Chapter 1417: Saving Qiao Sidao
Chapter 1417: Saving Qiao Sidao
"It's just as I saw in the last life."
"So, when [Truth] activates, it doesn't just create something from nothing, carving out a new possibility from a false timeline. It resets the entire temporal node of the mortal world back to the designated anchor point."
"Such incredible power..."
Li Fan felt a tremor of awe unlike anything he had ever known.
This was especially true after witnessing beings like Evil Su Bai and the Black Heaven Physician, whose strength seemed to eclipse even that of Nameless True Immortals. No matter how formidable they appeared, before [Truth], they were nothing but illusions. With a single thought, fantasy became truth; with another, truth became fantasy!
Based on this deduction of [Truth]'s might, even the Black Heaven Physician should not have been able to move within the [Dao Concealment] zone after its activation.
The only plausible explanation was that he, Li Fan, the vessel for this power, was too weak, thus limiting its full effectiveness.
"Weak...?"
Recalling how his age limit had skyrocketed upon encountering the Black Heaven Physician in the last life, an idea sparked in Li Fan's mind.
The True False Transformation activated instantly.
Having witnessed the entire process of [Truth] creating a new possibility, Li Fan's insight into the True False Transformation had grown by leaps and bounds.
He visualized his demigod cultivation from the previous possibility.
As the thought took form, that power descended upon his current body, stacking on top of his own.
Unlike before, when the effect was fleeting, Li Fan could now sustain this illusory cultivation for nearly ten minutes before it dissipated!
And perhaps...
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, his focus absolute, as he attempted to stack the illusory cultivation once more.
It worked.
But the mental strain from this feat instantly swelled by more than tenfold.
The duration of the stacked cultivation plummeted in response, becoming wildly unstable.
"Just replicating my own cultivation is this difficult," Li Fan marveled. "It's truly hard to imagine the state of being required to create an entire possibility from nothing..."
He sighed, his gaze falling upon the numbers on his status panel.
Three times the cultivation of a demigod. While not enough to directly surpass a True Immortal, it had to be incredibly close.
But...
Seven million, three hundred sixty-five thousand, eight hundred sixty-four years, thirteen days, and eight hours!
In [Truth]'s deduction, such a massive boost in power could only delay the mortal world's final calamity by a mere two hours! It was better than nothing, but barely.
"It seems my current strength is nowhere near enough to meddle in this."
A heavy feeling settled in Li Fan's heart.
Certainly, [Truth] could reset the entire mortal world again and again, staving off complete annihilation.
But the mortal world's decay was an overwhelming tide.
No matter how heroically [Truth] fought against it, the Dao Annihilation Calamity would eventually consume everything.
It was like the endless cycle of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to have it roll back to the bottom every time.
Only by reaching the level of Evil Su Bai and the Black Heaven Physician did there seem to be any chance of breaking the cycle.
The problem was, the appearance of those two was far too abrupt, too illogical.
And it had been completely outside of Li Fan's calculations.
In his original plan, the next step was to methodically use the combined power of the Xuanhuang Realm and the Mysterious Immortal Boat to explore beyond the High Wall, searching for clues about the Faceless Immortal, the Cat Treasure, and the Fishing Pool.
But now, their sudden arrival had thrown his plans into total disarray.
The existence of the Black Heaven Physician, in particular, sent a faint chill of retroactive fear through him.
"The moment the Heavenly Doctor within the wall is sensed, the Black Heaven Physician will instantly descend."
"Doesn't that mean the entire Dark Star Sea has been teetering on the brink of death all these years? If the Heavenly Doctor hadn't been so focused on his homeland, pouring most of his energy into reviving the Tianfa Realm, he would have likely attracted the Black Heaven Physician long ago!"
"In fact, based on the progress the Heavenly Doctor showed in the last life, he wasn't far from completely deciphering the secrets of the High Wall. Even without my interference, after the Tianfa Realm was successfully resurrected, the Heavenly Doctor would have eventually studied the High Wall. The day of his success would have been the day he sealed his doom... a true irony."
Li Fan's thoughts raced.
He was suddenly reminded of the life with the Heavenly Profound Spirit Locking Array.
Back then, he had become the Formation Breaking Jade Disk, living for thousands of years.
He had set an anchor in the year 2078, and the world had fallen into a dead silence.
It wasn't until the year 3024 that the long-awaited sunlight returned.
"It seems that because of the Black Heaven Physician, the Xuanhuang Realm is destined to reach a dead end under normal circumstances."
