Chapter 1278: The World-Ending Will to Survive
Chapter 1278: The World-Ending Will to Survive
"What I fear," Mo Rubin said, "is that the True Immortal's remains will come back to life."
As he spoke those words, Li Ping felt a sudden, deepening chill in the depths of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness. Perhaps it was just his imagination, but it was as if some unknown presence had fixed its gaze upon him, and a cold dread blossomed in his heart.
The Saint Emperor’s expression grew grave as he scanned his surroundings, but he found no trace of a hidden observer.
His gaze returned to the husk that was once Fang Dingge of the Great Dao Sect. "It's already in this state," Li Ping asked. "Can it truly come back to life?"
Of course, he wasn't asking about Fang Dingge, but about the True Immortal whose body had become the Gloomy Sea of Darkness and whose consciousness had manifested as the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Mo Rubin, also studying the corpse nearby, answered softly, "Let me tell you a story."
"At the Nine Refinements Temple, we once worshipped a stone statue of our patriarch, said to have been carved by the founding master, Miao Fa himself."
"For thousands of years, the statue received offerings. Whenever a disciple faced a dilemma in their cultivation, a sincere prayer to it would almost always be answered from the great beyond. Thus, for all those years, the incense never ceased to burn."
Mo Rubin paused at the crucial moment.
After waiting a while and receiving no prompting from the Saint Emperor, he held his breath for a second before continuing, "The scattered fragments of the patriarch's statue silently reassembled. They drew near the man undergoing the tribulation and, catching him off guard, swallowed him back into the stone!"
"This time, no matter how much the figure struggled, he could not escape the statue's embrace. And so, the statue, along with the figure trapped inside, ascended into the void and vanished!"
Hearing this rather fantastic tale, Li Ping couldn't help but frown slightly.
Mo Rubin asked, "So, guess which of the two who ascended together was the patriarch of our Nine Refinements Temple?"
Li Ping mulled it over for a moment before answering, "The figure inside the statue had to face the ascension tribulation. It should be him, right? He failed to ascend in his lifetime, so he used the statue to receive offerings from his disciples, accumulating power for thousands of years in another attempt to ascend..."
"Wrong!" Mo Rubin declared with a faint smile.
"There are clear records that the patriarch of the Nine Refinements Temple, Master Miao Fa, ascended to immortality in full view of everyone. However, a secret known only to the successive masters of the temple is that Master Miao Fa perished for some unknown reason in the second year after entering the Immortal World!"
Li Ping was taken aback.
Mo Rubin, thoroughly satisfied, continued, "But that statue, which he carved with his own hands, held a contingency plan he had left behind. Even if his soul was utterly destroyed in the upper realm, he could be reborn through it!"
Li Ping frowned again. "Then who was the figure inside the statue?"
Mo Rubin chuckled. "He was the third sect master of the Nine Refinements Temple. The man refused to follow the patriarch's teachings and tried to establish his own rules. After a bitter internal struggle, he was severely wounded and defeated, disappearing without a trace. Who would have thought he'd been hiding inside the patriarch's statue all along, even managing to cultivate all the way to the brink of ascension."
"But in the end, he had only paved the way for another."
"Master Miao Fa had only been an immortal for a year; he had no deep foundation to speak of, yet he could be reborn through a statue. Imagine what a True Immortal is capable of."
"Just look at this Gloomy Sea of Darkness, and you can imagine how powerful He was in life. To put it bluntly, you can't use the perspective of a cultivator to fathom the methods of an Immortal. The difference is as vast as heaven and earth!" Mo Rubin concluded, speaking with a surge of emotion, perhaps because their conversation had helped to stabilize his mood.
Li Ping remained silent.
He suspected there were still inconsistencies in the story about Master Miao Fa's rebirth and the conflict with the third sect master.
But these were ancient secrets, and now, deep within a perilous place, was not the time to investigate them further.
"Should we continue deeper? The way Fang Dingge died so horribly... it doesn't look like the work of an ordinary cultivator," Li Ping said, changing the subject.
"Let's go in and see. If the True Immortal has already been reborn, He certainly wouldn't still be hanging around here after all these years," Mo Rubin said, bypassing Fang Dingge's remains and continuing his descent into the darkness.
They passed through three layers of array checkpoints, some belonging to the original Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array, others added by later visitors.
Through their combined efforts, Li Ping and Mo Rubin spent some time before finally reaching the control hub of the Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array.
Along the way, they found no trace of the other four fallen Longevity cultivators.
The control hub, despite being situated in the deepest part of the entire gloomy expanse, felt like a transparent observation deck.
