Mysterious Heaven

Li Fan held the flowerpot, staring at his surroundings with one eye.

This is a bathhouse, with a large, circular pool filled with green medicinal liquid, giving it the feel of a public bathhouse. From the mouths of five stone sculptures—a crane, a toad, a jade rabbit, Black Tortoise, and a koi—around the pool, fountains continuously pour in medicinal liquid in five colors: purple, white, gold, blue, and red. The ceiling features a relief of nine ferocious Coiled Dragon, each holding a medicinal pill in its mouth. Enveloped in the rising steam of the medicinal liquid, these dragons exude a strange herbal fragrance.

The abbot stood by the bath, calculating as he went. Every now and then, he would take out a porcelain bottle from his sleeve and toss some pills into the pool. After throwing in about eighty or ninety pills, he turned to Li Fan and said...

"Qingyue, you just need to focus on repairing your body here. Xuanzhou is fine, and Fellow Li Daoyou has been rescued by Emei disciples. Don't worry about anything else. Blood God Child can't hurt you on Yuntai Peak."

Li Fan opened his mouth and picked up the flowerpot from his hands.

The abbot shook his head. "We'll talk about it when we get back. This ordeal is over; we're safe for now."

Li Fan nodded silently, bowed, and thanked the abbot for saving his life countless times.

The abbot didn't seem to care at all, casually telling him to rest and recover before turning and leaving.

So Li Fan, carrying the flowerpot, climbed into the bathtub. He could feel the wounds soaked in the medicinal liquid, which were both painful, itchy, sore, numb, and tingling, and he almost cried out. He looked at his torn and mangled arm, and the flesh seemed to come alive on its own, the muscles wriggling and coalescing like worms!

This medicine is incredibly potent?

Xuan Tian said, "This was a Jade Pool of Transformation that only princes and nobles of the Immortal Venerable's direct lineage could use back then. What do you think...? You know the <<Jade Pure Jade Quality Flawless Escape>>, so just use that move. Don't waste the medicinal power. Sink into the pool and inhale all the elixir into your lungs."

Following Xuan Tian's instructions, Li Fan sank into the pool and used his internal energy to heal his injuries.

The medicinal power of the Jade Pool was indeed swift, tens of thousands of times more efficient than healing through the earth's veins when buried in the ground. The blood of the Blood God Child that had remained in his body was completely removed, his bones and flesh regenerated, his meridians were restored, and even the skin around his eyes grew back rapidly. Although the Blood Talisman Sword Power in the Divine Court had not been completely destroyed, in the blink of an eye, the injuries to his skin and flesh had greatly improved.

Xuan Tian said, "Don't rush, soak a little longer. This is an immense blessing. It's probably because Yuntai Peak saw the Blood Execution Seal on your head that they gave you this chance to be reborn."

Yuntai Peak, Jade Pool, Immortal Palace, Mystic Gate, System... Xuantian, what exactly is going on here? Isn't Yuntai Peak the territory of the Sword Sect?

Xuan Tian said, "As you know, I am not a direct disciple of this sect. Many of the secret sword techniques of the Sword Sect are deduced from fragments of information. These secrets were never passed on to me; I can only speculate about them."

All I know is that, according to legend, Yuntai Peak was originally the throne of the Immortal Emperor when he toured the four directions. Back then, the Immortal Emperor personally led an expedition against the Xuanmen, but was defeated by the Profound Maiden. The palace then fell into the hands of the Xuanmen. Because it was impossible to move or take things freely near this peak, it was placed in Nine Yin Mountain as a treasure trove to guard the peak.

It seems that Yuntai Peak is probably connected to the system in some way; perhaps it's a treasure developed during the Ancient Immortal Palace era. I have no idea what the specifics are."

Yuntai Peak —this kind of technology existed back in the Ancient Immortal Palace era, so it shouldn't have anything to do with the mood system. It's probably equipment from the company. No, this scale is probably not just equipment; it's more like a spaceship's main base. Could it be that the Immortal Palace controlled by the company has been so weak all these years because it suffered a setback back then, and the main base fell into the hands of the Xuanmen?