"But when the Black Heaven Physician made his move, the Xuanhuang Realm—or the newly born Tianfa Realm—wasn't completely turned to dust. There was still a chance for life to re-emerge after a thousand years..."
"He must have seen a familiar sight and held back."
Li Fan mused to himself.
With two terrifyingly powerful beings like the Black Heaven Physician and Evil Su Bai inside the wall, his plans for this life would have to be drastically altered. At the very least, he could never let the Heavenly Doctor get close to the High Wall again.
"I still don't know what the situation is beyond the High Wall."
"In the last life, within the black-and-white domain of [Dao Concealment], I caught a glimpse of the world outside through the straight, empty path carved out by the Black Heaven Physician's charge."
"It looked like a normal star sea, with life scattered like stars on a chessboard. But at the very edge of my vision, something blocked my sight."
"Is there another High Wall beyond the High Wall?" Li Fan wondered.
"If I want to understand the current situation out there, perhaps I should start with that descendant of the Heavenly Sword Sect."
His attention returned to the inheritance options offered by [Truth]. After a moment of thought, he chose to accelerate its charging speed.
The charging speed of [Truth] had always been tied to Li Fan's own strength.
Now that he had become a demigod, the first time he selected this option, he was pleasantly surprised to notice a difference.
On the [Truth] panel, after his realm changed to Immortal, the charging progress was already at 50% the moment he returned. When he chose to accelerate it further, the progress bar leaped dramatically.
It shot straight to 99%!
"The waiting time has been drastically reduced."
"A pity it's not 100%."
"That one percent difference is a chasm as wide as heaven and earth!"
If he could fully charge it every time he chose the acceleration option, it would mean he could activate [Truth] consecutively.
Even if he encountered an enemy capable of crossing possibilities, he could escape with ease in an instant.
But this one percent gap meant he still had a waiting period of about seven days.
"Until I can achieve a 100% instant charge, I must act with the utmost caution."
As Li Fan's strength grew, the beings he encountered became increasingly unfathomable.
The Black Heaven Physician, in particular, was an immense threat, able to pursue him across possibilities and move within the [Dao Concealment] zone.
"I wonder, if I advance to the True Immortal realm, will I be able to suppress him?"
The image of the Black Heaven Physician's cold, indifferent eyes—so disturbingly similar to his own—surfaced in his mind, and Li Fan fell into deep thought.
Seven days later.
With [Truth] fully charged, Li Fan's figure flickered, silently slipping into the Xuanhuang Realm.
His destination was, of course, the Myriad Immortals Alliance Headquarters, and within the Museum of Divine Treasures, the hidden soul known as Qiao Sidao.
To endure hundreds of billions of reincarnations and still maintain one's own consciousness, and to deduce the possible truth of the Dao Annihilation Calamity based on Emperor Sanmo's description...
Li Fan was very interested in him.
"If possible, perhaps I can have him explore beyond the High Wall in my stead."
"But I must also be wary. There might be another Qiao Sidao on the outside."
As Li Fan passed by the skull of Mr. Bai, he paused for a moment.
As expected, having already been absorbed once, [Truth] gave no further prompts.
Li Fan wanted nothing to do with the illusory trial of Evil Su Bai contained within the skull.
He ignored it and headed straight for the ruins of the Nanming Sacred Mountain.
"It's strange. [Truth] can create entire possibilities from thin air with a single thought, yet it still needs to consume certain wondrous items from within them..."
Li Fan's thoughts drifted.
As if sensing his musings, [Truth] seemed to send a flicker of what felt like derision, mingled with a hint of helplessness.
But after that, no matter how he tried to sense it, there was no further response.
When he arrived at the ruins of Nanming Mountain, Emperor Sanmo was already waiting for him.
Just like in the last life, he said with utmost respect, "Greetings, Senior!"
Although Li Fan had not displayed his actual combat power this time, his ability to silently bypass all the restrictions of the Myriad Immortals Alliance Headquarters and reach the Museum of Divine Treasures was unquestionable proof of his strength.
From Emperor Sanmo's expression, Li Fan could tell he had no memory of the previous life.
He felt a sense of relief. Without a word, he simply nodded and began to observe the ruins before him.
Just as Emperor Sanmo had said, a faint trace of mysterious energy lingered here.
And within this scarce residual energy, an extremely weak soul lay hidden.
Concealed by the mysterious energy, even a demigod like Li Fan would have had trouble detecting it without Emperor Sanmo's specific guidance.
