Chapter 1275: A Glimpse of the Ancient Immortal Realm
Along with the countless mirrors, countless faces of Mo Rubin appeared, each bearing a different expression.
They hid behind the dark, hazy surfaces, collectively spying on the Faceless Saint Emperor in their midst.
With Li Ping as the central point, the mirrors arranged themselves in corresponding pairs.
A pinpoint of light shot out from one mirror, projecting onto its opposite.
The bright lines of light that formed were like tangible shackles, binding Li Ping.
One after another, these lines of light materialized within the mirror world, like heavy chains accelerating the process of pulling Li Ping into the world of "reality."
Now fully manifest and trapped within the mirror enclosure, the Faceless Saint Emperor showed little sign of panic.
He looked at the "lines" that were both formless and tangible upon his body and reached out as if to touch them.
But they were like illusory bubbles, passing through his hand before once again tightening their grasp on his form.
For some reason, this action seemed to enrage Mo Rubin.
With a furious shout, the lines, once like brilliant light, suddenly turned pitch black.
Sibilant whispers issued from these black chains. Vague images of faces, all resembling Mo Rubin, could be seen writhing and wailing across their surfaces.
“Hiss...”
The black chains possessed a dark, corrosive power. In the blink of an eye, the clothes on Li Ping’s body dissolved into nothing. Just as they were about to touch his skin, a blinding, resplendent golden radiance erupted.
A suit of sharply angled golden armor instantly materialized, completely encasing the Saint Emperor's towering thirty-six-foot form.
Beneath the armor’s surface, a faint golden light flowed ceaselessly, as if it had a spirit of its own.
The golden protection completely blocked the corrosion of the black chains.
Li Ping reached out with his right hand, seized the chains wrapped around him, and gave them a vicious tug.
The sound of shattering mirrors echoed continuously.
Suddenly, a vortex formed over his chest.
Li Ping tore off the black chains and stuffed them into the vortex.
Boom! Boom!
Like a roaring inferno, the vortex seemed to be fed a massive amount of fuel, bursting forth with a soul-stirring brilliance. And from the incinerated black chains, countless faces of Mo Rubin screamed out venomous curses in unison.
“So, these are the personalities of the cultivators you devoured.”
As the vortex in his chest consumed the black chains, images flooded the Saint Emperor's mind, revealing the origin of these malevolent faces.
“To think you’d forsake the proper path of the [Nine Turns Immortal Soul] for such a twisted, heretical art!” Li Ping shook his head, a hint of pity in his voice.
This remark seemed to strike a nerve. In an instant, Mo Rubin's figure became as dark and profound as if stained with thick ink.
A fissure materialized between him and Li Ping.
It was a mirror, reflecting the real and the illusory.
Mo Rubin and Li Ping faced each other from a distance, positioned on opposite sides of the mirror.
The moment this fissure appeared, Li Ping felt a sudden intuition. The Mo Rubin on the "other side" seemed to have vanished. The image before him was merely some kind of projection, formed on the other side of the mirror in response to his own existence.
With a thought, Li Ping, still clad in his golden armor, instantly teleported dozens of miles away, leaving the confines of the Purple Cloud Sect Ruins.
But soon, the Saint Emperor discovered a bizarre and unsettling sight.
The fissure before him had teleported with him, its position relative to him completely unchanged.
And Mo Rubin was sneering, watching him coldly from the other side of the mirror.
It was as if some uncanny power had locked Li Ping and Mo Rubin together, making escape impossible no matter how he changed his position.
Even more chilling, Li Ping faintly perceived that the appearance and aura of the Mo Rubin on the other side were subtly changing.
His body began to expand, and his facial features grew increasingly blurred.
Mo Rubin was transforming into the Faceless Saint Emperor.
“Heretical art? How truly ignorant and fearless you are!”
“What is heresy? What is orthodoxy? Such distinctions are meaningless. Only the Immortal is eternal!”
“How could the likes of you ever presume to judge the [Myriad Tribulations Indestructible Devil Heart Immortal Art]!”
