Chapter 1826: So That's How It Is

The ripples in Li Luo's eyes bloomed fully, and at this moment, he recalled the golden eyes of the Sect Master before his complete dissipation — eyes that held a smile yet were brimming with deep meaning, after giving Li Luo a crisp flick on the forehead.

Li Luo suddenly began to laugh.

His laughter carried a note of awed enlightenment, echoing through the long river of time.

"So that's how it is..." Li Luo softly sighed.

His gaze was deep; every doubt found its answer in this moment.

As Li Luo's enlightened sigh drifted slowly through the long river of time, his figure transformed into a streak of flowing light, plunging into an exceedingly distant ancient era.

In this era, the Outer Shenzhou world was in the throes of violent upheaval.

At this time, the Dark World was born, and the Other Races invaded the Outer Shenzhou world, plunging the realm into chaos and reducing all living beings to ash.

Countless ancient powers were caught off guard and annihilated by the Other Races.

Ambitious strongmen toiled in search of ways to resist the Other Races, forging alliances, seeking a path of survival for the world.

And amid this turmoil, a man with grey-white hair walked through Outer Shenzhou like a shadow, witnessing countless sufferings, until finally, atop a great mountain, he forged a crude mountain gate with his own hands.

He carved a stone tablet from the mountain rock, and stood before it for a full spring and autumn.

In the end, a brilliant smile surfaced on the man's face, and using his finger as a brush, he left four ancient, mysterious characters imbued with profound resonance upon the stone tablet.

They were...

The Formless Holy Sect!

In the Outer Shenzhou world's past, there was no such founder of the Formless Holy Sect, because he had never existed in the past.

He came from the future.

Li Luo stood beneath the stone tablet, gazing at the four ancient characters. He had inscribed all the cultivation methods of the Myriad Respects Seed within it, so that when a destined person arrived and comprehended them, the Formless Holy Sect would naturally be born within the river of time.

Li Luo gazed at those four ancient characters, his eyes deep and world-weary, and at the same time, he smiled faintly.

So it turned out, the founder of the Formless Holy Sect...

Was me.

His figure began to fade, transforming into a wisp of green smoke; the smoke coalesced into a mask, which drifted upon the wind to places unknown.

And after Li Luo's figure vanished, time flew like a shuttle, the years slipping swiftly by.

Eventually, a fleeing youth, after his mountain village had been slaughtered by the Other Races, stumbled in panic to this place. By then the stone tablet was already covered in thick moss. The youth curled up beneath it, weeping, his fresh blood and tears mingling together, gradually staining the stone tablet.

Mysterious light flowed across the stone tablet, melting the moss and casting its radiance into the eyes of that grief-stricken, despairing youth.

And so, the name of the Formless Holy Sect truly appeared in this era at this very moment.

The youth ultimately achieved the rank of Li Li Tianwang, and the Formless Holy Sect was passed down through his hands, generation after generation, growing at an astonishing pace.

Until one day, the Formless Holy Sect became the undisputed hegemon of the Outer Shenzhou world.

The invasion of the Dark World was finally beginning to be held back.

As the Formless Holy Sect led the beings of Outer Shenzhou in constant battle against the Dark World, its fame grew ever more resounding.

But the chaos brought by the Dark World still continued, and all people suffered under it.

Until many years later.

When a little girl of about five or six, with two little braids, wandering here and there, dug up a mask from the mud of a small stream, spiritual light flowed across the mask, and then the radiance beneath the mask gradually transformed, under the little girl's astonished gaze, into the figure of a tall, slender man.

The man wore the mask, his eyes brimming with mirth as he gazed at the little girl before him.

She was young, her clothes filthy and disheveled; though her little face was smeared with mud, one could still make out her delicate features, especially her eyes, which resembled the setting sun hanging on the horizon at that moment.

Glittering like flowing gold.

Under the somewhat nervous gaze of the little girl, the man laughed and extended his palm, his voice flowing with tenderness.

"I've finally been waiting for you."

"Will you come with me?"

The little girl hesitated for a moment, then asked, "If I go with you, I won't have to go hungry anymore?"

The helpless little girl, alone and wandering, growing up tenaciously, had clearly endured many hardships.

The man laughed and nodded.

The little girl gazed into his gentle eyes; though she was young, she possessed a maturity beyond her years, so she could feel that warmth and kindness she had not experienced in a long time.

So in the end, she rubbed her mud-stained little hand hard against her clothes, and finally placed it into the man's outstretched large hand.

The man led her along the stream, their feet reflected in the sparkling ripples, as if treading upon the light of time itself, walking toward the future.

"Do you have a name?"

"No."

"Then I'll call you... Xiao'e, how does that sound?"

"Oh, okay... then what should I call you?"

"Um... hahaha, just call me Master."

The little girl looked at the man who had suddenly burst into hearty laughter, somewhat baffled, but in the end she still nodded firmly.

"Master!"

Thereafter, the man traveled with the little girl through the vast and boundless Outer Shenzhou, teaching her everything he knew. After several years passed, that little girl had already grown into a graceful young maiden.

She wielded a red-tasseled spear, sweeping away every Other Race that met her eyes.

In the end, under the man's guidance, they arrived at the Formless Holy Sect, which now stood at the pinnacle of this era.

The man stood at the foot of the mountain, gazing at the simple mountain gate he had once forged with his own hands; now this place was the summit of the world, where countless strongmen devoutly paid homage.

"Xiao'e, I can only accompany you this far; the road ahead, you'll have to walk it yourself." The man smiled as he looked at the dashing, tall and slender young maiden beside him.

He was also watching her cheeks — though still carrying a touch of youthful shyness, one could already glimpse that familiar, peerless elegance.

The maiden possessed a maturity beyond her years; she gazed at the man, knowing they were about to part forever at this place.

In the end, she said no more, but simply knelt before Li Luo and earnestly kowtowed three times.

The man laughed and crouched down, extending a finger to carefully brush away the grass blades clinging to her cheek. Then, under the young girl's slightly wary gaze, he curled his finger slightly and suddenly flicked her hard right between the brows.

Boing!

One vicious forehead-flick.

"Hahahaha!" Then he burst out laughing, his laughter carrying a kind of joy and sudden clarity that no one else could understand.

The young girl covered her slightly reddened forehead and puffed out her cheeks.

But in the end, her eyes gradually reddened, because she saw the man's body before her growing more and more illusory, until finally, along with that hearty laughter, he vanished completely from sight.

Only the mask worn on his face fell with it, dimly dropping down before her.

The young girl was silent for a long while, then with difficulty picked up the mask, placed it over her own face, and finally she gripped her red-tasseled spear, rose resolutely, and strode toward that magnificent ancient sect.

She would forge here a dazzling name that would resound through age after age.