226: Between life and death, there is great terror

Ten thousand miles away from Fallen Soul Valley, in a desolate and secluded mountain valley.

An imperceptible ripple appeared in the air.

Lin Fan's figure solidified out of thin air.

A power far more vast and majestic than before exploded within his limbs and bones, like a rushing river washing through every inch of his meridians.

Mid-stage Refining Void.

His cultivation had crossed the threshold that countless Cultivators would need a hundred years of bitter cultivation to achieve in just a single breath.

Deep within his Divine Soul, a strand of incredibly profound Law comprehension was quietly imprinted.

It was the mystery of space.

With a slight thought from Lin Fan.

His body suddenly vanished from the spot, and in the next instant, he appeared on another rock ten zhang away.

No spiritual energy fluctuations, no traces of Spells.

It was as if he was supposed to be standing there all along.

Teleportation.

The rewards for an S-rank evaluation were so generous they made one's heart tremble.

Lin Fan clenched his fists, feeling the brand-new power within his body that was enough to control a portion of space, and an uncontrollable surge of excitement rose in his chest.

However, the burning sensation brought by this power lasted for less than three breaths.

A bone-chilling coldness surged from the base of his spine all the way up to the crown of his head.

In his mind, the final scene before falling into the space crack involuntarily surfaced.

That woman in white.

Those eyes that seemed able to pierce through all falsehood in the world and reach the very Origin of the Soul.

And the System's unprecedented, sharp, and ear-piercing warning sound.

【Law-level Prying】.

The color drained from Lin Fan's face at a visible rate.

This woman was definitely a huge trouble.

What... exactly did she see?

He forcibly suppressed the surging waves in his heart, organized his thoughts, calmed his frantic heartbeat, and stepped toward the outside of the cave.

He needed to leave this place immediately.

But just as one of his feet stepped out of the cave's shadow.

His entire being was completely frozen in place, as if a binding technique had been cast upon him.

In that instant, his pupils suddenly contracted into the most dangerous needle-like points.

At the entrance of the valley.

The cold moonlight poured down like liquid silver, outlining a peerless and independent white figure.

She just stood there quietly, as if she had been waiting for thousands of years.

Seeming to sense his gaze.

She slowly raised her head.

Those indifferent and profound eyes crossed the distance of the entire valley, spanned a hundred zhang of the Void Realm, and once again met Lin Fan's gaze in the air.

Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Lin Fan felt as if his heart was being gripped tightly by an invisible giant hand, almost stopping its beat.

How could she be here?

How did she find him?

Countless questions exploded in his mind in an instant, making his scalp tingle.

"The death-substituting secret technique on your body is quite interesting."

The woman in white spoke first. Her voice was like her person: cold, ethereal, without a trace of worldly emotion.

Every word clearly entered Lin Fan's ears.

Lin Fan did not speak.

His brain was working frantically at a speed it had never reached before.

Death-substituting secret technique?

She's bluffing me.

No, she's not bluffing me; she's stating a fact she 'saw' and is waiting for my explanation.

"I do not understand the Fairy's meaning."

Lin Fan took a deep breath, squeezing a raspy voice from his throat, his face showing a perfectly timed display of vigilance and wariness.

He completely threw himself into the role of a startled bird who had just experienced a life-and-death battle and was now blocked by a mysterious powerhouse.

The woman in white ignored his playing dumb.

She just looked at him quietly, her clear eyes reflecting his slightly pale face.

"Ordinary Death-Substituting Puppets or fake death secret techniques all involve replacing the form and bearing the damage, using a fake to deceive the world."

"But you are different."

She took a step forward, her figure appearing somewhat unreal under the moonlight.

"Just now, in that Soul Shattering Abyss."

"I saw your Physical Body annihilated and your Divine Soul leave your body."

"But your Divine Soul did not dissipate, nor did it enter Reincarnation. Instead, under the shroud of a Law I cannot comprehend, it instantly reconstructed your Physical Body."

"This is not substituting death."

"This is... Resurrection."

Boom.

The last two words exploded in Lin Fan's mind like Nine Heavens divine thunder.

The blood in his entire body seemed to freeze at this moment.

She saw it.

She really saw it.

She not only saw it but could even accurately describe the process of resurrection.

An unprecedented, massive fear that almost swallowed him whole gripped his heart.

The secret of the System's Infinite Resurrection was his greatest trump card and also his most fatal weakness.

Once exposed, he would become a piece of meat coveted by the entire Cultivation World, and he would never have a day of peace.

No.

