In the meantime, Kong Xuan also wasn't idle during the schemes of the Elemental Emperor and the Immortals.
He knew he had to let Li Gang obtain all Four Orders. He had also long figured out that there were two sides scheming around Li Gang. One side wanted to kill him, while the other wanted to protect him.
The entire Monarch Inheritance was his creation—how could he not see through what was happening inside?
He realized that either the Elemental Emperor or the Soul Emperor was present here and was trying to kill Li Gang.
But how did he figure out which side was trying to kill him and which side was protecting him?
The Immortals' control was internal, while the Emperors' control was external.
Long Xuan's appearance to kill Li Gang was clearly an example of external control.
How did Deng Wei control him? He had a thorough understanding of human psychology. For example, if he needed to guide Long Xuan in a specific direction, he could subtly manipulate him through a series of actions.
Let's say Long Xuan wanted to go east, but Deng Wei wanted him to go west.
What Deng Wei needed to do was make Long Xuan subconsciously feel that the west was ominous and unsafe.
He could arrange for something like glass breaking in the western direction from where Long Xuan was sitting. But that alone wasn't enough—he had to repeat it until Long Xuan's subconscious began influencing his decisions. An unpleasant smell coming from that direction could also serve the same purpose.
At the same time, Deng Wei could arrange a broken branch visible in the eastern direction, or a piece of cloth, or some sound coming from the east.
There were two psychological aspects here. Seeing a broken branch in the eastern direction would make Long Xuan's subconscious feel that it was safer, subtly encouraging him to go that way. This stemmed from the idea that someone might have passed through that path earlier, making it seem safer. However, this kind of influence doesn't appear in one's conscious reasoning—it bypasses rational thought and directly affects decision-making.
Similarly, hearing random noise from the east could evoke curiosity. Even if he consciously knew it was just random, it would still root itself in his subconscious and influence future decisions.
Such tactics had to be applied continuously over a long duration before one could truly alter someone's decisions.
These simple methods were sufficient to manipulate warriors below Rank 5 or Rank 6, but they wouldn't work on higher-tier warriors.
Kong Xuan easily noticed these details and understood that a certain Emperor wanted to kill Li Gang.
He knew it was definitely the Elemental Emperor.
Why?
Because Kong Xuan had grasped the Soul Emperor's Inheritance and understood the secret of the Wanderer. He knew that the only way to enter the Real Inheritance was by letting the Wanderer obtain all Four Orders.
The Soul Emperor would never kill the Wanderer. So who else could it be? Obviously, the Elemental Emperor. The fact that he was trying to kill Li Gang meant only one thing—he had figured out an alternative method to enter the Real Inheritance.
Kong Xuan believed that since He Fan had shared this secret with him, he must have done the same for the Elemental Emperor as well.
But why did Kong Xuan believe that it was the Elemental Emperor who obtained the alternative method?
The answer was obvious. He Fan had died much earlier, while the Elemental Emperor was quite active in the later period. Kong Xuan had noticed various arrangements made by the Elemental Emperor and realized that he knew something more than Kong Xuan himself.
However, one thing Kong Xuan didn't know was what the Immortals wanted from Li Gang. But he did know one crucial piece of information: a Wanderer possessed a special ability that could counter even Immortals.
As a result, they should have been wary of Li Gang. Yet instead, they were helping him. Why?
Kong Xuan had only one thought. Did the Wanderer's identity itself possess some unique characteristic?
It was this identity that could cause the Four Orders to react differently. Therefore, there had to be something special about it.
After understanding the Immortals' stance, Kong Xuan didn't try to interfere with the Inheritance. He understood that the Immortals were capable enough to ensure Li Gang would be chosen, and Li Gang himself was capable enough to handle everything.
Under such circumstances, he only instructed Jiang Wushuang to give Li Gang the Spatial Order. This Spatial Order had also been tampered with, allowing Kong Xuan to consistently monitor Li Gang's whereabouts.
However, even if Li Gang knew about it, it wouldn't matter. He had already been exposed to Immortals; one more observer wouldn't make any difference. Immortals themselves were far smarter than Emperors.
Before all this happened, Wang Xueyao also had her seal broken.
The moment she reached Rank 6, the Ninth Seal of the Nine Absolute Seals shattered.