Li Fan felt that this possibility was quite high. The cultivation side focuses on individual combat power, while the technology side focuses on an entire production and research system. If such a large base were to break out of control, the impact on the normal operation of the system would definitely be devastating.

And so, does this mean that the Grand Tutor's Immortal Palace and Immortal Clan, in alliance with Mount Song, are aiming to reclaim Yuntai Peak? I remember Liu Daoming of Mount Heng saying that the Grand Tutor and his group wanted to use Yuntai Peak to emulate the ascension of Mount Emei...

Is the Golden Summit of Mount Emei something similar?

Xuan Tian said, "Stop thinking about these things. The problem now is the manifestation."

Manifestation? Didn't you promise to give him the Luo Sect's Heavenly Book to repay Brother Yan's favor and save the Mo Shan lineage? What other problems are there? There's nothing I can do about it, that old fox is so powerful...

Xuan Tian, "Who will repay that wicked child's debt of gratitude! I was afraid you'd lose your temper again! Hmph, anyway, this is a huge problem! Do you know that back then, in the struggle for the Luo Sect's Heavenly Book, several generations of elites from the Xuanmen died! The Nine Great Xuan Sects all had a new batch of members! You're just starting out, I didn't want you to get involved in such a dangerous matter and lose your life, but who would have thought you'd actually become such a troublemaker, after being left unsupervised for a few years, you've managed to get involved yourself..."

Now you see, the Mountain Lord only went to save that wretched Xingyun once, and was implicated in the calamity, almost having his entire family wiped out. You stubborn fool, you still refuse to humble yourself and go to Penglai, what can Ink Bamboo Mountain use to protect you? Let me tell you, the Xuanmen isn't just Penglai searching for Ancestor Luo's Heavenly Book. If you continue to be so careless, you won't have such a good opportunity next time, and you really will be wiped out!"

Li Fan nodded silently, admitting that he was indeed too young. Even a newborn calf, after crashing headfirst into an iron plate and getting bruised and bleeding, would eventually know the pain.

This world is too dangerous. The Xuanmen's style is that if they don't move, they don't move; if they do, they'll wipe out the entire sect. If it weren't for his connection with Manifestation, things might not have ended so well.

Xuan Tian, too lazy to scold him, directly steered the conversation back to the main topic, "Leaving all that aside for now, the biggest problem is still that manifestation. He withstood a strike of 480 layers of powerful fist, which means the Xuan Nu Dao Body has reached its peak. This means he must have read all nine Heavenly Books, and at least comprehended seven or eight of them. Now he's even looking for the Luo Zu Heavenly Book, it seems he has exhausted the essence of the Xuanmen and has nothing left to learn..."

Oh... so what's the problem? Is he incredibly talented, the best in the world?

Xuan Tian sighed, "I wiped out the Divine Sect three or four times, and sent countless Dharma Kings and Venerables to be reborn, but I only managed to salvage six books in total. Where did he find all nine Heavenly Books?"

Li Fan was suddenly stunned.

So you mean... openly colluding with a cult?

In other words, were the Divine Cult's arrangements in the East Sea, and Shi Zai, merely figures in the public eye?

Are all these operations performed under the explicit default settings?

Xuan Tian said, "Who knows? You say that Hengshan is colluding with the Divine Sect, so what if Penglai is colluding with the Divine Sect? The Heavenly Dao is already obvious. Anyone with a little arithmetic can see that the Immortal Dao is declining and the Demonic Dao is rising. It's happening right before our eyes. No matter how much the Dao Lords of the Immortal Dao ruthlessly slaughter the Luo Sect, the Black Lotus Sect, and the Yellow Heaven Dao, they cannot reverse this destiny."

In the future, it will be commonplace for demons to roam not only overseas but also in the Central Plains. Since we cannot defy fate, we can only follow the times. The Three Great Sects have been fighting for so long. Rather than trying out some new method of the Tai Su Dao, it would be better to seek the methods of our old rival, the Divine Sect, whom we know well, in order to ensure our safety. I think that many of the old-timers in the Xuanmen sect are thinking this way.

That being was also a sect leader, so it's only natural that he would offer the sect two or three paths to follow. That's not what I'm worried about...

So what exactly is it?

