Chapter 1536: Anchoring in the River of Time
"Same as always," sighed the female cultivator, Cao Yinyue. "We barely managed to push back a wave. I reckon they'll be back in seven days."
"You've endured much, Junior Sister," Duan Yuxiao offered comfortingly. "I've seen the other strongholds; the situation is grim everywhere. And this isn't even the absolute front line..."
Their eyes met, and both fell into a heavy silence.
"But there is some good news," Cao Yinyue whispered, her voice a secret transmission. "Through a joint effort, they've finally pinpointed the location of that... thing. They're preparing for a surprise attack, a decisive, all-or-nothing strike..."
Duan Yuxiao's shoulders sagged with relief. "I hope this time we can finally end this war. We've already shed far too much blood on this land."
"But even if that thing is destroyed, the enemy's final counterattack will be all the more ferocious. You must be careful, Junior Sister," Duan Yuxiao cautioned.
"I am well aware of that," Cao Yinyue nodded.
Their private exchange, though transmitted by thought, did not escape Li Fan's notice from the side.
"Secrecy is the soul of any great endeavor. A mission as critical as a direct strike on the Taiyuan Furnace, and it's being leaked so easily. After fighting for so long, is this truly the level of security on the Ten Sects' front line?" Li Fan mused inwardly.
"No, that's not right!"
"At this point in time, the Ten Great Immortal Sects are a monolithic power, jointly ruling the entire Xuanhuang Realm. They are at the apex of their strength, just before the Great Calamity. With powerful immortal artifacts at their disposal, maintaining secrecy should be trivial if they truly wished it."
"Which means this was a deliberate leak, meant to become common knowledge."
In a flash of insight, Li Fan understood.
"The Ten Sects have been unable to confirm the exact location of the Taiyuan Rebirth Furnace, so they're intentionally leaking this information to flush them out."
"They're hoping the Taiyuan Realm will try to move the furnace, thereby exposing its position..."
"To be forced into such a gambit... It seems the Ten Sects' situation is indeed far from optimistic."
From this single corner of the battlefield, Li Fan had already glimpsed the full picture of the war.
For the moment, however, he maintained the facade of an oblivious newcomer, his face a careful mask of apprehension and fear.
After escorting Li Fan to his post, Duan Yuxiao quickly took his leave.
Cao Yinyue watched her senior brother's departing figure, a complex emotion clouding her features.
Just then...
A streak of light shot out from the depths of the Taiyuan Realm, moving with the speed of lightning. In an instant, it pierced straight through Duan Yuxiao's body!
Without so much as a struggle, Duan Yuxiao detonated in a shower of gore.
His soul scattered, his Dao extinguished!
Cao Yinyue froze for a moment before the reality of what had happened crashed down upon her.
"Senior Brother!"
A gut-wrenching cry tore from her throat as she shot toward the scene of the tragedy.
But halfway there, she forced herself to a dead stop.
"Enemy attack!"
"To your formations!"
Cao Yinyue's voice boomed across the Xuanhuang Realm's fortress. She seemed to have regained her composure in an instant, though the slight tremor in her body betrayed her inner turmoil.
Shortly after her order, Li Fan saw a tide of cultivators, hundreds of thousands strong, pour out from the depths of the Taiyuan Realm, blotting out the sky. They charged forward with reckless abandon.
Countless streams of light shot forth, crashing against the defensive lines established by the Xuanhuang Realm.
The fortress where Li Fan stood became just one insignificant speck being battered by this terrifying wave.
The situation had escalated so rapidly that Cao Yinyue and the other cultivators in the fortress had no time to spare for Li Fan.
Coupled with the effect of his Fantasy Becomes Truth ability, Li Fan seemed to have been completely forgotten by the battlefield.
However, his own situation was far from ideal.
His presence had inadvertently led to Duan Yuxiao's unexpected death. The resulting backlash from the River of Time was a chain reaction far more violent than he had anticipated.
"It appears Duan Yuxiao of the Tai Shang Sect held a pivotal role in the original future. It makes sense, I suppose. The war has reached such a critical stage, yet he was able to remain in the rear, away from the front lines." Li Fan struggled to keep his footing as the world around him descended into a precarious, tumultuous storm.
It was a good thing he had laid a solid foundation in the Verdant Valley; otherwise, he might not have been able to withstand the erosion of this temporal tempest.
"If nothing else changes, the Xuanhuang Realm is destined for a major defeat in this battle, culminating in a humiliating retreat."
"Afterward, they erased all records of this shameful defeat."
"From this point on, the fortune of the Ten Sects turned from its zenith into decline. After suffering through the rise of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, the Law of Incompatible Cultivation, and the Immortal-Mortal Miasma, they were finally swallowed by the tides of history."
