Chapter 767: A Peril Averted Through Transformation
Chapter 767: A Peril Averted Through Transformation
Within Li Fan's sea of consciousness, a Finality Disc glowed with a faint, ethereal light, constructing a layer of camouflage around his true mind.
This was to prevent any potential prying from the Tianxuan Mirror.
And there, on the towering tree before him, Li Fan beheld a multitude of scenes—each one distinct, yet all seemingly born from the same source.
They were all potential outcomes derived from the [Reverse Five Elements Creation-Destruction Sword].
Some branches enhanced the "destruction" attribute, pushing its killing power to the absolute limit.
Others focused more intently on the "creation" attribute; besides healing wounds in an instant, they could manifest objects from the void and even create life.
Still others returned the deductive focus to the "power of the five elements" itself. Whether through the unification of the five elements or their cycles of generation and suppression, countless more possibilities branched out.
The sheer volume of data for these simultaneously appearing divine abilities was immense.
Whenever his thoughts touched upon a specific ability, detailed feedback would immediately surface in his mind.
After gaining a general understanding of the whole, Li Fan glanced up at the countdown timer ticking relentlessly at the top of his vision.
It was only then he realized with a start that, without him noticing, half the time had already slipped away!
With less than ten hours remaining, Li Fan pondered for a moment before swiftly making his choice.
It was one of the possible branches that emerged after the five elements merged. Its essence could be summarized in a simple verse: "Five elements unite as one, an endless cycle of fullness and void; its power is eternal, the soul, immortal."
That was it. The divine ability Li Fan wanted was a wondrous secret art capable of protecting his very soul.
The generative power of the five elements could vastly enhance the circulation and recovery of a cultivator's physical body, almost to the point of achieving a self-sustaining flow of spiritual energy without any external aid. Even ordinary wounds could be healed in the blink of an eye.
According to the Tianxuan Mirror's deductions, similar to the generative cycle, once the five elements unified, there was a chance of entering a wondrous state of limitless fullness and emptiness.
In the flux between fullness and emptiness, like the very breath that brings life, it would produce an unceasing stream of power that could nourish and strengthen the soul.
Fortified by this power, even a grievously wounded soul could slowly recover on its own.
...
"Ordinary offensive abilities are of no real use to me," Li Fan mused.
"For those weaker than me, I can suppress them directly with [Insect Binding]. For those a bit stronger, the [Heaven Shattering Heart Sword] and [Thread Extraction] are more than enough to match them."
"And if I encounter an opponent so powerful I can't resist, I'll just use [Truth] and start over."
"For me, the more life-preserving secret arts I have, the better. Especially those related to the soul."
The inexplicable influence Mr. Bai had exerted on his clone had instilled in Li Fan a profound sense of crisis. He had to take this matter seriously.
Casting aside all hesitation, his needs clear in his mind, Li Fan selected his target.
In an instant, the impossibly lush tree of abilities began to fade, starting from the very tips of its leaves and branches.
All the other displayed abilities vanished in a flash, leaving only a single, bare branch standing between heaven and earth.
It then transformed into a streak of brilliant light and shot straight toward Li Fan's sea of consciousness.
"Boom!"
A world-shattering explosion erupted in his mind.
Accompanied by a blinding radiance, countless intricate details of the divine ability flooded his awareness all at once.
It felt as though someone was violently churning his sea of consciousness with a wooden stick.
Li Fan felt his head was about to burst. The unimaginable pain forced an involuntary grunt from him.
But this was the world of the Tianxuan Mirror, a place composed only of black and white lines representing rules; sound had no physical form here.
So to an observer, Li Fan's figure of lines looked as if it had suffered a tremendous impact.
It began to shake violently, drifting unstably.
Li Fan noticed something more alarming: under the strain of this violent transformation, one or two black lines would occasionally break away from his body.
They dissolved and dissipated into the surrounding space.
With each loss, Li Fan felt himself grow inexplicably weaker.
His heart clenched. Li Fan focused his mind, desperately trying to absorb and process the data the Tianxuan Mirror was pouring into his brain.
But the complexity of this divine ability far exceeded his imagination.
Despite his current spiritual sense, even after processing for some time, the overwhelming flood of data showed no sign of diminishing.
"The amount of data in this ability is too immense. If this continues..." Li Fan's heart sank.
In just that brief period, his figure of lines had already dissolved by nearly half.
"Should I give up on this ability and try again next time?"
In a flash, Li Fan crushed the thought as soon as it arose.
He was startled but not panicked, and a better solution came to mind.
Beneath the Finality Disc, the Dao Transformation Stone, commanded by his will, suddenly erupted with an intense azure brilliance.
Much like the white light the Tianxuan Mirror had produced earlier, this azure radiance instantly swept through Li Fan's entire sea of consciousness.
Within the blue light, the data of the divine ability was completely absorbed.
It was like the incessant tide, its waves continuously washing away the chaotic footprints on a sandy shore.
As the azure light pulsed, all the data flooding Li Fan's mind was gradually absorbed by the Dao Transformation Stone.
"I have the Dao Transformation Stone. There's no need to rush. I can simply store the information for now and study it slowly later."
As the crisis slowly abated and his thoughts returned to normal, Li Fan secretly sighed in relief.
After all the data for the divine ability—which Li Fan had named the [Limitless Fullness and Emptiness]—was absorbed by the Dao Transformation Stone...
Li Fan observed the stone, which now seemed to be faintly approaching some kind of capacity limit, and was taken aback.
The once crystal-clear blue stone was no longer transparent. Its azure color seemed ready to overflow, and he could even see it pulsating within.
Faint cracks were even visible on the crystal's surface.
"This..."
"Weren't these supposed to be Soul Transformation realm abilities at most? How could the data be this terrifyingly vast?"
For a moment, Li Fan was seized by doubt and uncertainty.
Though he didn't know what other Soul Transformation cultivators' abilities were like, Li Fan was certain that his [Limitless Fullness and Emptiness] was far beyond what any ordinary ability of that realm could compare to.
"Could it be? Did the Tianxuan Mirror discover something and leave a backdoor of some kind?"
Li Fan's heart leaped at the thought.
But it was, after all, only speculation. It was just as likely he was scaring himself for no reason.
After some consideration, Li Fan decided to bide his time for now.
He neither began learning the [Limitless Fullness and Emptiness] nor deleted the data he had stored.
Pulling his awareness back from the state of comprehension, Li Fan first glanced at the two other cultivators.
Deng Mingqian seemed to still be deciding which divine ability to have deduced.
Wang Wan, on the other hand, was already deep in the process of comprehending her own.
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