Chapter 766: Comprehending Divine Abilities Within the Mirror
Chapter 766: Comprehending Divine Abilities Within the Mirror
"It was as if he'd been struck so many times that he'd developed a resistance to my divine abilities," Li Fan mused, a sense of alarm creeping into him.
Li Fan found his methods growing progressively weaker.
Shuo Feng, however, only grew fiercer with every exchange.
Ultimately, Li Fan withdrew, claiming he was clearly outmatched and needed to retreat to contemplate new divine abilities.
He went nowhere else, heading straight for the Heavenly Profound Mirror in Tianquan Province to invoke the privileges of his Prophecy Thirty-Five authority level.
It wasn't what he had expected.
Instead of a direct passage to the main Heavenly Profound Mirror materializing within the sub-mirror's space, he was given a time and a location and told to be there.
A designated guide would be there to lead the way, with a strict warning: they would not wait for anyone who was late.
A middle-aged cultivator was already waiting for him.
The man had a goatee and was dressed in a blue Daoist robe. He gave Li Fan a faintly surprised look.
Despite his surprise, he was perfectly polite, offering a cupped-hand salute. "Greetings, fellow Daoist," he said. "My name is Wang Wan."
From the aura the man inadvertently radiated, Li Fan determined that Wang Wan was at least at the Soul Transformation stage. He quickly returned the salute. "A pleasure, Daoist Wang. I am Li Fan."
After the brief introductions, they exchanged slight nods and fell silent.
"A Prophecy Thirty-Five authority level isn't something you can get just by being powerful," Li Fan realized. "It requires deep connections within the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. No wonder he's so courteous, even though I'm only at the mid-Nascent Soul stage."
A few moments later, a female cultivator in form-fitting white robes joined them on the summit.
After exchanging greetings with Li Fan and Wang Wan, she too fell silent and began to wait.
Li Fan learned her name was Deng Mingqian.
After that, no one else arrived.
A full fifteen minutes later, faint spatial fluctuations appeared above the mountaintop.
A transparent doorway seemed to have been carved out of the very air by an invisible blade, and a cultivator in black robes stepped out from it.
He swept his gaze over them, confirming the identities of all three.
"Follow me," the black-robed cultivator declared in a deep voice.
Without any apparent movement on his part, the transparent doorway instantly expanded, enveloping Li Fan and the other two cultivators.
Then it erupted in a blinding flash of light.
The doorway, along with everyone on the summit, vanished without a trace.
A familiar sensation washed over Li Fan.
It was the same feeling he'd had back in the void of Tianling Province, when he infiltrated the domain of the Root of Heaven and Earth.
His flesh and bones felt as if they were being dissolved and transformed.
When his senses returned, he discovered that he had once again been reduced to a comical figure composed entirely of black and white lines.
But this place was different from the Root of Heaven and Earth.
Within this vast, monochromatic space, some mysterious power seemed to exist.
It pressed down on Li Fan, restraining him and preventing the lines that formed his body from slowly dissipating.
Li Fan silently analyzed the subtle restraining force. "This must be the Heavenly Profound Mirror's protective measure," he concluded.
"We are here to comprehend divine abilities, after all. Without this protection, an ordinary cultivator would probably be completely assimilated by this space in a matter of moments."
"Still, with my experience in the Root of Heaven and Earth, and my understanding of the similar Thread Extraction divine ability, I should be able to last longer than the others."
Li Fan glanced around.
He saw Deng Mingqian and Wang Wan nearby, both of them also transformed into figures made of lines.
Their current forms, however, were somewhat different from their physical bodies.
Deng Mingqian's body was a full size smaller than the two men's, giving her the appearance of a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl.
And while Wang Wan's build hadn't changed much, his vague features had transformed from those of a middle-aged man with a goatee to the stooped figure of a decrepit old man.
Wang Wan seemed to have been here before; he flew forward with an air of familiarity and purpose.
Deng Mingqian, in contrast, was at first dazed and fearful.
But she possessed a strong will and quickly adapted, following Wang Wan toward the center of the black and white space.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan followed suit.
As they flew, Li Fan discovered that this place was not the same as the one he had seen in a previous life, where the Heavenly Profound Mirror gave birth to its sub-mirrors.
It was not as vast, and seemed more self-contained.
Yet, there was a faint connection between them.
"They are both fundamentally the Heavenly Profound Mirror, just with different functions," Li Fan realized with a flash of insight.
Before long, they reached the very center of the monochromatic space.
A suspended platform, constructed from countless intersecting lines, hovered there.
Deng Mingqian and Wang Wan landed on the platform.
The lines representing their feet became disordered, spreading out into countless fine black threads that connected with the surface below like tiny tentacles.
The sight was quite bizarre.
After a moment of hesitation, Li Fan did the same.
The next second, his vision was flooded with color again.
Countless characters cascaded before his eyes like a waterfall.
Finally, they coalesced into several lines of small text.
"Cultivator [Li Fan] has connected."
"Please demonstrate the divine ability you wish to deduce within your sea of consciousness."
"Based on cultivator [Li Fan]'s current cultivation level, the power of the deduced divine ability is capped at the [Soul Transformation] stage."
"Remaining deduction time..."
The final line was a constantly ticking countdown.
Only twenty hours remained.
He knew he had to hold something back in the presence of the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
But this was a hard-won opportunity, and he had to ensure he maximized his gains.
His world-shaking Chaos Character divine ability was certainly out of the question.
After a moment of deliberation, Li Fan made his decision.
"This space within the Heavenly Profound Mirror... it's so similar to the Root of Heaven and Earth."
"If my guess is correct, it's analyzing the process of a world's creation."
"In that case..."
With a flicker of his thoughts, all his insights concerning the Reverse Five Elements Creation-Destruction Sword flooded his mind.
The Reverse Five Elements Creation-Destruction Sword was a divine ability Li Fan had conceived by building upon the foundation of the Five Elements Annihilation Sword and adding his own insights into the Dao of Life and Death.
However, being only at the Nascent Soul stage, his understanding of the Dao of Life and Death was, in truth, quite superficial.
After all, his main body's talent for comprehension was not as heaven-defying as that of his clone, Xu Bai.
Ever since he had first developed it, its practical applications had been limited.
He mostly still used it simply as the Annihilation Sword.
As for its creative "life" aspect, it was currently limited to the rather useless ability of creating spirit stones from thin air.
"I hope this brings a pleasant surprise," Li Fan thought.
He discovered that as he meditated on his insights into the Reverse Five Elements Creation-Destruction Sword, the lines connecting his feet to the platform began to sway incessantly, as if stirred by a gentle breeze.
The black of the lines grew deeper, more intense.
It was as if something was being transmitted through them.
Only a moment later, the Heavenly Profound Mirror's feedback arrived.
In an instant, a multitude of images flashed before Li Fan's eyes.
He vaguely witnessed the birth of the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven once more. Then, thousands of fleeting images flashed past at once, rising up from below to form a great tree with countless branches.
Li Fan stood at the base of this great tree, poised to make a choice.
(End of Chapter)
Comments