Chapter 671: Severing Providence, Entering the Pivot Return
Chapter 671: Severing Providence, Entering the Pivot Return
For every inch he advanced, the pull on his providence grew stronger.
The world's heavenly providence stored within the Xuan Bird Feather gushed out like water through an opened sluice gate. Li Fan's expression shifted slightly.
This Han Yi statue's terrifying ability to drain providence far surpassed his imagination.
An ordinary cultivator would have been drained dry in an instant, with ill fortune descending in a heartbeat, dropping dead on the spot.
Even someone like Xu Ke, a man of great providence, probably wouldn't hold out for long.
But while a single individual's providence couldn't endure long within this providence-draining field, the providence of an entire world was another matter entirely.
This statue's absorption rate had an upper limit. What Li Fan lost each moment amounted to a drop in the bucket compared to the vast reserves stored within the Xuan Bird Feather.
Li Fan estimated that even if he stood here and let the statue drain him to its heart's content, it would take half a day before it drained him dry.
As they say, divine ability cannot contend with the Mandate of Heaven!
He drew on the world's heavenly providence within the Xuan Bird Feather again, forming a protective field around himself. With his safety assured, Li Fan calmly studied the Han Yi statue before him.
Its face was frozen in terror, its eyes filled with despair, so lifelike it was unsettling.
The statue seemed halted in time, fixed at the very moment Han Yi received his fatal wound.
Han Yi must have turned into this after meeting Old Man Fisher. Was it Old Man Fisher's doing, or the effect of the Heavenly Providence Scripture?
Li Fan didn't act rashly. He observed instead.
Seeming alive, yet not alive. Dead, yet not dead.
An Oddity!
Earlier, through the Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art, Li Fan had gained a general understanding of the Heavenly Providence Scripture. It didn't seem to contain any method for such a bizarre transformation.
If anything came close, it would be a divine ability called Providence Severance, Pivot Return.
Facing a life-or-death crisis, the user could sever their own providence, cutting off all connection to the world and entering a state known as Pivot Return, a realm of no-void and no-self.[1]
In this state, the physical body and thoughts were halted completely, and the practitioner vanished into the void, drifting outside the world, undetectable by others.[2]
The Pivot Return state could last months or even years. The cultivator would only slowly return to normal once the external crisis had fully passed.
It was a method with severe side effects, but its life-preserving capability was remarkable.
Perhaps the interaction between Old Man Fisher's attack and Providence Severance, Pivot Return had created this statue.
After studying it for a long time, Li Fan felt he'd grasped something.
Han Yi had invoked this life-preserving technique, but the gap in power between him and Old Man Fisher was too vast. Before he could fully enter the Pivot Return state, Old Man Fisher's technique struck him.
Hmm... Old Man Fisher likely hadn't meant to kill Han Yi. He'd probably only been searching Han Yi's mind for clues about the Heaven-Scorning Sword. But even that search was more than Han Yi could withstand. Caught in the blast, he became this statue.
Providence Severance means returning one's own providence to the heavens, abandoning it. Yet this statue has begun drawing providence from the external world instead.
Was that Old Man Fisher's doing?
As his thoughts raced, Li Fan's expression grew grave.
He soon pulled his mind back from its wandering. His gaze turned ice-cold as it settled on Han Yi.
If this were only a matter of being trapped in the Pivot Return state, you might have woken one day. But with Old Man Fisher's interference, you will never recover.
Living like this is worse than death. Let me grant you release.
Li Fan pointed at Han Yi and unleashed the Purple Firmament Soul Observation Art.
Han Yi's consciousness lay in absolute stasis, so Li Fan met no resistance as he swam freely through his mind. Every secret, even those in the darkest recesses of Han Yi's heart, lay bare before him.
At that moment, Li Fan understood Han Yi better than Han Yi understood himself.
After extracting every last shred of thought from Han Yi's mind, Li Fan flicked a finger. A pitch-black sword light shot forth and pierced straight through the stone statue's chest.
The statue crumbled into countless particles and dissipated into the air.
At the same time, the providence-draining field around it vanished without a trace.
No phenomenon of a cultivator's fall lit the sky above. Instead, an invisible storm erupted on the spot. With Han Yi's disappearance, the providence he'd drained over that long span returned to the heavens.
Li Fan had no intention of letting this rare opportunity slip by. He activated the Xuan Bird Feather and, in the brief window before this ownerless providence could disperse, devoured it in one gulp. Then, before anyone could sense the anomaly, he slipped away unseen.
Back in Longevity Valley, Liu San and the others were still hard at work, so he left them undisturbed.
Li Fan entered the sect leader's cultivation chamber and laid out the brown jade bottle holding Xu Ke's essence blood, along with the materials for forging an avatar.
He was about to begin when a faint sense of wrongness rose in his heart.
I'm currently at the early-stage Nascent Soul realm. Any avatar I create will be capped at the final-stage Golden Core realm. My plan was to have this avatar cultivate Han Yi's Heavenly Providence Scripture. But if I forge the avatar first and let it attempt a breakthrough on its own...
Who knows? Its Heavenly Tribulation bottleneck might prove even more stubborn than my own. That would be a waste of time. Better to let my true self cultivate first and break through to the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm. That way, I will achieve twice the result with half the effort.
Li Fan considered this a moment, then put the materials away. He rose into the sky above the Beastkin World.
I formed my Nascent Soul with the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens. To break through quickly, I need deep insight into the principles of the five elements.
In the Xuanhuang World, I might have had to search long and hard for that. But here, in the Beastkin World...
The movement of heaven and earth, the cycling of the five elements, is all just a thought away.
This minor world holds less energy, and Little Hei's fate is a warning against growing too entangled with it. But it will more than suffice for my cultivation to the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm.
Li Fan closed his eyes. A moment later, an inverted funnel seemed to form in the firmament, slowly drawing up the power of the five elements that sustained the Beastkin World. The energies clashed against each other, producing a deafening roar at intervals. The sky turned into a riot of brilliant color, making for a spectacular sight.
Liu San and Fang Zaiji looked up and faintly made out Li Fan's figure standing above the clouds. They nodded.
"When the young master cultivates, his presence is truly extraordinary. I see a shadow of the old master's bearing in his prime!" Liu San said, satisfaction in his voice.
"Heh, I'd wager even Liu Ruchen is no match for him!" Fang Zaiji had no intention of sparing Liu San's feelings, and contradicted him outright.
Liu San's face stiffened. But, contrary to his usual nature, he didn't argue back.
"The disciple surpassing the master is a good thing. Otherwise, wouldn't our Medicine King Sect simply repeat its old mistakes?
"It's a good thing," Liu San repeated.
The two of them ordered every disciple to leave Li Fan undisturbed. Together they set up protective barriers around him, and only then did they feel at ease.
Time flowed on, and Li Fan immersed himself in cultivation.
In the blink of an eye, two years passed.
1. 无空无我 (wú kōng wú wǒ) a state beyond emptiness and ego; complete cessation of existence as a perceivable entity. ☜
2. something like a metaphysical disappearance from the world's awareness.
Why is it named “Pivot?” 枢 (shū) is the door hinge or the pivot of a wheel, the central point around which everything turns. Figuratively, a pivot is a point of stillness at the center of motion. Things revolve around it, but it does not move itself. 归 (return) + 枢 (pivot) = returning to the still center, the unmoving axis. In this context, the cultivator retreats from the world into a state of complete stillness — no action, no movement, no interaction. They become the still point, untouched by the turning world ☜