Chapter 1537: The Intact Nine Stars Red Pearl
"Sect Master Qu has a point. After all, the Xuanhuang Realm doesn't belong to our Ten Sects alone," remarked Fang Dingge, the Sect Master of the Great Dao Sect, with a meaningful glance.
Qu Yixing, however, seemed entirely unfazed as he continued, "The leader of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is named Dharma Spreader. The methods he created certainly have their unique merits. But with the Great Heavenly Venerate overseeing the world, he is destined to never amount to much. If he causes any more of a stir, I suspect this so-called Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance will be turned to dust in an instant, without us even having to lift a finger."
"They are doomed either way, so we might as well put them to good use. However, the techniques of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance are peculiar; it would be unwise to recruit cultivators at the Nascent Soul realm or above. Otherwise, after they fall, the free-roaming essence of heaven and earth from the Xuanhuang Realm would end up nourishing the Taiyuan Realm instead..."
"Leave this matter to me. I will persuade them properly," a voice brimming with heroic spirit boomed, proactively taking on the task. It was none other than the Eldest Senior Brother of the Heavenly Sword Sect, Situ Yao.
He gazed toward a distant point in the Xuanhuang Realm, silently lifted the gourd in his hand, and drank deeply.
...
With just a few simple words, the leaders of the Ten Great Sects decided the fate of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance in this timeline.
Yet, in a corner hidden from their sight, another master was weaving their future.
"So that is the principle behind the Taiyuan Rebirth Furnace."
Inside the Dark Blood Fortress, Li Fan sat cross-legged, a blurry, distorted image of a furnace flickering in and out of existence in his palm.
Over the past six months, using the Golden Lock Across the Sky of the Floating Starry Sky Grand Array as a medium, he had completed his analysis of the condensed Dao within the Taiyuan Realm.
The result was somewhat unexpected, but upon reflection, it made perfect sense.
The so-called infinite resurrection happening in the Taiyuan Realm was not true resurrection at all. It was "fabrication."
The situation was identical to that of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Deep within the Taiyuan Realm lay a vast and magnificent ancient immortal array.
The Nine Stars Red Pearl, the indeterminate ring, the endless sea of frozen corpses...
All of it was virtually identical to what was in the Xuanhuang Realm. The only difference was that the Nine Stars Red Pearl of the Taiyuan Realm had not vanished like its counterpart. It remained perfectly intact at the core of the ancient array, maintaining the formation's operation.
When a Taiyuan cultivator died, the Nine Stars Red Pearl, which recorded the data of every living being in the Taiyuan Realm, would use the immortal array to fabricate a new duplicate.
Both the "resurrected" and their adversaries would believe they had been brought back to life.
Only one who could pierce through the layers of concealment and perceive the immortal array behind it all could see the truth of the matter.
"As expected of an experimental ground once overseen by an Immortal Emperor. With the Nine Stars Red Pearl as its core, the complete ancient immortal array has actually reached the stage of manifesting a Dao through its very structure."
"Oh, Mount Tai Emperor, Mount Tai Emperor, you didn't even think to remind me of something so important."
Of course, this was just Li Fan's jest. In the Mount Tai Emperor's view, compared to the monumental task of reversing time and saving all of eternity, the lives of every being in the experimental ground were utterly insignificant. An array that merely fabricated life forms was naturally not something he would consider "important."
"The so-called resurrection is nothing but a lie. This is something the Ten Great Immortal Sects cannot be allowed to discover. Otherwise, the belief that they can revive their fallen comrades in the Taiyuan Realm—the very conviction supporting their fight—will instantly vanish, and the Xuanhuang Realm's front line will likely collapse at the first touch."
Li Fan studied the furnace's illusion in his hand, stroking it gently.
Though it was merely an illusory form, it truly rippled faintly with his touch.
This was, of course, the result of Li Fan's attempts to modify the ancient immortal array of the Taiyuan Realm after successfully infiltrating and cracking it.
Even with its core intact, the array was ultimately no match for a True Immortal visitor from ten thousand years in the future.
Li Fan had infiltrated the core of the Taiyuan Realm's immortal array without much effort.
However, he had yet to make any significant moves, opting instead to secretly modify the array's details. The reason for his caution was the two immortal array guardians who still resided within the formation.
Under the cover of the world-protecting ancient immortal array, Li Fan had glimpsed the true forms of these two figures.
One was the Observer from the Immortal Realm, a being that had also appeared in the Xuanhuang Realm. The key difference was that this one in the Taiyuan Realm had clearly maintained its complete and lucid consciousness.
The other may have once existed in the Xuanhuang Realm as well, but had likely vanished along with the damage to the immortal array.
It was the array's Maintenance Official.
