NOVPUB"The mind that governs and controls others, when I was the chief of the Array Strategy Hall back in the day, I never had such a hard time like you do,"
"You must learn to delegate authority."
Li Fan earnestly advised.
Now, Lu Qixian didn’t dare to retort and could only nod her head repeatedly in agreement.
A brief silence filled the bamboo house.
Then, Li Fan pondered for a while, as if he had made some decision.
With a pointing gesture in mid-air, he directed his finger towards Lu Qixian’s forehead.
This move, which under normal circumstances would be considered highly threatening and would cause any cultivator to instinctively resist, was met with no resistance from Lu Qixian due to her distorted cognition from Li Fan’s earlier three whips and the Reality Seducing Fruit.
She took Li Fan’s pointing on her forehead without a flinch.
And then...
Over a thousand array techniques, the likes of which she had never seen before and far beyond her current understanding, suddenly appeared in Lu Qixian’s spirit consciousness.
After being stunned for a moment, Lu Qixian abruptly looked up, "Master, is this..."
Her somewhat weak voice was filled with surprise and delight.
Li Fan snorted coldly, "With your unaccomplished state, if I were to just let you work in isolation, you might never achieve greatness even until your demise."
"These array techniques are my new gains over the years, much more refined than when I faked my death. They should be enough for you to study for a while."
Lu Qixian, being well aware of the value of these array techniques, was suddenly overcome with joy and gratitude, and she quickly bowed in thanks to Li Fan, "Thank you, Master, for this generous gift."
"Xuan Suchang..." Li Fan ignored Lu Qixian and turned his gaze to Xuan Suchang instead.
"Junior is here," Xuan Suchang promptly responded.
"Regarding the matter between you two..." Li Fan started slowly.
Upon hearing this, both Xuan Suchang and Lu Qixian held their breath.
"Now that the deed is done and you both share mutual affection, I am not in a position to obstruct,"
"XiChan has a lazy nature. If there is no one to spur her on and supervise, she might well end up with the same fate in the future..."
As he spoke, Li Fan passed the golden whip, formed from his divine soul power, through the air, "I give this whip to you. Whenever you detect any slackness in XiChan from now on, you shall take my place in administering punishment!"
"XiChan, you must not resist! Do you understand?" Li Fan looked straight at her.
Lu Qixian’s body trembled slightly once more as she replied softly, "Disciple understands."
Xuan Suchang received the dark golden whip with both hands, her face a mix of astonishment and delight.
Stealing glances at Lu Qixian and seemingly thinking of something, a blush emerged on her cheeks.
Then, upon being prompted, she bowed to Li Fan to express her thanks.
"With matters here concluded, I shall take my leave,"
"As for the mess in this Bamboo Sea..."
Before Li Fan could say anything, Lu Qixian hurriedly interjected, "Rest assured, Master, I will handle it."
After a pause, Lu Qixian hesitated for a moment before she finally said in a soft voice, "Please be careful on your journey, Master..."
Li Fan just smiled, and in the next moment, his figure appeared high in the sky.
"How could a minor tribulation harm me?"
"However, I do appreciate the sentiment, disciple. Hahaha..."
As he spoke, his presence had already vanished from the Bamboo Sea Cave Mansion.
Xuan Suchang and Lu Qixian gazed at the sky, dumbfounded.
The events that had unfolded so unexpectedly were like a dream. In less than a day’s time, it felt as though they had lived through half a lifetime.
Their eyes met, and after a long while, it was Xuan Suchang who finally broke the silence, "Since we’ve already made our choice, there’s no use regretting it now."
"But..."
"The struggle for the Tianxuan Mirror might not affect us in the end."
Lu Qixian nodded, "But what happened here... it’s best kept a secret..."
Her gaze flickered to the Golden Whip in Xuan Suchang’s hand, and her aura suddenly became somewhat disordered again.
...
Outside the Bamboo Sea.
Having returned the previously subdued servant female cultivator and Shuo Feng, Li Fan’s group was hurrying towards the location of the Tianxuan Mirror Avatar.
However, the looks Daoist Baihua and Lin Ling gave Li Fan were somewhat peculiar.
Only Little Junior Brother Tianyang remained unsurprised, just as always.
The scenes that had unfolded in the Bamboo Tower were naturally witnessed by them.
In fact, with such commotion, it would have been difficult for them not to notice even if they wanted to.
"If such means were used on me..." Lin Ling felt an increased sense of fear towards Li Fan in her heart.
"As expected of an Envoy, whether it’s manipulating people’s hearts or the art of controlling subordinates, he has reached the pinnacle. No wonder a True Immortal took notice of him. Among those survivors from the various realms back then, there probably wasn’t anyone like this," Daoist Baihua was inwardly sighing.
Li Fan paid no mind to these two people’s wild guesses.
What he had just done was merely to leave a way out for himself.
After all, Xuan Suchang and Lu Qixian, these two female cultivators, indeed held quite high positions within the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals.
Even if they were not comparable to Dharma Transmitters, they could definitely be considered part of the upper echelons of control.
But Li Fan, after all, was not really the Mystical Sky Sect King allied with Mo Rubing, with Even True in his possession, and he had many unique secrets of his own.
Some things are better handled through his own separate means.
Through the three strikes of the whip just now, Li Fan believed that even if there were any holes in the lies woven by the Reality Seducing Fruit, they could be temporarily overlooked under the shield of such a shocking event.
Whenever they thought of Li Fan, their Master, the first thing to come to mind would be those three strikes of the whip...
With Lu Qixian’s temper, she definitely wouldn’t be able to stay calm.
And the reason he had taught her over a thousand Array Techniques was only to make the fabricated memories more credible and to give a slap followed by a sweet date, a means of soothing.
As for giving Xuan Suchang the Golden Whip afterward...
One reason was to monitor the two women’s every move, as after all the whip was made with his Divine soul power, equivalent to another type of incarnation.
Secondly, it was to delay as long as possible the moment when the lies would be exposed.
How could Li Fan not know what might happen between Xuan Suchang and Lu Qixian after she received the Golden Whip?
Especially since he had given her the legitimate right to "supervise and punish."
They would surely relish the taste and be unwilling to return to their mundane lives.
In this way, the two female cultivators would spend quite a long time in the Bamboo Sea for the foreseeable future.
"The less time spent at the Immortal Alliance Headquarters, the smaller the chance of being exposed."
This was Li Fan’s calculation.
All else was not as it appeared on the surface.
Collecting his thoughts, Li Fan focused his attention on the information about the Tianxuan Mirror Avatar conveyed by Xuan Suchang.
"Incarnate as a mortal, wandering through Xuan Huang."
"Changing appearance and identity time and again, never tiring of it."
"Suspecting that he is pursuing Enlightenment..."
"Interesting."
Li Fan’s eyes lit up as he sped up, flying towards the recent location of the Tianxuan Mirror Avatar.
Liuguang Prefecture, a Mortal City named Weidu.
Before long, the four of them had reached their destination.
"The Immortal-Ordinary Miasma is indeed as formidable as its reputation, I had only heard of it before but never witnessed it with my own eyes."
"Experiencing it firsthand from afar, I already feel a sense of revulsion."
Daoist Baihua remarked with a sigh.
