Chapter 1040: The Secret of the Calamity Crossing Book
Above the somber, cavernous hall, a web of fine threads crisscrossed the empty space.
From these lines hung row after row of paper figures. At first glance, they all appeared identical, but closer inspection revealed subtle, distinct expressions on each of their faces.
The relentless passage of time had bleached them to a ghastly, faded yellow.
With Li Fan's sudden intrusion, the countless paper figures began to drift eerily, stirring as if caught in an unfelt wind.
In that instant, Li Fan felt the gaze of every single figure converge upon him.
It felt as though countless chains had ensnared his very soul, instantly paralyzing him and robbing him of the ability to move.
Gradually, however, the swaying paper figures stilled once more.
The immense pressure bearing down on Li Fan slowly began to subside.
Even after he had regained his composure, Li Fan chose not to move rashly. He could still feel a single, unwavering gaze fixed upon him from somewhere within the hall.
It felt like a venomous snake, coiled and watching its prey, ready to strike at any moment.
Slowly, it drew closer.
Still, Li Fan remained motionless, patiently waiting for the mass of shadows to approach.
He would meet chaos with calm.
With every inch the shadow advanced, the pressure on Li Fan mounted.
Faint whispers echoed at the edge of his hearing, as if urging him to act quickly.
But Li Fan, who had already taken in every minute detail of his surroundings, simply scoffed inwardly.
During his period of quiet observation, he had already uncovered the secret at play.
The approaching shadow and the suffocating sense of mortal danger it brought were nothing more than an illusion.
It was all a ruse, designed to force anyone who entered the hall to attack the shadow.
And the true form of that shadow was...
Li Fan’s vision abruptly shifted, and the shadows receded, revealing their true nature: a frayed and tattered rope, riddled with countless holes.
The aura it emanated was intensely familiar to him.
It was the restriction left by the Dharma Spreader!
"The Salvation Sect is truly more formidable than I imagined, to have corroded the Dharma Spreader's seal to such an extent."
"No wonder I encountered the Salvation Sect's trials on the mountain path and in the courtyard."
Li Fan's eyes narrowed as he swept his gaze across the countless paper figures in the hall once more.
At that moment, it seemed as if every paper face was twisted into a bizarre, eerie smile.
Then, just as quickly, their expressions shifted to feigned innocence.
"From that fleeting image I saw earlier, it seems all these paper figures were once cultivators of the Salvation Sect."
"But there are far too many of them."
As this thought crossed his mind, Li Fan released a wisp of spiritual energy, attempting to pluck one of the paper figures from its thread.
As he expected, his energy passed right through it.
The paper figures in the hall seemed to be entirely illusory, possessing no physical form.
He then sent out a thread of his divine sense, trying to make contact, but it too met only empty air.
"It seems I'll need the Salvation Sect's secret arts to control these paper figures."
"Should I destroy the restriction here...?"
Li Fan's gaze flickered, and in an instant, he changed his mind.
"No, I won't destroy it. On the contrary, I'm going to repair it!"
The Salvation Sect's methods filled Li Fan with a profound sense of disgust. They were like cowards hiding in their shells, choosing to merge with the Xuanhuang Realm itself to escape calamity.
They placed all their hopes on a potential savior.
While the strategy was effective, it was utterly unworthy of the dignity expected from one of the Ten Great Immortal Sects.
More importantly, being inside the Salvation Sect's domain made him feel constantly ill at ease. It was as if he were fundamentally incompatible with the place, a grating dissonance that left him restless and unsettled.
His clone remained motionless in the hall while his true body, stationed outside the Salvation Sect, began to reverse-engineer the formation using the Dissociation Disk.
With his prior experience as a guide, it took him only seven days to successfully deduce the formation needed to mend the Dharma Spreader's restriction.
Back in the somber hall, Li Fan finally stirred.
"Creation and destruction are two sides of the same coin. If I can successfully repair the Dharma Spreader's restriction, it will prove my deductions are correct. And if I can repair it, I can just as easily destroy it."
As if holding a seven-colored brush, he began to sketch in the air.
In response, the decaying rope in the center of the hall slowly began to regain its vitality.
Light once again flooded the gloomy chamber.
This act, however, seemed to enrage the countless hanging paper figures.
They began to shake violently once more, their expressions twisting into masks of fury.
They stared daggers at Li Fan.
Suddenly, a cacophony of ghostly wails and divine howls echoed in Li Fan's ears.
"Silence!" he roared, utterly unmoved. Instead, he quickened the pace of his repairs.
The furious howls of the paper figures were powerless to stop him.
The rope, the physical manifestation of the restriction, reappeared from the center of the hall and snaked its way to the entrance.
"Boom!"
After a violent tremor, Li Fan found himself back outside the hall.
He was standing in the empty courtyard again, but the grand hall had shrunk to the size of a toy.
It was now pinned to the center of the open ground by the rope of the restriction. RANobes
Only then did Li Fan notice the hidden traces of the damaged seal.
The miniature hall continued to tremble, still trying to struggle free.
Li Fan's gaze was ice-cold as he continued his work.
When the repairs on the courtyard's restriction were complete, the scene shifted again, and he found himself back before the stone steps leading up the mountain.
The restriction here was the most complex of all.
Fortunately, most of it was still intact. This mountain path was the only breach, a gap created by the corrosive power of the Salvation Sect.
Once Li Fan had filled the missing piece of the restriction, the mountain path naturally vanished.
The scene before him shrank once more.
The so-called Salvation Sect finally revealed its true form.
Sealed beneath layers upon layers of restrictions was a book, opened to its center.
The book contained no words, only relief-like carvings of mountains and the figures of cultivators.
As the book's pages turned on their own, the scenes within shifted and changed.
Everything was depicted in silhouette, creating an effect that was both comical and deeply unsettling.
Staring at the book before him, Li Fan observed it for a long while, lost in thought.
"The Salvation Sect was indeed wiped out by the Dharma Spreader back then."
"But that was precisely what they sought. Finding life in death, the entire sect transformed into a different state of being."
"This book..."
"It feels a bit like the Creation Stone Slab. But the Creation Stone Slab records all things in the Xuanhuang Realm, while this Calamity Crossing Book seems to record only the affairs of the Salvation Sect."
"That was its original purpose. But the people of the Salvation Sect have become paper figures, spread across the entire Xuanhuang Realm. So, through this Calamity Crossing Book, one can now use the eyes of those paper figures to glimpse everything that happens in the Xuanhuang Realm."
Li Fan mused to himself, occasionally spotting familiar scenes from the Xuanhuang Realm among the fleeting silhouettes that flickered past with each turning page.
At this point, the objective of his trip had essentially been achieved.
He had confirmed that the formation he designed to counter the Dharma Spreader's restrictions worked flawlessly.
But as he looked at the Calamity Crossing Book, now re-suppressed by the power of the Dharma Spreader's restriction, Li Fan's mind couldn't help but start buzzing with new ideas.
(End of Chapter)
Comments