Chapter 954: The True and False Heavenly Doctor

Hanhai’s eyes went blank as he muttered under his breath.

After a brief pause, as if struck by a realization, his body trembled violently.

“The Heavenly Doctor? You are the Heavenly Doctor!?”

At those words, the figure tormenting the disciples of Cloudwater Heavenly Palace paused slightly.

Then, a strange smile crept across his face.

“The Heavenly Doctor…”

“Hehehe, correct. I am the Heavenly Doctor.”

The moment those words were spoken, the world in Hanhai’s eyes changed completely.

The one who had appeared as the “Venerable Tian Jue” instantly transformed into the familiar visage of the Heavenly Doctor, his expression serene, his demeanor holy and benevolent—yet his actions were unspeakably horrifying.

The black sword-lights binding Hanhai’s body turned into countless thin black needles.

“So it really is you!”

“Why, Heavenly Doctor!?”

Believing he had finally uncovered the truth, Hanhai roared in fury that shook the heavens.

“Why! Why!”

He demanded an answer again and again.

But the Heavenly Doctor ignored him completely. His expression remained calm from beginning to end.

Only the clouded pupils of his eyes held a faint glimmer of appreciation as if admiring a masterpiece—as he gazed at the “resurrected” disciples of Cloudwater Heavenly Palace.

The newly reborn disciples looked down in confusion at their faintly transparent bodies, then glanced around in bewilderment.

Gradually, realization dawned upon them about what had happened.

And when they heard Hanhai’s furious roar, they finally understood who was responsible for their fate.

“Heavenly Doctor!”

“Heavenly Doctor!”

One after another, their wrathful cries filled the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace, echoing like a chorus of vengeance.

The sound was enough to chill the soul.

Yet the Heavenly Doctor listened to it as though it were a divine symphony, his face showing an almost ecstatic intoxication.

This sight drove the people of Cloudwater Heavenly Palace to the brink of madness. They longed to tear him apart and devour his flesh.

But they remained trapped within his control, able only to scream helplessly, unable to resist in the slightest.

After what felt like an eternity, the Heavenly Doctor finally seemed satisfied with what he had heard. His expression suddenly changed.

As his cold snort echoed, endless darkness swallowed everyone within the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace.

…

The scene abruptly ended.

When light returned again, it was back to the earlier moment—inside the grand hall, when Hanhai was speaking with Taiyi.

“It seems this nightmarish memory is the very source of Hanhai’s torment.”

Li Fan thought to himself.

He replayed the memory several more times from Hanhai’s perspective. After confirming there was nothing unusual, Li Fan’s strand of divine sense attempted to leave. ṛàɴỌВΕš

However, to his surprise, he could not find a way out.

The scene before him had begun looping endlessly, becoming almost indistinguishable from real space-time.

If one could awaken from an illusion or a memory, how could one escape from something that had already become real?

All connections with the outside world were cut off. Li Fan tried countless methods to leave, but all failed.

Still, Li Fan remained calm.

After all, it was only a wisp of his divine sense that had entered this place.

For his true body, the loss of such a fragment would heal within less than a single breath.

By reason, since escape was impossible and there was no harm to his true self, this wisp could simply self-destruct and end it all.

Yet driven by instinctive will to survive, Li Fan’s divine fragment decided to try once more.

Perhaps there was still a way to break this cycle.

“Even as an outsider, I cannot escape this eternal nightmare. Then how could its true host, Hanhai, ever hope to?”

“But the cause of all this deserves careful thought. Is it that Hanhai’s own trauma is too deep for him to free himself, or perhaps…”

Though startled, Li Fan did not panic. He continued to experience the nightmare through Hanhai’s eyes.

Once again, he endured the hellish scene. As the Heavenly Doctor’s cold snort sounded and darkness descended, Li Fan focused all his attention on the void ahead.

The darkness lasted only a few breaths.

At first glance, it seemed to be nothing more than the absence of memory—a simple blank.

But Li Fan keenly sensed that this darkness had two distinct layers.

The first part was when Hanhai’s perception of the outside world was forcibly sealed.

The second came after—that was the interlude of the nightmare’s cycle.

Both appeared as absolute, lifeless blackness, so to the maddened Hanhai they were indistinguishable.

Only Li Fan, as an outsider, could faintly perceive the subtle difference.

Had he not been long accustomed to the tragedies of the world, with a heart like solid stone, unmoved even by the horrific fates of those in the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace—he might never have noticed that difference.

Now that he had found a point of entry, Li Fan’s divine wisp continued to wait within the nightmare’s cycle, attempting to pierce through the darkness and glimpse what lay beyond.

“It seems that the so-called Heavenly Doctor did not stop because he grew bored. That subtle change in his expression…”

“Someone arrived.”

Li Fan realized this suddenly.

With patience, he endured the loop hundreds of times. From faint flashes and shadows captured in each cycle, piece by piece, like assembling a puzzle, Li Fan finally reconstructed what had happened in that single instant obscured by darkness.

After the Heavenly Doctor subdued everyone in the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace, a figure swiftly descended from the distant sky.

The Heavenly Doctor’s eyes showed mockery. His form faded and vanished.

And the newcomer—was also in the appearance of the Heavenly Doctor.