"How did it feel?"
The question came from the guide, C-3.
Li Fan gave a slight nod.
"The Golden Era. It lives up to its name."
Half of this statement was to avoid revealing any cracks in his facade. The other half was genuine sincerity.
Indeed, if one spoke purely of "survival," the cultivators living under the rule of the Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council today had it far easier than in most periods of history.
Even the difficulty of obtaining a suitable cultivation technique was not much greater than it had been for rogue cultivators in ancient times.
Yes, once you entered the Myriad Immortals Alliance, you were a beast of burden for life. But at the very least, if the penned-in beasts of burden didn't court death themselves, living a little longer wasn't out of the question.
In other eras of the Xuanhuang World's history, short-lived cultivators might not even have had the qualification to become beasts of burden.
As for whether life itself was more precious, or so-called freedom was of higher value... That was another serious topic that one could debate for eternity.
Li Fan had no intention of dwelling on it.
What concerned him was that just now, as the one hundred-plus threads of divine sense, baptized by The Eras, were about to dissipate within his sea of consciousness... they were absorbed by the Dao Transformation Stone manifested by his cultivation of the Unity of Dao Transformation and Mind.
Those things he had experienced within The Eras, details that had rapidly blurred after the experience ended, were slowly becoming clear again.
Within the blue Dao Transformation Stone, faint, independent scenes could be seen gradually taking shape.
They looked, surprisingly, somewhat similar to The Eras itself.
What is this?
Li Fan's heart gave a slight jolt.
That human figure I vaguely saw after The Eras experience ended... it likely wasn't an illusion.
It seemed like a method to implant a brainwashing notion into the minds of all cultivators viewing this exhibit.
However, I possess a Dao Transformation Stone myself, so not only was I immune to this brainwashing attempt, but also...
While continuing the tour of the Museum of Divine Treasures under C-3's guidance, Li Fan diverted a portion of his focus to examine the changes within his own Dao Transformation Stone.
Perhaps because all Dao Transformation Stones under heaven originated from that original Mother Dao Transformation Stone, sharing the same source and lineage, the Dao Transformation Stone crystal in Li Fan's sea of consciousness had spontaneously absorbed all the scattered divine sense threads.
Now, drawing upon the memory imprints of The Eras preserved within those divine sense threads, it was attempting to reverse-engineer and reconstruct, one by one, the simulated worlds from Li Fan’s own memories.
Unfortunately, the Dao Transformation Stone he possessed was clearly lacking. Its grade was too low, its computational capacity severely limited.
When Li Fan tried to observe these reconstructed worlds more closely, he realized they were nothing more than hollow frameworks.
The scenes did not unfold smoothly. Instead, they lurched forward in fits and starts, skipping across stages of development.
Their scope was likewise restricted, confined to the specific fragments tied to his memories. Beyond those boundaries, the world dissolved into warped, shattered reflections, like a broken mirror.
Li Fan watched for some time.
Gradually, he noticed that these worlds were expanding both in time and in space, but at an excruciatingly slow rate.
Constrained by the Dao Transformation Stone’s simulation power, the progress was almost imperceptible. If this was truly the limit of the Dao Transformation Stone, then even after a hundred more lifetimes, Li Fan might still fail to make any meaningful headway.
But he had not forgotten: within Yi Xin’s tomb lay a fixed Dao Transformation Stone. With every simulation cycle, he could absorb it. And each absorption would further strengthen the crystal within his mind.
By then... perhaps I could recreate The Eras myself?
The thought had barely formed when Li Fan frowned.
But even if I did, what purpose would that serve?
Suddenly, a spark flashed in his eyes.
“Senior C-3,” Li Fan said, turning to the docent, “a question just occurred to me. You mentioned earlier that, during the experiments, one million blank souls were fed into The Eras.
“So within The Eras that is currently in operation... do genuine souls still exist?”
"Heh, naturally, they do," C-3 replied, seeming unwilling to elaborate further on the matter, offering only a simple answer.
Li Fan pondered this, then pressed on abruptly. "You said a vast number of souls are continuously undergoing the baptism of The Eras. Have any ever been able to realize that the world they inhabit is illusory, not real?
"After all, no matter how close it is to reality, there must ultimately be some difference from the real world, right?"
C-3 shot Li Fan a sudden glance. He looked around, lowering his voice. "When I took over from the previous C-3, he told me an story.
"About thirty-nine years ago, The Eras stopped operating for a period of time.
"The entire Museum of Divine Treasures was sealed at that time, and no one was allowed in or out.
"Nobody understood why back then, but rumors later spread that, supposedly, one of the million souls within The Eras had inexplicably vanished.
"They searched the entire museum but never found it.
"The matter was eventually dropped.
"As for whether it truly escaped or disappeared due to a malfunction..." C-3 left it at that, saying no more.
Li Fan nodded slowly.
If something was possible, then given a sufficiently large sample size, it could be considered inevitable.
A million souls, cycling through one life after another repeatedly.