Chapter 1526: Time-Space Anchor Point

Although his upper body had become a puddle of flesh and blood, Li Fan could still "feel" the Reverse Wooden Boat, gifted by Emperor Taitian, quietly resting in his "mind."

At this moment, fueled by Li Fan's intense desire to flow backward, the Reverse Boat began to emit a crystalline, warm white light. Faint traces of green seemed to accompany the white light.

The scenery of the real world slowly dissolved and twisted, like a painting upon which water had been spilt.

An almost unbearable pain simultaneously emerged in Li Fan's mind. It felt as if billions of chains were piercing his skull, then violently churning within his brain as they spun rapidly.

“Aaaah!”

Even without a 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 path of reversal, he had never mentioned that the side effects of activating the Reverse Boat would be so terrifying.

Li Fan vaguely recalled enduring various torments in past simulations, but they were all less than a ten-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 inner being.

Faint sounds of wind and rain gradually emerged from his surroundings, and countless "water droplets" struck him head-on.

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 power from his memories had already completely crushed his remaining body. With no flesh left, Li Fan, desperate to survive, had no way out.

Amidst the boundless agony, he barely managed to maintain a shred of consciousness, continuing to sustain the Reverse Boat's power.

The sounds of wind and rain grew louder.

The incoming water droplets were no longer isolated; they connected into continuous lines.

The Reverse Boat emitted resounding roars amidst constant collisions, appearing as if it could disintegrate at any moment.

Fortunately, at the critical moment, the hidden green lights promptly bloomed, swiftly repairing the damage to the boat.

He persevered for nine breaths of time.

The countless connected water droplets finally converged into a river.

In an instant, Li Fan plunged into it. All the pain he had felt vanished at that very moment.

It was as if he had detached from the entire world.

His perspective ascended from the Great Xuan Minor World and the Xuanhuang Realm, paused briefly, then began to rewind.

Li Fan distantly observed scenes of himself entering the secluded village beneath the Mountain Sea Fishery, subjugating the Xuanhuang Ruomu, presiding over the world as Grand Tutor, and being forced to drink disgusting talismanic water just after his memories awakened…

The River of Time surged, and the wooden boat, moving upstream, was trembling precariously.

It seemed that the slightest misstep could lead to capsizing.

However, precisely because of his past experiences, which acted like anchor points, Li Fan was able to "leverage" them and stabilize himself in the long river whenever he traveled back in time for a period.

But when Li Fan had returned to the anchor point of Year 1 and wished to continue upstream, things changed.

The moment he passed this crucial temporal node, the River of Time's currents intensified a thousandfold or more.

It was like moving 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 surging lines that seemed to be a fusion of millions of colors, obscuring the time-traveler Li Fan's perceptions.

The terrifying power that suddenly erupted in the river almost directly destroyed the unprepared Reverse Boat. The white light on the wooden boat was too faint compared to the surging river, less than even a single drop of water. Yet, it strenuously maintained its glow, preventing the boat from being instantly swept away.

Li Fan understood the consequences of failed time reversal.

It was not as simple as merely returning to reality.

He would completely vanish from history, leaving no trace of his past existence in the world.

Li Fan desperately tried to alter his fate.

However, an individual, compared to the vast River of Time, was truly minuscule. Even having mastered the path of reversal, being in the river at this moment meant he was at its mercy, unable to control his own destiny.

It seemed he was in a desperate situation.

Yet, Li Fan did not give up on survival. He continued to adhere to the path of reversal, striving to maneuver the Reverse Boat.

While fighting for his life, Li Fan also 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 severely damaged and almost disintegrated Reverse Boat should have been sufficient to handle the waves in the river.

But now, Li Fan had only traveled back about fifty years, yet the sudden turbulence in the river was already comparable in might to what one would encounter after reversing 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 one had to endure, increasing almost exponentially.

Now, Li Fan had only just begun, yet he encountered such immense resistance…

It was hard to imagine how powerful the waves would be when he rewound ten thousand or even thirty thousand years!

“How could this be!”

Li Fan's heart was filled with extreme doubt and surprise.

Suddenly, he recalled the images of his own experiences that he had glimpsed earlier in the long river.

While these images were present, the river behaved normally. But once they vanished, the river's waves suddenly surged, as if to devour him.

“Could it be because I haven't experienced this period of time at all? Without anchor points for support, is that why the resistance has increased by millions of times?” This thought suddenly came to Li Fan.

However, even knowing the reason for the river's sudden fury, Li Fan was now in an impossible situation.

The River of Time was a turbulent mess, making it impossible to distinguish directions. The immense erosive force was "cutting" into Li Fan incessantly.

It made it incredibly difficult for him to find a safe temporal node to "land" on.

Amidst the storm, the Reverse Boat's light grew dimmer, appearing on the verge of collapse.

It seemed that in the next moment, the boat would capsize and he would perish.

Just at this critical juncture, countless green lights inexplicably surged forth.

Like a storm-calming pearl, they temporarily suppressed the tempest in the river.

These green lights seemed to originate from within Li Fan, but simultaneously, countless tiny green specks shone throughout the boundless River of Time, from ancient times to the present.

They were like standing lighthouses, pointing the way forward for Li Fan.

Although their efficacy seemed slightly less than his own anchor points, they were undoubtedly Li Fan's lifeline.

