"Heh heh, the Lan Yu Treasure Boxes are also known to some as Lan Yu's legacy treasure," Han Yi began, a look of immense satisfaction on his face as he explained to the other two.
"It's said that before the great Immortal Venerable Lan Yu of Yuandao Province fell, he divided the treasures he had collected over his lifetime into different small blue boxes. He scattered them across Yuandao Province, leaving them for those destined to find them.
"And I, naturally, am one of those destined individuals.
"You probably won't believe this," Han Yi continued, his tone full of wonder at his own tale. "I had just arrived in Yuandao Province back then, completely in the dark, with no idea about anything. Suddenly, a small blue box descended from the heavens and flew right up to me.
"I thought it was some other cultivator's artifact and got quite a fright. After I recovered, I waited for a long time, but no one showed up to claim it. So, gathering my courage, I opened the box.
"Who could have imagined..." Han Yi seemed astonished by his own luck even now, clicking his tongue in reminiscence.
"You mean to say... a treasure like that just delivered itself to you?" Ximen Yue stared, dumbfounded, his finger trembling slightly as he pointed at Han Yi.
"Ah, Fellow Daoist Ximen, there's no need for such astonishment," Han Yi said with a light chuckle, gently pushing Ximen Yue's hand aside with his folding fan. "It was just a case of encountering a treasure while walking along the road. Nothing too remarkable, really." He sighed, a world-weary note entering his voice.
"In my life, I've experienced many rises and falls. Peaks and valleys. Nowadays, I can view such matters with equanimity."
Ximen Yue opened his mouth, then closed it, speechless. He could only turn his head away, refusing to look at Han Yi's face any longer.
Li Fan, however, suddenly recalled what he had heard during the fish betting game at Congyun Sea—that this Han Yi had once been swindled out of all his possessions by the Foundation Establishment Master, living in utter misery.
It seems he wasn't born with overwhelmingly strong providence. What caused this sudden turn in his luck?
Or is it more than just simple good fortune?
As these thoughts ran through Li Fan's mind, he added Han Yi to the list of individuals to observe closely in his next life. He betrayed none of this on his face, instead offering words of comfort to Ximen Yue. "Fellow Daoist Ximen, you really shouldn't be so disheartened. To obtain an Ambrosial Fruit proves your own luck is extraordinary!
"A treasure that extends one's lifespan by five hundred years is already truly formidable.
"By the way, might I ask where you obtained your Ambrosial Fruit?" Li Fan asked casually.
"How can they be the same?" Ximen Yue retorted. He appeared genuinely affected, his expression gloomy. "I obtained my Ambrosial Fruit only after facing death nine times over in the Liling Ruins of Tianhua Province! And him? The treasure fell from the sky!
"Isn't that just infuriating?" Ximen Yue was about to say more when a black figure appeared out of thin air, causing him to stop mid-sentence.
The figure's features were indistinct, as if shrouded by a layer of black gauze. But the faint, icy aura emanating from him triggered a strong sense of danger in Li Fan.
The expressions of Han Yi and Ximen Yue also instantly turned serious.
The black-clad figure scrutinized Li Fan and the others, then tossed a small round mirror into the air. The mirror halted mid-air, projecting a pillar of silver light that enveloped Li Fan and the other two. Faint characters seemed to flow upwards along the beam of light.
A moment later, the light pillar vanished.
"Follow me," the black-clad figure said.
He pointed toward the small round mirror in the sky. A moment later, the mirror’s circular boundary seemed to melt away like snow, spreading outward until it formed a rectangular portal before the flow ceased.
Silver light shimmered across the gateway, within which the faint, shifting silhouettes of countless buildings and cultivators flickered in and out of view.
This scene felt vaguely familiar to Li Fan. In an instant, his mind flashed back to the time in the Cosmos Branch Academy when he had witnessed the birth of new mirror surfaces of the Tianxuan Mirror.
Before he could ponder it further, Han Yi had already flown inside. Li Fan followed closely behind.
There was none of the disorientation that came with long-distance teleportation. It didn’t even feel different from ordinary flight; he couldn’t sense himself passing through any portal at all.
Yet, in the space of a breath, Li Fan had left the Garrison Command and arrived in an unfamiliar place. Looking back, the path he had taken had vanished without a trace.
Is this the headquarters of the Myriad Immortals Alliance? Li Fan took a deep breath, steadying the shock in his heart as he observed Han Yi and Ximen Yue, both seemingly stunned into silence on either side of him.
He focused his attention once more on the sight before him.
The first thing that met his eyes was a statue of the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher that towered between heaven and earth.
Unlike the statues he had seen in branches of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, this one appeared no different from a living person at first glance.
Silver hair, yet skin as smooth and tender as a child’s. Eyelids lowered, with a gaze that seemed profoundly compassionate. His robes, the tall headpiece upon his head—everything looked utterly real, rendered in exquisite, lifelike detail.
Even an aura of immense pressure emanated from the statue. Though it wasn’t directed specifically at him, it still felt like a heavy stone pressing on Li Fan’s chest, making it hard to breathe.
The moment he first laid eyes on this statue, an inexplicable, overwhelming terror surged within Li Fan. It nearly drove him to call upon Return to Truth and flee this place.
Fortunately, he managed to suppress the urge through sheer force of will. Only now, after a long while, could he slowly begin to think clearly again.
Li Fan kept turning it over in his mind, pondering the source of that sudden fear. It had been a spontaneous warning from his body and soul, a pure, instinctive reaction.
Though he didn’t understand the reason, Li Fan chose to trust his intuition. Gradually, he seemed to sense something. But the answer he arrived at left him incredulous.
Because, upon seeing this statue that seemed so lifelike, a sense of familiarity had welled up within him, as if he had seen it before. His body’s instincts had sounded the alarm on their own, plunging him into a deep chill he could scarcely control.
Familiarity? How is that possible? Where could it come from? The astonishment on Li Fan’s face now was utterly genuine, no pretense at all. He forced himself to overcome the fear in his heart and observed the statue once more, searching for the source of that familiarity.
Yet, when he looked again, that towering statue that reached for the heavens had vanished completely from his sight, as if it had been nothing but an illusion.
Just as Li Fan’s heart grew increasingly unsettled and suspicious, Han Yi’s awed voice reached his ears.
“The Heavenly Venerable imparting the Dao, all living beings bowing in reverence. What a magnificent scene that must have been! And how fortunate were the cultivators who witnessed it in person!”
A thought immediately stirred within Li Fan.
Heavenly Venerable imparting the Dao? Was what Han Yi saw different from my vision?
At that moment, Ximen Yue's voice chimed in at the perfect time, corroborating Li Fan's suspicion.
"The new methodology is established. Black blood rains from the heavens, all things weep as one. What a scene, both cruel and sublime...
"How I wish I had been born ten thousand years earlier, to witness it personally."
Just then, that same black-clad figure appeared beside them once more, as if from nowhere.
"This space retains a faint trace of the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher's aura," he explained softly. "Cultivators visiting for the first time often sense it and experience... visions."