Mo Rubin burst into mocking laughter. “Now, you will become me!”
The two sides of the mirror grew more and more alike.
The distance between the Saint Emperor and Mo Rubin was gradually closing.
Just as he was about to be completely drawn to the other side of the mirror, Li Ping suddenly dismissed his golden armor.
He gazed coldly at the nearby Mo Rubin. “Become you?”
“You think you are worthy?”
“I am the Heavenly Mandate Saint Emperor.”
A violet-gold aura of destiny materialized from the void and, like an ethereal gauze, instantly wove itself into a majestic dragon robe adorned with auspicious clouds, which draped itself over Li Ping.
The Faceless Saint Emperor's voice was like thunder from the highest heavens, reverberating on his side of the mirror.
The booming echoes sent ripples across the fissure that separated reality from illusion.
“I am also the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm!”
“The lynchpin for the survival of billions of lives, the source of revival for the Darkest Star Sea!”
“You want to become me?”
Each word the Saint Emperor uttered was like a titanic wave, crashing violently against the mirrored fissure.
A groaning, creaking sound, as if it was on the verge of collapse, could be heard. Cracks began to appear across the world on the other side of the mirror.
It seemed as if it could shatter at any moment.
“Can you even bear the weight of it?!” Li Ping demanded coldly.
His words were a stone cast into a calm lake, stirring up a thousand waves.
For the first time, Mo Rubin’s expression genuinely changed, breaking free from his mimicry of the Faceless Saint Emperor.
Behind Li Ping, he seemed to see a miniature projection of the entire Xuanhuang Realm.
And beyond that faint yellow glow, an even more brilliant river of stars seemed to be hidden!
In that instant, heaven and earth were overturned.
The weight of a world pressed down upon him.
Clang!
The mirrored fissure shattered. In a chain reaction, the countless mirrors that had sealed the space around them exploded into a billion fragments.
Mo Rubin spat out a mouthful of blood, but his reaction was incredibly swift.
Using the disturbance caused by the shattering mirrors as cover, his figure turned ethereal, and in a flash, he was already hundreds of miles away.
“The Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm?”
“How is that possible?”
Mo Rubin's face was a mask of disbelief.
His expression shifted again. “Damn it, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao really is unreliable. I have to act fast.”
While he was muttering to himself, a tall figure silently appeared, blocking his path.
“I haven't received an answer to my question. You think you can just leave?”
A trace of apprehension flashed in Mo Rubin's eyes. He snorted coldly, “What Heavenly Mandate Saint Emperor, what incarnation of the Heavenly Dao? You’re nothing but a pawn!”
“If you don't want to die, why don't we cooperate? What do you say?”
“You may be strong, but you’re still a ways off from Brother Xuanyuan. Even he was ambushed and met an unfortunate end. You will surely not be able to avoid the same fate...”
Mo Rubin's words made Li Ping pause, halting his attack.
But after Mo Rubin finished speaking, Li Ping’s expression suddenly changed.
He reached out to grab the Mo Rubin before him, but the figure burst like a bubble, scattering into the air.
It was merely an illusion. The real Mo Rubin, right under Li Ping's nose, had already fled to some unknown location.
The Saint Emperor felt no anger at being tricked.
“A true immortal art is indeed extraordinary.”
“The [Myriad Tribulations Indestructible Devil Heart Immortal Art]...”
“No, that’s not it.”
After a moment of contemplation, Li Ping glanced at the cat treasure sleeping on his shoulder.
During his brief battle with Mo Rubin, his opponent seemed to have been completely unaware of the cat treasure's existence.
Furthermore, that deadly technique of replication and replacement had also failed to reflect its presence.
“It didn’t pique the cat treasure's interest. It seems this so-called immortal art is not as impressive as its name suggests.”
Although Mo Rubin had escaped for now, he was far from out of Li Ping’s grasp.
While Mo Rubin was attempting to replace him, Li Ping was slowly drawing him into the web of Source Power essence.
