Chapter 1632: 悠悠千年过

The Grand Tutor's Estate, Xuanjing, Grand Xuan Kingdom.

Li Fan held his wine cup, observing the hall filled with civil and military officials who had come to celebrate his birthday. Despite being in his seventies, he couldn't help but feel a secret pride.

One should know that eight or nine tenths of the court's high-ranking officials were present in the Grand Tutor's Estate today! What immense prestige!

He recalled that when he, Li Fan, 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 across the land. The story of his journey was enough to fill a multi-million word novel.

With a life like this, 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, discordant shouts of alarm suddenly echoed from outside.

"Look! What's that?!"

"Fire falling from the sky! It's an auspicious sign, a good omen! Quickly, tell the Grand Tutor!"

"It looks like it's flying towards our Grand Tutor's Estate!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Li Fan furrowed his brow. The once lively main hall suddenly fell silent. Li Fan stood up and walked out first. 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 another, sped towards them like meteors.

"This is..." Li Fan was stunned.

In the blink of an eye, the two meteors reached the sky above Xuanjing City and then suddenly stopped. At the same time, a voice like thunder descended from the heavens, exploding in everyone's ears.

"Dao Xuanzi! You are going too far!"

Everyone present was inexplicably terrified. Several even cried out "Immortal Master" and prostrated themselves on the ground. Meanwhile, a term buried deep in Li Fan's memory, almost forgotten, suddenly sprang to mind.

"Cultiv... Cultivators!" Li Fan was transfixed, muttering 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 Immortal-Barren Land? Hand over the cultivation technique 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 century, my lifespan nearing its end, on the verge of turning to dust. Now that I've acquired this Core Formation technique, how could I possibly hand it over to another?" Kou Hong sneered, his voice filled with disdain.

"Indeed!" Dao Xuanzi sighed, "The Path of the Golden Core tolerates no rivals. While there are many Core Formation methods in this world, there are far more cultivators trapped in the Foundation Establishment stage!"

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

Kou Hong laughed loudly: "It's nothing more than a mere struggle! How ironic that you and I, brothers for a century, now draw swords against each other for a glimmer of hope!"

Dao Xuanzi sneered in response, offering no reply.

Kou Hong suddenly said, "I know I'm no match for you; I'll likely not escape this tribulation today. But there are so many mortals here, and 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: "I'm merely grasping for a thread of survival!"

Listening to the conversation of the two cultivators above, Li Fan's heart sank with a sense of dread. However, before he could react, he saw a crimson flame erupt above Xuanjing City.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Enormous explosions continuously roared in Li Fan's ears, his vision instantly turning blood-red. Moments later, he lost consciousness.

Li Fan awoke after an unknown period of time. At first, he was disoriented. It took a long time before he remembered what had happened. Li Fan coughed, spitting out a few mouthfuls of blood, then trembled as he pushed 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 thick with the foul smell of charred corpses. All the civil and military officials who had been there moments before were now dead, their bodies obliterated, their souls having departed. Li Fan's wives, concubines, and five sons had also not been spared.

Li Fan's aged face was devoid of all expression. His eyes were vacant. After standing there for a long time, he dragged his weakened body out of the Grand Tutor's Estate.

Xuanjing City, which had been so bustling and prosperous moments earlier, had now become a hell of blood and fire. Everywhere he looked, there were only broken bodies and collapsed buildings. Most likely, barely one in a hundred commoners had survived this catastrophe.

All of this was due to the two "Immortal Masters," the two cultivators, who had suddenly descended.

Li Fan, out of strength, slumped casually against a broken wall. His hearing had already been destroyed by the violent explosions. But it no longer mattered. At this moment, all he wanted to do was laugh.

How could there be cultivators 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. After he became the Imperial Tutor, above tens of thousands, he had scoured the entire world! From the frozen seas in the north to the vast oceans in the south, from the Ruined Abyss in the east to the Connected Mountains in the west. There was simply no trace, not even the slightest hint, of immortals existing anywhere in the Grand Xuan Kingdom!

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

Were these immortals? And where had these immortals come from?

