Chapter 1411: The Two Mystic Sounds of the Immortal Realm
"The murmuring sound appeared in the consciousness of every cultivator who had ever set foot in the Myriad Immortals Alliance Headquarters."
"Though it only existed within their memories and seemed incapable of causing any real disturbance, its power, if allowed to accumulate over time, would be enough to free Xuanyuan Tuo. If it were to erupt suddenly, its insidious nature alone would likely drain the vast majority of cultivators dry, consumed by a mere fragment of their own past," Li Fan mused, his eyes flashing.
The immortal array shrank, becoming a single point of light that drew the still-unconscious Xuanyuan Tuo and the celestial demon's phantom into Li Fan's palm. He absorbed them into his body, suppressing them within.
Then, turning toward the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan's expression was serene as he slowly extended his right hand.
The might of a True Immortal, descending from on high.
His palm fell upon the mortal dust, spanning the entire Star Sea.
From his position at the edge of the cosmos, Li Fan struck the Xuanhuang Realm from afar.
He did not use any immortal-level techniques, merely leveraging the inherent advantage of his superior position to deliver a blow from above.
The True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins was deep in meditation. Li Fan had confirmed it multiple times in past cycles: as long as there were no energy fluctuations at the True Immortal level, or anything related to the Dao Annihilation Calamity, the being would not be disturbed.
Li Fan's strike landed precisely on the Central Four Prefectures of the Myriad Immortals Alliance in the Xuanhuang Realm.
His attack wasn't aimed at the Immortal Ruins, and no excess energy spilled or spread elsewhere.
The True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins remained completely unaware as Li Fan's colossal palm silently descended.
Not a single anomaly appeared in the sky above the Xuanhuang Realm.
But in the Alliance's Central Four Prefectures, without any warning, the world began to shake with apocalyptic violence.
Li Fan's fingers traversed the Star Sea, touching and sensing.
The Central Four Prefectures were an extension of the Tianxuan Mirror's internal space, projected into the Xuanhuang Realm.
The first time Li Fan had entered the Alliance Headquarters, he had witnessed the countless black and white lines crisscrossing within the Tianxuan Mirror. The lines collided, the two colors constantly intertwining until they formed a tiny point of nothingness. An infinite number of these points flickered in and out of existence, continuously expanding outward from the void until they finally resolved into color.
At the time, Li Fan hadn't understood the profound spectacle within the Tianxuan Mirror. Now, however, he realized it was the mirror's own way of deconstructing the Xuanhuang Realm.
A sharp glint in his eyes, Li Fan's five fingers became like knives, instantly severing the connection between the Tianxuan Mirror and the Xuanhuang Realm.
Then, he curled his fingers and clenched his hand into a fist!
Feeling a slight tremor of resistance, Li Fan applied a bit more force and simply pulled.
In an instant, his hand traveled back through space and time, returning from the Xuanhuang Realm to the edge of the Star Sea.
It was like reaching into water to retrieve something from the bottom.
Li Fan now gazed at his palm, where a faint light flickered, an ancient bronze mirror struggled steadily within a shimmering, dark light.
Squinting slightly, Li Fan could sense faint, almost imperceptible threads extending from the Tianxuan Mirror's main body, connecting it back to the Xuanhuang Realm.
"These must be the various restrictions the Dharma Spreader originally put in place, as well as the links between the Tianxuan Mirror, his human avatar, and the numerous sub-mirrors."
"Truly worthy of being a former immortal artifact. To maintain such stable connections even after being ripped across the entire Star Sea in an instant."
Li Fan praised it inwardly.
He used the term "former immortal artifact" because he could not sense any fluctuation of immortal spiritual energy from the Tianxuan Mirror's body.
The few immortal artifacts preserved in the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate's legacy still retained a trace of immortal spiritual energy, despite being worn down by generations of use in the Xuanhuang Realm.
The Tianxuan Mirror, however, seemed to have completely severed its connection to immortal spiritual energy.
"In a way, it has transformed from immortal to mortal."
"An incomplete severance is no severance at all. Perhaps only by doing this could it truly evade the blow of the Dao Annihilation Calamity." Recalling the winds of erosion he had seen within the Immeasurable Mirror and other remnant immortal artifacts of the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan grew pensive.
With a flicker of thought, a white ring flew out and bound the Tianxuan Mirror's body tightly.
Li Fan dispatched a wisp of his divine sense, sending it inside.
Knowing that the murmuring demonic sound was imprinted within the mirror, he had to proceed with caution.
Having already ascended to the immortal realm, even a single wisp of his divine sense was beyond anything mortal.
