Li Fan caught the deliberate omission in Senior Sister Zhao's words, and his mind stirred.
He did not press further.
Though they were Dao Companions, she was the Dao Heir of the Great Dao Sect, destined to come into contact with matters of the highest secrecy. That she could not speak openly was only natural.
"Regardless, by seizing and publicizing the Taishang Primordial True Scripture, Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher indirectly saved countless cultivators. That counts as a great merit." Li Fan sighed.
Then a thought struck him, and he stopped, a slight frown forming.
"What is it?" Senior Sister Zhao noticed his expression and asked with mild surprise.
"Defying the principles of heaven..." Li Fan looked directly at her.
"The Exclusivity of Techniques—that is also a principle of heaven and earth, is it not? If a cultivator reversed that principle and attained the Dao, achieving eternal life, wouldn't the Xuanhuang World be saved?"
Senior Sister Zhao was quiet for a moment, then shook her head. "You're not wrong. Several seniors have attempted exactly that.
"But without exception, they all failed.
"The stronger a principle of heaven and earth, the harder it is to reverse. The Exclusivity of Techniques arose naturally from the world itself as a counterforce against cultivators.
"And if you look deeper, this principle has already been reversed once before. To reverse it again would be more than twice as difficult.
"Otherwise, with all the prodigies among the Ten Immortal Dao Sects, why has no one tried to reverse the Axiom of the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher and shatter the new methodology at its foundation?"
Li Fan weighed the meaning behind his senior sister's words and sank into thought.
Three years after the chaos, cultivators had gradually learned to live with the Exclusivity of Techniques.
Being unable to advance their cultivation had become a convenient excuse. They stopped making the daily effort altogether, spending their time in idle amusement.
Life wasn't so bad, they told themselves.
Those of exceptional talent were a different matter. Under arrangements made by their sect elders, they were granted the privilege of cultivating a single technique in full.
Senior Sister Zhao was among them.
The technique she now practiced, the Impermanent Spirit Profound True Scripture, was far inferior to the Heaven-Slaying Great Dao Scripture, but it was enough to carry her to the Eternal Life realm.
Senior Sister Zhao, however, was not a woman of small ambitions. Mediocrity would never satisfy her.
As the saying goes, once you have seen the ocean, ordinary waters lose their appeal.
Having cultivated the most exquisite technique in the world, practicing a second-rate method now felt like chewing wax.
So she turned her attention to the two remaining techniques of the Xuantian Sect, and after deliberation, settled on the Heaven's Lament, Earth's Anguish Scripture.
"Heaven laments, earth grieves, the whole world in mourning. This technique is only half a step beneath the Heaven-Slaying Great Dao Scripture!" she said approvingly.
"The Xuantian Sect truly earned its name as the former ruler of the Xuanhuang World. A single Dharma King carrying so many profound techniques—one can only imagine what that Holy Emissary who escaped took with him," Senior Sister Zhao added, almost as an aside.
"Holy Emissary? A Holy Emissary of the Xuantian Sect?" Li Fan asked. "He actually escaped the pursuit of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects?"
"Not only did he escape, he took the Xuantian Sect's supreme treasure with him, the Xuantian Treasure Mirror. After that, he vanished without a trace. Even after the Ten Sects scoured every corner of the Xuanhuang World, they found nothing."
Senior Sister Zhao shook her head, letting the subject drop.
"Junior Brother, it has been so long since we last dual cultivated..." she murmured, a faint blush rising in her cheeks.
"Heh..." Li Fan understood her perfectly. He drew Senior Sister Zhao into a secluded chamber and sealed the space around them.
***
The peaceful days did not last.
Li Fan knew little of the world outside, but within the Great Dao Sect, when the first disciple died from exhausting his lifespan, unable to break through to the next realm in time, a current of anxiety began to spread through the ranks.
Li Fan attended the funeral of that cultivator, a man named Zhu Jun.
It was a simple, hasty affair. The body was cremated and, in accordance with Zhu Jun's final wishes, buried on a mountainside.
The atmosphere was not one of deep grief. Yet Li Fan clearly saw the sorrow in every cultivator's eyes, the sorrow of watching a rabbit die and knowing the fox might be next.
Not long after, a phrase began to circulate through the Great Dao Sect: "Zhu Jun yesterday, the rest of you tomorrow."
The sect had an Eternal Life powerhouse keeping order, so open rebellion was out of the question. But the sentiment spread nonetheless. If you were going to die, why die a coward's death on the mountain? Why not descend and seek some sliver of hope?
Moved by Zhu Jun's death and driven by such thoughts, many disciples chose to voluntarily disperse their techniques and apply to leave the sect.
Sect Leader Ji Changxi was not a heartless man. He granted their requests.
He even promised that if they reached a true dead end and regretted their decision, they could return at any time.
Several disciples wept on the spot and changed their minds, resolving to remain within the sect and share its fate.
But a small number still insisted on leaving.
Ji Changxi did not stop them.
With that restless element gone, the Great Dao Sect settled back into calm.
Yet anyone with eyes could see the terror building silently beneath the surface, waiting to break.
Less than half a year later, some of those who had left came back to the mountain gate, crying and wailing.
They wept outside the sect’s protection array, begging the sect leader to let them return.
When they finally re-entered and described what lay outside, the remaining disciples understood, for the first time, just how fortunate they were.
The Exclusivity of Techniques had turned the world outside into a slaughterhouse.
The peace of former days was gone without a trace. You could be walking down a road, and a cultivator might leap out at you without warning, attacking with the intent to kill, all for whatever technique you might be carrying.
Those who had left the sect had already dispersed their techniques and carried only a handful of defensive artifacts. In that kind of world, they'd had almost no chance.
The ones who made it back alive, even grievously wounded, were the lucky ones.
After that, the fight went out of them. They stopped speaking of cultivation and simply drifted through their days within the sect, waiting.
The disciples who had stayed felt a chill too. No one spoke of leaving the mountain again.
Then, one day:
"Senior Sister, have you noticed anything strange?" Li Fan sought out Senior Sister Zhao, his expression grave.
"Hmm? Is something wrong with your cultivation?" Senior Sister Zhao had been unusually lost in thought. She surfaced slowly, a frown forming as she asked.
"Why are so many disciples coughing?" Li Fan noticed her odd demeanor and something shifted in his eyes, but he let it go and raised what had been troubling him instead.
"Coughing? That can't be right. Their techniques may have been dispersed, but their cultivation realms are intact. Cultivators don't fall ill like mortals."
Even as she said it, Senior Sister Zhao swept her divine sense outward, and her expression changed completely. Without another word to Li Fan, she was already airborne, flying straight toward a pallid, sickly-looking disciple below.