Chapter 915: The Heavenly Doctor's Final Method
Chapter 915: The Heavenly Doctor's Final Method
For an ordinary cultivator, reshaping the heavens and the earth was a feat of unimaginable difficulty.
Even the mighty Longevity cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm were limited to merely reversing a handful of heaven and earth's fundamental principles.
Thus, the second major section of the *Heaven Mending Record* was a treatise on how to mend one's flaws and strengthen the self.
It encouraged one to break free from the restrictive frameworks of conventional cultivation systems and instead approach improvement from the very source of life itself.
The text enumerated over a hundred potential methods for shattering one's inherent limitations.
The final, and by far the largest, section of the *Heaven Mending Record* offered a comprehensive explanation of how to "mend the heavens."
It posited that when anomalies occurred in the workings of the Heavenly Dao, it was akin to a person falling ill, manifesting various "symptoms."
And only by diagnosing the ailment and prescribing the correct remedy could the sickness be cured.
Strictly speaking, the *Heaven Mending Record* wasn't a cultivation technique in the traditional sense. It was a summation of the Heavenly Doctor's personal experiences, a tangible fusion of methodology and practical wisdom.
Its pages were filled with perspectives and ingenious ideas the likes of which Li Fan had never even conceived.
The numerous accounts of celestial anomalies and mutations in the Heavenly Dao were a true revelation, broadening his horizons immensely.
Li Fan was almost certain that the Heavenly Doctor must have visited more than a single cultivation world.
It would have been impossible to compose such a monumental work without observing the Heavenly Daos of at least a hundred different worlds.
Li Fan read with rapt fascination, his heart filling with a renewed sense of admiration—and caution—for the Heavenly Doctor.
He had, for the moment, leveraged his foreknowledge to convince the Heavenly Doctor that he was Tian Jue's successor.
Tian Jue himself was erratic and unstable, his sanity a fleeting thing, and his appearances were so unpredictable that it would be nearly impossible under normal circumstances to verify Li Fan's story.
But that didn't mean the Heavenly Doctor lacked the means to forcibly delve into Tian Jue's mind and extract his memories.
Li Fan remembered with perfect clarity how, during the confrontation with Tian Jue and the Master, the Heavenly Doctor had revealed his true form and subdued the frenzied Tian Jue in mere moments.
He had even performed some kind of "surgery" on him.
Therefore, despite this minor victory, Li Fan didn't let himself become complacent.
His priority was to commit the vast and profound contents of the *Heaven Mending Record* to memory as quickly as possible.
Should the Heavenly Doctor discover the deception and come for him, Li Fan would activate [Truth] without a second thought.
Even if it meant forfeiting all his other plans for this lifetime, possessing the *Heaven Mending Record* would make it all worthwhile.
This, however, was merely his worst-case contingency.
In reality, based on his own deductions, since he possessed the legacies of both the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace and Tian Jue, he could technically be considered their successor.
As for *how* he had acquired those legacies...
...that detail was likely irrelevant to the Heavenly Doctor.
As long as his possession of [Truth] remained a secret, the Heavenly Doctor would have no reason to act against him!
The *Heaven Mending Record* was profoundly esoteric. Even with Li Fan's vast repository of knowledge, studying it proved to be an arduous task.
"In the lifetime of the Heavenly Profound Spirit Locking Array, before the descent of the Xuan Net, there was also a technique called the *Heaven Mending Record*."
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had forced every cultivator in the world to practice it..."
"...and that ultimately triggered the Heavenly Profound Mirror's final metamorphosis into the Xuan Net."
"Both were about mending the self's imperfections. Now that I think about it, the two share a common thread. Perhaps they were one and the same."
...
As he read, Li Fan was suddenly reminded of his experiences in a previous reincarnation.
As he connected the process of the Heavenly Profound Mirror transforming into the Xuan Net—ultimately to "Take from Heaven and Replace"—with the theories in the *Heaven Mending Record*, a fresh wave of understanding washed over him.