Through the formation's restrictive barriers, which materialized around them like panoramic glass, Li Ping and Mo Rubin were able to see the Gloomy Sea of Darkness in its entirety.
Even magnified countless times, they could still make out the sea's disturbingly human-like silhouette.
It was clearly not Mo Rubin's first time here. He wasn't distracted by the magnificent sight before him, but instead walked directly to the center of the observation deck.
His expression shifted slightly.
"I have good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?" Mo Rubin asked.
After a moment of silence, Li Ping replied, "Let's have the good news first."
"The good news is, the fallen True Immortal has not been reborn through these remains," Mo Rubin said in a somber tone.
"And the bad news?"
Mo Rubin gave a cold laugh. "Come and see for yourself."
Li Ping walked slowly to where Mo Rubin stood.
The scene before him abruptly changed. The high observation deck seemed to plummet in an instant.
The view of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness below rushed toward them, expanding rapidly.
It flooded his vision, penetrating deep into his soul.
Boom!
His surroundings transformed. It seemed they had left the Gloomy Sea of Darkness and arrived in a completely new, unknown place.
"Don't move."
Mo Rubin's voice echoed in his mind, and Li Ping felt a flicker of reassurance as he observed his new environment.
He saw them—the other four fallen Longevity cultivators.
They were frozen in the final posture of their lives. Unlike Fang Dingge, however, their faces were shrouded in a layer of gray, their features no longer discernible.
One could only faintly see that in life, they had desperately tried to resist the terrifying power that consumed them.
Li Ping searched for the culprit responsible for the demise of these five Longevity experts.
Gray, vine-like substances extending from beneath the feet of the four cultivators, creeping and entangling together, caught his attention.
As Li Ping observed them, he could tell these gray vines possessed absolutely no life force; they were dead things, pure agglomerations of energy.
Yet, for some reason, when he looked at them, he felt as if he were being watched by a venomous snake.
"What is this?" Having no qualms about asking when he didn't know, Li Ping voiced his question.
"This is the will to survive. The will to survive of the True Immortal's remains."
It took a long moment before Mo Rubin slowly answered his question.
"The will to survive?" Li Ping carefully considered the meaning of those words.
"A True Immortal cannot be measured by ordinary standards. Back when Big Brother Xuanyuan was modifying the True Immortal's remains, he had this very concern. To prevent it from resurrecting, he put numerous measures in place. But who would have thought..."
Although Li Ping couldn't see Mo Rubin's figure, he could sense him staring intently at the gray "will to survive" that permeated the area.
"Logically speaking, the True Immortal's remains, having already become the Gloomy Sea of Darkness, should not be able to generate such a strong will to survive."
Hearing this, Li Ping grew thoughtful. "Unless someone deliberately provoked it."
"Exactly. And this person is no simple character," Mo Rubin commented.
"First, to be able to bypass the restrictions left by Big Brother Xuanyuan is no simple feat. Second, to be able to stir the will of the True Immortal's remains is also no simple feat. Third, to be able to retreat unscathed after provoking this will to survive... remarkable." Mo Rubin praised, his tone devoid of any actual admiration.
"Don't underestimate these things. Even the two of us would likely not escape death if we were targeted by them. We would end up just like these five empty shells."
Li Ping frowned slightly. He still had a degree of confidence in his own strength.
Mo Rubin didn't argue with him, but continued his quiet explanation, "For someone already dead, to have their will to survive reignited... it's like grasping at the last straw. The power that erupts in that instant..."
"It instinctively devours all life it can touch, converting it into nourishment for its resurrection. Only someone with Big Brother Xuanyuan's strength could barely resist it. You and I might seem strong, but we are still far from that level."
Li Ping was silent.
Mo Rubin went on, "Fortunately, the one who instigated this didn't destroy Xuanyuan's arrangements. After this 'will to survive' drained these four Longevity cultivators, it couldn't find any other targets to absorb and fell dormant once more."
"If it had been allowed to escape the Gloomy Sea of Darkness..."
"I'm afraid the entire Xuanhuang Realm would have become its meal."
Li Ping's expression immediately turned solemn.
"But then again, Big Brother Xuanyuan's methods aren't so easily broken. The instigator, the one you call the Dharma Spreader, didn't directly destroy the restrictions on the Gloomy Sea of Darkness. He didn't even alter them. Instead, he added his own measures."
"However... possessing the control artifact, he knows the restrictions here like the back of his hand, allowing him to come and go as he pleases." Mo Rubin's coalesced aura suddenly became unstable, as if he had realized something.
