Chapter 1151: Destroying Worlds to Lure Out the True Culprit
Chapter 1151: Destroying Worlds to Lure Out the True Culprit
“Could it be...”
“Longevity?”
The thought surfaced unbidden in Shang Shaojun’s mind.
As far as he knew, among the survivors from other cultivation worlds, there were indeed some who had reached the Longevity stage.
Though not as invincible as the Longevity Heavenly Venerates of the Xuanhuang Realm, they were certainly not opponents an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator could handle.
“That must be it.” A chill ran down Shang Shaojun’s spine, and his caution towards Li Fan deepened.
The two continued deeper into the Roaring Abyss, where the intermingling laws of different worlds reached their peak.
Within the darkness, new, strange phenomena began to manifest.
Countless shattered continents hung inverted, floating above their heads.
From a distance, one could faintly discern the ruins that littered the landmasses, and within those ruins, a dense carpet of white bones.
Every floating world fragment was shrouded in a deathly silence.
Thick, root-like crimson tendrils sprouted from these continental shards, stretching into the Roaring Abyss and vanishing into the darkness.
From time to time, hair-raising sounds echoed through the void.
It was like the grating scrape of a metal blade across bone, or perhaps the labored breaths of a dying man.
The eerie atmosphere compelled Li Fan and Shang Shaojun, who had come to uncover secrets, to halt in their tracks simultaneously.
Seeing Li Fan intently observing the strange scenery ahead, Shang Shaojun pondered for a moment before transmitting his thoughts. “These fragmented worlds... they seem to be alive, somehow?” he ventured, uncertain.
The Holy Embryo Li Fan did not reply.
He simply waved his hand, sending a beam of sword light shooting straight toward one of the shattered worlds.
Shang Shaojun’s heart tightened at the sight, and he immediately raised his guard.
Although he had witnessed how extraordinary Li Fan’s swordsmanship was, the backlash from a world—even a dying one—was not to be underestimated.
In an instant, the silvery sword light traversed the void and arrived above the fragmented continent.
What caught Shang Shaojun by surprise was that the sword strike Li Fan had unleashed didn’t seem intended for destruction.
After piercing the world’s membrane, it simply hung there, motionless.
The trail it had left in the air did not fade either.
The sword light condensed, forming what looked like a fine silver thread.
It connected Li Fan to the broken world.
Li Fan’s figure drifted upward, and he stood upon the silver thread, closing his eyes as if sensing something.
“What is he doing...?”
At first, Shang Shaojun couldn’t make heads or tails of Li Fan’s actions.
But as he watched, an image of a mortal physician diagnosing a patient by taking their pulse surfaced in his mind.
“Using the sword as a probe to diagnose life and death itself.”
“Could it be that this man is not only a master of the sword but also possesses profound skill in the Dao of medicine?”
Shang Shaojun was shaken to his core.
And Li Fan’s next move made his heart pound in his chest.
He saw Li Fan lightly tap his foot on the silver thread, sending a ripple along the line and into the fragmented world.
At first, it was an almost imperceptible tremor.
Then, as if it had triggered a resonance, the tremor intensified. The land, which had been utterly dead, suddenly roared back to life.
A deafening roar erupted from beneath the ground as countless streams of molten rock burst forth, accompanied by the world’s final, agonized scream.
...
At that moment, Li Fan flicked his finger, severing the sword light beneath his feet.
He then retreated swiftly back the way they had come.
“Get back.”
Before Li Fan’s words had even faded, Shang Shaojun felt himself struck by a tremendous force, his body sent tumbling backward uncontrollably.
The vital energy in his body roiled; he had already sustained a minor injury.
Shang Shaojun looked back in horror to see that the world Li Fan had “diagnosed” was tearing itself apart in a violent implosion, spiraling toward its final doom.
It was already just a fragment, the world fragile beyond measure.
It simply couldn’t withstand such a violent surge of its own energy.
The landmass disintegrated completely, transforming into an endless sea of crimson flames.
As it burned its last light into the darkness, it marked the passing of a world.
Shang Shaojun watched the scene unfold, momentarily lost in a daze.
Li Fan appeared beside him and explained, “If I had destroyed this world with external force, not only would it have triggered a backlash, but it might also have alerted the presence behind all of this.”
“But if you forcibly stimulate a world’s final, residual power and let it die naturally...”
As Li Fan spoke, a thousand sword phantoms materialized behind him.
The sword lights crisscrossed, flashed brilliantly, and then melted into the air.
“Inside the array.”
Hearing Li Fan’s transmission, Shang Shaojun’s heart leaped again.
But he was already growing numb from the constant shock, and he followed instinctively.
Upon entering the space of the formation, Shang Shaojun once again saw the sword phantoms circling rapidly around him.
A thousand swords flew in unison, carving out a perfectly concealed hiding place.
Before taking refuge in the sword array, Shang Shaojun saw Li Fan repeat the process, destroying several more fragmented worlds ahead of them.
The terrifying shockwaves released by the worlds’ destruction turned the deepest part of the Roaring Abyss into an instantaneous inferno.
Countless dark red embers, carried by the raging energy, spewed out from the abyss.
It was like a stampede of ten thousand phantoms, a torrent of nightmares.
The thousand-sword array seemed to be struggling.
It was constantly contracting.
The countless sword lights spun faster and faster, almost blurring into solid rings of light.
Yet Li Fan showed no concern that the array might fail.
He stood straight with his eyes closed, his intentions unclear.
“Wait.”
Sensing Shang Shaojun’s confusion, Li Fan transmitted a single word and then fell silent.
Shang Shaojun took a deep breath, and under the influence of a cooling aura, his mind quickly grew serene.
The swirling sword lights around them not only blocked the view of the outside world, but also obstructed his spiritual sense, preventing him from perceiving what was happening beyond the array.
However, judging by the resounding thuds of massive impacts against the sword array, the destruction of several world fragments in succession must have unleashed a terrifying cataclysm outside.
“Without him, this shockwave alone would have forced me into a hasty and disheveled retreat.”
“Swordsmanship, medicine, formations... can there really be someone in this world who is a master of all paths?”
Shang Shaojun’s thoughts churned, and even with the aid of a mind-calming mantra, he couldn’t completely suppress his speculations about Li Fan’s identity.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The storm outside the sword array finally began to subside.
But Li Fan showed no intention of dispelling the formation.
And from his increasingly solemn expression, it seemed there was something else outside—something even more terrifying than the annihilation of worlds.
“The mastermind behind the scenes?”
The horrifying image of countless world fragments suspended overhead flashed through Shang Shaojun’s mind once more.
It was clearly not a natural phenomenon.
The thought that a powerful being capable of treating worlds like playthings might be lurking nearby sent a tingling chill down his scalp.
“I wonder, is this sword array truly enough to hide us?”
“If it finds us, we are surely doomed!”
(End of this chapter)
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