Chapter 1080: The World-Splitting Power of a True Immortal
Seeing Lu Ya so certain of his conclusion, Xu Ke hesitated for a moment before slowly venturing, "I once heard someone say that sometimes, what you see with your own eyes isn't necessarily the truth."
"And... when you judge someone's character, you should watch what they do, not just listen to what they say."
"I don't know what's really going on in that basement, but Mr. Bai has always been incredibly kind to us. Without his help, we might have starved to death long ago. So, I'll always choose to believe that Mr. Bai is truly a good person."
Xu Ke chose his words carefully, speaking slowly. It took him quite some time to articulate such thoughtful, almost scholarly sentences.
Lu Ya chuckled, ruffling Xu Ke's hair. "You little rascal. You read a few books and now you think you can lecture me? And with such a well-rehearsed speech, too."
"Don't worry, I'm not unreasonable. I get it. It's just..." An image of that incredibly strange, unsettling faceless statue flashed before Lu Ya's eyes, and his heart grew heavy once more.
Lu Ya made small talk with Xu Ke for a little longer, then seemed to receive a mental message from someone and departed in a rush.
"Lord Xuan Bird, how did I do?" Only then did Xu Ke mentally ask Li Fan, seeking his approval.
"It seems that in this era, the residual power of the Faceless Immortal is much stronger than it will be several thousand years from now. Lu Ya merely saw it once, and he's already been tainted by its aura, caught in the True Immortal's web, with no easy escape."
As the current agent for the Faceless Immortal in the Xuanhuang Realm, perhaps no one in the world understood the nature of Its power better than Li Fan.
In the illusions he'd experienced before, Li Fan hadn't been qualified to perceive such things. Now, however, he saw at a glance that the root cause of Lu Ya's drastic change in attitude toward Mr. Bai was the influence of the Faceless Immortal's statue.
All living beings possess an instinctual fear of unknown, powerful entities.
Like a butterfly caught in a spider's web, unable to struggle free, it senses its impending doom long before the predator arrives, and its heart fills with terror.
Lu Ya was in precisely that state.
He had simply, subconsciously, linked the statue of the Faceless Immortal with Mr. Bai. His desire to flee wasn't so much about getting away from Mr. Bai as it was about escaping the Faceless Immortal's grasp.
Unfortunately, much like Li Fan himself, there was no escaping through ordinary means.
As for whether Mr. Bai himself had any connection to the Faceless Immortal...
Li Fan hadn't detected any trace of the Faceless Immortal's aura on Mr. Bai during their brief encounter. Of course, it was also possible that Mr. Bai was simply too powerful and had concealed it perfectly.
While lost in thought, Li Fan saw the still-dejected Xu Ke and gently ruffled his hair. "Your mental fortitude still needs work. If you can't even handle a little setback like this, how are you going to save the world by my side?"
"Lord Xuan Bird, I'm not even ten years old," Xu Ke whined, his little face scrunched up in distress. "Does saving the world really have to fall on my shoulders?"
"Who else but the one fate brought to my side?" Li Fan replied, his tone grave and profound.
"Alright, prepare yourself. The Imperial Beast Sect will have a mission for you soon," Li Fan predicted.
Having demonstrated his ability to see the future multiple times, Xu Ke now had complete faith in Li Fan.
And just as expected, Li Fan's prediction proved correct once again.
Three days later, Lu Ya led Xu Ke to a small wooden cabin outside the Imperial Beast Sect's Demon Refining Tower.
On a table inside the cabin sat a wooden carving and a wooden box.
"This wood carving is a gift Mr. Bai left for you," Lu Ya said, his expression complex.
Something seemed to have happened to him over the past three days. His words about Mr. Bai were far more respectful, yet Li Fan keenly sensed that the Faceless Immortal's influence had, paradoxically, deepened its hold on him.
"Wow!" Xu Ke, oblivious to this nuance, just ran excitedly to the table and snatched up the carving.
"Hey? This looks like me!" Xu Ke exclaimed in pleasant surprise, examining the figurine from top to bottom.
He didn't care what the carving was for; the mere fact that it was a gift from Mr. Bai was enough to make him happy. He was about to put it away carefully, but after hearing a mental instruction from Li Fan, he tucked it inside his shirt instead.
"This carving is quite a treasure," Li Fan remarked, his mental gaze fixed on the object, sensing the power of the laws condensed within it.
Anything from Mr. Bai was bound to be extraordinary.
This small figurine of Xu Ke represented counterattack.
Any attack that didn't exceed the figurine's threshold would be absorbed and then reflected back at the attacker.
It was quite similar to the divine ability Shuo Feng had displayed after comprehending the wonder of the Wooden Sword.
"Even a full-powered strike from a Dao Integration expert could be perfectly reflected by this carving. Though its uses are limited, it is an absolute life-saving treasure." Li Fan mused, studying the worldly principles within the figurine and marveling at Mr. Bai's generosity.
And, just as foreseen, Xu Ke received his mission: to travel to the Nanming Sacred Beast Mountain and deliver the red wooden box to a being known as the beast Emperor Yi.
"The box contains the head of *Emperor Er*. If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Bai must have killed him personally. Emperor Er was a rogue who roamed free, stirring up trouble and refusing to return to the beast clans. Though it seems Mr. Bai killed him, he's actually returning him to Emperor Yi."
"He's using this favor to trade for the beasts' method of devouring the void to reproduce—a method he needs to cultivate the Split Boundary Whales."
Li Fan mentally reviewed the chain of events.
"Mr. Bai is an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, yet even he can't grasp the specific evolutionary path of the beasts and must seek out Emperor Yi."
"It seems the demonic beasts of the Xuanhuang Realm might not be native creatures after all. They could be outsiders."
"Emperor Yi must have sensed the great calamity approaching the Xuanhuang Realm, believing survival was impossible. And so, he plans to tear open the world and escape..."
An image of a towering white mountain, seemingly at the very edge of the world, appeared in Li Fan's mind.
"Nanming Mountain, according to Emperor Yi, is the edge of the sky and the corner of the sea—the end of the world."
"Countless stray energies from the Xuanhuang Realm converge there. If they could be detonated using some special method, the resulting explosion could momentarily unleash a terrifying power, one approaching that of a True Immortal."
"And with that power, they could cross the High Wall and escape the Darkest Star Sea."
A thousand years later, in the present day, Nanming Mountain had become the World Cracking Great Vortex. The fact that this wound on the world had not healed in millennia was a testament to the terrifying magnitude of the energy released when the world was torn asunder.
"The principle is the same as the Heavenly Sword Sect's World Splitting Divine Weapon. But it was all just theory. Whether they ultimately succeeded or failed, whether they managed to escape the Darkest Star Sea or were simply annihilated in the attempt..."
"...no one knows."
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