Chapter 1464: The Worldly Compassionate Samsara Sect

A concealment method that could only reveal the mysteries of something after one already knew that it possessed certain special characteristics was precisely the method embodied by Sun Piaomiao's relics.

The statue before Li Buren was similar in style to several relics Sun Piaomiao had left behind on the Xuan Immortal Ark. It immediately gave him a crucial hint.

"Almost every object Sun Piaomiao left behind possesses a unique and miraculous function. The humanoid figurine can increase the charging of [Truth] by twofold. The Three-Pronged Tree gives [Truth] one additional simulation opportunity out of thin air. And that bronze cast immortal crane, after being destroyed, causes a secret message to appear in one's ears."

"Tianluo Epoch, Year 213. Beginning with Shang Zhang Da Yuan Xian, followed by Zuo E Yan Feng, ending with Zhu Yong Chi Fen Ruo and Yan Mao Xuan Yi..."

Thinking this, Li Buren slowly walked toward the humanoid statue.

The objects that had suddenly appeared in the hall seemed to be related to the experiments of this experimental site. Although he had obtained permission to observe them as a visitor, none of their true bodies seemed to exist in the same spacetime as Li Buren. He could only observe them from afar and could not make contact with them in any way.

Only this humanoid statue was different. Because of the connection between Li Fan and Sun Piaomiao's other relics, Li Buren could vaguely touch it.

His fingers seemed to probe into a layer of cold mist rather than brush against the physical body of the humanoid puppet.

Even with only this indistinct sensation, Li Buren once again experienced that profound and mysterious feeling he had felt when facing Sun Piaomiao's relics.

"If my true body were here, perhaps I could directly absorb it through [Truth] and ignore the restrictions and defenses of this place. Unfortunately, this place seems to have been built specifically to capture [Truth]. Before fully uncovering the secrets of this place, my true body would absolutely never enter such a perilous place in person."

He had no choice but to think of another method.

Although he had initially established a connection with the humanoid statue, no matter what he tried, he could not take the next step.

All forms of energy, and even thoughts and divine sense, were unable to affect this statue that existed between reality and illusion.

After trying countless methods to no avail, Li Buren recalled everything related to Sun Piaomiao. Suddenly, that secret message once again surfaced in his mind.

"Tianluo Epoch, Year 213..."

Buzz, buzz, buzz!

The instant this sentence reappeared in Li Buren's mind, the puppet emitted a deep, heavy sound, as though a machine sealed in dust for countless years had been activated once more.

The humanoid puppet seemed to transform from illusion into reality. Its originally lowered hands slowly rose to its chest.

Its right hand extended and pointed toward the center of the circular mural on the opposite wall.

The countless square miniature worlds and starry sky scenes displayed across the cylindrical hall suddenly underwent a drastic transformation at that single point.

The circular mural alternated between light and darkness, flashing rapidly.

It was like the pages of a book being rapidly flipped forward. It was also like a recording being played back with the rewind button pressed.

The worlds where life had already faded and turned into silent, pitch black starry skies once again burst into brilliant light.

The endlessly flashing square starry skies gradually stopped flickering and became stable.

Those few places where life still remained suddenly erupted with vitality. From tiny, faint points of light, they transformed into brilliant seas of starlight.

Before he knew it, Li Buren found himself surrounded by a vast sea of stars brimming with life. The entire star sea monitored by the experimental site seemed to have returned to the era before the Dao Annihilation Calamity erupted.

The images of the star sea leapt and changed unpredictably.

Then, at a certain moment, they suddenly froze.

After remaining still for a brief moment, the scenes on the circular mural resumed their normal playback.

The images changed at an extremely rapid speed. Even with the strength of Li Buren's divine sense, fully analyzing and distinguishing everything within them was somewhat difficult.

However, after staring for a moment, Li Buren quickly understood.

What was playing before him was a recorded scene being replayed repeatedly.

"It did not reverse spacetime and return to the era before the great catastrophe descended. Instead, through this humanoid puppet, it called up the surveillance records once stored by this experimental site."

"Tianluo Epoch, Year 213..."

"Then the next part of that sentence should correspond to..."

Li Buren silently repeated the next phrase in his heart.

"Beginning with Shang Zhang Da Yuan Xian, followed by Zuo E Yan Feng."

Once again, the humanoid puppet changed in response to this command.

Its originally lowered left hand slowly rose.

This time, it did not simply point. Rather, like drawing a circle around a vast void, it delineated a specific range within the continuously repeating fragments of the scene.

Li Buren saw that not only had part of the recorded imagery from the 213 year of the Tianluo Epoch been removed from the beginning, but even the square star sea within the circular mural had been reduced by ninety percent with that single motion.

The brilliant sea of life suddenly dimmed.

Li Buren continued and spoke the final sentence of the secret message.

"Ending with Zhu Yong Chi Fen Ruo and Yan Mao Xuan Yi."

The repeatedly playing recorded scene was once again reduced to a narrower span of time.

According to Li Buren's calculations, the original recording of the year 213 of the Tianluo Epoch covered roughly the equivalent of one thousand years in the Xuanhuang Realm.