Even if he broke free temporarily, Li Ping could follow the severed, yet still lingering, golden threads in the air to track him down.
In his perception, Mo Rubin was still fleeing rapidly.
Li Ping was in no hurry to catch up. He planned to let out the line to catch a bigger fish.
“It’s hard to tell if what he just said was true or false. But one thing is certain: he will definitely seek out the Xuantian King.”
“Or, at the very least, something related to the old Xuantian Sect.”
“I will wait.”
Li Ping knew that when dealing with a being like Mo Rubin, who had survived since ancient times, one needed ample patience.
Besides, the recent clash had given the Saint Emperor a tangible understanding of the Xuantian Sect's bizarre techniques.
Having made preparations, he would not let him escape so easily the next time they met.
The fluctuations from their battle seemed to have attracted the attention of other powerful individuals.
Perhaps someone from the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance would soon arrive to investigate. Li Ping prepared to leave the area.
“To think that Mo Rubin would be hiding in the Purple Cloud Sect Ruins.”
“According to the stone slab's records, after the Ten Great Immortal Sects destroyed the Xuantian Sect, they turned the world upside down to eradicate any remnants. All sects, big and small, were thoroughly searched. The Purple Cloud Sect was meticulously investigated back then, yet he still managed to hide.”
“The Xuantian Sect’s techniques... their power is debatable for now, but they are certainly bizarre and difficult to defend against...”
“Not like the orthodox path of immortality.”
That was Li Ping’s assessment.
His divine sense swept over the Purple Cloud Sect Ruins hundreds of miles away, and the Faceless Saint Emperor’s figure slowly vanished from the sky.
But in the next moment, Li Ping reappeared.
“Hm?”
In that brief moment of contemplation, Li Ping had discovered something strange.
His perspective suddenly soared, and a miniature map of the Xuanhuang Realm appeared before his eyes.
“This is Langhuan Province of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. A thousand years ago, it was part of the original Xuanhuang Realm.”
“The Xuanhuang Realm was dismembered and reformed, and this Langhuan Province was created by fusing it with other cultivation worlds.”
“But...”
Li Ping's expression grew increasingly grave.
“A piece of the original Xuanhuang Realm’s puzzle is missing.”
Having mastered the information from the Creation Stone Slab and being closely connected to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, Li Ping had faintly sensed something was off while reconstructing the process of the original Xuanhuang Realm’s dismemberment and reassembly. A large area that once belonged to the Purple Cloud Sect had vanished from the map of the new Xuanhuang Realm.
Or rather, it hadn’t vanished.
It still existed somewhere in the current Xuanhuang Realm.
“But I was influenced by some power, which made me subconsciously overlook its existence.”
After reaching this conclusion, Li Ping’s aura turned solemn.
The maps of the original Xuanhuang Realm and the current one were continuously separated, reassembled, and compared in his sea of consciousness.
After some time, he finally located the other piece of the former Purple Cloud Sect's territory.
It was now a region within Taihua Province, around Taixu Mountain.
“What is there...”
Li Ping did not investigate rashly. Instead, he first contemplated the nature of this force that could influence him.
Countless past events flashed through his mind.
The Saint Emperor had a faint inkling.
However, for a rare moment, Li Ping hesitated.
He stood motionless in the air for a long while before finally making up his mind.
“Whatever the truth may be, if I don't even have the courage to face it...”
“How can I possibly save the Xuanhuang Realm?”
The Saint Emperor shook his head slightly, and his figure flickered.
Before long, he had arrived at Taixu Mountain.
However, the secret he discovered here deviated somewhat from his expectations.
In a deep valley below Taixu Mountain.
Li Ping found an underground chamber buried in mud.
The aura emanating from the chamber made even him, an incarnation of the Heavenly Dao, feel a faint sense of discomfort.
What concerned him even more was that the cat treasure, which had been sleeping soundly on his shoulder, suddenly awoke with a start, looking left and right.