The soul's appearance was identical to the one Emperor Sanmo had described in the last life.
Li Fan reached out and directly seized half of the energy that was keeping Qiao Sidao alive.
His existence was like that of a fish in a rapidly drying pond. Now that the water had suddenly and inexplicably halved, Qiao Sidao's soul trembled violently, as if in immense pain.
Emperor Sanmo opened his mouth to speak, then closed it.
Faced with the faint aura of power emanating from Li Fan, he ultimately chose to remain silent.
Li Fan had no intention of deliberately torturing Qiao Sidao.
On the contrary, Li Fan was about to save his life!
Drawing the mysterious energy into his body, Li Fan savored it carefully.
It was different from the spiritual qi of the Xuanhuang Realm, and different even from immortal qi.
Yet, Li Fan felt a faint sense of familiarity.
This familiarity seemed to stem from the inherited memories of the black bird he had become in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Beyond that, however, he knew nothing about it.
But that didn't stop Li Fan from using the True False Transformation on it!
He compressed the ball of energy, enveloping it within his dantian.
After standing still for a long moment, once his comprehension was sufficient, the True False Transformation descended.
With a profoundly strange ripple, an identical small sphere instantly appeared in Li Fan's hand!
It glowed with an eerie bronze-green light, laced with streaks of silver.
While the True False Transformation was still in effect, Li Fan gently flicked his finger, injecting the small bronze-green sphere into Qiao Sidao's soul.
Like a parched man finding an oasis, Qiao Sidao's fragile soul visibly strengthened.
After waiting for Qiao Sidao to completely absorb the energy sphere, Li Fan willed it, and the True False Transformation was canceled.
His divine sense enveloped Qiao Sidao, taking in every minute change in his being.
It was just as Li Fan had predicted.
Although the blessing of the True False Transformation had vanished, the energy created from nothing had been absorbed. Because it now had a vessel, it did not completely dissipate along with the effect.
A remnant of it remained.
Although the ratio was small, this was still a discovery of monumental importance for Li Fan.
After a brief rest, Li Fan activated the True False Transformation again, producing a second small sphere.
When Li Fan had produced the first sphere, Emperor Sanmo had merely assumed it was the energy Li Fan had just extracted.
But now, seeing Li Fan produce a new one after the first had been used up, Emperor Sanmo's perpetually calm face could no longer maintain its composure.
Li Fan also noticed that, from beginning to end, the other party seemed completely unaware of the True False Transformation's effect.
Even though, to Li Fan, the fluctuations were so obvious.
"Still, I cannot be careless."
"Perhaps, aside from me, the vessel, there are other powerful beings in this world who can perceive the activation of the True False Transformation."
"I must always be mindful of my own safety when using my abilities in the future."
As he pondered, he continued to activate the True False Transformation, injecting a steady stream of mysterious energy spheres into Qiao Sidao.
Finally, Qiao Sidao began to show signs of recovery.
He awoke from his deep slumber.
"Third Uncle, what is this...?" Qiao Sidao quickly became aware of the unusual scene.
His reaction was swift. Disregarding his weakened state, he expressed his gratitude for Li Fan's rescue.
Li Fan gave a slight nod, his actions unwavering.
Using the materials at hand from the Museum of Divine Treasures, he fashioned a temporary body for Qiao Sidao.
Only after inserting the soul into it did Li Fan's movements cease.
Continuously using the True False Transformation was a considerable burden even for him.
As he stood catching his breath, he did not betray a single hint of fatigue.
He waited for Qiao Sidao to adapt to his new body.
In less than half a day, Qiao Sidao had gone from the brink of death to being revived.
All of Emperor Sanmo's past efforts had been like trying to carry water in a bamboo basket—futile. But now, this senior before him had, with a simple gesture, turned decay into a miracle...
How could Qiao Sidao not understand the terrifying power of the person before him?
Bowing slightly, Qiao Sidao offered his sincere thanks, "Thank you, Senior, for saving my life!"
Emperor Sanmo, meanwhile, seemed not yet to have recovered from his earlier shock, his body still trembling slightly.
Li Fan extended his right hand and placed it on Qiao Sidao's head.
A divine thought slipped into Qiao Sidao's soul.
Faced with his savior, and the absolute disparity in power, Qiao Sidao's expression flickered, but in the end, he offered no resistance.
He allowed Li Fan to observe the memories within his soul.
(End of Chapter)
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