Chapter 1677: The Whereabouts of the Xuantian King
Chapter 1677: The Whereabouts of the Xuantian King
"When you attain sainthood, please raise a storm in the Mountain Sea, one that will turn the heavens and earth upside down!"
Li Fan smiled faintly as he stated his request.
Although He Gan Xian had braced himself, he was still momentarily stunned by this peculiar demand.
"If I may ask, my friend, how great a disturbance are we talking about?"
"Great enough that every Saint in the Mountain Sea will know of it!"
From this brief exchange, He Gan Xian vaguely guessed Li Fan's true purpose. He was to become a diversion, drawing the attention of all the Saints in the Mountain Sea!
His first instinct was to shrink back.
But then he remembered the immense debt of gratitude he owed this man.
Li Fan smiled. "Your word is all the assurance I need."
Through his interactions across several cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan had come to understand He Gan Xian's character. Once he gave his promise, he would never go back on it.
"I have a plan to lure your other self here, helping you achieve moral perfection. This will make your path to sainthood all the smoother," Li Fan added, returning the favor with an even greater surprise.
He Gan Xian's gaze sharpened once more.
Now, he was truly beginning to believe that this person might be an "old acquaintance" after all.
To know the true meaning of Dao and Virtue, and to even be aware of his past Moral Separation...
He was already so deeply indebted that a little more wouldn't hurt. Besides, He Gan Xian was genuinely wary of his other self. With a solemn expression, he said, "I am eager to hear your brilliant plan."
"The Faceless Immortal is cautious and suspicious by nature. Only your death can lure him out..."
Li Fan quietly explained his strategy.
"He and I share one heart. Ordinary methods will not deceive his senses. But if we were to use another one of those empty thought constructs filled with True Spirit..." He Gan Xian's mind stirred, and he nodded in agreement.
After some preparation, Li Fan returned to the Xuanhuang Realm and found the stone statue of the Faceless Immortal.
He sent a sliver of his divine sense into it.
A conversation that had once taken place unfolded again.
"Who's there?"
A wary voice echoed out.
"An old acquaintance of the Xuantian King," Li Fan replied casually.
"A friend of Xuanyuan Hong?" The voice on the other end sounded somewhat puzzled.
"He does not know me, but I know him, and I have benefited greatly from his aid."
...
During their conversation, just as he had in the past, Li Fan proposed to help the Faceless Immortal deal with He Gan Xian.
The cautious Faceless Immortal did not agree immediately, saying he needed to consider it.
It wasn't until fifty years later, when he sensed that He Gan Xian was at a critical juncture in severing his virtue, that he finally took the bait and contacted Li Fan himself.
Li Fan and He Gan Xian then put on a masterful performance.
In the doom of a dying possibility, after slaughtering everyone he had once known, He Gan Xian laughed maniacally, "What has it to do with me! What has it to do with me!"
Li Fan suddenly appeared. "Well done!"
"I have roamed the Mountain Sea, and today I have finally found a kindred spirit!"
Through a series of questions and answers, Li Fan brandished the flames of True Spirit, setting the Mountain Sea ablaze.
Amidst the roaring inferno, Li Fan challenged him, "The Mountain Sea is incinerated before your very eyes. If you save it, can you still claim to have the Dao?"
Confused and lost in the paradox of "I have Virtue, but I have no Dao," He Gan Xian's form slowly turned transparent.
And the Faceless Immortal, playing the part of the hunter, made his timely entrance.
Gazing at his other self on the verge of fading away, he felt a surge of triumph as he gently inhaled the phantom form.
The feeling of weakness that had plagued his body since the Moral Separation was instantly remedied.
The Faceless Immortal let out a low groan of satisfaction.
But at the same time, a flicker of doubt rose in his heart.
His True Spirit had indeed been replenished. But somehow...
Devouring He Gan Xian seemed to have a weaker effect than he had anticipated.
In an instant, the Faceless Immortal realized something was wrong. A chill ran down his spine, and he prepared to flee.
But it was too late.
The sky-spanning flames of True Spirit abruptly flared, dozens of times brighter than before, completely sealing off the surroundings.
A faint aura of the Eternal Silent Void Realm's destruction emanated from within, forcing the Faceless Immortal to halt his escape.
Two figures, one in front and one behind, had him surrounded.
It was Li Fan and He Gan Xian!
Realizing he had been tricked by their combined efforts, the Faceless Immortal was overcome with shock and fury.
"Our Moral Separation was a quest for the Dao. Now that the path is clear, why do you not return?" He Gan Xian urged.
Trapped in a desperate situation, the Faceless Immortal grew calm. He stared intently at his other self, his eyes filled with disbelief. "How is this possible? After I devoured you, my True Spirit clearly grew. It aligns with the signs of moral perfection."
"And yet, you seem... your True Spirit is even stronger than mine..."
The Faceless Immortal's words trailed off as he turned to look at Li Fan, who stood quietly to the side.
