Chapter 61: Once, a Heavenly Being Authored a Codex |
“So… I am the one who came later…”
Li Shun’s mind trembled violently, his thoughts momentarily thrown into disarray. In the next instant, countless scenes surged into his consciousness like a rising tide.
It was as if he had recalled something more.
The two figures in those visions were unmistakably the very stone statues that now stood within the Fangcun space.
And what they had been fighting over… was none other than Fangcun itself.
“So they fought to the death, and I reaped the benefits…”
“So that’s how it was?”
“So Fangcun originally belonged to the world of Great Qian, and I merely stumbled upon it by chance…”
The moment this thought arose, a sudden transformation occurred within the Fangcun space.
The territory that had just expanded through his earlier enlightenment instantly reverted to its original size. Worse still, it showed signs of being further encroached upon by the two stone statues.
It felt as though something precious was being forcibly torn away before his very eyes. An inexplicable surge of pain and fury welled up within Li Shun, snapping him free from the grip of those past memories.
“No… that’s not right!”
The moment he broke free, those vivid memories rapidly lost their color, becoming hollow and distant.
Unreal.
As if they had been forcibly implanted into his mind by an unseen hand.
“…Someone altered my memories without me realizing it?!” Shock and anger flared within Li Shun as he quickly identified the source. It was the complete stone statue within the Fangcun space.
“How dare you!”
“Fangcun is my mind itself! No matter how heaven-defying your abilities may be, once you enter my Fangcun, you will be reduced to puppets!”
“And yet you dare attempt to seize control…”
“Be suppressed!”
A chilling light flashed in Li Shun’s eyes.
As if responding to his will, the entire Fangcun space began to tremble violently. The white mist at its boundaries churned and roared, faint howls echoing from within.
The puppets Li Shun and Fang Xun both opened their eyes simultaneously, turning their gaze toward the central core of the space.
There, the region occupied by Li Shun’s consciousness, roughly one-third of the whole, fell silent for a brief moment, as if gathering strength.
Then, it erupted. With unstoppable force, it surged outward, expanding decisively toward both sides. At the boundaries, where the domains clashed, countless thunderous explosions resounded, like endless bolts of lightning colliding.
Li Shun’s region advanced with overwhelming momentum, pushing forward relentlessly. In contrast, the territories belonging to the two stone statues steadily retreated.
Only after forcibly seizing an additional fifth of their domains did the expansion finally come to a halt.
Gradually, calm returned to the Fangcun space.
At this very moment, when Li Shun once again recalled the scenes that had just surfaced in his mind, they no longer felt like something he had personally experienced.
Instead, it was as if he were reading a novel or watching a film. They were someone else’s story, not his own past.
Li Shun’s gaze fell upon the complete stone statue within the space, and in that instant, he fully understood.
Those images in his mind had indeed been forcefully implanted by the complete statue.
“The half-body statue possesses the divine ability [Threefold Self-Reflection], allowing one to reverse time.”
“And this complete statue… holds the power to turn falsehood into reality, to fabricate existence from the void.”
“It is called…”
“[Heavenly Being Codex].”
After occupying one-fifth of the statue’s domain within the space, and sensing the faint aura it left behind, fragments of information slowly emerged in Li Shun’s mind.
A lingering sense of fear rose within his heart.
“If I hadn’t awakened in time, that fabricated experience would have completely become my memory… even my past.”
“A person’s present is shaped by the sum of their past experiences. If the past itself is altered…”
“Then the entire person would be reshaped.”
“The Heavenly Being Codex… what a terrifying ability.”
The more Li Shun contemplated it, the more alarmed he became.
He could sense that fabricating existence from the void was merely the most insignificant aspect of the Heavenly Being Codex’s power.
“To turn falsehood into reality…”
“If its full potential were unleashed, could it even create an entire world from nothing?”
Li Shun was not certain.
Unlike the damaged state of the Threefold Self-Reflection statue, the Heavenly Being Codex statue remained completely intact.
He could fully utilize the power of Threefold Self-Reflection, but as for the Heavenly Being Codex…
“I still cannot fully wield its abilities.”
“For now, I can only use its power to fabricate existence…”
Li Shun could feel that although the complete statue had been drawn into the Fangcun space and reduced to a puppet, it had not completely ceased resisting.
“It is even trying to turn the tables. Just now, when my mind wavered, it attempted to rewrite my past.”
“If I had truly accepted that Fangcun originally belonged to Great Qian, and that I was merely an outsider, then…”
Li Shun’s consciousness swept across the entire Fangcun space.
“Perhaps the Fangcun space would have truly undergone such a transformation. The Heavenly Being Codex statue would then have gained the foundation to contend with me for ownership.”
In that instant, Li Shun pieced together the entire truth.
“Fortunately, I realized it in time. It tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice.”
Li Shun understood everything at once.
“Fangcun… is my heart.”
Li Shun drew in a deep breath, reaffirming his thoughts with quiet resolve.
“The past fabricated by the Heavenly Being Codex cannot be trusted.”
“But what exactly was my true past? And how did the Threefold Self-Reflection and the Heavenly Being Codex statues end up within Fangcun…”
After pondering for a long time, he still failed to uncover even the slightest trace in his memories.
In the end, he could only set the matter aside for now.
“These two stone statues, in life, both possessed heaven-shaking, earth-shattering divine abilities.”
“Though I have, in a single stroke, turned them into puppets, I am still far too weak. While I can rely on Fangcun’s mysterious nature to directly wield their powers…”
“I have yet to truly suppress them.”
Li Shun cast a glance beyond the central core region, toward [Li Shun] and [Fang Xun].
“One day, when my will fully occupies the central core, and I push them out to the periphery, that will mark true subjugation.”
“I’ll begin with Threefold Self-Reflection.”
In the past, whenever Li Shun activated Threefold Self-Reflection, he relied entirely on the power of the stone statue itself.
As a result, each use left the statue heavily damaged, requiring a large amount of Lengshan Grass to restore it.
But now, having occupied one-fifth of the statue’s space, Li Shun seemed to have gained a faint understanding of the divine ability for himself.
“With this trace of my own comprehension mixed in, the damage to the statue after activating Threefold Self-Reflection should be significantly reduced.”
“When I took Li Shun and Fang Xun as puppets, I inherited all of their memories and experiences in full. But these two stone statues are different.”
“Opening up the space they occupy can essentially be seen as undergoing that same process.”
Li Shun’s thoughts turned steadily, greedily absorbing the streams of information emerging within his mind.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
Mausoleum Calendar, Sixth Month, Eighteenth Day.
In the real world, Li Shun opened his eyes, a strange glint flashing within them.
“The Heavenly Being Codex…”
After two days of secluded cultivation, he had finally managed to grasp, albeit barely, how to activate this divine ability.
Although he still relied primarily on the puppet statue’s power, there was now a trace of his own understanding woven into it.
“The Heavenly Being Codex fabricates false pasts out of nothing. There is a risk of others seeing through it…”
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