Chapter 1550: The Dharma Spreader's Grand-Ancestor
Chapter 1550: The Dharma Spreader's Grand-Ancestor
"To seek fortune and avoid calamity, to turn disaster into opportunity."
"If it were only effective within a limited scope, one might explain it away as some kind of talent. But I can often sense and receive warnings about risks that even [Truth] fails to detect..." Li Fan's expression was grave; he couldn't help but harbor suspicion.
"Could it be that this spiritual sense is deeply connected to my own infinite spirituality? What kind of talent is this, exactly? Is it related to my identity as a transmigrator?"
Inevitably, a cascade of questions rose in Li Fan's mind.
The first stage of the New Method was called "Foundation Establishment Through Oneself." Logically, as his cultivation and knowledge grew, he should have been getting closer to achieving this goal.
But as more and more mysteries about himself were unearthed, Li Fan felt as if he was drifting further and further from "Foundation Establishment Through Oneself," even when disregarding the factor of [Truth].
He nearly lost himself in this mental tempest of self-doubt until a profoundly familiar fluctuation emanated from the depths of his divine soul. Like a welcome downpour after a long drought, it helped Li Fan instantly regain his clarity.
It was [Truth], which had been severely injured and dormant for a long time!
"I was getting lost in my own thoughts."
"Talent or cheat, it matters not, so long as I can wield it. I am still struggling to survive within the River of Time, so what need is there to delve into its fundamental nature? It only adds to my worries."
"Perhaps there will come a day when I must face this deepest of secrets. But by then, I should be able to achieve complete self-awareness, a state of pure self."
The reappearance of [Truth] was like a calming balm.
The self-reflection triggered by the Heavenly Demon finally began to settle completely.
It was worth noting that Li Fan, having lived through countless cycles and witnessed the immense upheavals of the Mountain and Sea, possessed a will that was nothing short of resolute. And yet, he was still affected by the Heavenly Demon.
"So this is the Dao of the Heavenly Demon."
"As long as one has not transcended the worldly Dao, one will inevitably have their inner demons provoked. The strength of these inner demons is even tied to oneself. The more secrets one holds, the stronger the inner demon becomes..."
The Heavenly Demon was truly a unique creation, utterly different from any living being Li Fan had encountered before.
The Nameless and the Transcenders, for all their might, were merely powerful in terms of raw stats in Li Fan's eyes.
The Heavenly Demon, however, was a creature of unique mechanics.
One could say it was strong, but also weak.
As long as one's heart was firm and sincere, even a Foundation Establishment cultivator could remain untroubled by it. But if one's state of mind had flaws or vulnerabilities, even a being of the Nameless realm could not evade its influence.
"Furthermore, the Heavenly Demon in its current state..."
It seemed that once the inner demon was overcome, one would be immune to its influence for a long time. Li Fan once again turned his attention to the transparent tissue he had extracted and separated from Xuanyuan Tuo's body.
It was like the amniotic fluid in a mother's womb, protecting and nourishing its charge.
It protected the still-slumbering Heavenly Doctor.
It was precisely Li Fan's act of separating it from the Heavenly Doctor that had provoked the Heavenly Demon's instinctive attack.
"The Heavenly Demon should also be one of the Venerables of the Tianfa Realm."
"And yet, this mass of transparent tissue contains no consciousness of its own."
"Besides, if I recall correctly, the real Heavenly Demon should still be frozen and preserved within the Mysterious Immortal Boat at this very moment."
Using [Fantasy Becomes Truth], he simulated the Heavenly Doctor's life aura and slowly approached.
The transparent tissue very quickly enveloped this "Heavenly Doctor" once more.
"Interesting."
"It seems the Heavenly Demon's assistance was indispensable for the success of the Heavenly Doctor's Heavenly Soul Reincarnation."
"This incubator..."
Li Fan shifted his perspective, examining it as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.
The protective shell formed by the transparent tissue was like a mirror. When viewed with the power of the Xuanhuang Realm, it reflected nothing but scenes of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Suddenly remembering something, Li Fan checked the sleeping Heavenly Doctor again.
It was just as he had predicted.
"It's incomplete."
"Or rather, it's only a part of the Heavenly Doctor."
"The Heavenly Soul Reincarnation projected his consciousness, but the Heavenly Doctor's original body remains hidden somewhere."
"That makes sense. Although the Heavenly Doctor possessed the Dharma Spreader, he later still had his own body. This is the fundamental reason I was perplexed about the relationship between the two for so long. They seemed like the same person, yet also like a main body and a clone. It was full of contradictions."
"Such a complex history. How could anyone possibly untangle it without witnessing it firsthand through his memories," Li Fan murmured, shaking his head slightly.
"In the original timeline, the Heavenly Doctor sensed the crisis in the Tianfa Realm, forcibly seized control of the body, and returned, only to find the Tianfa Realm slaughtered and empty."
