Jiang Fugui immediately sensed the change in his mark. He had marked Li Gang's soul itself, and as soon as his soul suffered such heavy damage, the mark was also removed.
He sensed the location where it happened and immediately disappeared.
Soon, he appeared before Li Gang. He looked at his condition and was shocked. There was another man lying there. Both were alive, and both of their souls were heavily injured.
What shocked him even more was that Lin Fan's soul was only Grade 5 and in an extremely injured state, yet its quality was far higher than even his own! As for Li Gang, his soul seemed to have suffered some huge trauma. It was ruptured in many places.
'What actually happened here?'
He searched everywhere but didn't find anything. Suddenly, he had a guess.
'It is more likely that he sneak-attacked this young man, and this young man suffered backlash from the alchemy refinement. But he still survived and sacrificed his soul to launch a very powerful Soul attack. It should be some kind of Secret Technique.'
In fact, even though his deductions were wrong, anyone in his place would have come to the same conclusion, because there was no clue at all.
He immediately took out a pill and placed it in Li Gang's mouth, and this time marked both his body and soul.
As soon as the pill melted in Li Gang's mouth, his soul began to stabilize. It took two months for him to wake up from that state.
His temperament had undergone a huge change after he woke up. He looked around and found Jiang Fugui not far away, playing chess.
Li Gang stood up, walked over, and bowed. "Thank you, Sect Leader, for saving my life. I will never forget this grace!"
Jiang Fugui nodded with satisfaction. "It's good that you have this mindset. Prepare yourself—the Ethereal Sect entrance exam will begin soon."
Li Gang nodded. "I won't disappoint you."
Jiang Fugui waved his hand, motioning for him to leave.
Li Gang immediately retreated. At the same time, he thought about what had happened earlier.
'I was too greedy. I must be careful from now on and learn from this mistake. I shouldn't put my life in danger just for some benefits. I never expected the danger of this soul search to be so severe. This method was given to me by Wang Xueyao. I thought it was just a normal Soul Search method, but no—it was a trap. As soon as I used it, I couldn't even stop the Soul Search. It's good that I informed Jiang Fugui beforehand.'
Li Gang murmured, "I gained a huge harvest, but…"
He suddenly thought,
'Why do I only have his cultivation life experiences and no information about this world? It's as if someone deliberately filtered what I should know and what I shouldn't. The information about this world could be deduced easily from those experiences, so why would someone filter it?'
By "this world," Li Gang wasn't referring only to the Divine Spirit World, but also to higher dimensions and higher-dimensional beings.
Li Gang had learned all of Lin Fan's formation experience, alchemy experience, poison experience, battle experience, sword mastery, and understanding of elements like Space, Time, Wind, Water, Earth, Thunder, Fire, Soul, and so on. This was what Li Gang had processed so far.
He had yet to internalize all of Lin Fan's memories. For example, he absorbed Lin Fan's alchemy experience, but he didn't know every pill. He had yet to fully process those memories.
These were just his conscious thoughts.
His subconscious thoughts were different.
'I can only absorb this much right now. Processing any further information is dangerous.'
As they say, you shouldn't know more than you can afford to. Sometimes, curiosity kills the cat.
'It's good that I was cautious enough. I had a feeling that there might be a problem with the Soul Search method Wang Xueyao shared. Lin Fan was likely her arrangement. She wanted me to absorb his memories, which almost caused my death.'
Back during the Monarch Inheritance, he had already deduced that Wang Xueyao was incapable of killing him for some reason. At the same time, he knew that the "hidden enemy" would surely protect him if his life was in danger.
As this thought surfaced, a sudden realization struck Li Gang.
'No, that's not right. I am alive because the Emperors protected me!'
In Li Gang's perception, he considered the Emperors collectively as his enemies. One of the Emperors was reading his memories, and he didn't know which one it was.
Li Gang had long deduced that his enemies wanted something from him and wouldn't harm him before getting what they wanted.
Why was the higher-dimensional information not present in Lin Fan's memories? It was because every piece of information with higher-dimensional attributes was removed before Li Gang could absorb it. If it had been present, Li Gang would have already died before he could absorb it.
'Who removed it? Was it the Emperors?'
Back during the Awakening Ceremony, Li Gang had speculated that the Emperors might not be able to act directly, because they had always used indirect means to control events around him. However, that was only speculation.
He thought, 'It appears the Emperors can indeed act when necessary, but they don't usually do so. They should be kept in check by someone else. It could be the one who brought me here, or it could be someone else.'
Wang Xueyao's deception was perfect. Li Gang learned a major lesson this time—he needed to be even more cautious than before. He had thought that Wang Xueyao wouldn't kill him because she had no reason to. Now it seemed she had other plans.
Li Gang began reverse deduction.
'Let's assume Lin Fan was sent here by Wang Xueyao, and she also gave me the tampered Soul Search method. Why would she do that?'
