Chapter 1406: Tricking the Heavenly Doctor with an Illusory Array
Chapter 1406: Tricking the Heavenly Doctor with an Illusory Array
Not only that, but after Li Fan's breakthrough, the charging progress for [Truth]'s Void Transformation instantly jumped to fifty percent. Its charging speed had also increased dramatically.
It would now take less than a year to complete the remaining fifty percent.
Even...
“The charge limit has doubled, from two hundred percent to a staggering four hundred percent. That’s a value I’d only ever seen after first absorbing the power of the Subservient Marionette, but now, it’s my new normal. Moreover, the defensive strength of [Truth] is in a league of its own. It’s no longer as fragile as paper before a True Immortal.”
“Indeed, the power that [Truth] can manifest is directly tied to my own strength. My ascension to the immortal realm triggered a corresponding evolution within it. And these are just the changes I can observe on the surface,” Li Fan mused, narrowing his eyes in deep perception. He nodded slightly, thoroughly satisfied.
At the bottom of the [Truth] panel were the anchor points and bound items.
There were three established anchor points. The first was the moment Li Fan first arrived in this world, fixed from the moment of his transmigration as a complete and utter mortal.
The second anchor was set atop Mount Jieli, with the Canghai Pearl as his Foundation Establishment Wonder and his cultivation at the late stage of Foundation Establishment. The third anchor was also on the peak of Mount Jieli at the late Foundation Establishment stage, but with [Truth] itself as his Foundation Establishment Wonder.
A moment later, Li Fan closed the panel. Without much hesitation, he used his final empty slot to set an anchor at this very point in time.
The fourth anchor for [Truth] was now fixed.
Location: The center of the Darkest Star Sea.
Cultivation: Half-Immortal!
“Stepping into the Half-Immortal realm is like starting a new phase. The Immortal World was shattered long ago, so finding the path beyond this stage won’t be easy. My power won’t see any drastic increases for now, so I expect that for a long time to come, any new cycles will have to begin from this anchor...”
“The primary goal for this life is to gather and consolidate all usable resources within the High Wall, and then begin attempting to explore what lies beyond it.”
“Dharma Spreader, Heavenly Doctor, Grandmaster, Hunger Immortal...”
“Hmph,” Li Fan scoffed, a cold sneer on his lips.
“That’s right, and there’s still the Xuanhuang Realm and the Mysterious Immortal Boat. Things I couldn’t obtain before due to my lack of strength can finally be collected all at once.”
“Having ascended to the realm of a True Immortal, my perspective is naturally different. Perhaps in this life, I’ll discover more interesting things from the Mysterious Immortal Boat. And the true secret of the relics left behind by Sun Piao Miao.”
Li Fan’s expression was inscrutable as his gaze drifted towards the far end of the Darkest Star Sea, where the Mysterious Immortal Boat resided. His immortal presence was now fixed at the apex of the star sea. From this commanding height, the once-boundless Darkest Star Sea now seemed no larger than a small pond, its entirety visible in a single glance.
“Still, I shouldn’t get too arrogant.”
“It’s best to wait until [Truth] is fully charged before making a move.” After a long moment, Li Fan slowly retracted his gaze, settling on this course of action.
“Besides, the charging speed of [Truth] is incredibly fast now.”
With that thought, Li Fan did not return to the Xuanhuang Realm. Instead, he remained right there, in the center of the star sea.
While waiting for [Truth] to finish charging, Li Fan did not remain idle.
He used this spare time to reorganize all the knowledge and skills he had accumulated throughout his past lives.
He paid special attention to the True Immortal Scripts.
When he was a mortal, after countless cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan had believed he had studied the True Immortal Scripts to their absolute limit. He thought that even if his understanding still fell short of the characters that represented the Great Dao itself, the gap couldn’t be too wide.
But now, reviewing them from the perspective of an “Immortal,” Li Fan realized just how utterly wrong he had been.
He was looking at the exact same patterns, yet what an Immortal saw was completely different from what a mortal perceived.
So many details had been overlooked and ignored in his previous mortal state. Recalling the True Immortal Scripts he had written in the past, Li Fan couldn't help but shake his head repeatedly.
“It was nothing more than a child’s scrawl!”
“Then again, those True Immortal Scripts that caused the calamity in the Darkest Star Sea, the ones that seemed to be copies of He Gan Xian’s work, they weren’t particularly elegant either. If I study for a while longer, surpassing him shouldn’t be difficult,” Li Fan remarked with a derisive tone.
“As it stands, the True Immortal Scripts I know can be divided into three tiers, not by their specific power, but by their authenticity. The first tier consists of the copies from He Gan Xian; ‘Ancient,’ ‘Chaos,’ and the others all fall into this category. The second tier comprises the genuine scripts from the former Immortal World, like ‘Hunger’ and ‘Return.’ Both in terms of aesthetics and practicality, they are a cut above He Gan Xian’s handiwork.”
“As for the third tier, the one closest to the Great Dao itself... that would be the script manifested from the Nameless True Immortal’s leg bone. ‘Restrain,’ ‘Innate,’ and ‘Immortal-Mortal Transformation’...”
In Li Fan’s mind, the image of this character, the greatest contributor to his ascension to the Half-Immortal realm, appeared once more.
