Chapter 1630: Blessed Saint's Path Descends Upon the Body

Angry Squid

In Xuanjing, capital of the Great Xuan Nation, within the Grand Tutor’s Estate.

Li Fan held his wine cup, observing the civil and military officials who filled the hall, all gathered to celebrate his birthday. Though he was now an old man in his seventies, he couldn’t help but feel a secret pride.

It was well known that eight or nine tenths of the court's high officials had come to the Grand Tutor's Estate today! What immense influence!

Li Fan reflected on his past; when he first transmigrated to this world, he was a poor scholar. Over fifty years, he had risen from nothing to become the Grand Tutor, wielding immense power throughout the land. His journey alone could fill a multi-million-word novel. With such a life, what more could one ask for!

Li Fan stroked his beard and drained the fine wine in his cup.

“To the Grand Tutor’s longevity!” the assembled officials cheered in unison.

Li Fan grew even more pleased.

Just then, sudden, jarring exclamations erupted from outside.

“Look! What is that?!”

“Fire falling from the sky, it’s an auspicious sign, a good omen! Quickly, inform the Grand Tutor!”

“It seems to be flying straight towards our Grand Tutor’s Estate!”

Hearing the commotion outside, Li Fan furrowed his brow. The previously lively main hall suddenly fell silent. Li Fan rose and led the way outside.

However, before he could scold his servants or express his displeasure, he was captivated by the sight in the sky. In the distant sky, two streaks of silver light, one after the other, approached rapidly like shooting stars.

“This is...” Li Fan was stunned.

In the blink of an eye, the two shooting stars arrived above Xuanjing City, then suddenly halted. At the same time, a voice like thunder descended from the sky, exploding in everyone’s ears.

“Dao Xuanzi! You are going too far!”

Everyone present was utterly astonished and terrified. Some even cried out “Immortal Master!” and prostrated themselves on the ground. And a word, buried deep in his memory, almost forgotten, suddenly sprang into Li Fan’s mind.

“Cult... cultivator!” Li Fan was frozen, murmuring to himself, “How is this possible...”

The two cultivators in the sky clearly paid no heed to the thoughts of the mortals below. Another voice spoke: “Kou Hong! Do you think I’ll let you go just because you fled to this land devoid of immortals? Hand over the cultivation method you obtained that day, or I will pursue you endlessly!”

“Ridiculous! It’s precisely because I lacked a Core Formation method that I was trapped in the Foundation Establishment stage for nearly a hundred years, on the verge of my lifespan ending and turning to dust. Now that I’ve obtained this Core Formation technique, how could I possibly hand it over to another?” Kou Hong scoffed, his tone filled with disdain.

“Indeed!” Dao Xuanzi sighed deeply. “For the Golden Core Dao, it’s either me or you. Though there are many Core Formation methods in this world, there are even more cultivators stuck in the Foundation Establishment stage!”

Dao Xuanzi’s tone suddenly turned vicious: “Since that’s the case, with the method for longevity before me, how could I possibly let you go? How could I *not* go too far?!”

Kou Hong laughed loudly: “It’s just a fight to the death! How laughable that we, brothers for a century, now draw blades against each other for a slim chance at survival!”

Dao Xuanzi sneered but did not reply.

Kou Hong suddenly said: “I know I’m no match for you, and I doubt I’ll escape today. But with so many mortals here, I wonder if you can withstand such a concentrated Immortal-Mortal Miasma!”

Dao Xuanzi’s expression instantly changed: “Kou Hong! What do you intend to do?!”

Kou Hong laughed maniacally: “It’s merely seeking a slim chance at survival!”

Listening to the conversation of the two cultivators overhead, Li Fan felt a sudden premonition of disaster. However, before he could react, he saw a fiery red flame burst open above Xuanjing City.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!”

Immense roars continuously erupted in Li Fan’s ears, his vision instantly turned blood red, and within moments, he fainted.

Li Fan regained consciousness after an unknown amount of time. At first, he was disoriented. It took him a long time to remember what had happened.

Li Fan coughed, spitting out a few mouthfuls of blood, then shakily pulled himself up and looked around. It was still night, and the once luxurious Grand Tutor’s Estate had been reduced to ruins. The air was filled with the foul smell of burnt corpses. All the civil and military officials who had been there moments ago were now mangled corpses, their souls having departed to the heavens. Li Fan’s wives, concubines, and five sons had also perished.

Li Fan’s aged face was devoid of all expression. His gaze was vacant. He stood there for a long time before dragging his weakened body out of the Grand Tutor’s Estate.

Xuanjing City, which had been bustling and prosperous moments earlier, had now become a hell of blood and fire. As far as the eye could see, there were only broken bodies and collapsed buildings. Presumably, barely one in a hundred common folk survived this calamity. All of this was due to the sudden arrival of the two “Immortal Masters,” the two cultivators.

Li Fan had no strength left and slumped casually into a shattered corner. His hearing had already been destroyed by the violent explosion. But it hardly mattered now. At this moment, he only wanted to laugh.