"Who in the world are you?"
"Merely an old acquaintance of yours," Li Fan replied with the same answer as before.
"You are without virtue, and thus you lost your face. Compared to someone without virtue like you, it is obviously much more reassuring to cooperate with an immortal who possesses it."
"An old acquaintance... without virtue."
"Could it be that you've cooperated with me before?"
"But I clearly..." The Faceless Immortal's mind raced, and as if he'd realized something, a look of utter shock crossed his featureless face.
Li Fan's expression gradually grew cold. "My friend, it is time to act."
The two immortals of Dao and Virtue were originally one mind.
He Gan Xian could naturally guess what the Faceless Immortal was thinking.
However, the path to sainthood was right before him.
Li Fan's mysterious origins, in comparison, seemed less important.
"You appear to possess virtue, but in truth, you disregard the lives of all beings in the Mountain Sea, seeking only your own preservation. You achieve much, yet you do not aid the world. You would not sacrifice a single hair to benefit all living things!"
"This is what it means to be..."
"All Dao, no Virtue!"
With each thunderous question, He Gan Xian defined his other self.
Facing certain doom, the Faceless Immortal did not beg for mercy.
Instead, he let out a low, cold laugh. "So what if I have no virtue? Even if the Mountain Sea is destroyed, as long as I alone survive, I will still be the magnificent Moral True Immortal!"
And as he truly admitted to his own state of being[Without Virtue], the Faceless Immortal's figure abruptly turned ethereal.
He was then captured and absorbed by He Gan Xian.
"The transformation of Dao and Virtue occurs in but an instant, a single turn of thought," Li Fan remarked with a sigh, having witnessed the scene.
Having achieved moral perfection, He Gan Xian should have been able to ascend directly to sainthood.
But as a strange fluctuation began to emerge, He Gan Xian forcibly suppressed it.
His choice was exactly what Li Fan had expected. "Merely achieving moral perfection can grant you sainthood, it's true. However, compared to the Saints who command the Great Daos of the Mountain Sea, you would be inherently weaker."
"You must supplement it with True Spirit."
"Rest easy, my friend. As for accumulated True Spirit..."
"I have as much as you could ever want!"
Li Fan no longer held back, spewing forth the entire mass of True Spirit he had extracted from the Eternal Silent Void Realm.
Even though he had already benefited from Li Fan's infusion of True Spirit, seeing Li Fan casually produce even more sent a tremor through He Gan Xian's heart—or rather, the heart of the Moral True Immortal.
"With this much True Spirit, it will be of great benefit to me even after I attain sainthood!"
"Such an unfathomable ability... could this person truly have traveled upstream from a downstream Mountain Sea?"
The Moral True Immortal suspected that the "old acquaintance" Li Fan spoke of was likely someone who had interacted with him in another segment of the Mountain Sea.
That was how he could have such an intimate understanding of the two immortals' personalities, and even their cultivation methods.
And the accumulated True Spirit he carried from the Eternal Silent Void Realm seemed to be the best proof.
"I have heard tales of a 'Mountain Sea Walker.' Could this be him?"
"The Mountain Sea Walker, who travels between the beginning and the end of time, preventing the Saints of various eras from uniting to resist the Dao Annihilation and save the world. If so, his inexplicable desire to help me attain sainthood would make sense..."
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through the Moral True Immortal's mind.
But regardless of the man's true identity, his ability to manipulate and infuse True Spirit was undeniably real.
The Moral True Immortal had every reason to stay on good terms with him.
"Then I shall trouble you, my friend!"
"As for the matter you entrusted to me earlier, rest assured. I will certainly do my best!" the Moral True Immortal said with great solemnity.
The infusion of True Spirit was one favor; helping him achieve moral perfection was another.
Burdened by this dual debt, the Moral True Immortal was exceedingly polite to Li Fan.
"Hehe, there's no rush for that. Right now, there is another matter I must trouble you with."
"Oh?" The Moral True Immortal glanced at Li Fan.
"I would ask you to recall everything you can regarding the Xuantian King."
"The Xuantian King?" The title sounded unfamiliar to the Moral True Immortal.
But soon, he found the relevant information within the memories of the Faceless Immortal.
"He was merely a half-immortal. I'm surprised you would be interested in him..." Halfway through his sentence, the Moral True Immortal's expression shifted slightly.
"Hehe, even a half-immortal can possess the power to overturn heaven and earth. You must not underestimate him, my friend," Li Fan said with a cryptic smile.
"Back when I was fleeing the Immortal World, I happened to encounter the Xuantian King, who was also on the run. I sensed something extraordinary about him, so I lent him a hand. We even had several close exchanges."
"But later, the Xuantian King realized the truth of my nature—faceless and without virtue. Since our paths diverged, we could not walk together. So he took the initiative to cut off all contact."
"And then..."
"Just as the Xuantian King was about to break through, he suddenly met with disaster. Before he vanished, he sent a message."
