The moment Kong Xuan obtained Spatial Order, something clicked within him. His potential surged, and he grew at a frightening rate—faster even than He Fan had in the past.
He reached Rank 3 by the age of thirteen, moved to another town, and attended the Awakening Ceremony there.
Immortals tried to control his thoughts to stop him, but they had not expected him to become even more frightening.
Kong Xuan had been thoughtless as a child, so the Immortals hid Spatial Order within him. They never expected that Kong Xuan would be the 'Awakened' type of genius. It shocked the Immortals beyond belief.
How could such a coincidence occur?
Immortal Zhu realized at that moment. "Timeless Demon God's scheme!"
Everything was part of the Timeless Demon God's plot. He had first used He Fan to manipulate events, and while everyone was busy suppressing He Fan, another Kong Xuan had appeared.
But why could the Timeless Demon God see so far into the future? Because of the intervention of Little Heaven, the world was highly unpredictable. Every small world was far more volatile than the God Realm.
Immortal Zhu was forced to suppress both Kong Xuan and He Fan at the same time.
He tried to block Kong Xuan from entering the Awakening Ceremony and cut off his chances for future cultivation.
Unfortunately for him, after awakening Kong Xuan's cognition improved beyond expectations.
Kong Xuan sensed the changes in his thoughts and immediately realized he was being influenced.
He narrowed his eyes and prepared a counter to this mental control.
He could instinctively tell which thoughts were being altered, and he would act against those intrusions.
There was no easy way to bypass his method.
For example, if Kong Xuan would normally travel right but, at that moment, his thoughts urged him to go left, he would recognize the influence and change his decision back to the right.
Real life isn't two-dimensional. Decisions are not binary.
But Kong Xuan understood himself too deeply. He knew what actions he would take in any situation, and if any thought arose that contradicted that action, his instincts told him something was wrong. He would rethink the decision and keep adjusting until it felt right.
Since even his rethinking could be influenced, for every move he made he had to consider all possibilities before he could decide.
His life became severely restrained because of this, and he swore he would free himself from the restraint and one day step over all those who suppressed him.
Living such a suppressed life sharpened Kong Xuan's cognition exponentially, and he became the first Detective in the Divine Spirit World.
During the Awakening Ceremony he gained a Rank 9 Space-type Spiritual Imprint. By then, talent grades and spiritual imprints were already being discovered; people had learned to tell who was more talented and who was less before a Warrior's cultivation even began.
As time passed, Kong Xuan continued to grow.
Immortal Zhu wasn't foolish. He couldn't understand how Kong Xuan could see which thoughts were being manipulated and counter them so effectively. Logically, it shouldn't be possible. Even if Kong Xuan realized his thoughts were being changed, Immortal Zhu could simply alter that perception and let him think everything was normal. But he couldn't.
Immortal Zhu realized why immediately.
Kong Xuan had bypassed that. There could be only one possibility: Kong Xuan's soul held something that suppressed the Immortals' involvement. Immortal Zhu understood what it was.
It was Spatial Order. Spatial Order somehow resonated with his soul and helped him elevate his defenses.
Immortal Zhu changed tactics and made two counterplans. First, instead of forcefully changing Kong Xuan's thoughts, he subtly manipulated his ambitions so he would never aspire to Ascension.
His second plan was to eliminate him outright. He put it into motion immediately, though he knew it would likely fail.
The world had already developed; many Rank 8 Warriors existed now. Killing him seemed feasible on the surface, but from a broader perspective it was impossible.
All the warriors who tried to kill Kong Xuan were always interfered with by He Fan. The Immortals deliberately arranged that because they understood Kong Xuan was another arrangement of the Timeless Demon God and was somehow linked with He Fan.
On the one hand, Immortal Zhu wanted He Fan to think he was truly trying to interfere with He Fan's ascension; at the same time, he used the charade to hide his other motive: to subtly erase all ambitions in Kong Xuan and steer him toward the path of a Detective. He wasn't worried whether He Fan could see through his plans—what he feared was that He Fan might be too idle to be distracted. Thus he made sure He Fan remained busy handling the second plan, that is protecting Kong Xuan.
He Fan tried to thwart all Immortal interference. He also discovered Kong Xuan's existence not long after Kong Xuan's awakening. Although he tried his best, he couldn't stop the Immortals from erasing Kong Xuan's ambitions; he had expected them to do so, since that was the only way to counter Kong Xuan's rejection of mind control.
Whenever He Fan tried to find Kong Xuan to use his Belief Power and suppress the Immortals' interference, multiple higher-rank warriors would appear to kill Kong Xuan, forcing He Fan to handle them instead.
Why was He Fan aware of Kong Xuan's existence? It turned out that he had not been—until Spatial Order fell into Kong Xuan's hands and Kong Xuan rose at an extremely fast pace. He saw through Kong Xuan and understood something of his "battle" with the Immortals.
