Where Do Immortals Come From

Where Do Immortals Come From

Da Xuan Country, Profound Capital City, Grand Tutor Estate.

Li Fan held a wine cup, looking over the civil and military officials who had come to celebrate his birthday. Though he was already seventy, he could not help feeling secretly pleased with himself.

One had to know that today, eight or nine out of every ten high officials in the imperial court had come to the Grand Tutor Estate! What an imposing display!

When Li Fan had first transmigrated into this world, he had been nothing more than a poor scholar.

Over fifty-odd years, he had risen from nothing to become Grand Tutor, with power that overshadowed the realm. All that had happened along the way was enough to fill a several-million-word epic novel.

With a life like this, what more could a man ask for?

Li Fan stroked his beard and drained the fine wine in his cup.

"May the Grand Tutor live a long life!"

The gathered officials called out in unison.

Li Fan became even more pleased.

Just then, bursts of discordant cries suddenly came from outside.

"Quick, look! What is that?!"

"Heaven-sent falling fire! It is an auspicious omen, an auspicious omen! Hurry and report it to the Grand Tutor!"

"Why does it seem to be flying toward our Grand Tutor Estate?!"

Hearing the commotion outside, Li Fan frowned.

The previously lively hall abruptly fell silent.

Li Fan rose to his feet and walked out first.

Yet before he could rebuke the servants and voice his displeasure, the sight in the sky seized his attention.

At the distant horizon, two streaks of silver light, one ahead of the other, sped toward them like meteors.

"This is..." Li Fan froze.

In the blink of an eye, the two meteors reached the skies above Profound Capital City, then suddenly stopped.

At the same time, a voice descended from the heavens like thunder, exploding beside everyone's ears.

"Dao Xuanzi! Do not bully others too far!"

Everyone present was utterly horrified. Some even cried out "Immortal Master" and fell directly to their knees.

And at that moment, a word buried deep in Li Fan's memories, nearly forgotten, suddenly leaped into his mind.

"Cult... cultivators!" Li Fan stood stunned, muttering to himself, "How is this possible..."

The two cultivators in the sky clearly did not care what the mortals below thought.

Another voice rang out. "Kou Hong! Did you think I would spare you just because you fled to this Immortal Forsaken Land? Hand over the cultivation method you obtained that day, or I will fight you to the death!"

"What a joke. It was precisely because I lacked a Core Formation method that I remained trapped in the Foundation Establishment Realm for nearly a hundred years. My end was approaching, and I was about to become a pile of dry bones. Now that I have obtained this Core Formation Skill, how could I possibly hand it over to another?" Kou Hong snorted coldly, his tone brimming with disdain.

"Indeed!" Dao Xuanzi let out a long sigh. "On the Golden Core Path, there can be me or him, but not both. Though there are many Core Formation methods in this world, there are even more cultivators trapped in the Foundation Establishment Realm!"

Dao Xuanzi's tone suddenly turned vicious. "Since that is the case, with the path to immortality before me, how could I possibly spare you? How could I possibly not bully others too far!"

Kou Hong laughed loudly. "It is merely a fight! How laughable that you and I were brothers for a hundred years, yet now draw blades against each other for a sliver of hope!"

Dao Xuanzi only sneered, offering no reply.

Kou Hong suddenly said, "I know I am no match for you. Today, I will likely be unable to escape this calamity. But with so many mortals here, I wonder whether you can withstand Immortal-Mortal Miasma of such density!"

Dao Xuanzi's expression changed at once. "Kou Hong! What are you trying to do?!"

Kou Hong began to laugh madly. "I am merely seeking a sliver of hope!"

Listening to the conversation between the two cultivators overhead, Li Fan immediately sensed that something was wrong. Yet before he could react, he saw crimson flames explode above Profound Capital City.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Thunderous explosions erupted endlessly beside Li Fan's ears. His vision instantly turned blood-red, and in mere moments, he fainted.

No one knew how long passed before Li Fan finally woke.

At first, he was somewhat dazed. Only after a long while did he remember what had happened.

Li Fan coughed, spat out several mouthfuls of blood, and tremblingly pushed himself to his feet. He looked around.

It was still night. The once-luxurious Grand Tutor Estate had already become a field of ruins.

The air was thick with the foul stench of charred corpses.

The entire court of civil and military officials from moments ago had all died without intact bodies, their souls returning to the western heavens.

Nor had Li Fan's wives, concubines, and five sons escaped disaster.

Not a trace of expression remained on Li Fan's aged face. His gaze was somewhat vacant.

He stood there for a long time before dragging his weakened body out of the Grand Tutor Estate.

Profound Capital City, which had been incomparably prosperous and bustling only moments ago, had now become a hell of blood and fire. As far as the eye could see were shattered bodies and collapsed buildings.

After such a catastrophe, perhaps not one person in a hundred among the common folk would survive.

All of this, all of it, had been caused by the two "Immortal Masters" who had suddenly descended—the two cultivators.

Li Fan had no strength left. He slumped down casually against a broken corner of a wall.

His hearing had long been destroyed by the violent explosions just now. But that no longer mattered.

At this moment, all he wanted to do was laugh.

How could this world have cultivators?

From the moment he became an official, he had used the power in his hands to search for traces that the immortal path might exist.

