Chapter 572

The Colorful and the Black and White

Angry Squid: ...............

“Hmm?”

Li Fan squinted, trying to discern what was blocking his path in the darkness. To his surprise, neither his divine sense nor physical touch indicated the presence of any obstacle ahead.

Li Fan frowned slightly. This time, instead of aligning with the ripples appearing in the space, he intentionally misaligned with their timing and flew directly forward. Strangely, the "wall" he had just felt within the ripples now seemed to be nonexistent. Li Fan could clearly feel that his position in this void had changed. Or rather, a part of his positional attributes had shifted. The other part, however, remained stagnant. It was as if his own movement and moving with the ripples were two different levels of manifestation, without mutual interference.

This bizarre phenomenon was somewhat beyond Li Fan's current comprehension. He had no intention of contemplating the cause behind it for now; he merely emptied his mind again, waiting for the ripples to emanate through the void once more. Aligning with them, even knowing there was an obstacle ahead, he slammed fiercely forward.

“Boom!”

The next moment, Li Fan saw stars and was forcibly ejected from the ripples. He checked himself and found that although his body was unharmed, his spirit seemed to have been slightly shaken.

Li Fan pondered for a moment, temporarily abandoning this reckless attempt. Instead of leaving, he stood quietly in the void, intently perceiving whenever ripples approached. He tried to understand why he was isolated while the ripples could pass through unhindered. With his mind focused, the intermittent ripples became very noticeable in this absolute darkness and silence.

Li Fan recorded the exact timing of each ripple's appearance. After patiently collecting tens of thousands of data samples, he recreated them within the Dao Transformation Stone in his Sea of Consciousness, hoping to uncover any hidden patterns. Persistence pays off. Li Fan discovered that approximately every thousand fluctuations, a unique ripple would appear, distinctly different from the others and significantly higher in intensity.

Its propagation speed in the void was also nearly twice as fast as the ordinary ripples. Li Fan's heart stirred. Calculating the numbers, he waited for this abnormal fluctuation to arrive again. He calmed his mind and merged with it. This time, it indeed had an effect; it was no longer like crashing directly into a wall. Instead, it felt like constantly rubbing against surrounding obstacles. A knife-like pain surged from deep within his soul, but Li Fan gritted his teeth and endured the intense agony.

But as the ripple deepened, the "incompatibility" with its surroundings became increasingly apparent. The knife-like sensation gradually transformed into a brutal tearing, a pain unbearable to humans, almost causing Li Fan to lose consciousness instantly. He was only saved by his ego's protective instinct, which forced him out of the state of mind-body unity.

“Hoo...”

Li Fan gasped for breath, his entire body already drenched in sweat from the pain. Even without being aligned with the ripple, the tearing pain in his soul seemed to linger. It took two full cycles of the "thousand-pulse ripples" for this sensation in his soul to slowly dissipate. A hint of hesitation appeared on Li Fan's face as he recovered. Nevertheless, when the thousand-pulse ripple arrived again, he still plunged into it. This time, he seemed to have lasted a little longer than before. Or perhaps it was just his imagination.

After a brief rest, without waiting for the pain to fully subside, Li Fan's mind once again merged with the ripple.

“Ah!”

A grimace appeared on Li Fan's face, and his body began to twitch uncontrollably due to the agony in his spirit. A fierce glint flashed in his eyes, and any thoughts of "giving up" that arose in his mind were instantly dispelled by the method of reversing the Dao Heart from the Profound Yellow Soul Refining Spell.

“Mere pain, and you think you can stop me?”

“Again!”

Subsequently, in repeated attempts to ride the "thousand-pulse ripples" into the depths of the void, Li Fan endured torment beyond description. The pain in his soul continuously intensified, escalating from tearing to being pricked by ten thousand needles simultaneously, and then to feeling as if every part of him was being crushed back and forth. By the end, Li Fan's mind was almost a blank slate. Only the obsession he pursued in his heart consistently supported him, preventing him from giving up halfway.

Throughout this process, the Profound Yellow Soul Refining Spell played a crucial role. It is human nature to instinctively choose to avoid pain. Especially in a situation where his soul felt as though it were being tortured, thoughts like "just give up," "what's the point," and "there's no need for this" would naturally surface in Li Fan's mind every second. What would have ordinarily been enough to sway Li Fan's resolve was, under the influence of the Great Millstone of Reversed Dao Heart, transformed into nourishment for his soul. Had it not been for this, no matter how tough Li Fan's will was, he likely would not have been able to endure such torment.

Regardless, Li Fan ultimately succeeded. After an unknown period, when he regained consciousness from his dazed state, he found himself in a wondrous yet subtly familiar space. Throughout this world, horizontal and vertical lines crisscrossed, and particles of various colors moved rapidly along them. Occasionally, horizontal and vertical particles would collide, erupting into brilliant colorful light in the air before vanishing just as quickly.

“Where is this?”

Li Fan first checked his own body. It seemed to be crudely drawn with lines, both absurd and eerie. Yet, the sensations from his body were no different from when he possessed a normal physique.

Without acting rashly, Li Fan carefully observed this wondrous space while dodging the occasional whistling colorful particles. “It seems somewhat similar to the Sky Profound Mirror space I saw before.”

“However, the Sky Profound Mirror only had two colors, black and white. Unlike here, which is vibrantly colorful.”

“Wait, I remember...”

A thought struck Li Fan, and he retrieved the images stored in the Dao Transformation Stone, reviewing them carefully. He noticed that at the very end of the images, at the edge of the black and white world, there was also the presence of colorful light.

Black and white and the colorful seemed to be two distinctly opposing forms of energy. In the black and white world, the colorful light was severed and transformed into a part of itself.

“Sky Profound Rebirth Mirror...”

Li Fan narrowed his eyes and fell into deep thought. Soon after, he vaguely formed a hypothesis.

The black and white world undoubtedly represented the Sky Profound Mirror. And the colorful radiance was very likely a miniature representation of the real world. The crisscrossing lines, like the principles of heaven and earth Li Fan had previously seen through the Human Dao Stardust, represented various laws of the real world.

“The Sky Profound Mirror is analyzing the real world in its own way...”

“And here...”

A glimmer of understanding appeared in Li Fan's eyes.

“It is the microcosm of the world's creation.”