Chapter 833: Reversing the Principles of Heaven and Earth
Chapter 833: Reversing the Principles of Heaven and Earth
About half a cup of tea’s time later.
Li Fan and his two companions found a hiding place within a cave at the bottom of a deep valley.
The entrance was concealed by a formation, and a secret technique masked any presence.
Even if an ordinary cultivator searched deliberately, it would be difficult to discover the entrance.
However, in front of Li Fan—who possessed the Final Dissociation Disc—and Lin Ling’s group, who could use the myriad trees of the mountain as their ears and eyes, every flaw was laid bare.
Yet, to Li Fan’s surprise once again—
The cave was still empty!
The escape had only occurred recently, and their lingering aura had not yet dissipated.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
“This is…?”
“Hiding from me?”
“They knew in advance that I was coming for them?”
“A prophecy? Or perhaps…”
Li Fan suddenly recalled the collapse and reappearance of Revival Mountain.
“Time reversal?”
The moment this thought surfaced, his heart pounded violently.
However, having experienced much, he quickly regained his composure.
“This is merely speculation—it’s not necessarily true.”
“I’ll know the answer once I capture that father and son.”
Driven by an excitement he hadn’t felt in a long time, Li Fan turned to look at Lin Ling.
Lin Ling glanced around, then shook her head. “They haven’t left the cave.”
Hearing this, Li Fan carefully examined the surroundings again. “There are no signs of spatial teleportation either. Could it be…”
Li Fan and Lin Ling simultaneously looked toward the ground beneath them.
A faint smile appeared on Li Fan’s lips as he lazily ordered, “We pursue.”
Lin Ling nodded, green light enveloping her body as she burrowed into the earth.
Logically speaking, underground spaces were dark and disorienting, making it easy to lose one’s pursuers.
However, Li Fan’s group had someone connected to the Earth Vein Ancient Trees—Lin Ling!
Though the underground expanse was vast, it belonged entirely to the Earth Vein Ancient Trees.
Every movement was observed—there was no escape from their sight!
With their guidance, Li Fan’s group quickly picked up on the traces of their targets.
But at the same time, Li Fan noticed that they had only traveled a short distance underground before hastily returning to the surface.
“Did they sense our pursuit again?”
“They’re really troublesome.”
Thinking this, he returned to the surface once more.
This time, Lin Ling sensed that Ou Daozi and his son had taken to the skies, fleeing into the air.
Unfortunately, aerial escape techniques inevitably leave behind fluctuations of spiritual energy.
Soon, Lin Ling pinpointed their direction of escape.
With Li Fan in tow, she gave chase.
No matter how Ou Daozi tried to alter his path or set up diversions, he could not shake off Lin Ling’s tracking.
Finally, it seemed that Ou Daozi and his son had given up struggling and ceased their escape.
They stood still among the clouds ahead, waiting.
“This little one, Lin Ling, is really useful.” Finally catching up, Li Fan couldn’t help but sigh inwardly as he looked at the two figures, one large and one small, in the distance.
“What does senior seek so desperately?” Facing Li Fan’s trio, who had surrounded him, Ou Daozi clasped his hands in greeting without arrogance or fear.
“I originally just wanted your help with a construction project back home,” Li Fan said, narrowing his eyes as he scanned the two of them. “I never expected such an unexpected gain.”
Ou Daozi’s son was only around eight or nine years old. His appearance was not particularly handsome, but despite the faint killing intent emanating from Li Fan, he showed no fear—he carried himself with a natural composure.
More importantly, his gaze was locked onto Li Fan with intense hatred, as if he bore some deep-seated blood feud against him.
Yet they had never met before.
Such an attitude…
It only served to further confirm the suspicions in Li Fan’s mind.
Ou Daozi also noticed his son’s unusual reaction, and his face darkened. He quickly pulled the boy behind him. “I don’t understand what you mean!”
Li Fan snorted coldly. “The collapse and reappearance of Revival Mountain—was that your son’s doing?”
“What exactly is his ability? Could it be the legendary Time Reversal Technique?”
Although Li Fan himself was only a Golden Core Cultivator, both Lin Ling (Dao Integration Realm) and Tianyang (Soul Transformation Realm) followed his lead.
Ou Daozi could not discern Li Fan's true cultivation level and merely said, “Senior, please don’t joke. How could there be such a thing as time flowing in reverse in this world…?”
“As for my son’s divine ability…”
As Ou Daozi spoke, he deliberately lowered his voice but then suddenly fell silent, as if waiting for something!
Li Fan’s heart instantly rang with alarm: “Binding Insect!”
The target was not Ou Daozi but his son!
In an instant, the child lost control of his body, yet his eyes showed no trace of panic.
It was as if everything was within his expectations.
Instead, he looked at Li Fan with a faint hint of mockery.
At the same time, Tianyang’s body suddenly expanded, forming a sphere of intertwining black and red energy that enclosed Li Fan at its center.
“Boom!”
A massive explosion erupted as if something had collided violently.
Li Fan felt momentarily dizzy, while Tianyang’s puppet body developed several cracks.
Fortunately, Lin Ling intervened in time, preventing it from shattering completely.
“What the hell is this?!”
Li Fan cursed under his breath and glanced at his [Truth] Panel—the protective energy level had not decreased.
Instantly, he felt reassured.
In his mind, the Dao Deviation Stone emitted a blue glow, replaying the recorded scene at an extremely slow speed.
Only then did he clearly see the true cause of the sudden turn of events—
And everything that had happened in that fleeting moment.
The assailant, who was so fast that even Lin Ling and Tianyang couldn’t react in time, turned out to be—an arrow.
It seemed that Ou Daozi and his son had long anticipated its flight trajectory.
They had deliberately lingered in place, drawing Li Fan and his group into the arrow’s path.
At the crucial moment, just as the arrow was about to strike Li Fan, a burst of yellow light suddenly radiated from Ou Daozi’s son.
This light appeared to disregard the arrow’s speed, locking onto it with absolute precision.
Then, in that instant, without visibly changing direction, the arrow eerily reversed course—
Shooting back toward its original position!
Wrapped in the golden light, Ou Daozi and his son harnessed the arrow’s unimaginable speed and, in the blink of an eye, escaped from Li Fan’s encirclement!
“Master, they’re gone. They’ve already fled too far, and I can’t sense their presence anymore,” Lin Ling said with some guilt.
Tianyang also shook his head, feeling slightly remorseful.
Li Fan, however, simply waved his hand, unconcerned.
As he replayed the events in his mind, he vaguely grasped the nature of his opponent’s divine ability.
It was not true time reversal…
Or rather, it was related in some way.
It could revert an object’s state to a certain point in time!
To be bested by a seven- or eight-year-old child—Li Fan was not alarmed but rather delighted.
Because since his reincarnation, this was the first cultivator he had encountered whose abilities were linked to the Dao of Time.
“Run? You think you can run?”
“You may escape for now, but you won’t escape forever!”
“Once I set my sights on someone, there is no escape!”
Li Fan’s eyes gleamed, and in an instant, dozens of countermeasures flashed through his mind.