"Let's get to work," Mo Rubin said, his voice suddenly calm again, just as Li Ping worried he might descend into madness. "I'll send the information to your mind."
A flood of information poured into Li Ping's mind.
"This is... the Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array?" Li Ping recognized its secrets at a glance.
"Strictly speaking, it's a version modified by Big Brother Xuanyuan. The original version was created by a great demonic cultivator. Heh, that one was a truly peerless fiend. He came from a humble background and lacked innate talent for cultivation; reaching Golden Core was his limit. But he still managed to create this vicious array. Once it encompassed a place, everything within would be refined into the purest energy."
"He started with small mortal worlds, moving from the weak to the strong, exterminating the inhabitants of countless worlds before finally ascending to the Immortal World. The first thing he did upon arriving was to improve the array, intending to repeat his old tricks. Hmph, even a character like that was swatted down like a fly during the calamity in the Immortal World. All the treasures he had accumulated his whole life ended up with Big Brother Xuanyuan. Not that Xuanyuan cared much for his legacy..." Mo Rubin said with a cold smile.
"Such a violent and cruel man could achieve immortality? Was the tribulation in his world different from the one in the Xuanhuang Realm?" Li Ping asked with a frown.
In Li Ping's experience, fiends like that in the Xuanhuang Realm would face a heavenly tribulation dozens of times more difficult than usual. It was virtually impossible to succeed. Hence his question.
"No matter how strong the heavenly tribulation is, it has its limits in the lower realms. You just have to be stronger than it. Besides, good and evil... there's no absolute definition..."
Li Ping could clearly sense that as Mo Rubin spoke, he was again sinking into a state of confusion.
"What do you need me to do?" Li Ping asked, opportunely redirecting Mo Rubin's attention.
"Your skill in formations should be not much weaker than Big Brother Xuanyuan's. The control hub of this Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array must not be tampered with rashly. If possible, add another layer of reinforcement to the array, push this place deeper into the Gloomy Sea of Darkness. Then, sever the connection between the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's control artifact and the grand array," Mo Rubin replied, having regained his composure.
Li Ping nodded. He began observing the details of the surrounding array, comparing them with the diagram of the Ascension Array that had appeared in his mind.
"As expected of the Xuantian King. Truly the most brilliantly talented individual in the Xuanhuang Realm for the past ten thousand years."
As a fellow formation master, upon sensing the exquisite ingenuity of the array here, Li Ping couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship with its creator.
The source power essence from the You Clan's prayers, after being absorbed and converted by the Gloomy Sea of Darkness—that is, the True Immortal's remains—was condensed deep within the array.
It appeared to be accumulating without any discernible pattern, but Li Ping could faintly see that through some method, all this power, capable of contending with a True Immortal, could be unleashed in an instant.
It was meant to propel the Xuanhuang Realm away, to escape the grasp of the True Immortal in the Immortal Ruins.
"To use a mortal array to command the power of a True Immortal... remarkable."
Li Ping found no trace of the Xuanhuang Realm's original grand array within the formations of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness. This array must have been built solely by the Xuantian King. Even if it was against a fallen True Immortal, it was still a testament to Xuanyuan Hong's transcendent skill in formations.
"Reinforcing the array will require some auxiliary materials..." Li Ping said pensively after a period of observation.
"I have them here," Mo Rubin stated immediately.
As if he had prepared for this long ago, once they returned to the control hub from the lair of the "will to survive", he took out a pile of materials.
Li Ping did a quick inventory; they were all precisely what was needed to reinforce the array.
"Don't look at me like that. I'm the one who lent you your face."
"As a Law King of the Xuantian Sect, even if I had to flee in a hurry, it's perfectly normal for me to carry enough resources for a comeback, isn't it?"
"Speaking of which, why are you also faceless? Could you have some connection to the True Immortal who saved Big Brother Xuanyuan back then? I'm a timid person, don't you go scaring me..."
Li Ping ignored Mo Rubin's delirious chatter and began to concentrate on setting up the array.
With the Xuantian King's work as a blueprint, Li Ping only needed to follow the established pattern. For him, it was not a difficult task.
As the formation slowly took shape, the "observation deck" they were on seemed to rise even higher.
Mo Rubin nodded with great satisfaction. After Li Ping finished, he took out another pile of materials.
"Go deeper. Completely suppress the True Immortal's 'will to survive' in the depths of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness."
Li Ping agreed with this sentiment. Without complaint, he continued his work.
By the time the materials were exhausted, the view of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness had shrunk to half its original size.