"And this critical juncture is precisely where I shall lay my foundation!" A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
Any ordinary person, having just narrowly survived the turbulence caused by a shift in the River of Time, would surely seek to cautiously stabilize their anchor point before planning their next move.
Li Fan, however, did the opposite. He saw in this chaos an opportunity to forge a supremely stable anchor point with incredible speed.
"Once this anchor is complete, even if the River of Time is diverted, creating a completely different future, I will remain untouched by the cataclysm. Because all future cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm will remember my deeds."
"This won't be an anchor fixed to a single moment or a single era. My legacy will echo through the ages, spanning the entire river of time!"
The sight of the great Dao of Longevity cultivators, standing like unshakable lighthouses in the River of Time, had given him this inspiration.
And so, in a fraction of a second, he made his decision.
"However, it would be unwise to make any drastic moves at the start."
"The butterfly's wings will first begin to flap from this very fortress."
Li Fan looked toward the distant battlefield, where Cao Yinyue was being besieged by three cultivators from the Taiyuan Realm. Her situation was growing dire; she was about to follow in her senior brother's footsteps.
He flicked his finger.
Cao Yinyue, already severely wounded and her consciousness fading, suddenly saw the image of her beloved Senior Brother Duan's tragic death flash before her eyes.
He, who should have had a boundless future, now lay dead on this battlefield. A surge of brutal energy erupted from the depths of her heart, accompanied by an endless power that blazed like a wildfire.
Her body and soul felt as if they were burning. Plunging into a state of frenzy, Cao Yinyue struck down the three Taiyuan cultivators who surrounded her in a flurry of blows.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, she fearlessly launched a counterattack against the other cultivators assaulting the fortress.
The cultivators of the Ten Sects stationed there witnessed Cao Yinyue's valiant display and were inspired by her ferocity. They all began to fight with desperate resolve.
After more than half a day of brutal, unyielding defense, the locust-like swarm of Taiyuan cultivators was finally, temporarily, repelled.
The survivors believed it was the reward for their perseverance.
They could never have guessed it was all part of Li Fan's secret arrangement.
It wasn't just this fortress. If one could view the entire Taiyuan Realm from above, they would see that its once-uniform Great Dao had become murky, as if someone had stirred impurities into it.
An invisible line, like a chasm, stretched across the entire Taiyuan Realm, bisecting the battlefield.
Sensing this anomaly, the Taiyuan cultivators were forced to retreat.
The surviving cultivators of the Ten Sects, having escaped death's grasp, lay weakly on the ground, savoring what might be their final moments.
And Li Fan, like them, was nearly exhausted.
It wasn't just because of the influence he exerted through his own comprehension of the Dao, nor the array he had secretly deployed—a grand move that had altered the overall situation in the Taiyuan Realm.
It was also because he had to simultaneously contend with the new waves roiling the River of Time.
"This is the limit of what I can do for now."
"The foundation I built before is no longer enough to withstand a storm of this magnitude."
Sensing his own precarious state, Li Fan deliberately released a powerful fluctuation of energy.
It instantly drew the attention of the surrounding survivors.
For a moment, all eyes turned to him. "Is that... a breakthrough?"
"Heh, Nascent Soul realm. It just barely increases his chances of survival."
"Still, to survive that surprise attack as a Golden Core cultivator, and then to achieve a breakthrough right after the battle... This man is no simple character! Where did he come from? I don't think I've ever seen him before."
"Between life and death, there is great terror, but also great opportunity. Master's words were true!"
...
As the discussions continued, rumors about "Li Ping" from the Verdant Valley began to circulate.
The mere fact that he had volunteered for the front lines was enough to earn him the respect of these Ten Sects cultivators who had personally experienced the life-and-death struggle of war.
Until the anomaly in their world was fully resolved, the Taiyuan Realm's side dared not launch another attack.
Everyone was granted a relatively peaceful night.
As night fell, Cao Yinyue, deep in a slumber of exhaustion, found herself trapped once more in the nightmare of her senior brother's death.
"Senior Brother!" she cried out instinctively.
Her senior brother seemed to hear her cry. Before fading away, he gave her one last, profound look.
Then, a speck of light flew from his body.
It slowly entered Cao Yinyue's mind.
Boom!
The nightmare was instantly swept away, replaced by a scene as brilliant as a starry sky, which suddenly unfolded before her eyes.
This breathtakingly magnificent sight made her temporarily forget the pain in her heart.
"The Supreme Dao Scripture?"
Faced with this unparalleled beauty, Cao Yinyue stood dumbfounded, lost in a daze.
