Each time Li Fan emerged from a session of secluded cultivation, he would glance at Return to Truth’s status panel, calculating the passage of time based on his biological age.
Anchor Year 1 corresponded to age twenty, and so on.
During his twelfth lifetime, he had frequently checked Return to Truth’s panel.
Yet when the time abruptly leaped from Anchor Year 29 to Anchor Year 39, Li Fan had failed to detect even the slightest anomaly.
Even when retrospectively examining the experiences of his twelfth lifetime, he remained oblivious to those ten years that had vanished from his existence.
Part of this blindness stemmed from cognitive fixedness.
After all, in most people’s understanding, time flowed continuously and indivisibly.
How could it be Anchor Year 29 one moment, and suddenly Anchor Year 39 the next?
But there was another, more critical reason: something seemed to have warped his perception, making him unconsciously overlook this discrepancy.
As the saying goes, "Once you get used to strangeness, it no longer seems strange."
What exactly had happened?
Who had stolen his time?
Li Fan couldn’t help but sink into profound dread.
Fear thrives in the unknown.
The Heavenly Physician was undoubtedly powerful, but at least he had a tangible form.
In this lifetime, Li Fan might be no match for him. But after ten cycles, a hundred cycles... with infinite simulation cycles, he would eventually grow to rival the Heavenly Physician’s heights and ultimately defeat him.
For the first time, however, this unknown entity evoked a sense of powerlessness in Li Fan.
He didn’t even know what it was, or how it had pilfered time that rightfully belonged to him.
What frightened Li Fan even more was that its influence persisted even after Return to Truth had activated.
This suggested the entity likely existed on the same level as Return to Truth itself. Or at the very least, its power approached that of Return to Truth.
This was the true root of Li Fan’s terror.
Return to Truth had always been the foundation of Li Fan’s quest for eternal life—the source of his unshakable confidence, no matter how formidable the enemy.
No matter how dire the crisis, he needed only to silently invoke Return to Truth.
Reality would dissolve into illusion, everything would reset to the beginning, and the threat would vanish without a trace.
But now... the absolute supremacy of Return to Truth was being tested.
Nearby, He Zhenghao and his daughter He Xinxin noticed the unease flickering across Li Fan’s expression.
Just as He Xinxin was about to speak, He Zhenghao subtly shook his head, stopping her.
A lingering fear echoed in Li Fan’s heart, persistent and unrelenting.
Fortunately, his will remained firm. He had survived countless brushes with death, and this threat, drawn from a past timeline, was not immediately fatal.
Gradually, Li Fan steadied his nerves and began carefully analyzing the incident.
Soon, he identified the irrational elements within this event.
Composing himself, Li Fan turned to He Zhenghao. "Fellow Daoist He, might I ask about the origins of Xinxin’s divination art? Could you share some details?"
Though phrased as a question, his gaze said otherwise.
After a moment’s hesitation, He Zhenghao felt compelled to explain. "My daughter’s divination art is called Heavenly Web of the Dao.
"It is a customized arcane art tailored specifically to her congenital Curio of heaven and earth, the Dao Pattern Compass.
“With its quality, it can just about qualify as half a Curio of Heaven.
As he spoke, He Zhenghao couldn’t help but reveal a hint of pride on his face.
A congenital Curio? Li Fan’s heart stirred.
In the Treatise on Curios , there were relevant records of this term.
Some cultivators were born with Curios of heaven and earth within their bodies.
These Curios all possessed extraordinary qualities and were perfectly attuned to the cultivators themselves.
However, such circumstances were exceedingly rare. The book only mentioned it in passing without elaborating further.
Those born with congenital Curios were nourished by the Curio’s laws from the womb.
Their cultivation speed was astonishingly fast, and any who survived to adulthood invariably became prodigies of their generation.
He hadn’t expected He Xinxin to belong to this category of people.
No wonder she had already reached the Foundation Establishment realm at such a young age.
Li Fan studied the young girl, thinking to himself.
He Xinxin felt strangely nervous under Li Fan’s gaze.
“Xinxin, why don’t you explain the general principles of Heavenly Web of the Dao to Uncle Li?” He Zhenghao suggested.
He Xinxin nodded.
Trusting her father, she began explaining without reservation.
“Humans live between heaven and earth as if dwelling within a vast web.
“Every action and movement affects the people, events, and objects around them.
“Those who haven’t achieved transcendence inevitably remain subject to influence from other people, events, and objects.
“These interweave and interact, forming all matters in the world.
“Any event that occurs in the world inevitably leaves traces.
“By observing these various marks left upon the great web, one can comprehend all worldly affairs.
“This web is called the Heavenly Web of the Dao. The traces are known as Eroded Sigils of the Dao.”
As the young girl spoke, the doubts in Li Fan’s heart gradually resolved.
The ten years in Yuandao Province had been stolen during his twelfth lifetime.
He Xinxin was merely a Foundation Establishment cultivator. No matter how prodigious her talent, she absolutely couldn’t have pierced through Return to Truth to deduce events from nearly a hundred lifetimes ago.
Moreover, that unknown entity that had stolen ten years from him operated at an extremely high level of existence. By all reasoning, it shouldn’t be something He Xinxin could calculate.
Yet she had somehow detected clues.
This was because an apple that has been bitten... is different from a whole apple.
Similarly, any being whose time had been stolen by this mysterious entity would certainly differ from other normal beings; they would carry a unique aura.
Although Li Fan had returned to a point before the time theft through Return to Truth, he hadn’t completely shaken off its influence.
His previous complete lack of awareness served as proof.
He Xinxin’s Heavenly Web of the Dao hadn’t directly divined the existence of Return to Truth or that time-stealing unknown entity.
But by performing a divination on Li Fan, she had glimpsed traces of Its influence, thus reconstructing what had happened to him.
Li Fan even speculated that if He Xinxin performed a divination for any other cultivator in Yuandao Province, she wouldn’t obtain the same results as with Li Fan.
That was simply beyond what a Foundation Establishment cultivator could perceive.
Even with a half-Curio of Heaven, the Dao Pattern Compass, it wouldn’t suffice.
If one were to draw a comparison, the unknown entity that stole time was like a black hole silently looming over Yuandao Province.
At regular intervals, it devoured a decade of time from the entire province.
Under normal circumstances, its existence could not be directly detected through ordinary observation or divination.
But because of Return to Truth, Li Fan escaped from this black hole.
Yet the black hole’s influence remained.
Thus, Li Fan became like the distorted light around a black hole: through him, one could infer the truth of It stealing time from Yuandao Province.