Chapter 1180: Star Sea Wanderer
Although technological development wasn't exactly slow during the standoff between the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council, with new methods and techniques emerging one after another.
In truth, however, this period of rapid advancement lasted less than three thousand years. In the tens of thousands of years since the great calamity that severed the Immortal Road, the Xuanhuang Realm has spent most of its time mired in endless slaughter and strife.
Civilization did not advance, but rather regressed.
"If my suspicions are correct, then it's hard to even imagine just how vast the civilizational gap is between the inside and outside of the High Wall."
An isolated civilization, proclaiming itself the strongest in the world. Then, one day, a path to the outside is suddenly breached. Faced with an enemy whose military might is entire eras ahead, they possess no means of resistance and are swiftly conquered and annihilated.
Such events are far from rare in the history of civilizations.
This wasn't just true in his past life; even now, there were plenty of small worlds that had lost contact with the Xuanhuang Realm and forgotten the existence of cultivators. They would build magnificent mortal empires, their historians recording their great achievements in epic chronicles.
Yet, a single Foundation Establishment cultivator would be enough to utterly destroy their so-called "glorious dynasty."
Li Fan's goal had always been transcendence and immortality.
Ultimately, his plan was to leave this Darkest Star Sea and venture beyond the High Wall.
But now, the speculation about a possible civilization beyond the High Wall sent a quiet chill through him.
"If a cultivation civilization truly exists out there, having developed for all these years... they might have mastered power comparable to that of True Immortals. They might even be able to influence [Truth] to some degree..."
Li Fan's eyes flickered, his thoughts turbulent.
He wasn't afraid, however.
[Truth] was his greatest source of confidence.
The ability to regress time and again, bringing all his memories and experience back to a fixed anchor point, was his trump card. Even if the civilization beyond the High Wall was truly millions upon millions of years ahead, he could bridge that gap in an instant through just a few cycles.
"I just need to be careful. Until I've scouted the situation, I'll only use clones and the Sacred Embryo. My true self will never venture out. Caution above all else!"
"I'm not afraid of what monsters might exist beyond the High Wall. I'm only afraid that nothing exists at all."
...
In the dark void, the sword light that was Sacred Embryo Li Fan followed closely behind twenty-nine puppets.
Though he had been gone for a long time, only a little over half a year had passed in the Xuanhuang Realm since he broke through its barrier.
But from Sacred Embryo Li Fan's perspective, he had been away from the Xuanhuang Realm for a full ten years.
The difference in the flow of time had only magnified after he ventured deeper into the Star Sea.
Not long ago, it had reached a terrifying peak of fifty-to-one.
But as Sacred Embryo Li Fan continued his journey, the time differential between his location and the Xuanhuang Realm slowly began to converge again.
It dropped from fifty-to-one all the way down to ten-to-one.
Not much different from when he had first left the Xuanhuang Realm.
Li Fan knew this was because he was gradually approaching another massive source of power that distorted the flow of time.
"The Star Sea is boundless. Even with the aid of this unknown, immense power, which propelled me at a speed hundreds of times my limit in the Xuanhuang Realm, it has still taken this long to reach my destination," Sacred Embryo Li Fan lamented softly.
Over these ten years, he had been forced to sever his divine soul more than three hundred times.
He had gone from a peak state nearly comparable to a Dao Integration cultivator of the Xuanhuang Realm to possessing the strength of an ordinary mortal.
Even with Li Fan's unyielding will, the pain he had endured was something he never wanted to experience a second time.
Fortunately, in the last few years, perhaps because his strength had dwindled to such a feeble level, the frequency of the black spots' infection had decreased significantly.
Moreover, after the insights gained from over three hundred severances, Sacred Embryo Li Fan had developed some of his own methods for dealing with this strange affliction.
"Although I still don't understand the principles behind its appearance, I'm certain this black spot is related to the cultivation worlds that have already been destroyed and vanished within the Darkest Star Sea."
If it were just one of the more than three hundred soul fragments tainted by the black spots, Li Fan might not have been able to sense anything.
But now, with all these withered, dead souls he had left behind in his wake across the Darkest Star Sea, he had found their commonality.
After appearing completely dormant, they didn't remain in place.
Instead, they quietly drifted toward different parts of the Darkest Star Sea.
Their method of movement was quite profound, not a normal traversal through space.
It was more like water droplets naturally rolling from a high place to a low one, rapidly traversing the Darkest Star Sea.
Once they reached their destinations, they would vanish from Li Fan's senses, one by one, forever.
"Those locations, somewhere between the depths of the Star Sea and the Xuanhuang Realm... they seem to overlap with the [Void] I passed through."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan looked back, his gaze deep and silent.
"It seems that the various incredible phenomena within the Darkest Star Sea might all be interconnected."
"Then what is the deal with this power in the Star Sea, a power comparable to the Immortal Ruins? Why did I never sense it at all when I was in the Xuanhuang Realm, only for it to erupt so suddenly recently?"
His heart filled with questions, Sacred Embryo Li Fan grew ever more curious about the unknown path that lay ahead.
"Hm?"
Deep in thought, he was suddenly jolted by a sense of alarm and looked ahead.
That feeling of being watched, an illusion he had felt before, surfaced once more.
And this time, it was far more intense than anything he had experienced in the past ten years.
It made Sacred Embryo Li Fan's hair stand on end, his heart pound wildly in his chest.
As if some utterly terrifying presence lurked in the dark void before him!
With a flick of his will, Li Fan first commanded a stone puppet to charge toward the source of the perceived danger.
Immediately after, he sent a beam of sword light slashing out from a distance.
The stone puppet seemed to collide with something, letting out a muffled thud.
The next instant, the puppet vanished from Li Fan's senses.
Weakened by the repeated severing of his soul, the sword light Li Fan unleashed was far less dazzling than when he had first left the Xuanhuang Realm.
But it was still enough to illuminate the surrounding darkness.
A pair of enormous eyes abruptly appeared in the darkness.
Staring intently at Li Fan.
And a huge, withered hand had, at some unknown point, silently appeared before Sacred Embryo Li Fan, about to snatch him into its palm!
"Shit!"
He had journeyed through the dark void for over ten years.
without encountering a single living being other than himself.
To suddenly run into such a terrifying existence now made Li Fan's heart hammer against his ribs, his scalp tingling with dread.
On pure instinct, he unleashed a torrent of sword phantoms.
He didn't know if it was because he had grown too weak, or if the monster was simply too strong.
These sword phantoms, which could split mountains and part seas back in the Xuanhuang Realm, failed to cause even the slightest damage.
Just as he was about to be completely engulfed by the monster's palm, Li Fan prepared to fight for his life.
But soon, he realized something was wrong.
The enormous, emaciated human figure before him...
...had not a single trace of life.
Its movements, its expression—they remained completely frozen.
Comments