A Strange Artifact Aids Enlightenment

Ever since the eerie web-like pattern had slipped into his body, it had vanished like a clay ox sinking into the sea, leaving not the slightest ripple.

Li Shun had exhausted nearly every method he could think of. He examined his body from within and circulated Liqi, yet found no trace of the pattern in his flesh, much less a way to force it out.

As time passed through the dead, sunless ruins, Li Shun all but forgot the strange mark.

Until today.

His blind fumbling and solitary deductions had somehow, against all reason, perfected a great divine ability of the Heaven and Earth Realm!

Only then did Li Shun wake as if from a dream and remember that deeply unsettling totemic mark, quite possibly left by some indescribable Outer God.

"Could that web-like pattern entering my body have transformed my ability to comprehend things so completely?"

Li Shun's heart shook. For a moment, he could hardly believe it.

But his mind was meticulous, and in the next instant he found a way to test it.

He would strike while the iron was hot and try to deduce another great divine ability of the Heaven and Earth Realm.

"Threefold Self-Reflection..."

Li Shun suppressed the turmoil in his heart and let his mind race back through everything he had experienced when using that ability.

Yet...

A moment later, he opened his eyes in bewilderment.

His mind was utterly blank. Not a spark of inspiration came.

"Could what happened just now have been my imagination?"

"Was the Outer God's mark not working behind the scenes? Did I truly stumble into enlightenment by sheer luck?"

A trace of self-doubt rose in Li Shun's heart.

But after careful thought, he shook his head with a self-mocking smile. "When something defies all reason, there's bound