At that instant, she understood many things—her intelligence increased drastically.
She identified Li Gang.
She identified the Heavenly Dao fragment within him and realized something.
"Master... so it is you!"
The Heavenly Dao fragment that formed the broken special ability in Li Gang's body carried the same aura as her master's divinity.
In fact, the entire reason Wang Xueyao appeared here was due to the help of the Angel of Wisdom. He had predicted all possible locations of the Creator and shared them with her.
Wang Xueyao split her clone into multiple parts and appeared in every era that had the possibility of the Creator's existence. There wasn't much burden on her, since most of these possibilities were spread across different times.
This place was merely one among countless possibilities.
During the time she stayed with Li Gang for few years, she subtly influenced him to develop feelings for her.
Li Gang noticed that he was becoming attracted to her and immediately realized something was wrong. As he reverse-deduced the situation, all the dots connected, and her actions that influenced his subconscious were exposed.
He thought inwardly, 'Why is she trying to seduce me?'
He didn't know her reasons, but in order not to expose himself, he pretended to act normally.
He also figured out that enemies capable of reading his thoughts could also read his memories. However, he realized this quite late—only after he reflected on killing Long Xuan.
In fact, the explanation was simple.
From the very beginning, when Li Gang planned to conquer the world, he knew one thing: if his enemies began influencing his subconscious thoughts after he left the Awakening Ceremony, it meant they had seen through the fact that he was aware of their existence. They had also realized that he was hiding his true thinking capabilities. As a result, they started taking him seriously and directly interfered with his subconscious.
But how had they seen through him? Li Gang hadn't left any clues.
There was only one possibility—they could read memories.
The only moment of vulnerability was during the Awakening Ceremony, when he let go of his thoughts and reasoned freely. His enemies read his memories of the moment when he was inside the Pavilion for awakening his spiritual imprint and discovered that he had been hiding his true abilities.
As a result, Li Gang stopped hiding. He began openly resisting them. As he continued to do so, he realized that his thoughts were being altered—and he still couldn't do anything about it.
Most importantly, his emotions were being stripped away. He was being turned into a vile person. How could he resist?
Even the thought that he needed to resist becoming vile was being constantly altered.
The moment Li Gang realized that his memories could also be known to his enemies, the Immortals altered this realization and made him believe everything was normal.
It must be noted that Immortals couldn't alter his memories directly—they could only alter his thoughts. However, they could achieve a similar effect. Whenever Li Gang recalled certain clues, they could alter his perception, causing him to recall them incorrectly by changing his present thoughts. Any incident could be interpreted from multiple perspectives, and they could manipulate Li Gang's perspective to lead him to the conclusion they desired.
Every time Li Gang noticed changes in his behavior over time, his perception would be altered again.
After this happened several times, Li Gang finally realized something.
"Something is wrong with my behavior these days, but I should have noticed it much earlier. So why didn't I? No... it's pointless. If I didn't realize it until now, there must be a reason. I shouldn't think about it anymore. However, I must not let my behavior change!"
This time, he intuitively understood that if he hadn't figured it out earlier, there was a reason—and that reason shouldn't be known to enemies who could read his mind. These thoughts existed only in his subconscious.
Even later, this thought often surfaced in his mind. His thoughts were being altered, and his memories from the Awakening Ceremony had been exposed. But this perception would soon be altered by the Immortals.
It happened when he schemed against the Four Factions and led them to fight and kill each other.
A person with a modern mindset wouldn't resort to killing unless absolutely necessary. This kind of perspective couldn't be changed so quickly.
The Immortals saw through all of it, but they didn't care. He was still under their control.
Li Gang then made a plan to find himself a suitable girlfriend. He chose Tang Liuyue and forced himself to fall in love with her, using her as an anchor to suppress the vileness within him. Unfortunately, it backfired.
It must be noted that the Immortals' objective was to lower Li Gang's bottom line as much as possible. The higher his bottom line, the greater his chances of resisting mental erosion.
After manipulating Tang Liuyue into betraying him, the Immortals succeeded in amplifying the vileness within Li Gang.
After Tang Liuyue's death, Li Gang felt desperate. He could no longer find an anchor through which he could resist his enemies.
Thus, he chose Wang Xueyao.
He confessed to her, successfully activating the Red Thread of Heaven.