Bai Lishan quickly forgot about the person who had offered him the treasure. His attention was now completely captivated by the thin slip in his hand.

Although common sense told him that an object of unknown origin like this could never possibly be the genuine Supreme Dao Scripture, for some inexplicable reason, he simply could not take his eyes off it.

However, after studying it for most of the day, he still failed to discover anything unusual about the thin slip. He could only give a bitter smile and temporarily abandon his investigation, assuming that he had been indulging in baseless fantasies.

That was until three days later.

When Bai Lishan returned from visiting his master, his mind was still occupied with his master's teachings. Without realizing it, he once again took out the thin slip known as the [Supreme Dao Scripture] and began to fiddle with it.

"The third layer of the Four Seasons Everlasting Scripture. What exactly does this sentence, 'Heaven has four seasons. Those who follow them remain evergreen, while those who defy them attain eternal life,' mean? Isn't remaining evergreen the same as attaining eternal life?"

Just as these questions filled his mind, a mysterious green light suddenly and silently surged out of the thin slip in his hand, swallowing his thoughts.

By the time Bai Lishan regained his senses, he had already found himself in an immense and boundless starry sky.

Faintly visible against the backdrop of the stars were the towering, interconnected shadows of Mountains and Seas.

Above his head floated countless mysterious characters, shining brilliantly like a multitude of stars. They seemed almost like the Great Dao itself descending into the mortal world and revealing its true form!

Bai Lishan's mind immediately erupted with a thunderous roar, and his thoughts fell into a brief blank.

"The... Supreme Dao Scripture? It's actually real?"

Just as he stood there dumbfounded, a streak of flowing light shot down from the stars above and entered his body.

"Evergreen is the order of Heaven and Earth. Eternal life is transcendence beyond Heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth have their limits, but eternal life remains boundless..."

At the same time, a solemn and sacred voice rang out within Bai Lishan's mind.

Its echoes lingered for a long time without fading.

In an instant, Bai Lishan felt as though a sudden enlightenment had washed over him. Overwhelmed with joy, he exclaimed, "So that's how it is!"

...

Just as the first user of the Supreme Dao Scripture finally established a connection with Li Fan, its creator, Li Fan, successfully peered into the Great Dao of this spacetime through Bai Lishan's mind.

Although what he saw was merely like flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon mirrored in water, Li Fan already possessed an exceptionally profound understanding of these flowers and the moon. All he needed was a fixed existence to serve as an auxiliary anchor.

Now that someone had helped lift the veil concealing the Xuanhuang Great Dao, Li Fan followed this opening and used it to verify, to the greatest extent possible, the Great Dao of this spacetime against the Great Dao he had comprehended in the past.

In practically the blink of an eye, Li Fan became thoroughly familiar with all the manifestations of the Great Dao that Bai Lishan had glimpsed throughout his cultivation journey.

Using the illusory Great Dao comprehended by other cultivators to deduce the true Great Dao of reality. This was precisely the ability possessed by Li Fan, a former expert who had once stood at the threshold of transcendence.

As naturally as water flowing into its proper channel, Li Fan's cultivation realm underwent three consecutive breakthroughs in an instant, advancing from an ordinary mortal to Qi Refining, then Foundation Establishment.

His cultivation synchronized with Bai Lishan's, reaching the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

However, Li Fan's late-stage Foundation Establishment was by no means comparable to Bai Lishan's.

"Even if I encounter a Nascent Soul cultivator, I can kill them effortlessly. I can finally say that I possess at least a modicum of ability to protect myself."

Li Fan examined the condition of his body and nodded slightly.

"However, these so-called cultivation realms are not particularly important. What truly matters is the degree of one's comprehension of the Great Dao. Bai Lishan is merely a disciple of the Evergreen Sect, and his horizons are limited. I still need to distribute the Supreme Dao Scripture to more people as soon as possible..."

Li Fan first examined his progress in the Transformation Between Truth and Falsehood.

