Chapter 1228: The Outsider of the Immortal Boat
Chapter 1228: The Outsider of the Immortal Boat
"I, too, have met that cultivator from the Broken Immortal Tower who supposedly entered the Dao using their new method. It's said he achieved it in just three years. And his control over the power of a True Immortal is no less than my own," Yu Shuo remarked, his tone unreadable.
"If that's the case, Elder Yu, why do you still seem so hesitant?"
"Because every cultivator from the Broken Immortal Tower who has claimed to have 'entered the Dao' and appeared in public... they all command the very same type of True Immortal power," Yu Shuo said softly, his voice laced with an eerie undertone.
"What does that prove?" Zhao Xian asked, perplexed.
Yu Shuo gave Zhao Xian an inscrutable look. After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice perfectly calm. "Zhao Xian, you must remember this: when dealing with the power of a True Immortal, never let your guard down."
"The deeper you venture into the Dao, the more danger you put yourself in."
Yu Shuo didn't explain directly, offering only that cryptic statement.
"That's all for today's lesson. Nangong will be next." Yu Shuo's form vanished along with his voice.
A flash of insight struck him, and in an instant, he grasped the underlying meaning.
"The power of a True Immortal is like a web. By using this web, one can draw upon its power, but the end result is only to become more deeply entangled..."
The sudden realization sent a chill through Zhao Xian, as if a basin of ice-cold water had been dumped over him in the dead of winter.
"If that's true, then aren't the Dao Proving Academy, and even the entire Mysterious Immortal Boat..."
But he quickly gave a bitter laugh.
"It's a necessary evil for the sake of survival. After all, survival is the Immortal Boat's highest priority. Besides, we've drifted through this Star Sea for so many years, seeing only the lingering might of True Immortals, never the Immortals themselves. The risk is real, but for now, it can be set aside."
At the same time, Zhao Xian understood the strangeness of the Broken Immortal Tower that Yu Shuo had alluded to.
The Darkest Star Sea was a chaotic mix of various True Immortal remnants.
If they had truly mastered a flawless method for harmlessly absorbing World Extinguishing Relics, then the Dao-entry manifestations of the Broken Immortal Tower's cultivators should have been just as varied.
After all, not everyone could adapt to the same kind of True Immortal remnant.
Within the Darkest Star Sea, the Immortal Boat had identified no fewer than five types of True Immortal power. The three leaders of the Dao Proving Academy had each pursued a different path into the Dao.
And yet, the six Dao-entered cultivators from the Broken Immortal Tower who had appeared so far all displayed the exact same power.
The probability of that happening was not zero, but it was vanishingly small.
"Either the technique they've mastered is only effective on a single type of True Immortal power..."
"Or..."
A chill ran down Zhao Xian's spine, and he dared not pursue the thought any further.
For now, the task the academy had given him was to stabilize his Nascent Soul cultivation and then attempt another breakthrough to the Soul Transformation stage.
Once he successfully reached Soul Transformation, he would begin to slowly attempt to "enter the Dao."
"Entering the Dao cannot be done too early, nor too late."
"If you come into contact with True Immortal power too early, your weak divine soul and will have almost no chance of resisting that boundless, peerless force. You'll most likely mutate into a crazed, misshapen monster."
"But if you wait too long..."
"The traditional Dao Integration stage, where one merges with the remnant Heavenly Dao laws of this Star Sea, creates a violent repulsion against the Dao of a True Immortal. The difficulty of 'entering the Dao' then increases by several orders of magnitude."
The teachings of the Dao Proving Academy's Master, Nangong Lie, echoed in Zhao Xian's mind.
"The academy won't push me too hard for now. The most pressing matter is to increase my own strength as quickly as possible."
"Although my fated Nascent Soul tribulation foretells I won't break through until after fifty, the Palace Master said that the limitations of this shattered Star Sea's broken Heavenly Dao are not absolute. With the academy's resources and the experience I've accumulated in my dreams, defying fate is by no means an impossible feat."
Zhao Xian was quite confident about this.
In truth, the 'future dream' Zhao Xian had first experienced already differed from reality in many details. Under normal circumstances, someone with a keen mind like his should have noticed the discrepancies long ago. But under the subtle, continuous influence of a certain entity, Zhao Xian had been subconsciously ignoring all the inconsistencies. Forget a mere Nascent Soul cultivator; even the three leaders of the Mysterious Immortal Boat's Dao Proving Academy were no match for Li Fan when it came to the art of manipulating minds.
Meanwhile, a sliver of Li Fan's consciousness was using Zhao Xian's privileges to ravenously browse through the secret knowledge stored within the Dao Proving Academy.
All records pertaining to the power of True Immortals were redacted, impossible to access.
The history of the Mysterious Immortal Boat, however, was not so heavily concealed.
It confirmed what he had learned before: the Mysterious Immortal Boat had indeed split off from the original Xuanshang Immortal Boat.
What was new, however, was the detail that the primary cause of the civil war that tore the boat apart was an outsider.
Despite being a foreigner, this individual quickly won the trust of more than half the Immortal Boat's population.
They were even bewitched into wanting to cross the invisible High Wall that sealed off the Darkest Star Sea.
At the critical moment, a cultivator from the boat named Cai Zhengjun—who would later become the first head of the Mysterious Immortal Boat's Immortal Pivot Academy—led his followers to stop this suicidal endeavor.
Ultimately, however, it led to a conflict between the two factions that shattered the Immortal Boat.
Regarding that outsider, there were only a few brief notes. Their true identity remained a mystery.
The Dao Proving Academy did, however, have many detailed descriptions of the situation in the Darkest Star Sea.
Beyond the spacetime charts recorded during the Mysterious Immortal Boat's years of drifting and fleeing, there were also unique treatises on the Relic Sea and the High Wall.
"Deeper within the Relic Sea, near the location of the invisible High Wall, lies the graveyard of worlds, the burial ground of the Star Sea. A terrifying suction from the center of the Star Sea spans the cosmos, only to be blocked by the High Wall. Over countless years, influenced by the wall's mysterious power, this suction has been fixed in place like a tide, forming a reverse force field."
"The closer one gets to the High Wall, the more powerful the suction becomes. After dozens of exploratory missions all ended in failure, the Immortal Boat has abandoned any plans for further investigation."
...
Li Fan, having stumbled upon this report, was overjoyed.
Perhaps due to its unique position, the Mysterious Immortal Boat's understanding of the Darkest Star Sea's overall structure was far superior to that of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Beneath the High Wall... a locked tide... world fragments?"
An image formed in Li Fan's mind: a silent, dead tableau of endless, interlocking, shattered worlds.
"So, what I previously thought was an entity in the depths of the Star Sea with a pull rivaling the Immortal Ruins... is merely a reflection of the Darkest Star Sea's suction, bounced back by the High Wall?"
Though slightly disappointed, Li Fan actually felt a sense of relief.
After all, as long as it wasn't another True Immortal, everything was manageable.
"The invisible High Wall... it can completely block the power of the 'Hunger' character, and even cause it to gather in reverse."
"What kind of unbelievable power is this?"
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