Chapter 1319: The Shortcut to Proving the Dao
Chapter 1319: The Shortcut to Proving the Dao
The crew of the Mysterious Immortal Boat found Li Fan's request perfectly reasonable.
However, they also made a demand of their own: "The True Immortal Scripts are the highest secret of the Immortal Boat. Though we are in the desolate depths of the Star Sea, we must still guard against prying eyes and eavesdroppers."
"Therefore, we must also set up an array here!"
Li Fan smiled. "As you wish. If you find setting up the array too strenuous, I can lend a hand."
The elders of the Immortal Boat snorted coldly, ignoring Li Fan's jest.
Working together, they established another layer of formations within the "illusion array" Li Fan had created. Only when they felt it was completely foolproof did the formal exchange begin.
"I am Jian Daosheng. Please, enlighten me!" Without any further pleasantries, Jian Daosheng, the Chief of the Immortal Boat's Immortal Pivot Academy, solemnly inscribed a True Immortal Script Character on the spot.
Perhaps intending to quell Li Fan's arrogance and seize the initiative, the True Immortal Script he chose was anything but simple. In his previous life, Li Fan had never encountered it during his studies on the Immortal Boat, not even after becoming Ai Tianjue's disciple and practically a core member.
This True Immortal Script brought more than just a change from darkness to light. Under its radiance, it actually brought a sliver of life to the deathly still, darkest Star Sea!
"A True Immortal Script with a positive effect?" Li Fan's heart stirred, and his expression immediately turned serious.
He paid no mind to Jian Daosheng's rather smug expression, focusing his entire being, his entire consciousness, on the True Immortal Script before him.
With Li Fan's current understanding, especially after glimpsing [Creation] and the mysterious character that forged the bloodline of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate, his ability to analyze True Immortal Scripts was practically unmatched in the darkest Star Sea.
He carefully perceived the character, which shifted and flowed intermittently yet remained as constant as the sun hanging high above. In the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the original meaning of this True Immortal Script emerged in his mind.
[Rising Sun].
Like the sun rising in the east, vital energy resonating, all things reviving...
These and many other phenomena combined to form this special True Immortal Script.
"So that's how it is."
Upon completing the analysis of the [Rising Sun] character, Li Fan also resolved a question that had long lingered in his mind.
How exactly did the Mysterious Immortal Boat manage to survive the destruction of the Star Sea until now?
At first, Li Fan had assumed it was thanks to the Immortal Boat's divine tree, formed from the Transformation Seed. But after spending a few years on the boat, he gradually realized something was amiss.
The divine tree needed a constant supply of energy from wonders like the Zhudao giants and Human Emperor Rabbits to provide sufficient power for the boat. This indicated that the tree alone was not enough to offset the energy consumption of the Immortal Boat's normal operations.
For nearly ten thousand years, the tree had not always been absorbing external energy. During these fallow periods, what ensured its vigorous growth?
Moreover, the environment inside the Immortal Boat—warm and teeming with life, almost like a normal cultivation world—wasn't something a mere divine tree from beyond the realm could provide. After all, even the original divine tree of the Divine Wood Sect in the Xuanhuang Realm had never possessed such a miraculous function.
Today, with the reveal of this [Rising Sun] character, the mystery was finally solved.
It was precisely this True Immortal Script, representing the phenomenon of sunrise, that had provided the Immortal Boat with its hospitable living environment for so long.
"This is the very foundation of the Mysterious Immortal Boat's survival, an undeniably priceless treasure. And these people from the Immortal Boat actually brought it out first..."
"It seems they have no intention of letting me leave." Having spent his previous life among them, Li Fan knew the temperament of these elders all too well. They valued the True Immortal Scripts and the future of the Immortal Boat more than their own lives. Yet now, they were willingly sharing a secret so critical to the boat's fate...
Even as a "one-for-one" exchange, it seemed exceedingly strange.
"A pity your plan is doomed to fail. You might be good at stirring up trouble, but if you think you can keep me here... Hmph!"
The array the Immortal Boat elders had jointly created was, in Li Fan's eyes, like child's play, riddled with flaws. Besides, with his peerless escape arts, he was eighty percent confident he could flee with ease even if a True Immortal descended. He naturally had no fear of being besieged by the elders.
Pretending to be completely unaware of their scheme, Li Fan continued to focus on analyzing the [Rising Sun] character.
But as his research deepened, he discovered something was not quite right.
The [Rising Sun] character did indeed represent the phenomenon of the newborn sun. The morning sun is gentle, but that is from the perspective of the Immortal Realm.
