After leaving the Laboratory, Li Ban first went outside the Northern Base.
Only when he reached a deserted area did he once again use "Shrinking Ground to an Inch" to leave his original location.
Once he was a good distance away from the base, Li Ban casually found a spot among some metallic scrap to sit down and pulled out the Self-Seeking Mirror.
This Self-Seeking Mirror wasn't his; it was the one he had picked up at the Hundred Flowers Pavilion.
After successfully acquiring his own, Li Ban had gained a basic understanding of the Self-Seeking Mirror.
He knew the mirror wouldn't directly devour a person's mind just because someone else was using it.
Because of this, he grew a little bolder in his research.
Li Ban held out the mirror, pointing it at himself, and waited for the throne to appear inside it once again.
He remembered seeing what looked like special patterns and text on the stone throne. Perhaps he could find corresponding records with the Priests, and use those symbols to figure out who the stone throne belonged to.
The starlight was dim, like an extinguished universe.
"What similarities does the starlight here share with my Star River?" he wondered.
Li Ban had previously asked Priest Zhu Yao about this. Before obtaining or nurturing a Wizard Embryo Fragment, a spirit practitioner's body couldn't hold spiritual rhinoceros, and thus wouldn't exhibit any unusual phenomena.
"We wish there were signs too," she had said. "That way, we could know in advance who has the chance to become a Priest. Unfortunately, only those who advance to the 8th Tier or 9th Tier show slight clues. Everyone else can only passively wait for fate's favor."
Therefore, the origin of Li Ban's Star River remained a mystery to this day.
Before becoming a Priest, he couldn't control the Star River and could only admire the scenery whenever he cultivated his spiritual rhinoceros. After he became a Priest, the Star River vanished entirely, leaving only a faint mist in his consciousness.
As such, having finally encountered an entity with a similar Star River background, Li Ban was eager to find out who they were and what those stars meant.
Just as Li Ban leaned in to examine the patterns on the stone throne, he suddenly noticed the image had changed.
He didn't know when, but a person had appeared on the throne.
The figure wore a Black Robe and sat upright. However, instead of a human face beneath the hood, there was only a pattern that resembled a black hole.
When Li Ban gazed at the face, he felt as though his very vision was being sucked inside.
"Hah!" He hurriedly pulled the mirror away.
At that moment, the figure in the mirror spoke.
The voice echoed directly in Li Ban's mind.
"You've started over again?"
"What? What are you talking about?" Li Ban responded in his mind.
But the Faceless One said no more.
Li Ban slowly narrowed his eyes. "So you like speaking in riddles, huh? Do you want me to find a rift and toss you into the Dark Side of the Universe, just to see if you can still find someone to play guessing games with?"
The Faceless One laughed.
"Heh, I am no riddler. It's just that there is no point in saying it."
"Shouldn't I be the one to decide if there's a point or not?"
Li Ban noticed the other party didn't seem angry. "Who are you? Who am I in your eyes? And what do you mean by 'started over'?"
"I am a failure. You are someone who refuses to accept failure. Started over—naturally, it means exactly what it sounds like."
Since the entity refused to speak plainly, Li Ban let his imagination run wild. "Alright, let me translate. You are someone who failed to become a Great Wizard, or perhaps a dead Great Wizard. And I am someone who tried to save the world but failed several times. With each failure, the world resets. Is that it?"
Li Ban sensed shock radiating from the Faceless One.
"I guessed right?"
The Faceless One vanished with a swoosh.
It was just as abrupt as his appearance.
Although Li Ban had managed to scare the Faceless One off with a string of fabricated nonsense, the entity's intense reaction left him feeling somewhat unsettled.
"Don't tell me I guessed it completely right?"
He was forced to review his own life story once more, recalling all the various events of his past life.
"Although memories can be deceiving, my intuition still tells me it was transmigration," he thought.
He opened his eyes, his mood calming down a bit. "Perhaps the Faceless One in the mirror wasn't looking at me."
The mirror in Li Ban's hand was instantly swapped out for his own Self-Seeking Mirror.
Reflected in this mirror, Li Ban saw a face that didn't belong to him from before he transmigrated, nor was it his face in the Wizard World.
It was the face of his body in the Shadow World.
It was also the most handsome face he had ever possessed.
"Could the Faceless One have been referring to the original soul of this identity?"
He possessed Gu Yi's Testament, and his body was fused with the Virus element that Du An had deliberately transferred from the Wizard World to the Ring World.
When he woke up, he had appeared in a backward Experimental Capsule.
From then on, Gu Yi was supposed to vanish from the world—
"Could this body actually be Gu Yi's true body? The reason Du An didn't recognize this face might be because Gu Yi's existence was wiped from his consciousness. Aside from a name and his identity as General, I know nothing about the original Gu Yi. Even the body Chen Dong possesses might not necessarily be Gu Yi's original body."
"It's all fake—if things really are as I suspect, the Ring World is fake too. Then who constructed the Ring World?"
"Gu—Yi?"
"There was a line in the testament: sixty-seven minutes left. I never paid it much attention before, but could that time have some special meaning?"
Unfortunately, Li Ban had yet to encounter any numbers related to sixty-seven.
He pondered for a long time but remained completely clueless.
He massaged his throbbing head. "Forget it, forget it. The Laboratory, the Ring World—what does any of it have to do with me?"
Li Ban tossed both Self-Seeking Mirrors back into his Cubic Heaven and Earth.
