Chapter 657: Draining Providence, Defying The World’s Principles
Chapter 657: Draining Providence, Defying The World’s Principles
White, green, blue, red, purple. Even among mortals, my providence is among the most abysmal.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Faced with this disheartening truth, his heart stirred with little turmoil.
So-called providence was only one of many factors that could shape a person's fate and the opportunities they encountered. For Li Fan, who could endlessly start over, if an opportunity didn't come to him, he could simply go find it himself. As long as it wasn't the black calamity providence that drew every manner of misfortune and variable, it didn't matter much.
Li Fan cultivated Heaven's Will Is With Me for half a day. Then he couldn't help but frown slightly and stop.
Compared to a true Xuan Bird, trying to make progress by relying on just a single feather is too slow. Without a noble benefactor like Xu Ke to siphon providence from, and just foolishly cultivating like this, it would probably take hundreds of years to build up any significant amount of providence.
Providence, huh...
Frustrated with cultivation, Li Fan shifted approaches at once.
With the help of Return to Truth, I can know things before they happen. I don't need providence at all.
Providence and fate are intertwined, flowing through the world in accord with heaven. To reveal it outwardly is nothing but a flaw. One day, some cultivator well-versed in this path might use it to scheme against me...
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind, and a plan formed.
He activated his divine ability, but this time he didn't choose to nurture his own providence. Instead, he took his already meager providence and channeled it in reverse, into the Xuan Bird Feather within his body.
From Li Fan's perspective, a small vortex seemed to open within him. The thin pillar of white smoke struggled for only a moment before it was drawn helplessly inside.
Perhaps because his own providence was already so weak, he felt no discomfort at all once the absorption was complete.
Now, even if Li Fan activated the divine ability of the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird, he could no longer see any pillar of providence smoke above his own head.
It was as if he had become a legendary Man Without Providence.
All good fortune and opportunity now have nothing to do with me. But by the same token, the risk of providence backlash or calamity is also greatly reduced.
He examined the Xuan Bird Feather in his dantian again. Having absorbed his providence, it seemed to shine a shade brighter than before.
I'm not truly a man without providence, though. Even scattered, it will regenerate through daily life. And I can use this feather to reabsorb it as it does.
At a critical moment, I could even release all the providence stored in the Xuan Feather at once. Perhaps that would be enough to turn the worthless into the extraordinary.
His thoughts raced, working out the logic. Li Fan was very satisfied with this harvest from the Fallen Immortal Realm.
He turned his attention inward for a moment. It seemed another year or more would have to pass before he could enter again.
The Heavenly Sword Sect...
In the first two scenarios, Mister Bai played an implicit but important role. I wonder what connection he has to the forging of the sword in the Heavenly Sword Sect.
A moment later, Li Fan set the thought aside.
While he had been wandering through the Fallen Immortal Realm, Liu San had already informed every cultivator in the sect of the ritual to enter it.
On hearing that they could travel back to ancient times by unorthodox means, the disciples grew wildly excited, and one after another they rushed to try it themselves.
The eras they entered were strange and varied, full of all manner of things.
After each of them woke, Liu San had dedicated personnel collect and organize their accounts.
To Liu San's eyes, the Fallen Immortal Realm was nothing less than a colossal treasure vault, a free training ground. Used well, it could vastly accelerate the Medicine King Sect's path to revival.
When Li Fan emerged and learned of this, he compiled the guides he'd found on the Seeking Immortals board and distributed them among the disciples, making their explorations far more efficient.
As for the gains within the Fallen Immortal Realm, Liu San had once proposed that the disciples turn everything over to him, so Li Fan could allocate the resources centrally.
Li Fan rejected the idea.
Stealing another's opportunity was like killing their parents. Bloodline Transference hadn't gone so far that he could treat these people as slaves. Stirring up resentment among the disciples for the sake of some minor benefit would cost far more than it was worth.
"In all things, stability comes first," Li Fan reminded Liu San once more.
Amid Liu San's flattery of "the young master's mindset is beyond what I could ever match," Li Fan quietly slipped away from Longevity Valley.
As he wove through the White Mist, about to return to the main territory of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, he noticed a squadron of Nascent Soul cultivators patrolling on alert just beyond the White Mist Barrier.
Clearly, this was the result of the Five Elders Council's incessant harassment and attacks.
With a faint smile, Li Fan silently skirted around them and headed straight for Luoyan Province.
His target was none other than Han Yi, now transformed into a stone statue.
Li Fan didn't know what change had come over Han Yi, but the stone statue he'd become was truly sinister.
Earlier, Li Fan had done some research using the Tianxuan Mirror. Much time had passed, and who knew how many cultivators had passed by the statue since.
Yet not one of them had detected Han Yi's presence, let alone realized that the stone statue was constantly devouring the providence of every living creature around it.
And from the scraps of information he'd gathered, the area under Han Yi's influence was slowly expanding.
It was conceivable that if he never woke, all of Luoyan Province might eventually fall under his sway.
Before, Li Fan had no way to resist the theft of his providence. Thus, even knowing this, he wouldn’t risk his life.
But now, having acquired the feather of the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird and gained access to the Xuan Bird's divine ability, he could give it a try.
Over ten days later, Li Fan arrived at the mortal town he remembered.
It was not far outside this city that Old Man Fisher had turned Han Yi into a stone statue.
By now, this mortal city had clearly fallen within the range of the statue's influence.
Looking out, Li Fan saw that the pillars of providence above the mortals' heads, regardless of their grade, were all wrapped in a thick, dark aura.
In reality, this meant the people of the city were plagued by misfortune, unable to get anything right.
Falling and getting injured while out walking was the least of it. Choking to death while eating, or watching a business collapse and a family fall apart, were not uncommon occurrences. Some mortals had already sensed something was wrong and tried to flee.
But more often than not, they died gruesomely partway down the road, for no reason anyone could name.
Li Fan watched from the sky for a while. Each time a mortal died, the pillar of providence above their head shattered instantly.
And the coiling blackness seized the moment to feast, devouring it whole. Once it had its fill, it vanished at once, heading off to some unknown destination.
Interesting.
Just as Li Fan sank into thought, he felt a sudden chill at his back, as if something were closing in on him, fast.
A chill raced down his spine. His expression flickered, and he twisted his body aside, barely dodging a streak of sword light.
"Fellow Daoist, be careful!"
The blade flew past him, then slammed into the mortal city below.
Boom!
In the span of a single breath, the entire city was wiped out. Before they could even scream or cry out, every mortal within those walls was simply gone.