The Dao insights Bai Lishan had glimpsed had contributed very little to the advancement of Li Fan's Transformation Between Truth and Falsehood. Nevertheless, they had proven that his plan was viable.

Reconstructing the Dao insights through Bai Lishan had not attracted the attention of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, nor even that of the Great Celestial Venerable hidden behind the scenes.

"Next, I need to head somewhere where the talents of the world have gathered..."

Li Fan gazed into the distance and departed leisurely.

A month later, the Grand Dao Sect was already faintly visible on the horizon.

Along the way, Li Fan had not been stingy with the Supreme Dao Scripture in his possession. Whenever he encountered someone with even a modest degree of talent, he would take the initiative to give them a copy.

His strength had also steadily increased, advancing from Foundation Establishment to the late stage of Golden Core.

However, this seemed to be the limit for ordinary disciples outside the Ten Great Sects.

During this period, Li Fan had encountered no shortage of cultivators. Those below Golden Core were everywhere, but Nascent Soul cultivators and those above that realm were exceedingly rare. Even when he occasionally encountered one, they were mostly elderly and no longer met his requirements.

"The ancient Xuanhuang Realm could at least be considered a flourishing era of immortal cultivation. It shouldn't have fallen into such a state of decline, with talented individuals becoming so scarce. Could it be..."

Recalling what Elder Song of Evergreen Valley had previously said about the approaching turmoil, Li Fan speculated that the Ten Great Sects might currently be launching wars of conquest against other cultivation worlds.

The elite disciples of the Ten Great Sects had probably all been mobilized.

"No wonder the rejection from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao is so intense."

"I wonder whether the world they are currently fighting against is the Heavenly Law Realm, where the Heavenly Doctor resides."

Having undergone several calamities, the history of the Xuanhuang Realm had long since become fragmented and distorted, as though concealed beneath a thick veil of mist. Even with the records preserved on the stone tablets, it was impossible to reconstruct its original appearance.

Only by returning to the past and personally experiencing it could one witness what it had truly been like.

Li Fan's primary purpose in coming to the Grand Dao Sect this time was to find Zhao Ruoxi, who was currently within the sect.

For Zhao Ruoxi to eventually become the Longevity Heavenly Sovereign in the future, her talent could undoubtedly be considered among the very best in the entire Xuanhuang Realm.

Although Li Fan was already thoroughly familiar with Zhao Ruoxi's memories, he had been unable to determine the exact point in time at which she had existed.

"However, I never saw anything about wars against other worlds in her memories. Could it be that she hasn't been born yet?"

Li Fan could not help feeling somewhat disappointed.

The Grand Dao Sect's mountain gate was already familiar territory to Li Fan.

As for the grand formation protecting the mountain gate, after observing it for a while, Li Fan simply ignored it.

He quietly infiltrated the sect.

Compared to what he had seen in Senior Sister Zhao's memories, the Grand Dao Sect's mountain gate looked considerably different at this moment.

The most obvious difference was that it seemed a fierce battle had broken out throughout various parts of the mountain gate.

A faint, lingering smell of blood permeated the air. Numerous horrifying traces of battle could be seen across the ground and buildings.

"Has the fighting already reached the Grand Dao Sect itself?" Li Fan grew increasingly suspicious.

He seemed to have never encountered any records of this part of history in later generations.

Sensing the place where the greatest concentration of living beings had gathered, Li Fan changed into the robes of a Grand Dao Sect disciple and quietly made his way over.

"What a disgrace! We were actually almost overrun and had our mountain gate captured..."

"If the other Nine Sects learn of this, won't we be struck off the list of the Ten Great Sects forever?"

Before he even approached, Li Fan could faintly hear an old man's furious roar.

"Martial Uncle, there is no need to get so worked up. Once the war is over, I will personally invite the [Dao-Burning Furnace] and settle this matter once and for all. Right now, the most important thing is to ascertain the enemy's movements."

The calm and reassuring voice that followed sounded somewhat familiar to Li Fan.

It belonged to none other than Fang Dingge, the Sect Master of the Grand Dao Sect.

