yu’s failure in proving to be immortal and the emergence of the deceased cultivators not knowing their death from the white mist…”
“Could it be…”
A glint flashed within Li Fan’s eyes.
“Back in the twelfth hour, I learned from the Black-robed Unity-Path’s mouth that Immortal Lan Yu had set up the [Grand Array of Rebirth through Elemental Consumption] in an attempt to reverse the Principle of Life and Death, thereby proving his longevity.”
“From the outcome seen later, he ultimately failed.”
“There are two interpretations to his question, “Who was it?”. One possibility is that someone disrupted Lan Yu’s attempt to defy the logic of Heaven and Earth.”
“Another is….”
Li Fan squinted his eyes, “The Principle of Life and Death has been reversed by someone. Another person has taken over the path to proving to be immortal, and Lan Yu earnestly regretted his previous ignorance.”
“In this world, there are only a few who become Immortal Sovereigns. Lan Yu, being a veteran Unity-Path, would not be unaware of how they ascended.”
“In this case, there is an enormously powerful being in this world who became an Immortal Sovereign while everyone was kept in the dark?”
This hypothesis seemed incredulous even to Li Fan.
Immediately followed by sighs, “In order to launch the Grand Array of Rebirth through Elemental Consumption, Lan Yu did not hesitate to take the lives of countless cultivators in Yuandao State as sacrifices.”
“Unexpectedly, he himself was unable to escape the fate of being manipulated by the most formidable being.”
“Immortal Sovereign…”
“The thoughts and desires of such powerful beings are truly mysterious and indeterminable.”
“In my previous life, the battles between [Mystic Net] and the cultivators were fierce, but the Immortal Sovereigns seemed to have vanished collectively, never appearing from beginning to end.”
“Even when the cultivators were nearly exterminated, they remained indifferent.”
As for why this happened, Li Fan had made some guesses.
The key lies in the towering golden pyramids constructed all over the Xuanhuang World after the [Mystic Net]’s governance.
The pyramid shot beam of light up into the sky four times successively.
Li Fan speculated that the Sky Alliance may have been trying to use the propulsion of the golden pyramid to tear the entire Xuanhuang World away from the influence of the [Immortal Ruins].