Chapter 1633: The End of Dao Obscuration

In the Great Xuan Kingdom, in Xuanjing City, stood the Grand Tutor’s Mansion.

Li Fan, holding a wine cup, surveyed the hall filled with civil and military officials who had come to celebrate his birthday. Although he was now seventy years old, he couldn't help but feel a surge of secret pride. It was well known that eight or nine tenths of the entire court's high-ranking officials were present today at the Grand Tutor's Mansion! What an impressive display of influence!

He, Li Fan, had been a poor scholar when he first transmigrated to this world. Over fifty years, he had risen from nothing to become the Grand Tutor, wielding immense power throughout the land. His journey 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 wine in his cup.

"To the Grand Tutor's longevity!" the officials present cheered in unison.

Li Fan became even more pleased.

Just then, a series of discordant shouts of alarm suddenly erupted from outside. "Look! What's that?!""Falling fire from the sky, it's an auspicious sign, an auspicious sign! Quickly, inform the Grand Tutor!""It looks like it's flying towards our Grand Tutor's Mansion!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Li Fan frowned. The previously lively 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.

Far off in the distance, two silver streaks of light, one following the other, 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, then suddenly halted.

At the same time, a voice like thunder descended from the sky, exploding in everyone's ears. "Dao Xuanzi! You go too far!"

Everyone present was inexplicably terrified. Several people even cried out "Immortal Master" and prostrated themselves on the ground. Meanwhile, a word that had been suppressed deep within his memory, almost forgotten, suddenly sprang into Li Fan's mind.

"Cult... cultivators!" Li Fan froze, 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 rang out: "Kou Hong! Do you think I'll let you go just because you fled to this desolate land devoid of immortals? Hand over the cultivation method you obtained that day, or I'll pursue you relentlessly until one of us is dead!"

"A joke! It's precisely because I lacked a Core Formation method that I was trapped in the Foundation Establishment stage for nearly a hundred years, watching as my lifespan dwindled, about to turn into dry bones. Now that I have this Core Formation cultivation method, how could I possibly hand it over to another?!" Kou Hong snorted, his tone full of disdain.

"Indeed!" Dao Xuanzi sighed deeply. "The Path of Golden Core requires exclusive focus; there can be only one. While there are many Core Formation methods in this world, there are far more cultivators stuck in the Foundation Establishment stage!"

Dao Xuanzi's tone suddenly turned ferocious: "If that's the case, with the method of immortality now before me, how could I possibly let you go? How could I not be overbearing?!"

Kou Hong laughed loudly: "It's merely a struggle! How ridiculous, we were brothers for a hundred years, yet now we draw swords against each other for a sliver of hope!"

Dao Xuanzi merely sneered in response. But Kou Hong suddenly said, "I know I'm no match for you, and I probably won't escape today. But there are so many mortals here; I wonder if you can withstand such a high concentration of the Immortal-Mortal Miasma!"

Dao Xuanzi's expression instantly changed: "Kou Hong! What are you trying to do?!"

Kou Hong laughed maniacally: "I'm just seeking a sliver of hope!"

Listening to the conversation between the two cultivators above him, Li Fan's heart sank with a bad premonition. Yet, before he could react, he saw a scarlet flame explode above Xuanjing City.

"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Enormous roars continuously erupted in Li Fan's ears. His vision immediately turned blood-red, and within moments, he fainted.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Fan finally regained consciousness. At first, he was disoriented. It took a long time for him to recall what had happened earlier. Li Fan coughed, spitting out several mouthfuls of blood, then shakily pulled himself up and looked around.

It was still night. The once luxurious Grand Tutor's Mansion had been reduced to ruins. The air was filled with the pungent smell of burnt corpses. The entire court of civil and military officials, present just moments before, were all dead, their bodies unrecognizable, their souls gone to the West. Li Fan's wives, concubines, and five sons had also perished.

There was no longer any expression on Li Fan's aged face. His eyes were dull. After standing in place for a long time, he dragged his weak body out of the Grand Tutor's Mansion. Xuanjing City, which had been incredibly prosperous and bustling just moments before, had now become a hell of blood and fire. Everywhere he looked, there were mangled bodies and collapsed buildings. Presumably, less than one in a hundred commoners survived this catastrophe. All of this was due to the two "Immortal Masters," the two cultivators, who had suddenly descended.