But after the two commands filtered it, the time range was greatly reduced. Looking at the repeating scene before him, Li Buren calculated that what remained covered roughly fifty years.

Likewise, this time it was not merely a precise restriction of the time range.

The humanoid puppet once again waved its hand, slicing across the starry sky.

This time, only three square starry skies remained, still shining brightly.

The three originally inconspicuous little squares suddenly enlarged, occupying the entirety of the circular wall.

Within those square star seas, the events that had occurred during this period were rapidly replayed scene by scene.

One of the starry skies was extremely familiar to Li Buren.

It was precisely where the Xuanhuang Realm was located, the Darkest Star Sea.

With a thought, Li Buren tried to extend his divine sense into the recorded scene before him.

This time, there was no longer any defensive force resisting him. It was as though he were genuinely wandering through the starry sky.

Li Buren quickly locked onto the location of the Xuanhuang Realm.

"There are no Ten Great Immortal Sects."

"There is no Xuantian Sect."

"Desolate God, Samsara, Divine Wood. This is an primordial era when the Immortal Realm still existed. There is absolutely no sign that a great catastrophe is about to emerge. The cultivation sects can still maintain contact with the Immortal Realm."

Across a full fifty years, Li Buren naturally could not watch every single thing that happened across the Xuanhuang continent in meticulous detail.

He could only focus on certain unusual occurrences.

"The Desolate God Sect's ability to summon Desolate Gods reached its peak in the fifth year. A total of twelve different Desolate Gods appeared together and suppressed all who refused to submit. Within the Xuanhuang Realm, they were unrivaled in fame for a time. Yet in the 43 year, one of the Desolate Gods suddenly lost contact with the Desolate God Sect. This was something that had never happened in the history of the Desolate God Sect."

"Although they reestablished contact with another Desolate God eight years later, the incident still caused the Sect Master and elders of the Desolate God Sect to become deeply worried."

"Compared with the Desolate God Sect, the Samsara Sect was much more low key. The Samsara Sect did not establish a Great Samsara within the Xuanhuang Realm. Instead, they established a Minor Samsara within the individual."

"Relying on the Undying Samsara Body, one could continuously reincarnate and be reborn. Although every reincarnation caused one's cultivation to be completely lost, certain of the most important memories would always be preserved."

"And what they pursued through these endless cycles of reincarnation was not ascension to immortality, but rather..."

Li Buren narrowed his eyes.

The scenes recorded on the circular mural of this experimental site almost contained everything that had ever happened throughout history.

No one knew exactly what kind of method had been used. Even inside secret chambers and sealed formations, Li Buren's divine sense could move without restriction and explore freely.

He could even clearly hear some portions of divine sense transmissions.

But not everything had been recorded.

Whenever a Xuanhuang cultivation sect established contact with the Immortal Realm, the recorded images would become distorted. Likewise, in certain mysterious regions, the recordings would also fail. Some became blurry and indistinct, while others turned into entire stretches of blankness.

The Sect Master of this Samsara Sect seemed to possess some awareness of this omnipresent surveillance.

Whenever he taught the core secret arts of the Samsara Sect to his direct disciple, he would bathe, burn incense, and establish contact with the upper realm.

The recording would therefore be interrupted.

"This Samsara Sect Master is called Jiang Lianshi."

"As for his direct disciple, Chu Zhiyi, I have never heard of him. However, one of Chu Zhiyi's disciples looks somewhat familiar."

"This disciple is called Zhang Ruyu. He is only a child of around ten years old at present, but one can already faintly see Zhang Qianmo's features between his brows and eyes."

"The Samsara Sect."

Although the ultimate cultivation method of the Samsara Sect could not be discerned through the monitoring, the actions of that Jiang Lianshi were indeed highly suspicious.

Aside from repeatedly using methods of connecting to the Immortal Realm to evade surveillance, Jiang Lianshi would also often go to the top floor of a certain high pavilion within the Samsara Sect and sit there in meditation.

The top floor consisted of only a single hall.

Hanging within it were tens of thousands of portraits of Jiang Lianshi himself.

These paintings seemed to have all been drawn by Jiang Lianshi personally. In every portrait, Jiang Lianshi had a different expression, wore different clothes, and displayed different actions.

Other than painting, Jiang Lianshi would simply sit inside the pavilion and face those tens of thousands of portraits of himself.

Throughout the entire process, there were no fluctuations of spiritual power whatsoever.

Yet as an observer from many years later, Li Buren could still sense something strange from this bizarre scene of cultivation.

At times, he would even experience an illusion. At a certain instant, it seemed as though every single painting within the pavilion had come alive.

Over the course of fifty years, Jiang Lianshi made no breakthrough of any kind. The entire Samsara Sect also remained low key and silent.

There was only one occasion when they took action. An Elder of the Divine Wood Sect came to the Samsara Sect, hoping to borrow the Samsara Sect's treasure, the [Ten Thousand Years in Glimpse Pearl].