Xuan Tian was silent for a while, then said, "If Manifestation continues to practice like this, I'm afraid it will follow in my footsteps."

Oh...

Li Fan began to understand.

Xuan Tian probably cultivated the Xuanmen method to its extreme back then, then switched to the Heavenly Book of the Asura Ancestor Luo, and finally shattered the void and ascended to the Void Star, but he couldn't come back and was imprisoned for five hundred years.

Xuan Tian seemed to sigh, "You don't understand... Fine, since you've already gotten involved, I'll tell you the truth. I've studied the similarities and differences between the Mo Shan Moon Worship and Luo Sect Bai Void Star methods..."

I think I didn't fly in my physical body back then, but was instead pulled out of my body."

Astral projection? Spirit astral projection? Wait! Then your physical body is still there? Weren't you missing? Then what about your Feather Transformation Immortal body...?

Xuan Tian remained silent for a long time, then said, "Maybe, perhaps, probably... it's the one in the north."

What do you mean, the one to the north? Which one is to the north?

Li Fan was momentarily stunned.

Then he realized what was happening.

I almost choked to death.

"Holy crap! Cough cough cough! Holy crap, it's you! Cough cough cough! Holy crap, no wonder the Sword Sect insisted on... Holy crap! Cough cough cough!"

Now he understood.

Xuantian is the same as Youquan.

Or to be more precise,

The remaining Dao body of Xuan Tian, the remnants of the Feather Transformation Immortal, gave rise to the Dao Ancestor Youquan.

No wonder the Beichen Sword Sect couldn't retreat even after being wiped out.

No wonder Yan Xingyun, who was living a happy life in the Ten-thousand-mountains with his wife, children, a warm bed, and drinking with his brothers and friends, still had to abandon his family and face death.

The sect leader's fateful encounter took place north of Yinshan.

How can I get a refund?

The righteous reputation of the Sword Sect, passed down through seventeen generations, is here.

How can we escape?

Let's die together then.

To become a true disciple of the Xuanmen sect,

Let's settle this karmic debt with a sword on the icy plains.

Xuan Tian sighed, "I'm not entirely sure right now, it's just a guess. The most likely explanation is that Youquan is a manifestation of my Dao body, but I'll have to see it for myself. That's why I wanted to come and take a look to confirm it..."

Now you understand what the problem is, right?

Li Fan sat in the hot spring for a while, stunned, and then he understood.

Following the exact same path, it's possible that it will manifest as yet another Xuan Tian.

Or rather,

Another Youquan.

At this rate, all the Dao Ancestors on Earth could fill a mahjong table...

"Sigh..." Li Fan lay sprawled out in the Jade Pool, "Whatever... I'm tired... whatever."

This damn world is such a tiny place, yet the crisis of world destruction keeps coming one after another. It's just too damn frustrating.

I'm so tired, too many epic quests, all I want to do now is lie down...

Unfortunately, Xuan Tian wasn't a riddle teller; he was a straightforward guy who didn't give anyone a chance to breathe.

"You still don't understand. Manifestation is the next one, but not the last."

The Xuanmen sect has more than just the nine Yuntai Peak; there are many other hidden sects and numerous divine lords and Dao ancestors. The Three Great Sects have been fighting for so many years, with deep-seated hatred and blood feuds. It is impossible for them all to willingly follow the path of the Divine Sect.

In contrast, Ancestor Luo's sudden rise to power, though suppressed, was ultimately a righteous path. Now, people call it the demonic path, but in the future, more and more people will walk this demonic path or even go astray.

If a new path isn't forged quickly, and the Xuanmen sect truly begins to perish, then others will likely not escape its fate either.

Li Fan felt a headache coming on.

Well, now Heaven has severed the path to immortality for the Xuanmen sect, and has conveniently given them an even worse dead end.

Ancestor Luo, Xuan Tian, and Xian Hua—these three possess top-tier comprehension, talent, and Dao heart. If even they cannot traverse this path, what good are the elites and masters of the Xuanmen?

If this continues, I fear that in the not-too-distant future, everywhere will be filled with local Dao Ancestors transformed from the leaders of the Xuanmen sects.

