Chapter 1521: Cross-Time Anchor Point

Even though his upper body was reduced to a bloody pulp, Li Fan could still "feel" that the Wooden Boat of Reversal, gifted by Emperor Taitian, remained quietly in his "mind."

At this moment, as Li Fan intensely yearned for reversal, the Wooden Boat of Reversal began to emit a crystalline, warm white light. Faint traces of green seemed to accompany the white light.

The scene of the real world slowly dissolved and distorted, like a painting splattered with water.

An almost unbearable pain simultaneously surged through Li Fan's mind. It felt as if billions of chains had pierced his skull all at once, then churned violently inside his brain as they spun at high speed.

"Ahhh!"

Even without his head, Li Fan's remaining flesh and blood convulsed and trembled from this indescribable agony.

Although Emperor Taitian had imparted all his insights into the Way of Reversal, he had never mentioned that activating the Wooden Boat of Reversal would have such terrifying side effects. Li Fan vaguely recalled enduring various tortures in previous simulations, but none of them even remotely compared to a thousandth of what he was experiencing now. The pain synchronized with his flesh, soul, will, and memories. It seemed to spread to Li Fan's true core.

Faint sounds of wind and rain gradually emerged around him, and countless "water droplets" struck his face. Each drop was like the sharpest blade in the world, cutting into Li Fan. Consequently, Li Fan felt even greater pain.

However, an invisible, immense force from his memories had completely crushed his remaining body. With no flesh left, Li Fan, desperate to survive, had no retreat. Amidst the boundless agony, he barely maintained a sliver of consciousness, continuing to sustain the power of the Wooden Boat of Reversal.

The sound of wind and rain grew louder. The oncoming water droplets were no longer solitary but connected into lines. The Wooden Boat of Reversal emitted booming roars amidst constant collisions, appearing as if it could disintegrate at any moment. Fortunately, at a critical moment, the hidden green lights instantly flared up, quickly repairing the damage to the boat.

He persevered for nine breaths of time.

The countless lines of water droplets finally converged into a river.

In that instant, Li Fan plunged into it. All the pain he had felt vanished in that very moment. He felt as if he had detached from the entire world. His perspective ascended from the Great Xuan Minor World and the Xuanhuang Realm, pausing for a moment before beginning to rewind.

Li Fan watched himself enter the enclosed village beneath the Mountain Sea Fishery, saw himself suppressing and subduing the Xuanhuang Ruomu. He saw himself as Grand Tutor, dominating the world. He saw himself just after his memories awakened, forced to drink disgusting talismanic water…

The River of Time surged, and the Wooden Boat of Reversal trembled as it moved upstream. It seemed that even the slightest misstep could lead to capsizing. However, precisely because his past experiences acted like anchor points, Li Fan could "borrow strength" at intervals during his reversal, stabilizing his form in the long river.

But when Li Fan had returned to the anchor point of Year 1 and sought to ascend further upstream, things changed. The moment he crossed this crucial temporal node, the River of Time's currents intensified a thousandfold. It was as if he had transitioned from a clear, rapid river channel into a much muddier and more turbulent expanse. Li Fan could no longer discern any scenery within the River of Time. All around him were swirling lines, as if millions of colors had merged, obscuring the senses of Li Fan, the retrogressor.

The terrifying power that suddenly erupted in the river nearly destroyed the unprepared Wooden Boat of Reversal. The white light emanating from the boat was incredibly faint compared to the surging river, less than even a single droplet of its water. Yet, it desperately maintained the white light, preventing the boat from being swept away immediately.

Li Fan understood the consequences of a failed reversal. It wasn't merely a return to reality. He would vanish completely from history, leaving no trace of his existence in the world. Li Fan desperately tried to alter his fate. However, a single individual was utterly insignificant compared to the vast River of Time. Even after mastering the Way of Reversal, being in the river meant he was at the mercy of fate, unable to control himself.

