Three months after the Immortal Judgment Bell tolled, the conscription decree arrived as expected.
The master and disciples of the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect gathered to discuss the best course of action.
Li Fan tried to join them quietly, but Master Tian Yangzi sternly pulled him outside.
He could only vaguely hear the conversation from beyond the door.
“What bullshit is this conscription decree? Why should we obey? Those major sects have thousands of members. Sending a few is no problem for them.
“But our Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect has so few members, and they still want us on the front lines? What kind of logic is that?”
Second Senior Brother spoke just as vehemently as before.
Yet in the end, the result was the same.
Big Senior Brother was the first to join the war.
Before his departure, everyone bid him farewell with tears.
Li Fan asked his big senior brother who he was going to fight.
Si Xing merely smiled, patted his little junior brother's head, and said he was going to fight the bad guys.
Then he transformed into a streak of green light and soared into the sky.
After Big Senior Brother’s departure, the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect felt noticeably more somber.
Thankfully, Second Senior Brother remained as lively as ever, bringing laughter and warmth to those around him.
And when Li Fan successfully broke through to Foundation Establishment, the entire sect enjoyed a rare period of celebration.
But happiness was always fleeting.
One year and three months after Si Xing's departure, tragic news arrived.
Big Senior Brother had fallen in battle.
Second Senior Brother was filled with grief and fury. According to the information he had obtained in private, this was clearly caused by the Ten Great Immortal Sects underestimating their enemy.
At the outset, the battle had gone exceptionally well, with the enemy driven back step by step.
But the forces led by the Ten Great Immortal Sects had severely underestimated the enemy's true strength.
During one pursuit, they were suddenly ambushed and caught completely off guard. The losses were catastrophic, and the front lines nearly collapsed.
Thus, the Ten Great Immortal Sects issued another conscription decree.
The Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect naturally harbored endless resentment toward the Ten Great Immortal Sects. But unless they wished to be completely annihilated like other remote mountain sects, they had no choice but to obey the command and enlist once more.
This time, it was Second Senior Brother who went to the war front.
For this, he even fought fiercely with Third Senior Brother.
In the past, whenever the two senior brothers sparred, Third Senior Brother Lian Chang would usually come out slightly ahead.
This time, to prevent the other from going to their death, both fought with their true abilities.
This time, Lian Chang actually lost.
Second Senior Brother Ling Xiao’s strength was far more formidable than usual.
With a flourish of his wondrous brush, ink splashed into the air and instantly transformed into dozens of flying swords.
Though constructed from brushstrokes, they appeared as real as tangible blades.
They whistled through the air, crashing against the copper bell protecting Lian Chang.
His brush never slowed, summoning a storm of illusory artifacts that scattered like blossoms from the sky, battering his opponent relentlessly.
Lian Chang was left with almost no chance to fight back.
It turned out that all this time, Ling Xiao had been holding back.
Lian Chang was utterly despondent.
But Ling Xiao smiled and bid everyone farewell.
Before leaving, he entrusted Li Fan with dozens of his written works, books he hadn’t yet found the time to sell.
He warned Li Fan not to peek. But if he really couldn't resist, he should exercise moderation.
Then, he gracefully departed.
After Second Senior Brother Ling Xiao left, the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect fell into utter silence.
Watching his disciples depart one after another, Master Tian Yangzi seemed to age overnight.
Third Senior Brother Lian Chang had always been a man of few words. After this blow, he buried himself in cultivation with near-mad fervor.
Li Fan followed suit.
Two years and three months after Ling Xiao’s departure, the conscription decree arrived once again.
But Senior Brother Ling Xiao never returned.
This time, anticipating resistance, the Ten Great Immortal Sects dispatched a conscription envoy.
Disobedience would be punished by death.
As before, after a period of futile persuasion, Tian Yangzi set out for the battlefield.
Within the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s cave dwelling, only Li Fan and Third Senior Brother Lian Chang remained.
Though Li Fan had long known how events would unfold, he was nothing more than a Foundation Establishment cultivator swept up in a raging torrent. How could he possibly resist it?
He could only watch, helpless, as history repeated itself.
This war was even more brutal than the previous two combined.
Barely six months later, the exhausted conscription envoy returned, bearing yet another decree from the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
“The war has reached its most critical juncture.
“All sects and rogue cultivators must unite their strength to overcome this calamity together.
“Those who disobey orders, delay military operations, spread rumors, or attempt to defect to the enemy shall be executed without mercy.”
The authority of the immortals brooked no defiance.
As the youngest disciple of the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect, Li Fan was used as leverage. At the same time, the envoy dangled hollow promises of future rewards.
Lian Chang’s fists clenched until his knuckles whitened. In the end, however, he could only yield.
Before leaving, he handed Li Fan a jade slip containing the accumulated cultivation insights of the Embodiment Transformation Dao’s past masters.
He warned Li Fan not to venture out lightly, sealed the main entrance of the cave dwelling, and then departed without looking back.
Once again, Li Fan was left alone in the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect.
History had returned to its original course.
Reflecting on this simulation, Li Fan felt a twinge of helplessness.
In all fairness, he had done rather well.
Using the Crisis method from the medical classic, he had successfully awakened from his slumber and enjoyed a period of happiness with the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s disciples.
But though he possessed foreknowledge and could alter an individual's fate, he couldn't change the destinies of the many.
The entire cultivation world had been swept up in the ancient war. Even Eternal Heavenly Venerables found themselves trapped in its vortex, unable to escape.
Li Fan simply couldn't influence or change any of this.
So what exactly was Tian Yang's lingering regret?
Li Fan pondered this question while continuing his cultivation.
"Tian Yang is not weaker than others..."
Slowly, Li Fan began forming his own theory.
The young Tian Yang had watched helplessly as his master and senior brothers marched to war and willingly sacrificed themselves to protect one another.
As the sect's weakest member, the one everyone protected most, he alone had survived until the end.
All because of his "weakness."
Tian Yang's heart was filled with remorse and regret.
If only he had been stronger back then, stronger than all his senior brothers, could he have taken their places on the battlefield?
Would he have been spared watching them die one after another?
Might at least one senior brother have survived?
Perhaps this was Tian Yang's simple, straightforward lingering regret.
Time flowed steadily onward as Li Fan cultivated.
Five years and three months after Lian Chang's departure, the entrance to the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s cave dwelling was violently breached.
Seven cultivators attempting to claim the cave dwelling forced their way inside.
Having meditated in solitude for years without proper core formation guidance, Li Fan remained unable to break through his shackles and advance to the Golden Core realm.
The outcome was the same as before.
The simulated world vanished, and Li Fan returned to the reality of the cultivation world.
The number of remaining uses for Tian Yang's Eternal Remnant Will had also decreased to one.
Yet, to his surprise, Li Fan discovered that he hadn't come away empty-handed this time.
The dozens of posthumous works that Second Senior Brother Ling Xiao had entrusted to him before departing now appeared vividly within Li Fan's mind.
Li Fan remained silent for a long while before understanding dawned upon him.
Perhaps because he had remained trapped in slumber back then, unable to properly accompany his senior brothers during their final moments, this had become a lingering obsession.
After obliterating all traces of his presence on the sea floor, Li Fan returned to Myriad Immortals Island.
Under Ling Xiao's name, he uploaded each of those dozen-plus posthumous works one by one.
And so, this author who had died thousands of years ago once again began releasing new works.