Chapter 1549: The Benevolent Heavenly Doctor
Although the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's power was growing, rivaling even the Ten Great Immortal Sects, the Dharma Spreader himself had become increasingly cautious.
He rarely appeared in public anymore.
The official story was that after witnessing a True Immortal attain the Dao, the Dharma Spreader had been deeply moved and had entered secluded meditation to pursue his own enlightenment.
Li Fan, however, knew that while this was partly true, the more likely reason was to guard against the Ten Great Immortal Sects' treachery. After all, their methods had become infamous throughout the Xuanhuang Realm during the battle for the Taiyuan Realm.
Though the Dharma Spreader had gone into hiding, Li Fan could find him in an instant.
He didn't even need to use his spiritual sense to search.
As the current wielder of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate's authority, Li Fan only needed to follow the threads of worldly principles—those that had been absorbed by the Dharma Spreader's New Law—to pinpoint his location in a flash.
"The Dharma Spreader used the [Myriad Spirits of the Mystic Heaven] to build his foundation, the [Method of Heavenly Derivation] to form his Golden Core, and the [Primordial Grotto-Heaven] to ascend to Nascent Soul. He stepped into the Soul Transformation realm through the [Myriad Phenomena Transformation] and achieved Dao Integration with the Earth's Soul, [Golden Seal]..."
Golden Seal was one of the fundamental Dao principles used to manipulate the Xuanhuang Realm at its creation. Although the Dharma Spreader had absorbed and refined it, it still maintained countless connections to the world itself. This was how he could partially control the heavens and earth.
And it was this very connection that had now become the cocoon of his own making, trapping him.
"Found you."
Li Fan's figure flickered, crossing thousands of mountains and rivers in a single breath. He appeared beside the Dharma Spreader like a phantom.
At this moment, Xuanyuan Tuo was disguised as an old oxherd, holding a whip and riding backward on a green ox, driving his herd to graze in the fields.
Upon seeing Li Fan's abrupt appearance, his expression turned grave.
Li Fan studied him with a faint, enigmatic smile. "Xuanyuan Tuo..."
But before he could finish, Xuanyuan Tuo exploded into action, seizing the initiative.
Suddenly, tens of thousands of golden chains materialized in the air, shooting out from all directions to lock onto Li Fan with unerring precision. Meanwhile, Xuanyuan Tuo raised a small, antique bronze mirror.
The ancient mirror was simple and profound, its blurry surface seemingly reflecting the nine heavens, the ten earths—the entire Xuanhuang Realm!
The golden chains were, of course, the Earth's Soul, Golden Seal. And the small mirror in the Dharma Spreader's hand was none other than the Heavenly Profound Mirror!
"Oh?" Li Fan was slightly surprised by this turn of events.
According to the memories he had read from the Heavenly Profound Mirror, it was supposed to be subdued by the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor *after* the former had achieved Longevity. But now, the Dharma Spreader had yet to reach that realm, and the Heavenly Doctor should not have fully awakened.
"It seems my actions have caused a deviation."
"No matter."
"It's unrelated to the final outcome," Li Fan said, his expression calm.
The chains of the Golden Seal, capable of restraining any living being in the Xuanhuang Realm, struck Li Fan with perfect accuracy. Yet he seemed to be nothing but a phantom; the thousands of golden chains passed straight through him, grasping at empty air.
And the Heavenly Profound Mirror, an immortal artifact that could reflect all the profound secrets of the mortal world, failed to reveal Li Fan's form.
Sensing that something was wrong, the mirror's surface even erupted with a green light, attempting to break free from the Dharma Spreader's control and flee.
Seeing his two ultimate moves fail completely, the Dharma Spreader's face filled with astonishment. A moment later, he understood the realm and power of the person standing before him.
A True Immortal!
Before he could even attempt to resist further, Li Fan suppressed both man and mirror with a mere flip of his hand.
Then, he began his careful observation.
Though his target this time was the Dharma Spreader, Li Fan's gaze first fell upon the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
Because the mirror before him now was vastly different from the one he had seen ten thousand years in the future.
It had not yet completed its transformation from an immortal artifact into a mortal one. Faint traces of an immortal aura still lingered upon it.
"You've gone astray!"
"The fiercer the calamity, the more you must face it head-on. Only then is there a sliver of hope for survival. You can run for a moment, but can you run for a lifetime?" Li Fan shook his head and sighed.
With a wave of his hand, he helped the Heavenly Profound Mirror complete its repairs. As its connection to the Upper Mountain and the Infinite Sea was re-established, the mirror's nearly ten thousand years of effort went down the drain.
Its rustic appearance faded, replaced by the unique, lustrous glow of an immortal artifact. It looked as if it were born from the purest spirit of heaven and earth, indescribably wondrous at a glance.