As if it had found some delicious food, Li Ping could feel a palpable sense of excitement from it.
But after locking onto its target, the cat treasure suddenly deflated like a popped balloon, its enthusiasm completely gone.
It lazily fell back asleep.
Li Ping's attention, however, never wavered from the target.
“What is this...”
A statue.
Like him, it had no face.
Although it looked like an ordinary object, with no spiritual energy fluctuations whatsoever, Li Ping felt an unprecedented pressure emanating from it.
He hadn't even felt this way when facing the residual calamities in the Darkest Star Sea.
The faceless statue seemed to possess a strange, magical power.
Li Ping slowly approached it.
Two empty faces stared at each other across the distance.
For some reason, a sudden impulse rose in Li Ping's heart.
He wanted to communicate with this statue.
...
Within the space of the Deduction Jade.
Li Fan’s aura hitched slightly.
The connection to his Saint Emperor clone, which he could normally perceive clearly, had become extremely faint.
But after the Saint Emperor stumbled upon the statue of the Faceless True Immortal buried beneath Taixu Mountain, the connection, influenced by an instinctual sense of mortal danger, became clear once more.
Li Fan closed his eyes and focused, trying to change his clone's intention.
Although he had escaped the True Immortal's web once and could do so again, it was a troublesome affair that required multiple lifetimes to completely break free. It was best to avoid it if possible.
However, the Saint Emperor's will was surprisingly resolute.
Perhaps it had sensed something in that equally featureless face.
He continued his slow walk toward the statue of the Faceless True Immortal.
He stood before the statue, silent and motionless.
At that moment, even though the Saint Emperor was his clone, Li Fan had no idea what he was thinking.
“So, this is the Xuantian Immortal.”
After a long while, Li Ping discovered the origin of this statue in the records of the Creation Stone Slab.
The Faceless True Immortal, worshipped by the Xuantian Sect.
Li Ping touched his own featureless face, his aura fluctuating unstably.
“Interesting.”
Li Ping couldn't determine if there was a real connection between himself and this Faceless True Immortal.
However, he could faintly sense that this statue was extraordinary.
Acting with extreme caution, he chose not to touch it himself.
Li Ping summoned one of the most common Sacred Army puppets and had it move the statue to the dark void outside the Great Qi small world.
He laid down layer upon layer of arrays, sealing the statue within.
He only stopped when the sense of crisis in his heart slowly faded.
The reason for his caution was the sense of familiarity that had been confirmed during his time near the statue.
And the source of this familiarity wasn't just because the statue was bizarrely faceless like him.
It came more from an image.
A vision he had perceived from the vast consciousness at the core of the Darkest Star Sea.
"What has this to do with me! What has this to do with me!"
The figure fading away amidst that wild laughter.
The feeling it gave off was remarkably similar to this statue.
“Are they the same person? Or not?”
It was just a fleeting glimpse, a momentary vision. Li Ping couldn't be sure.
“If I have the chance, I should visit the center of the Star Sea again.”
“If that vast consciousness of the Star Sea personally identifies it, I should be able to find out.”
The thought flashed through Li Ping's mind.
“Perhaps I could try again. But my reserves of Clear Void Flowing Crystal were nearly depleted in the last operation. And...”
Li Fan once again looked at the faceless statue, sealed by layers of arrays in the void.
Though it had no eyes, it seemed to be watching him.
“If the culprit back then was truly this Faceless True Immortal, and I get caught up in the wrath of the Star Sea’s consciousness, I’m afraid that even if I send a puppet, my main body will be affected.”
“Compared to the entire Darkest Star Sea, the Xuanhuang Realm is but a drop in the ocean...”
An image of the Xuanhuang Realm being instantly torn apart by rampaging energy flashed before Li Ping's eyes.
He couldn't help but suppress his earlier thought.
After a long silence, the Saint Emperor’s figure vanished. When he reappeared, he placed another object next to the statue of the Faceless True Immortal.