He absolutely could not admit it.

Not even if he died.

Lin Fan's back was instantly drenched in cold sweat.

But the expression on his face, after the extreme shock, quickly transformed into an anger at having his greatest privacy pried into.

His chest heaved violently, his fists clenched tightly in his sleeves, his nails almost digging into his flesh.

"Who exactly are you!"

He roared out, his voice filled with shame, anger, and a trace of unhideable panic.

"What right do you have to pry into me!"

He attributed all his emotions to a Cultivator's greatest taboo—having one's foundation observed by someone using a secret method.

This was a perfect, logical reaction.

He placed himself completely in the position of a victim.

"Are you with that Prince of the Ten Thousand Demon Divine Dynasty? Did you all set a trap just to force out my life-saving trump card?"

He took a step forward, his eyes bloodshot, actively launching an interrogation.

Facing Lin Fan's moral counterattack, an imperceptible ripple finally appeared on the white-clothed woman's face.

She seemingly hadn't expected Lin Fan's reaction to be so intense.

Her eyes flickered, as if she were re-evaluating the man before her.

"I am not of the Ten Thousand Demon Divine Dynasty."

She stopped her pace and explained plainly.

"I was just... curious."

"Curious?"

Lin Fan acted as if he had heard a huge joke. He gave a miserable laugh, his voice filled with sorrow and self-deprecation.

"Just because of your curiosity, you can unscrupulously pry into someone else's secret of life and death?"

"Fairy certainly has a grand air!"

Every one of his words was like a knife, stabbing at the other party's stance.

The atmosphere in the valley became incredibly heavy in an instant.

The air seemed to solidify, making it hard to breathe.

The woman in white fell silent.

Those eyes of hers that could see through falsehood were now clearly reflecting everything about Lin Fan.

His angry expression, his trembling body, his chaotic and weak spiritual energy fluctuations, and his Divine Soul heaving violently due to shame and anger.

Everything was flawless.

She believed her own eyes; those 'Eye of Spiritual Discernment' had never been wrong.

What she saw was indeed reconstruction and resurrection at the Law level.

However, the reaction of the man before her was so real it didn't seem fake.

If a person held such a heaven-defying secret, shouldn't their first reaction after being exposed be to kill to silence the witness or to flee in a panic?

His angry counterattack, placing himself in the position of the weak and the victim, instead... looked more like a normal Cultivator whose bottom line had been touched.

Could it really be some kind of unheard-of Ancient Immortal Artifact?

A death-substituting treasure capable of simulating the illusion of 'Resurrection'?

She fell into a brief contemplation.

Lin Fan's heart was in his throat.

He stared fixedly at her, not daring to relax in the slightest.

In this battle of wits, he had staked all his acting skills.

Success or failure depended on this one move.

After a long time.

The woman in white spoke again, her voice carrying a trace of an inexplicable meaning.

"Perhaps, I saw wrongly."

By saying this, she was essentially admitting that her judgment might have been biased.

The string in Lin Fan's heart, tightened to its limit, finally loosened slightly.

It worked.

"Today's matter was my abruptness."

The woman in white continued, providing a way out.

"I have no interest in telling anyone about the secrets on your body."

"You may leave."

Lin Fan said nothing.

He still stared at her fixedly with those bloodshot eyes.

A full dozen breaths passed.

Only then did he slowly turn around, limping and dragging his 'heavily injured' body toward the other exit of the valley, moving warily.

He didn't dare to teleport.

He didn't dare to expose any trace of the power he had just obtained.

He carried out his identity as an actor to the extreme.

Looking at Lin Fan's pathetic and wary back, the woman in white's brow furrowed slightly, almost imperceptibly.

She still felt that something was not right.

In this tense and strange atmosphere.

A grand, majestic, and ancient voice rang out without warning over the entire Suspended Blood Hell Island.

"More than half of the trial time has passed. There are three hundred and seventeen survivors."

"The Blood Hell Gate is closed."

"The Gates to Heavens opens at the Central Altar."

"Within three days, all trialists must quickly reach the Central Altar to seize the Heavenly Order."

"Those who are late will be obliterated."

"Only those who obtain the order may enter the final trial."

That voice carried no emotion, yet it contained an unquestionable supreme majesty, like a decree from the Heavenly Dao, echoing in the depths of every survivor's Soul.

Lin Fan's footsteps came to a sudden halt.

The woman in white's figure also paused slightly.

The two of them, by common consent, raised their heads to look toward the center of the island.

A new, and final, storm was about to arrive.