After becoming Imperial Tutor and rising above tens of thousands, he had searched the entire realm even more thoroughly! North to the Ice Sea, south to the Great Ocean, east to the Void Abyss, west to the Linked Mountains.

Throughout all of Great Xuan, there had not been the slightest trace of immortals!

Yet today, after he had grown old and frail, after he had thoroughly given up hope, two cultivators had descended from the sky years later, appeared before him, and without a word ground everything he possessed into dust.

Was this what immortals were? And where did immortals come from? His heart full of fury and unwillingness ultimately turned into endless bewilderment.

Heaven toyed with man!

At the same time, Li Fan felt incomparably fortunate.

Fortunate that before his death, he had finally proven the existence of immortals! Otherwise, when he began his next life, would he not waste another fifty years in vain?!

That was right! How could he, Li Fan, a mere mortal, have risen from a humble scholar to the Imperial Tutor of the realm without something to rely on? This was also why he had narrowly survived beneath the hands of immortals.

"Return to Truth!"

Li Fan silently recited in his heart. The scenery around him immediately dimmed, becoming dreamlike and unclear, as though separated by a thick curtain of water.

"True to False, False is Also True."

Seven large characters lit up in the darkness, then abruptly scattered and transformed into a curtain of light.

"Charging complete."

"Would you like to virtualize the current scene and return to the initial anchor point?"

Two lines of small text appeared in succession.

At the same time, one image after another emerged, swiftly filling the entire curtain of light.

They were the fifty years of Li Fan's life in this world.

Li Fan looked at the versions of himself within each image and stood stunned for a long time.

Return to Truth.

That was the name Li Fan had given this strange treasure he carried with him.

It had only one function: Turning Reality into Illusion! So-called Turning Reality into Illusion meant turning everything Li Fan had truly experienced into simulated, illusory experiences, allowing him to return to the initial anchor point he had set—the moment he had just transmigrated into this world.

In truth, this was already Li Fan's second life in this world.

In his first life, though Li Fan had lofty ambitions, he had been nothing more than an ordinary man. After repeatedly failing the examinations, he finally gave up his dream of studying and becoming an official after turning thirty. He started a small business, became an ordinary wealthy man, married, had children, and lived out a mundane life. Only when he had grown old and frail, on the verge of dying from illness, did Return to Truth finally awaken.

That was what allowed Li Fan of the second life to ride the wind and rise, unstoppable.

It was only a pity that, looking at it now, he had used it in the wrong place.

After pondering for a while, Li Fan did not choose to end this life immediately. Before that, he still had several matters to attend to.

Closing the curtain of light and returning to reality, Li Fan forced himself to gather his spirits and began handling the aftermath of Profound Capital City's devastation at the hands of immortals.

After finding some survivors, Li Fan relied on the prestige he had accumulated over many years to finally stabilize the people's hearts somewhat.

Even though Li Fan could no longer hear, he could still find paper and Brush. Though communication was somewhat troublesome, it did not prevent his orders from being conveyed one after another.

First, Li Fan ordered the Garrison Camp stationed outside the city, made up of his trusted men, to hurry to Profound Capital City and maintain order after the disaster. He then sent orders to the surrounding cities, instructing them to dispatch provisions and officials to Profound Capital City.

Most of Profound Capital City's buildings had been destroyed. After the Garrison Camp took control of the city, Li Fan simply remained in the military camp to oversee the relief efforts.

As Li Fan's decrees spread, supplies and capable people from the surrounding cities flowed continuously into Profound Capital City.

Only after one month did the ruined Profound Capital City regain even a faint trace of human life.

Once Da Xuan Country had finally recovered from the blow of the immortals, Li Fan began ordering every region to gather intelligence regarding the two immortals who had appeared that night.

This included where the two had originally come from, where they had gone afterward, whether they had spoken of anything else along the way, and so on.

Unfortunately, after several months of investigation, apart from learning that the two cultivators seemed to have appeared from the direction of the Void Abyss in the east, they found nothing else.

The outcome Li Fan had hoped for, where the two immortals fought until both jade and stone were shattered, had not occurred.

I should never have expected such a thing in the first place. Li Fan sighed inwardly. Since that is so, there is nothing left in this life for me to cling to.

Standing within the newly built Grand Tutor Estate, Li Fan activated Return to Truth once more.

"Would you like to virtualize the current scene and return to the initial anchor point?"

Li Fan no longer hesitated and chose yes.

On the curtain of light, countless lifelike images froze at once. Then, the maneuvering and strategizing, glory and wealth of this life all shattered like dream bubbles, transforming into streams of meteors that flew into Li Fan's mind.

Scene after scene flashed before Li Fan's eyes like a Revolving Lantern, until the final image settled on the two cultivators confronting each other high above the Grand Tutor Estate.

"Dao Xuanzi, Kou Hong." Li Fan softly recited their names. "Fifty years from now, I will still be waiting for you here in Profound Capital City."

"Wealth and honor are but drifting clouds to me." Li Fan's consciousness gradually blurred, but his will and purpose became firmer than ever before.

"In my next life, I will capture immortals!"

The radiance within his mind gradually vanished, and Li Fan slowly fell into sleep.