It had a human body, but its head was replaced by a book whose countless pages seemed to be flipping endlessly and simultaneously.
In Li Fan's eyes, both the Observer and the Maintenance Official were nothing more than immortal servants.
Of course, in the eyes of mortal cultivators, even a "servant" was far beyond their ability to contend with, as long as it bore the title of "immortal."
Even Li Fan, who had now recovered to the Dao Integration realm, would not be a match for these two in a direct confrontation—at least for now.
He was merely avoiding a direct conflict for the time being.
It was quite clear, however, that the immortal servants stationed in the array did not understand the formation itself. They could only operate it by the book, following the instructions left by the True Immortals of old.
They remained completely oblivious to the subtle changes Li Fan was orchestrating within the array.
"I must make it an established fact that the Taiyuan Rebirth Furnace can resurrect Xuanhuang cultivators who have fallen on the battlefield. Only then can I sustain their will to continue fighting." Having been in the battlefield fortress for half a year, Li Fan understood this point very well.
"I've gone to such lengths to set this stage. It would be a terrible shame if the audience were to leave now..."
"What the immortal array cannot do, I will!"
With a light flick of his left hand, Li Fan sent the furnace's illusion flying forward, where it began to spin rapidly in mid-air.
With every gesture Li Fan made, a myriad of splendors burst forth from it.
Unseen by anyone, a slow transformation began to take place within the Taiyuan Realm.
When a cultivator's soul was scattered, the immortal array would now actively capture their biodata and record it in the Nine Stars Red Pearl. With this data, fabricating them anew would not be a difficult task.
Of course, since it was not recording the original template data, the information captured by the Nine Stars Red Pearl would inevitably have some deviations from the cultivator's true biodata.
After a Xuanhuang cultivator was "resurrected," there would be slight discrepancies compared to their original selves. It was less a resurrection and more of a reincarnation.
Even so, he imagined it would be enough to satisfy the Xuanhuang cultivators.
After several days of meticulous refinement, Li Fan finally completed the initial modifications to the Taiyuan Realm's immortal array.
In the process, he also leveraged the Dao contained within the array to perform a degree of calibration, aligning the deviated Daos of the past and future timelines.
The boundary of immortal law, which had been like looking through a pane of murky glass, became clear once more.
Li Fan could almost feel the Infinite Sea that lay beyond the mortal world again.
After all, a True Immortal cannot be suppressed for long.
Despite the resistance and suppression from the Xuanhuang Realm, all Li Fan needed was a single opportunity, and he could rise again in an instant.
"Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, I'll deal with you when I return."
"For now, I will bring the grand play I've so carefully prepared to a perfect conclusion here."
Li Fan unhurriedly took the furnace illusion, which had become almost tangible, into his hand and toyed with it gently.
Now, if he so wished, he could return to the Infinite Sea and ascend the Upper Mountain at any moment.
He could reclaim his status as a True Immortal.
However, the devastating consequences of merging the three Daos still left him with a lingering fear.
[Truth] had fallen into slumber. If he were to connect to the Infinite Sea alone, he would surely face tremendous, unknown risks.
"My current cultivation is enough for me to roam freely within the High Wall. Even if the Hunger Immortal were to be awakened, I could retreat with ease."
"Whether I become an immortal or not is, in fact, not that important to me."
"The most crucial thing is my comprehension of the True False Transformation."
If one could say that all his actions since returning ten thousand years into the past had gone smoothly, then the impact of [Truth]'s slumber was the only setback Li Fan had truly suffered.
His comprehension of the True False Transformation had not recovered as well as he had hoped.
While it was a significant improvement from his state in the Xuanhuang Realm six months ago, Li Fan had a premonition that the path back to the level he had achieved before merging the three Daos and traveling upstream through time would be exceedingly difficult.
"My original understanding of the True False Transformation, while I called it my own comprehension, was in fact still built upon the state of being possessed by [Truth]. With [Truth] as the cornerstone, I could easily grasp the True False Transformation that others could not even perceive."
"But now, with [Truth] having fallen into slumber, I have all but lost the foundation I relied upon."
"To return to my original height, I need to walk back slowly, step by step, on solid ground of my own making."
"Though it will be much slower, this time..."
A sharp light glinted in Li Fan's eyes. "What is mine, will be truly mine. Even if I were to suffer such memory loss again, no one could take it away from me!"
Having come to this realization, Li Fan was no longer in a hurry.
Traveling back ten thousand years was a desperate act of survival. To Li Fan, it made little difference which timeline he was in.
As for the calamity of the entire Mountain and Sea world being worn down by the Dao Annihilation Calamity...
That was not something the current Li Fan could concern himself with.
Traveling back to the past of the same timeline was already so difficult. Li Fan could already imagine the immense danger he would face if he were to cross the Eternal Silent Void Realm to another, completely disconnected timeline.