No matter whose body this was, and no matter what Gu Yi was plotting, Li Ban was just Li Ban, a soul who had accidentally wandered into the Laboratory.
He had broken free from his shackles through the Wizard World. In the future, he would continue to grow stronger, become a Great Wizard, and reach the level of a creator, thoroughly casting off all the lingering troubles brought on by his past identities.
Upon returning to the Northern Base, Li Ban didn't say a word and went straight to sleep.
The Crown Prince's investiture ceremony was about to begin.
Before she left, Priest Zhu Yao had told Li Ban that his journey to cultivate his heart could start by witnessing this very ceremony.
"Only by seeing all the splendor can you let go of it," she had said.
Because of Priest Zhu Yao's words, Li Ban didn't hole up in the Heavenly Pavilion to cultivate during the final days before the ceremony as he usually did. Instead, he wandered around the Imperial Palace.
However, he didn't yet know any spells to make others ignore his presence. Every time he showed up somewhere, it disrupted the people busy working.
As a result, Li Ban could only hide in the distance and watch silently.
Priest Chu Zhan had told Li Ban that the spell capable of making ordinary people ignore their presence was called "World Without Me." However, due to its unique nature, only Priests at Star Glow or above could learn it.
Li Ban first went to Shunyi Palace to see Li Fu and Li Yan before the ceremony.
The two of them were still confined to Shunyi Palace. They didn't seem to lack food or clothing, but their personal freedom was clearly restricted.
Seeing Li Ban this time, Li Yan appeared much more enthusiastic.
She had even changed into a high-collared tunic to help conceal the scars behind her ears.
"Priest Ban." Li Yan placed her hands at her waist and bent her knees, offering a standard curtsy common among women.
"I came to see how your preparations are coming along. Once the investiture ceremony is over, I will leave the Capital City immediately." Li Ban's gaze fell on Li Yan's face.
Perhaps because she had received Li Ban's promise, the originally gloomy Ninth Princess radiated a newfound vitality.
"Everything is ready. I haven't packed much luggage, so I absolutely won't cause you any trouble."
Li Yan had completely changed her mindset. Facing Li Ban now, there was none of the awkwardness and disappointment from their last meeting.
Clearly, she was working hard to ensure she wouldn't be abandoned by Li Ban after they left the Capital City.
He didn't know if Li Fu had persuaded her or if she had figured it out on her own.
Her current mindset was probably similar to what the Cat Girl had thought back then.
Following a Priest might be her only chance to turn her life around.
Li Yan was still very confident in her looks. After bowing, she lowered her chin slightly and looked up at Li Ban with gentle, glistening eyes.
The angle made her eyes look as bright as stars.
When the former assassin leader tucked away all her sharp edges, she too could be as tender as water.
Looking at Li Yan like this, Li Ban spaced out for a moment.
He thought of the Cat Girl.
The Little Cat would occasionally look at him like this on purpose.
Except, when the Cat Girl looked at him, her eyes would go wide and round—making him want to poke her in the forehead with a finger.
Noticing Li Ban's gaze, Li Yan's cheeks flushed red. She wanted to lower her head in a bashful display, but the stiff scars behind her ears hindered the motion.
Li Yan paused, forced to swap her shyness for a graceful smile.
Meanwhile, Li Fu stood off to the side the whole time, watching his finally enlightened sister with gratification.
"Yan'er," Li Fu thought silently, quietly lowering his own presence. "This might be our only chance to leave."
Just as the atmosphere was growing increasingly weird, someone suddenly pushed open the palace doors and walked in.
Li Ban turned to look, surprised to see the formerly high-spirited Eldest Prince, Li Yuan.
It had been a long time. Li Yuan appeared in full military attire, his expression arrogant and stern as he looked down his nose at his surroundings.
However, when he spotted Li Ban in the room, his expression froze. He reluctantly cupped his fists in a salute.
"Greetings, Priest Ban."
Li Ban lowered his eyes and didn't reply.
Li Yuan waited for a moment before finally dropping his hands in embarrassment.
Still, he retained his pride as the Eldest Prince. Seeing that Li Ban was ignoring him, he didn't try to force a conversation.
He stepped around Li Ban and Li Yan in the middle of the room and walked up to Li Fu. "I've come to bid you farewell."
Li Fu nodded calmly. "I heard."
Li Yuan sneered. "For being locked up in this little place, your information network sure is well-informed."
Li Fu smiled helplessly. "It's the only way I can pass the time. Even though you were stripped of your status as a prince, it's good that you retained your title as a general and can still go fight on the battlefield. I actually envy you."
Li Yuan's attitude didn't soften at Li Fu's display of weakness. "If I were you, locked up in here forever, I'd rather end things early."
Listening from the sidelines, Li Yan finally couldn't hold back.
Although she used to follow Li Yuan, he had never treated her like a sister. If she hadn't been completely out of options, why would she have ever willingly worked for him?
"Li Yuan, stop spouting nonsense!"
Only then did Li Yuan's gaze shift to Li Yan. He deliberately stared at her ear and scoffed. "Now that you see I won't be the Crown Prince, you're not calling me 'Big Brother' anymore? Makes sense. You and Old Sixth both think Li Fu is a good person. Heh, little do you know, if you cut some good people open, you'll find their hearts are pitch-black."
He looked back at Li Fu. "If Old Sixth knew that you had a hand in the Rebellion of the Two Kings back then, do you think he'd have you executed by a thousand cuts after he ascends the throne?"