Chapter 849: Everyone a Chosen One
Chapter 849: Everyone a Chosen One
Holding the brilliant orb, Li Fan separated a wisp of his divine sense and sent it inside.
In the next instant, his vision changed dramatically.
The connection to his original body was severed.
The separated wisp of divine sense plunged into a new body.
Simultaneously, a flood of information rushed in like a tidal wave.
The body he now possessed was merely that of a mortal.
It took several days of throbbing headaches before he could fully absorb all the information.
A strange expression crept onto Li Fan's face.
It was the twilight of a dynasty. The bureaucracy was corrupt, and the people lived in misery.
Disasters were rampant, and the land was strewn with the bodies of the starved.
The common folk prayed only for a full belly, but even that was an extravagant hope.
And so, in their desperation, they rose up to fight back.
Now, the flames of rebellion blazed across the land, and the body Li Fan inhabited belonged to an insignificant grunt in one of these rebel armies.
Because he was still processing the new knowledge, he appeared dazed and was thought to have contracted a strange illness.
He was sent to the military medic for treatment.
This medic was quite skilled; after a single glance, he prescribed a calming concoction.
Just as Li Fan came to his senses and prepared to leave, a prompt suddenly materialized before his eyes: "Talent fit for a king's advisor, Bai Muxiu, discovered."
"Current Affinity: 1."
Li Fan's expression couldn't help but turn a little peculiar.
"What in the world is the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance playing at?"
For the time being, Li Fan avoided further contact with the medic, Bai Muxiu, and instead took a stroll around the rebel encampment.
In just three or four days, he had discovered one "Peerless General" and two "Ancient Divine Weapons."
As for other promising individuals, they were too numerous to count.
Some only came with a rough affinity rating, while others even included strategy guides.
He could see their hobbies, temperaments, and weaknesses with crystal clarity.
Li Fan's interest was piqued.
Following the prompts that appeared, he approached them one by one, catering to their individual tastes.
Soon, he went from being a complete nobody in the rebel army to someone with a growing reputation.
More than ten days later, he received a warning that the imperial army was planning a surprise attack that very night.
But he didn't raise the alarm. Instead, he gathered a group of trusted followers and made his own preparations in secret.
When the night raid came, the rebel army was instantly routed and fell into chaos.
Li Fan, however, managed to lead his group through the turmoil, escaping by a stroke of luck.
As the leader who had brought them all out alive, Li Fan gradually established his authority.
Then, following another prompt, he led his force of fewer than a hundred men on a long-range raid, capturing a small, poorly defended city whose garrison was away fighting bandits.
He finally had a place to call his own.
Using this city as his base, he slowly began to absorb the surrounding factions.
In just five years, he swept across the land, overthrew the corrupt dynasty, and became the founding emperor of a new era.
The scene before him shattered, layer by layer.
Everything returned to nothingness.
Just as Li Fan was pondering the purpose of this illusory experience, the scene before him shifted once more.
It was another fictional world.
This time, a fantasy cultivation setting.
He had possessed the body of a mortal youth who had been rejected by the Taichu Sect for lacking spiritual roots.
The boy had pleaded desperately and was finally granted the status of a menial disciple.
He had resigned himself to a life of hardship.
But he never imagined that, by a stroke of luck, he would find a stone bead on the back of the mountain.
This stone bead possessed a heaven-defying ability: it could devour other objects and, in return, produce a spiritual liquid that improved one's aptitude for cultivation.
Relying on this treasure, Li Fan transformed from a mere mortal into a true cultivator.
From there, he progressed step by step, reaching Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and beyond.
Along the way, he not only gained three dao companions of unparalleled beauty and an ancient divine beast as his mount, but he also stumbled upon a series of fortuitous encounters, discovered the tomb of an immortal, and obtained an immortal artifact—the only one of its kind in the entire cultivation world.
After a century of adventure, he finally became the most powerful expert of his time.
With his beautiful companions at his side, he shattered the void and ascended.
The scene shattered once again.
As he returned from the illusion this time, Li Fan faintly sensed that his own mentality had undergone a subtle change.
But before he could analyze it, he was plunged back into the cyclical illusions.
Next, Li Fan experienced another ninety-seven lifetimes.
The scenarios were all largely the same.
They were clichéd tales of rising from humble beginnings, stumbling upon a great fortune, and then fighting against the odds to become the strongest in the world.
When all the cycles finally ended, the brilliant orb in Li Fan's hand dimmed completely and vanished without a trace.
“...”
The experience of ninety-nine lifetimes, though an illusion, was far too real.
It was remarkably similar to what he had experienced with Senior Sister Zhao—so illusory it felt genuine.
After so many cycles, even with Li Fan's current mental fortitude, he was inevitably affected.
He slowly circulated the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra, allowing the memories of those lives to gradually fade.
"This move by the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is quite something," Li Fan murmured.
His expression was inscrutable.
Not long ago, these brilliant orbs had rained down like a torrential storm upon some of the Five Elders Council's territories.
Countless cultivators and mortals there, driven by curiosity, found their minds captivated by the orbs.
They were drawn into ninety-nine lifetimes of recursive cycles.
When they slowly awakened, their bodies were completely unharmed.
But their mindsets had undergone a world-shaking transformation.
And that was...
Under the influence of the illusions, people who had been perfectly ordinary now inexplicably believed themselves to be "chosen ones" upon waking.
If they had simply believed this on their own, it wouldn't have been a significant problem.
But they had all come to a realization: they were living in a world forcibly altered by the five Long Life Celestial Venerables, who had reversed the very logic of heaven and earth.
Thus, one after another, they made grand vows to overthrow the rule of the Five Elders Council.
They swore to rescue the world's cultivators from their miserable existence.
Moreover, after the baptism of ninety-nine lifetimes, these people had indeed changed.
They did not act rashly but instead chose to lie low.
Cultivate first, cause trouble later.
Though it wasn't explicitly stated, judging from the tone of the Five Elders Council, the impact of these brilliant orbs...
was giving them a considerable headache.
Li Fan mused thoughtfully, "Besides subtly awakening the cultivators, it also seems to implant some kind of mental brand."
"How can the so-called chosen ones be content to live beneath others!"
"To think it can instill the idea of overthrowing the Five Elders Council's rule, even under the influence of the Five Celestial Venerables."
"What a fine tool!"
Naturally, Li Fan remained unaffected by the brilliant orb.
In fact, even if he had been influenced...
it wouldn't have been a major issue.
After all, unlike everyone else, with [Truth] in hand, he was already a true chosen one!
Li Fan peered into the storage ring sent by the Five Elders Council, which was packed densely with what he estimated to be at least a thousand of the brilliant orbs...
He stroked his chin.
"The production cost of these things can't be too high. Otherwise, they wouldn't have scattered them on such a massive scale."
He took out another one and began to study it.
In his sea of consciousness, the Dissociation Disk emitted a faint glow as it began its analysis.
"There are traces of an illusion formation."
"But more than that..."
Li Fan frowned slightly. He sensed a familiar aura.
"Mind Monkey and Will Horse?"
A moment later, he searched through his past experiences and found a similar precedent.
(End of this chapter)
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