Chapter 1605: What Is Cultivation For (II)

Yet, in five hundred and nineteen of those futures, quite a few members of the Li Family would survive. The turning point lay neither with Li Zhouwei nor Li Ximing, but with someone Lu Jiangxian had never expected, Li Xizhi.

In these five hundred and nineteen futures, the Li Family would ultimately compromise with Luoxia. As chaos engulfed the north, Li Xizhi would enter Mount Luoxia to cultivate. His Dao conduct would then be put to use by a True Monarch. When Li Zhouwei later died attempting the Fruition Attainment, it was not Shu troops who would arrive, but envoys from the north bearing an immortal decree. A handful of survivors would be spared at Moongaze Lake, and Li Zhouming would lead them away to the southern border.

Li Xizhi would cultivate for many years before suddenly dying. Li Zhouming would succumb to illness thirteen years later. Xia Shouyu would govern the clan for seventy-nine years. Then, when Victory White Hall would kill Liu Changdie and Fuxun, the entire clan would be exterminated.

Next, in another five hundred and sixty-one futures, the Li Family chose the dragons.

Though confined to Moongaze Lake and beset by difficulties on all sides, the Li Family would remain outwardly obedient, allowing the northern and southern powers to maneuver them as they pleased without resistance. In secret, however, they would collude with the dragons and construct a great tomb within the Scarlet Pristine Sea as preparation for reincarnation.

When Li Zhouwei, besieged in Weidu Prefecture, finally exhausted himself in battle, his true spirit would escape and attempt to seek refuge with the dragons so that he might reincarnate and begin anew. Yet he would be struck by the [Divine Thunder Profound Sound Drum], leaving his true spirit shattered.

Moongaze Lake would become a sea of blood. Only an outer-sea remnant lineage would survive, occupying Qunyi and lingering under the dragon's protection. Within a mere decade, however, the direct line would decline, and the clan would perish. Its remnants would be divided among various powers, much like the fate of the Jiang Family.

In the final five hundred and twenty-three futures, the Li Family aligned itself with the Great Song founded by Yang Zhuo. After a breakthrough attempt at Zhijing Mountain ended in death, Moongaze Lake would enjoy twelve years of peace. Then Song and Zhao would contend for supremacy. Moongaze Lake would be breached by Zhao's great general Wang Quwan, and the clan would be massacred. Li Jiangliang, serving at court, would take his own life.

None would escape disaster. Seventy-six of these futures were somewhat better. In those, only Li Ximing remained after securing a respectable position within the Underworld's judiciary. Yet after secretly intervening in worldly affairs, he would be executed within a few years for disrupting the mortal world.

Every one of these outcomes ended in blood and tears.

Of course, beyond those one thousand eight hundred and eighty-four futures, there were seven more.

A strange expression flickered across Lu Jiangxian's face.

In those seven futures, Li Xizhi also joined Luoxia. Yet through a single misstep, his true body would be discovered. War would erupt across the great void and the Outer Heavens, shattering the mainland into seven continents. The Li Family, all those allied or connected to them through friendship or marriage, the Si Family, the Xiao Family, and even the future Chen Family of Yuyang Prefecture... every one of them would be annihilated. Not a single survivor would remain.

The futures calculated by the [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture]... whether fortunate or miserable, whether marked by fleeting glory or a lifetime of humiliation, not a single one leads to survival!

He stood silently within the Banished Winds as the image of the [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture], suspended and suppressed in the heavens above, reflected endlessly within his eyes.

The [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture] was nothing like the fragment of predictive power that Liu Changdie had once possessed. Though restrained by dharma relics, it still retained the exalted Inherent Rank and mystic to be an [Order]. It might not be able to calculate the future actions of True Monarchs, but eighty or ninety percent of the schemes laid down by the great powers, both past and present, remained within its calculations!

Which means that the one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one futures generated from my assumptions are all extremely close to reality... As long as the Dao Embryos do not intervene and I refrain from making any major interference, they are practically set in stone!

He remained silent for a long while, then thought, The [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture] can calculate nearly all things... yet there are two things it cannot see clearly.

The first are the decisions of the Dao Embryo Immortals of Luoxia and the Underworld's judiciary. The second... is me.

Those seven futures all involved his true body being discovered. The world was shaken; Immortals and True Monarchs emerged together; and the vision immediately dissolved into chaos. Beyond the shattered mainland, nothing else could be seen!

