Chapter 594: The Dao Teacher’s Misgivings

Li Fan wasn’t worried that the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher, absent from the world for countless years, would suddenly materialize and ask, "Young friend, what are you looking at?" simply because Li Fan had glanced at the sky.[1]

What occupied his mind was something else entirely.

The saying went: the more one tries to cover something up, the more it stands out. Only when it came to things one truly cared about would one go to such lengths to conceal them. If it truly didn’t matter, why bother to hide it from others?

Over the Xuanhuang World's thousands of years of history, there had been no shortage of geniuses and prodigies. Surely many cultivators had come close to grasping something, just like Li Fan. Yet all of their insights had been forcibly suppressed by inexplicable means.

This very fact indicated that the Dao Teacher of old actually harbored a trace of apprehension toward the cultivators of the Xuanhuang World uncovering this matter.

The Dao Teacher had reshaped heaven and earth through his power alone, overturning the balance between the old and new methodologies, holding the world in suppression for millennia and forcing every cultivator under heaven to labor like a beast of burden. And yet such a figure had something he was wary of?

While it certainly hasn’t reached the level of outright fear, misgivings are undoubtedly present.

Interesting...

In that instant, having worked it through, Li Fan found himself genuinely curious about the secret behind it all.

Perhaps the method to oppose the Dao Teacher lies within this.

A secret might be kept forever from some, or from all for a time, but it can never be kept from everyone forever.

In this Xuanhuang World, I have ample time to find and unearth it.

Moreover, I might not be alone in this.

Li Fan gazed up at the sky in silence.

As the saying went, he who does not plan for eternity cannot plan for the moment. The Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher was the most formidable obstacle on his path to eternal life, a presence Li Fan would inevitably have to face. Now, by chance, he might have discovered a possible vulnerability. This was Li Fan’s good fortune.

The world is always filled with coincidences. Like how Rottenwood seized me out of nowhere and then let me go just as inexplicably. Like that flash of insight just now. Such things cannot be avoided.

But Return to Truth can blunt the harm coincidence brings and magnify its benefits without limit.

Thoughts surged and churned through him. It took a long while before Li Fan quieted his mind and brought his focus back.

He turned his attention to the sixteen Golden Cores arrayed before him.

After lengthy consideration, Li Fan decided to return to the Congyun Sea by teleportation array. He repeated his old trick, digging a deep chamber beneath the underwater trench and hiding within it, to guard against possible observation by the Ruomu Tree.

Whether it was his imagination or simply a psychological effect, he couldn't say, but the moment he returned to the Congyun Sea, the tension in his chest eased considerably.

Li Fan steadied his breath and focused his spirit.

He laid out all sixteen remaining cores in a row, selected one of slightly inferior quality, and fed it to Return to Truth.

Just as he had anticipated, after Return to Truth absorbed it, the charging progress of the sixth anchor point did not move in the slightest.

Its appetite keeps growing. Foundation Establishment Curios first, then Golden Cores. What comes next? Grotto-heavens? Heavenly Marrow?

The thought shifted his expression.

Golden Cores were manageable; he could acquire them through various means. Grotto-heavens, once his strength progressed further, likely wouldn't be beyond reach either.

But the Soul Arbiters of heaven and earth and Heavenly Marrow... these were intrinsic to the Xuanhuang World itself, finite in number and fixed in quantity. Countless cultivators crouched in waiting, eyes alight, ready to pounce the moment any appeared. Where would he ever find extras to feed Return to Truth?

The dwindling number of anchor points is a problem. I originally planned to use one up when this lifetime ends, then start over from the Nascent Soul realm, repeating the cycles to accumulate strength... But now it seems I should be more cautious.

I already know the location of the Heaven-Earth Root. Even if I have to start over, the path is familiar to me...

With that, Li Fan stopped feeding Return to Truth. He picked up one of the remaining Golden Cores and began absorbing it slowly instead.

It was a Single-Law Golden Core, but the law it contained was an exceptionally rare one of beguilement. Related to mental power, it was precisely what Li Fan urgently needed to replenish.

A stone from another mountain can polish jade.[2] While it wasn't a defensive law, the principle was the same. Thorough understanding of mental attacks would sharpen his ability to resist them.

To deepen his comprehension, Li Fan drew on the power of his grotto-heaven domain to manifest the properties of the heaven-and-earth Curio, the Seven-Apertures Exquisite Heart.

Insights flooded his mind at once. He immersed himself in them, filled with joy.

While Li Fan contemplated in seclusion, the Congyun Sea was growing restless.

The war in Tianling Province had ended and cultivators were recuperating. At this time, the Myriad Immortals Alliance suddenly made a new decree, sending shockwaves rolling across the entire Congyun Sea.

The battle's losses had been heavy. To rebuild their fighting strength as swiftly as possible, the Alliance announced that, effective immediately, all techniques would be available at half price for one full year.

Beyond that, advanced techniques that had previously required specific merit ranks to access were unlocked entirely. Permission level restrictions were lifted—anyone could purchase them outright, so long as they had the contribution points.

Necessary limits remained, of course. Each person was permitted one purchase, for personal cultivation only. Transferring or reselling a technique in any form was strictly forbidden, and violators would have their practicing rights revoked and face severe additional punishment.

For the vast majority of cultivators who had never been able to afford a technique even if they sold everything they owned, such restrictions barely registered. Their attention had been swallowed whole by the dazzling array of techniques now on display within the Tianxuan Mirror.

Techniques were the foundation of immortal cultivation. The quality of one's technique directly determined one's future prospects.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

When these previously inaccessible, permission-locked techniques appeared before the masses, cultivators realized just how shoddy their common, publicly available techniques were in comparison.

This was a rare opportunity, not to be missed!

Fever spread through the cultivator population. They sold off what they could, tallied every contribution point they could scrape together, and pored over the catalogue in search of the technique they wanted most.

In Congyun City, a large and furious crowd had gathered. They surrounded the Administration Hall and demanded that He Zhenghao come out and give them an explanation.

The reason was plain enough: during Li Fan's earlier fundraising scheme, these cultivators had poured in nearly everything they had, keeping only a small reserve for emergencies. So how could they possibly scrape together the funds to snatch up these techniques now?

When faced with techniques, cultivators weren't about to be polite. Watching as one precious technique after another was claimed by others, these cultivators felt their composure begin to crack.

1. Now you’re just asking for it ☜

2. 他山之石，可以攻玉: Classic Chinese proverb meaning that the advice, wisdom, or methods of others, even if they come from a different place or background, can be used to improve oneself. ☜

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