The Ark's inhabitants found nothing amiss with Li Fan's request. However, they also had a condition. "The True Immortal Script is a closely guarded secret of the Ark. Although we're in the desolate depths of the Dark Star Sea, we must still prevent eavesdropping."
"Therefore, we must also set up a formation here!"
Li Fan smiled. "As you wish. If you find it too taxing, I can assist you."
The elders scoffed, ignoring his jest. They joined forces to set up another formation within Li Fan's "illusion formation." Finally satisfied, they began the formal exchange.
"I am Jian Daosheng. Please enlighten me!" Without further ado, Jian Daosheng, the head of the Celestial Axis Institute, solemnly wrote a True Immortal Script character.
Perhaps to intimidate Li Fan and gain the upper hand, he chose a character that wasn't simple. Li Fan hadn't encountered it during his studies on the Ark in his past life, even after becoming Ai Tianjue's disciple and a core member.
Dark lines slowly moved in the void. The moment the character was complete, it flared like a miniature sun, illuminating the surrounding darkness of the Dark Star Sea.
This True Immortal Script character brought more than just light. Its radiance seemed to infuse the desolate Star Sea with a hint of vitality!
"A True Immortal Script character with a positive effect?" Li Fan's heart stirred, and his expression turned serious.
Ignoring Jian Daosheng's smug look, he focused all his attention on the character. With his current knowledge, especially after glimpsing "Creation" and the mysterious character representing the Grand Magus's bloodline, Li Fan's ability to decipher the True Immortal Script was practically unparalleled in the Dark Star Sea.
He carefully observed the shifting character, radiant like a sun. Within the time it took to brew a cup of tea, the true meaning of the character surfaced in his mind: Sheng [Life/Birth].
Like the rising sun, its energy resonated, revitalizing all things… These and many other images combined to form this unique True Immortal Script character.
"So that's how it is."
Deciphering "Sheng" also answered a long-standing question for Li Fan: how had the Profound Immortal Ark survived the destruction of the Star Sea?
He initially assumed it was due to the Divine Tree grown from the Seed of Transformation. However, after spending several years on the Ark, he realized something was amiss. The Divine Tree needed to constantly absorb wonders like the Dao Pursuing Giant and the Human Emperor Rabbit to provide sufficient energy for the Ark, indicating that the tree alone couldn't sustain its operation. The Divine Tree hadn't been absorbing external energy constantly for the past ten thousand years. What had sustained its growth during those periods?
Moreover, the vibrant, warm environment within the Ark, almost identical to a normal cultivation world, seemed beyond the capabilities of a single World Beyond the World Divinewood. Even the Divine Tree's original form, the World Beyond the World Divinewood of the Divinewood Sect in the Xuanhuang World, hadn't possessed such power.
Today, the appearance of the "Sheng" character finally solved this mystery. It was this character, representing the rising sun, that had long provided the Ark with a habitable environment.
"This is the foundation of the Profound Immortal Ark's survival, a truly valuable character. They actually revealed it first…"
"It seems they don't intend to let me leave." Having lived on the Ark in his past life, Li Fan understood the elders' mentality. They valued the True Immortal Script and the Ark's future more than their own lives. Now, they were sharing a secret crucial to the Ark's survival… Even with the "one character for one character" exchange, it was highly suspicious.
"Unfortunately, your plan is doomed to fail. You might be good at stirring trouble, but trying to keep me here… Hmph!"
The formation set up by the Ark's elders was, in Li Fan's eyes, full of flaws, like a child's plaything. Moreover, with his peerless escape techniques, he was 80% confident in escaping even if a True Immortal appeared, let alone these elders.
Feigning ignorance of their plot, Li Fan continued to analyze the "Sheng" character. As his research deepened, he noticed something amiss. The character indeed represented the rising sun, gentle and life-giving. However, that was from the perspective of the Immortal Realm. For the lower realms, the radiant sunlight of the Immortal Realm's sun was unbearable. The "Sheng" character, if unleashed at full power, wouldn't bring life but incinerate the world into a fiery inferno!
"So, this isn't a beneficial True Immortal Script character either. It still represents destruction and chaos. The Ark's inhabitants have merely weakened its power by reducing its completeness, turning harm into benefit."
"Ingenious! As expected of a force that survived the Great Calamity, they do have some tricks up their sleeves." Li Fan praised inwardly, but his expression changed drastically. He glared at the elders. "Something's not right!"
"This character's completeness is nowhere near 90%! Do you think I can't tell?"
Li Fan feigned outrage, then said with disappointment, "I never thought you would be so dishonest. The exchange is off!"
The elders hadn't expected Li Fan to see through their ruse so quickly. Shocked, Jian Daosheng hastily explained, "Fellow Daoist, you misunderstand! I didn't intentionally deceive you. For us in the lower realms, a character with 30% completeness is actually more useful than a more complete one! Of course, if you insist, I can show you the complete character."
With that, Jian Daosheng wrote the character again. Even with the Method of Similitude greatly reducing its power, Li Fan still felt the surrounding warmth instantly transform into a suffocating heatwave as the character took form. The vitality vanished, replaced by a chilling killing intent.
Li Fan memorized the complete character, then said, "Alright, I admit, you're right. Since it was a misunderstanding, let's continue the exchange."
The elders secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Li Fan cleared his throat, attracting their attention. "Now, watch closely!"
With swift strokes, he wrote the character "Duo" [Fall/堕].
The moment "Duo" appeared, the elders' expressions turned subtle, especially Ai Tianjue. He stared at the character, stunned. He never imagined that the True Immortal Script character he had studied most extensively would be revealed by someone else first.
"Its completeness far surpasses our current progress, perhaps close to 90%. This…" A sense of loss washed over Ai Tianjue.