If I simply allow events to follow their course, these hundred years will be wasted. The wasted century itself is not the real issue. The real problem is missing this century of upheaval and transformation. Once this period passes, even if another opportunity arises, there will be no chance of turning things around!

Back then, he had thought that, at worst, he could hide away for five hundred years. Looking at it now, however, how could five hundred years possibly solve this problem? More importantly... after more than a century spent alongside them... he could no longer stand by and watch the Li Family be slaughtered to the last...

Bright Yang and Li Zhouwei... the great turmoil resulting from the entire world chasing after [True Essence] is the Li Family's only opportunity. In truth, it is my only opportunity as well...

The Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture can calculate these one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one futures. As for the Master of the Origin Mansion, that Lu Jiangxian of Green Pine Temple, how could he have calculated only one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one times? What is there that he cannot calculate?

There must have been a reason for all the arrangements he made. He was even willing to erase his own memories and become the person I am today... If the Li Family's destruction could come to pass while I remained unharmed, why bother arranging for Liu Changdie? Why show me these one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one futures?

Lu Jiangxian stood silently within the Banished Winds. Slowly turning his head, countless thoughts converged and solidified into a single conviction.

Variables... They don't want variables, but I do. One Chi Buzi is far from enough. I need more variables! Even if they cannot overturn the greater design, they can still create a sliver of hope!

His eyes turned silver-white. His divine sense remained linked to the calculations, continuously deducing in silence. His expression stayed calm as a pale blue-white sword slowly materialized from nothingness in his hand.

He murmured, “Li Jiangchun...”

Li Jiangchun had been granted the talisman seed precisely because his talent in the Sword Dao was the greatest seen in a century, enough to rival Li Chejing himself!

Passing down Li Chejing's lifetime of Sword Dao experience to him would not be wasted. Yet such a legacy was not something an ordinary person could inherit, nor something that would acknowledge an ordinary successor. Unless one's innate ability surpassed Li Chejing's, one would need to at least reach Sword Essence and stand only a step away from Sword Intent before having any chance of earning its recognition!

Lu Jiangxian had originally intended to wait until Li Jiangchun's Sword Dao had reached a sufficient level before helping him subdue it. Now, however, there was no longer time to wait!

Whether it accepts him or not, it will have to!

Just as when Li Xijun had once borrowed a sword, he forcibly suppressed this fragment of Sword Intent and flicked it into Li Jiangchun's talisman seed. From then on, Lu Jiangxian would constantly devote part of his attention to keeping it under control, allowing Li Jiangchun to resonate with it and rapidly increase his attainments in the Sword Dao until he finally earned its recognition.

The variables left behind by the Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture are few, but they can be calculated clearly...

Countless silver-white vortices appeared within his eyes as he raced against time, feeding innumerable variables into them at a terrifying speed.

Li Ximing and Li Zhouwei appeared again and again within the endless visions. In other scenarios it was Li Jiangqian or Li Quewan. One day, they would awaken to find the memories of one thousand eight hundred and ninety-one futures suddenly imprinted in their minds. Drenched in cold sweat, they would desperately try to save themselves, only to meet an untimely death somewhere down the road...

"Using variables themselves as variables..."

In that instant, the countless possibilities multiplied at a terrifying pace, repeating over and over, replaying again and again!

The endless Banished Winds were converging toward a single point, pouring into the deep and bottomless Underworld. If Lu Jiangxian remained where he was, he could ride this gray-white [Directional Banished Wind] straight into the boundless depths of the Underworld.

That place is the Underworld's judiciary. It is the very source of [Banished Essence].

As he faced the surging Banished Winds, he finally severed the faint connection that still linked him to the [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture]. He vanished from where he stood, and a trace of gloom surfaced in his expression.

If all these schemes ultimately prove ineffective, then I might as well play an open hand with the [Great Expansion Heavenly Plain Scripture]... If I play the very open hand they dismissed as insignificant... From beginning to end, the Li Family has never possessed anything except the right to play openly.

I cannot personally intervene in every matter. But the Li Family needs its own Liu Changdie... It needs a member of the Li Family who believes they understand the course of the future, someone standing at the center of the great currents with a clear view of everything... Someone who can place the pieces on the board for me, one move at a time...

A vast ocean of memories suddenly converged. A single point of golden light rose into the air, then descended through a hidden passage connected to the Realm of Sun and Moon Radiance before vanishing into an unnoticed corner of the great void.

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