Chapter 1029: The Way of Usurping Heaven
Chapter 1029: The Way of Usurping Heaven
Li Fan kept these deliberations to himself, not sharing them with Master Qiaogong.
Instead, he simply summoned another Calamity Body to accompany the master craftsman.
It was for Master Qiaogong to use while forging Tianyang's new puppet body.
After giving away these two, Li Fan was left with only a single, half-filled Calamity Body.
The grand design of the Red Dust Compassionate Immortal had been in motion for so long in this life, yet this was all he had to show for it.
This just went to show how exceedingly rare Source Power Essence was.
Master Qiaogong, overjoyed, was about to lead the golden Calamity Body away.
Just then, Li Fan inquired about the exact time it would take to construct an Immortal Puppet.
"I estimate ten years, at the very least," Master Qiaogong ventured, sounding a bit unsure.
"It might take even longer. This is my first opportunity to refine an Immortal Puppet, after all, so I can't be certain."
Master Qiaogong's gaze flickered away, avoiding Li Fan's eyes.
"Ten years..."
"I wonder if I'll even have the chance to see it completed in this lifetime."
Li Fan shook his head slightly and dismissed Master Qiaogong.
It seemed that whenever the "Immortal" level was involved, the required time multiplied a hundred, even a thousandfold.
The same was true for the Final Dissociation Disc as it worked to deduce and crack the seals left behind by the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate.
This wasn't to say the Dharma Spreader had already reached the Immortal realm, but within these seals, Li Fan clearly recognized the operational logic and traces of an Immortal-grade grand array.
"It seems the Dharma Spreader also possessed a legacy from the Immortal World," Li Fan mused. "But due to the absence of immortal spiritual energy, he was forced to carve out a different path."
He continued to ponder thoughtfully.
It made sense, though. The Heavenly Profound Mirror was a relic from the Immortal World. How could any seal capable of restraining an immortal artifact possibly be a mere mortal technique?
As far as Li Fan knew, the only ones who possessed a true Dao lineage from the Immortal World were the Xuantian King and the Tiandu Grandmaster.
He had only suspected it of the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate before, but the nature of the seals on the Heavenly Profound Mirror all but confirmed it.
Among the countless figures throughout the history of the Xuanhuang Realm, there were likely only these three who held a True Immortal's legacy.
And their legacies were only obtained because some unknown calamity had struck the Immortal World, causing the path to ascension to crumble.
Both the Xuantian King and the Tiandu Grandmaster had essentially lucked into their inheritances.
If that calamity had never happened, Li Fan imagined, the mortal world would likely have no True Immortal lineages at all.
In a normal cultivation world, where the path of ascension existed...
...and the Immortal and mortal realms could communicate, such a situation would almost certainly never arise.
"Or perhaps, the emergence of this situation is revealing in itself."
Li Fan's eyes darkened.
...
The gulf between mortal and immortal was as vast as the heavens.
He had expected that once the Dissociation Disc and the Dao Transformation Stone both completed their metamorphosis, cracking the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate's seals would take but the blink of an eye.
In practice, however, it felt like seeing a mountain in the distance only to wear out his horse trying to reach it.
A complete breakthrough seemed just within reach, yet even after the Final Dissociation Disc ran for an extended period, the progress bar hadn't budged an inch.
"This must be an immortal art, designed specifically for sealing."
"Though the 'Mysterious Jade, Myriad Spirits Return to Number' and 'Desolate Fall, Void Room Generates Flowers' arrays are immortal-grade, they offer no insights I can apply here."
"I'll just have to rely on the Dissociation Disc to brute-force it."
A wave of helplessness washed over Li Fan. He kept an eye on the disc's operation but shifted his focus elsewhere for the time being.
With his mind free, Li Fan began to ponder how to swiftly extract the Marrow of Heaven.
He could foresee that when he instigated the clash between the Faceless Immortal and the denizen of the Immortal Ruins to create the conditions for his [Truth] ability...
