Chapter 1627: An Intuitive Leap Across the Cycle of Truth
"True perfection..." the Faceless Immortal murmured, unable to hide the longing in his voice.
"What you say is indeed reasonable, fellow Daoist. But as things stand, he is strong and I am weak. If this so-called 'perfection' truly requires us to merge once more, I fear I would be the one being hunted."
"I suspect you've long understood this truth deep down, which is why you've been hiding all this time," Li Fan said, cutting straight to the heart of the matter.
"As for him being strong and you weak... you need not worry, fellow Daoist. With me to lend a hand, a mere 'What Matter' Immortal is nothing to fear."
The Faceless Immortal had a clear understanding of his other self's specific strength. His only contact with Li Fan, however, had been through long-distance communication via the faceless statue. Thus, he harbored a sliver of doubt about Li Fan's supremely confident attitude. "The Moral True Immortal has long since transcended. What realm of power have you reached, fellow Daoist, to possess such conviction?"
Li Fan smiled. "I've only achieved a minor transcendence myself. The reason I say he is nothing to fear lies not with me, but with you."
"Me?" The Faceless Immortal was momentarily stunned.
"As the saying goes, attack what your enemy is bound to protect. With you here, I won't have to search the entire Mountain and Sea for him. I need only deliberately expose your location, lay a trap, and wait. An ambush against an unsuspecting foe—victory is practically guaranteed," Li Fan explained calmly.
"Why have you chosen to help me? Do you hold a grudge against him, or is it because of the Xuantian King?" The Faceless Immortal asked, puzzled.
Li Fan's answer was rather unexpected, and the Faceless Immortal fell into a long silence.
"Though he is without virtue, arrogant, and without principles, his own 'morality' circulates in a state approaching perfection. He is extremely sensitive to any external disharmony or malice. Plotting against him... will be exceedingly difficult."
"Every piece of information you provide about him increases our odds of victory."
Li Fan's words left the Faceless Immortal speechless.
He didn't agree to Li Fan's proposal so easily. After a long silence, the Faceless Immortal simply replied, "I need... to consider this carefully."
"No matter. It was just a whim on my part. When you've made up your mind, you can contact me again through this statue at any time."
"Right, one more thing..." Just as the aura in the statue was about to disconnect, Li Fan suddenly asked another question.
"Back when the Xuantian Sect was destroyed and the Xuantian King vanished without a trace, the head of your statue within the sect mysteriously cracked. Afterward, the Tian Beast even sent a message in your direction..."
"Do you know what the Xuantian King truly encountered back then? And what message did he send you?" Li Fan's gaze was profound.
His question was met with a long silence.
"When he was in crisis back then, I did indeed intervene to save him. But another was the one who truly ensured his safety. As for what he said to me..."
"That, I cannot tell you." After these words, the aura within the statue vanished completely.
Li Fan sneered. "Truly worthy of being the 'Virtue' part of the 'Moral True Immortal'."
Casually putting away the faceless statue, he decided there was no rush to end this lifetime with `[Truth]`. He would see if an opportunity arose to meet that Moral True Immortal.
"You can't see me, you can't see me, you can't see me..." The Immeasurable Wall was still chanting frantically in its mind, praying for Li Fan to leave.
And as if its wish had been granted, Li Fan's figure flickered and vanished.
The Immeasurable Wall, which hadn't dared to move an inch a moment ago, now instantly wrapped itself around Rinsing Moon Bai's corpse and fled madly toward the High Wall.
"I knew it! This great one always turns misfortune into fortune!"
"But my luck has been terrible lately, running into one danger after another. I'd better find a safe place to hide for a while."
"The moment I cross the Star Sea's restriction, there's a dual directional pull. Since the outer Star Sea is a no-go, I'll head to the other place..." Having made its decision, the Immeasurable Wall scrambled to escape.
Just as the High Wall came into view, a figure flashed into existence before it, blocking its path.
It was Li Fan again!
The Immeasurable Wall's mind seized, and its body jerked to a halt.
"Why is this god of calamity back?"
"You can't see me, you can't see me..."
With no other way to respond, the Immeasurable Wall could only brace itself and resume its silent chant.
This time, however, the mantra failed.
"I'm a little curious. Why are you treating her so well?"
"You don't seem the type to give without expecting anything in return. Though her talent is indeed remarkable and she has a chance at transcendence, that would surely be many years from now. To sacrifice all the treasures you've stored within yourself for years for such a vague future..."
"Could it be that in this short time, you've developed a genuine bond with her?"
Li Fan flexed his finger slightly, and the Immeasurable Wall fell into his palm.
The "her" he spoke of was, of course, Rinsing Moon Bai.