'There are two possibilities. First, she couldn't kill me directly, so she chose this method to eliminate me indirectly. This means she sees me as a threat and, despite her high status, can't kill me directly. But why? I still remember the one thing she showed interest in—it's the Special Ability I should have possessed, but don't. Even back when we first met after the marriage alliance, she showed murderous intent but didn't kill me. I thought it was because of my usefulness, but it might be because she couldn't actually kill me!'
'Second, she wanted to test me. There is only one thing she could test in this way—my cognitive prowess. Lin Fan was from higher dimensions, yet his memories didn't contain higher-dimensional attributes. It definitely wasn't removed by Wang Xueyao, since Lin Fan still remembered his past life. So she was likely testing whether I possess the ability to absorb higher-dimensional information. But why? No warrior should be able to do this!'
'Back then, she forcefully asked whether I possessed a Special Ability. Could this be related? Does she want to see what kind of Special Ability I have?'
'Is it possible that I possess a Special Ability, but I don't really know it?'
Both were speculations that Li Gang couldn't confirm. He strongly believed it had to be connected to his Special Ability. It was the only thing that could explain the involvement of Emperors and higher-dimensional beings with him.
Many thoughts surfaced in his mind, but Li Gang lacked sufficient clues at the moment.
Now the question arose—who was it that helped Li Gang?
It was He Fan.
The Immortals saw through Wang Xueyao's intentions the moment Lin Fan mentioned her name. They realized he had arrived here because of Wang Xueyao's arrangements, and when they recalled the time Wang Xueyao shared the Soul Search method with Li Gang, they suspected it had been tampered with.
At that moment, they realized Wang Xueyao was testing whether he was the Supreme God of Creation, because only such a being could absorb these memories with a mortal body.
After seeing how Li Gang almost died from information overload, they merely laughed it off. Li Gang could never be the Creator.
At the same time, according to Wang Xueyao's belief, as long as Li Gang absorbed those memories alive and didn't process all of them, he should be the Creator. Li Gang absorbed the memories alive and also didn't process all of them.
As a consequence, this entire plan failed successfully.
Now, why did Li Gang not process all the information? It was because if he did, the "Hidden Enemies" would become alert. They would treat him with far more seriousness than he could handle. It should be noted that Li Gang strongly believed the Emperors wanted something from him, and thus would never allow him to gain even the slightest control of the situation. He had to remain in their clutches, inside the abstract cage they had created.
The moment Li Gang got his hands on knowledge and information that could threaten the Emperors, they might take action personally, no matter how disadvantageous the situation was!
Holding such information was a gamble, and one must never gamble when one's mind could be read.
As long as Li Gang remained in a disadvantageous position, they would keep underestimating him. And only when they underestimated him could he overcome them. Li Gang was rational. He knew they were smarter than him, and his only chance lay in their underestimation.
Unfortunately, this action of Li Gang backfired, because it carried another meaning in the Immortals' eyes.
The Immortals didn't want Li Gang to absorb Lin Fan's experience regarding the Laws of Worlds. The moment Li Gang grasped the Law of Unpredictability, his scheming ability would take a huge leap. They also didn't want Li Gang to know about the pill the Immortals wanted to refine. The moment Li Gang learned about it, he would be able to connect all the dots and might speculate that the "Enemies" wanted to refine him! Now, Li Gang actively stopped himself from processing those memories of Lin Fan.
Is that really a coincidence?
In Immortal's perspective, Li Gang might not need this immense knowledge to fight them. He might be the Timeless Demon God's reincarnation. Before Lin Fan's rebirth, they had never considered this, because they assumed reincarnation was impossible. But after seeing Lin Fan's reincarnation, how could they not think of it? Li Gang's identity as the Timeless Demon God became much more apparent through his actions. At the same time, they suspected he might be able to use Abstract Thinking and had sealed his memories and knowledge—ones he could access but they couldn't perceive!
This caused Immortal Zhu to feel even more tense. He felt an urgency, and the benefit—the treasure he once thought was within reach—now seemed far away.
There was another question—how did He Fan come to know about Wang Xueyao's plans? Of course, he couldn't figure them out on his own. He didn't know much about the God Realm.
The Immortals informed him. Even though the Immortals couldn't interfere directly with the world, they could still send an incorporeal clone as a messenger.
He Fan needed Li Gang alive just as much as the Immortals did. Their goals aligned, and no one understood the soul better than He Fan himself—yes, not even the Elemental Emperor with the Timeless Demon God's memories.
He Fan altered Lin Fan's memories and also read Lin Fan's entire experiences. His understanding of the world took another leap. He knew about the existence of higher-dimensional beings, though not in detail. He also understood Wang Xueyao's scheme, as well as the Immortals' goal.
Now question arises, why didn't Immortals stop Li Gang from absorbing Lin Fan's memories? Answer is quite straightforward. It was Wang Xueyao's arrangement, and involved identity of Creator!