Chapter 1166: Chapter 1166: The Promise of Years Past

Aware that he had once again underestimated Ning Fan, the Maitreya Monk’s gaze sharpened, and he finally decided to go all out and contend with Ning Fan.

The two no longer exchanged words or even glanced at each other, yet their battle grew ever more intense.

This was a battle of Daoist thought!

In the eyes of the Lin Surname Dutrue and others, the two stood motionless since that moment.

But in truth, they were engaging in a clash of Daoist thought in the Heart Spirit World!

The battle of Daoist thought is extremely perilous—make a mistake, and the result is the dissolution of their Dao and death.

In the Heart Spirit World, Maitreya Monk no longer appeared as a Mortal World cultivator, but as a solemn Golden Buddha with a fleshy hair bun, bearing a magical bag that could seize one’s Daoist thought!

Ning Fan was also not in the appearance of a young man in white, but his Daoist thought transformed into ten gigantic butterflies of different colors!

The first eight of the ten giant butterflies represented Ning Fan’s eight powers: Rain Yin-Yang, Dark Yin-Yang, War Yin-Yang, Thunder Yin-Yang, Slaughter Yin-Yang, Phoenix Yin-Yang, Wood Yin-Yang, and Poisonous Yin-Yang.

The remaining two, slightly weaker in strength, represented Ning Fan’s yet-to-be-successfully cultivated Fuli Yin-Yang and Heavenly Bull Yin-Yang.

A year passed, two years... In the blink of an eye, fourteen years had gone by!

This was Ning Fan’s twenty-first year since arriving at Red Rainbow Star Sea, and he had fought with Maitreya Monk for fourteen whole years!

In the real world, Ning Fan and Maitreya Monk stood silently like statues for fourteen years.

In the Heart Spirit World, the two were still locked in an intense struggle.

The only difference was that after fourteen years, the Nine-Colored Vine before Ning Fan had already matured completely, bearing a Nine-Colored Fruit filled with immense spatial power.

However, the Nine-Colored Vine before Maitreya Monk had completely withered...

"What is the Lord of the Killing Hall doing, battling that chubby senior for fourteen years without saying a word..." None of the low-level Huanyun Sect disciples understood the dangers of the battle of Daoist thought; only the Lin Surname Dutrue knew the peril involved, but naturally, he was not inclined to explain it to the lower-level disciples.

With a soft splutter.

On this day, Maitreya Monk finally reacted. His body moved first, his steps faltering, and he spewed a blood arrow, his aura rapidly deteriorating.

As Maitreya Monk regained mobility, Ning Fan also moved. He did not spew a blood arrow, but his face paled slightly, evidently indicating that the fourteen years of battle had been a tremendous burden for him.

"Namo Amitabha, many thanks to the benefactor for showing mercy and not completely erasing this monk’s spirit sense. I accept my loss humbly. I have no face to contest for the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow, so I take my leave..." Maitreya Monk sighed softly, bowed with hands joined before Ning Fan, and departed in desolation.

Ning Fan watched Maitreya Monk’s departing back without a word. On the surface, he had won this battle of Daoist thought, but it did not mean his Daoist thought was superior to that of Maitreya Monk.

Because Maitreya Monk did not arrive in person but only sent a spirit sense. If he had come in person, the outcome would likely be even.

"Titled Buddhist cultivators are indeed formidable. No wonder the ancient texts say, ’Titled Buddhist cultivators resemble control positions’. If not for my Daoist thought’s Wood Yin-Yang being in control positions, even if my Daoist thought divided into ten, besieging him, I might not have been his match. Compared to him, the Great Humble Clan’s Bright Buddha, also a Half-Step Quasi-Saint, was indeed much weaker. I wonder how many such titled Buddhist cultivators there are in Western Heaven..."

In any case, the fact is he won, and at least the result was good, that’s enough.

Ning Fan picked the matured Nine-Colored Fruit, feeling somewhat guilty as he apologized to the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow suspended above the sea. All things possess spirit, and he could sense that this Grand Thousandfold Rainbow also had a spirit. Normally, he would have to wait over four million years for it to mature, but he had used a method akin to draining a pond to hasten its maturation. As a result, he harvested some of the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow prematurely, but also caused the location to unable to birth the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow for tens of millions of years...

"Uh, Senior Ning is actually speaking to the rainbow..." Someone noticed Ning Fan talking to the rainbow, and their expressions turned odd. If Ning Fan weren’t their idol, they would certainly think he was a lunatic.

[It’s all right, truly a polite young man].

Only someone like Ning Fan, a spirit capable of communication with all things, could hear the rainbow’s response. The Nine-Colored Rainbow at this location wasn’t angry at Ning Fan’s actions, instead greatly appreciated his politeness.

The world you can see, I cannot.

The world I can hear, you cannot.

