Chapter 835: An Immortal's Hand Bone
At the critical moment, Ou Shangtian erupted with power once more.
A brilliant yellow light enveloped an area stretching for tens of thousands of meters.
The cultivators caught within the glow found their states reverted to a time before they had surrounded Ou Shangtian.
By the time they realized what had happened, the father and son had vanished without a trace.
Infuriated, they resumed their pursuit, only to find that Ou Shangtian was now fleeing alone.
After another half-day of desperate resistance, he was finally captured by a fortunate soul named Xie Xiantao.
Facing the predatory gazes of the other cultivators, Xie Xiantao made a swift and wise decision.
He would hand Ou Shangtian over to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance in exchange for the bounty.
In fact, during his escape, Ou Shangtian had killed no fewer than a hundred Alliance cultivators.
Ou Shangtian was already a high-priority fugitive.
The authorities had not yet intervened, but that didn't mean they weren't paying attention.
Sure enough, after Xie Xiantao publicly announced his decision, moments later, a squad of black-robed cultivators arrived on the scene. They took both him and the barely breathing Ou Shangtian away.
The tumultuous, realm-wide manhunt was thus declared over.
As for the other protagonist of this affair, Ou Shangtian's father, Ou Daozi, no one seemed to care about him anymore.
Except for Li Fan.
In a dark jungle in Luoyan Province, Ou Daozi lay hidden beneath layers of dead leaves, grievously wounded.
But when he thought of his son pushing his own abilities to the limit, drawing their enemies away just to protect him, agony pierced his heart like a knife, overwhelming him.
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance..."
Ou Daozi's eyes were bloodshot. The faces of those who had joined the pursuit flashed relentlessly through his mind.
His heart was consumed by hatred.
Yet, he didn't dare move a muscle, terrified of being discovered.
He quietly nursed his wounds.
"Alas..."
Just then, a sigh suddenly echoed nearby.
Ou Daozi froze in terror. He tried to flee, but it was too late.
Three familiar figures had appeared beside him at some unknown moment.
"It's you!" Ou Daozi’s eyes blazed with such fury they seemed ready to split as he stared at Li Fan, the true culprit behind it all.
He was on the verge of exploding with rage, ready to take Li Fan down with him.
But he was suppressed by the combined efforts of Lin Ling and Tianyang.
Already a step weaker than them, he was now severely injured and had lost most of his combat strength.
Before long, he was completely subdued.
"Strange. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"I only wanted to ask for your help designing some buildings. But before we could even meet, you two fled in a hurry. You even schemed to take my life. If I hadn't been so lucky, I would have been done for right there and then."
"I haven't even settled the score with you yet."
"Besides, the ones who hunted and captured your son were all from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. What does that have to do with me?"
Li Fan asked with an air of perfect innocence.
"How absurd!" Seeing Li Fan spouting such blatant nonsense, Ou Daozi's rage reached its peak.
Veins bulged on his forehead, throbbing violently.
He looked as if he wanted to fight Li Fan to the death on the spot.
"Your way of thinking is flawed," Li Fan said, shaking his head slightly.
He took out a crystal-clear fruit and offered a benevolent smile.
"Here, open your mouth. Eat this, and you'll see things clearly."
A sense of foreboding suddenly washed over Ou Daozi. "What is this thing?"
Li Fan didn't answer.
He handed the Truth Inducing Fruit to Lin Ling, who forcibly fed it to Ou Daozi.
As the fruit entered his stomach, Ou Daozi's struggles gradually weakened.
The look in his eyes as he gazed at Li Fan also began to change.
"Don't you want to save your son?"
"Although companion wonders usually can't be transferred, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has countless methods. Who knows what kind of suffering your son will have to endure," Li Fan murmured.
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance!" Ou Daozi's eyes instantly turned bloodshot with rage.
"The Alliance is unjust, but its power is immense. To destroy it and rescue your son, we must plan carefully."
"Our Federation of All Worlds was born for this very purpose!"
...
Under the influence of the Truth Inducing Fruit, Ou Daozi's will was quickly rewritten.
He joined the Federation of All Worlds, making the destruction of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance his life's mission.
He came to see Li Fan, a man who shared his convictions, as one of his own.
From Ou Daozi, Li Fan also learned the secrets of Ou Shangtian's companion wonders.
"My son has two companion wonders."
"One of them I've known about since he was a child—the [Ten Thousand Death Book], which can predict the manner of his own death."
"But the [Heaven and Earth Bone Hand], which can reverse heaven and earth, he only awakened two years ago when Guiyuan Mountain collapsed."
"He was only at the beginning of the Qi Refining stage at the time when he was suddenly caught in a natural disaster—a mountain collapse. His life hung by a thread."
"At that life-or-death moment, his potential erupted, finally activating the long-hidden power of the [Heaven and Earth Bone Hand]."
"The mountain collapsed and then reformed—it was far too astonishing. That's why the boy kept it a secret even from me."
"It wasn't until recently that he rushed to find me, urging me to leave. He said he had foreseen a terrifying group of people who were about to come for us..."
Now in the Spirit Wood Realm, Ou Daozi recounted the entire sequence of events to Li Fan.
Li Fan's expression remained calm. "Countless futures, countless possibilities. What he foresaw may not have been the truth."
"If I had truly intended to kill you, you wouldn't have been able to resist these two by my side."
Ou Daozi's eyes clouded with confusion for a moment, then he sighed deeply. "A misunderstanding... and now it seems my son and I may never meet again..."
"There will always be a chance. Friend Daoist, what do you think of my Spirit Wood Realm?" Li Fan changed the subject, gesturing toward the small world that was under bustling construction.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." Ou Daozi observed for a while, shaking his head repeatedly, a hint of disdain in his eyes.
"The place itself is decent enough. But the design and construction plans are simply third-rate..."
"They hardly live up to the name of the Federation of All Worlds."
Hearing this, Li Fan wasn't the least bit annoyed.
Instead, he cupped his hands and said, "Then I must trouble you, friend Daoist, to put in the hard work and remake it."
Ou Daozi narrowed his eyes and nodded in agreement.
Already deeply passionate about his craft, Ou Daozi quickly became engrossed in his own plans and designs.
"Friend Daoist, do as you please. If you need anything, just speak directly with the treant leader of this realm."
With Li Fan's full approval, Ou Daozi temporarily forgot his earlier sorrow.
He threw himself wholeheartedly into the construction of the Spirit Wood Realm.
"It took some twists and turns, but at least the initial goal has been achieved."
"The Heaven and Earth Bone Hand, the Ten Thousand Death Book..."
Li Fan frowned slightly.
According to Ou Daozi, Ou Shangtian hadn't actually mastered the full extent of the Heaven and Earth Bone Hand's power.
During their escape, he seemed to sense that a more potent ability lay hidden within it, yet to be unearthed.
If he had been given a little more time, he might have truly been able to achieve some degree of temporal reversal.
However, this was merely Ou Shangtian's speculation.
The specifics could not yet be confirmed.
The crucial point was that the Heaven and Earth Bone Hand was, without a doubt, the hand bone of some ancient being.
(End of this chapter)
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