Although it had grown stronger, the Heavenly Profound Mirror was filled with an indescribable frustration. If it weren't currently suppressed by Li Fan, unable to resist, it would have likely tried to grind him to dust.
For an immortal artifact to become mortal is a hundred times more difficult than for a True Immortal to do the same.
After all, immortal artifacts were creations of True Immortals, refined to serve them. They could not easily be allowed to slip from control.
Only the Heavenly Profound Mirror itself knew the price it had paid to reach this point, slowly severing its own shackles while measuring the heavens and the earth in the Xuanhuang Realm.
To think that all its past efforts had been erased in an instant by this immortal!
Its body trembled with rage.
However, the immense force surrounding it, seemingly capable of shattering it to pieces, brought it back to its senses in an instant.
"The esteemed immortal's lesson is correct," it could only say, utterly defeated.
In that brief instant, Li Fan's divine sense had already penetrated the Heavenly Profound Mirror's core.
He undid the restrictive seals the Dharma Spreader had placed within it.
"It seems the Heavenly Profound Mirror wasn't completely subjugated by the Dharma Spreader. Rather, the two reached some sort of agreement." Li Fan could tell at a glance that the seals in the mirror were not strong enough to grant total control.
"Reflect on this well. Do not disappoint Xuanyuan Hong's expectations."
With that, Li Fan suppressed and put away the trembling Heavenly Profound Mirror, which was now lost in a whirlwind of thoughts.
Only then did he turn his attention back to Xuanyuan Tuo.
Despite being captured, Xuanyuan Tuo showed no fear. Even as Li Fan studied him, he was silently observing Li Fan in return.
Their gazes met.
Xuanyuan Tuo's eyes held confusion and doubt.
But Li Fan's gaze pierced directly through the surface of Xuanyuan Tuo's soul, reaching deep within.
As expected, he found a faint, transparent figure.
"The Heavenly Doctor..."
A mysterious smile played on Li Fan's lips. Golden light flashed in his hand, and a row of golden needles materialized from thin air.
Before Xuanyuan Tuo's horrified eyes, nine hundred and ninety-nine golden needles pierced his body one after another.
His body was covered in needles, yet Xuanyuan Tuo felt no pain.
On the contrary, his mind grew calmer and his thoughts became clearer.
With the help of the needles, he seemed to gain a clearer understanding of himself. And with it came a shocking discovery—the foreign presence inside his body!
"What is this?!"
He had never known such a thing existed within him. Xuanyuan Tuo was utterly astonished.
As he watched, the seemingly dormant figure was enveloped in golden light and slowly dragged out, step by step.
Aside from an unavoidable ache in his soul, Xuanyuan Tuo felt no other discomfort. In fact, as the foreign object was expelled, he felt his soul and body become more harmonious and free.
The flashes of insight that had always halted at critical moments in the past now burst forth all at once, as if a long-suppressed dam had broken.
More importantly...
The strange murmuring he used to only hear in moments of grave injury or crisis had now become much clearer.
Under the influence of this murmur, Xuanyuan Tuo felt the invisible shackles on his body begin to loosen!
Xuanyuan Tuo was overjoyed but kept his composure, pretending to still be reeling from the shock of the entity's removal.
However, Li Fan's next words shattered his hopes without mercy.
"At your current cultivation level, listening to this profound sound will do you no good. I'll seal it for you for now."
Before he finished speaking, the murmuring that had been echoing in Xuanyuan Tuo's ears vanished without a trace.
His newfound hope of escape was extinguished in an instant, leaving Xuanyuan Tuo momentarily stunned.
"The profound sound from my bloodline is even clearer than the one from that painting, its direction more focused." But Xuanyuan Tuo didn't realize the sound hadn't actually vanished.
It had been completely intercepted by Li Fan.
This time, Li Fan's consciousness did not follow the profound sound beyond the mortal world. He simply observed it from a distance.
"It points to a time about fifteen thousand years earlier."
"This seems to be..."
"The period when the Xuantian King fled the Immortal World, returned, and founded the Xuantian Sect."
"But the target it corresponds to isn't the [Primal] possibility. Perhaps it's another, similar one?"
The guidance from his own bloodline was so clear that Li Fan could faintly perceive the destination it pointed to.
But for now, Li Fan had no intention of investigating it.
After watching silently for a while, he withdrew his gaze. Ignoring the utterly dejected Xuanyuan Tuo, he turned to examine the transparent, thin shadow in his hand.
It resembled a thin membrane, its features indistinct.
It was impossible to tell that this was the Heavenly Doctor who had once cast such a great psychological shadow over Li Fan.
"My young friend, what are you anticipating?"
That scene from the past seemed as vivid as if it were yesterday.
Yet now, as Li Fan recalled it in detail, it felt like something that had happened a long, long time ago.
The feeling of it being from another lifetime left Li Fan feeling quite emotional.
