Gongsun Qixuan’s tone was filled with undisguised killing intent.
“Well then, please prove yourself, Daoist friend!” he said coldly, staring at Li Fan.
Now, all the pressure shifted to Li Fan.
More and more eyes from all directions focused on him.
“Since Daoist friend claims to be able to deduce future events, why not demonstrate here and now?” Gongsun Qixuan demanded, his voice leaving no room for Li Fan to refuse. “If you can accurately predict the rise and fall of specific item prices, deducing something else should be a simple task.”
Li Fan hesitated for a moment, but had no choice but to agree.
“In that case, I shall make a humble attempt!” He clasped his hands in salute and took out the [Heaven-Earth Divination Dice] that he had prepared. Closing his eyes, he stood motionless.
The entire venue instantly fell silent, and everyone stared intently at Li Fan’s next move.
Within the jade slips he had obtained from the relics of the Heavenly mechanism Sect, there were indeed a few future-deduction techniques. However, these were low-level spells, with a success rate so low that even hitting one out of a hundred would be considered lucky.
He knew that with countless eyes watching him, he couldn’t be too bold. He was prepared to flee immediately if his act was exposed.
Simultaneously, he activated the secret technique [Sky Shrouding Palm], and a mysterious aura instantly enveloped his body.
The Heaven and Earth Divination Dice floated in front of Li Fan and began to spin rapidly. The twenty facets of the dice flashed with fragmented, fleeting images.
Li Fan knew that even if these scenes passed by in a blink, they would not escape the eyes of the skilled cultivators present. Therefore, the images shown by the Heaven and Earth Divination Dice weren’t just random—they were real events from his past life, ones he would experience in the future.
Truth mixed with lies, falsehood hidden within truth. Only then could he deceive the onlookers.
However, no matter how realistic it appeared, Li Fan knew that this fake act couldn’t withstand close scrutiny.
As the Heaven and Earth Divination Dice spun faster and faster, a scene of utter darkness began to emerge. Li Fan made his body tremble uncontrollably, his face growing paler by the second, with fear spreading across his features.
Using the [Creation Furnace Art], he suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood and exclaimed, “The Tianxuan Lock of Spirit, the union of Xuan and Huang?!”
At that moment, the Heaven and Earth Divination Dice lost all its brilliance and stopped spinning, with all twenty facets now pitch black.
Li Fan collapsed weakly to the ground, looking utterly drained.
The crowd in the Martial Hall erupted in shock.
No one could remain calm after hearing the words “The Tianxuan Lock of Spirit, the union of Xuan and Huang.” The implications were simply too terrifying.
At that moment, a figure dressed in black, whose face was obscured, appeared out of thin air. He ignored the gravely injured Li Fan and instead looked at Gongsun Qixuan.
“Daoist Gongsun…” The figure clearly sought Gongsun Qixuan’s opinion.
He suspected that this cultivator, Li Fan, might just be putting on a show. But, not being proficient in deduction arts himself, and with Li Fan allegedly being an ancient cultivator who had fallen into slumber in ancient times, there was a possibility that ancient methods differed from modern ones.
Moreover, the conclusion Li Fan had deduced was indeed alarming.
To be cautious, the figure decided to defer to an expert’s judgment.
Gongsun Qixuan’s lips moved as he silently repeated the words Li Fan had just deduced. His expression grew increasingly grim.
A painting appeared in front of him, slowly unfurling. The canvas was originally blank, but as Gongsun Qixuan waved his hand like a brush, colors began to fill the scene. Something seemed to be forming on the painting.
However, the act of creating this painting seemed to be a huge drain on Gongsun Qixuan’s strength. Already looking a bit sickly, his condition worsened as his back began to hunch under an invisible weight, slowing his movements.
Finally, as the image on the painting became clearer, Gongsun Qixuan’s hand trembled violently. He seemed to encounter an immense force, unable to complete the final stroke no matter how hard he tried.
A look of frustration crossed Gongsun Qixuan’s face. He bit his tongue and spat out a mouthful of blood. As the blood splattered into the air, he clenched his fists and forcefully completed the painting, using his blood as ink and his fists as brushes.
When everyone in the Martial Hall, including Gongsun Qixuan himself, turned to see the content of the painting, a brilliant green light burst from the canvas, flooding the hall and spreading in all directions.
The first to be hit was Gongsun Qixuan himself. Already exhausted from forcibly completing the deduction, he had no strength left to defend himself. Caught off guard, he was struck head-on.
“Ah!”
A scream of agony escaped from Gongsun Qixuan as his body dissolved into the green light. Only a trace of black mist remained, drifting away to an unknown destination.
“Damn it, a backlash from the Heavenly Mysteries?!”
“Elder Gongsun?!”
The sudden turn of events left the cultivators in the Martial Hall in utter shock.
But soon, they had their own problems to worry about.
The green light spread like a tide, and everything it touched—whether strange boulders or living creatures—disappeared without a trace, as if melting into water.
The black-robed cultivator’s face darkened as he tried to stop the green light’s spread, but to no avail. The source of this green energy was mysterious and impossible to resist. Left with no other choice, he was forced to retreat.
In mere moments, the public trial had turned into a race to see who could escape fastest.
Amidst the desperate screams of the cultivators, the scene grew more chaotic and terrifying.
The moment Li Fan saw the familiar green light from Gongsun Qixuan’s deduction painting, he knew something had gone terribly wrong.
Although he wasn’t sure what had triggered it, or why Gongsun Qixuan’s deduction had summoned the power of the [Mysterious Net], Li Fan didn’t hesitate to slip away unnoticed, blending in with the panicking crowd as they fled from the Martial Hall.
The strange phenomena at the Martial Hall on Ten Thousand Immortal Island quickly caught the attention of other cultivators on the island. The once magnificent building trembled before collapsing in a series of violent shakes.
Just as the green light threatened to continue spreading outward, a rainbow beam of light shot down from the sky, descending upon Ten Thousand Immortal Island.
Countless transparent runes surged from the rainbow light, forming a massive net that captured the dispersing green light.
The crisis was swiftly resolved.
Amidst the fleeing crowd, Li Fan bowed his head slightly, for the newcomer was none other than Lu Xichan, the chief formation master of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance’s Strategy Formation Hall!