Even having reached the immortal realm, he could still feel the endless, profound mysteries contained within this single character.
He became completely engrossed in it, unable to pull himself away.
A year passed in a flash.
In the second year of his new anchor, when [Truth] had completed its charge, Li Fan awoke from his seclusion. A single year was not nearly enough time for him to completely reorganize his knowledge.
Fortunately, he could multitask. Organizing and improving himself did not prevent him from attending to other business.
After becoming a Half-Immortal, the first thing Li Fan wanted to do was, naturally, pay a visit to some old acquaintances: the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Spreader.
Li Fan had already faintly locked onto the positions of these two Supreme-level experts within the Star Sea.
True to form, they were diligently scouring the Realm Fragment Great Wall at the foot of the High Wall, gathering resources for the revival of the Tianfa Realm.
Li Fan’s eyes glinted. With a single step, he crossed half the Star Sea.
He first appeared before the Heavenly Doctor.
Without alerting the Heavenly Doctor in the slightest, a silver ring of light descended upon him. It was one of the ninety-nine immortal array rings Li Fan had previously forged using the Dissociation Disc!
The Heavenly Doctor, who had been walking among the numerous realm fragments in search of suitable materials, suddenly felt his vision blur.
By the time he came to his senses, the vast, desolate scenery of the Realm Fragment Great Wall had vanished without a trace.
Before him now was a world brimming with life—a world he knew all too well.
The Tianfa Realm!
The Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, the Tianfa Pavilion, the Heavenly Sword Valley...
Gazing at the world before him, a homeland he had longed for day and night, filled with memories of those long dead and gone, the Heavenly Doctor froze in stunned silence.
He descended to the earth, his hands caressing the blades of grass and the bark of the trees. His cloudy eyes were filled with a mixture of nostalgia and utter disbelief.
But he was the Heavenly Doctor, after all. He quickly snapped out of the beautiful dream Li Fan had woven for him. Or perhaps, Li Fan had intentionally left a flaw.
Because at that moment, the Tianfa Realm before the Heavenly Doctor was completely empty!
Only the newborn “world” itself existed.
There was nothing else!
The Heavenly Doctor’s expression gradually grew solemn. Myriad golden threads shot out from his body, attempting to comprehend the truth behind this sudden, inexplicable scene.
But to his horror, his trusted method of probing with golden threads, which had never failed him before, dimmed and faded moments after leaving his body.
They dissipated into the air.
The Heavenly Doctor took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the tremor in his heart. Flying slowly and cautiously, he meticulously searched the entire Tianfa Realm.
Yet, he could not find a single flaw.
And aside from himself, there were no other living beings.
After searching three times over, the Heavenly Doctor finally had to accept his situation.
He could no longer contain the shock on his face, and his aura began to flicker with instability.
Although the scene before him was something he had always dreamed of, the Heavenly Doctor knew that none of it could possibly be real.
It was merely a facade, a phantom world designed to trap and confuse him.
The Heavenly Doctor tried to walk out of the illusion.
But after an unknown amount of time, his efforts remained fruitless.
The Heavenly Doctor looked to the heavens and opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something.
But in the end, no sound came out.
His aged face showed no signs of surrender or despair. In fact, his gaze grew even more resolute.
This time, he did not wander aimlessly.
Instead, he stood suspended in the void, meticulously observing the “illusion” around him.
The Heavenly Doctor’s mind became immersed in comprehending the “world” before his eyes.
At times his brow would furrow in concentration, at others his eyes would light up with sudden understanding.
After an unknown period, a voice suddenly echoed in his ear.
“Do you understand what you see?”
The tone was part question, part mockery.
The voice was like a clap of thunder, jolting the Heavenly Doctor back to reality.
A figure in white robes had appeared beside him at some unknown point.
It was a slender young man, who regarded him with a faint, enigmatic smile.
He radiated no aura at all, yet his eyes were like the endless, profound star sea, impossible to fathom.
Even for the Heavenly Doctor, a being at the Supreme realm, the absolute limit of what the Star Sea could contain, his heart now pounded with frantic warnings the moment this young man appeared.
Suppressing the terror rising within him, the Heavenly Doctor clasped his hands in a respectful bow and replied, neither servile nor defiant, “Replying to Senior, I believe I can grasp a fraction of it.”
The young man was, of course, an illusionary projection that Li Fan had constructed within the array.
He smiled faintly. “Not bad. I didn’t expect that this desolate lower realm could still produce a figure such as yourself.”
“Very good!” Li Fan clapped his hands, seemingly in genuine appreciation.
“I awoke to find my place of seclusion suddenly surrounded by a high wall. I decided to investigate and happened upon the two of you...”
“This world here, I created it for you. What do you think? Is it to your liking?”
These few short sentences contained an overwhelming amount of information.
In an instant, the Heavenly Doctor’s mind raced, analyzing the unfathomable young man before him.
Naturally, the Heavenly Doctor would never judge another’s power based on their apparent age.
“He trapped me without a sound. And that formless, oppressive presence...”
“‘Lower realm,’ ‘awoke.’”
“He must be a True Immortal, without a doubt.”
“But he’s not the one comprehending the Dao in the Immortal Ruins.”
“When did another True Immortal appear in this star sea?”
The Heavenly Doctor’s heart was filled with astonishment and suspicion.
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