Chapter 1030: A Moment to Seal the Gloom
Chapter 1030: A Moment to Seal the Gloom
Li Fan was a single step away from fully grasping the divine ability, yet he had lingered on the threshold for a full half-month.
He did this to ensure his will would remain untouched by the influence of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao.
"The nature of a true gentleman is no different from any other; his success lies in his skill at borrowing from the world around him."
Having attained this new understanding, Li Fan recited the words softly. His form flickered, and in the next instant, he materialized outside the Spirit Wood Realm.
Now that he had mastered the new divine ability, Li Fan needed a suitable place to test its might.
"This technique, [False Claiming Heavenly Dao], operates on a principle remarkably similar to my [Formless Killing Intent]," he reflected. "Both involve borrowing the mandate of heaven. While they grant me the authority to wield the power of the world itself, they come with the inherent risk of detection—and retribution from the heavens."
"For the first test, I must find a place where the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao is relatively weak."
With that thought, his figure blurred into a faint line against the sky, shooting straight toward the Cong Yun Sea.
It was like a splinter lodged deep in flesh; the Xuanhuang Realm could only achieve complete assimilation through a great purge years from now: the Red Flame Burning Sea.
In the Cong Yun Sea, the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm was considerably weaker than in the native provinces.
Before long, Li Fan arrived at a deserted stretch of the sea.
Poised above the clouds, he centered his mind and spirit, then activated the newly mastered technique: [False Claiming Heavenly Dao].
The world in Li Fan's eyes changed in an instant.
It was like returning to the [Heaven and Earth Root]; the world resolved into a matrix of countless intersecting threads, the very fabric of creation.
Everything within this colossal web moved in accordance with the rules woven into its very threads—the laws of heaven and earth.
As for Li Fan, his physical form seemed to dissolve into nothingness, his consciousness slowly merging into the great web.
In a flash, the pressure from the myriad threads threatened to rip his very soul asunder. Yet in that same fleeting instant, he caught a breathtaking glimpse of the innumerable fundamental laws that governed the universe.
He also seemed to see countless events unfolding within the Xuanhuang Realm.
However, his fusion with the Great Dao of heaven and earth lasted but a moment. Li Fan forced it to a halt.
Any longer, and the immense power would have shattered his soul into countless fragments, scattering them to be absorbed into the very laws of the world.
Perhaps some "Heavenly Dao Li" would emerge from the process, but it would no longer be him.
Withdrawing from that state of fusion, Li Fan seized the fleeting moment before the profound, mystical insight faded from his mind. He activated the [False Claiming] technique once more.
This time, he did not go so far as to merge his soul with heaven and earth.
Instead, he carefully tried to connect the intersecting threads of universal law to his own body.
With every thread he touched, Li Fan felt as if a great mountain was crashing down upon him.
Pushing the [Limitless Fullness and Emptiness] and [Soul Ignition] techniques to their absolute peak, he struggled to ease the burden on his body.
He continued to connect the threads of law to his body, one after another.
It was as if he were drawing threads from the great cosmic web, weaving them into a knot centered upon himself.
Only when Li Fan felt he had reached the absolute limit of what his body could endure did he stop connecting more threads.
"So this is the weight of the world's laws..."
At this moment, Li Fan felt as if he were pinned beneath the Five Elements Mountain, unable to move a muscle.
Only when one personally touched the sublime power of the world could they truly comprehend its terrifying majesty.
"The Longevity realm... it means toppling these mountains, to reverse the very principles of heaven and earth..."
"I'm still a long way off."
A flicker in his eyes, and Li Fan pushed the thought aside for now.
He turned his focus inward, examining his current state.
Though he was unable to move, his perspective was now broader than it had ever been.
He could see more, and farther, than when he had used the Canghai Pearl to witness the transformation of the Cong Yun Sea over eons.
From this elevated, god's-eye view, the five provinces surrounding the Cong Yun Sea lay spread out before him.
All living beings appeared as mere ants, their lives laid bare before him.
Moreover, numerous whispers of unknown meaning echoed in his ears.
These were not the whispers of some nameless horror, but the sounds originating from the very mechanics of the world's operation.
As they say, the Great Dao is silent.
The universe was like an immense, intricate machine in perpetual motion. And as it evolved, it constantly produced its own thrumming resonance.
Ordinary people could never perceive this, of course. Only by becoming a part of the world's Great Dao, as Li Fan had, could one discern fragments of this vast, chaotic symphony.
Since he was positioned over the Cong Yun Sea, Li Fan realized after careful listening that most of the whispers pertained to the cosmic evolution of this very region.
The most distinct among them was the brewing Red Flame Burning Sea.
Li Fan also heard the world's plans regarding Green Wind's trapped sword.
But to his surprise, the cosmic resonance related to Green Wind's sword was only the third most prominent amid the cacophony.
And the second...
Li Fan followed the source of the sound with his gaze.
It was a place of deep gloom, far beneath Ten Thousand Immortals Island, so hidden that it remained shrouded even from his cosmic perspective.
The Earth's Soul known as [Golden Seal], coiled like a chain, perpetually suppressing the darkness below.
"The Passage to Gloom?"
A term instantly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
During his 115th simulated life, the entire Ten Thousand Immortals Island was taken by the Five Elders Council. The Passage to Gloom beneath it was subsequently exposed.
He had served as the acting city lord, and while tasked with rebuilding the immortal city, he was also ordered by Diyi Jinglun to set up the Xuantian Sealing Gloom Formation to seal the Passage to Gloom once again.
"So, as the Passage to Gloom continued to expand, the suppressing effect of Ten Thousand Immortals Island has slowly been losing its effectiveness."
"Perhaps this is also the reason why weirdness frequently appears in the Cong Yun Sea."
"The world itself has already begun to silently address the issue, without any cultivator noticing."
Realization dawned on Li Fan.
The Xuantian Sealing Gloom Formation's style was extremely similar to that of the Xuantian Sect.
According to the information Li Fan had found in the Tianxuan Mirror, all sources unanimously agreed that it was indeed a legacy from the ancient Xuantian Sect.
However, with his current understanding of the Dao of formations, he could tell at a glance that while the formation was ingenious, it clearly had not reached the level of an immortal-grade array.
It was far inferior even to the Reversing Life and Death Grand Array.
"'Weirdness' is born from the process of the Xuanhuang Realm merging with other cultivation worlds."
"This formation existed back in the time of the Xuantian Sect. This indicates that back then, when the Xuanhuang Realm was using the Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation to capture other worlds, the problem of weirdness had already begun to appear."
"However, the power level of the formation also suggests that the weirdness was not severe at the time. A crude array like this was sufficient to handle it."
"But as the number of merged worlds increased day by day, this Xuantian Sealing Gloom Formation..."
"...has become rather inadequate."
Using the spare processing power of the Dissociation Disc in his mind, Li Fan deduced a brand-new gloom-sealing formation with ten times the sealing capability in the span of a few breaths.
Li Fan shook his head slightly. "So many years have passed, yet the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance remains stagnant, treasuring this thousand-year-old relic."
(End of this chapter)
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