There was a time when he had desperately yearned to turn the tables on the Heavenly Doctor, to even play a prank and give him a scare.
But now that he truly had the power to do so, he found his interest had waned.
"After all, I've had far too many scares on my path to longevity."
"The Heavenly Doctor hardly registers anymore."
Although he had found peace with it, Li Fan had no intention of letting the Heavenly Doctor go.
"Heavenly Soul Reincarnation."
Li Fan wasn't very interested in the Heavenly Doctor himself, but he was deeply intrigued by the unique creation known as the [Heavenly Soul].
"A physical Heavenly Demon... even in the Immortal World of the past, that was a rarity."
"The Heavenly Doctor had easily deceived the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm, and had even suppressed Xuanyuan Tuo's consciousness to take control of his body. The Heavenly Demon's contribution to this was undeniable."
Li Fan gently stroked the transparent tissue before him.
His spiritual sense, sharp as a knife and fine as a needle, slowly began to dissect it.
Even with his current abilities, he performed this step with extreme care.
Under the effects of the great Heavenly Soul Reincarnation Technique, this remnant of the Heavenly Doctor's soul had almost completely fused with the Heavenly Demon. Without the methods of a True Immortal, they would be impossible to separate.
"The Heavenly Demon is the supreme inner demon."
"The hundred thoughts of the human heart all resonate with the Great Dao of heaven and earth. And the demon of heaven is the inner demon born from the very operation of that Great Dao..."
Under the suppression of Li Fan's power, the Heavenly Doctor remained in a deep slumber.
The Heavenly Demon, however, seemed to sense the external crisis. The transparent tissue began to tremble violently, like boiling water.
To avoid damaging the Heavenly Demon's integrity, Li Fan refrained from using brute force.
He simply channeled his immortal spiritual power, gently and gradually suppressing it.
It took considerable effort, but he finally managed to separate it completely from the Heavenly Doctor.
Without the protection of the Heavenly Demon, the Heavenly Doctor's soul finally revealed its true form.
He still had the same white hair and benevolent appearance that Li Fan had seen in the future, but he seemed intangibly younger.
"Perhaps it's because he hasn't yet experienced the tragedy of the Tianfa Realm," Li Fan thought to himself.
"In this Xuanhuang Realm that I now preside over, the Tianfa Realm's crisis of extinction no longer exists. This is a great fortune for both the Heavenly Doctor and the Tianfa Realm." Recalling what he had seen in the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, Li Fan nodded slightly.
He first suppressed and stored the sleeping Heavenly Doctor, then sent his divine sense into the separated Heavenly Demon tissue.
He attempted to analyze the mysteries of the Heavenly Demon.
Sensing the foreign invasion, even without a will of its own and while being suppressed and sealed...
...the Heavenly Demon was still able to mount a resistance.
Li Fan felt as if he had returned to the river of time, as great waves crashed through his consciousness.
The world spun around him, a field of utter chaos.
Countless memories from his past came fluttering down like snowflakes.
Sometimes, recalling the past and reflecting upon oneself can be a good thing.
But to indulge too deeply in memory is to risk losing oneself.
Li Fan was undoubtedly aware of this danger.
In an instant, his conscious form sprouted myriad hands.
They began to sort through all the stirred-up memories, piece by piece.
In the fleeting images, Li Fan saw himself before he had awakened [Truth], striving diligently and arduously in the small world of the Great Xuan. He saw himself using the foreknowledge from his rebirth to become the Grand Preceptor of Great Xuan, running rampant in the imperial court. He saw himself meeting Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi, learning of immortals, and after many lifetimes of hardship, finally breaking the great array to ascend to the Xuanhuang Realm. He saw himself building his foundation over a hundred lifetimes, laying an incomparably solid groundwork. He saw himself navigating the treacherous Xuanhuang Realm, exploring it step by step. From Foundation Establishment to Golden Core, and finally, pushing the Xuanhuang Realm to sublimate, attaining a half-immortal state. Then, breaking the deadlock and leaping across the High Wall, only to encounter the unexpected fusion of three Daos, forcing him to start all over again. And finally, with the help of the Mount Tai Emperor, he traveled up the river of time against the current, arriving at this very day.
...
As Li Fan slowly gathered and integrated the fragments of his past, he examined his own history from the perspective of a pure observer.
In doing so, he discovered a few things that he had always taken for granted, but which now seemed exceedingly strange.
Li Fan had always been confident in his spiritual intuition.
In his past reincarnations, his intuition had warned him at countless critical moments, saving his life time and again.
It could be said that Li Fan trusted his own intuition even more than he trusted [Truth].
If he had only [Truth] without such an impossibly sharp intuition, there were probably several times he would have been captured before he could even activate it.
In the past, Li Fan had believed his intuition was innate.
A matter of course.
But was that truly the case?
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