For the beings of the lower realms, even the gentle rays of an Immortal Realm sunrise would be unbearable. The descent of the [Rising Sun] character would likely not bring life, but would instead incinerate the world into a fiery hellscape in an instant!
"So, this isn't a True Immortal Script with a purely beneficial effect either. It still represents destruction and chaos. The people of the Immortal Boat have simply turned harm into benefit by reducing the character's integrity and weakening its power."
"Brilliant. Truly worthy of a faction that survived the Great Calamity; they certainly have their methods," Li Fan praised inwardly. Outwardly, however, his expression changed drastically. He swept a cold gaze over the Immortal Boat crew. "Something's not right, is it?"
"This [Rising Sun] character... its integrity is nowhere near ninety percent! Are you taking me for a fool?"
Li Fan looked utterly furious, then his face filled with disappointment. "Forget it. I never expected you to be so untrustworthy. This exchange is canceled!"
The Immortal Boat crew hadn't expected Li Fan to see through the subtleties of the [Rising Sun] character so quickly. Shocked, Jian Daosheng hurriedly explained, "Fellow Daoist, you misunderstand! It wasn't my intention to hide anything. In truth, for us in the lower realms, a [Rising Sun] character with thirty percent integrity is actually more useful than one with higher integrity!"
"Of course, if you insist, it's no trouble to display the complete character."
With that, Jian Daosheng once again inscribed the [Rising Sun] character.
In the void, even with the All-Encompassing Law greatly diminishing the power of the True Immortal Script, Li Fan could still feel the gentle warmth in the surroundings instantly transform into a suffocating heatwave the moment the complete [Rising Sun] character formed. Life vanished in a flash, replaced by a grim, killing intent.
Li Fan committed the complete character to memory, then said, "Alright. I have to admit, you're right."
"Since it was just a misunderstanding, let's continue the exchange!"
Hearing this, the elders of the Immortal Boat all secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Fan cleared his throat to draw everyone's attention. "Everyone, watch closely!"
With strokes as fluid as a dragon's dance, he instantly inscribed the [Fall] character.
The moment the [Fall] character appeared, the expressions of the Immortal Boat elders became rather peculiar, especially Ai Tianjue's.
He stared blankly at the character in the void before him.
He likely never imagined that the True Immortal Script he had studied most deeply would be presented first by the other party.
"The degree of completion... it's far beyond the Immortal Boat's current progress, probably close to ninety percent. This..." A sense of forlorn loss welled up in Ai Tianjue's heart.
In reality, Ai Tianjue didn't know that the [Fall] character Li Fan had just inscribed had not reached ninety percent analysis. Having been taught by the Ai Tianjue from decades in the future of his past life, Li Fan's own analysis of the Fall character was only at about eighty percent.
However, Li Fan had restructured and modified the [Fall] character based on his understanding of [Creation], the mysterious character representing the change between immortal and mortal, and even a hint of the [True False Transformation].
Infused with the aura of a much deeper power, the [Fall] character Li Fan inscribed appeared more "advanced." It seemed even more like the true [Fall] character than the original itself.
Li Fan hadn't been sure if this method would be enough to deceive the Immortal Boat crew. But now, seeing their expressions, he knew it was definitely working.
He sneered inwardly, now even more confident in the smooth execution of his plan.
"Everyone, what do you think of this [Fall] character?" Li Fan asked loudly.
Although they dearly wanted to point out that this Fall character duplicated their own research, their progress was undeniably inferior. And in the short term, the Immortal Boat elders were not capable of raising their comprehension of the Fall character to Li Fan's level.
The elders looked at one another. After a brief discussion, they ultimately decided to swallow this bitter pill.
This time, it was the Immortal Boat's turn again.
Lu Yuzhi of the Broken Immortal Tower inscribed the True Immortal Script [Solitude].
Although Li Fan's own research on this True Immortal Script was still superior to the Immortal Boat's, he decided not to push his advantage too far, wanting to play the long game.
He feigned a mumble, "The character [Solitude] is not uncommon in the Star Sea. But I must admit, our research progress is indeed inferior to yours."
Li Fan cupped his hands. "I have been enlightened!"
This time, the Immortal Boat crew had scored a point.
The elders couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
After all, the Immortal Boat had suffered a significant loss so far in the exchange. This reversal of fortunes was at least a good start.
It was Li Fan's turn, and the [Town] character descended.
This Town character was also derived from the Immortal Boat's research. However, its analysis hadn't even reached one-third completion and was entirely unsystematic.
In his previous life, after teaching this fragmented [Town] character to Sun Tianci, Li Fan had used the boy's extraordinary comprehension to deduce it further.