But where is the real way out? Moshan? Not to mention how many pioneers of Moshan have died, and now they've all been smashed and put in flowerpots, haven't they...?

Or is it that only theistic religions are correct? If the primordial spirit is preserved, is there no hope for a human body in the future?

Sigh, I just don't understand... What can he possibly do...?

Xuan Tian said, "I'm not asking you to do anything, Qingyue, but since you've gotten involved in these things, you need to find a way out for yourself, if not for others. Do you know why I chose the Daoist name Xuan Tian?"

Is it a bit better than "Iron Egg"?

Xuan Tian, "Hmm, compared to Iron Egg... Bah! Who's spreading rumors about me! Never mind, I don't care anymore!"

My sect was slaughtered by the combined forces of the Daoist disciples of Benshan and Emei. I was saved by my senior brother and barely survived. Later, I devoted myself to sword cultivation and combat. My only goal was to survive.

Later, after I avenged my great enemy, I lay among the corpses of Nine Yin Mountain. I felt neither joy nor relief. I kept thinking and wondering why I hadn't died. Why hadn't I survived after slaughtering the entire family of Benshan?

Later, I figured out half of it. The night I made my move was exceptionally dark. Back then, the False Moon rarely appeared in the world, and that night, not only was the moon absent, but there wasn't even a single star. The Benshan Sword Sect practiced the Northern Star Secret Transmission, the Nine Heavens Sword Art, which was stronger than the Outer Sect sword power I used. Moreover, even in the darkest night with no moon and no sun, they could still Ketu the star power of Ketu and Rahu.

But that very night, Ketu Rahu did not respond to their call, and they could not borrow even a trace of starlight. Therefore, my Sword Light was only slightly more powerful than theirs, and in that kind of deadly situation, that was enough."

Li Fan was speechless for a moment.

Xuan Tian remained silent for a moment before continuing, "Xuan means black with a hint of red, and Tian means vast and boundless. I use this Daoist name to remind myself not to forget and to figure out exactly what happened that night."

Why did the Nine Heavens Sword Art suddenly help me? Why did fate help me this time? It has tormented me for so many years, why did it have to let me live this one time?

So that day, I secluded myself to study Ancestor Luo's celestial book, and suddenly I had an epiphany. I tried to cast a divination using the Tai Su Tian Xiang method, and I saw the Void Star."

Xuan Tian fell silent for a moment.

Li Fan waited for quite a while, and at one point thought that Iron Egg was going to stop updating at the most important part, before it spoke again.

"I've been thinking about this for five hundred years and still can't figure it out. Then I met you and that system, and asked you about it. The system calculated based on the star chart I provided and showed me celestial phenomena recorded many years ago. It told me that that night was just a predetermined inevitability. On that day, a pair of binary stars passed by in the star orbit, blocking the stellar power of Ketu..."

That's not the point. The point is that there's no such thing as a cycle of heavenly rebirth, and no God. Those two celestial bodies appear in the orbit of stars every thousand years, passing through the Taiji Realm. It's a once-in-a-millennium event, and I just happened to run into it that night. It was pure luck, but also inevitable luck."

Li Fan asked cautiously, "... So... what do you mean by this? Astrology? Luck?"

Xuan Tian sighed, "What I mean is that we people are confined to this world. Perhaps even after hundreds or thousands of years, we still can't understand the principles we've grasped even after achieving enlightenment and ascending to immortality. But if we look at it from another perspective, it might not seem like such a big deal."

Although we cannot solve the predicament of Taiji Xian Dao today, and although your level is still far behind ours (Li Fan, "..."), you are not alone. You also have those two strange things from the system to help you. Perhaps there is still a chance to find a way out for everyone.

Many things in life, if you can't understand them at the time, may lead you to a dead end and leave you helpless. But as long as you live on and try your best to survive, you will eventually find a solution.

There definitely will be.

Xuan Tian fell silent.

Li Fan thought about it and realized that what it said made sense.

As long as you survive, there will always be a way.

So he loosened his grip on the flowerpot, gently placed it on the edge of the bath, cleared his mind of all distractions, and once again plunged into the Jade Pool to focus on repairing his injured body.

However,

Why does the system always seem to be helping us out in these inexplicable situations...?