When it came to perceiving, Ning Fan might not be as adept as the Daoist Wood Pine or Maitreya Monk, but he had his own unique talents that others could not match.

Having successfully obtained the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow, Ning Fan did not immediately go into seclusion for cultivation but boarded the Star Boat of Huanyun Sect, and asked two newly-ascended young women some questions.

Naturally, he inquired about the situation in the lower realms. These two women had recently ascended and were quite familiar with the matters of the lower realms.

From the two women, Ning Fan learned that during the hundreds of years he spent ascending to Eastern Heaven, thanks to Sovereign Xia and the old monster’s guidance, many women had already stepped into the Void Fragmentation realm; someone like Diao’er Meichen, who was already in the Void Fragmentation realm, had advanced to the Loose Immortal Realm.

In Eastern Heaven, Void Fragmentation and Loose Immortal might just be ants in the eyes of True Immortals.

But in the lower realms, they were unquestionably peak powerhouses, capable of dominating the nine worlds.

The fact that even those like the paper crane, who disliked cultivation, had now become Void Refinement Realm cultivators left Ning Fan secretly astonished, yet it also filled him with comfort and nostalgia.

All is well at home.

That’s enough...

Ning Fan gave the girls a few bottles of pills he didn’t need, as a reward for their answering his questions.

To him, they were just unused Seventh and Eighth Revolution pills, but to these two women of Nascent Soul cultivation, they were priceless treasures.

They gazed at Ning Fan with increasingly bashful expressions, softly revealing their names to him.

The girl dressed in purple was named Si Yingyue, a direct descendant of a certain old monster of the Void Fragmentation realm in the Four Heaven’s Immortal worlds.

The girl dressed in blue was called Su Manyue, the young master of a Void Fragmentation sect in the Earth Immortal World.

"You two indeed have a bond; one is called Yingyue, the other Manyue; no wonder you’re as close as sisters..." Ning Fan chuckled softly.

It was an unintentional remark, but for some reason, as soon as he voiced it, he felt an indescribable sense of heartache that quickly spread throughout his body.

That heartache was not from the past but from... the future! This heartache felt as if it would tear all his future apart!

Reincarnation is a circle! The more Ning Fan contemplated reincarnation, the more he believed this notion. He was secretly frightened and puzzled about the source of this heartache.

But he firmly believed that everything in this world is caused by something!

This heartache may not be without cause; quite the opposite, it’s possibly a warning. Similar to the hunches cultivators experience, but at a far deeper level, more profound, a premonition within the realm of reincarnation.

If he continued along the trajectory of reincarnation at this moment, Ning Fan might, because of certain reasons surrounding the two women, experience heartache and regret on a future day...

Si Yingyue, Su Manyue...

With Ning Fan’s vision, he couldn’t see any problem with these two women...

Ning Fan originally just regarded these two women as nobodies, but at this moment, their position in his heart became unprecedentedly important.

It was unrelated to emotions.

More was a concern about the reincarnation warning...

Ning Fan secretly divided a trace of spirit sense, leaving it in the bodies of the two women as a precaution. Given their cultivations, they naturally couldn’t detect this.

He wanted to see why these two women he encountered for no reason would bring him a reincarnation warning.

...

Of course, Ning Fan couldn’t abandon everything at hand just for a reincarnation warning.

After making brief arrangements on the two women, he left the Star Boat of the Huanyun Sect, leaving the Red Rainbow Star Sea.

Then, at a certain time and place, he found an unlucky abandoned star and began refining the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow.

Three years flew by in a flash.

After accidentally destroying dozens of abandoned stars, he finally devoured the Grand Thousandfold Rainbow, with the development progress of the False Demon Chant reaching fifty percent!

His cultivation speed was further enhanced, and while flying, he could clearly feel the spatial power’s blessing.

The third thing Ning Fan needed to find was the Void God Tree located in another Eastern Immortal’s forbidden land — Red North Abyss.

It was not a living Void God Tree, but a tree that had been dead for countless years.

The ancestor of the Godly Void Pavilion once practiced and comprehended Dao under this tree, which deeply advanced his spatial divine skills.

Many great powers of the Eastern Heaven had come under this tree for insights, and some even tried to cut down and capture this tree.

But even Daoist Wood Pine couldn’t cut through the dead Void God Tree or take it away.

Every year, many Old Monsters of East Heaven come to this place in an attempt to find the Void God Tree to comprehend its mystery. The vast majority of them can’t even see the tree before dying in the Red North Abyss, becoming food for the ancient fierce beasts here.

Of course, Ning Fan wasn’t afraid of the so-called ancient fierce beasts, and he even looked forward to them.

However, to his disappointment, the quality of the fierce beasts here was far inferior to that of the Red Rainbow Star Sea. He wanted to eliminate one or two Half-Saint fierce beasts on the way to create some Eternal Ghost Soldiers, yet he couldn’t find even a single one.

