Chapter 1428: The Heart-Derived Dream Array
Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, trapped within the Unending Samsara, lost all memory of his encounter with Li Fan. He found himself back at the one-year anchor point, the cycle beginning anew.
A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes.
But as a mere Longevity cultivator, how could he possibly withstand the immense power of the [Truth]? The fleeting doubt vanished in an instant, and he resumed his life, following the exact path laid out by his original history.
...
Li Fan perceived the rapid flux of light and shadow within the Unending Samsara.
The thousand-fold temporal acceleration exerted a peculiar pressure on him. It was unlike the sensation of carrying the Immortal Realm's chess pieces, which had felt like a crushing weight upon his body and soul.
Instead, it felt as though he were enveloped in a hazy mist. His thoughts, his very movements, felt dreamlike. The influence was so profound that Li Fan even began to question the reality of his own existence.
And Li Fan was not the only one affected.
None could resist this pervasive influence; they were ensnared, unable to break free.
Only when the Unending Samsara had raced forward, completed its first cycle, and embarked upon its second did Li Fan gradually acclimate to the strange sensation.
He focused his mind, and the surrounding mist thinned. A faint sense of unreality lingered, but it no longer hindered his actions. At last, Li Fan could turn his attention to the events unfolding within the Unending Samsara.
Ignoring Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, who was lost in a storm of shock, elation, and fear over his "rebirth," Li Fan's first act was to search for his own counterpart within the Xuanhuang Realm of the simulation.
To his relief, he found no other version of himself.
In his place, a cultivator named Zhang Fan—a man bearing a striking resemblance to him—was driving the Unending Samsara toward its foreordained conclusion.
"Naturally, there was no second [Truth] either. All Zhang Fan possessed was the illusion of continuous rebirth. Each time the Unending Samsara reset, his memories were wiped clean, leaving him utterly oblivious..."
"He's nothing more than a puppet, created for a single purpose."
Li Fan shook his head slightly and turned his attention back to Zhenshi Immortal Venerable.
Zhenshi Immortal Venerable was convinced that the destruction of the Xuanhuang Realm he had witnessed in his "past life" was no illusion. Yet, he did not rush to tell anyone about his rebirth.
He set aside all his duties and dedicated himself entirely to investigating the truth behind the world's end.
As befitted a cultivator who had reached the Longevity realm, he soon traced the calamity to the mysterious appearance of Su Bai, the manifestation of the Heavenly Dao.
Following the trail of clues, he tracked the source all the way to Longevity Valley.
When the Chaos Character was detonated and the Medicine King True Cauldron, carrying the sacred embryo, soared into the sky, Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, who was hiding in the shadows, acutely sensed its presence.
He was about to intervene.
But...
After rescuing the Medicine King Sect cultivators, Su Bai suddenly appeared before Zhenshi Immortal Venerable.
Though no match for the Dharma Spreader, Su Bai was still the embodiment of the Xuanhuang Realm's will, capable of wielding the power of all its elemental spirits.
For a crucial moment, Zhenshi Immortal Venerable found himself unable to get away.
He could only watch helplessly as the Medicine King True Cauldron vanished into the distance.
In this lifetime, the outcome remained unchanged. The Xuanhuang Realm was once again annihilated by a single glance from the Hunger Immortal.
...
"So this is the so-called causal constraint of the [Truth]?"
Li Fan mused, then accelerated the temporal flow of the Unending Samsara. A wave of vertigo washed over him as the pressure intensified. He fast-forwarded to Zhenshi Immortal Venerable's next attempt to save the world.
This time, long before Su Bai's arrival, Zhenshi Immortal Venerable had already noticed Zhang Fan scheming in the shadows. He struck decisively, intending to capture him.
But the aura he released triggered the defensive wards within the Myriad Immortals Alliance.
The Myriad Immortals Alliance reacted as if under attack by a great enemy, believing a Longevity Celestial Venerable from the Five Elders Council had infiltrated their territory. A phantom of the Dharma Spreader descended and, without explanation, struck Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, severely wounding him. Amid the chaos, Zhang Fan vanished without a trace.
Soon after, the world-ending calamity descended once more.
"Interesting. The Dharma Spreader's phantom never actually appeared in this timeline. Activating it requires the sacrifice of several chosen cultivators."
"But this wasn't a case of the Unending Samsara fabricating events at will. Instead..."
A playful glint appeared in Li Fan's eyes. "It's as if the simulation anticipated Zhenshi Immortal Venerable's actions. At the very start of this new cycle, the Myriad Immortals Alliance began selecting their chosen ones with great fanfare—a clear deviation from the previous loop."
"But Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, consumed by his hunt for the world's destroyer, completely missed it."
"It seems the only constraint on the Unending Samsara is ensuring the beginning and end align with the original timeline. The details in between are apparently irrelevant."
The third cycle began.
This time, Zhenshi Immortal Venerable decided to simply wait at the edge of the Xuanhuang Realm for the Medicine King True Cauldron to appear. But for some unknown reason, the cauldron never showed.
What he had not anticipated, however, was that on the very day the apocalypse was supposed to occur, the gravitational pull from the Immortal Ruins above suddenly intensified. Caught completely by surprise, he was uncontrollably dragged toward it.
As he fought to survive, he saw a lone skeleton standing amidst a desolate landscape of ruins, surrounded by shattered golden chains.
