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Chapter 1351: The Sage Who Acts for Heaven

"It's like a vast reservoir hidden beneath a desert, painstakingly collecting every single drop of water that has seeped down over millions of years."

"Then one day, when the time is right, a torrential downpour descends, drenching the desert in life-giving rain. At that moment, the subterranean reservoir will unleash its stored waters, surging upwards to scour the entire landscape. In concert with the great forces of heaven and earth, it will utterly reshape the desert, transforming the endless sands into a boundless marshland in the blink of an eye!"

"This is a power capable of remaking the very world!"

Li Fan's eyes glinted, as if trying to pierce through the calm surface of the river of life and uncover the secrets hidden in its depths. But as he had suspected, the river's creator was undoubtedly a being far beyond the mortal plane. Its design, which was clearly not based on any formation he knew, was simply beyond his current ability to comprehend.

The turbulent currents, stirred by Bai Hua's absorption of life force, gradually subsided.

Even as it returned to a state of complete stillness, Li Fan's scrutiny yielded no new insights.

Yin Shangren and Bai Hua found themselves in the same predicament.

It was just like the High Wall—laid bare before them, open to every method of scrutiny they could devise, yet its secrets remained utterly impenetrable.

The three of them stood in silence above the river of life, lost in thought for a long while.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Li Fan shook his head slightly. "The ancients spoke of gazing at the ocean and sighing at its immensity. Today, we gaze upon this river and feel our ambitions drain away."

"The secrets here are beyond our current ability to uncover. Xu Ke is lost somewhere within this place; we can only hope that fate smiles upon him."

He had initially thought finding Xu Ke would be a simple matter, something to handle in passing. Who could have known that beneath the Realm Fragment Great Wall lay a chasm that stretched across the entire Star Sea?

And so, the plan had to change.

In truth, if Li Fan were to persist, using the Transformation Dao Stone's recording ability and the Wooden Sword's phantom for traversal, he might well be able to map the entirety of this star-sea chasm. But the priority for this lifetime remained the ascension of the Xuanhuang Realm.

The life force contained within the chasm was immense; even drawing a fraction of it to fuel the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension would be more than sufficient, and the regions he had already surveyed would serve that purpose perfectly.

"Sage Teacher, I plan to stay here for the time being," Bai Hua said after a moment's hesitation.

"The life force here will be invaluable for reviving the Wansheng Realm. Though I can only draw a small amount each time, with persistence, I can restore my home to life in half a year at most!"

Li Fan fixed his gaze on Bai Hua, his eyes seemingly piercing through her physical form to the miniature world that lay at her very core.

"Even if you succeed, I fear not all of your people will return to life," Li Fan noted with a frown.

Li Fan could see it clearly: the Wansheng Realm and all its inhabitants had been refined by Bai Hua into a state resembling golden, glazed crystal.

Even if she could wash them with this surging life force and restore them from that crystalline state...

...it was impossible to say how many souls could actually endure such a profound transformation.

But Bai Hua's gaze was resolute. "I can only do my best and leave the rest to fate. Before, there was no hope of reviving my world. Now that such a perfect opportunity is before me, how could I possibly ignore it?"

Seeing her determination, Li Fan did not try to dissuade her.

Just then, Yin Shangren also spoke up. "Like Bai Hua, I do not wish to leave anytime soon."

Li Fan raised an eyebrow. "Is this life force useful to you as well?"

Yin Shangren shook his head. "No. It's just... near this river of life, I feel an unparalleled sense of peace. The remnant souls of worlds that would occasionally surface in my consciousness have all fallen silent here..."

Li Fan was taken aback by his reasoning.

"Very well. If you find yourself with time to spare, you might as well search for Xu Ke. Finding him would be ideal, but if you cannot, don't force the matter. Your safety is paramount."

"The ascension of the Xuanhuang Realm is a long-term project; a delay of half a year is of little consequence. You may both remain here. I will return for you in six months," Li Fan told them.

The two bowed their heads in acknowledgment, bidding him farewell.

Li Fan took a step forward, and the phantom of the Wooden Sword materialized around him.

A moment later, a strange ripple of power manifested around him.

It was the Ascension Array!

The majestic power, reminiscent of a cultivator ascending to a higher realm and climbing the heavenly gates, forced Yin Shangren and Bai Hua to retreat and take shelter from its overwhelming presence.

Before their eyes, Li Fan's physical position hadn't changed at all.

Yet they could feel, with absolute certainty, that he was growing more and more distant, becoming ever more...

...elevated.

The phantom of Li Fan, standing within the Wooden Sword's outline, gradually faded into nothingness.

It finally dimmed completely, vanishing from their sight.

"Such power..."

Yin Shangren watched, mesmerized, and couldn't help but remark, "If the Sage Teacher doesn't return for us in six months, we might be trapped here for the rest of our lives."

