Chapter 1309: Proof of the Dao Shortcut

The people of Xianzhou saw nothing amiss with Li Fan's request.

However, they also presented their own condition: "True Immortal Seal Script is a top secret of Xianzhou. Although this place is located in the uninhabited depths of the Star Sea, we must still guard against eavesdropping and prying eyes. Therefore, we must also set up a formation here!"

Li Fan smiled, "As you wish. If any of you find it strenuous to set up the formation, I can also lend a hand."

The elders of Xianzhou snorted coldly, ignoring Li Fan's jibe.

They joined forces within the "Illusion Formation" Li Fan had set up, laying down another layer of formation. Only when they felt everything was foolproof did they begin the formal exchange.

"I am Jian Daosheng, please enlighten me!" Without further pleasantries, Jian Daosheng, the Chief of Xianzhou's Immortal Hub Institute, solemnly inscribed a True Immortal Seal Script on the spot.

Perhaps to suppress Li Fan's arrogance and gain the upper hand, the True Immortal Seal Script he chose this time was indeed not simple. Li Fan had never had the chance to encounter it during his previous life's studies in Xianzhou, even when he later became Ai Tianjue's disciple and almost a core member of Xianzhou.

Dim lines slowly moved in the void. The moment the character fully formed, it was as if a great sun had risen, illuminating the dark Star Sea where Li Fan and the people of Xianzhou stood.

This True Immortal Seal Script brought more than just changes in light and shadow. Under its illumination, the utterly desolate Dark Star Sea was unexpectedly imbued with a glimmer of life!

"Could this be a True Immortal Seal Script with a positive effect?" Li Fan's heart stirred, and his expression immediately turned serious.

He ignored Jian Daosheng's somewhat smug appearance, focusing intently, his mind completely absorbed by the True Immortal Seal Script.

With Li Fan's current insights, especially after glimpsing creation itself and the mysterious character that forged the bloodline of the Grand Heavenly Venerate of Xuanhuang, his ability to decipher True Immortal Seal Scripts was virtually unparalleled in the Dark Star Sea.

He carefully perceived the character, which occasionally shifted yet remained suspended like a great sun. In just the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, the original meaning of the True Immortal Seal Script represented by this character emerged in Li Fan's mind.

Like the rising sun, essence reverberating, all things reviving…

These and many other phenomena collectively formed this unique True Immortal Seal Script.

"So that's how it is."

After completing the character's analysis, Li Fan also resolved a long-standing question in his mind.

How did the Profound Immortal Vessel manage to survive the destruction of the Star Sea until now?

At first, Li Fan thought it was due to the Immortal Vessel Divine Tree formed from the Seed of Creation. However, after staying in Xianzhou for a few years, he gradually discovered that something was amiss.

The Immortal Vessel Divine Tree needed to constantly absorb wondrous items like the Path-Chasing Giant and the Human Emperor Rabbit to provide sufficient energy for Xianzhou. This indicated that the Divine Tree alone was not enough to offset the vessel's normal operational consumption.

For nearly ten thousand years, the Divine Tree had not continuously absorbed external energy. What then ensured its vigorous growth during these blank periods?

Furthermore, the vibrant and warm environment within Xianzhou, almost identical to a normal cultivation world, did not seem to be something a mere extraterrestrial divine wood could provide. Not to mention, even the original essence of the Immortal Vessel Divine Tree, the extraterrestrial divine wood of the Divine Wood Sect in the Xuanhuang Realm, did not possess such miraculous functions back then.

Today, with the revelation of this character, the mystery was finally solved.

It was precisely this True Immortal Seal Script, representing the phenomenon of sunrise, that had long provided Xianzhou with its vital living environment.

"This is the very foundation of the Profound Immortal Vessel's survival, an absolute treasure. These people from Xianzhou actually presented it first…"

"It seems they don't plan to let me leave?" Having spent time in Xianzhou in his previous life, Li Fan was very familiar with the temperament of these elders. They valued the True Immortal Seal Scripts and the future of Xianzhou more than their own lives. Yet now, they were revealing a top secret crucial to Xianzhou's future…

Even "one character for one character" seemed extremely suspicious.

"Unfortunately, your plan is destined to be in vain. While stirring up trouble is fine, trying to keep me here… Hmph!"

The formation jointly set up by the elders of Xianzhou appeared to Li Fan like child's play, full of flaws. Moreover, with his unparalleled escape techniques, he was eighty percent confident he could calmly flee even if a True Immortal descended. Naturally, he had no fear of the Xianzhou elders' siege.

Feigning ignorance of their scheme, Li Fan continued to focus on deciphering the character.

As his research deepened, however, he discovered a few irregularities.

