Anchored at the year 1, Great Xuan, the peak of Xie Li Mountain.
Li Fan, a twenty-year-old youth, stood alone on the mountain peak, his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the distant sea of clouds.
The sun rose from the east, radiating a myriad of rays, dyeing the clouds a fiery red.
Though young, Li Fan’s eyes held a hint of weariness.
“After three thousand years have passed, it seems that it has not been without an impact on me.”
Li Fan sighed softly.
The moment he returned to the peak of Xie Li Mountain through automatic【Truth】, the events he had experienced during his time as an inanimate object surged back like a tidal wave.
It was a period of time far longer than the combined lifespan of all the hundreds of lives he had lived as a human since his transmigration.
Even though he couldn’t retain all the details as a human, even though most of those three thousand years were spent as a solitary object, lying on the desolate ground of a ruined world, the sheer volume of memories he absorbed from the 【Formation-Breaking Jade Disc】 in a short span of time had left its mark.
Thankfully, it took him almost a day to completely eliminate the negative effects and organize the history of the Xuanhuang Realm for the past three thousand years after his demise.
Some things, such as the struggle between the Xuan Net and cultivators, were predictable even before he became inanimate.
But Li Fan hadn’t expected the Xuanhuang Realm to be destroyed in a mere thousand years.
“What happened to the people of the 【Overwhelming Heaven Society】 after they obtained the formation blueprint of the Tianxuan Spirit Locking Formation?”
“Logically, even if the battle was fierce, one side should have won a decisive victory. How could it seem like they both perished?”
Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a pang of helplessness.
At the most crucial moment, Han Wuyou, that rascal, had pulled the plug, resulting in a loss of information for hundreds of years.
“But I can’t blame him,” Li Fan thought.
“With the decisive battle between the 【Overwhelming Heaven Society】 and the Xuan Net looming, the 【Formation-Breaking Jade Disc】, which was sent by a descendant of my former acquaintance, was filled with suspicious details. It even knew about the absolute secret of the Locking Spirit Formation blueprint.”
“It was necessary to be cautious.”
“At that time, he had already become a Nascent Soul cultivator, no longer the innocent and naive boy he once was. The final battle was a matter of life and death for countless cultivators of the 【Overwhelming Heaven Society】.”
(TL Note: It should be in Soul Transformation Stage but maybe MC was not able to percive it…)
“It’s understandable that he chose to seal me away.”
“For the sake of the 《Crucible of Ten Thousand Forms》, I won’t hold it against you.”
Li Fan smiled faintly and extended his hand, capturing a black-feathered, red-tailed bird from a tree on the mountain peak.
Spiritual energy flowed through its body as he closed his eyes and concentrated.
After half a day, Li Fan abruptly opened his eyes. He released the bird and took a deep breath.
A golden light enveloped his body, and within the glow, Li Fan’s form began to shrink.
In the blink of an eye, a bird identical to the one he had just released appeared on the peak of Xie Li Mountain, completely devoid of any cultivator’s aura.
Even the black-feathered, red-tailed bird treated Li Fan as one of its kind, curiously approaching him for a closer look.
“Han Wuyou, that kid, is truly talented. He was able to comprehend and cultivate such a divine technique from the 《Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture》 at the Golden Core stage.”
Li Fan exclaimed, returning to his original form, startling the black-feathered, red-tailed bird away.
After Li Fan’s body was transformed into an inanimate object and refined with Han Wuyou’s blood essence, a peculiar connection formed between them. This allowed Li Fan, even with only a sliver of his true spirit remaining, to observe and perceive the world through Han Wuyou’s eyes.
Therefore, when Han Wuyou comprehended and cultivated the 《Crucible of Ten Thousand Forms》, Li Fan, who was also well-versed in the 《Heavenly Doctor Immortal Scripture》, learned the technique simultaneously.
“Unfortunately, as he grew older and stronger, especially after the deaths of Xiao Heng and the others, his personality changed. Even the 【Formation-Breaking Jade Disc】, which he had carried with him since childhood, became tinged with suspicion.”
“I couldn’t sense his Nascent Soul cultivation techniques after that.”
“But even if I had known, it wouldn’t have mattered. The 《Chaos World Transcendence Technique》 is most likely still in the possession of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.”
Li Fan shook his head, returning his focus to the future trajectory of the Xuanhuang Realm.
“Until the year 711, when I was sealed away, although many things seemingly occurred, they could be categorized into two groups.”
“One group was events that were destined to happen according to the established historical trajectory of the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“For example, in the year 51, the Blue Feather Immortal Venerable failed to achieve Longevity…”
As Li Fan recalled the reverberating “Who is it?” that echoed through the heavens before Blue Feather’s complete disappearance, he couldn’t help but frown slightly.
“And for hundreds of years, the anomalies in the Xuanhuang Realm became increasingly rampant. Eventually, they even reached the point where they could be used to mass-produce the 【Steller Ruining Arrows】.”
“I wonder if the ultimate destruction of the Xuanhuang Realm was related to these anomalies.”
“Right, there was also that group of Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance cultivators who emerged from the Age Devouring White Mist, seemingly alive despite being dead…”
“Hmm?”
Li Fan suddenly paused, a glimmer of insight flashing in his eyes.
“Blue Feather’s failed attempt at achieving Longevity, and the cultivators who emerged from the white mist, seemingly unaware of their deaths…”
“Could it be…”
“During my twelfth life, I learned from that black-clothed Dao Integration that before his demise, Blue Feather Immortal Venerable had set up the 【Devouring Origin Rebirth Great Formation】, attempting to reverse the law of life and death to achieve Longevity.”
“Judging from the outcome, he ultimately failed.”
“The phrase ‘Who is it?’ has two possible interpretations. One is that someone disrupted Blue Feather’s process of defying the laws of heaven.”
“The other is…”
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, “The law of life and death has been reversed by someone. The path to Longevity has been occupied, and he was completely unaware of it, which is why Blue Feather was so unwilling to accept it.”
“There are only a handful of Longevity Venerables in this world. Blue Feather, as an old-timer in Dao Integration, shouldn’t be ignorant of how they achieved their status.”
“This means that there is a powerful individual in this world who has achieved Longevity Venerable status silently, without anyone noticing?”
Li Fan found this speculation unbelievable, but also felt a surge of emotion.
“Blue Feather, in order to activate the Devouring Origin Rebirth Great Formation, didn’t hesitate to sacrifice the lives of countless cultivators in the Yuandao Province.”
“Yet, he himself couldn’t escape being manipulated by a being of ultimate power.”
“Longevity Venerable…”
“The thoughts and actions of those at such a level are truly unfathomable and beyond comprehension.”
“In my previous life, the battle between the 【Xuan Net】 and cultivators was incredibly fierce, but these Longevity Venerables seemed to have vanished collectively. They never appeared throughout the entire ordeal.”
“Even as cultivators were on the verge of extinction, they remained indifferent.”
Li Fan had his own theories about why this was the case.
The key lay in the towering golden obelisks that the 【Xuan Net】 had constructed throughout the Xuanhuang Realm after taking control.
The obelisks had shot beams of light into the sky four times in total.
Li Fan speculated that the Heavenly Alliance might have been using the golden obelisks to propel the entire Xuanhuang Realm out of the influence of the 【Immortal Ruins】.
