Chapter 248: The Directorate of Celestial Observation Tests the Heart-Mind

“That saying sounds rather familiar. My Martial Grand-Aunt often has it on the tip of her tongue.”

The old Daoist looked Li Shun up and down with a faint, knowing smile.

“Martial Grand-Aunt? ... The Great Siming?” Li Shun asked, deliberately allowing a trace of hesitation to appear on his face.

The old Daoist nodded slightly.

Li Shun hurriedly composed himself and explained, “Not long ago, I had the honor of witnessing the Great Siming’s peerless bearing at the foot of Mount Dai. The sight left an unforgettable impression on me. I have also kept the Great Siming’s teachings firmly in my heart ever since.”

The old Daoist neither confirmed nor denied it.

“You have passed the first test. What comes next is the true main event.”

The old Daoist suddenly paused. His expression grew slightly solemn, as though he were secretly communicating with someone.

A moment later, the dim secret chamber suddenly blazed with light.

A shadowy book suffused with a strange and eerie aura abruptly materialized in midair.

The old Daoist’s expression turned grave as he pointed toward the phantom book.

Its pages immediately began flipping open with a rustle.

What appeared before their eyes was an immense scene depicting two Outer Gods confronting each other from afar.

However, compared with what Li Shun had personally witnessed on the snowy plains of Bing Province, the scene depicted within this book consisted entirely of pure black-and-white lines.

Simple, even somewhat abstract.

If someone had never personally witnessed the true forms of Taiyi Xuanpin and Hunlun Chi Form, there was absolutely no way they could connect the few sparse strokes within the book to those indescribable Outer Gods.

Then, those black-and-white lines suddenly broke free from the pages like living creatures, flying outward as though they were truly descending into the secret chamber.

Li Shun could even clearly sense the same terrifying pressure of an Outer God surging toward him, exactly like before.

The only difference was that, perhaps because of the absolute suppression imposed by the mysterious book-shadow's power, these two enormous Outer God images did not radiate that pervasive, madness-inducing sense of contamination and corruption.

In other words, they possessed only the might and appearance, but not the divine essence.

Faced with these two hollow remnants, Li Shun remained as calm as an ancient well. He showed not the slightest reaction.

The old Daoist had been secretly observing every change in Li Shun’s expression from beginning to end. Seeing this, he nodded slightly.

Then the old Daoist changed the hand seals he was forming and performed another technique.

The phantom book that had been spread open suddenly began flipping through its pages violently.

The two immense Outer God images suspended in midair seemed to be torn apart by some invisible supreme force. Before Li Shun’s eyes, they shattered with a thunderous crash, transforming into countless black-and-white fragments.

At the instant they broke apart, Li Shun faintly heard two furious, mournful shrieks flash past his ears.

“Hm?”

There was no anger.

Li Shun merely looked toward the old Daoist in some surprise.

The old Daoist remained silent, continuing to manipulate the phantom book with complete concentration.

Once again, its pages began flipping rapidly.

After a moment, a sheet of transparent paper, thin as a cicada’s wing, slowly drifted out from within the book and descended directly over Li Shun’s head.

It was exactly like the scene before, when the enormous hand holding a brush had sealed away the Outer Gods.

Li Shun narrowed his eyes slightly as countless thoughts flashed through his mind.

After confirming that he was still within the one-day temporal rewind granted by Threefold Self-Reflection, he suppressed his instinctive resistance.

He simply stood where he was, allowing the transparent sheet of paper to completely envelop him.

The scene before his eyes suddenly underwent a world-shaking transformation.

He was no longer inside that dim secret chamber.

Instead, he abruptly found himself within a seemingly boundless expanse of pure white.

Aside from Li Shun himself, this world was completely empty.

There was not even any concept of up, down, left, or right.

No matter which direction Li Shun attempted to move, neither what he saw nor what he sensed around him changed in the slightest.

It even gave rise to the absurd illusion that perhaps he had never moved at all.

Li Shun steadied his mind and tried calling out to the old Daoist.

Yet the instant his voice emerged, it vanished like a stone sinking into the sea, unable to travel even the slightest distance.

His call merely continued to echo dully within his own mind.

Within this pure-white space, not only was the concept of space absent.

It seemed as though even the passage of time had vanished.

Under normal circumstances, an ordinary person confined here would soon become restless and agitated, perhaps even driven mad.

But...

For one thing, Li Shun had already experienced a thousand times more profound an endless silence within the ruins of the Primordial Heavenly Court.

Compared to that, this was nothing more than child's play.

Furthermore, Li Shun could still maintain a connection to the outside world through Fangcun.

He knew perfectly well that the flow of time here had been slowed to an extreme degree compared with the normal passage of time in Great Qian's outside world.

He was still within the temporal rewind granted by Threefold Self-Reflection.

There was therefore no need to panic.

However, he also understood that in the face of such an absolute predicament, appearing too calm would instead arouse the old Daoist's suspicions.

Thus, with a shift of his thoughts, he patiently began a gradual “performance.”

At first, he could barely maintain his composure and calm.

Gradually, he began displaying signs of agitation and unease.

In the end, he “could no longer endure it” and erupted into hysterical roars and furious questioning.

Yet from beginning to end, the pure-white space gave him no response whatsoever.

From his subjective perception, Li Shun endured the equivalent of seven long days of torment.

Yet in the outside world of Great Qian, only two hours had actually passed.

Finally, without the slightest warning, this space born from the pages of the book shattered like a mirror.

Li Shun's feet once again touched solid ground as he returned to the dim secret chamber of reality.

The old Daoist looked Li Shun over and finally seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Upon seeing the divine, there was no abnormality. Upon the divine's destruction, there was no anger. Under sealing, there was no change.”

“You have now been completely cleared of any possibility of having been contaminated by an Outer God.”

The old Daoist stroked his beard, and there was a trace of genuine relief in his voice.

Li Shun, meanwhile, was breathing heavily.

He appeared not to have recovered from the seven-day-long sealing. Anger and lingering fright still remained on his face.

However, under the old Daoist’s soothing words, his expression gradually relaxed.

As though his mental strength had been exhausted to its absolute limit, his legs suddenly went weak, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.

Only after a long while did he manage to steady his breathing.

As though suddenly remembering something, he raised his head and asked hoarsely, “Senior... if someone had been corrupted by an Outer God, how would they have behaved under such an examination?”

The old Daoist fell silent for a moment.

Then he swept out his broad sleeve.

A gentle sphere of light suddenly appeared in the empty space before them.

Within the sphere, light and shadow intertwined and shifted, revealing a scene of the remnant image from Zhao Cheng’s interrogation.

At first, when faced with the old Daoist’s stern questioning concerning the orthodox doctrines and classical teachings of the Spring and Autumn Brush lineage, Zhao Cheng had still been able to maintain clarity of mind and answer fluently.

However, the instant the phantom book manifested the immense images of the two Outer Gods, he could no longer suppress the abnormality hidden deep within his soul.

Zhao Cheng’s eyes turned blood-red.

The pathological madness and fervent worship revealed within them were unmistakable.