Know the way of the Tao today

Chapter 571: Recognizing the Dao Path Today

The shape of the statue was quite peculiar.

It had five faces and ten hands, all sharing a single body.

The expression on each face was completely different.

One had downcast eyebrows and a look of compassionate sorrow for the world.

Another had a stern face, staring straight ahead with an angry glare.

As for another, her brows were slightly furrowed, and she looked pitiful. Looking closer, one could vaguely perceive her alluring charm of seeming to refuse while secretly welcoming.

It was none other than Senior Sister Zhao.

Li Fan felt his heart heat up at first, and all sorts of romantic thoughts could not help but swarm his mind.

In a daze, he could even hear Senior Sister Zhao's soft whispers sounding beside his ears.

"Wrong!"

Li Fan's heart suddenly jolted with alertness as he broke free from the illusion, breaking out in a cold sweat in an instant.

When he looked again, where were there any such vivid expressions?

On the ten-handed statue, there were merely five faces whose features could not be clearly seen.

"This is?" Li Fan feigned composure and took out the ten-handed statue.

Upon seeing the colorful statue in Li Fan's hand, the man in black revealed a look of fanaticism and explained to Li Fan, "This is the Manifested Celestial Venerable Statue, and it is of the highest grade."

"It is the manifestation of the will of the Five Celestial Venerables. Although you still cannot directly pay respects to the various Celestial Venerables through it, you can establish contact with the Five Pivots Court."

"The Celestial Venerables generally do not interfere in worldly affairs. They are all commanded on their behalf by the Five Pivots Court."

"When your actions require cooperation from our Five Elders Association, you can transmit information directly to the Five Pivots Court through the Celestial Venerable Statue."

"There is only one chance to use it. After it is used, the statue will naturally disappear."

…

Listening to the other party's explanation, Li Fan slowly nodded.

After carefully examining the ten-handed statue once more, Li Fan finally put it back into the [Void Stone Mother].

The transaction was complete, and Li Fan was about to leave.

"Fellow Daoist, slow down!"

But he heard the black-robed Cultivator suddenly speak up again, blocking his path.

"What is it?" Li Fan narrowed his eyes, revealing an unkind expression.

The black-robed Cultivator quickly waved his hands: "Hehe, Fellow Daoist, do not misunderstand. Actually, there is a small favor I would like to ask Fellow Daoist to help with once more. Of course, the compensation will definitely not be lacking either!"

"What matter?" Li Fan's expression softened slightly as he said indifferently.

The black-robed Cultivator immediately handed over a slip of paper. Li Fan took it and saw a few lines of small characters written on it.

The general meaning was that more than a year ago, the Myriad Immortals Alliance dug out a sleeping Cultivator from the Purple Firmament Sect Ruins.

The Five Elders Association wanted to request the Overturning Heaven Society to step forward and help investigate this Cultivator's true identity and current location.

Purple Firmament Sect.

The familiar words greeted his eyes, causing a slight ripple in Li Fan's heart.

"Is this a small favor?" Without revealing any abnormality, Li Fan let out a cold snort, and a flame emerged from his fingertips, burning the slip of paper to ashes.

The black-robed Cultivator smiled sheepishly.

"Do your best. We dare not guarantee it either. The difficulty of this matter is no less than that of the array map."

Li Fan turned and left, leaving only a sentence echoing in the secret room. The black-robed Cultivator heard this and a thoughtful look appeared in his eyes.

——

On the return journey, Li Fan was exceptionally vigilant. After all, carrying great treasures at this moment, he could not afford not to take precautions.

Fortunately, the public security environment of the Myriad Immortals Alliance was considered not bad; no incidents of killing and seizing treasures occurred.

Zhou Qingang successfully returned to Congyun Immortal City.

It was not until this moment when he was completely safe that a sensation came from his heart.

The contract transaction was completed.

The stipulation in the contract agreeing that both parties must not harm each other also expired at this moment.

