Chapter 823: Reversing the Principle of Heaven and Earth

A short while later, the three of them found a hiding place in a cave at the bottom of the deep valley. Formations concealed the entrance, and secret arts hid their aura. Even if ordinary cultivators searched meticulously, they would have great difficulty discovering this entrance. However, to Li Fan, who possessed the Disc of Final Disintegration, and Lin Ling, who could use all the trees in the mountain as her eyes and ears, these defenses were all vulnerabilities.

However, to Li Fan's surprise once again, the cave was still empty! Their aura indicated that they had only recently fled, having not yet dissipated.

Li Fan couldn't help but narrow his eyes. “This is…” he murmured. “Are they hiding from me? Could they have known in advance that I was coming for them? Is it prophecy, or…”

Li Fan suddenly recalled the incident where the Revival Mountain Collapse had reappeared. “Time reversal?” The moment this speculation emerged, Li Fan's heart involuntarily pounded. However, having experienced so much, he quickly regained his composure.

“It's merely a guess; it might not be true,” he thought. “The truth will be revealed once I capture the father and son.” Driven by a long-lost sense of excitement, Li Fan looked at Lin Ling again.

Lin Ling, after looking around, shook her head. “They didn’t leave this cave,” she said. Upon hearing this, Li Fan meticulously checked again. “There are no signs of spatial teleportation either. Could it be that…” Li Fan and Lin Ling simultaneously looked underground.

A faint smile appeared on Li Fan’s lips as he lazily instructed, “Let’s pursue them.” Lin Ling nodded. Enveloped in green light, she burrowed into the ground.

Logically, underground, it was dark and lightless, making it difficult to distinguish directions. It would be easy to shake off pursuers. However, among Li Fan's group was Lin Ling, who could connect with the ancient earth-vein trees! Though the underground space was vast, it was entirely the domain of the ancient earth-vein trees. No movement could escape her perception.

Guided by Lin Ling, Li Fan and the others quickly found traces of their movements. However, Li Fan also discovered that they had only traveled a short distance underground before hastily returning to the surface.

“Have they discovered that we’re chasing them again?” he wondered. “They’re truly difficult to deal with.” With that thought, he returned to the surface.

This time, Lin Ling sensed that Ou Daozi and his son had fled into the sky. Unfortunately, escape techniques involving flight inevitably leave behind spiritual energy fluctuations. Soon, Lin Ling found their escape direction and, leading Li Fan, followed closely.

No matter how Ou Daozi and his son changed direction or laid down misleading trails, they could not escape Lin Ling's pursuit. Finally, Ou Daozi and his son seemed to give up struggling and stopped fleeing. They stood still in the clouds ahead, waiting.

“This little Lin Ling is truly useful,” Li Fan mused to himself, having finally caught up and seeing the two figures, one large and one small, ahead.

“May I ask, Senior, why you have been pursuing us so relentlessly?” Ou Daozi asked, cupping his hands in a gesture that was neither humble nor arrogant, as he faced Li Fan and his two companions who had surrounded him.

“Originally, I merely wanted to ask for your help with a groundbreaking ceremony for a building at my home,” Li Fan said, his eyes narrowed slightly as his gaze swept back and forth between the two. “I didn’t expect to find such an unexpected gain.”

Ou Daozi’s son was merely eight or nine years old. His appearance wasn't particularly handsome, yet he showed no fear when facing Li Fan, who was subtly exuding a menacing aura. He carried himself with remarkable composure. Especially his gaze, which fixed fiercely on Li Fan, as if they shared a deep, blood feud. Despite the two having clearly never met before, this reaction seemed to further confirm Li Fan's suspicions.

Ou Daozi also noticed his son’s unusual behavior, and his expression changed. He pulled his son behind him. “I don’t understand what you mean!” he said.

Li Fan snorted coldly. “The Revival Mountain Collapse reappearing… that was your son’s doing, wasn’t it?” he pressed. “What exactly is his ability? Could it be the legendary art of time reversal?”

Although Li Fan appeared to be only a Golden Core cultivator, both Lin Ling, a Dao Integration cultivator, and Tian Yang, a Soul Transformation cultivator, deferred to him. Ou Daozi could not discern Li Fan’s true cultivation level and merely said, “Senior, you jest. How could there be such a thing as time reversal in this world?” He added, “As for my son’s divine ability…”

As Ou Daozi spoke, he lowered his voice, then abruptly fell silent on purpose, as if waiting for something.

Alarm bells instantly rang in Li Fan’s mind. “Bound Worm!” he commanded. The target was not Ou Daozi, but his son!

The child instantly lost control, but there was no panic in his eyes. It was as if everything was within his expectations. Instead, he looked at Li Fan with a hint of mockery.

At the same time, Tian Yang’s body instantly swelled, forming a black and red sphere that enveloped Li Fan in its center. “Boom!” A tremendous roar instantly erupted as something collided with it.

Li Fan suddenly felt a dizzy spell, and Tian Yang’s puppet body developed numerous cracks. Fortunately, Lin Ling intervened in time, saving it from being torn apart.

“What the hell was that?!” Li Fan cursed under his breath. Glancing at his Reality Panel, he saw that his protective energy charge had not decreased. His mind instantly settled.

In his mind, the Dao Transformation Stone glowed with blue light, replaying the recorded scene at infinitely slower speeds. Only then could he clearly see the culprit behind the sudden incident and everything that had transpired in a flash.

The attacker, too fast for even Lin Ling and Tian Yang to react to, was surprisingly an arrow. Ou Daozi and his son seemed to have long anticipated its flight path. They deliberately lingered ahead, luring Li Fan and the others into the arrow's trajectory. While stalling for time, they waited until the arrow struck Li Fan.

A burst of yellow light emanated from Ou Daozi’s son. It seemed to disregard the arrow’s speed, locking onto it with uncanny precision. Then, in an instant, the arrow, without changing its forward direction, strangely shot back towards where it came from!

The yellow light enveloped Ou Daozi and his son, and leveraging the arrow’s unimaginable speed, they escaped Li Fan’s encirclement in an instant!

“Master, they’re gone. They’ve gone too far, I can no longer sense their aura,” Lin Ling said, a hint of self-reproach in her voice. Tian Yang also shook his head, feeling somewhat guilty. Li Fan, however, waved his hand dismissively, not bothered by it.

Reviewing what had just happened, Li Fan vaguely understood what the opponent’s divine ability truly was. It wasn't quite time reversal as he had imagined… or rather, it had some relation to it. It was the ability to reverse an object’s state to a certain point in the past!

Despite being outmaneuvered by a seven or eight-year-old child, Li Fan was not surprised but rather pleased. This was because, since his reincarnation, this was the only cultivator he had encountered who was related to the Dao of Time.

“Run? As if they can escape!” Li Fan declared. “They can escape for a moment, but not forever! Once I’ve set my sights on someone, there’s no possibility of escape!” His eyes gleamed as dozens of countermeasures instantly flashed through his mind.