It seemed he was in a desperate situation. Nevertheless, Li Fan did not give up on survival. He continued to adhere to the Way of Reversal, striving to control the Wooden Boat of Reversal. As he fought for his life, Li Fan harbored many unanswered questions. According to Emperor Taitian's legacy, the journey of reversal should not have been this difficult. At the very least, when rewinding time within a thousand-year range, even a damaged and disintegrating Wooden Boat of Reversal should have been sufficient to handle the waves in the river.

Yet now, Li Fan had only traveled back fifty years, and the sudden tempest in the river already rivaled the magnitude of a reversal after ten thousand years! It was known that, according to Emperor Taitian's experience, the further back one rewound into the past, the greater the pressure endured, increasing almost exponentially. Now, Li Fan was just starting, yet he faced such immense resistance… It was hard to imagine how vast the waves would be when he rewound ten thousand or even thirty thousand years!

"How could this be!" Li Fan was filled with doubt and alarm.

Suddenly, he recalled the images of his own experiences he had glimpsed earlier in the river. When these images were present, the river behaved normally. But once they vanished, the river's waves suddenly surged, as if to devour all mortals!

"Could it be that I never actually experienced this period? Without anchor points for support, is that why the resistance increased ten millionfold?" This thought suddenly dawned on Li Fan.

However, even knowing why the river had suddenly become violent, Li Fan was now in an impossible situation. The River of Time was a muddy chaos, making it impossible to distinguish directions. Its immense scouring force was constantly "cutting" into Li Fan. This made it utterly difficult for him to find a safe temporal node to "land."

Amidst the storm, the Wooden Boat of Reversal's light grew dimmer, appearing precarious and about to fall. It seemed that in the next moment, both boat and man would perish.

Just at this critical juncture, countless boundless green lights inexplicably surged forth. Like a Pearl of Calming Winds, they temporarily suppressed the storm in the river. These green lights seemed to originate from within Li Fan, but simultaneously, countless tiny green specks in the endless River of Time shone from ancient times to the present. They were like standing lighthouses, guiding Li Fan's path forward. Although their effect seemed somewhat less potent than his own anchor points, they were undoubtedly Li Fan's lifeline.

The Wooden Boat of Reversal traversed forward, following the direction of the green lights: one hundred years, three hundred years, five hundred years, until one thousand years, five thousand years…

The green light on Li Fan's body began to wane. The green lighthouses in the river dimmed again, gradually disappearing back into the surging currents of history. However, Li Fan still could not find a safe landing point beyond the cover of the green light.

"If I were to forcibly exit the River of Time now and return to reality, there could be two outcomes," he thought. "One: I might unfortunately perish, reduced to dust by the erosion of time, leaving no corpse. The other: I might fortunately succeed in landing… Just wait a little longer."

Although most of Li Fan's experience with reversal came from Emperor Taitian's legacy, their experiences in the River of Time were vastly different. While Li Fan endured more turbulent waves, he felt little of the erosion and stripping sensation that Emperor Taitian had greatly feared in the River of Time. It was important to note that Emperor Taitian's first reversal barely lasted three thousand years before he felt he was about to completely dissolve into the River of Time, forcing him to return to reality. Yet now, Li Fan's first attempt had already rewound several thousand years, and he still felt little of the so-called "stripping pressure." If it weren't for the lack of the Great Dao of Immortality's guidance and the excessively turbulent waves in the river, making upstream navigation difficult, Li Fan even felt he could continue rewinding indefinitely.

Although the pressure of erosion was minimal, the further back he went, the greater the pressure Li Fan experienced. When time rewound to approximately eight thousand years ago, the River of Time was engulfed in monstrous waves, making navigation utterly impossible. Li Fan was swept into it, unable even to discern the flow of time. He meticulously observed every detail in the river, striving to find a sliver of hope at the very last moment.

However, he was not a fortunate person after all. The Wooden Boat of Reversal began to disintegrate. Without the protection of the precious boat, Li Fan, directly exposed to the River of Time, instantly faced infinitely multiplied pressure. Li Fan finally understood what Emperor Taitian's "melting sensation" truly meant. Every scour of the river caused Li Fan to lose a part of himself: cultivation, divine abilities, enlightenment… All these, like external attachments, gradually detached as the river washed over him. Only his inner core stubbornly persisted.

