Chapter 958: Balancing Two Immortal Powers
Like a medicine tailored to a specific ailment, the Golden Needle gifted by the Heavenly Doctor began to change shape the moment it made contact with Li Fan’s divine soul.
It conformed to the very shape of his soul, forming a snug, protective layer around it.
"No wonder I can command it as easily as my own limbs, without any need for refinement," Li Fan mused. "It's like a treasure custom-tailored for me, a perfect fit for my soul."
"Moreover..."
With his eyes narrowed in concentration, Li Fan directed the power of his divine soul outward, striking the protective layer from within.
The instant his soul's force struck the barrier, Li Fan felt it meet a soft, yielding resistance that dispersed the impact, sending gentle ripples spreading outward from the point of contact.
It distributed the force evenly across its surface, effortlessly neutralizing the blow.
If the barrier was so resilient from the inside, its external toughness was surely even more formidable.
After several tests, Li Fan settled on a single word to describe it: impregnable.
"As long as the needle remains, you shall not perish..."
"The Heavenly Doctor hadn't exaggerated. As long as one's soul remained intact, someone of his power could reconstruct a physical body with trivial ease."
"To destroy the soul, one would first have to shatter the Golden Needle's protective sheath."
"And even then..."
A scene suddenly flashed through Li Fan's mind.
In the final moment before a fatal blow shattered the needle, a golden light would erupt, whisking his soul away and returning it to the Heavenly Doctor's hands.
Li Fan was certain of it: the Heavenly Doctor still retained some measure of control over the gifted needle.
While this was undoubtedly a gesture of protection for the "sole living heir of the Tianfa Realm," Li Fan found it deeply unsettling.
How could he sleep soundly with another's influence coiled so close to his core?
It was against his very nature to allow something beyond his complete control to envelop his soul.
Lesser issues could be managed, but if his soul were ever frozen, preventing him from using [Truth], his fate would be sealed beyond all hope of recovery.
"Is there a way," he wondered, "to benefit from the needle's protection while ensuring my own absolute security?"
Li Fan stood before the faceless statue, lost in thought.
The truth was, he had very few trump cards capable of counteracting the Heavenly Doctor's power.
Worse, they were all unpredictable variables.
The Chaos and Hunger characters, the creeping gray mildew...
A single misstep with any of them could lead to the annihilation of the Xuanhuang Realm and his own demise along with it.
After weighing his options, Li Fan's focus settled on the golden power of wishes generated by the faceless statue.
Until now, Li Fan had stored this golden energy within the tribulation bodies in his dantian. Each time a body neared its capacity, the golden power would compress itself automatically, without any need for his intervention.
As a result, despite the immense amount of golden power he had accumulated, he had yet to fill even a single one of these tribulation bodies completely.
The one vessel he was using, an exact replica of himself, now shimmered with a brilliant, sacred golden light.
This golden power was a force that transcended every system of power he had ever encountered, and he had yet to discover a method to wield it.
All he could do was guide its flow.
"The power of wishes..."
"Perhaps I can command it simply by focusing my intent?"
A thought struck him, and he immediately began to experiment.
The result was predictable. The golden power remained utterly inert, responding to his mental commands as if they were two entirely different species, incapable of communication.
When his attempts proved fruitless, Li Fan reluctantly changed his approach.
He created another tribulation body, slowly channeling the golden power into it. Simultaneously, he willed the vessel to transform, elongating it into the shape of a long cord.
It became a conduit, filled to the brim with the dense golden power.
He then began to weave this conduit around the Golden Needle's protective layer, slowly fashioning a second sheath over the first.
Li Fan proceeded with extreme caution.
Both the Heavenly Doctor's needle and the golden power of wishes were forces far beyond his current ability to control.
His only hope for security lay in guiding them into a state of mutual opposition, a delicate balance that would keep both in check.
Admittedly, weaving these two potent forces together so close to his soul was incredibly dangerous.
The slightest mistake would mean the utter annihilation of his soul.
But with [Truth] as his safety net, he had the luxury of taking such a monumental risk.
"If something were to go wrong, the two forces would first and foremost recognize each other as a colossal threat," he reasoned. "They would instinctively ignore an ant like me. It's in their nature."
"Ironically, this makes it safer than facing either one of them alone."
"This is the art of creating a balance of power."
Watching the golden cord of the tribulation body, filled with the power of wishes, intertwine with the shimmering sheath of the Golden Needle, Li Fan nodded in satisfaction.
If the Heavenly Doctor's needle were to flare up, it would first have to contend with the golden power.
The reverse was also true.
And should an external enemy strike a fatal blow, they would face the combined retaliation of both the needle and the golden power.
To use a crude analogy, it was as if he had strapped two interconnected bombs to himself.
Any action that harmed him would trigger their detonation.
Li Fan was confident that not even a Longevity Celestial Venerable would escape unscathed from a simultaneous assault by these two powers.
He could even, if necessary, detonate both bombs himself to achieve an unexpected, explosive result.
"Guiding the inevitable, playing one power against the other... now this is more my style."
Once the delicate balance was struck, Li Fan took a moment to admire his handiwork, a flicker of pride in his heart.
But the feeling was fleeting.
"This is merely a stopgap measure, a solution born of necessity," he reminded himself. "If I can thoroughly understand the principles behind the Heavenly Doctor's needle, I can create my own soul-warding technique..."
"If the Heavenly Doctor could achieve it, there's no reason I can't."
Li Fan carefully studied the energy signature of the Golden Needle just beyond his soul, cross-referencing his observations with the contents of the *Heavenly Doctor's Immortal Sutra* and the *Heaven Mending Record* as he began to formulate his own theories.
An unknown amount of time passed in this state of deep contemplation.
Li Fan was jolted from his thoughts by an image that surfaced in his mind.
It was an update on the task he had assigned to the followers of the Red Dust Compassionate Immortal: to find someone capable of reconstructing a cultivator's face from nothing but a skull. They had finally found a lead.
Li Fan had assumed it would be a simple task, but in truth, across the vast Xuanhuang Realm, he was likely the only person with such a need.
With no practical application, it was a skill no cultivator had ever bothered to master.
It wasn't until Li Fan posted a generous bounty that the lure of reward prompted someone to try.
"Tongyan Province. A woman named Luo Suzhen."
After receiving the information, Li Fan considered his options and ultimately decided to go himself, in his true body.
This matter concerned something that even [Truth] itself seemed to covet; he had to take it seriously.
His figure flickered and vanished, moving like a phantom through the world.
Before long, Li Fan arrived outside Luo Suzhen's secluded dwelling.
Like other eccentrics he had met, such as Yin Shangren and Ximen Yu, this Luo Suzhen preferred solitude.
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