Chapter 1268: The Ineffective Power of an Immortal
Chapter 1268: The Ineffective Power of an Immortal
It was just like his first encounter with the Hunger Character.
The instant the True Immortal Script from the heart of the world-protecting array materialized in his sea of consciousness, Li Fan grasped its meaning.
Return!
Unlike the curses of Hunger or Chaos, this felt more like a command—an imperial edict!
"A complete True Immortal Script..."
Though his mind reeled, Li Fan silently committed the form of the [Return] character to memory.
"Return? But to where? Or was it a command to revert to one's original state?"
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, contemplating the profound and mysterious power emanating from the script.
"Senior, that place..." Sun Luyao stammered, staring blankly at the void at the center.
In an instant, an invisible connection formed, seeming to bind the [Return] character to the Immeasurable Mirror.
Li Fan could clearly sense the fear and confusion that suddenly flooded Sun Luyao's mind.
Even the immortal artifact itself, the Immeasurable Mirror, began to tremble without warning. As the vibrations grew more violent, Sun Luyao, the artifact spirit, felt as if he were about to be flung out of the mirror entirely!
"Senior, help me!" Sun Luyao cried out instinctively.
Li Fan had, of course, noticed the change in the Immeasurable Mirror the moment it began.
It hadn't even directly confronted the power of the [Return] character; merely being brushed by its overflow was enough. The [Boundless, Primordial Vision Array] within the mirror—which Li Fan had painstakingly repaired—began to show signs of collapse.
Moreover, the immortal artifact itself, the Immeasurable Mirror, was beginning to disintegrate.
To Li Fan's senses, the entire mirror was like a piece of paper set alight; its fundamental structure was dissolving, causing it to inevitably fade into nothingness.
The parts "ignited" by the [Return] character's power drifted away like wisps of smoke, their destination unknown.
Li Fan's heart sank. He wanted to halt the mirror's dissolution, but the power of a True Immortal Script was something even his true self couldn't withstand, let alone this mere avatar.
Filled with a trace of regret, he watched the Immeasurable Mirror shrink smaller and smaller amid Sun Luyao's incessant, agonized cries.
Just as Li Fan thought this immortal artifact, which had been of such great help to him, was about to vanish completely...
...the unexpected happened.
The "wisps of smoke" that had been summoned away by the [Return] character to some unknown destination suddenly returned!
As if time itself were reversing, the thumb-sized remnant of the Immeasurable Mirror swelled before Li Fan's eyes, restoring itself to its full form!
Sun Luyao, who had been wailing in despair, believing his end was near, fell silent. He could only stare, dumbfounded and utterly bewildered, as the Immeasurable Mirror returned to normal.
For a moment, Li Fan was also stunned, watching as the [Boundless, Primordial Vision Array] spontaneously reconstructed itself from the void.
The event that had just transpired felt like an illusion, a fleeting dream.
After a moment of astonishment, Li Fan collected himself and turned his gaze back to the [Return] character.
It seemed that having already been subjected to the command once, the restored Immeasurable Mirror was now immune to the [Return] character's influence, ignoring its presence completely.
The [Return] character, in turn, paid the mirror no mind, continuing to lie quietly within the array's void-like core.
The two coexisted peacefully.
"What's going on? Is there nowhere for it to return to?"
The scene that had unfolded left Li Fan baffled. Still, considering the meaning of the character itself and the mirror's strange transformation, he could venture a few guesses.
"The world-protecting arrays in the lower realms were all created and controlled by the Immortal Realm. As an immortal artifact, the Immeasurable Mirror must also be subject to the Immortal Realm's authority."
"If one considers them the elite forces of the Immortal Realm, then this [Return] character would be akin to a general's seal, holding the power to command them. Whether this is a unique power of the [Return] character itself or a common principle of the Immortal Realm's authority remains to be seen."
"Normally, anything summoned by the [Return] character should have been recalled, like a soldier laying down their arms. But now... the Immortal Realm is shattered, and the execution of this command has been disrupted."
"It seems this [Return] character is fundamentally different from the others. It might have even been a cornerstone of the Immortal Realm's former power structure."
Li Fan mused thoughtfully, "But this line of reasoning inevitably leads to a question."
"If the [Return] character is only partially effective, then where have the cores of all these world-protecting arrays gone?"
Li Fan stared at the [Return] character resting quietly in the core.
Several possibilities surfaced in his mind.
One: The [Return] character was inscribed by some powerful entity and sent to the cores of all the world arrays. But upon arrival, it found its target had vanished. So it remained here, waiting for the target to reappear.
Two: The [Return] character successfully activated, causing the array cores to dissolve and return to the Immortal Realm. But when the Immortal Realm was shattered, the cores were set to rematerialize. At that very moment, some unknown entity intercepted and stole them away.
...
"There's too little information. I can't determine the truth just yet."
"If the [Return] character's power is limited only to things originating from the Immortal Realm, then despite being a True Immortal Script, its usefulness to me is limited." Li Fan couldn't help but shake his head.
"However, since this character can affect an immortal artifact..."
"I wonder if it would work on the Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
Even if it couldn't cause any real damage to the mirror, being able to incapacitate it for a short time could be immensely useful at a critical moment.
After all, the entire system of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, especially the defensive measures at its headquarters, was inextricably linked to the Heavenly Profound Mirror.
If the Heavenly Profound Mirror were to malfunction, the nigh-impregnable Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance would be riddled with vulnerabilities in an instant.
This might not be of great significance to Li Fan's true self, who possessed a fragment of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's origin...
...but for his avatar, Saint Emperor Li Ping, it was an entirely different matter.
The power to instantly turn the tide of battle was equivalent to the might of dozens of Dao Integration cultivators!
After his true self transmitted the essence of the [Return] character to Saint Emperor Li Ping through their faint, mystical connection...
...the avatar in the ashen world began the next phase of his plan.
The discovery of the [Return] character was an unexpected boon.
His primary purpose for coming here was still to verify his earlier hypothesis.
"By that logic, a similar world-protecting array must exist within the Xuanhuang Realm."
"Furthermore, since the array was a relic of the Immortal Realm, it would only exist within the bounds of the original, primordial Xuanhuang Realm." After casually setting up a formation to seal off the ashen world and prevent anyone from stumbling upon the [Return] character, Li Fan's avatar took the Immeasurable Mirror and returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
He arrived in the Central Four Prefectures, the heartland of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
A miniature image of the Xuanhuang Realm materialized in his mind—an image of the world in its primordial state.
A web of crisscrossing lines appeared on the model, representing the world-protecting array as deduced by Li Fan.
Even with a slight margin of error, he could still pinpoint its general location.
From there, he could use the power of the Immeasurable Mirror and, with a bit of time, locate the hidden core of the Xuanhuang Realm's own world-protecting array.
His only concern was creating too much of a disturbance and being detected by the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
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