When his true inner core began to suffer damage, Li Fan instinctively felt an extreme, fatal threat. He knew he couldn't delay any longer; even a reckless "landing" offered a greater chance of survival than simply perishing in the River of Time. Maneuvering the dilapidated Wooden Boat of Reversal, Li Fan gradually detached from his insights into the Way of Reversal.

The sight of the River of Time slowly faded from his vision, replaced by a sky filled with torrential rain. In an instant, Li Fan was almost completely disoriented. He was stuck in a dilemma at the boundary between the River of Time and reality. Advancing rashly could mean plunging back into the River of Time, while remaining here, still within the river's eroding reach, would lead to his inner core being constantly corroded—also a dead end.

Just as Li Fan hesitated for a moment, he suddenly saw a familiar glimmer of light amidst the torrential rain before him. This might indicate that he had a past encounter with this light at a temporal node eight thousand years in the future. Though it didn't exist in the past time itself, this contact formed a trans-temporal anchor point. Li Fan knew how incredibly difficult it was to find something related to himself amidst the pervasive wind and rain of eight thousand years ago. Seizing the opportunity, Li Fan no longer hesitated. He immediately maneuvered the dilapidated Wooden Boat of Reversal and darted towards the fleeting light.

Guided by the anchor point, Li Fan finally traversed the storms of the River of Time before the Wooden Boat of Reversal completely disintegrated. He arrived in the real world, the Xuanhuang Realm, eight thousand six hundred and forty-three years before the initial anchor point!

"That streak of light… is it Yaowang Sect?! How dare they flee?""Quick, inform the elders!""Wait! Although Yaowang Sect isn't a large sect, their assets are quite substantial. Fleeing in such a hurry, they surely couldn't have emptied all their treasures…""Let's go quickly. Don't let others get there first!""Wait, what's that? Another streak of light?""Could it be that the Yaowang Sect had a disagreement and decided not to flee after all?""Let's go see!"

When Li Fan awoke from his stupor, he was surrounded.

"Hm?"

Dazed, Li Fan hadn't fully regained his senses. He merely noticed the cultivators around him, who were counting their gains while periodically glancing at him.

"You brat, you're finally awake.""Tell us quickly, what exactly happened with Yaowang Sect? Confess honestly, and we might spare your life. Otherwise…""Stop wasting time with him, just search his soul directly!""You fool, these two streaks of light are so conspicuous, we definitely can't hide it. How will we explain to the elders when they ask?!"

The group whispered among themselves, completely ignoring Li Fan, who was tightly bound.

Li Fan momentarily ignored them, choosing instead to examine his current state. Although his body had almost entirely vanished in the River of Time, upon returning to reality, the Great Dao of Immortality within him had re-evolved a new physique. However, to Li Fan's regret, the Great Dao of Immortality seemed to have suffered significant and seemingly irreversible damage from this journey. At least for now, it appeared impossible to recover in a short period. "After all, it wasn't truly mine; it was a gift from Lord Shouqiu," Li Fan mused, a hint of self-mockery in his tone.

"Hm?""Lord Shouqiu?"

A moment later, Li Fan reacted. In the River of Time, he had journeyed upstream for eight thousand years. Although his cultivation, divine abilities, and even the Great Dao of Immortality had been nearly washed away and cleansed, in return, all his lost memories had been restored. The various events of his two lives unfolded before Li Fan, prompting a soft sigh from him.

"A moment's greed triggered infinite variables.""The consequences of integrating the Three Ways—Mountain Sea, Immortality, and Returning to Truth—were indeed far beyond what I could currently bear.""Fortunately, my luck was decent; even amidst amnesia, I found a great opportunity.""The Way of Reversal…"

Li Fan lowered his head, recalling everything he had experienced in the River of Time, a strange glint appearing in his eyes.

"Returning to Truth." After a moment of thought, Li Fan first called out inwardly. The repeated failures of "Returning to Truth" filled Li Fan with extreme unease. Still, there was no response. However, after careful sensing, Li Fan finally confirmed that Returning to Truth was still with him. It seemed to have fallen into a deep slumber for some reason.