Although Li Fan no longer cared much for the Immeasurable Wall's intrinsic value, upon seeing it still trying to flee with his aunt's body, he became interested in its motives.
He had seen through the Immeasurable Wall's character at a glance.
Logically, it would never have made such a huge sacrifice for Rinsing Moon Bai, who was still a mortal. And yet, it did...
Such strange behavior had to mean something.
Though he asked a question, Li Fan didn't expect the Immeasurable Wall to answer honestly.
His five fingers tightened slightly, and streams of faint light seeped into the Immeasurable Wall.
The Immeasurable Wall's every thought transformed into streams of light, which Li Fan grasped and absorbed.
"For every bit of help given, there will be a tenfold reward in the future. This kind of intuition..." After reading the Immeasurable Wall's motive, Li Fan's eyebrow lifted slightly.
As the manipulator behind the scenes, Li Fan naturally knew that the Immeasurable Wall's intuition was extremely accurate.
Li Fan, whose own intuitive warnings were also unerringly accurate, naturally became interested in this "intuition" of the Immeasurable Wall.
"A one-part investment for a ten-part return. It's both accurate and wrong. My aunt's current talent is not enough for her to reach the realm of transcendence in this lifetime. Therefore, the probability of her providing an ample return to the Immeasurable Wall in this life is infinitesimally close to zero."
"And yet, the Immeasurable Wall's intuition is so strong."
"Could it be that the return it foresees isn't from this lifetime, but rather..."
"from the dozens of lifetimes to come after I repeatedly activate `[Truth]`?"
Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly.
He couldn't help but gently stroke the surface of the Immeasurable Wall.
At first glance, such a guess seemed absurd.
It was merely a tile used for building Dao Palaces—what right or ability did it have to foresee a future after a `[Truth]` reset?
But...
The reason Li Fan could even conceive of such a wild idea was also thanks to the guidance of his own intuition!
And Li Fan trusted his intuition implicitly.
"Infinite spirituality is the fundamental reason `[Truth]` attached itself to me."
"And my intuition is also extraordinarily strange. I've never found a reasonable explanation for it."
"This Immeasurable Wall might be the key to a breakthrough."
"Intuitive warnings can reach such a level?" Li Fan tapped his finger repeatedly on the Immeasurable Wall, pondering to himself.
Such spiritual sense seemed extremely rare, even in the vast expanse of the Mountain and Sea.
Then again, perhaps it was just exceedingly difficult to notice under normal circumstances.
"In the infinity of the Mountain and Sea, it's not uncommon to see those who have a flash of insight at critical moments, who can avoid disaster and seek fortune based on instinct alone."
"Avoid disaster and seek fortune... avoid disaster and seek fortune..."
Li Fan suddenly recalled Yin Yuzhen, the manager of the Heavenly Treasure Pavilion on Liuli Island, whom he had met when he first began cultivating.
Though she was a mere mortal, she possessed the uncanny ability to sense fortune and misfortune.
It was precisely because she foresaw immense benefits in helping Li Fan that she had repeatedly given him generous gifts.
"A mortal body naturally couldn't detect that I possess `[Truth]`."
"But it could point toward my future."
"..."
Li Fan then recalled the time he established Mingyue Palace at Mingyue Lake, aggressively lending out resources to rake in contribution points, which eventually attracted a Dao Integration cultivator to clean house.
Yin Yuzhen had also had a premonition of great fortune.
And indeed, the Dao Integration cultivator later sensed Blue Feather's life-devouring rebirth formation and departed at the critical moment, sparing everyone's lives.
At the time, Li Fan had assumed that this "great fortune" referred to that event.
But...
"Although we escaped with our lives, it was still a perilous experience. It could hardly be called 'great fortune'."
"The true great fortune referred to..."
He could find no answer through logical deduction alone.
But if he followed his intuition and reasoned from there...
Li Fan once again arrived at a seemingly unimaginable conclusion.
"This great fortune also pointed... to me!"
"Before that, the Yin sisters were always under my thumb, exploited by me. They were busy with the affairs of Mingyue Palace day in and day out, and although their talent for cultivation grew, they could never advance further."
"But after this near-death escape..."
"I encountered that Nascent Soul cultivator. Though I, in my Foundation Establishment body, managed to kill him against all odds, it ended with mutual destruction, concluding that lifetime."
"My death, for Yin Yuzhen, was 'great fortune'."
"This makes sense. It's like a bird being freed from its cage, or a tiger returning to the mountains. From then on, the two sisters were no longer oppressed and enslaved by me."
"But..."
Li Fan froze. "After I use `[Truth]`, everything in the Mountain and Sea is reset. Everything returns to its origin point."
"So where did the 'great fortune' come from?"
