Chapter 63 – Return to Glazed Glass Island

【Simulation Ended】

……

Li Fan, his consciousness restored, was still left somewhat speechless.

That previous life had been the shortest he had experienced since activating the Return to Truth reincarnation cycle.

Barely nine years had passed before it was forcibly ended.

He had harbored grand ambitions and laid out all manner of plans.

Yet the moment he entered the cultivation world, he had been hunted down for no apparent reason.

More absurd still — the ones after him turned out to be people from the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

Unaware of their identities, he had even tried to flee to He Zhenghao on Glazed Glass Island to seek refuge.

Only to be surrounded squarely by two Foundation Establishment cultivators.

They had come from a thousand li (500 km) away with a clear objective: to kill Li Fan.

Li Fan had no illusions that asking them why they were after him would yield an honest answer.

And against two Foundation Establishment cultivators, he had not the slightest chance of survival.

So he had decisively chosen to start over.

……

Why would the Myriad Immortals Alliance want him dead?

And so soon after he had just entered the cultivation world?

Li Fan’s brow furrowed deeply as he sank into bewilderment.

Without resolving this problem, every scheme he might devise going forward would be nothing but empty talk.

The Layered Cloud Sea was still under the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s control, and they could clearly pinpoint his location through some method.

Where had things gone wrong?

Could it be because he had brought Qian Hong’s remains back into the cultivation world?

Or was it……

Li Fan went through the items in his possession one by one, inspecting and eliminating each in turn.

In the end, he locked onto a single target.

The Minor Ripple Water Art.

No matter how he turned it over in his mind, this cultivation technique carried the greatest suspicion.

After all, he could be said to have no connection whatsoever to the Myriad Immortals Alliance at present.

Only this technique had been inherited from the Myriad Immortals Alliance of his previous life.

Li Fan narrowed his eyes and thought it through carefully. The answer was already taking shape in his mind.

“The Minor Ripple Water Art — and indeed every other technique — must be monitored at all times within the Myriad Immortals Alliance. If they were to suddenly discover that a technique which no one had exchanged now had one additional practitioner, they would know the technique had been leaked.”

“Regardless of how it was leaked, the Alliance would inevitably move to reclaim it. And their method of reclamation is, naturally, simply to kill.”

“As for how they were able to pinpoint my location directly……”

“Those who cultivate the same technique can sense one another — perceiving each other’s whereabouts.”

“For the sake of a single Qi Refining stage technique, they dispatched Foundation Establishment cultivators. Judging from the tone in which that one spoke to He Zhenghao, his cultivation was probably even higher than He Zhenghao’s. Mid Foundation Establishment stage at minimum, with late Foundation Establishment stage not out of the question.”

A vision seemed to form before his eyes.

Within the Myriad Immortals Alliance, tens of thousands of cultivation technique records were arrayed in sequence, dense and packed together like a towering wall.

And before that wall, a pair of eyes watched without blinking.

Every slightest change among those techniques was taken in at a glance.

The moment a technique that once had practitioners suddenly dropped to zero cultivators — or a technique that no one had been cultivating suddenly gained a practitioner without ever being exchanged — the owner of those eyes would calmly make arrangements.

“Protector, Protector……”

“What a Protector indeed!”

Li Fan clapped his hands in admiration.

Looking at the options still floating before him, Li Fan steadied his mind and chose, as before, to retain the cultivation level from his previous life.

In an instant, he returned to the Qi Refining stage.

Without the slightest hesitation, Li Fan then circulated the Supreme Primordial Scripture and dissolved away the late Qi Refining stage cultivation he had built through the Minor Ripple Water Art.

After that, just as he had done in his previous life — he anchored to nine years and re-entered the cultivation world.

Passing through the immortal-barren grand formation, Li Fan waited in place for a long while.

As expected, his deduction had been correct.

Without cultivating the Minor Ripple Water Art, there was nothing to draw the pursuit of the Myriad Immortals Alliance’s Protector.