"Although the Heavenly Soul Reincarnation plan was half-successful, his home had been destroyed first. The Heavenly Doctor was devastated."
"Even so, he did not give up. Instead, he devised a new plan to resurrect himself using a vessel. But the difficulty of this was even greater than the Heavenly Soul Reincarnation. He couldn't accomplish it alone, not to mention the unstable presence of Xuanyuan Tuo's own consciousness."
"So, the Heavenly Doctor needed an assistant."
"The Heavenly Demon, who had distanced himself from the Tianfa Realm years ago, became his only hope."
"Fortunately, with the incubator the Heavenly Demon had left behind and its faint connection to the main body, the Heavenly Doctor was able to precisely locate it across the vast starry sky and find the elusive, deeply hidden Mysterious Immortal Boat."
"After considerable effort, he rescued the Heavenly Demon. Then, the Heavenly Demon and the Heavenly Doctor joined forces to completely suppress Xuanyuan Tuo's consciousness. The Heavenly Demon took on the role of the Dharma Spreader, and the Heavenly Doctor returned to his own body."
"The two of them worked together, seeking to save the Tianfa Realm from ruin."
"It could be said that for the next ten thousand years, the Xuanhuang Realm was their two-man show. The Ten Great Immortal Sects, the One Heart, Zhen Shi, and Wuyou Heavenly Venerates—they were all merely supporting characters in this grand play."
"A pity that I am here now. This grand play is destined to never be staged."
Li Fan gazed at the Heavenly Demon's incubator and the slumbering Heavenly Doctor, his sight seeming to pierce through ten thousand years of time to see the future they were originally destined for.
The feeling of being influenced by the Heavenly Demon, of being trapped in a thought storm, was strangely similar to being caught in the turbulence of the River of Time.
Li Fan had a premonition that mastering the Dao of the Heavenly Demon might increase his safety while navigating against the current.
Though he didn't know why the so-called "Heavenly Demon" had such a strange connection to the Dao of reverse travel, it didn't stop him from absorbing and refining it for his own use.
The refining process was not complex.
In fact, it was exceedingly simple. Li Fan just had to use a bit of his [Truth to Lies] power to disguise himself as the Heavenly Doctor.
He then smoothly digested the Heavenly Demon's incubator.
He encountered no resistance whatsoever.
"This Heavenly Demon is rather interesting. Though he appeared to have left heartlessly, he left a portion of his power behind to help the Tianfa Realm in its time of need."
"And he was even willing to sacrifice a part of himself to protect others..."
"A classic example of a cold exterior hiding a warm heart."
As the transparent Heavenly Demon incubator was slowly absorbed by Li Fan, the world of Xuanhuang, in his eyes, gradually became more "vibrant" and "lively."
If, in the past, Li Fan saw the world and only saw its Great Dao, now he could faintly see the world itself come alive, pulsing with its own emotions.
And it wasn't just the Great Dao of Xuanhuang.
Li Fan's gaze leaped beyond Xuanhuang, looking out at the Star Sea, the High Wall, and even the entire Primal Possibility.
It was all the same.
This was not to say that the Heavenly Demon's power could rival that of a Transcendent. Rather, it was like a key that opened a new door for Li Fan.
The reason he could see such magnificent and vivid scenes was ultimately because Li Fan himself was powerful enough.
After all, Li Fan was someone who had truly leaped out of the Primal Possibility and come face-to-face with the Mountain and Sea.
"Wielding the Dao of the Heavenly Demon is like gaining a Seven Aperture Exquisite Heart, allowing one to perceive all the emotional fluctuations of the cold Heavenly Dao."
"This would be of immense benefit to any cultivation path."
"However..."
Within the mortal world, the emotions of the Great Dao were all revealed. But what about beyond the mortal world...?
The moment he reached the domain of the Mountain and Sea, the Heavenly Demon's heaven-defying ability instantly failed.
The Infinite Sea, the Upper Mountain.
These two endlessly sprawling behemoths emanated a bone-chilling, unapproachable aura. Even straining the Heavenly Demon's power to its limit, all he could perceive was the Mountain and Sea themselves.
Li Fan even sensed something more.
Even just observing the Mountain and Sea from afar within the mortal world, the Dao of the Heavenly Demon suffered a backlash from their utterly cold aura.
The originally warm incubator, which emanated a life-nourishing energy, gradually cooled.
It became just as bone-chillingly cold.
For a moment, Li Fan felt as if his very divine soul was about to be frozen solid.
Fortunately, he had anticipated this and promptly broke his distant gaze.
It took a good while for the Heavenly Demon's incubator to slowly recover from its rigid state.
Li Fan, however, frowned deeply, once again recalling the contents of the fable left by Sun Piao Miao.
The fable recorded that the exchanges between the Mountain and Sea also had emotions similar to humans.