Then, a sense of loss welled up spontaneously, as if something in his body had vanished into thin air.

Li Fan contemplated for a long time, yet failed to comprehend the form in which the power of the "contract" existed, and could only shake his head and let it go.

Without rushing to check the harvest of this transaction in the [Void Stone Mother], Li Fan first pondered over the recent request from the Five Elders Association.

The instant he heard words like "Purple Firmament Sect" and "sleeping Cultivator," the three words "Zhang Qianmo" flashed through his mind first.

In fact, he was also aware of the Myriad Immortals Alliance excavating ancient Sect ruins everywhere and ordinary sleeping Cultivators.

During anchor year 11, when he entrusted Jiao Xiuyuan to look for the Small Medicine King Cauldron, he had not received a reply for a long time, so he went over to inquire.

Jiao Xiuyuan then recounted to him this scene he had peeped into, and stated his own guess.

Li Fan then had him help investigate the identity of this ancient Cultivator.

Regrettably, two years flashed by, and there was no feedback of any results.

From this, it could be seen how extraordinary this matter was.

Jiao Xiuyuan vaguely possessed Dao Integration cultivation, and his Clones were spread all over the Myriad Immortals Alliance, making him well-informed.

Yet he was powerless regarding this matter…

"Perhaps it is not necessarily Senior Brother Zhang."

"Senior Brother Zhang cultivates the Purple Pill Nirvana Law, constantly undergoing Reincarnation, and by now he should have been reincarnated into that [Martial Arts Madman]."

"Such a supreme dharma gate should not have such a huge flaw."

"If the true self's body still existed in the world at the same time as Reincarnation, it would be no different from exposing one's fatal weakness to the outside."

After analyzing, Li Fan nevertheless denied his previous guess.

"Then, aside from Senior Brother Zhang, who else from the Purple Firmament Sect could survive to this day?"

Thinking over and over, Li Fan still couldn't come up with any clear conclusion.

One must know that in ancient times, the Purple Firmament Sect was merely a second-rate School.

There were no Longevity Realm powerhouses holding down the fort within the School, and there were only a few Dao Integration Cultivators.

According to the memory of Li Chen whom he possessed back then, those elders in the Sect truly did not look like they possessed the ability to cross through eternity and survive to the present day.

"My true body has currently abandoned the identity of a [Celestial Mystery Sect] Cultivator, and I am not carrying any items on me, so I cannot contact Jiao Xiuyuan for the time being."

"We will talk after the great battle passes."

Li Fan pondered for a moment and temporarily put this matter aside.

He took out a piece of [Humanity Star Dust] from the Mother Stone and placed it before him.

After swallowing another [Enlightenment Pill], Li Fan finally began to examine it.

The seemingly unremarkable black stone was emitting silver starlight.

Touching it with his Divine Sense, countless scenes surfaced in his mind in an instant.

That was a past event of a female Cultivator who harbored great perseverance and, after five hundred years of cultivation, finally achieved the outcome of her "beloved changing his mind and returning to her."

Without needing to elaborate, it was merely an ordinary worldly affair of unrequited love.

However, unlike many endings of stories, this female Cultivator ultimately used ascending to become a star as the price to make the male Cultivator she had a crush on finally fall in love with her.

And in the remaining years that followed, every day he looked up at the starry sky, tears streaming endlessly, full of remorse.

Li Fan's face was expressionless as he decisively exchanged it for another piece.

The story contained within this piece of [Humanity Star Dust] was slightly more normal.

It was about a Cultivator who, after witnessing the tragic state where his closest relatives, due to insufficient Aptitude, were forever unable to expel the miasma within their bodies and had no affinity with the path of cultivation, dying of old age when their lifespans ran out after just a few decades.

He made a grand vow to let everyone in the world cultivate as they pleased.

Unfortunately, this vision was too grand and could not be realized for a long time.

Thus, he compromised, changing the scope from "everyone in the world" to "people of his Family."

This Cultivator ascended into the firmament, and ever since then, geniuses emerged in flocks within his Family.

