Shi Ming still looked dazed. He only spoke after several pressing questions from the white-robed priest.
"I don't know. I—at the very end, I only saw a cloud of black mist appear behind Li Ban—"
"Right, that mist must have swept away Li Ban's soul." Seeing Shi Ming's prolonged daze and apparent severe shock, the white-robed priest could only soften his tone, gently guiding him to remember. "And then? What happened next? Why did Priest Qian Que ask you to retrieve Li Ban's soul? How does he want you to find it?"
Shi Ming slowly turned to look at the white-robed priest. "I don't know. I... I saw myself in Li Ban."
The white-robed priest slowly narrowed his eyes. "Yourself?"
Li Ban was not a mirror, so naturally, Shi Ming could not have seen his own reflection in him.
Unless what he saw was—
"Did you remember something?"
A smile uglier than a crying face slowly surfaced on Shi Ming's face. "Yes. I remembered what I am."
He could casually critique hypocritical teachers, mock the enemies who vainly attempted to assassinate him, indulge in romance, and witness every spectacle the world had to offer.
Because he never had to worry about injury, illness, or death.
Like a passing traveler in the mortal realm, he held a lofty mindset, examining the suffering and tribulations of the people around him.
After arriving in Yanzhou and indulging in delightful dreams, Shi Ming had wondered if he might be some great figure who had lost his memories.
Perhaps all his experiences in the mortal realm were just a tribulation.
Once he successfully passed this tribulation, he would return to a lofty divine throne.
Therefore, upon arriving at the Myriad Ancient Pagoda, Shi Ming shed his usual laziness and began working earnestly, hoping to quickly figure out his own true nature.
But it wasn't until he heard a sigh coming from Li Ban and saw that strange yet familiar colored Star River that he finally remembered.
"It turns out I am no Priest, let alone a Great Wizard—I am just... I am just a cage abandoned by its prisoner—"
The white-robed priest pursed his lips. He knew the truth was incredibly cruel to the man before him.
But there was no time now to let Shi Ming slowly recover his spirits.
Tearing open the wound was painful, but it was the fastest way to face reality.
"Yes, you are neither a Priest nor a Great Wizard."
"For a Priest to become a Great Wizard, they must sever their mortal corpse. You are the mortal corpse of a Great Wizard. So, you aren't Shi Ming—you are Corpse Inscription."
A tear rolled down from the corner of Shi Ming's eye.
He hurriedly wiped it away, suddenly feeling an overwhelming sense of inferiority. He didn't even dare to cry in front of a Priest of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda.
"Does... does every Great Wizard leave a mortal corpse behind in the Wizard World?"
"No. You are the mortal corpse of a Black Wizard. Because he was only at the 8th Tier when he became a Great Wizard, very little of his body had assimilated spiritual rhinoceros. That is why you were left behind as an unusually complete corpse."
"The Myriad Ancient Pagoda originally intended to throw you into the Unreturning Place to be destroyed, but this complete physical body of yours actually birthed its own raw soul. The Priest in charge of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda at the time was soft-hearted and spared your life."
Speaking up to this point, the white-robed priest suddenly remembered something.
"You said you saw yourself in Priest Ban? Could this be why Du An and Xiao Suo targeted Li Ban?"
Although he wasn't entirely clear on the specifics of what had happened, he finally understood why Priest Qian Que had suddenly asked Shi Ming to retrieve Li Ban's soul right before his own advancement.
Since Shi Ming had seen himself in Li Ban, it was highly likely Priest Qian Que had seen it too.
This meant something between Shi Ming and Li Ban had formed a bond. Only by relying on this bond would it be possible to retrieve Li Ban's scattered soul from the boundless Shattered Realm.
A Cloud Hidden Priest might not be worth the Myriad Ancient Pagoda mobilizing such a massive effort, but he trusted Priest Qian Que's judgment.
Especially since Li Ban's uniqueness was very likely connected to that mysterious black-robed Great Wizard.
Furthermore, any target deemed worthy of Xiao Suo's focused attacks was definitely not simple.
Right now, only the three of them—Priest Qian Que's group—had emerged from the bottom of the water. The whereabouts of the two black-robed priests were unknown.
"What about those two black-robed priests? Did you see them?"
Still reeling from the shock of the truth, Shi Ming had to force himself to answer the white-robed priest's question first.
"Xiao Suo seems to have... died. He shattered into many tiny particles and fell to the bottom of the pool. As for the other one, I didn't pay much attention, but he likely entered the bottom of the pool as well."
Xiao Suo might already be dead.
Du An, on the other hand, had very likely escaped through the breach at the bottom of the pool.
"I really hope Du An fell straight into the Dark Side of the Universe!" the white-robed priest said, gnashing his teeth.
No matter what, they could not let Li Ban's soul fall into the hands of the black-robed priests.
"We must retrieve Li Ban's soul as quickly as possible." The white-robed priest released Shi Ming and raised a hand to pull out his Self-Seeking Mirror. "Priest Zhu Yao, something terrible has happened!"
Li Ban had originally wanted to awaken the Star River hidden behind the Wizard Embryo Fragments. But somehow, he had caused several planets within that Star River to explode in quick succession.
The resulting spatial ripples caused him to re-enter the Solar state almost instantly.
When he opened his eyes and saw Du An, he felt that with just a single thought, he could reduce the man entirely to ash.
Yet, at the very last moment, Xiao Suo suddenly appeared and blocked the fatal strike on Du An's behalf.
Xiao Suo disintegrated into millions of colored fragments right before his eyes, allowing Du An to escape the calamity.
Just as Li Ban wanted to continue and destroy Du An, the Faceless One suddenly appeared in his mind.
"If this continues, you will lose your sense of self."