The character indeed represented the phenomenon of the nascent sun. The morning sun was gentle, but that was from the perspective of the Immortal Realm.

For the beings of the lower realms, the warm sunlight from the Immortal Realm's morning sun was not something they could withstand. The character's descent would likely not bring vitality; instead, it would instantly incinerate the world into a purgatory!

"So, this isn't a True Immortal Seal Script with a beneficial effect either. It still represents destruction and chaos. It's just that the people of Xianzhou have managed to turn its harm into a benefit by weakening the character's degree of completeness and reducing its power."

"Ingenious, truly worthy of a force that survived the great calamity. They certainly have some tricks," Li Fan secretly praised. Yet, his expression suddenly changed, and he cast a cold glance over the people of Xianzhou: "Something's not right, is it?"

"This character's completeness is definitely not ninety percent! Are you trying to trick me because you think I can't tell?"

Li Fan appeared utterly furious, then his face filled with disappointment: "Never mind. I didn't expect you to be such a untrustworthy group. The exchange is canceled!"

The people of Xianzhou were surprised that Li Fan could see through the character's intricacies so quickly. While shocked, Jian Daosheng hurriedly explained to Li Fan: "Fellow Daoist, you misunderstand! It's not that I deliberately concealed anything; in fact, for us in the lower realms, a character with thirty percent completeness is more useful than one with higher completeness!"

"Of course, if Fellow Daoist insists, displaying the complete character is also fine."

With that, Jian Daosheng inscribed the character again.

In the void, even with various methods greatly reducing the True Immortal Seal Script's power, Li Fan still felt that the moment the character formed, the surrounding warmth instantly transformed into a suffocating heatwave. Life vanished in an instant, turning into a chilling, murderous intent.

Li Fan memorized the complete character, then said, "Alright, I must admit, you were right."

"Since it was a misunderstanding, let the exchange continue!"

Hearing Li Fan's words, all the elders of Xianzhou secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Fan coughed lightly, drawing everyone's attention: "Everyone, behold!"

With swift strokes, the 'Fall' character was instantly inscribed.

The moment the 'Fall' character appeared, the expressions of the Xianzhou elders became somewhat subtle, especially Ai Tianjue's.

He stared blankly at the character in the void before him.

He likely never imagined that the True Immortal Seal Script he had researched most deeply would be inscribed first by his opponent.

"Its completeness already far surpasses Xianzhou's current progress; it's probably close to ninety percent. This…" Ai Tianjue couldn't help but feel a sense of profound loss.

In truth, what Ai Tianjue didn't know was that the 'Fall' character Li Fan had just inscribed hadn't reached ninety percent deciphering completeness. Having learned from Ai Tianjue decades in his previous life, Li Fan's own deciphering of the 'Fall' character was only around eighty percent.

However, Li Fan had reassembled and modified the 'Fall' character based on his understanding of creation, the mysterious character representing the transformation between immortal and mortal, and even a hint of the transformation between true and false.

Infused with a deeper aura of power, the 'Fall' character inscribed by Li Fan appeared more "advanced." It even resembled the true character for 'fall' more than the original 'Fall' character itself.

Li Fan had previously been unsure if such a method could deceive the people of Xianzhou. But judging by their expressions now, it was absolutely feasible.

He sneered inwardly, feeling even more confident about the smooth progress of his plan.

"Everyone, what do you think of this 'Fall' character?" Li Fan asked loudly.

Although they wanted to say that this 'Fall' character duplicated Xianzhou's own research, their progress was ultimately inferior to his. Furthermore, the Xianzhou elders would not be able to elevate their understanding of the 'Fall' character to Li Fan's level in such a short time.

The Xianzhou elders exchanged glances. After some discussion, they ultimately decided to silently accept this disadvantage.

This time, it was Xianzhou's turn to act again.

Lu Yuzhi of the Immortal Severing Pavilion inscribed the True Immortal Seal Script 'Unique'.

Although Li Fan's research into this True Immortal Seal Script still surpassed that of Xianzhou, he didn't go too far, in order to play the long game.

He feigned a murmur, "The character 'Unique' is not uncommon in the Star Sea. However, our research progress is indeed inferior to yours."

Li Fan cupped his hands and said, "I've learned a lot!"

This time, the people of Xianzhou recovered some ground.

The elders couldn't help but sigh with relief.

After all, Xianzhou had suffered significant losses in the exchange so far. This turnaround in the situation finally marked a good start.

When it was Li Fan's turn, the 'Suppress' character descended.

This 'Suppress' character also originated from Xianzhou's research. However, its deciphering progress hadn't even reached one-third, and it was completely unsystematic.

In his previous life, after Li Fan imparted this incomplete 'Suppress' character to Sun Tianci, the latter, utilizing his extraordinary comprehension, completed further deductions.