His overwhelming anger and unwillingness ultimately dissolved into endless bewilderment. Fate truly played tricks on people!

At the same time, Li Fan felt incredibly fortunate. Fortunate that before his death, he had finally confirmed the existence of immortals! Otherwise, after starting his next life, wouldn't he have wasted another fifty years in vain?!

That's right! How could he, Li Fan, a mere mortal who had risen from a humble scholar to the Imperial Tutor of the land, not have relied on something? This was also why he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of the immortals.

"Reversion to Truth!" Li Fan recited silently in his mind. Immediately, the surrounding scenery dimmed, becoming hazy and indistinct, as if viewed through a thick curtain of water.

"When the real becomes false, the false also becomes real."

Seven large characters lit up in the darkness, then suddenly dispersed, forming a light screen.

"Charging complete."

"Virtualize current scenario, return to initial anchor point?"

Two lines of smaller text appeared consecutively. Concurrently, images appeared one after another, rapidly filling the entire light screen. They depicted Li Fan's fifty years of life in this world.

Li Fan stared at himself in the various scenes for a long time. This was the name Li Fan had given to the wondrous artifact he carried with him. It had only one function: to turn reality into falsehood, and substance into void!

"Turning substance into void" meant transforming everything Li Fan had truly experienced into simulated, illusory experiences, allowing him to return to the initially set anchor point—the moment he had first transmigrated to this world.

In fact, this was already Li Fan's second life. In his first life, although Li Fan harbored great ambitions, he was merely an ordinary person. He repeatedly failed the imperial examinations, and after turning thirty, he finally gave up the idea of studying to become an official. He started a small business, became a regular wealthy man, married, had children, and lived an ordinary life. It was only when he was old and on the verge of death that he finally awakened "Reversion to Truth." This led to Li Fan's unstoppable rise in his second life.

It was a pity, however, that it now seemed he had used it in the wrong place.

After pondering for a moment, Li Fan chose not to immediately end this life. He still had a few things to do first.

He dismissed the light screen and returned to reality. Li Fan forced himself to rally his spirits and began dealing with the aftermath of Xuanjing's severe damage by the immortals. After searching for some survivors, Li Fan managed to somewhat stabilize the populace's morale, relying on his years of prestige. Even though Li Fan couldn't hear, he could still find paper and a brush. Though communication was difficult, it didn't prevent his orders from being relayed one by one.

First, Li Fan commanded his loyal Imperial Guards' camp, stationed outside the city, to rush to Xuanjing City to maintain post-disaster order. Then, he ordered surrounding cities to dispatch provisions and officials to Xuanjing. Most of Xuanjing's buildings had been destroyed. After the Imperial Guards took control of Xuanjing, Li Fan simply stayed in the military camp to direct the relief efforts. Following Li Fan's decrees, resources and personnel from surrounding cities were continuously channeled into Xuanjing City.

A month later, the ruined Xuanjing City began to show faint signs of life once more. Only after the Grand Xuan Kingdom had finally recovered from the immortals' attack did Li Fan begin ordering various regions to gather intelligence about the two immortals who had appeared that night. This included where they had originally come from, where they went afterward, and if they had had any other conversations along the way.

Unfortunately, months of investigation yielded nothing, save for the knowledge that the two cultivators seemed to have appeared from the direction of the Ruined Abyss in the east. The outcome Li Fan had hoped for – the two immortals fighting to mutual destruction – did not occur.

"I shouldn't have expected such a thing," Li Fan sighed inwardly. "Since this is 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 "Reversion to Truth" once more.

"Virtualize current scenario, return to initial anchor point?"

Li Fan no longer hesitated and chose "Yes."

On the light screen, countless vivid images simultaneously froze. Then, the political maneuvers and worldly glory of this life shattered and exploded like ephemeral dreams, transforming into streaks of meteors that flew into Li Fan's mind. Scene after scene flashed rapidly before Li Fan's eyes like a kaleidoscope, until the image finally settled on the two cultivators confronting each other high above the Grand Tutor's Estate.

"Dao Xuanzi, Kou Hong," Li Fan whispered 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 goal became firmer than ever.

"In the next life, I will hunt immortals!"

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