Chapter 603: No More War In Xuanhuang

"Almost. Let's wait a little longer."

As the Heavenly Physician murmured to himself, every Oddity within Cloudwater Palace, Hanhai included, instantly reverted to its original state, as though none of them had stirred from millions of years of stillness.

And all the cultivators exploring Cloudwater Palace, Li Fan's avatar among them, were reduced to dust and scattered to ash by a gentle press of the Heavenly Physician's hands.

There was no room for resistance whatsoever.

In truth, the avatar Zhou Qing'ang never even understood how he had died.

Li Fan's true self only felt the Heavenly Physician's colossal hand press down, and then his connection to that avatar was severed.

True destruction comes for you, and what concern is it of yours?

"Whew." Having lost an avatar, Li Fan let out a long, relieved breath and relaxed.

It seems my gamble paid off. Even someone as powerful as the Heavenly Physician would never guess that the ant he just crushed underfoot was the one secretly plotting against him.

But there was no smugness on Li Fan's face.

Because the level of strength the Heavenly Physician had displayed was beyond anything he had imagined.

Li Fan had originally believed that even if Old Man Fisher had gone mad and lost most of his memories, and even if Fuzi had transformed into an Oddity with greatly diminished power, the two of them combined should at least have caused the Heavenly Physician some trouble.

The result?

The gap between them and the Heavenly Physician mirrored the gap between Li Fan and them—separated by several cultivation realms. They couldn't withstand a single one of his moves!

Li Fan's grand scheme to make trouble for the Heavenly Physician had become nothing but a self-inflicted joke.

Old Man Fisher and Fuzi were undoubtedly top-tier powerhouses beneath the Eternal Life realm. Yet in the Heavenly Physician's hands, they had been manipulated like insects.

Such power...

Has the Heavenly Physician already advanced to the Eternal Life realm?

Li Fan couldn't help but think so. Otherwise, there was simply no accounting for why the man was so formidable.

Which principle did he defy? And he accomplished it silently, without anyone knowing. Could he be the one who occupies the principle of life and death, the one who thwarted Lan Yu's path to the Dao?

What exactly is the relationship between the Heavenly Physician and the Myriad Immortals Alliance? Now that I think about it, I've never seen him act on the Alliance's behalf. Not even in my previous life, during the most intense battles between the Xuan Net and the rebel cultivators.

Too many questions flooded Li Fan's mind.

He had gone into this expecting to at least gauge the Heavenly Physician's depths. Instead, the more he learned about the man, the more unfathomable he seemed.

Best not to provoke him until I reach Dao Unity.

Li Fan sighed, settling on that decision with reluctant resignation.

Even possessing the esoteric treasure Return to Truth, faced with such an absolute disparity in strength, he had no choice but to avoid confronting the man directly for now.

And if he walked the night path too often, he couldn't count on slipping past unnoticed every time.[1]

He pushed down the unwillingness and shock churning within him. It took half a day before his emotions slowly settled.

As he replayed his avatar's memories of Cloudwater Palace, more thoughts arose.

Heavenly Physician, Heavenly Severer, Heavenly Decree...

All beginning with "Heavenly," and all old acquaintances. The people of Cloudwater Palace had referred to them collectively as Venerables. Clearly, they all share a common origin.

The Xuantian Sect?

Working from the clues he had, Li Fan arrived at this deduction almost instinctively. Yet something about it felt faintly wrong.

In Senior Sister Zhao's illusion, the two of them had discussed the Xuantian Sect—that colossal entity which had once unified the Xuanhuang World in ancient times.

The Xuantian Sect had usurped heaven's will and wielded heavenly authority, using it to suppress all living beings under heaven. Its leaders had called themselves Heavenly King and Dharma Kings.

But this group seemed to revere heaven itself.

Those scholarly voices that had followed Fuzi constantly repeated phrases like “The Heavenly Laws are vast and severe; honor its rules, obey its statutes" and "The Heavenly Laws must not be defied."[2]

They didn't seem to share the same origin as the Xuantian Sect Li Fan knew.

And with their level of cultivation, they couldn't have sprung from a crack in a stone, leaving no trace to be found.

What exactly are they?

Li Fan sank into deep contemplation.

***

Within Cloudwater Palace, a scene of near-cataclysmic proportions had unfolded. Yet outside, in the Congyun Sea, the world seemed utterly oblivious.

Apart from the ruins of Cloudwater Palace mysteriously vanishing once more, the event had produced no other discernible effect.

But the Heavenly Physician was hardly the only peak powerhouse of the Xuanhuang World.

While ordinary cultivators remained unaware, the Eternal Heavenly Venerables of the Five Elders Council would certainly have sensed it.

Great storms often began with the faintest stirrings of duckweed. By spending a vast number of contribution points and gathering information that most would have overlooked, Li Fan finally uncovered some clues.

First: though the great battle in Tianling Province had ended, cultivators had remained stationed in certain border provinces within the Five Elders Council's territory. Within days, all of them were recalled. It was as if the Council had genuinely, completely abandoned any intention of war for a long time to come.

Then the Five Elders Council had actually taken the initiative to send envoys, proposing a plan for friendly exchanges between the two sides. They claimed that due to prolonged opposition and isolation, the Five Elders Council and the Myriad Immortals Alliance had grown unfamiliar with each other, and that this rare opportunity following the great war might be used to exchange resources and communicate in goodwill.

The Myriad Immortals Alliance's official stance on the proposal remained unconfirmed. But the Five Elders Council's attitude was worthy of deep contemplation.

One had to remember: backed by their five Eternal Heavenly Venerables, the Five Elders Council had always been relentless when they held the advantage, and absolutely refused to reason when they could avoid it.

Yet now they had, unprecedentedly, taken the initiative to propose friendly exchanges and ease tensions?

Cultivators who didn't know better thought the Myriad Immortals Alliance had beaten the Five Elders Council into submission during the Tianling Province war. But Li Fan knew the truth: the Heavenly Physician had made a move, and the five Heavenly Venerables had sensed it.

One purpose of the previous war may well have been to test whether the Dao Teacher was still present. In the end, it hadn't drawn out the Dao Teacher, but the Heavenly Physician had revealed himself instead.

For the Five Elders Council to be so apprehensive... Could the Heavenly Physician have truly reached the Eternal Life realm?

Regarding this, Li Fan still harbored some doubts.

Because, based on his limited understanding of the Eternal Life realm, defying the principles of heaven and earth caused the individual to become part of the world itself.

An Eternal Heavenly Venerable carried the aura of the Heavenly Dao in a distinct, unmistakable way. The difference between such a being and an ordinary cultivator would be as stark as the difference between two separate species. It should have been instantly recognizable.

Yet in the few times Li Fan had encountered the Heavenly Physician, he had sensed no trace of the Heavenly Dao. If anything, the aura of "humanity" clung to the man with profound strength.

In short, the Heavenly Physician did not appear to be a powerhouse at the Eternal Life realm.

1. 夜路走多了 (yè lù zǒu duō le): walk the night road often. A metaphor for doing things in secret or operating under the radar ☜

2. Original incantation has been changed to:

“The Heavenly Laws are vast and severe; honor its rules, obey its statutes.

"I have attained the Law. Let it spread to all living beings.

"The Heavenly Laws must not be defied." ☜

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