As before, after a period of futile persuasion, Tian Yangzi set out for the battlefield.
Within the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s cave dwelling, only Li Fan and Third Senior Brother Lian Chang remained.
Though Li Fan had long known how events would unfold, he was nothing more than a Foundation Establishment cultivator swept up in a raging torrent. How could he possibly resist it?
He could only watch, helpless, as history repeated itself.
This war was even more brutal than the previous two combined.
Barely six months later, the exhausted conscription envoy returned, bearing yet another decree from the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
“The war has reached its most critical juncture.
“All sects and rogue cultivators must unite their strength to overcome this calamity together.
“Those who disobey orders, delay military operations, spread rumors, or attempt to defect to the enemy shall be executed without mercy.”
The authority of the immortals brooked no defiance.
As the youngest disciple of the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect, Li Fan was used as leverage. At the same time, the envoy dangled hollow promises of future rewards.
Lian Chang’s fists clenched until his knuckles whitened. In the end, however, he could only yield.
Before leaving, he handed Li Fan a jade slip containing the accumulated cultivation insights of the Embodiment Transformation Dao’s past masters.
He warned Li Fan not to venture out lightly, sealed the main entrance of the cave dwelling, and then departed without looking back.
Once again, Li Fan was left alone in the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect.
History had returned to its original course.
Reflecting on this simulation, Li Fan felt a twinge of helplessness.
In all fairness, he had done rather well.
Using the Crisis method from the medical classic, he had successfully awakened from his slumber and enjoyed a period of happiness with the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s disciples.
But though he possessed foreknowledge and could alter an individual's fate, he couldn't change the destinies of the many.
The entire cultivation world had been swept up in the ancient war. Even Eternal Heavenly Venerables found themselves trapped in its vortex, unable to escape.
Li Fan simply couldn't influence or change any of this.
So what exactly was Tian Yang's lingering regret?
Li Fan pondered this question while continuing his cultivation.
"Tian Yang is not weaker than others..."
Slowly, Li Fan began forming his own theory.
The young Tian Yang had watched helplessly as his master and senior brothers marched to war and willingly sacrificed themselves to protect one another.
As the sect's weakest member, the one everyone protected most, he alone had survived until the end.
All because of his "weakness."
Tian Yang's heart was filled with remorse and regret.
If only he had been stronger back then, stronger than all his senior brothers, could he have taken their places on the battlefield?
Would he have been spared watching them die one after another?
Might at least one senior brother have survived?
Perhaps this was Tian Yang's simple, straightforward lingering regret.
Time flowed steadily onward as Li Fan cultivated.
Five years and three months after Lian Chang's departure, the entrance to the Embodiment Transformation Dao Sect’s cave dwelling was violently breached.
Seven cultivators attempting to claim the cave dwelling forced their way inside.
Having meditated in solitude for years without proper core formation guidance, Li Fan remained unable to break through his shackles and advance to the Golden Core realm.
The outcome was the same as before.
The simulated world vanished, and Li Fan returned to the reality of the cultivation world.
The number of remaining uses for Tian Yang's Eternal Remnant Will had also decreased to one.
Yet, to his surprise, Li Fan discovered that he hadn't come away empty-handed this time.
The dozens of posthumous works that Second Senior Brother Ling Xiao had entrusted to him before departing now appeared vividly within Li Fan's mind.
Li Fan remained silent for a long while before understanding dawned upon him.
Perhaps because he had remained trapped in slumber back then, unable to properly accompany his senior brothers during their final moments, this had become a lingering obsession.
After obliterating all traces of his presence on the sea floor, Li Fan returned to Myriad Immortals Island.
Under Ling Xiao's name, he uploaded each of those dozen-plus posthumous works one by one.
And so, this author who had died thousands of years ago once again began releasing new works.