My Simulated Road to Immortality

Chapter 597: Chapter 569: Recognizing the Path Today

The statue was quite uniquely designed.

Five faces and ten hands, all sharing a single body.

Every face had a different expression.

One with drooping eyebrows, a portrayal of pervasive sympathy.

One bearing a solemn countenance, its stare filled with fury.

One of them had slightly furrowed brows and looked pitiful. On a closer look, one could vaguely make out a flirtatious and captivating demeanor hiding behind her feigned reluctance and charming allure.

It was indeed Sister Zhao.

At the sight of this, Li Fan felt a warmth in his heart, inspiring a wave of all-encompassing emotions.

In his moment of semi-lucidity, he could even hear the faint whispers of Sister Zhao ringing in his ears.

“That’s not right!”

A sudden realization within his heart jolted him out of this illusion, leaving him in a cold sweat.

On looking again, where were those expressive features?

It was merely a statue with ten hands and five faces of unrecognizable forms.

“What is this?” Li Fan pretended to be calm as he pulled out the ten-handed statue.

Upon seeing the multicolored statue in Li Fan’s hand, a fanatic expression crossed the black-clothed cultivator’s face. He then explained, “This is the Manifested World Tathagata Statue, one of the highest grade.”

“It is the embodiment of the will of the five Lord Heavenly Venerables. Even though the presence of this statue does not grant an audience with them directly, it can establish contact with the [Five Pivot Institute].”

“The Venerable Lords don’t usually meddle in mundane affairs. This is managed by the Five Pivot Institute.”

“Whenever you need assistance from the Five Elders Organization during your operation, you can relay your message directly to it through the Tathagata Statue.”

“It has only one use. After this use, the statue will naturally disappear.”

…

Li Fan listened to the explanation, nodding slowly.

After taking a careful look at the statue, he then placed it back into the [Ethereal Stone Matriarch].

Once the trade was completed, Li Fan was about to leave.

“Hold on, sir!”

He was interrupted by the black-clothed cultivator.

“What is it?” Li Fan squinted his eyes, his face showing signs of displeasure.

The black-clothed cultivator quickly waved his hand: “Ha, ha, please don’t misunderstand. Actually, there is another small favor. Of course, you will be well-compensated!”

“What is it?” With a moderate tone, Li Fan asked.

The black-clothed cultivator handed over a piece of paper to Li Fan. Taking a look, he noticed it contained a few lines of small text.

The gist of the message was that around a year ago, the Immortal Alliance unearthed a sleeping cultivator from the ruins of the ancient Violet Firmament Sect.

The Five Elders Organization was requesting the Overturning Heaven Society to help uncover the identity and current location of this cultivator.

Violet Firmament Sect.

The familiar words struck a chord within Li Fan.

“This is a small favor?” Not revealing any change in his demeanor, Li Fan scoffed, and the fluttering flame at his fingertips burned the paper to ashes.

The black-clothed cultivator laughed awkwardly.

“We’ll do our best. We can’t guarantee anything. The difficulty of this task is on par with the Array Diagram.”

Leaving only these words echoing in the secret room, Li Fan made his way out.

Seeing this, the black-clothed cultivator seemed thoughtful.

—————–

On his way back, Li Fan was extra cautious. Since he now possessed a treasured item, he couldn’t afford to let his guard down.

Thankfully, the security in the Immortal Alliance was quite good, and no ambushes or robbery attempts occurred.

“Zhou Qingang” safely returned to Misthaven Elysian City.

It wasn’t until he was completely safe that he received notice of the transaction’s completion.

The contract deal was completed.

The contractual agreement between the two parties not to harm each other had also expired at this point.

Then, a sense of emptiness emerged, as if something had vanished out of nowhere within his body.

Despite Li Fan’s efforts, he couldn’t figure out the nature of the “contract” power and had to give up with a shake of his head.

Without rushing to check the [Ethereal Stone Matriarch] for his gains from the transaction, Li Fan first pondered the request made by the Five Elders Organization.

As soon as he heard words like “Violet Firmament Sect” and “sleeping cultivator”, the three words “Zhang Qianmo” flashed across his mind immediately.

In reality, he was aware of the Immortal Alliance unearthing sleeping cultivators from the ruins of ancient sects.

When Li Fan was locked onto year eleven and his request to Jiao Xiuyuan to find the Little Pharma Sovereign Cauldron hadn’t been answered, he visited Jiao Xiuyuan in person to inquire.

Jiao Xiuyuan told him about this scene he had witnessed and shared his speculation.

Li Fan then asked him to help investigate the identity of this ancient cultivator.

Unfortunately, even after two years, there was no feedback. This showed how unusual the situation was.

Jiao Xiuyuan was a potential Integration Cultivator, with incarnations spread across the Immortal Alliance, and had wide access to information.

But even he was helpless in this matter…

“Perhaps it’s not necessarily Brother Zhang.”

“Brother Zhang practices the Law of Purple Elixir Nirvana, continually reincarnating. He should have reincarnated into that [Wu Chi’er].”

“Such a supreme method should not have such a significant flaw.”

“If the original body and the reincarnated body existed simultaneously, it would be akin to leaving one’s life gate exposed.”

After the analysis, Li Fan negated his previous guess.

“Then, who else from the Violet Firmament Sect could survive till now?”