It was the ruins of the One Beginning Sect, which he had collected and sealed from beneath the Great Rift Valley in Fuguang Province.
The ruins themselves were ordinary, but the remains of the Grandmaster within, and the hidden wind of annihilation, were things that even the Saint Emperor had to treat with utmost caution.
The ruins of the One Beginning Sect and the statue of the Faceless True Immortal faced each other from a distance in the void.
A premonition flashed through Li Ping’s mind.
If there were no sealing arrays separating them...
A terrifying calamity would likely erupt on the spot.
“Immortal...”
The rampant laughter of "What has this to do with me" faintly echoed in Li Ping's ears.
He snorted coldly and unleashed several thousand more arrays with his hands.
He reinforced the cages of both items.
He wouldn't feel at ease leaving these unstable elements buried in the Xuanhuang Realm anywhere else. Only by personally standing guard over them could he be assured of their security.
With this thought, Li Ping continued to tirelessly reinforce the sealing arrays.
And on his shoulder, the cat treasure had awoken at some point.
Its clear eyes stared into the void ahead. It brought a paw to its mouth and licked it.
...
Back with Li Fan's main body, he couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
As the statue of the Faceless True Immortal was sealed, his connection with his clone became hazy once more.
In fact, it was even fainter than before.
“Has the Saint Emperor clone become more wary?”
Li Fan shook his head slightly, not overly concerned.
“However, this incident has served as a reminder to me.”
“Although I can hide here and quietly observe the dramatic changes in the Xuanhuang Realm, the Saint Emperor, as the protagonist of this era, is bound to confront those transcendent beings.”
“It's not impossible that, like the True Immortal from the Immortal Ruins before, they could trace me through the connection between my clone and my main body.”
“Hmm... I should prepare for that.”
However, being in a key location of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, his freedom of action was limited. He would need to plan carefully.
“Hey, you big dummy!” While he was pondering, he faintly sensed the little loli from the Deduction Jade repeatedly calling out to his fabricated personality.
With a shift of his consciousness, he took its place again, appearing inside the sphere of light composed of characters.
“Honestly, I’ve been calling you for so long, and you’re only just responding now.” The Deduction Jade loli pouted, looking quite displeased.
“You’ve had enough sleep already?” Li Fan asked, a bit surprised, deflecting her complaint.
The Deduction Jade loli put her hands on her hips. “How long has it been? Of course it’s not enough!”
“But, I remembered some things from before while I was dreaming.”
“See if this is any help to you!”
The little loli clapped her hands, and the scene inside the sphere of light instantly transformed.
A lone stone stood on a seemingly endless prairie.
Suddenly, the earth began to tremble.
Vast swathes of green grass, as if stimulated by something, began to grow frantically.
In an instant, it had grown taller than a person.
It even pushed the lone stone up from the ground.
An arc of light appeared in the sky.
The arc was seven-colored, and within it, one could vaguely see flashes of lightning and a gathering storm.
Around the seven-colored arc, space occasionally warped in a bizarre fashion. It was as if invisible objects were present there.
More and more of these invisible things gathered, all of them clustered around the arc of light, seemingly waiting for something.
The wind and thunder grew more violent, and the roiling black clouds even threatened to pierce through the arc.
Although the storm looked terrifying enough from outside the arc, its true horror was only revealed when it began to spill out.
A bolt of pitch-black lightning shot out from the arc, striking the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The world was split in two by the strike, and a deep fissure was torn in space that refused to heal. On the prairie, the endless expanse of green grass was ignited, and a raging inferno spread rapidly.
But then, an even stranger scene unfolded.
The ashes from the burning grass fell to the ground, becoming nutrients for the new leaves. The grass began to grow again, its rate of growth actually matching the rate at which it was being consumed by fire.
The prairie trembled. Beneath the flames, it seemed something was awakening.
High above, the invisible beings around the arc of light paid no mind to what was happening below.
They just pressed closer to the interior of the arc.
They even began to fight amongst themselves over positioning.
The sound of massive booms and collisions rang out continuously.