Bai Hua did not argue, merely adding, "Though this place is suffused with life force. We won't have to worry about perishing while we wait."

Then she turned her gaze back to the placid river of life, waiting for the next opportunity to draw from its power.

...

The Realm Fragment Great Wall.

Just outside the node that led to the sunken chasm.

Without any warning, Li Fan's figure abruptly materialized.

The instant he returned to the Star Sea, he deactivated the Ascension Array and used the Wooden Sword's phantom to teleport away from the vicinity of the node.

In the space of a few breaths, he had gone from the lowest depression back to the normal elevation of the Star Sea. This rapid shift in existential altitude subjected his body and soul to a violent shock.

Blood sprayed as his skin split apart in a network of fine cracks. His soul felt as if it had been compressed and crushed under the weight of a thousand rolling boulders.

Even with Li Fan's profound foundation, his face turned deathly pale for a moment.

"That was akin to a partial ascension," he mused. "Ascending from a lower-tiered world to the Star Sea as it is now."

"The shock was already this severe. One can only imagine the ordeals of a true ascension."

"Without the protection of immortal energy, an ordinary cultivator would have no chance of surviving it."

In the few breaths it took for these thoughts to cross his mind, his injuries had already healed completely.

He did not leave immediately, but instead stood gazing at the magnificent spectacle beneath the High Wall.

The invisible High Wall, the sprawling Realm Fragment Great Wall, and the endless chasm at the very bottom of the Star Sea.

They intertwined into a dreamlike, hazy, and profoundly mysterious vista.

Even though Li Fan's power was approaching the pinnacle of this Star Sea, the cosmos before him remained shrouded in mystery.

It was even possible that the stronger he became and the more he discovered, the deeper his confusion would grow.

Until, one day, he broke through some ultimate limit.

And all would finally be revealed.

Li Fan took one last, deep look at the cosmic spectacle, then the phantom of the Wooden Sword unsheathed, and he sped away toward the Xuanhuang Realm.

"There's no rush to deal with the Immortal Boat's ritual. Accomplishing it too quickly would only arouse suspicion."

"However, as the plan progresses, it is time to formally begin cultivating this era's Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate."

The vast amount of immortal energy required for the Xuanhuang ascension plan could only be summoned by the one who inherited the title of Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.

The position of Great Heavenly Venerate was still bound by the ancient constraints of the former Immortal World.

The memory of Sun Tianci's untimely death in the previous life was still vivid, a stark reminder that Li Fan himself could not take on the role and its inherent dangers.

Fortunately, in this life, he no longer needed to create another prodigy like Sun Tianci, one born already at the Dao Integration stage.

His phantom avatars had been preaching day and night across multiple mortal worlds.

And they had already identified a suitable candidate.

Li Fan's form flickered, and he arrived in a small, nameless mortal world.

In terms of scale, this world was insignificant compared to the Great Qi or the Great Li, and it was even a far cry from the Spirit Wood Realm.

A single mountain range, composed of thirteen peaks, constituted the entirety of this world.

It was less a world and more a small-scale grotto-heaven.

And yet, within this tiny mortal world—one that even a Foundation Establishment cultivator might overlook—Li Fan sensed the faint stirrings of a nascent world consciousness, a Heavenly Dao.

He also sensed a boy there, one whose disposition was of the utmost purity and simplicity.

Perhaps because the world was so small, its human inhabitants found it incredibly difficult to procreate.

As a result, the population remained consistently low.

To them, the resources of the mountains seemed practically infinite.

With so few people scattered across the thirteen peaks, everyone knew one another, and conflicts were rare.

They spent most of their days at leisure.

Inevitably, the people here grew curious about the world beyond their mountains.

But, much like the denizens of the Star Sea trapped within the High Wall...

...they could never leave the confines of their world in their entire lifetime.

There was one such boy who, from the day he learned to walk, would often climb to the world's highest peak.

Standing alone on the summit, he would gaze out over his tiny world.

The entire thirteen-peak range stretched out before him.

Then, he would lie on the ground and quietly watch the sky.

Li Fan had observed this boy before.

While he climbed and looked out, his mind would still be filled with various thoughts.

But once he lay down and met the gaze of the sky...

...his consciousness would fall into an almost absolute void, his thoughts settling into perfect stillness.

If Li Fan hadn't been able to sense his life force, he would have almost mistaken him for dead.

After all, when a living being exists in the world, its interactions with its surroundings inevitably give rise to thought.

Only a select few, either by a stroke of fortune or through innate talent, could ever achieve such a state of thoughtless, conscious emptiness.

And yet, this state—a prize sought by cultivators but rarely found—was the boy's natural condition.

Furthermore...

This Thirteen Peaks World was simply too small.