The Hunger Immortal of the Immortal Ruins seized the struggling Zhenshi Immortal Venerable, absorbing and refining him on the spot.
Then, its eyes blazing with a crimson light, it stared down at the Xuanhuang Realm below, its hunger far from sated.
...
"Oh? This is a possibility I've never encountered before."
"Did the Hunger Immortal emerge from its prison ahead of schedule?"
From the real world, Li Fan observed the Hunger Immortal within the Unending Samsara. Even though this being had successfully comprehended the Dao, its power approaching the Nameless realm, it remained completely oblivious to Li Fan's prying gaze.
It only felt a faint, inexplicable premonition that left it startled and uncertain.
...
The reaction of the Dao-enlightened Hunger Immortal made Li Fan's heart jump, and he momentarily paused the simulation.
It was not that he feared the Hunger Immortal.
"Theoretically," he thought, "this Unending Samsara is, in essence, a new strand of possibility created from nothing by the [Truth]."
"In that case, is it possible that a peerless powerhouse capable of traversing possibilities might notice something amiss and leap out of this simulated timeline?"
"For instance, if I were to use my last life as the template, wouldn't that mean another Black Heaven Physician would exist within this fabricated loop?"
Just as Li Fan wrestled with this unsettling thought, the [Truth] seemed to sense his anxiety and sent a timely message.
"The incomplete timeline that is created will naturally exclude any existence that transcends possibility."
"Any variables they introduced in the template experience will be represented in other ways to ensure consistency between the origin and the terminus..." Li Fan silently processed the [Truth]'s transmission. He breathed a sigh of relief, though not without a twinge of disappointment.
"As long as there are no unforeseen complications, it's fine."
He glanced at Zhenshi Immortal Venerable within the Unending Samsara, who had been motionless for over a decade, lost in a complete mental breakdown. Li Fan shook his head slightly.
"I wonder how long it will take this Longevity Celestial Venerable to break free from the shackles of samsara."
"I hope he doesn't disappoint me."
Of course, even if Zhenshi Immortal Venerable were to completely abandon any hope of escape, Li Fan had no intention of releasing him. He had already realized that each reset of the Unending Samsara was equivalent to the [Truth] performing a True False Transformation.
The scale of power was incomparable to when Li Fan activated it himself, of course.
But its strength lay in its continuity, and the fact that it did not interfere with his actions in the real world.
"This is an invaluable tool for mastering the True False Transformation."
"Unfortunately, at my current level of strength, I don't think I can handle opening a second Unending Samsara," Li Fan thought with a touch of regret.
His thoughts returned to the present.
Li Fan turned to Wuyou and the others.
The four Longevity venerables were utterly cowed by the power Li Fan had just displayed.
"I can faintly sense a great terror lurking beyond the High Wall."
"That is why, despite having the power to cross it, I have held back."
Li Fan's words made Wuyou and the others' expressions shift dramatically.
"I know that the dreamscape you created, Wuyou, has already reached the vicinity of the High Wall."
"You can coordinate with my actions in the real world. A two-pronged attack to probe the truth of what lies beyond." Li Fan stared intently at Wuyou.
The slender Celestial Venerable hastily gave his assurance. "To be of service to you, Senior, is my greatest honor."
"As for the rest of you..." Li Fan's gaze fell upon the Human Dao Heavenly Venerate, Zhao Ruoxi, and Ji Wangxian.
With a flick of his finger, he sent three motes of light flying into their foreheads.
It was a miniature array, with the aspect of Ink Death's Dao Annihilation at its core, powered by the phantom of the Xuanhuang Realm obtained through the feedback from his Sitting Heaven Technique. A formation capable of both surveillance and retaliation.
The moment it entered their bodies, it sprouted thousands of root-like tendrils of light, array patterns that burrowed deep into the core of their very souls.
Yet what horrified Zhao Ruoxi and the other two even more was the complete absence of pain.
Instead, an overwhelming sense of contentment and bliss washed over them. As the tendrils of light spread to envelop their entire souls, their fear of Li Fan slowly transformed into reverence, and then, into unwavering loyalty.
They were fully aware that this core of light, embedded in the depths of their souls, was relentlessly prying into their every thought. Yet, they felt no urge to resist. On the contrary, they felt an overwhelming desire to lay their souls bare, to offer every part of themselves to him.
The Human Dao Heavenly Venerate felt his blood surge with the fierce devotion of a warrior willing to die for a true lord.
Ji Wangxian fell to one knee, utterly subjugated.
As for Zhao Ruoxi, a deep blush colored her cheeks as her body went limp, and she sank to the floor. Her gaze, hazy and full of adoration, was fixed upon Li Fan, never leaving him for an instant.
Through his omniscient observation of the Unending Samsara, Li Fan had gained a far deeper understanding of the Longevity Celestial Venerables before him.
This knowledge, combined with the personalized modifications the Dissociation Disc had crafted for the array, produced this miraculous result.
"Even more effective than the Truth Inducing Fruit, by a hundredfold," Li Fan thought to himself.
He turned to Wuyou, whose face was pale from witnessing this display. "Your dreamscape is rather rudimentary," he said. "It lacks the power to explore beyond the High Wall. In seven days, all of you will come to the Myriad Immortals Alliance."
"I will have someone assist you in... upgrading it."
His voice still echoed in the air, but Li Fan's form had already faded, vanishing without a trace.
(This chapter is finished)
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