"This should be safe enough. As long as no one maliciously disturbs it," Mo Rubin said softly, standing beside Li Ping and looking down at the sea below.
"The safety of the Xuanhuang Realm is at stake. It's better to be overly cautious. I will set up an additional protective array here." This was not a request for Mo Rubin's opinion, but a statement of his decision.
Mo Rubin shrugged. "Suit yourself. After all these years, no one's come to this godforsaken place besides us. Who are you setting up an array to defend against? If that will to survive truly breaks free, your little array won't be nearly enough to stop it."
Li Ping, however, paid no mind to Mo Rubin's mockery. With utmost seriousness, he added the strongest sealing array he could currently create.
"Alright, next up is to cut off the hand the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance has extended," Mo Rubin urged after Li Ping was done.
"The amount of dark power being drawn is limited for now. But if the Gloomy Sea of Darkness shrinks to a certain point, the 'will to survive' might sense the vibrant Xuanhuang Realm outside. I dare not imagine what that scene would look like."
While reinforcing the array, Li Ping had already noticed two thin, thread-like connections extending from the control hub, intermittently appearing and disappearing.
He didn't know where they led.
"Two control artifacts. Shall I sever the connection to both?" Li Ping looked at Mo Rubin.
"The other one... he's most likely dead already. Sever it," Mo Rubin said after a brief silence, nodding.
Li Ping then proceeded to modify the array's control hub.
It went very smoothly. The Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array let out a soft hum and then seemed to reboot.
It dimmed for a moment before brightening again.
Standing in the control hub, Li Ping sensed the breach that the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had torn open in the Gloomy Sea of Darkness.
Boom! Boom!
Clouds of energy rolled, stirring up formless waves that swept up the free-floating "clouds" within the Gloomy Sea, growing larger and larger. By the time they reached the ruptured wound, they had become a colossal, sky-blotting wave.
It crashed down violently upon the Alliance's device.
Dozens of diligent Immortal Alliance cultivators, who were supervising the extraction of the dark power, were silently engulfed.
They vanished from the world.
Amidst the violent tremors, the breach began to close.
Faced with this sudden upheaval, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was unwilling to give up. In the rapidly closing fissure, the eye-shaped control artifact reappeared.
The golden abacus flickered rapidly, attempting to turn the tide.
This time, however, it had no effect. It could only watch helplessly as the tear in the Gloomy Sea of Darkness healed itself.
The dust settled.
Li Ping and Mo Rubin watched the scene, a shared silence between them.
Although it had taken considerable effort, they had finally achieved their goal of cutting off the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's extraction of dark power. Moreover, they had learned many secrets about the ancient Xuantian Sect.
A sense of peace settled over Li Ping's heart. He could feel his connection with the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm growing ever stronger.
However, he knew full well that his ability to manipulate the Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array so easily was not only due to his own considerable skill in formations, but also largely thanks to Mo Rubin's help.
Without the array diagrams he provided, breaking the restrictions left by the Xuantian King would have taken far more than a day or two.
More importantly, it was the demonic mask that Mo Rubin had split off and attached to his face.
It was because of this mask that he could move unimpeded in the deepest parts of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness. It was why, even when altering the key structure of the array, he was not attacked or repelled by the grand formation.
In a sense, Mo Rubin's mask held a higher authority than the two eye-shaped control artifacts.
"Among the twelve Law Kings of the Xuantian Sect back then, where did your strength rank?" Li Ping suddenly asked.
Mo Rubin was startled.
Then he sneered, "To be honest with you, among the twelve, my strength was considered the weakest. Though you might be able to barely defeat me, you wouldn't stand a chance against the others."
Li Ping naturally didn't believe him.
Mo Rubin snorted coldly. "In our era, geniuses were everywhere. Unparalleled prodigies were as common as fish in a river. It was, without a doubt, a golden age for cultivation!"
"If the path to immortality hadn't been suddenly severed, it wouldn't have been impossible for a large group of cultivators to ascend in a short period of time."
Li Ping was silent.
In the records of the Creation Stone Slab, all information regarding those who ascended to immortality had been erased, so he had no way of verifying the truth of Mo Rubin's words.
However, judging from the various exploits of the twelve Law Kings before they joined the Xuantian Sect, Mo Rubin's words, while perhaps exaggerated, were likely rooted in some fact.
"If you were all so powerful, how did the Ten Great Immortal Sects win back then?"
"Even without the Xuantian King, it would have been difficult for the Ten Great Immortal Sects to defeat the twelve of you united, wouldn't it?" Li Ping asked the question that had been weighing on his mind for a long time.