A surge of delight coursed through him.
Li Fan lost all track of time, completely engrossed in his studies.
When he reached the final passage of the *Heaven Mending Record*, which detailed the ultimate method for mending the heavens, a violent tremor ran through his body, snapping him back to full awareness.
"This..."
An incredulous light blazed in Li Fan's eyes, and his body trembled faintly.
He took a deep breath, forcefully suppressing the profound shock that rocked his very core.
He then reread the passage over a dozen times, meticulously poring over every word.
It was merely a theoretical possibility, a method the Heavenly Doctor himself had never even attempted.
But...
"The Floating Void Grand Array, capturing other worlds and grotto-heavens..."
"The great war of antiquity..."
"Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, Tian Jue..."
"The world-shaking changes that have swept across the Xuanhuang Realm over the past several millennia..."
And the words spoken by the Heavenly Dao's incarnation, Mr. Bai, when he confronted the Dharma Spreader in his 115th lifetime.
...
Countless clues from his past lives flashed through Li Fan's mind, each one corroborating the text's contents.
Li Fan drew in a sharp, cold breath.
"If this is really true..."
A flicker of dread passed through his eyes.
He had lost all inclination to continue reading the *Heaven Mending Record*.
If his suspicion was correct, then the Heavenly Doctor's true power was...
An uncharacteristic sense of urgency gripped him, a desperate need to verify this hypothesis as soon as possible.
In the end, however, he managed to suppress the impulse.
"No, I have to wait until the next lifetime."
"Besides the Heavenly Doctor, I am the only one who knows the contents of the *Heaven Mending Record*. If I try to investigate this now, my true nature will undoubtedly be exposed!"
"In the next life, everything else can wait. My first priority must be to verify this..."
"If it's really true..."
Any lingering smugness Li Fan felt from having deceived the Heavenly Doctor vanished in an instant.
In its place was a gravity he had never felt before.
Even the *Heaven Mending Record*, a text he had considered a supreme treasure, now seemed fraught with peril.
After a long moment of deliberation, Li Fan finally resolved to finish reading it.
"I cannot follow its teachings completely."
"But its principles can be used for reference, adapted to suit my own needs."
"I will absorb its essence, fuse it with my own strengths, and from that, deduce and create a *Heaven Mending Record* of my own."
With this resolution, Li Fan's consciousness once again plunged into the vast ocean of knowledge that was the *Heaven Mending Record*.
...
The Heavenly Sword Sect, within the Sword Tomb.
His clone, Li Qing, sat beside the Black Sword, feeding it with her own insights into the Dao of the sword.
One day, a torrent of information flooded her sea of consciousness.
It had all been transmitted from her original self.
"If the Heavens are flawed, I shall mend them myself."
Li Qing savored the profound mysteries woven between the lines, her eyes growing increasingly brilliant.
Due to the restrictions placed by her original self, Li Qing didn't know the origin of this esoteric technique.
But judging by its sheer brilliance, it was obviously not something her original self could have comprehended on his own.
Of this, Li Qing—who was keenly aware of her original self's aptitude—was almost certain.
"My original self must have had a fortuitous encounter..."
Li Qing put all other thoughts aside and focused her full attention on studying the technique.
"So that's it..."
"The Dao of the Sword is but one aspect of the Heavenly Dao. If the Heavenly Dao can be flawed, then so too can the sword."
"That must be why the Wooden Sword, as a Heaven's Wonder, instinctively seeks to complete itself. This Black Sword is one of its attempts to do so."
A brilliant light danced in Li Qing's eyes.
"The Wooden Sword is already infinitely close to perfection. Taking it another step further will be no easy task."
"But perhaps I can forge a new path, approaching it from the perspective of other Daos."
"As the saying goes, the stones of another mountain can be used to polish one's own jade."
With this thought, as Li Qing continued to nurture the sword with her sword Dao, she began to weave in insights from other paths as well.
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