The storm brewed to its peak, then suddenly fell still. The roiling black clouds vanished in an instant.
Within the seven-colored arc, under a clear, vast sky.
A profoundly mysterious character appeared!
The moment the character materialized, it was as if the supreme, esoteric sound of the Great Dao echoed throughout heaven and earth.
Colorful, auspicious clouds continuously gathered from the horizon, converging on the character.
A light drizzle began to fall from the sky.
The raindrops, like the auspicious clouds above, were a soul-stirring seven-colored hue.
The fissures in the world were repaired.
The flames on the prairie were extinguished as the rain fell.
The endless green grass greedily absorbed the heavenly ambrosia. But their forms began to shrink.
A seven-colored light shone, and figures of various shapes began to gestate within it.
But the booming sounds of conflict high above seemed to grow even louder.
However, the Deduction Jade loli's memory was nearing its end.
The surrounding scene grew blurry, and all that could be seen was the lone stone on the prairie, dissolving in the rain.
...
The vision faded, and Li Fan found himself back inside the Deduction Jade's sphere of light.
But he was still immersed in the scene he had just witnessed, unable to pull himself away.
“So? Any ideas?” the Deduction Jade loli asked expectantly.
Li Fan savored the aftertaste of the vision for a long while before finally asking, “Those raindrops... they wouldn’t happen to be what you called the Celestial Sound Jade Dew, would they?”
The Deduction Jade loli puffed out her chest, hands on her hips, and declared matter-of-factly, “That should be it. I’ve had this memory in my mind since I was born. But as I grew up, I forgot about it.”
“Good thing I took a nice, long nap, otherwise who knows when I would have remembered!”
“I have a feeling that if I could just have some more of that stuff...”
Li Fan interrupted the Deduction Jade loli’s daydreaming.
“What about the character in the seven-colored arc?”
“Why couldn’t I see it clearly?”
The Deduction Jade loli pouted. “I told you it was from a dream. It’s a miracle I could remember this much. How could I possibly remember the character clearly?!”
Li Fan stared at her, trying to discern the truth in her words.
“You don’t believe me?” she said, looking utterly wronged.
Li Fan let out a small laugh. “You’re not stupid. I find it hard to believe you haven’t realized that the scene you just showed me was very likely a glimpse of the legendary Immortal Realm.”
“A character that even immortals would fight over...”
“It’s only natural that you’d hold something back.”
Hearing this, the Deduction Jade loli looked even more aggrieved. “I really don’t remember! You know it’s an immortal character; it’s not something that can be easily remembered. Besides, I was so little back then...”
She gestured with her hands, her eyes welling up with tears.
“How can you remember?” Li Fan didn’t fall for the little loli’s act and cut straight to the point.
The Deduction Jade loli’s tears stopped instantly.
Her big eyes darted around as if she were thinking.
After a moment, she said in a small voice, “Well, maybe if I eat until I’m full, I might remember something.”
She licked her lips, staring at Li Fan.
“Eat?”
Li Fan looked down. “You can eat things?”
She puffed out her cheeks indignantly. “What kind of question is that? I’m a person too, you know.”
“It’s been thousands of years since I’ve tasted delicious food.”
“Tasting it again in my dream... it just made me wake up craving it...”
Li Fan conjured a fragrant, crispy roasted squab in his hand. “Will this do?”
The Deduction Jade loli rolled her eyes. “I want something real, not fake. I can make as many of these as I want.”
With a grand wave of her small hand, the space around them was instantly filled with all sorts of delicacies.
“No matter how real they look, fakes are still fakes. They can never become real...” she said, shaking her head with regret.
“Oh?”
For some reason, the Deduction Jade loli suddenly felt that the expression on Li Fan’s face had changed in that instant.
“Then what do you think of this dish?”
Appearing in Li Fan’s hand was a simple plate of fried rice.
The Deduction Jade loli was initially disdainful, but at Li Fan’s insistent gaze, she took it and had a taste.
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