"Even the upper and lower reaches of the same river have so many deviations in their Daos. Different timelines, severed by the Dao Annihilation Calamity, are practically two different rivers entirely."
"It is foreseeable that if I were to rashly travel back in time again, I would inevitably suffer the loss of my cultivation and abilities once more."
"And at that time, in a completely unfamiliar timeline, it would not be so easy to recover."
At this point, Li Fan could finally, to some extent, understand what Shou Qiu meant by his struggle with every step.
Perhaps much later, for his own safety, Li Fan would have no choice but to join forces with the supreme experts from different periods of history to resist that terrifying and dreadful Dao Annihilation Calamity.
But for now...
Since they were still holding on, he would let them hold on a little longer.
"I'll focus on my own survival first," Li Fan said to himself with a self-deprecating smile.
...
With Li Fan secretly manipulating events from behind the scenes, the war in the Taiyuan Realm grew even more intense.
Even with the Taiyuan Realm pushing the efficiency of fabricating resurrected cultivators to its maximum.
Even after Fang Dingge successfully persuaded Dharma Spreader, and the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance—whose cultivation was only below Nascent Soul but whose combat power was extraordinary—joined the fray.
The two sides remained locked in a stalemate.
It was like a bottomless mire; once you stepped in, there was no pulling yourself out.
The small patch of land that was the Taiyuan Realm had transformed into a terrifying Asura battlefield, constantly devouring lives.
Left with no choice, both sides could only continue to pour in more resources and manpower.
But as the saying goes, heroes are born in chaotic times. And on this battlefield, several dazzling new stars began to rise, their ascent unstoppable.
Among them, Li Ping, the persona adopted by Li Fan, was one of the most prominent.
In half a year, he had experienced more than two hundred and thirty battles, large and small, slaying dozens of enemies in every single one.
And after each battle, he would invariably experience an epiphany.
He was secretly dubbed a natural-born killing machine, a Saintly Body of Conquest, by the Xuanhuang cultivators.
He had already leaped from the Golden Core realm he was at when he first entered the battlefield to the Soul Transformation realm.
The speed of his progress was truly shocking.
However, the world of cultivation was one where ancient legends of achieving enlightenment in a day and ascending in broad daylight existed. Progressing from Golden Core to Soul Transformation in half a year, while fast, was not entirely inconceivable.
Especially since this advancement was built upon a foundation of endless slaughter.
Besides, the progress of another cultivator by Li Fan's side was even more attention-grabbing.
She attracted the vast majority of the attention for Li Fan.
This was, naturally, Cao Yinyue, who had received Li Fan's [Supreme Dao Scripture].
Perhaps it was the death of her beloved Senior Brother Duan that had left her lifeless, with only a single thought remaining: to slay her enemies and avenge him. While others who obtained the [Supreme Dao Scripture] had to be secretive about it...
Cao Yinyue couldn't be bothered with such things, completely displaying her progress for the world to see.
In less than three months, she broke through from Soul Transformation to Dao Integration.
In the following two months, as if there were no bottlenecks at all, she forged ahead on a path of slaughter.
She was now at the peak of the Dao Integration realm.
Compared to her, Li Fan's progress no longer seemed so exaggerated.
Although many within the Ten Great Sects were curious about the reason for Cao Yinyue's rapid advancement, there were two reasons they hesitated to act. First, it was a critical time in a grueling war that concerned the very survival of the Xuanhuang Realm. Even if they were greedy, they wouldn't dare make a move at such a moment. Second, Cao Yinyue was a core disciple of the Ten Great Sects.
Without a word from the Sect Master of the Taishang Sect, no one else would dare to act rashly.
All inquiries were deflected by the old Daoist's simple, faint reply: "It is a secret art of the Taishang Sect, not to be shared with outsiders."
The others could do nothing.
Li Fan, however, knew that the Sect Master of the Taishang Sect was not being disingenuous.
It had to be said, Cao Yinyue was a clever woman. After obtaining the [Supreme Dao Scripture] and realizing its divine efficacy, she had immediately returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
She informed her Sect Master about the [Supreme Dao Scripture].
That old Daoist truly had the bearing of an immortal sect's leader. Faced with the starry sky of the Dao that Li Fan had woven, though he was momentarily stunned, he did not seize it for himself.
"That you obtained this item is your own fortune. Keep it safe," he had instructed faintly, sending the astonished Cao Yinyue away.
This was the reason for Cao Yinyue's subsequent lack of concealment.
Li Fan could somewhat understand the old Daoist's way of thinking.
It was just like the Dao of Longevity inherited from Shou Qiu.
A true expert must walk a path that is uniquely their own. What is taught or gifted by others can never be considered truly "attaining the Dao."
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