The Tianxuan Mirror had been suppressed and seized by a mysterious, otherworldly palm, plunging the Alliance Headquarters into unprecedented chaos. The Dharma Spreader had originally built the headquarters inside the mirror precisely to ensure its utmost security.
Who could have imagined that after so many years, this seemingly impenetrable defense would be shattered in an instant by an unknown entity?
Even knowing they faced a terrifying existence beyond imagination, the cultivators in the Myriad Immortals Alliance Headquarters did not immediately give up the fight.
All the Dharma Propagators gathered together in one hall.
Arrays and restrictions throughout the headquarters activated, entering the highest state of emergency.
However...
To the current Li Fan, all these measures were like child's play.
If he wished, he could destroy all of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's defenses with just that single wisp of divine sense.
But he didn't do that.
His divine sense slipped in silently, completely undetected.
His divine sense manifested a body, standing within the Tianxuan Mirror. He could feel a faint, mystical power enveloping him, attempting to pull him into the illusion of the Dharma Spreader's memories.
Although the murmuring sound was the work of a True Immortal, it was, after all, channeled through the Heavenly Venerate Dharma Spreader. Against a mortal being, it might be invincible.
But against Li Fan, who had already reached a semi-immortal state, it was somewhat lacking.
By simply generating a thought of resistance, the murmuring sound could no longer drag him anywhere.
Contact was a two-way street.
In the time it took to try and corrupt him, Li Fan had, on some level, already "seen and heard" it.
In Xuanyuan Tuo's long-standing impression, it was a meaningless, empty murmur.
But to Li Fan...
It was a solemn and sacred recitation of scripture!
"...Empty words, ceaselessly birthing. Intent, spirit, body, soul—born of chaos, returning to chaos."
"To exist once is to exist forever. Lost, yet still existing."
Perhaps because it was being relayed through Xuanyuan Tuo's memory, Li Fan tried his best to discern the words but could only make out this one fragment.
The rest was a muddled, rapid chant that was difficult to comprehend.
This sacred, yet eerie, recitation was not uttered by a single person, but seemed to be a chorus sung by countless beings.
What sent a slight chill down Li Fan's spine was that he could faintly hear the voices of certain familiar people within it.
It wasn't just the tone of their voices.
It was the exact words they had spoken to him during their interactions.
"Dao Xuanzi, you've gone too far!"
"Late-stage Qi Refining at twenty-nine years old..."
"Little friend, what are you anticipating?"
"My life, Tianyang's, has been second to none!"
...
And so on.
These voices were not just from this lifetime, but stretched back through all of Li Fan's past reincarnations.
Along with these sounds, blurry figures materialized one after another in Li Fan's sea of consciousness.
Even without faces, Li Fan could easily identify each of them.
Under the influence of this chant, Li Fan even felt a faint echo of the same sensation Xuanyuan Tuo had experienced.
It seemed he could use these phantoms from his memories to influence their real, present-day counterparts!
Inside the Tianxuan Mirror, the avatar formed from his divine sense stood silently, eyes closed in contemplation.
Outside the mirror, Li Fan's true body was already on high alert.
This chanting sound could reflect scenes from his past reincarnations from the depths of his soul and memory, which was a testament to its extraordinary power.
While it didn't necessarily mean it had discovered the secret of his endless cycles with [Truth], it was enough to force Li Fan to be exceedingly cautious.
Rings of immortal arrays were already in place, protecting his body, ready for him to return to a saved state at a moment's notice.
Fortunately, the worst-case scenario Li Fan had envisioned never came to pass.
Li Fan did not let down his guard, synchronizing his awareness with his divine sense avatar.
As he listened, for some reason, a faint sense of familiarity began to stir within him.
After a moment's thought, a different, yet similar, sound surfaced in his mind, accompanied by a flood of memories.
"The Dao, since antiquity. Suffering, utter extinction."
"Cultivate through thought, connect to intent, move toward spirit."
"A thousand paths the soul wanders, a hundred turns the spirit takes."
"Without fault."
...
This new sound stood alongside the scripture's chant.
The two resounded in harmony. Not only did they not interfere with each other, but both voices actually grew clearer!
It was as if two figures had appeared before Li Fan, one on his left and one on his right, both expounding upon some profound truth of the world.
Stunned for a moment, Li Fan quickly recognized the origin of this new sound.
It was from his life as the Saint Emperor, an immortal art chanted by the Tiandu Grandmaster in the face of the winds of erosion.
In the life before last, when the wordless stele appeared, threatening to turn everything into text upon its surface, the Grandmaster had also chanted this very same immortal art of avoidance.
At that time, upon hearing it, Li Fan had tried to commit it to memory but had been met with the Grandmaster's scorn and ridicule.