...the window of opportunity would be fleeting.
It might only last for an instant.
According to his earlier plans, to maximize his gains, he had to simultaneously extract the [World Birthing Change] and accumulate the resources needed to advance to the Soul Transformation stage.
Possessing the Heavenly Profound Mirror's origin fragment, Li Fan had access to many of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's sealed archives.
These included the personal accounts of numerous cultivators who had successfully ascended to the Soul Transformation realm.
Extracting the World Birthing Change was a long and meticulous process.
Li Fan himself had witnessed Zhang Zhiliang absorb the changes in the Cong Yun Sea to ascend to Soul Transformation.
Clearly, it was not something that could be accomplished in a single stroke.
If a single instance of this change was so demanding, what would happen with hundreds, or even thousands?
The only precedent Li Fan could draw upon was how Mr. Bai had once gathered countless Spirits of Heaven and Earth into himself in a single instant.
It was an ability called [Usurpation].
Ordinary cultivators had to be so meticulous when ascending to Soul Transformation because extracting the Marrow of Heaven would inevitably trigger a backlash from the world itself.
If one were an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, however, there would be no heavenly punishment for taking what one needed.
"'Usurpation... to see him is to see me...'"
Li Fan suddenly recalled the ability of Dharma Transmitter Jiang.
A flash of inspiration struck him. Seizing the rare opportunity, he swallowed a handful of Enlightenment Pills.
Scenes from his past cultivation, moments of comprehending the Heavenly Dao, flashed through his mind one by one.
He replayed the entire sequence of events surrounding the Heavenly Dao's incarnation, Mr. Bai, using his Sacred Embryo to descend into the world—the state of the embryo, and every subtle change that had occurred within his own body...
Every detail resurfaced in his mind with perfect clarity.
It was fortunate that the Dao Transformation Stone had just completed its metamorphosis; its previous mid-grade quality would never have withstood such an intense drain.
"That's right. It was a moment of carelessness that allowed the Heavenly Dao, Mr. Bai, to seize the opportunity and possess the embryo."
"But looking at it another way, its body was still my Sacred Embryo. It was, in essence, another version of me."
"It was merely... occupied."
"The incarnation of the Heavenly Dao... is me..."
"And I... am the incarnation of the Heavenly Dao..."
Li Fan's eyes grew increasingly bright, his thoughts churning like a raging sea.
As if possessed, he kept muttering the two phrases over and over.
An outsider, witnessing this scene, would surely have thought Li Fan had suffered a cultivation deviation.
In truth, however, Li Fan's mind had never been clearer.
"It's just like when I used the Ocean Pearl to observe the evolution of the world's killing intent and comprehended the divine ability, [Formless Killing Intent]."
"Mr. Bai, the Heavenly Dao, was born through my Sacred Embryo, and through that, I had the fortune of sharing a body with the Heavenly Dao itself."
Li Fan's gaze seemed to pierce through the sky of the Spirit Wood Realm, reaching all the way to the Xuanhuang Realm.
The myriad faces of existence he had seen through the Heavenly Profound Mirror, the endless transformations of the Xuanhuang Realm witnessed across countless cycles of reincarnation...
All these insights swirled in his mind.
A strange, profound aura began to emanate from him.
He froze on the spot, like a stone statue lost in enlightenment.
An unknown amount of time passed.
At the very last moment, just as he was about to achieve a breakthrough in his understanding, Li Fan's mind suddenly snapped back to clarity.
"Wait. I don't actually want to *become* an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao."
"I just want to borrow its authority..."
"That was close..."
Even with his current mental fortitude, Li Fan couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
If he had truly solidified his connection to the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao—a change he himself had initiated—
he feared it was a change that not even [Truth] could reverse.
After all, [Truth] only altered the world around him; he himself remained unchanged.
"Thankfully, I came to my senses in time."
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