"I see you still have doubts. Very well, I shall prove it to you beyond doubt."
C-3's expression grew slightly more serious.
He made a hand seal, exposing the blue crystal within the sphere of light a little more.
The crystal projected a blue, diamond-shaped pattern before Li Fan.
"Please allocate a larger portion of your divine sense for this attempt," C-3 reminded him.
Li Fan nodded.
His divine sense touched it, and in an instant, the world spun.
His consciousness was split into one hundred fragments, each cast into a different region of The Eras to experience a different life.
In the Great Plague Era, he barely survived the Immortal-Mortal Miasma.
Yet, in a fit of rage, he slaughtered mortals indiscriminately, causing the Immortal-Mortal Miasma within him to flare up again.
His cultivation was lost, and he was stoned to death by mortals seeking revenge...
In the Dark Ages, he killed all other cultivators practicing the same technique, becoming the sole surviving Gu King.
His original plan was to hide in a secret cave dwelling deep in the mountains and wait for the great calamity to pass.
But he inadvertently got caught in the battle between two passing powerhouses and died in a confused, muddled state...
In the era when the new methodology was first spreading, he was among the first fortunate cultivators to hear the teachings of the Immortal Venerable.
Originally a rogue cultivator who found cultivation exceptionally difficult, his cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds after switching to the new methodology.
Just when he thought the path of immortality would be smooth sailing from now on, he was suddenly visited by a group of people.
Shouting "demons and heretics," they attacked and killed him without another word...
In some unknown era, there existed heaven-defying constructs called Immortal Spirit Pagodas.
They were spread across every corner of the world, ceaselessly releasing pure spiritual qi day and night.
The concentration of spiritual qi during that period surpassed even what one could experience inside the Tianxuan Mirror with the epiphanic state boost fully activated.
More enviable still: any technique one could desire was available through the Immortal Spirit Pagoda, searchable and viewable without restriction of any kind. If something in a technique proved difficult to grasp, one could seek answers from the pagoda's Immortal Spirit directly, or consult with fellow cultivators practicing the same path.
It was, in every sense, a cultivator's paradise.
And yet, perhaps because everything was freely given and therefore taken for granted, the people of that era were not particularly passionate about cultivation. For all the heights one's cultivation might reach, one still had to abide by the rules set by the supreme authority. And even a mortal who never cultivated at all had their basic rights respected and protected.
In such a spiritually abundant world, rare treasures and natural wonders were as commonplace as daily meals. Lifespans stretched on without visible end. Every conceivable desire, it seemed, could be satisfied.
As time wore on, a strange emptiness began to take root and hollow out the soul.
After Li Fan was born into it, he spent five hundred years in pleasure, five hundred years doing nothing, five hundred years drifting in confusion, and five hundred years sinking into despair.
In the end, having survived for over two thousand years, he laughed heartily and brought his own life to a willing close...
Of the hundred-plus threads of divine sense, apart from the one in the cultivator's paradise,
the longest any other survived was just forty-three years.
The average survival time was just half a year.
The highest cultivation realm reached was the early-stage Golden Core realm; the lowest met an untimely death before even setting foot on the path of cultivation.
A hundred different lives played out within Li Fan's mind.
As he gradually recovered, and all the visions slowly faded, he faintly glimpsed a blurred figure standing before him, whispering, "Remember, it is not the Myriad Immortals Alliance that needs you.
"Rather, you need the Myriad Immortals Alliance.
"This era is the best of all eras, without a doubt."
All the images shattered like broken glass, scattering like streaks of starlight across the sea of consciousness.
At that moment, a blue light ignited at the center.
The starlight seemed to be drawn into the blue crystal.
Li Fan's eyes snapped open.
1. not sure which great calamity the author is referring to here. Could be the Great Reformation or the Great War ☜