Despite thinking it over and over, Li Fan couldn’t come up with any plausible theories.

Keep in mind, during ancient times, the Violet Firmament Sect was merely a second-tier sect.

There were no Immortal Experts in the sect and there were only a handful of Unity-Path cultivators.

According to Li Chen, whom he possessed, the elders of the sect truly did not seem as though they could traverse through the ages and survive till now.

“At present, I have discarded the identity of a Heavenly Machine Sect cultivator and I do not carry any items on me, so I cannot contact Jiao Xiuyuan for now.”

“Let’s wait until after the big battle.”

Li Fan pondered for a moment before setting the matter aside for the time being.

He took out a [Mortal Stardust] from the Stone Mother and placed it in front of him.

Only after Li Fan had taken an Enlightenment Pill, did he start to examine it.

It looked like an unremarkable black stone but it radiated a silver-tinged starlight.

When touched with one’s Spirit Consciousness, countless images surge into his mind in an instant.

It was about a female cultivator who had a determined heart and after 500 years of cultivation, eventually realized her past love to “change his heart back to love her”.

There is no need to go into detail, it was a common love story of this world where the love was not reciprocated.

The only difference from many other stories is that this female cultivator ultimately turns herself into a star, causing the male cultivator, who she had a one-sided love for, to finally fall in love with her.

In the rest of his lifetime, he would look up at the starry sky every day, filled with unstoppable tears and regret.

Li Fan showed no expression and resolutely chose another one.

The story contained within this [Mortal Stardust] was slightly more normal.

It was about a cultivator who, after witnessing his close relatives die from old age due to not being able to expel the miasma in their bodies and having no way to cultivate because of their lack of talent, made a vow to allow everyone in the world to cultivate as they wish.

Regrettably, this aspiration was too big and was unable to be realized for a long time.

Therefore, he lowered his aim from “everyone in the world” to “people of his family”.

After this cultivator rose to the heavens, his family started to have talents appear one after another.

In less than a hundred years, it quickly became a prominent power that could not be overlooked in that area.

“Reversing one’s talent…”

A gleam flashed in Li Fan’s eyes, spiritual power gathering in his palm, and he forcefully applied pressure.

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

In that instant, countless inexplicable realizations surged into his mind.

The Principle of Heaven and Earth, combined and crisscrossed, weaved into a huge web, forming the order that Heaven and Earth relied on to operate.

One of these principles, in the eyes of Li Fan at this moment, was particularly bright.

It was within reach, even the extremely mysterious patterns on it seemed to be clearly visible.

In an instant, this “fine thread” occupied all of Li Fan’s vision.

And the “fine thread” became as enormous as a pillar holding up the sky.

The wonderful aura emanating from it made Li Fan intoxicated. Many things that were difficult to understand in the past were now clear as day in a flash.

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

Staring at these faintly visible, elusive threads, a sudden realization emerged in Li Fan’s mind.

Although it looks like he is a puppet manipulated by the “huge pillar” through these fine threads.

But one day, if he is powerful enough, he may not be unable to reverse the situation and twist the “huge pillar” through these fine threads.

“Is this Contrary to the Logic of Heaven and Earth…”

Endless joy surged in his heart, even Li Fan, who was currently in seclusion in the deep trenches of the Misthaven Ocean, couldn’t help but tremble with excitement.

The method of immortality that he had been longing for through hundreds of lifetimes seemed to be right in front of him at this moment.

Although he knew that there was still a huge gap between knowing and actually doing it.

Even though the Heavenly Venerables in this realm only achieved a false state of immortality by reversing the Logic of Heaven and Earth.

But the gains at this moment still gave Li Fan a strong sense of satisfaction.

His mind was immersed, unaware of the passing of time.

When the [Mortal Stardust] was completely used up and he woke up from his enlightenment, he still felt as if he wanted more.

After lingering in his realization for most of the day, he finally came to his senses.

Subconsciously checking the time, Li Fan was startled to find that what he felt as a “short while” actually almost a year had passed in the outside world.

“No wonder Immortal Experts rarely care about worldly matters, only now do I understand what true cultivation without the concept of time means.”

“This is just me viewing an incomplete perspective through the [Mortal Stardust].”

“If I could truly see all the Principles of Heaven and Earth and immerse myself in them, I’m afraid a single retreat would consume decades.”

Li Fan couldn’t help but sigh to himself.

After reminiscing for a long time, Li Fan began to check out what had happened in the outside world during his one-year retreat.

Heavenly Machine Sect cultivator’s Communication Talisman was almost bursting with messages sent by He Zhenghao and others.

Li Fan didn’t rush to reply, but selected the key points to check.

The Battle of Heavenly Spirit State was still not over.

But it has already eased up quite a bit.

So the cultivators were able to get some news from the battlefield.

The effect of the Mystic Sky Locking Spirit Array Diagram that Li Fan handed over was immediate.

Just ten days after their trade was completed, during a medium-sized skirmish.

The Alliance of Thousands of Immortals tried to repeat their old trick and used the Tianxuan Sealing Spirit Formation to crush and massacre the cultivators of the Five Elders Organization.

However, they didn’t expect that the other party was already prepared.

A red protective light shone on every cultivator.

After the green and red merged, nothing strange happened.

During the bewilderment of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals, a brutal melee broke out.