Only then did Li Fan slowly make his way toward Glazed Glass Island.

As he flew into the waters near Glazed Glass Island, a certain image from his memory suddenly flashed through his mind.

He stopped at once and looked downward.

His gaze pierced through the barrier of the seawater and reached deep into the ocean floor.

There, schools upon schools of glazed fish were dragging along the corpses of mortals who had come to grief in various ways from all corners of the ocean, presenting them as tribute to a massive golden glazed fish.

The golden glazed fish swayed its bloated body and swallowed one by one the human corpses its subordinates had gathered.

It chewed, spat out the crushed bones, and wore an expression of mild dissatisfaction.

It stared with its great bulging eyes, gazing greedily toward the surface of the sea.

As though there, there were more — and far fresher — mortals to be had.

……

Li Fan watched this scene and let out a cold snort.

Formless Killing Intent stirred at his call.

……

Deep beneath the sea, the glazed fish that had been clustered around their leader, fawning and presenting food, all froze in place at once.

The golden glazed fish was growing displeased and was on the verge of disciplining its underlings, when it suddenly noticed that the school of glazed fish surrounding it had begun to behave strangely.

Their eyes had gone red, all of them fixed upon the massive golden glazed fish.

The golden glazed fish sensed that something was wrong and tried to flee.

But it was too late.

Countless glazed fish, as though seized by madness, closed in and surrounded it completely.

The figure of the golden glazed fish vanished within the churning mass of fish.

Streams of golden blood slowly drifted up to the surface of the water.

……

Li Fan turned a glazed pearl the size of a pigeon’s egg over in his hand, examining it carefully.

“A pity — it is not a Heavenly-Earthly Wonder.”

“Still, merely carrying it on one’s person produces an effect similar to consuming a glazed pill. This object is quite remarkable in its own right.”

Li Fan put it away with satisfaction and continued flying toward Glazed Glass Island.

As he drew close to Glazed Glass Island, Li Fan stopped in midair and released his spiritual energy outward.

In only a moment, a voice came calling from the distance: “Which fellow Daoist approaches our Glazed Glass Island?”

Along with the voice came the figure of He Zhenghao.

He Zhenghao, a cultivator of the Foundation Establishment stage, showed no arrogance even when faced with a late Qi Refining stage cultivator arriving unannounced at his door, addressing him equally as a fellow Daoist.

“Greetings, Fellow Daoist He!” Li Fan cupped his hands.

“This one is Li Fan, a rogue cultivator of the Layered Cloud Sea. Cultivating to the late Qi Refining stage has already been a trial of a thousand hardships. I know full well that Foundation Establishment holds no hope for a rogue cultivator such as myself.”

“And so I wish to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance and obtain a Foundation Establishment technique.”

Li Fan paused, then continued: “I have long heard of Fellow Daoist’s reputation for upholding justice and generosity, and so I have come to pay my respects.”

“I humbly ask that Fellow Daoist introduce me to the Alliance. Should this matter succeed, Fan will surely repay the kindness!”

He Zhenghao was already a little stunned upon hearing that Li Fan wished to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance.

He had never imagined that one day he too would encounter such a stroke of great fortune falling right into his lap.

When Li Fan added that he would repay him in the future, He Zhenghao’s delight grew even greater: “Ah, Fellow Daoist, what is there to say? We cultivators all know that the path of cultivation is not easy — if one can help, one helps. Put your mind at ease. The matter of you joining the Myriad Immortals Alliance — leave it entirely to me!”

Li Fan smiled faintly. “Fellow Daoist’s reputation as Timely Rain is truly well-deserved. This one is full of admiration.”

He Zhenghao was about to explain that he had no such nickname as “Timely Rain,” but on reflection he found the name rather fitting.

If it were to spread abroad, it would be of great benefit to his cultivation of the Sitting Mountain Art. And so he did not deny it.

The two men looked at one another and smiled.