"Am I overthinking this, or..."
As if he had just touched upon the secret of `[Truth]`, Li Fan's heart began to pound erratically.
He went over his thoughts from beginning to end, relying not on ordinary, rational deduction, but on his keen inner intuition.
Li Fan once again reached a conclusion that defied imagination.
When he uses `[Truth]`, the original possibility seems to continue to exist. It continues to develop, following the flow of the river of time.
But this deduction was full of contradictions when compared with his own experiences.
"Why is that?"
"Does `[Truth]`... truly reset the Mountain and Sea?"
Before this, Li Fan had never doubted it for a moment.
After all, even those powerful beings who had transcended possibilities and roamed between the fragments of the Mountain and Sea were returned to their initial anchor points with his every activation of `[Truth]`.
But now that his own intuition pointed to a completely contradictory conclusion...
Li Fan was bewildered.
With his current understanding of "intuition," he seemed completely unable to explain such a contradiction.
"Fortunately, I've already discovered the strangeness of it."
"It's a pity the Xuanhuang Realm has been destroyed in this lifetime. Otherwise, I might have been able to grab Yin Yuzhen and study her carefully."
"For now, this Immeasurable Wall is also a subject worthy of attention."
In Li Fan's past reincarnations, beings with intuition as keenly sharp as his were not common.
The Immeasurable Wall's own attributes were mediocre. But its intuition was likely a rarity in the Mountain and Sea.
"The Yin Yuzhens and Immeasurable Walls in other possibilities... do they also have this kind of intuition?"
"Or perhaps..."
Li Fan's gaze suddenly sharpened.
He had once roamed one percent of the Mountain and Sea, across countless possibilities, where Xuanhuang Realms existed in different states.
"Perhaps, in all those Xuanhuang Realms, no other Yin Yuzhen exists."
"Just like me."
"The Li Fans in other possibilities are not the true Li Fan."
"Intuition... originates from being 'unique in the Mountain and Sea'?"
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind.
"The current Mountain and Sea is not the complete Mountain and Sea, not 'infinite' in the truest sense. It is a remnant, riddled with holes from the corrosion of the Dao Annihilation."
"Theoretically, there could indeed be some beings who are one-of-a-kind in the Mountain and Sea."
"This 'uniqueness in the Mountain and Sea' is similar to the perfected transcendent state of 'all selves returning to one,' but it is fundamentally different."
"Perfected transcendence is strong because it is unique in the Mountain and Sea."
"But these special beings are weak because they are unique in the Mountain and Sea."
"Of course, I am not among them."
"These beings, though destined to never walk the path of transcendence, have received a blessing in disguise, awakening exceedingly peculiar divine abilities. Perhaps every perfected transcendent being also possesses such an ability?" Li Fan did not know.
The most crucial point was the abnormality within the `[Truth]` reincarnation cycle that this peculiar intuition could sense.
"It seems the operating mechanism of `[Truth]` is not as simple as I imagined."
"Fantasy becomes truth, and truth becomes fantasy..."
Li Fan repeated these words in his mind, concealed his presence, and released his hold on the Immeasurable Wall.
As if startled from a deep sleep, the Immeasurable Wall remained stunned in place for a long time before finally regaining consciousness.
"I'm... I'm okay? That villain actually let me go?"
The Immeasurable Wall was dazed for a moment, then overjoyed. "As expected! This great one is blessed by the heavens!"
It glanced around and saw that Rinsing Moon Bai's body was still there.
It paused, a wave of conflict washing over it.
In the end, it followed its instincts, taking the body with it as it continued its flight toward the High Wall.
"She can probably still be saved."
Soon, the Immeasurable Wall carried Rinsing Moon Bai through the High Wall once more.
This time, bursts of azure light bloomed from the Immeasurable Wall.
Revealing the depths of its power as an immortal artifact, it traveled through space and arrived in the abandoned Rotten Axe Dojo!
"Where is this?"
The Immeasurable Wall scanned its surroundings, uncertain and alarmed.
"It looks a little familiar..."
"Thankfully, it seems there's no threat here anymore."
Muttering to itself, the Immeasurable Wall ventured deeper into the Rotten Axe Dojo.
It reached the dojo's control center.
Looking at the various objects strewn across the floor, the Immeasurable Wall carefully identified them and couldn't help but exclaim in delight, "The facilities are still in relatively good condition."
A deep azure light swept across the surrounding space.
The previously inanimate objects suddenly seemed to come to life.
Phantoms of their past states appeared.
"So that's how it works..."
The Immeasurable Wall committed the method for controlling each object to memory, feeling immensely pleased with itself.
"The Sage Lord didn't choose this great one for nothing! Of course I've got a few tricks up my sleeve!"
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