Chapter 1186: Annihilation Unseen
"That's right. The Immortal Pivot Academy has always been against researching the World-Extinguishing Power, cracking down hard on it for years. Countless cultivators ended up as nothing more than fodder for the Divine Tree because of it. If they hadn't gotten so desperate recently, I doubt they ever would have compromised."
"When you think about it, the Broken Immortal Tower made this much progress in just over five hundred years. Meanwhile, the Immortal Pivot Academy has held power for nearly ten thousand years and achieved nothing. They've let the Mysterious Immortal Boat decline day by day, getting worse and worse. Damn the Immortal Pivot Academy."
"The winds of change are blowing on the Immortal Boat. We'd better start making our own plans. This might just be our chance to finally shed this criminal status..."
The three exchanged a glance, each recognizing the burning ambition in the others' eyes.
But their hushed words went no further than that empty, unpeopled stretch of void. Once they returned to the valley, they fell silent again, their faces masks of sullen resentment.
After reporting back to Elder Gou, they settled into one of the wooden cabins nestled in the valley.
About a hundred other exiles resided there as well.
Periodically, some of them would be sent outside the Mysterious Immortal Boat to collect World-Extinguishing Relics.
The people of the Immortal Boat seemed to live in mortal terror of the Darkest Star Sea beyond their vessel. Before every mission, their faces were etched with a deep, palpable anxiety.
After just two excursions, the wrinkles on the face of the cultivator, Zhao Tianjiang, had visibly deepened.
No wonder I haven't seen any young people here, Li Fan realized. They're all middle-aged or elderly.
The hundred-odd souls in the valley didn't practice cultivation in their daily lives.
Aside from their duties collecting relics, they had no other work to do.
From their daily chatter, Li Fan gleaned a wealth of information about the Mysterious Immortal Boat.
They called this place the Sin Suppression Valley, an exile colony for those who had violated the laws of the Immortal Boat but whose crimes weren't severe enough to warrant death.
Collecting World-Extinguishing Relics was their way of atoning for their sins.
Once they had earned enough merit to offset their crimes, they would be allowed to leave and resume a normal life.
Through their hopeful conversations, Li Fan caught glimpses of the daily life of the people aboard the Mysterious Immortal Boat.
All matters on the vessel, great and small, fell under the jurisdiction of the Immortal Pivot Academy.
The average resident didn't have to worry about sustenance, as the Immortal Pivot Academy rationed out a set amount of supplies each year.
But it was just that—the bare minimum required for survival.
The Immortal Boat maintained strict control over its total population, as well as the number of cultivators.
Not only did one need approval to have children, but even the right to cultivate was restricted to a fixed number of slots.
Aside from winning a spot in a lottery, the only other way to earn the right to cultivate was by making an outstanding contribution to the Immortal Boat.
Such as salvaging World-Extinguishing Relics from the void.
The vast majority of people in the Sin Suppression Valley had no cultivation base, which was why the prospect of venturing outside filled them with such terror.
The only reason these mortals could move freely through the Darkest Star Sea and survive was due to the specially crafted Immortal Armor provided by the Immortal Pivot Academy for their missions.
The armor not only ensured their safety but could also identify which relics were suitable for collection and could be exchanged for merit points.
As for what purpose the Immortal Pivot Academy had for these World-Extinguishing Relics... the low-ranking residents of the Immortal Boat naturally had no idea.
...
"It seems life on this Immortal Boat is even more rigidly stratified than in the Xuanhuang Realm," Li Fan mused.
"The information I can gather here is limited. I have to find a way to leave this valley."
This sliver of his consciousness was simply too weak; it couldn't afford to expend the slightest bit of energy.
Traversing the void within the Immortal Boat on its own was practically impossible.
The invisible green pathways through the void only materialized with proper authorization. Anyone foolish enough to approach the void otherwise would be dashed to pieces, their remains becoming nourishment for the great vessel.
So, the sliver of Li Fan's consciousness lay in wait, biding its time for an opportunity.
But what he hadn't expected was that before an opportunity presented itself, disaster struck.
It began when Zhao Tianjiang and his two companions, the men his consciousness had been shadowing, suddenly fell ill.
At first, Zhao Tianjiang dismissed it as mere exhaustion, staying in bed for several days straight.
Soon, sleep became impossible. An unbearable itch spread over his entire body, leaving him restless and agitated.
Zhao Tianjiang seemed to remember something, and a look of absolute terror flooded his eyes.
But he didn't speak of it to anyone.
He even forced himself to suppress his discomfort, making a few public appearances and volunteering for another relic-gathering mission.
It wasn't until he developed a persistent cough and black spots began to bloom on his skin that Zhao Tianjiang shut himself away in his cabin, refusing to come out.
He could be seen clutching a jade tablet-like artifact, though what he was doing with it remained a mystery.
Then, blood began to trickle from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The metallic scent started to permeate the air, and his condition could no longer be concealed.
"Sigh. His time is short. Better to send him home to be with his family."
"Fate is a cruel thing. Zhao was the strongest of us, yet even he couldn't escape the void sickness."
"And he hid his condition for so long... just trying to earn a little more merit for his son before the end..."
The others sighed, a shared look of sorrow and fear on their faces—the grief of one who sees a comrade fall, knowing they could be next.
Elder Gou, however, remained completely impassive. He handled the matter with cold professionalism, arranging for Zhao Tianjiang to be sent away.
Soon after, a replacement from the Mysterious Immortal Boat arrived at the Sin Suppression Valley to fill Zhao Tianjiang's position.
Not long after Zhao Tianjiang's death, his two companions also developed the same symptoms and died horrible deaths.
Everyone in the Sin Suppression Valley chalked it up to a terrible run of bad luck.
Only Li Fan knew the truth: their deaths from the so-called void sickness were likely caused by the prolonged presence of his spiritual projection.
"The bodies of these Immortal Boat people..."
"So fragile. They can't even withstand the faint taint of the void that clings to this sliver of my consciousness. If my true self were to enter, would I not be a walking plague?"
Li Fan was left speechless.
He had never intended to cause their deaths.
He had simply spent too long traversing the void, crossing the vast expanse of the Darkest Star Sea.
His soul had likely been saturated with some mysterious power from the void.
While his own soul was resilient enough to resist the corruption of these cryptic forces, the same could not be said for the fragile inhabitants of the Immortal Boat.
In the Sin Suppression Valley, time seemed to stand still, with one day bleeding into the next without change.
The entire Mysterious Immortal Boat felt like a pool of stagnant water, utterly without ripples.
The opportunity the sliver of Li Fan's consciousness was waiting for never materialized.
Until one day...
The perpetually stern and unsmiling Elder Gou suddenly wore a different expression.
He summoned every resident of the Sin Suppression Valley.
He herded them all outside the valley, apparently to await the arrival of some important personage.
A palpable sense of anxiety spread through the crowd, but the sliver of Li Fan's consciousness sensed something else: a powerful aura, rapidly approaching from a great distance.
"Dao Integration stage?"
"No, stronger than that. Yet it lacks the overwhelming pressure of the Longevity stage."
"Hmm? And is that a faint fluctuation from the power of a True Immortal Script mixed in?"
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