In this life, he added his own understanding, restructuring and embellishing it to complete the fabrication.
He intended to use this, likewise, to test the elders' level of expertise.
The result...
After some discussion, Zhong Daogong and the others accepted the True Immortal Script Li Fan had provided.
Outwardly, Li Fan remained silent, but inwardly he understood: "It seems the Mysterious Immortal Boat has truly never encountered a [Creation]-level True Immortal Script."
"This top-down imitation and forgery is truly not something they can see through in a short amount of time."
"Of course, given enough time, they might notice some clues..."
As Li Fan mused to himself, the Immortal Boat side revealed another new True Immortal Script.
The moment this character appeared, both the array jointly established by the Immortal Boat crew and the "illusion array" set by Li Fan began to tremble in unison.
As an absolute grandmaster of formations, Li Fan keenly sensed that under the influence of this new True Immortal Script, the most minute units maintaining the arrays' structures were beginning to disintegrate.
Li Fan was instantly alarmed.
He knew that what he had seemingly set up so casually was by no means a simple illusion array.
It was a pseudo-immortal array that integrated downgraded versions of two immortal-grade grand arrays: the [Desolate Fall, Void Room Generates Flowers Array] and the [Immortal Descends, All Things Return to Void Array]!
It concealed a lethal killing intent, capable of silently annihilating any enemy who entered.
Yet an array of this caliber was being affected by a weakened True Immortal Script to the point where its very foundation was damaged...
"If the full power of this True Immortal Script were unleashed, my pseudo-immortal array would likely shatter in an instant." For Li Fan, who considered formations his most important trump card, this thought filled his heart with immense gravity.
While repairing the gradually collapsing formation, he studied this newly appeared True Immortal character.
"Without a doubt, it's an anti-formation special."
"With this True Immortal Script, it's no wonder the Immortal Boat's proficiency in formations is so low."
"It's hard to say if the Immortal Boat is trying to make a show of force by revealing this character to me."
"Just learning of this character has made this trip worthwhile." Li Fan was very satisfied with this part of the exchange.
At the same time, he slowly analyzed the true meaning of the character before him.
[Dissolution].
The moment he comprehended the original meaning of the True Immortal Script, Li Fan thought of his own treasure, the Final Dissociation Disc.
"Perhaps my Dissociation Disc is now similar to the Deduction Jade, a part of the Great Dao's projection from the bottom up."
"Maybe I can try to use the Dissociation Disc to glimpse into this Dao of [Dissolution]."
...
As he mastered more and more True Immortal Scripts, Li Fan gradually discovered that the power lay not in the scripts themselves, but in the Great Daos they pointed to.
The True Immortal Scripts were merely shortcuts, tools to help ordinary people—and even ordinary immortals—touch upon the Great Dao.
"Likewise, World Wonders and Eternal Remnants are similar shortcuts."
"Their essence is, in fact, the same."
"The Inscription Immortal." Li Fan suddenly thought of this Nameless True Immortal who was said to have inscribed thousands of Dao paths, making them more "approachable."
"Paths of the Dao cannot be cultivated simultaneously. Yet this Inscription Immortal was able to understand so many different Great Daos..." It was something that truly surpassed Li Fan's current imagination.
...
Li Fan's fleeting thoughts did not affect the ongoing True Immortal Script exchange in the void.
Li Fan used the characters [Chaos], [Submerge], and [Nothingness], along with [Deceit], which he had learned from the Immortal Boat in his past life.
He nearly emptied the thousands of years of research foundation the Immortal Boat had accumulated on True Immortal Scripts.
Of course, the [Chaos] and [Submerge] characters he presented were not the complete versions he had seen.
They were slightly modified, weakened versions.
Aside from the two characters [Rising Sun] and [Dissolution].
Li Fan also learned two more: [Cold] and [Mourning].
By now, both sides had nearly exhausted their reserves.
The atmosphere of the meeting slowly grew delicate.
"Everyone!"
Li Fan was the first to speak, breaking the deadlock.
"I must admit, your research into the True Immortal Scripts is truly on par with our Great Qi."
"I truly never expected that another civilization of our caliber had survived in the Star Sea..."
Li Fan sighed with emotion.
Suddenly, his expression shifted. "However, there are also ranks among True Immortal Scripts!"
"All the scripts we have exchanged thus far, even combined, probably cannot compare to the one I am about to show you!"
His words were earth-shattering.
The Immortal Boat elders instantly suppressed all their scheming thoughts and stared blankly at Li Fan.
"Fellow Daoist, you cannot make such claims lightly."
(End of this chapter)
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