How could cultivators exist in this world? From the moment he became an official, he had used his power to search for any possible traces of the immortal path. Once he became the Imperial Grand Tutor, standing at the pinnacle of power, he had searched every corner of the realm! From the Ice Sea in the north to the Great Ocean in the south, from the Ruined Abyss in the east to the Connected Mountains in the west. Throughout the Great Xuan, there had been not the slightest trace of immortals!

Yet today, many years after he had grown old and completely given up hope, two cultivators descended from the heavens, appeared before him, and without a word, utterly destroyed everything he possessed.

Was this what immortals were? And where did these immortals come from? His heart full of rage and unwillingness, ultimately transformed into endless bewilderment.

Fate played a cruel trick!

At the same time, Li Fan felt an immense sense of relief. Relief that before his death, he had finally confirmed the existence of immortals! Otherwise, after starting his next life, wouldn’t he again waste fifty years in vain?!

That’s right! He, Li Fan, a mere mortal, could not have risen from a humble scholar to the Imperial Grand Tutor without some reliance! This was also the reason he barely survived the immortals’ attack.

“Truth Reversal!” Li Fan silently recited the name, and immediately, the surrounding scenery dimmed. It was as if a thick curtain of water obscured everything, making it illusory and unclear.

“When the true acts as false, the false also becomes true.”

These seven characters lit up in the darkness, then suddenly spread out, forming a curtain of light.

“Charging complete.”

“Virtualize current scene and return to initial anchor point?”

Two lines of small text appeared consecutively. At the same time, a series of images rapidly filled the entire light curtain. These were scenes from Li Fan’s fifty years in this life. Li Fan stared at the images of himself for a long time, lost in thought.

This was the name Li Fan had given to the wondrous artifact he carried with him. It had only one function: to turn the true into false, and the real into void! This function, ‘turning the real into void,’ meant transforming everything Li Fan had truly experienced into a simulated, illusory experience, allowing him to return to his initially set anchor point: the moment he first transmigrated to this world.

In fact, this was already Li Fan’s second life. In his first life, Li Fan harbored grand ambitions, but he was merely an ordinary man. After repeatedly failing examinations, he finally abandoned the idea of studying for an official career after thirty. He started a small business, became an ordinary wealthy man, then married and had children, living a mundane life. It was only when he was old and infirm, on the verge of death by illness, that he finally awakened Truth Reversal. That was how Li Fan’s second life had soared, unstoppable.

It was a pity, though, that it seemed to have been used in the wrong place now.

After a moment of deliberation, Li Fan chose not to immediately end this life. He still had a few things to do before then.

Closing the light curtain and returning to reality, Li Fan forced himself to rally his spirits and handle the aftermath of Xuanjing’s devastation by the immortals. After searching for the survivors, Li Fan, relying on his long-held prestige, finally managed to somewhat stabilize the public’s morale. Even though Li Fan couldn’t hear, he could still find paper and pen. Though communication was difficult, it didn’t prevent his orders from being conveyed one after another.

First, Li Fan ordered his loyal garrison camp stationed outside the city to rush to Xuanjing City to maintain order after the disaster. Then, he sent decrees to surrounding cities, dispatching provisions, fodder, and officials to Xuanjing. Most of Xuanjing’s buildings had been destroyed. After the garrison camp took control of Xuanjing, Li Fan simply stayed in the military camp to oversee the relief efforts. And with Li Fan’s decrees, resources and personnel from the surrounding cities were continuously channeled into Xuanjing City.

A month later, the ruined Xuanjing City finally regained a faint semblance of life. Only after the Great Xuan Nation finally recovered from the immortals’ strike did Li Fan begin to order various regions to collect intelligence about the two immortals who appeared that night. This included where they originally came from, where they went afterward, whether they had any other conversations en route, and so on.

Unfortunately, after months of investigation, apart from learning that the two cultivators seemed to have appeared from the direction of the Ruined Abyss in the east, nothing else was discovered. Li Fan’s hope that the two immortals would destroy each other utterly did not materialize.

“I shouldn’t have expected anything from such a matter in the first place,” Li Fan sighed inwardly. “Since that’s the case, there’s nothing left for me to cling to in this life.”

Standing in the newly rebuilt Grand Tutor’s Estate, Li Fan activated Truth Reversal once more.

“Virtualize current scene and return to initial anchor point?”

Li Fan no longer hesitated and chose yes.

On the light curtain, countless vivid images froze simultaneously. Then, all the strategizing, power, and glory of this life shattered and burst like ephemeral bubbles, transforming into streaks of starlight that flew into Li Fan’s mind. Scene after scene flashed rapidly before Li Fan’s eyes like a revolving lantern, finally freezing on the image of the two cultivators standing high in confrontation above the Grand Tutor’s Estate.

“Dao Xuanzi, Kou Hong,” Li Fan softly murmured their names. “Fifty years from now, I will still be waiting for you in Xuanjing City.”

“Wealth and glory are but fleeting clouds to me.” Li Fan’s consciousness gradually blurred, but his will and objective became more resolute than ever.

“Next life, I will hunt immortals!”

The radiance in his mind gradually faded, and Li Fan slowly fell into a deep sleep.