Unbeknownst to him, the "Duo" character Li Fan had written hadn't actually reached 90% completeness. Having learned from Ai Tianjue decades in the future in his past life, Li Fan's understanding of "Duo" was only around 80%.
However, based on his comprehension of "Creation," the mysterious character representing the transformation between mortals and immortals, and even incorporating a touch of the Interplay of Truth and Illusion, Li Fan had restructured and modified the "Duo" character.
Tainted with a deeper power, Li Fan's "Duo" appeared more "advanced," even more like the true character than the original. Li Fan wasn't sure whether this deception would work, but judging by their expressions, it was a success.
He inwardly sneered, feeling more confident about his plan.
"Well, what do you think of this 'Duo' character?" Li Fan asked loudly.
Although they wanted to point out that it overlapped with their research, their progress was clearly inferior. In such a short time, they couldn't possibly elevate their understanding of "Duo" to Li Fan's level.
The elders exchanged glances. After a brief discussion, they decided to swallow their pride.
It was the Ark's turn again. Lu Yuzhi of the Severing Immortality Pavilion wrote the character "Du" [Alone/独].
While Li Fan's understanding of this character still surpassed theirs, he didn't want to push them too far, playing the long game. He pretended to mutter, "'Du' isn't uncommon in the Star Sea. However, our research on it is indeed inferior to yours."
Li Fan bowed. "I've learned much."
This time, the Ark had gained a point. The elders breathed a sigh of relief. Up until now, they had been at a disadvantage. This reversal was a good start.
It was Li Fan's turn again. He wrote the character "Zhen" [Suppress/镇]. This character also originated from the Ark's research, but their progress was less than one-third complete, a fragmented understanding. In his past life, Li Fan had imparted this incomplete "Zhen" to Shang Tianci, leveraging his exceptional comprehension for further deduction. In this life, he added his own understanding, reconstructing and essentially fabricating the character.
He intended to test the elders' level of understanding. The result…
After some discussion, Zhong Daogong and the others accepted the "Zhen" character Li Fan provided.
Li Fan remained silent, but he now understood. "It seems the Profound Immortal Ark hasn't encountered a True Immortal Script character of the 'Creation' level. They won't be able to see through my top-down imitation and fabrication so easily."
"Of course, given enough time, they might notice something…"
As Li Fan pondered, the Ark presented a new True Immortal Script character. The moment it appeared, both the formation set up by the elders and Li Fan's "illusion formation" trembled slightly. As a master of formations, Li Fan sensed the most fundamental units maintaining the formations' structure beginning to unravel under the influence of this new character.
He was startled. The formation he had seemingly casually deployed wasn't a simple illusion formation, but a pseudo-immortal formation combining downgraded versions of two immortal-level formations: Desolate Bloom, Flowers in an Empty Room and Immortal Descent, All Things Return to the Void! It concealed killing intent within its seemingly innocuous form, capable of silently annihilating anyone who entered. Yet, even a formation of this level was being damaged at its foundation by a weakened True Immortal Script character…
"If this character's power were fully unleashed, my pseudo-immortal formation would crumble instantly." Having come to rely on formations as his most potent weapon, Li Fan's expression turned grave.
While repairing the collapsing formation, he studied the new character. "Undoubtedly, this one specifically targets formations. No wonder the Ark's formation skills are so lacking with this character around."
"It's hard to say whether they're showing off by revealing this character to me."
"Learning this character alone makes this trip worthwhile." Li Fan was very satisfied with this exchange.
He gradually deciphered the character's true meaning: Jie [Unravel/解].
The moment he grasped its essence, he thought of his own treasure, the Terminal Dissociation Disc. "Perhaps, like the Law Derivation Jade, my Dissociation Disc is also a part of the Dao's projection from the bottom up. Perhaps I can use the Dissociation Disc to explore the Dao of 'Unraveling.'"
…
As he mastered more True Immortal Script characters, Li Fan gradually realized that the true power lay not in the characters themselves but in the Dao they represented. The True Immortal Script was merely a shortcut, a tool, for ordinary people, even ordinary immortals, to touch the Dao.
"Similarly, celestial wonders and Eternal Remnants are also such shortcuts. Their essence is the same."
"The Dao Inscription Immortal." Li Fan suddenly recalled the nameless True Immortal who had supposedly inscribed countless Dao paths, making them more accessible.
"Dao paths cannot be cultivated simultaneously. Yet, this Dao Inscription Immortal understood so many Daos…" It was beyond Li Fan's current comprehension.
…
Li Fan's fleeting thoughts didn't interrupt the True Immortal Script exchange.
He used characters like "Luan" [Chaos/乱], "Mo" [Submerge/没], "Wu" [Nothingness/无], along with the "Xuan" [Forget/谖] he learned from the Ark in his past life, practically emptying the Ark's millennia of research on the True Immortal Script. Of course, characters like "Luan" and "Mo" weren't the complete forms he had seen but slightly modified, weaker versions.
Besides "Jie," he learned two more characters: "Han" [Cold/寒] and "Sang" [Loss/丧].
By now, both sides had nearly exhausted their reserves. The atmosphere became subtle.
"Everyone!" Li Fan broke the silence.
"I must admit, your research on the True Immortal Script is truly on par with our Great Qi. I never imagined another civilization comparable to ours would have survived in the Star Sea…" Li Fan sighed dramatically.
Suddenly, his expression changed. "However, there are differences between True Immortal Script characters! All the characters we've exchanged so far combined are perhaps less valuable than the one I'm about to show you!"
His words shocked everyone. The Ark's elders immediately suppressed their scheming thoughts and stared at Li Fan.
"Fellow Daoist, you shouldn't make such claims lightly."
(End of Chapter)