As Senior Sister Zhao spoke, the figure of the former Great Dao Sect leader, Ji Changxi, appeared before Li Fan, and the tale began.
"Back then, we were simply too young. We thought we had hidden our secrets well enough, never imagining that a true expert could discern the techniques we cultivated from a single drop of blood.
"The techniques of the Xuantian Sect are ranked in four tiers, from highest to lowest: Xuan, Heaven, Earth, and Huang. The four techniques we obtained from those ruins were all of the highest Xuan tier.
"Not only were they profoundly mystical, in no way inferior to the true inheritances of the Great Dao Sect, they also possessed a quality so remarkable it stirred desire even in Ji Changxi himself.
"It is said that all Xuantian Sect techniques originate from the sect's supreme treasure: the Xuantian Treasure Mirror. Cultivated to a sufficient depth, they allow one to establish a connection with the mirror itself.
"Ji Changxi wanted nothing more than to seize us on the spot and tear the answers from our souls. But he knew the Xuantian Sect's techniques carried their own safeguards. Any technique obtained through force would come back twisted and corrupted, riddled with errors.
"They could only be acquired if the cultivator willingly wrote them down. And at that time, his own cultivation was only at the late-stage Dao Unity realm, not far above my own. Forcing the issue would have given him poor odds.
"So he chose to play the long game."
The figure of Ji Changxi let out a cold sneer. "On one hand, he deliberately sent us out on mission after mission, keeping our strength suppressed. Meanwhile, he used the resources and authority of his position to push his own cultivation forward.
"On the other hand, he combed through every text and record he could find, searching for a way to crack the security measures of the Xuantian Sect’s techniques.
"In truth, he came close. From the Great Dao Sect's secret archives, Ji Changxi unearthed an inheritance from the long-destroyed Xuantian Sect.
"Within it was a secret art called Seize Heaven and Replace It, a technique the Xuantian Sect had developed for use against its own members. It could strip a person completely of their technique and cultivation, then graft everything gained from practicing the Xuantian Sect’s techniques directly onto the user.
"And so, the day we returned to the mountain gate, he summoned me for an audience."
Ji Changxi's face rippled and dissolved, giving way to Senior Sister Zhao's breathtaking visage.
"Unfortunately for him, with all his planning, he missed one thing: I wasn't cultivating just one Xuantian Sect technique.
"What he also never anticipated was that I had long grown tired of him and wanted his place for myself."
Senior Sister Zhao reached out and stroked Li Fan's cheek, her gaze distant and entranced. "Junior Brother, do you have any idea what it is like to be soaked through by tens of thousands of drops of blood carrying the Immortal Plague? What kind of agony that is?
"Even our esteemed Sect Leader Ji could not endure it.
"My only regret is that the Immortal Plague ravaged him too thoroughly. I had no choice but to discard a portion of it."
She lightly licked her lips, savoring the memory.
"Only I Remain Through the Ages, when cultivated to its end, leaves nothing in this world but its practitioner. Because this technique is so profoundly sinister, you did not choose it back then, Junior Brother.
"Now, do you feel a twinge of regret?"
A flicker of regret did pass through Li Fan's heart.
But he was stubborn, and his words were defiant. "Hmph. What use is regret? That's long past. There's no chance to start over..."
He stopped.
In that instant, a peculiar feeling surged within him.
It seemed that, if he wished, he truly possessed the power to overturn everything.
But upon careful introspection, he couldn't pinpoint where this feeling came from. A faint sense of loss and confusion settled in his heart.
Senior Sister Zhao failed to detect the strangeness in Li Fan's behaviour.
She continued on her own. "Every action and its consequence is predetermined. All of this was fated, Junior Brother.
"I sensed Ji Changxi's malice early, though only vaguely. To preserve our lives, I secretly cultivated Only I Remain Through the Ages, seeking some sliver of survival within his schemes.
"This technique is overwhelmingly domineering, embodying the words 'Only I' to the extreme. After I began cultivating it, it gradually erased even your memory of the technique's existence.
"And when I finally made Sect Leader Ji a part of myself, I understood at last.
"This is our destiny. This is the fate that belongs to me.
"This world is full of noise and disturbance, crowded with people who have no place in it.
"So only I need remain.
"Though called the multitude, yet one in mind."
As the words left her mouth, the faces of every figure throughout the Great Dao Sect shifted, each one becoming the face of Senior Sister Zhao.
"Junior Brother, do you still love me?
"Come. Become one with your senior sister. Let us never part again."
They all gazed at Li Fan with deep affection, speaking as one voice.
Li Fan did not answer. His expression grew solemn.
Above his head, a black light shimmering with iridescent color took shape, coalescing into a flying dagger.
At the same moment, the aura radiating from him erupted and climbed, surging upward from that of a mortal through Qi Refinement, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, until it halted at the peak of Spirit Transformation.
He had done it. Drawing on the intimate dual cultivation session with Senior Sister Zhao moments before, he had shattered the restrictions placed upon him.
"I thought you had missed me so desperately that you couldn't wait to dual cultivate.
"It seems you had another purpose all along."
Even as she said it, Senior Sister Zhao's tone carried no surprise. She had sensed his maneuvering long before.
"What exactly do you think restoring your cultivation realm will accomplish against me?"
She regarded him with keen interest. "Who gave you such courage?
"Is it this Soul-Extinguishing Blade of the Soul-Severing Divine Reflection Technique?"
Li Fan did not answer her teasing directly.
His expression stayed grave. The iridescent-black Soul-Extinguishing Blade flickered above him, drawing power for a strike.
The Soul-Extinguishing Blade was the ultimate killing move of the Soul-Severing Divine Reflection Technique. Its name sounded unremarkable, but in truth it was a last resort, one that used the practitioner's own soul as its sacrifice.
"Multitude As One. Carried to its end, that path could defy the very principles of heaven and earth.
"Senior Sister, you truly are a heaven-sent prodigy.
"But it's a shame. Your Dao is not my Dao.
"Years ago, I once said I wished to become your eternal Dao Companion, to pursue eternal life alongside you, free and unburdened.
"Those words came from the deepest part of me, and they have not changed."
Li Fan's eyes were distant, filled with memory, as he sighed.
In that moment, while Senior Sister Zhao stood briefly still, a light of impossible intensity erupted from within him.
It flooded the skies above the Great Dao Sect, so brilliant that even the myriad bodies of Senior Sister Zhao could not help but close their eyes against the glare.