Joy, anger, sorrow, and fear—they had them all.
"A fable, in the end, is just a fable."
"What an observer sees may not represent the true Mountain and Sea."
Li Fan remained vigilant, reminding himself.
After spending half a day completely absorbing the Heavenly Demon incubator and transforming it into his own power, he confirmed his judgment once more.
As a newly born "linear creature" in the River of Time, his adaptability had inexplicably strengthened by nearly double. And this was without adding any new anchor points.
If before he was struggling to take a single step, now he could be considered to be strolling at a leisurely pace.
Li Fan couldn't figure out the principle behind this for the time being.
The incubator left by the Heavenly Demon had been completely absorbed. If he wanted to find more answers, he would probably have to make a trip to the Mysterious Immortal Boat.
But there was no rush.
The historical trajectory of the Mysterious Immortal Boat for the next ten thousand years was all in Li Fan's mind. The drastic changes within the Xuanhuang Realm would not affect them.
After finishing these miscellaneous tasks, Li Fan finally turned to Xuanyuan Tuo, who had been standing by and waiting all along.
After personally witnessing the foreign entity being extracted from his divine soul, Xuanyuan Tuo was completely convinced. Knowing he was no match for this mysterious True Immortal, he made no futile attempts to resist.
Besides, from the other party's actions, there seemed to be no malice, Xuanyuan Tuo thought to himself.
Therefore, while Li Fan was caught in the Heavenly Demon's storm and his mind was in turmoil, Xuanyuan Tuo had remained quietly by his side, not taking the opportunity to flee.
"Do you know who the ancestor of your Xuanyuan clan is?" Li Fan asked.
Xuanyuan Tuo hesitated for a moment before slowly replying, "The Xuantian King."
Originally, he had not known this.
It was only later, by a stroke of fate, that he encountered the Tianxuan Mirror and learned of the Xuanyuan clan's origins.
Li Fan nodded. "In the past, Xuanyuan Hong and I were the closest of friends. If not for that, I would not have saved you."
Hearing Li Fan's casual words, Xuanyuan Tuo's heart trembled.
The Xuantian King was his ancestor from countless generations ago. And this person before him was a close friend of the Xuantian King. That seniority...
Xuanyuan Tuo became somewhat reserved. "Then, how should I address you?"
"Just call me Grand-Ancestor," Li Fan said with a smile.
"Grand... Ancestor..." Xuanyuan Tuo started to say, then stopped.
However, after a glance at Li Fan's expression, he hesitated for a moment before finally and obediently calling out the title.
"Xuanyuan Hong left in a hurry and didn't have time to explain many things. What should have been a great opportunity became a calamity for your Xuanyuan clan," Li Fan sighed, shaking his head.
Xuanyuan Tuo's heart pounded violently.
He almost instantly thought of the mad uncle from his childhood village, Xuanyuan Sheng.
Xuanyuan Tuo's expression turned solemn. "I implore Grand-Ancestor to enlighten me."
Judging by appearance alone, Li Fan looked much younger than Xuanyuan Tuo.
Yet Xuanyuan Tuo addressed him with the respect due to an ancestor, looking strangely natural. It seemed he had quickly accepted his status as a junior.
And the chanting sounds that Li Fan uttered next only served to convince him that he had made the right choice.
Because that ethereal, mystical sound was exactly the same as the one he used to hear by his ear from time to time!
"Boy, do you know what this mystical sound is?"
Li Fan only chanted for a short while before stopping to ask.
Xuanyuan Tuo, naturally, did not know.
"This is your old ancestor Xuanyuan, sending you a message. Guiding you where to go!" Li Fan said, stretching out his hand and pointing to the world beyond.
Xuanyuan Tuo followed the direction Li Fan pointed, a look of confusion on his face.
A mere message? It nearly brought the calamity of extinction upon the Xuanyuan clan. Xuanyuan Tuo found this hard to accept.
Since the old ancestor Xuanyuan was still alive, why would a simple message be so complex?
Xuanyuan Tuo looked at Li Fan.
Li Fan, after a moment of silence, slowly began to speak of the Eternal Silent Void Realm, the River of Time, and the theory of the Spark of Salvation.
To prove that his words were not false, Li Fan even brought Xuanyuan Tuo along to take a shallow step into the River of Time.
Xuanyuan Tuo, with his mere Dao Integration cultivation, had never witnessed such a bizarre scene, not even in his wildest dreams.
A single droplet of water splashing nearby gave him a hair-raising sense of annihilation.
The waves that surged from time to time threatened to completely submerge him at any moment.
By the time he returned to reality from the River of Time, Xuanyuan Tuo's face had turned deathly pale.
"Grand-Ancestor, you are..."
He now understood in his heart that the person before him was by no means a mere True Immortal!
(End of this chapter)
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