And yet, through some happy accident, it had given birth to its own Heavenly Dao consciousness.

Among its very limited population, the boy's daily ritual of lying at the world's highest point to gaze at the sky naturally drew the attention of this fledgling Heavenly Dao.

But the consciousness of the Thirteen Peaks World was itself still in an infantile, budding state.

It approached him out of pure, instinctual curiosity.

And so, the boy's soul, like a blank sheet of paper, began to slowly take an impression of the Heavenly Dao that drew near.

The imprint left by the world's Heavenly Dao upon his soul did not affect the boy's own nature in the slightest.

He continued his daily pilgrimage to the summit to watch the sky.

And all the while, unbeknownst to him, the Heavenly Dao's consciousness descended with growing familiarity, deepening its imprint.

...

Li Fan had observed countless people and countless small worlds.

He had to admit that this was nothing short of an unrepeatable miracle.

"He is like a man, yet like Heaven; like Heaven, yet truly a man. A union of Heaven and humanity, where man has captured the very wonder of Heaven!"

"To observe the Dao of Heaven and to execute the will of Heaven—this is the pinnacle!"

This boy, who did not even have a proper name, had inadvertently achieved the perfect state that cultivators of ancient paths could only dream of.

Although the scale of his world was minuscule, and the completeness of its Heavenly Dao was in no way comparable to that of the Xuanhuang Realm...

...there was no doubt in Li Fan's mind that the boy was the perfect vessel to become the next Great Heavenly Venerate.

The role of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate was, in essence, to act as a human steward of Heaven.

The Heavenly Dao would flow on its own, but at certain critical moments, the Great Heavenly Venerate was meant to intervene and guide its course.

For Li Fan's purposes, he merely needed a puppet, a key to unlock the legacy left behind by the former Great Heavenly Venerates.

And the less autonomy that puppet had, the better.

However, a mere puppet with no will of its own would be incapable of passing the trials for succession.

The appearance of this boy, however, perfectly solved Li Fan's problem.

"In his current state, once he becomes the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate, he will take no independent action whatsoever. He will simply follow the original operational principles of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, ruling through non-action."

"And for the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao itself, a Great Heavenly Venerate who doesn't meddle would be a most welcome development. His compatibility with the role might not be any less than Mr. Bai's..."

The more Li Fan observed the boy, the more pleased he became.

With a flick of his finger, a sliver of light and shadow flowed silently into the boy's pure, untarnished, and empty consciousness.

It did not even startle the world's Heavenly Dao consciousness hovering nearby.

This time, Li Fan did not directly implant all the details of the Great Heavenly Venerate's trials in the Fallen Immortal Realm.

He offered only subtle hints, gentle guidance for the critical junctures.

The boy's mind was too simple.

This guidance should be enough for him to complete the trials by following his own instincts.

"The future Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate cannot go without a name."

"From now on, you shall be called Wuming."

To preserve Wuming's purity, Li Fan did not even implant a trace of his own existence within the boy's sea of consciousness.

Leaving the Thirteen Peaks, performing the ritual to enter the Fallen Immortal's Illusory Realm, succeeding as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate...

...and, in the future, detonating the immortal artifact to infuse the Xuanhuang Realm with immortal energy, thereby triggering the birth of the first celestial soul of heaven and earth after its ascension...

...it would all be accomplished through silent, subtle guidance.

This meant Li Fan would have to adapt his own plans to accommodate Wuming's path.

But Wuming's nature of ruling through non-action would reduce any unforeseen variables to an absolute minimum.

"For a very long time, Wuming's presence, his very existence, will be practically nil."

"However, if in this lifetime, after I achieve Dao Integration, the ascended Xuanhuang Realm still remains..."

A strange light flickered in Li Fan's eyes. "As the ages pass, his being will merge with the Heavenly Dao of the Super Xuanhuang Realm. Perhaps, through this opportunity, Wuming could achieve a state comparable to that of a True Immortal!"

It was foreseeable that the Xuanhuang Realm, propelled by Li Fan's many machinations in this lifetime, could very well ascend to the level of an Immortal Domain.

And to become one with the Heavenly Dao of an entire Immortal Domain...

...that was a feat that even the True Immortals of old might not have achieved!

By then, his power would surely far surpass even the Jun Tian consciousness of the Immortal Boat!

However, the time required for such a thing was simply too vast.

Only someone as pure as Wuming, a product of such a unique coincidence, could possibly achieve it.

If Li Fan were to attempt it, his own sense of self would inevitably clash with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao before long.

Therefore, from the very beginning, Li Fan had abandoned any thought of taking the position himself.

"I just wonder," he thought, "after the Xuanhuang Realm ascends into an Immortal Domain, what will become of the position of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate?"

"Will the shackles left behind by the ancient Immortal World vanish, or will they only grow stronger?"