...
After Cao Yinyue awoke, Li Fan came to her door to offer his apologies.
"Apologies? For what crime?" Cao Yinyue asked, her tone frigid.
"If it weren't for escorting me to the battlefield, Senior Brother Duan wouldn't have..." Li Fan said with deep remorse, his head bowed.
"..."
In truth, Cao Yinyue had initially harbored such thoughts. But she also knew that she couldn't blame him; life and death were fickle. On the battlefield, one's life was not one's own. It was all up to fate.
Was Duan Yuxiao's life any more precious than the lives of the countless other disciples of the Ten Great Immortal Sects? Besides, Li Fan was a loyal cultivator who had volunteered for the battlefield himself.
If she were to use this as a pretext to cause trouble, none of the thousands of Ten Sects cultivators on this battlefield would stand for it.
Cao Yinyue understood this well and had already put the matter behind her.
Now that Li Fan had brought it up himself, it was like a gentle breeze blowing away any lingering resentment, wiping the slate clean.
"Just stay alive."
"For Senior Brother Duan, too."
Cao Yinyue's face was devoid of expression as she spoke.
...
Over the next six months, dozens of battles, both large and small, erupted between the Taiyuan and Xuanhuang Realms.
Although the Ten Sects' side continued to suffer heavy losses, they were backed by the Xuanhuang Realm and its powerful ability to supply reinforcements, allowing them to just barely hold on.
Meanwhile, although the Taiyuan cultivators could be revived after death, their world was plagued by sporadic anomalies. This greatly hindered the efficiency of their resurrection. Until they could uncover the source of these disturbances, they dared not launch a full-scale counteroffensive.
Thus, the war entered a stalemate.
Regarding the future direction of the war, disagreements had begun to surface within the Ten Sects.
It was now clear that the immortal spiritual energy within the Taiyuan Rebirth Furnace would not be depleted anytime soon. Reluctantly, they had to admit they had made a fatal miscalculation.
But what was done was done. Accountability would have to wait until after the war. The crucial question now was what to do next.
Having made one mistake, the Xuanhuang Realm could not afford another.
A significant number of voices advocated for retreat.
Among those who remained silent, countless more shared the same sentiment.
However, the one thing that forced the Ten Sects to maintain a public facade of fighting to the death was the Floating Starry Sky Grand Array, inherited from the ancient Xuantian Sect.
Once their hope for escaping the Immortal Ruins, the golden chains of the Floating Starry Sky had brought them a new beginning.
Now, they had become a quagmire of misfortune.
And they were trapped deep within it, unable to escape.
The term "quagmire" referred not only to the war itself but also to the golden chains!
The Xuanhuang Realm's side had naturally noticed the strange changes occurring within the Taiyuan Realm.
They didn't know the exact situation with the Taiyuan Rebirth Furnace, but the changes to the Floating Starry Sky Grand Array were plain to see.
The golden chains, which had been stretched to their limit and were on the verge of shattering, had somehow begun to mend themselves!
This should have been a cause for celebration among the Ten Sects.
Yet, none of them could bring themselves to feel any joy.
Because the price for the restoration of the golden chains was that they were slowly integrating into the very fabric of the Taiyuan Realm!
As for why such a bizarre event was happening, none of the cultivators, including the sect masters of the Ten Sects, had any answers.
They were simply faced with an undeniable fact: even if they wanted to withdraw now, they couldn't.
The golden chains were an integral part of the Floating Starry Sky Grand Array, connecting it to the Xuanhuang Realm.
Even if they evacuated the Taiyuan Realm, if they didn't retract the chains, the Taiyuan cultivators could simply follow them back and invade.
And as for severing the chains...
The Floating Starry Sky Grand Array was an immortal-grade formation. Although the Ten Sects prided themselves on their immortal heritage, they lacked the ability to freely modify such a construct. All they could currently do was activate and operate it.
More critically, the Xuanhuang Realm was still within the abyss of the Immortal Ruins. If they forcibly severed the chains, it was highly likely that the Xuanhuang Realm would suffer catastrophic damage and plummet into the ruins. Thus, the Ten Sects collectively rejected this option.
Therefore, only one path remained before them.
From now on, even if they did not continue their assault on the Taiyuan Realm, they would have to establish defensive fortresses to prevent a counter-invasion.
To do so would require an even greater commitment of manpower.
"Everyone. Have you heard of an organization called the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance that has appeared throughout the Xuanhuang Realm?"
"It's just some independent cultivators messing around."
"I was thinking we'd suppress them after the Taiyuan matter was settled. But now..."
"Perhaps we can conscript them into the war."
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