But in his state at the time, Li Ban was in no mood to listen to anyone's advice.
His gaze chased after Du An. Just as the thought of killing the man surfaced in his mind, the faces of Priest Qian Que and Shi Ming appeared before him.
—
These two familiar faces caused a sudden lull in his heart full of murderous intent.
Seizing this tiny window of opportunity, the Faceless One slipped in, transforming into a black mist that wrapped around Li Ban's soul and plunged with it into the boundless darkness.
And right before leaving, he seemed to look back one last time.
Li Ban wasn't able to observe anything else.
The black mist seemed to restore his sanity, but it also reduced his consciousness to a total blank.
When Li Ban regained consciousness, it felt as though he were floating in warm water.
His limbs were weak, leaving him only able to drift along with the gentle undulations.
Fortunately, he didn't have to worry about breathing or a heartbeat.
He could now exist perfectly fine without these basic biological functions.
Exist, not live.
Li Ban snapped his eyes open.
But he quickly realized that he hadn't opened his eyes; rather, his field of vision had simply been restored.
"What—what happened to me?"
He wanted to look down at his own body, but he couldn't lower his head, nor could he see anything.
Li Ban looked around and saw a somewhat familiar, dim Star River.
Time seemed to stand still. Apart from observing, he couldn't seem to do anything.
Finally, something distinct appeared before Li Ban.
It was a stone throne.
And upon that throne sat a person.
The figure slowly looked up, revealing a face—Shi Ming's face.
Yet Li Ban knew full well that this was not Shi Ming.
It was the Faceless One he had seen in the Self-Seeking Mirror.
"Are... are you Shi Ming?"
The Faceless One slowly shook his head. "I am not him. He was once a part of me, but now he is a part I have discarded."
"What do you mean?" Li Ban wanted to frown, but found himself unable to perform the action.
The Faceless One chuckled softly. "You possess such a powerful Star River, yet you know almost nothing about Wizards."
"Never mind. We'll be drifting here for quite a while anyway, so I might as well explain it to you."
"Drifting?" Right now, Li Ban could only see the Faceless One's dim Star River; he couldn't see anything else, so naturally, he had no idea where he was or what his situation entailed.
"Yes. To stop you from exploding from the pressure, I had no choice but to bring you to the Dark Side of the Universe. Only here can the power of a Star River be borne without restraint, allowing you to vent to your heart's content."
The Dark Side of the Universe?
Hearing this term, Li Ban's heart tightened, but then he remembered that the Faceless One was a Wizard, and he relaxed slightly.
Great Wizards could enter and exit the Dark Side of the Universe.
It was just that under normal circumstances, a Great Wizard wouldn't lightly intervene to save a Priest who had fallen into it.
Since the Faceless One was the one who had brought him here, he surely had a way to leave.
Moreover, Li Ban could sense that by doing this, the Faceless One really had saved his life.
Or rather, saved his sense of self.
"Thank you. But what exactly is the relationship between you and Shi Ming?"
"If a Priest wishes to become a Great Wizard, they must first become a 9th Tier spirit practitioner. When the nine elements fully integrate with the physical form, the body gradually assimilates spiritual rhinoceros due to those fused elements."
"But to truly become a Great Wizard, one must completely discard the flesh that has not been transformed by spiritual rhinoceros."
"Priests call this process: severing the mortal corpse."
"In the eyes of a Great Wizard, a soul capable of endlessly bearing spiritual rhinoceros is merely a prisoner bound by the physical body. Willpower sealed within flesh cannot unlock its true strength. Only by breaking out of the cage and achieving true freedom of consciousness can one possess the world-shaping power of will. In the cultures of certain lesser worlds, this power is also known as divine power."
"This is the final step for a 9th Tier Divine Offspring Priest to advance to a Great Wizard, and it is an incredibly difficult one."
"But back then, to break through the White Robes' blockade on the path to becoming a Great Wizard, I took it upon myself to sever my mortal corpse while only at the 8th Tier. This left behind a nearly complete mortal corpse. Because of this, I was schemed against by the Wizard Lord of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda and subsequently sealed."
"Shi Ming is that mortal corpse."
"No wonder the white-robed priests all had such strange attitudes toward Shi Ming," Li Ban said. "Because he is the mortal corpse of a black-robed Wizard Lord and possesses the Undying Halo, they could neither kill him nor be bothered to deal with him."
"The Undying Halo? Heh, you could put it that way," the Faceless One replied. "He and I still share a tether of life force. As long as I do not die, it is very difficult for him to be destroyed."
Isn't that just the Undying Halo? Li Ban thought.
If the Wizard Lord of the Myriad Ancient Pagoda could have killed the Faceless One, they certainly wouldn't have merely settled for sealing him.
"I've answered your question," the Faceless One said. "Now, shouldn't you answer mine?"
Li Ban had a vague idea of what the other party was going to ask. But given his current situation, hiding things seemed pointless anyway.
"Of course. You saved my life. Ask away. I'll tell you what I can. What I can't say is most likely something I don't understand myself."
"The Star River power radiating from you is something I've never seen before. I only just realized—you are not him. Where did he go? Who are you? And why do you possess a Star River?"
Just as he'd expected. In order to deal with Du An, Li Ban had been forced to draw upon his Star River, his only trump card capable of suppressing the man.
But the backlash from that immense power made it entirely impossible for him to hide his secrets from the Faceless One.
The man had ultimately asked him this question.
It was just that Li Ban genuinely didn't know how to answer.
"First, I need to confirm something," Li Ban said. "Is the person you're referring to Gu Yi?"
The Faceless One fell silent for a moment. "No. It's the Director."
Li Ban blanked. "You mean—the Director from another timeline?"
The Faceless One suddenly revealed a bitter smile. "I mean the Director of every timeline."