In less than a century, they soared to become a premier, massive force locally.

"Reversing Aptitude…"

A sharp light flashed in Li Fan's eyes, spiritual power gathered in his palms, and he exerted force abruptly.

The black stone was instantly crushed into powder, and that silver starlight was entirely absorbed by Li Fan.

In an instant, numerous indescribably wondrous insights surged into his heart one after another.

The principles of heaven and earth intertwined and crisscrossed, weaving a giant net that formed the order upon which heaven and earth relied to operate.

Among them, one thread was exceptionally bright in Li Fan's eyes at this moment.

It was within arm's reach, and even the extremely profound patterns upon it seemed clearly visible.

In a flash, this "thin thread" occupied Li Fan's entire field of vision.

And the "thin thread" also became as huge as a giant pillar supporting the heavens.

The wonderful aura emanating from it made Li Fan intoxicated. Many matters that were previously difficult to understand were already clear to his heart in the spark of a flint at this moment.

Li Fan also discovered that on his body, there seemed to be tens of millions of silk threads connected to the giant pillar.

Gazing at these faint, indistinct lines, a realization suddenly emerged in Li Fan's heart.

Although his current appearance looked like a Puppet manipulated by the "giant pillar" through the thin threads,

yet one day, if his power became strong enough, he might not be unable to use the thin threads as a bond to reverse the giant pillar in turn.

"Is this defying the principles of heaven and earth…"

Endless joy surged into his heart, and even Li Fan, who was in secluded cultivation deep within the Congyun Sea trench far away, could not help his body from trembling with excitement at this moment.

After a hundred lifetimes of Reincarnation, the Longevity Realm dharma gate he had yearned for day and night was now right before his eyes.

Although there was still a gap as vast as heaven and earth between knowing and truly achieving it,

and although what the Celestial Venerables of this realm obtained by defying the principles of heaven and earth was merely a false Longevity Realm,

the harvest at this moment still gave Li Fan a massive sense of satisfaction.

With his mind and spirit immersed, he lost track of the passage of time.

When the [Humanity Star Dust] was exhausted and he awoke from his Epiphany, he only felt that it was still unfinished.

He blankly savored the aftertaste for the better part of a day before recovering his wits.

Subconsciously checking the time, Li Fan was shocked to discover that in just this "short while" as he felt it, nearly a year had already passed in the outside world.

"No wonder Longevity Realm powerhouses could not be bothered to care about worldly affairs. Only at this moment do I know what it truly means that cultivation knows no years."

"This is merely me peeping with an incomplete perspective with the help of [Humanity Star Dust]."

"If I could truly view all the principles of heaven and earth and become addicted to them, wouldn't a single session of secluded cultivation consume decades of time?"

Li Fan could not help but sigh inwardly.

After savoring the aftertaste for a long time, Li Fan began to check the events that had occurred in the outside world during his year of secluded cultivation.

Zhou Qingang's communication talisman was almost bursting at the seams from the messages sent by He Zhenghao and the others.

Li Fan did not rush to reply, instead selecting and reviewing the key points.

The battle of Tianling Province still had not ended.

However, it had already eased up quite a bit.

Therefore, Cultivators were able to learn some news transmitted back from the battlefield.

The effect of the Lock Spirit Array array map handed in by Li Fan was immediate.

Merely on the tenth day after the transaction between both parties was completed, during a medium-scale encounter battle,

the Myriad Immortals Alliance attempted to repeat their old trick, utilizing the Tianxuan Spirit-Sealing Array to crush and slaughter the Cultivator team of the Five Elders Association.

But unexpectedly, the other party was already well-prepared.

On the body of every Cultivator, a layer of crimson protective light shield emerged.

After the green and red merged, nothing unusual happened at all.

While the Myriad Immortals Alliance side was utterly stunned, a brutal close-combat battle began.

Perhaps my condition really was not good; I sat for over four hours just to write this bit… I do not know what is wrong.