In this life, Li Fan added his own understanding, reconstructing and fabricating it, completing its creation.

Likewise, he intended to test the level of the Xianzhou elders.

The result was…

After a discussion, Zhong Daogong and the others acknowledged the True Immortal Seal Script Li Fan had provided.

Li Fan remained silent outwardly, but inwardly, he understood: "It seems the Profound Immortal Vessel has indeed not encountered True Immortal Seal Scripts of the creation level."

"Tracing and replicating from a higher level is truly not something they can discern in a short time."

"Of course, given enough time, they might notice some clues…"

Li Fan pondered silently, as Xianzhou presented another new True Immortal Seal Script.

The moment the character appeared, both the formation jointly laid by the people of Xianzhou and the "Illusion Formation" set by Li Fan subtly trembled in unison.

As an absolute master of formations, Li Fan keenly perceived that under the influence of this new True Immortal Seal Script, the most minuscule units maintaining the formation's structure were beginning to disintegrate.

Li Fan was instantly startled.

It was important to note that what he had seemingly casually set up was by no means a simple illusion array. Instead, it was a pseudo-immortal formation, integrating downgraded versions of two immortal-grade grand formations: 'Desolate Decay', 'Flowers Bloom in Empty Rooms', 'Immortal Descent', and 'All Things Return to Void'.

It concealed lethal intent invisibly, capable of silently eliminating all enemies who entered the formation.

Yet, a formation of such caliber was affected to the point of structural damage by a weakened True Immortal Seal Script…

"If the power of this True Immortal Seal Script were fully manifested, my pseudo-immortal formation would probably shatter in an instant." Li Fan, who had already considered formations his most crucial trump card, suddenly felt an immense sense of gravity.

While simultaneously repairing the gradually collapsing formation, he studied the newly appeared True Immortal character.

"Undoubtedly, it's a special attack on formations."

"With this True Immortal Seal Script, it's no wonder Xianzhou's own formation mastery is so low."

"It's hard to say whether Xianzhou displaying this character to me holds any intent of showing off their power."

"Having learned this character, this trip was not in vain." Li Fan was very satisfied with this exchange of True Immortal Seal Scripts.

At the same time, he slowly deciphered the true meaning of the character before him.

The moment he comprehended the true original meaning of the True Immortal Seal Script, Li Fan thought of his treasure, the 'End Disintegration Disk'.

"Perhaps, my Disintegration Disk now, similar to the Dharma Derivation Jade, is part of the projection of the Great Dao from bottom to top."

"Perhaps I can try to glimpse the Dao of Disintegration through the Disintegration Disk."

As he mastered more True Immortal Seal Scripts, Li Fan slowly realized that what was truly powerful was not the True Immortal Seal Scripts themselves, but the Great Dao they indicated.

True Immortal Seal Scripts were merely shortcuts or tools to help ordinary people, and even ordinary immortals, touch the Great Dao.

"Similarly, Worldly Wonders and Eternal Remnants are also similar shortcut tools."

"Their essences are, in fact, interconnected."

"Inscriber Immortal." Li Fan suddenly recalled this unnamed True Immortal, who was said to have inscribed countless Dao paths, making them more "accessible."

"Dao paths cannot be cultivated simultaneously. Yet this Inscriber Immortal was able to understand all various Daos to such an extent…" This was truly beyond Li Fan's current imagination.

Li Fan's fleeting thoughts did not affect the True Immortal Seal Script exchange meeting in the void.

Li Fan used characters such as 'Chaos', 'Absence', 'Nothingness', along with 'Deception', which he had learned from Xianzhou in his previous life.

He almost completely depleted Xianzhou's accumulated research on True Immortal Seal Scripts over thousands of years.

Of course, characters like 'Chaos' and 'Absence' were not the complete forms he had seen; rather, they were slightly modified, weakened versions. However, the 'Disintegration' character and two others were complete.

Li Fan also learned the characters 'Cold' and 'Loss'.

At this point, both sides' reserves were almost exhausted.

The atmosphere in the arena slowly grew subtle.

"Everyone!"

Li Fan was the first to speak, slightly breaking the stalemate.

"I must admit, your research into True Immortal Seal Scripts is truly no less than our Great Qi's."

"I truly didn't expect that within the Star Sea, there would still be a civilization surviving that is on par with us…"

Li Fan sighed with emotion.

Suddenly, his expression changed: "However, there are also differences between True Immortal Seal Scripts!"

"All the True Immortal Seal Scripts we've exchanged so far, even combined, are likely inferior to the one I'm about to display!"

His words struck like a thunderbolt.

The Xianzhou elders instantly suppressed their calculations, staring blankly at Li Fan.

"Fellow Daoist, you shouldn't speak so carelessly."