Chapter 1271: When the False is Also True
Chapter 1271: When the False is Also True
After casually eliminating Sun Luyao, Li Fan's avatar remained standing silently in the mysterious space, his expression stern as he was lost in thought.
"[Truth]... [Truth]... [Truth]..." he chanted endlessly in his mind.
The surrounding scene blurred, fading into darkness.
A moment later, the space brightened once more.
"When truth is taken for falsehood, falsehood becomes truth."
Seven large characters appeared before Li Fan, radiating a calm, seemingly eternal brilliance.
It was the phrase that materialized every time he activated [Truth]. After hundreds of cycles, he was intimately familiar with it.
But now, in the eyes of the man who had just uncovered the deepest secrets of the Xuanhuang Realm's primordial protection array, those seven characters held an entirely new meaning.
After a long moment, a low, sinister laugh escaped Li Fan's lips once more.
Undeniably, the tip of the iceberg revealed by the primordial protection array had shown him a certain possibility.
It was a possibility that sent a chill through his very core, one difficult to accept.
"Real... false."
"Who is real, and who is false?"
"Yes, none of it truly matters. As long as I control the one and only button, *I* am the one who is real!"
"I am the only one!"
The madness in Li Fan's eyes gradually receded, and the pitch-black depths of his pupils slowly regained their light.
He once again resembled the Grand Preceptor Li from long ago, the man who held the imperial court in the palm of his hand.
When the very cornerstone of reality was shaken to its core, threatening to collapse.
When the line between the real and the illusory became impossible to distinguish, impossible to verify.
The only thing left to do was to cling tightly to the one, unchanging anchor.
[Truth] might, in its essence, transcend the arrangements the Immortal Realm made for the lower worlds, but it could just as easily be a component of the very apparatus they left behind.
For Li Fan, at his current stage, this was an unverifiable possibility.
He had even tried to determine the true scope of [Truth]'s influence by guiding variables beyond the Darkest Star Sea.
But now, it occurred to him that the additional variables beyond the High Wall might have been deliberately presented for the reconstructed world to see *after* [Truth] was used.
The truth was impossible to ascertain.
But...
Regardless of whether this was truly his predicament, Li Fan had one thing to be immensely grateful for: the "reboot" button, the sole constant amidst infinite variables, had always been in his hands.
Therefore, finding the answer to this puzzle required the same path he had always walked: the arduous pursuit of eternal life and true freedom.
Reboot after reboot, he would use the infinite variables born from the Xuanhuang Realm, the Darkest Star Sea, and even beyond to nourish his own existence.
To achieve transcendence.
And if he discovered any other being who could contend with him for control of that button, he would simply kill them.
When he reached the ultimate truth of all things, the answer would naturally reveal itself.
For now, another obstacle stood in his path, joining the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor.
This was an unknown entity, perhaps an even greater threat, that was impossible to ignore and demanded an urgent solution.
The mysterious person who had stolen the Nine Stars Red Pearl, one of the cores of the Xuanhuang primordial protection array.
"The Nine Stars Red Pearl must contain the records of every characteristic of every living being in the Xuanhuang Realm before the protection array was destroyed. With that pearl in hand, it wouldn't be difficult for them to reach the same conclusion I have."
"Given the immense disparity in power, a wise person would choose to hide until they found a way to counter me."
"Or perhaps, once they confirm that the Immortal Realm has truly fallen, holding such a divine artifact would inevitably kindle an unprecedented ambition, prompting them to begin laying their own plans in the shadows."
Li Fan's gaze swept across the now-empty core of the formation.
"Perhaps I can find some clues in the other cores of the primordial array."
However, with the spirit of the Immeasurable Mirror now destroyed, he lacked the means to continue the search.
He would have to wait for the next life.
Li Fan's avatar shook his head slightly, his form dissolving into a black streak that vanished from the underground space.
...
The Sun family's secret chamber.
An inexplicable sorrow had suddenly surged within Sun Luyuan, bringing tears to his eyes and compelling him to rush back at full speed. Bursting into the secret chamber, his eyes fell upon the silently floating and intensely familiar Immeasurable Mirror, and he couldn't help but release a sigh of relief.
"Little brother?"
Sun Luyuan called out softly.
Sun Luyao's figure promptly emerged from the Immeasurable Mirror. "Brother, were you looking for me?"
"What's wrong?" Sun Luyao asked, a hint of curiosity in his voice.
Sun Luyuan's mind suddenly swam, a sense of unreality washing over him.
For some reason, although the figure before him was identical to the one in his memories, he couldn't shake an overwhelming feeling of unfamiliarity.
Sun Luyuan stood stunned for a long while.
After a moment, he finally spoke, his voice distant. "It's nothing. I must be exhausted lately, getting paranoid."
Concern flickered in Sun Luyao's eyes. "Brother, you must take care of yourself. The future of the Sun family rests on your shoulders."
Sun Luyuan managed a smile.
After offering a few more words of care, he left the secret chamber.
What Sun Luyuan didn't see was that this Sun Luyao didn't do what he had always done before: watch his brother's retreating back until he was out of sight.
Instead, the expression on his face vanished in an instant, and without a trace of sentiment, he retreated back into the Immeasurable Mirror.
The moment the real Sun Luyao died, the wisp of spiritual sense he had left behind was severed from its source.
Integrated into a counterfeit Immeasurable Mirror, it had become a mere automaton, capable only of mechanical responses.
And though its responses were convincingly realistic, it was, in the end, not a true living being.
Not the real Sun Luyao.
Soon after, Li Fan's avatar returned, carrying the empty shell of the Immeasurable Mirror.
"If there's no artifact spirit, I'll simply create one myself."
Li Fan summoned the wisp of Sun Luyao's lingering consciousness, and after observing it carefully, he made a cold decision.
This wisp of spiritual sense contained all of Sun Luyao's memories from before his death.
It was his personality, his very way of thinking.
Theoretically, it was entirely possible to "resurrect" him.
"Although I lack treasures like the Indeterminate Copper Ring or the Nine Stars Red Pearl..."
"...I don't need to consider a physical body. This is merely the true recreation of a spiritual sense, which makes the actual process much simpler."
Recalling the intricate details of the array, and with the continuous deductions of the Final Dissociation Disc, a simplified version of a portion of the primordial protection array slowly took shape.
"Fabrication... the Myriad States of All Beings."
"That's a rather fitting name."
Following the naming convention of the three immortal-grade arrays he had already mastered, Li Fan gave this new formation its name.
He then began his attempt to "create" and "resurrect" Sun Luyao.
To be safe, Li Fan first split Sun Luyao's lingering consciousness into several portions and stored them away.
He then took one of these portions and placed it into the simplified fabrication array.
An incomparably profound and mysterious aura began to emanate from the array.
As the array slowly activated, Sun Luyao's figure reappeared amidst a pearlescent white glow.
There was a new light of intelligence in his eyes, and his communication with Li Fan was perfectly smooth.
In the span of a few breaths, their spiritual senses communicated tens of millions of times without revealing a single flaw.
But Li Fan still shook his head, dissatisfied, and destroyed it.
"Too perfect," he murmured. "So perfect that it seems fake."
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