Chapter 1140: The Young Dharma Spreader
Chapter 1140: The Young Dharma Spreader
Wu Ninglu accepted the jade talisman Li Fan handed her, a wordless question lingering on her lips.
"It's only three hundred years," Li Fan remarked with a casual wave. "I'll be going now."
He offered no further explanation.
The jade talisman he had given Wu Ninglu was more than just a communication device; at its core, it was a condensed micro-array.
It contained a sliver of Li Fan’s soul.
While it allowed him to keep a constant watch over Wu Ninglu, its primary purpose was to serve as his eyes and ears in the outside world, keeping him informed of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's movements.
Infused with the essence of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, this sliver of soul could lie dormant within the mirror itself, monitoring the Alliance's affairs.
After all, during his time guarding the Deduction Jade, he might be in a state of complete isolation, unable to even use the Heavenly Profound Mirror freely.
With Li Fan's current power, this sliver of his soul possessed combat prowess nearly on par with an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator.
Its only drawback was that, unlike a normal cultivator, it couldn't recover its strength after a battle.
Without replenishment from his main body, every ounce of power it expended was gone for good.
As for the friend Li Fan had mentioned to Wu Ninglu...
That was, of course, the creation from his Holy Blood Embryo Transformation.
However, without the infusion from the True Immortal’s Web and Source Power Essence, the holy embryo had only just managed to break through to the Qi Refining stage.
Li Fan had sent it to the Heavenly Sword Sect Ruins, where it was currently in the process of subduing the Black Sword, a Heaven's Wonder.
Given his past experiences, there would be no issues. It was simply a task that required time and patience.
...
The head of the Sun family, Sun Luyuan, had been a Dao Integration cultivator for over five hundred years.
In his youth, he too had once guarded the Deduction Jade.
As they traveled together to the Myriad Immortals Alliance headquarters, he began to explain the details of the "job" to Li Fan.
"The Deduction Jade is the very foundation of our Alliance. Don't be fooled by its location within the headquarters, thinking it's perfectly safe. In truth, we must remain constantly vigilant against underhanded schemes."
"Over the past millennium, the Five Elders Council has orchestrated no fewer than three operations targeting the Deduction Jade. They devise all sorts of methods to get close to it, then use a technique called an 'evil curse' to launch an attack against its mind and will."
"The Deduction Jade... she..."
"Her defenses against such attacks are virtually nonexistent. A successful strike means at least a century of stagnation. The last time the Five Elders Council succeeded, the Alliance suffered catastrophic losses. Yet, we couldn't make the matter public. The only sign was that the exchange price for techniques in the Heavenly Profound Mirror nearly doubled. Grievances echoed throughout the Alliance, and discontent was rampant..." Sun Luyuan recalled the events of his youth, shaking his head faintly.
"So, your assignment is not as simple as it seems."
"Family Head, what would happen if, during my term, I failed to stop one of these malicious attacks and the Deduction Jade was damaged?" Li Fan asked.
Sun Luyuan's steps came to a sudden halt.
He turned to look at Li Fan, paused for a moment, and then said, "In any case, our promise still stands. We will take good care of Ninglu. You can go without worry."
Li Fan was rendered speechless.
He hadn't realized before, but this Sun Luyuan possessed a rather dark sense of humor.
Amidst a flicker of light and shadow, Li Fan found himself once again at the Myriad Immortals Alliance headquarters.
Just as before, a vision materialized before his eyes.
Only...
This time, it was different from the statue of the Dharma Spreader he had seen previously.
Upon an endless stretch of fields, wisps of cooking smoke curled gently into the air. On the roof of one of the farmhouses lay a simple and honest-looking youth.
His eyes were vacant as he stared at the sky, seemingly lost in thought.
"Goudan, come down for dinner!"
The scene ended abruptly there.
As he broke free from the vision, Li Fan couldn't help but feel a flicker of astonishment.
Sun Luyuan, assuming he was simply awestruck by the incredibly vivid illusion, began to explain, "The Alliance headquarters holds a lingering trace of the Dharma Spreader's aura, so..."
Li Fan was, of course, aware of this.
He was pondering something else entirely.
"That simple-looking youth named Goudan..."
"Was that the Dharma Spreader in his youth?"
He replayed the image in his mind. There was indeed a faint resemblance to the elderly Dharma Spreader.
"Could it be that the Dharma Spreader was a native, born and raised in the Xuanhuang Realm?"
"No."
Li Fan reviewed the short scene several more times.
"The face of this 'Goudan'... there's no way it could belong to the man who would one day dominate the Xuanhuang Realm for an entire era."
"That look of confusion in his eyes, and the immense turning point his life would later take... it feels more like..."
A single word surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
Transmigration.
"If my previous theory is correct, then this young man named Goudan must have been the vessel for the Heavenly Doctor's soul transmigration."
"He came from the Tianfa Realm, his consciousness dormant from birth, only awakening years later."
"Was this his method for evading the pursuit of the Ten Great Immortal Sects and the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao?"
Just as Li Fan himself was now seen by the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao as a bona fide native cultivator.
In his time, no matter how the outside world investigated, the Dharma Spreader had never exposed his true origins.
Li Fan still didn't understand the precise mechanism behind so-called "transmigration."
But he was certain it was fundamentally different from simple possession.
"Using some secret art, he pulled off a grand deception, reincarnating as a native of the Xuanhuang Realm."
Li Fan's thoughts slowly turned.
Just as he was deep in contemplation, Sun Luyuan casually asked what vision he had seen.
Li Fan naturally replied that he had seen the familiar statue of the Dharma Spreader.
Sun Luyuan nodded slightly. "It seems your future achievements, Lu'er, are destined to surpass my own."
Before Li Fan could ask, he explained, "The vision each cultivator sees upon their first visit is different."
"It is said to be deeply connected to one's fundamental Dao path. As we all know, every cultivation technique in this world originates from the Dharma Spreader. Therefore, the closer one's vision is to the Heavenly Venerate himself, the more limitless their future prospects."
"Rumor has it that a true genius might even witness the scene of his first discourse on the Dao..." Sun Luyuan said with no small amount of envy.
Li Fan, however, fell into silent contemplation, a sudden sense of alarm rising within him.
His power had surged so rapidly that he had just glimpsed a scene from the Dharma Spreader's childhood.
If he were to grow any stronger, he feared he might directly alert the Dharma Spreader's remnant aura.
The two of them traveled through the void space of the Alliance headquarters via arrays.
Soon, they arrived at the headquarters of the Guardian Hall.
"Follow me," Sun Luyuan instructed softly, forming a quick hand seal.
An invisible force field instantly enveloped both him and Li Fan.
The spiritual power in Li Fan's body, which had been suppressed by the Spirit Transformation Stones underfoot, began to flow actively once more.
"It has some suppressive effect on me, but it's not as pronounced as it would be for a lower-realm cultivator," Li Fan noted internally.
"If a fight were to break out, I would still be unrivaled among those at the Dao Integration stage."
With a sense of calm, Li Fan followed Sun Luyuan into the Guardian Hall.
This was not the waiting area he had accessed before with the Audience Jade Token.
This was the true heart of the Guardian Hall.
A round dome arched high overhead, densely packed with countless points of light that shimmered like a sea of stars.
(End of Chapter)
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