The content of the Xuantian King's message, and his final whereabouts.
This was the question Li Fan had sought the answer to for a long time.
He listened as the Moral True Immortal slowly continued, "The source of the crisis the Xuantian King encountered during his breakthrough came from the Mountain Sea itself!"
"When he was a mortal, he was completely severed from the Mountain Sea. Therefore, he never sensed the danger until the very moment of his ascension. The moment he truly re-entered the Mountain Sea..."
"Could it be that the Xuantian King was also the reincarnation of some Nameless True Immortal?" Li Fan asked.
A strange glint flashed in the Moral True Immortal's eyes. "No. Rather, a certain existence within the Mountain Sea had its eyes on him long ago."
"He only threw himself into a mortal possibility to hide and protect himself. Unfortunately, he himself was simply too extraordinary. He could hide for a time, but not forever!"
Li Fan's eyebrows twitched slightly.
But considering that several Nameless True Immortals were willing to stay by Xuanyuan Hong's side, and even his childhood sweetheart was subtly hinted to be a transcendent expert who commanded the Great Dao of [Folding Paper], it would be far more unbelievable if the Xuantian King were just an ordinary mortal.
"His own uniqueness attracted the attention of an existence in the Mountain Sea... Then how exactly did the Xuantian King escape?"
"The Mountain Sea Angler," the Moral True Immortal uttered five words softly.
"While he was a mortal, the Xuantian King discovered the secret of the Mountain and Sea Fishing Ground, and that was how his journey began. It was also then that the Mountain Sea Angler discovered his existence. However, the Angler did not disturb him, merely observed from afar. It wasn't until the Xuantian King was in peril that he finally intervened to save him."
"So he wasn't caught by the angler, but rescued?" Li Fan had once tracked the Xuantian King's movements and found that his last known location was related to the Fishing Pond. He had assumed the angler had captured him, but he never expected the opposite was true—that he had saved the Xuantian King's life.
"But this Mountain Sea Angler... why have I never heard of or even seen him?" Li Fan frowned slightly.
"After he saved the Xuantian King, where are they now?"
"Once a fish is hooked, it naturally appears beside the angler. As for their current whereabouts... I'm afraid they are no longer within this segment of the Mountain Sea," the Moral True Immortal said, taking a deep breath.
"Hmm?" Li Fan paused.
He then asked with a frown, "The Mountain Sea Angler can cross the Eternal Silent Void Realm with a single cast of his rod? Is this man also a Saint of the Mountain Sea?"
"From the clues left in the Xuantian King's message, it seems so. However, his ability to carry a True Immortal across the void isn't entirely due to his own power. It is also greatly related to the[Mountain and Sea Fishing Ground]."
"The Fishing Ground does not exist because of the Angler. Rather, the Fishing Ground came first, and then came the Angler."
"Perhaps it can be seen as a type of Mountain Sea Great Dao. Although the Mountain Sea is fragmented by the Eternal Silent Void Realm, the Fishing Grounds scattered throughout each segment can act like lighthouses, serving as anchor points. They can both indicate the direction for travel and act as power relays..."
With the Moral True Immortal's explanation, Li Fan understood instantly.
The principle was actually the same as in his previous life, when the people of the Life and Death Realm used the mark left by the Mountain Sea Walker and the faint connection between the imagined Qiu Xinhui and her true self to instantly traverse several segments of the Mountain Sea and arrive at its very end.
The difference was that Qiu Xinhui's reliance was something she created from nothing, turning the impossible into possible in a desperate situation.
The Mountain Sea Angler, however, utilized the inherent properties of the Mountain Sea itself.
"But correspondingly, Qiu Xinhui could only travel downstream. This Mountain Sea Angler, on the other hand..."
"It's hard to say which of them is stronger."
While Li Fan was pondering, the Moral True Immortal spoke again. "Before the Xuantian King left, he entrusted me with looking after his childhood sweetheart. He said that one day, he would surely return."
"The other side of the Fishing Ground was a perilous unknown that even he could not foresee. To prevent his former companions from following him, he had to leave alone, without leaving any message..."
"This Xuanyuan Hong is a truly loyal and righteous man," the Moral True Immortal remarked with emotion.
Li Fan, however, understood the hidden meaning in the Moral True Immortal's words.
"So, you're saying that by following the path through the Fishing Ground, one could reach the same place the Xuantian King went?"
"Ah, in theory, if one could get the Mountain Sea Angler to cast his line, that would be the case," the Moral True Immortal replied after careful thought.
Hearing this, Li Fan couldn't help but recall a certain lifetime where, because he had rashly tried to fathom the Dao of [Fishing], a stone slate from the Mountain Sea was reeled in.
"Could it be that it, too, went to another segment of the Mountain Sea?" Li Fan mused, his thoughts drifting.
"However, the Xuantian King's childhood friend ultimately followed him. My other self was unable to stop her."
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