Thus, even without summoning his protectors, no fierce beast could disturb his meditation.

He sat under the Void God Tree for nine years. After nine years, he brushed the dirt off himself and stood up, stepping out to vanish from the world. By this time, the False Demon Chant had been developed to seventy percent.

The fourth thing Ning Fan needed to find was located within the Southern Clan.

At the doorstep of the Southern Clan, Ning Fan arranged to meet Tantai Weiyu, trading some treasures from Gengwu’s wealth in exchange with the Southern Clan for a copy of the Nanhua Old Immortal’s Space-Refining Scripture Fragment. His formal negotiation language amused Tantai Weiyu greatly: they were friends, was it necessary to be so serious about transactions between friends...

Ning Fan spent six years comprehending the essence of this space secret technique, integrating it into the False Demon Chant.

The progress on the False Demon Chant was now advanced to eighty percent.

Finally, Ning Fan was to seek the fifth item.

Speaking of which, this time, he should have gone there long ago. Unfortunately, when he first ascended to East Heaven, his cultivations were too low to go to this place to fulfill his promise; now his cultivations were sufficient, yet due to being entangled with various affairs, he could never spare the time to handle this matter.

Coincidentally, this time, the thing he needed to retrieve happened to be in that very place.

And he planned to take this opportunity to repay the karmic debt he owed from back then.

His target, the True Lightning World!

Once, Ning Fan was plotted against by the Ancestral Demon Emperor Mo Luo from the Ancient Demon Abyss and was on the verge of death; it was Lightning Emperor Tai Su who gave up everything, sacrificing himself to save Ning Fan.

Lightning Emperor Tai Su saved Ning Fan’s life in exchange for a promise from him.

[If one day you achieve success in your cultivations, you must come to the True Lightning World to relieve my True Lightning Clan of their billion-year suffering. It is my homeland; back in those years, a high personage once guided me, saying only when the ’Zi Dou’s student’ appears can the disaster of True Lightning be resolved. I won’t be mistaken; you are the Zi Dou’s student; you must have received the Immortal Emperor’s transmitted teachings! Even the Northern Heaven’s Zi Clan cannot save the True Lightning Clan, but only you can! This is my lifelong wish, and I hope you can fulfill it for me.]

[Also... Fei Feng... if you go to the True Lightning World, please find someone for me, named Fei Feng. Perhaps she has married, or perhaps she has passed away... If she is alive, you can give her this dan refinement formula, which can cure her severe illness. Don’t tell her it was a gift from me. If she has died, I ask you to burn this dan refinement formula at her grave... In this way, I would die without regrets.]

The True Lightning World is not a world visible to normal Masters; rather, it seems more like a world seen only by those who have opened their eyes.

As such, even the Treasure-searching Compass can only roughly locate the general vicinity of the True Lightning World; finding the entrance from the endless starry sky is utterly impossible.

Fortunately, Ning Fan had long prepared the Soul Merging Compass with the help of Liu Yan.

In a certain place in the starry sky, Ning Fan took out pieces of Immortal Material, which are rare in the Era of Decline, setting up some special Formation there.

Whether it’s the Immortal Materials or the Formation, they were all purchased from the Tongtian Sect. Without the help of the Ancient Kingdom Trade Array, even if Ning Fan knew the specific location of the True Lightning World, without opening his eyes, he would have difficulty entering it.

After months of busy work, Ning Fan finally completed the Formation setup, and at the moment the Formation was activated, a purple lightning tore through the endless starry sky.

No, using "tear" to describe it isn’t accurate.

It was a kind of unveiling, as if unveiling the canvas on which the scenery of the entire Eastern Heaven was just a sheet of drawing paper on the painting board, and thus revealing the scene on the next sheet after unveiling the previous one!

Ning Fan only felt a burst of lightning before his eyes, and he was already inside the True Lightning World!

Before him was a rolling sea of lightning, blinding and dazzling, making it challenging to discern his location.

Ning Fan knew that he had successfully entered the True Lightning World, but he still didn’t know his specific whereabouts in the True Lightning World.

Before he could carefully investigate the situation here, two fierce auras emerged from the rolling thunder, approaching with the immense presence of Immortal Kings!

"Strange, how can there be a True Lightning Clansman outside the Immortal Emperor Seal? How did he escape, could it be the same as the Tai Su child fifty million years ago, using ’that method’ to escape?" one of the Immortal Kings speculated.

"Hehe, who cares how he got out! That’s not important! What’s important is, I can feel that this person is very delicious, his flesh and blood, I’ll eat half, and you’ll eat the other half!"

"Agreed!"

Without giving Ning Fan any chance to speak, they intended to kill him in this thunderous sea’s periphery!