Li Fan, devoid of strength, slumped down carelessly in a broken corner. His hearing had already been destroyed by the intense explosion. But at this point, it hardly 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 Grand Tutor, standing above ten thousand people, he had scoured the entire world! From the icy seas in the north to the vast oceans in the south, from the Ruined Abyss in the east to the Mountain Ranges in the west. Throughout all of Da Xuan, there wasn't a single trace of an immortal's existence!

But today, many years after he had grown old and completely given up hope, two cultivators descended from the sky, appearing before him and, without a word, utterly destroying everything he possessed. Is this what an immortal is? And where did immortals come from? His heart full of anger and unwillingness, all ultimately transformed into endless bewilderment. Fate toys with man!

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 once again waste fifty years in vain?! That's right! How could he, Li Fan, a mere mortal who rose from a humble scholar to the Imperial Grand Tutor of the land, not have relied on something? This was also why he had narrowly escaped death at the hands of an immortal.

"Return to Truth!"

Li Fan silently recited the words in his mind. Immediately, the surrounding scenery suddenly dimmed. It became hazy and indistinct, as if viewed through a thick curtain of water.

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

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

"Charging complete.""Virtualize current scene and return to initial anchor point?"

Two lines of small text appeared consecutively. At the same time, images appeared one after another, rapidly filling the entire light screen. They depicted Li Fan's fifty years of life in this current existence. Li Fan looked at himself in the various images, stunned for a long time.

This was the name Li Fan had given to the unique treasure he carried with him. It had only one function: to turn truth into falsehood, and reality into illusion! The so-called "turning reality into illusion" meant transforming everything Li Fan had truly experienced into simulated, illusory experiences, allowing Li Fan to return to the initial anchor point, which was when 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. After repeatedly failing imperial examinations, he finally abandoned the idea of studying to become an official after thirty. He started a small business, became a regular wealthy man, married, had children, and lived a mundane life. It was only when he was very old and on the verge of death from illness that he finally awakened "Return to Truth." Only then did Li Fan's rise in his second life become swift and unstoppable.

It was a pity, however, that it now seemed he had used it in the wrong place. After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan chose not to end this life immediately. He still had a few things to do first.

Closing the light screen and returning to reality, Li Fan forced himself to rally his spirits and deal with the aftermath of Xuanjing's severe damage by the immortals. After searching for and finding some survivors, Li Fan, relying on his years of prestige, finally managed to somewhat stabilize the public's morale. 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 conveyed one by one.

First, Li Fan ordered his trusted garrison camp, stationed outside the city, to rush to Xuanjing City to maintain order after the disaster. He then sent out orders to surrounding cities, dispatching provisions and officials to Xuanjing. Most of Xuanjing's buildings were 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 surrounding cities were continuously transported to Xuanjing City.

A month later, the ruined Xuanjing City had only slightly recovered a semblance of normalcy. Only after the Great Xuan Kingdom had finally recovered from the immortal's attack did Li Fan begin to order local authorities to collect information about the two immortals who appeared that night. This included where the two originally came from, where they went afterward, and if they had any other conversations along the way.

Unfortunately, months of investigation yielded nothing beyond the fact that these 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 that's the case, there's nothing left for me to cling to in this life."

Standing in the newly constructed Grand Tutor's Mansion, Li Fan once again activated "Return to Truth."

"Virtualize current scene and return to initial anchor point?"

Li Fan no longer hesitated and selected "Yes."

On the light screen, countless vivid images simultaneously froze. Then, the strategizing, power, wealth, and glory of this life all shattered and exploded like an illusionary bubble, transforming into streaks of meteors that flew into Li Fan's mind. Scene after scene flashed rapidly before Li Fan's eyes like a revolving lantern. Finally, the image froze on the two cultivators confronting each other high above the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

"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 mere fleeting clouds to me." Li Fan's consciousness gradually blurred, but his will and goal became firmer than ever before. "In my next life, I will hunt immortals!"

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