Did the Thousand-Faced Demon Lord truly exist?
That question wasn't really important.
Since the Myriad Immortals Alliance and countless cultivators had already reached their verdict, his past didn’t matter. From this day forward, he was a ghost haunting the territories of the Myriad Immortals Alliance. He preyed on others, impossible to guard against.
Anyone could be the heinous Thousand-Faced Demon Lord.
And the final authority to interpret his identity lay in the hands of the Myriad Immortals Alliance, who possessed the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array.
That was what mattered most.
Li Fan could almost foresee the treacherous cultivation environment that awaited Myriad Immortals Alliance cultivators once the Soul-Locking Arrays were fully constructed.
If things truly reach that point, the situation will have completely collapsed. An insignificant Golden Core cultivator like me would find it nearly impossible to remain unscathed. Perhaps when the time comes, an early Return to Truth...
He would cross that bridge when he came to it. The widespread deployment of the Soul-Locking Array was still at least a decade away. Any further worries were, for the present Li Fan, nothing but needless trouble. He would take one step at a time, and see how things unfolded.
Li Fan suppressed the distracting thoughts in his mind and performed the ritual to enter the Fallen Immortal Realm.
"Blessed be Immortal Venerable Xuanhuang!"
The scene before his eyes shifted from blurry to clear.
The constant roar of rushing wind filled his ears.
They seemed to be flying at high altitude, and the piercing cold made Li Fan's shiver slightly.
Hmm? This time it's different from Ningyuan City. I'm not starting over in an egg? A sliver of self-awareness returned, and Li Fan was somewhat surprised.
But soon, he recalled the exact moment this scene had occurred.
The young boy Xu Ke was clinging tightly to the Azure Luan Bird's neck, while Li Fan hung from the boy's own neck.
The Azure Luan Bird was racing in a specific direction according to the boy's instructions.
Wasn't this precisely the final scene before he had left the Fallen Immortal Realm?
Has it truly become a serial drama?
Li Fan found it rather marvelous.
While he had lost the opportunity to explore chances and encounters through infinite repetition, he was also spared the frustration of being trapped in a repeating loop of time.
There were pros and cons.
Being incarnated as a Xuan Bird greatly limited Li Fan's capacity for thought.
He didn't bother overthinking it. Instead, he scratched at Xu Ke's hair and began to ponder the divine ability he had comprehended during his last entry.
Apart from the immensely powerful Xuan Light of Heaven’s Will, there was also Heaven’s Will is With Me, which could gather and prevent providence from dissipating.
Squinting his eyes, he looked again at the crown of Xu Ke's head and saw once more that pillar of violet-gold light shooting straight into the heavens.
Instinctively, Li Fan began to absorb the faint threads of energy radiating outward from the violet-gold radiance.
It was as if he had swallowed the most potent spiritual elixir in all creation. As those specks of violet-gold light entered his body, Li Fan felt as though he had plunged into a hot spring, warmth spreading through his entire being.
He could clearly feel both his soul and his physical body slowly growing stronger.
He let out a comfortable sigh, which transformed into a faint golden thread imperceptible to most people and flowed back into the pillar of violet-gold providence above Xu Ke's head.
The Heaven’s Will Xuan Bird... so that's how it is...
Li Fan suddenly understood the nature of the divine ability, Heaven’s Will is With Me.
Within heaven and earth, all living beings possessed their own providence, each unique.
Some experienced smooth sailing in all matters, turning calamity into fortune at every turn. Others were born utterly unlucky, managing to choke even on plain water.
But providence was not fixed. It was, in fact, profoundly susceptible to influence from the external environment.
A person who had sailed smoothly through the first half of their life might, after encountering certain events, suddenly find themselves beset by misfortune, their life taking a sharp turn for the worse.
Conversely, someone who had been dogged by bad luck for most of their days might one day find fortune smiling upon them, leading to a life of wealth and honor from that point on.
The reason for this lay in the fact that providence interacted with external objects and events, making it exceedingly volatile.
This was especially true for those with weak providence from the start.
For someone like Xu Ke, whose destiny was so exalted, his providence was not so easily shaken.
However, each time he encountered a calamity, a portion of his providence was consumed.
Furthermore, during his ordinary daily activities, his providence was constantly in a state of outward radiation, perpetually depleting itself.
Over time, if there was only outflow and no inflow, his providence would naturally grow weaker and weaker.
The divine ability of the Heaven’s Will Xuan Bird, Heaven’s Will is With Me, allowed the bird to absorb the providence its master naturally radiated. It nourished itself with this energy and then refined and returned this condensed providence back to its master.
Not only did this help its master store and strengthen their providence, avoiding wasteful consumption on trivial or inexplicable matters, but it also allowed the bird to temporarily lend its own providence to its master in moments of crisis, using this powerful surge of fortune to overcome life-or-death trials.
In essence, the Xuan Bird and its master complemented and completed each other in a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit.
It seems following this kid isn't so bad after all. Li Fan thought greedily, taking another deep breath of the invisible violet-gold energy.
"Hey, kid, where are you headed now?" With the absorption complete, Li Fan felt himself grow a bit stronger again.
On a whim, he decided to try communicating with Xu Ke. Not by speaking aloud, of course, but by projecting his thoughts.
"Wow! Little Hei, you learned telepathy!" Xu Ke's voice echoed in Li Fan's mind a moment later.
"Lit...tle Hei? Who are you calling that?" Li Fan lashed out, giving Xu Ke a sharp scratch.
"Ow, that hurts." Xu Ke rubbed his head, his tone full of innocence. "The red-crowned crane is Little Hong, the Azure Luan is Little Qing. You're all black and shiny, so calling you Little Hei isn't wrong, is it?"[1]
Li Fan pecked him several times in quick succession. "I am the magnificent Heaven’s Will Xuan Bird! How dare you give me such a vulgar name?!"
"Alright, alright," Xu Ke said, wincing from the pain and conceding. "Then I'll call you Little Xuan instead."
Li Fan was still somewhat displeased, but currently inhabiting the body of an exotic beast, his brain was not yet fully developed.
His mental capacity was insufficient, and he couldn't think of a better name on the spot, so he reluctantly let it go for now.
"You still haven't answered my question. Where’re we going?" Li Fan asked.
Seeing that Li Fan had tacitly accepted the name he'd given him, Xu Ke broke into a silly, gleeful chuckle.
He replied simultaneously in his mind, "We're going to find Senior Brother Lu Ya.
"The whole sect is still in complete chaos, all because Mister Bai was too heavy-handed. He scared everyone.
"Lots of fellow disciples don't want to stay and cultivate within the sect anymore. They think there's no future here.
"Everyone is fleeing. My senior uncles, senior grand-uncles, and many other seniors have all vanished to who-knows-where. No one has stepped up to restore order.
"The resulting disorder just keeps getting worse. It's really too dangerous. If we run into another one like Song Yang, we might not be so lucky next time.
"So I'm going to find Senior Brother Lu Ya. He's incredibly strong. Staying by his side has to be safer.
"And who knows, I might even get to see Mister Bai while I'm at it. Hehe."[2]
Xu Ke's thoughts came fast, his words tumbling out in a rapid stream.
"How do you even know where your Senior Brother Lu Ya is?" Li Fan asked, a note of surprise in his voice.
1. Hong = red, Qing = azure, Hei = Black ☜
2. Bai = white ☜