"Hmph," Mo Rubin simply snorted.
After a long silence, he finally spoke, his words vague, "A loss is a loss, I won't deny it. The people from the Ten Great Immortal Sects weren't just freeloaders."
"And besides..."
Mo Rubin's tone suddenly turned chillingly cold.
"Someone was playing a long game and suddenly switched sides. Without identifying the mole, none of us could trust anyone. Add to that Big Brother Xuanyuan's mysterious disappearance..."
"Each of them claimed their talent was no less than Xuanyuan Hong's, and that it was only bad luck they hadn't ascended in time. But when the real crisis came, they realized that without Xuanyuan to lead them, they were nothing but a disorganized rabble."
"The Ten Great Immortal Sects, on the other hand, fought with their lives on the line, because they knew that if they failed, death awaited them."
"..."
Mo Rubin suddenly burst into laughter. "But I've made my peace with it now. As they say, what goes around, comes around. Weren't the Ten Great Immortal Sects then destroyed by this... Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance? Hahahaha! Good riddance!"
"Well done, Xuanhuang Realm!"
Mo Rubin patted Li Ping on the shoulder in praise.
"Actually, the core figures of the Ten Great Immortal Sects are likely still alive and well," Li Ping suddenly said.
"They've just withdrawn from the world, hiding from sight."
Mo Rubin's hand, gripping Li Ping's shoulder, tightened fiercely.
"Hmph, hm-hm-hm..." Upon hearing this sudden news, Mo Rubin, instead of flying into a rage, gradually broke into unrestrained laughter.
"So they're not dead? Even better."
"This way, I can take my revenge with my own hands. After all these years, they can't possibly be as united as they were back then."
Mo Rubin moved away from Li Ping's side, his figure suddenly growing much darker.
"It's time to go."
"I was originally going to look for Big Brother Xuanyuan, but by a strange twist of fate, I ended up here first. But that's fine. At least I've eliminated one wrong answer."
Li Ping felt the demonic mask on his blank face about to detach.
The surrounding darkness began to invade, irrepressible.
Whispers from the depths of his soul arose, corroding his consciousness.
Knowing this was no place to linger, Li Ping followed Mo Rubin, returning from the deepest part of the Gloomy Sea of Darkness.
"By the way, where was your original destination? To require the use of that immortal artifact command flag?" Li Ping asked.
Mo Rubin remained silent.
As they passed the ethereal form of the Great Dao Sect's master, Fang Dingge, he suddenly said to Li Ping, "Go search his body. You might find some treasures."
Li Ping stared at Mo Rubin.
Mo Rubin rolled his eyes at Li Ping. "This man was able to resist the devouring will to survive and escape all the way here before dying. That's proof of his strength. An expert's body is bound to have good things on it. That's what Big Brother Xuanyuan taught me."
"Besides, if he has any artifacts on him that could survive the corrosion of a True Immortal's will to survive, they must be incredible treasures. Are you sure you don't want to try?" Mo Rubin tempted.
Li Ping looked again, but ultimately shook his head slightly.
"The dead are gone. Let him rest in peace. The world is full of treasures; must one covet them all? Unchecked greed clouds the mind and invites disaster."
"I called you a fool, and you really are a fool," Mo Rubin sneered.
However, he didn't search Fang Dingge's body either, simply letting it lie peacefully where it was.
After some travel, the two returned to where they started.
The white jade flagpole was still planted there.
But eroded by the dark power, the scope of its radiant light had shrunk by a full circle compared to before.
"As expected of a reforged, second-hand piece of junk. Truly useless," Mo Rubin criticized without reservation.
"Now that you've interfered, I'll have to find the other arrangements I left back then. Who knows if they still exist after all these years. If not, I'll be back to trouble you!" Mo Rubin said coldly, looking at Li Ping.
Li Ping, in turn, summoned the You Clan members and reopened the gateway to the outside world.
"I can help you search for the Xuantian King."
"I need his help," Li Ping said with great sincerity.
Mo Rubin was the first to fly into the passage, laughing loudly as he went. "You don't really think that just because we took a trip through the Gloomy Sea of Darkness together, I'd trust you completely, do you?"
"Those other eleven brothers and sisters of mine back then, which one of them didn't I go through life and death with?"
"Experience has taught me that you can't trust anyone!"
Mo Rubin's icy voice gradually faded.
By the time Li Ping returned to Jiushan Province, there was no longer any trace of Mo Rubin.
The Saint Emperor, however, did not give chase.
This Law King of the Xuantian Sect was not his enemy.
(End of Chapter)
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