The Reverse Boat traversed forward, following the direction of the green light.

One hundred years, three hundred years, five hundred years.

Up to a thousand years, five thousand years…

The green light on Li Fan's body began to deplete.

The green lighthouses in the river dimmed again, gradually fading back into the surging currents of history.

However, Li Fan still couldn't find a safe landing point beyond the cover of the green light.

“If I were to force myself out of the River of Time and return to reality right now, there could be two outcomes.”

“One is to fall and die tragically, leaving no complete corpse under the erosion of time, becoming dust in history.”

“The other is to miraculously land successfully…”

“Let me wait a bit longer.”

Although most of Li Fan's experience with time reversal came from Emperor Taitian's legacy, their experiences in the River of Time were vastly different.

While Li Fan endured even fiercer winds and waves, he felt little of the erosion and stripping sensation from the River of Time that Emperor Taitian so dreaded.

It was important to note that Emperor Taitian's first reversal barely lasted three thousand years before he felt himself dissolving completely into the River of Time, forcing him to return to reality.

Now, Li Fan's first attempt had already rewound several thousand years, and he still hadn't felt much of the so-called stripping pressure.

If not for the lack of the Great Dao of Longevity's guidance and the excessively turbulent waves in the river making upstream navigation difficult, Li Fan even felt that he could continue rewinding indefinitely.

Although the pressure of erosion was minimal, the further back in time he went, the greater the pressure Li Fan experienced.

When time rewound to approximately eight thousand years ago, the river was raging with massive waves, completely losing its navigability.

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 last moment.

However, he was ultimately not a lucky person.

The Reverse Boat had begun to disintegrate. Without the protection of the precious boat, Li Fan, directly exposed to the River of Time, faced instantly multiplied pressure.

Li Fan finally understood what Emperor Taitian's "melting sensation" truly meant.

Each rush of the river caused Li Fan to lose something.

Cultivation, divine abilities, enlightenment experiences…

These things, like external attachments, gradually detached as the river washed over him.

Only his inner core continued to hold on tenaciously.

Once his true inner core was damaged, Li Fan instinctively sensed an extreme, fatal threat. He knew he could not delay any longer; even a hasty "landing" offered a greater chance of survival than dying in the River of Time.

Maneuvering the dilapidated Reverse Boat, Li Fan gradually disengaged from his insights into the path of reversal.

The scenery of the River of Time slowly faded from his vision, replaced by a torrential downpour.

In just an instant, Li Fan was almost completely disoriented.

He found himself in a dilemma at the boundary between the River of Time and reality.

Advancing rashly risked plunging back into the River of Time, while remaining there meant his inner core would continue to be eroded by the river's currents—both were dead ends.

Just as Li Fan hesitated for a moment, he suddenly saw a familiar ray of light amidst the torrential rain before him.

This perhaps indicated that, at a temporal node eight thousand years later, he had once had contact with this light.

Although it did not exist in the past time, this contact had formed a trans-temporal anchor point.

Li Fan knew how 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 Reverse Boat and flew towards the fleeting light.

Guided by the anchor point, Li Fan finally traversed the storms of the River of Time before the Reverse Boat 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 the Medicine King Sect?! How dare they flee?”

“Quick, inform the elders!”

“Wait! Although the Medicine King Sect is not a large sect, their assets are quite substantial. Fleeing in such haste, 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 the Medicine King Sect have had a disagreement and decided not to flee after all?”

“Let's go take a look first!”

When Li Fan regained consciousness from his stupor, he found himself surrounded.

“Hmm?”

In a daze, Li Fan hadn't fully recovered. He only noticed the cultivators around him, counting their gains while occasionally glancing at him.

“You brat, you’re finally awake.”

“Quickly, tell us what happened with the Medicine King 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, they definitely can’t be hidden. How will we explain when the elders inquire?”

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

Li Fan ignored them for the moment and first checked his current state.

Although his body had almost completely vanished in the River of Time, upon returning to reality, the Great Dao of Longevity within him re-evolved a new body.

However, what Li Fan found regrettable was that after this journey, the Great Dao of Longevity seemed to have suffered significant depletion.

Moreover, this depletion appeared to be irreversible.

At least for now, it seemed impossible to recover in the short term.

“After all, it wasn't truly mine, but a gift from Lord Shouqiu,” Li Fan mused, with a touch of self-mockery.

“Hmm?”

“Lord Shouqiu?”

A moment later, Li Fan reacted.

In the River of Time, he had traveled upstream for eight millennia.

Although his cultivation, divine abilities, and even the Great Dao of Longevity had been almost entirely washed away and purified, in return, all his lost memories had been restored.

The events of his two lives unfolded one after another before Li Fan, causing him to sigh softly.

“A moment of greed ignited endless variables.”

“The consequences of integrating the three paths—Mountain Sea, Longevity, and Returning to Truth—were indeed far beyond what I could currently bear.”

“Fortunately, my luck isn't bad; even while suffering from amnesia, I found a great opportunity.”

“The path of reversal…”

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

“Returning to Truth.” After a moment of thought, Li Fan first called out inwardly.

The continuous failure of Returning to Truth made Li Fan feel extremely uneasy.

There was still no response.

However, after a careful sensing, Li Fan finally confirmed that Returning to Truth was still within him.

It merely seemed to have fallen into a deep slumber for some reason.