At this moment, approximately five hundred cultivators had gathered around him.

Their cultivation ranged from Qi Refining all the way to Dao Integration.

Every one of them wore a somewhat grave expression.

"I must admit, we underestimated our opponents somewhat. After all, they are..."

Only Fang Dingge maintained a faint smile, speaking in an unhurried manner.

However, before he could finish, the old man interrupted him.

"I never agreed with your plan in the first place! The Xuanhuang Realm is where the Ten Great Sects established their foundations. How can we simply abandon it? Rather than fighting to the death against others, we should join forces and seek a way to overcome this great calamity..."

"Martial Uncle, that is enough."

Fang Dingge gave him a sidelong glance.

The old man was still dissatisfied, but he merely snorted and said nothing more.

Fang Dingge looked at the people gathered around him. After pondering for a moment, a peculiar three-legged furnace floated out from his palm.

An invisible flame rose from the bottom of the furnace.

Suddenly, the image of the three-legged furnace expanded, enveloping everyone in the surrounding area.

"Immortal Spiritual Qi?"

Li Fan was startled. Caught completely off guard, he too was enveloped by the three-legged furnace.

However, despite the blazing flames, his life was not in any danger.

He merely sensed that his memories of the conversation that had just taken place were becoming somewhat blurred.

However, Li Fan was no ordinary cultivator.

He had even survived the calamity of the Three Dao merging together.

Although the three-legged furnace was an Immortal Artifact with some remarkable properties, it could not affect him.

Before the invisible flames could seemingly begin burning within Li Fan's mind, they suddenly went out for no apparent reason.

"The Dao-Burning Furnace?"

Li Fan fell into thought.

He had never heard of this Immortal Artifact before.

Judging from the conversation between Fang Dingge and the old man, this period should have been when disagreements were emerging within the Ten Great Sects.

Li Fan was not surprised that the Ten Great Sects possessed Immortal Artifacts.

However, the might displayed by this Dao-Burning Furnace was somewhat beyond his expectations.

"Fang Dingge said that he would bring out the Dao-Burning Furnace to settle this matter once and for all. Yet in later generations, there are no records of this battle whatsoever..."

"If it truly possesses such an ability, then even back in the Immortal Realm, this Dao-Burning Furnace must have been an extraordinary treasure. I wonder where it eventually ended up."

While Li Fan was pondering this, Fang Dingge spoke again.

This time, he skipped the concluding remarks and went straight to issuing orders.

Of the five hundred cultivators, one hundred with Golden Core cultivation or below were selected to provide reinforcements. The remaining cultivators would stay behind at the sect to handle repairs and defend the mountain gate.

"Golden Core and below?"

For a moment, Li Fan almost thought he had misheard.

However, seeing that the other Great Dao Sect disciples did not seem particularly surprised, it was clear that there was more to this arrangement than met the eye.

Thus, he did not draw attention to himself.

Unfortunately, his luck seemed rather poor. He happened to be among the one hundred cultivators selected to provide reinforcements.

Li Fan noticed that when Fang Dingge was selecting the reinforcement personnel, his gaze lingered on him longer than it did on the others.

"It seems that Illusion Is Also Truth still cannot completely influence experts at the level of the Ten Great Sects' Sect Masters."

Li Fan had no choice but to follow the others for the time being and wait for a better opportunity to present itself.

A golden chain inexplicably appeared in the sky above the Grand Dao Sect.

Fang Dingge then gathered the selected Grand Dao Sect cultivators and carried them away along the chain.

It seemed as though they had crossed an incomparably vast expanse of starry sky.

By the time Li Fan regained his bearings, they had already arrived in an exceedingly peculiar space.

The upper limit of this world's [Potential] was extremely low.

It was only equivalent to the level of a Golden Core cultivator at the peak of the Xuanhuang Realm.

However, for some unknown reason, the suppression exerted by the Great Dao was no weaker than that of the Xuanhuang Realm.

Consequently, the strength of every cultivator who had arrived here was restricted to the Golden Core realm.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.