Li Fan hadn't understood why back then. But now, having ascended to the immortal realm, listening to it again, he finally realized that, just like the scripture's chant, what an immortal heard and what a mortal heard were the same sound, yet with a crucial difference.
"The Dao is born, passed down since antiquity. With great sorrow, the Dao is extinguished."
"Cultivate with mingled thoughts, connect to the Dao's intent, move toward the divine spirit."
"A thousand paths the soul wanders, a hundred turns the spirit takes."
"Infinite, boundless, without fault."
...
What a mortal heard and what an immortal perceived were worlds apart!
Li Fan's mind reeled as he immersed himself in the true immortal art of avoidance.
"It seems my body hasn't changed at all."
"But it has managed to erase, to a certain degree, the 'corruption' from the scripture's chant..."
A brilliant light erupted in his eyes. Struck by a sudden inspiration, Li Fan began to chant the immortal art of avoidance himself.
Enveloped by the scripture's chant, the faint, unsettling feeling of dread in his heart slowly faded away.
This subtle fear was something Li Fan himself had barely noticed.
Only when it was truly gone did the stark contrast make him aware of its existence.
"If I had been influenced by only one of these mystic sounds, I would have inevitably fallen deep into its grasp, even as a semi-immortal. But now, with both sounds present, they seem to have formed a kind of balance."
"They are competing with each other, and in doing so, have left me unharmed."
Li Fan let out a long breath.
The powers of a True Immortal were indeed strange and unpredictable. One could not afford to be careless when dealing with them.
"The Grandmaster's sound is an immortal art of avoidance."
"It is likely because of this immortal art that he could hide so securely in the Xuanhuang Realm, never to be disturbed."
Having personally experienced the wonders of the avoidance art, Li Fan turned his attention back to the scripture's chant.
"To influence and change reality through phantoms of past memories..."
He looked at the countless phantoms standing in his sea of consciousness.
Li Fan's gaze fell upon one of them.
He focused his intent...
There was no fluctuation of immortal spiritual energy, not even the slightest ripple of mortal energy.
Yet, in that instant, something truly miraculous happened.
In the Xuanhuang Realm, on Liuli Island.
He Zhenghao was staring intently at his small Tianxuan Mirror. Because of Li Fan's strike and the shocking disappearance of the Alliance Headquarters, the prices of all commodities had gone haywire, spiraling out of control like a roller coaster.
"Damn it, they've even frozen all sales."
"This is my life's work!"
He Zhenghao's eyes were bloodshot, and he was teetering on the edge of madness.
But suddenly, his face turned deathly pale.
His head felt as if it had been split open. The force of the blow sent him crumpling to the floor.
An unknown amount of time passed before he finally recovered.
He was drenched in sweat, as if he had lost half his life.
"Spirit Mist Grass?"
"All my contribution points... restored?"
"The Mountain and River Hidden Dragon Technique?"
...
He Zhenghao stared at the countless new memories popping up in his mind, completely stunned.
"Did the shock make me hallucinate?"
The memories appearing in his mind were too numerous and chaotic. It took He Zhenghao a long time to even begin to sort through them.
"This... this is too real. It's like I experienced it all myself. What in the world is happening?"
The more he sorted through them, the more his heart pounded with a mixture of fear and disbelief.
"But, the Mountain and River Hidden Dragon Technique? Isn't this the technique I've dreamed of day and night?"
Suddenly, as if realizing something, his expression changed dramatically.
"Could this... could this be real?"
He Zhenghao cautiously began to write down the words that had appeared in his memory.
He had only written the beginning when his body froze uncontrollably.
"There's no mistake. This is the genuine Mountain and River Hidden Dragon Technique."
"It just appeared in my mind out of nowhere. Doesn't that mean I've just saved hundreds of thousands of contribution points?!"
He Zhenghao's heart instantly began to pound like a drum.
But soon, the thought of the Myriad Immortals Alliance's strict Law Enforcement Hall made him deflate like a wilted vegetable.
"Wait, the Alliance Headquarters is gone. The Myriad Immortals Alliance itself is in jeopardy. Who's going to care about a leaked technique now...?"
"In this age of chaos, new powers will rise. Perhaps this is an opportunity for people like me."
As he considered this, a dangerous light flickered in He Zhenghao's eyes.
"The Xuantian Spirit-Sealing Formation?"
As He Zhenghao continued to sort through his new memories, he found more and more pleasant surprises.
...
At the edge of the Star Sea, after Li Fan used the power of the scripture's chant to alter He Zhenghao's memories, he himself underwent a mystical change.
Li Fan keenly sensed that within his body, a few wisps of spiritual power had appeared.
(End of Chapter)
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