According to this Divine Wood Sect Elder, the Ten Thousand Years in Glimpse Pearl could stimulate the growth of the Divine Wood Sect's divine tree without any side effects. He sincerely requested to borrow it and was willing to exchange it for anything.

Jiang Lianshi rejected him with a single sentence.

The Divine Wood Sect Elder pleaded several times, but the answer remained the same. Enraged, he attempted to seize it by force.

Yet Jiang Lianshi merely pointed a finger at his forehead.

The over sixty year old man suddenly seemed to undergo a reversal of time, returning all the way to the infancy of his life, when he could only babble incoherently.

Not only was his cultivation completely lost, even his mind seemed to have regressed to that of a young child.

Jiang Lianshi did not take the Elder's life. Instead, he ordered his people to send him back to the Divine Wood Sect. At the same time, he attached a talisman personally written by himself.

It appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary sheet of yellow paper. Upon it was a strange, crude drawing of an eye.

After receiving the talisman, the Divine Wood Sect apologized to the Samsara Sect and expressed its gratitude, offering to provide a gift of equivalent value.

Jiang Lianshi politely declined. He also strictly instructed his disciples to have as little contact with the Divine Wood Sect as possible.

...

"This Jiang Lianshi's cultivation..." Li Buren could be said to have observed Jiang Lianshi for fifty years. Yet with his current level of insight, he still found it difficult to see through him.

On the surface, he seemed to possess nothing more than Dao Integration cultivation. But that single finger capable of reversing time was already enough to reveal how extraordinary he truly was.

Considering that the Samsara Sect could repeatedly reincarnate and cultivate anew, there was no telling how long Jiang Lianshi had been alive.

Moreover, the tens of thousands of self portraits hanging at the top of the pavilion inevitably made Li Buren think of the words, "possibilities."

"Could it be that the ultimate secret of the Samsara Sect actually involves the selves that exist within other possibilities? Although they cannot cross over, they can still establish some faint connection?"

Li Buren became increasingly curious about Jiang Lianshi's eventual fate.

Unfortunately, the recorded scene was currently fixed within these fifty years, making it impossible for him to investigate further.

During these fifty years, aside from the various events occurring within those powerful sects, another incident took place in the primordial Xuanhuang Realm that was worthy of Li Buren's attention.

The thirtieth year. In a corner of southeastern Xuanhuang Realm, there were suspected traces of a True Immortal descending into the mortal world.

The large area of distorted light and shadows made it impossible to see the details clearly.

Moreover, this True Immortal had not descended into the lower realm alone. There had already been someone waiting to receive him within the Xuanhuang Realm.

The person responsible for receiving him seemed to be merely a mortal.

For the first thirty years, this person had lived as an utterly ordinary old farmer in a mountain village. Yet in the thirtieth year, he suddenly left his wife and children and went deep into the mountains.

There, he arranged a reception ritual.

After completing everything, he returned to his hometown and behaved as though nothing had happened.

Only half a year later, he died.

As for that True Immortal who had been received, he seemed to have escaped some unseen monitoring. From that point onward, his whereabouts became completely unknown.

What particularly caught Li Buren's attention was that the place where the mortal who performed the reception ritual lived was extremely close to the location of the Fishing Pond.

Yet within this recorded scene, there was no trace of the Fishing Pond.

Thus, it was still impossible to determine whether that Fishing Immortal was involved in what had happened behind the scenes.

"There is no existence of the Medicine King Sect or Sun Piaomiao within this period of time."

"Through the cryptic message left behind by the bronze immortal crane, what exactly was he trying to reveal? Or perhaps even he himself had failed to figure it out and had merely narrowed down the approximate time period?"

Li Buren's gaze temporarily left the Xuanhuang Realm.

It moved beyond the Star Sea.

It had to be said that compared to the present, the Primordial Cultivation Realm was indeed vastly different. Its vitality was surging, and strange phenomena would occasionally manifest throughout the Star Sea.

Li Buren finally understood why there had always been rumors that whenever a strange phenomenon erupted in the Star Sea, even True Immortals could only retreat from it.

"If my perception is correct, the eruption of these Star Sea phenomena can, to some extent, interfere with the connection between True Immortals and the Infinite Ocean."

"Once they lose their infinite nature, even True Immortals may not necessarily be able to emerge unscathed from these bizarre and ever changing phenomena."

Over the course of fifty years, the Darkest Star Sea witnessed a total of seven eruptions of strange phenomena powerful enough to threaten True Immortals.

The blurry recorded scenes recounted these magnificent occurrences that had once taken place throughout the Star Sea.

Li Buren's divine sense wandered through the Darkest Star Sea over these fifty years.

He secretly recorded every abnormality within each cultivation world.

"As expected, the Xuanhuang Realm is different."

"Setting everything else aside, the mere fact that it can establish a connection with the Immortal Realm is already something that ordinary cultivation worlds cannot accomplish."

"And moreover..." Li Buren clearly sensed that the living beings within the other cultivation worlds possessed a form of 'spirituality' that was far weaker compared to the Xuanhuang Realm.