Every one of He Fan's reincarnations searched for the four tokens; how could he not find Kong Xuan?
He understood Kong Xuan's difficulties, and to create more variables he sent his own Inheritance and personally helped Kong Xuan become Emperor.
If he wanted to win against the Immortals, he needed variables—variables that could attract as much of the Immortals' attention as possible.
After achieving the cultivation of Emperor, Kong Xuan was also suppressed by the Immortals. His conceptual powers were removed and he could only helplessly wait for his lifespan to end.
He created his own sect, which became renowned as the Shadow Sect. Its main base was hidden within a Void created by him. The Shadow Sect was more of a cult; all of its members were completely brainwashed from the beginning and utterly loyal to the Shadow Emperor—people also referred to him as the Void Emperor.
Kong Xuan's period as an Emperor was much calmer. He rose to power and developed the Shadow Sect secretly; at the same time he influenced worldly affairs from behind the scenes.
He made major contributions to the creation of a new profession—the profession of Detectives—and he improved various Spatial Secret Techniques.
His existence ushered in a new era. He ended the previous Soul Emperor's era and began a new calendar: the Void Era.
He changed the distribution of months and days. In the new calendar, each year had twelve months and each month had thirty days.
Time passed as Kong Xuan's lifespan neared its end.
But before it could end, he found that within the Soul Emperor's Inheritance there existed a secret: a secret technique of Reincarnation.
Immortals could subtly change Kong Xuan's memories and personality, but they couldn't erase the Six Evil Sins that one possesses: Desire, Wraith, Avarice, Delusion, Arrogance, and Envy.
Every being is bound by these sins including Immortals; some exert strong control over them, and some have completely fallen into them.
Immortals couldn't erase Kong Xuan's instinctive desire to survive. As a result, Kong Xuan entered the cycle of Reincarnation.
As time passed, He Fan's reincarnations entered the Shadow Sect as well and began influencing it.
He manipulated the inner sect so that they began worshipping the Void Emperor. With this, Kong Xuan started receiving the Power of Belief.
Before He Fan's interference, Kong Xuan received only a small amount of Belief Power, but due to Immortal suppression and their interference with Shadow Sect members, it was very limited.
He Fan was the key.
He used his own Power of Belief to suppress the Immortals' interference to a certain extent, and all Shadow Sect members' Belief Power flowed into Kong Xuan, boosting his strength and abilities to another level.
Kong Xuan also gained a kind of pseudo-freedom, and understood all the Immortals' dirty work and their subtle influence on him throughout his life.
Whether He Fan or Kong Xuan, neither chose to die openly; instead, they simply faded away. Both had different reasons.
He Fan did it deliberately to leave room for rumors. The more people talked about him, the more Belief Power he could gather.
Kong Xuan's reason was entirely different. From the beginning his life had been like a shadow—isolated, hidden, and secretive.
Time passed.
Due to the appearance of Kong Xuan and He Fan's reincarnations, Immortal Zhu was forced to divert his attention to these two variables.
It wasn't difficult for him to watch both at the same time.
But He Fan was different.
His reincarnations were spread across the world and he was far more ingenious than Immortal Zhu had imagined.
Immortal Zhu hid the Soul Order in a remote area of the Eastern Continent.
Coincidentally, one of He Fan's reincarnations was born into that very same family.
How could it not happen? Time is the key. Over the course of millions of years, if you keep throwing blind arrows, one day one will hit the mark. He Fan had been trying for countless years, and finally he succeeded.
It was impossible to tell which reincarnation would become He Fan until he grew and regained his memories.
He Fan regained his memories at the age of five.
It must be noted that even leaving these four Orders in the forbidden land or the vast sea was useless.
He Fan possessed Absolute Perception as a Spiritual Imprint. He constantly traveled in search of them; it was truly impossible to hide the tokens in such places.
Because once you do hide them, how do you retrieve them? You would have to manipulate someone's thoughts to do it—then what? Could you force them to jump into an abyss or the deep sea, creating a near-death situation?
You must also know that the vast oceans surrounding the five continents contain diverse Spiritual Beasts, including Rank 7 and Rank 8 beasts.
Immortals can't completely make someone a puppet; otherwise they would be countered by Little Heaven and the Fourth Wall. They can only influence thoughts and read minds to their advantage. They can't force a warrior to commit suicide or do something to which the warrior is completely resistant. However, they can subtly manipulate personalities over time and achieve similar effects.
In such circumstances, hiding the four tokens in a fixed place was not feasible. He Fan would find them sooner or later.
The best strategy was to keep changing the locations of the four tokens depending on the locations of He Fan's reincarnations. Even if they had somehow hidden them in the vast sea, in a forbidden area, or buried them underground, they still had to retrieve them and move their positions from time to time.
It wasn't that they didn't expect coincidence; they had no other choice. He Fan's plan had simply become too perfect in this situation.