Chapter 1299: The Immortal Descends, All Things Return to Void
Chapter 1299: The Immortal Descends, All Things Return to Void
Ages had passed since the Immortal Road was severed, and in all that time, the lands of the Xuanhuang Realm had not known the touch of immortal spiritual energy.
Yet now, as sacred wisps of this energy rose from the very earth, spiraling toward the heavens, they brought no blessings to the Xuanhuang Realm.
Instead, they unleashed a catastrophe of apocalyptic proportions.
The avarice of cultivators ignited, a hundred times more ferocious than the frenzy for a Spirit of Heaven and Earth. They would abandon everything to pursue and possess it. Anyone who dared to stand in their way became a mortal enemy, fit only for slaughter. This madness spared no one—not the soldiers of the Great Qi, not the cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance. Status, rank, and cultivation level mattered not at all.
What had been a war between the Great Qi Sage Dynasty and the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance devolved into a chaotic, all-consuming free-for-all as every cultivator turned on one another.
With every breath, thousands of cultivators perished.
The sky became a canvas of unending omens, a thick, swirling tapestry of bizarre clouds layered one upon the other.
Not even the terror of the Dharma Spreader's arrival could scatter them.
One was the Great Qi Forbidden Army. The other was the Azure Profound Army, guardians of the Abyss of Roars.
What they had in common was their cultivation of the [Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra].
The Great Qi Forbidden Army had been taught the technique personally by the Sage Emperor.
The Azure Profound Army, in turn, had learned it from the Sacred Embryo before he departed the Xuanhuang Realm.
As the fortunate few, they watched the tragedy unfolding across the Xuanhuang Realm, their faces pale and their bodies trembling. Even with the Immortal Heart Mantra automatically working to preserve their lucidity, they could not erase the primal fear gripping their hearts.
And it was not just the cultivators.
Birds in the sky, beasts on the ground, trees, flowers, even the very mountains and rivers—everything in the Xuanhuang Realm began to spiral out of control.
Beasts, like men, pursued the immortal energy with reckless abandon. They either succeeded, only to explode from the overwhelming power, or were torn apart in the vicious struggle for it.
The flora could not give chase, but a fortunate few were blessed by wisps of immortal energy descending from the heavens, a gift received without effort. Like all other life, most plants disintegrated into dust upon contact. A small number, however, survived the baptism of this magnificent power. One might have thought an immortal plant would be born in the Xuanhuang Realm, but it was not to be. Before long, frenzied cultivators, drawn by its aura, descended upon it. Though the mutated plant had rapidly evolved and developed defenses, it could not withstand their suicidal onslaught. Soon, it was torn apart and devoured.
And those who managed to consume a piece of the plant soon followed its fate, their bodies erupting in a spray of blood and gore before turning to dust.
The plant's essence merely filtered the energy, granting them a few more moments to savor its exquisite wonder. They perished in a state of euphoric enlightenment.
If anything in the entire Xuanhuang Realm could truly benefit from the immortal energy spreading so wantonly across the land...
...it was the realm itself.
Like a land long parched, it drank in the nourishment of a heavenly deluge.
The Xuanhuang Realm was shrouded in a fantastical, hazy glow.
The earth rumbled. Mountain ranges buckled and soared, plains stretched and widened. A million years of geologic change unfolded in the blink of an eye.
The sky, which had lowered to support the Great Qi Sage Emperor, now slowly ascended to its former height, and then rose even higher, becoming more vast and distant.
The Xuanhuang Realm was growing, the change visible to the naked eye.
A strange rhythm pulsed through the land. The white mist barriers separating the provinces began to dim, squeezed by the immense pressure of the realm's spontaneous growth.
Many barriers shattered with a thunderous clap, their power dissolving back into the world as nourishment.
The effect of this growth was a dramatic increase in the realm's power.
The celestial omens, piled high from the deaths of countless cultivators, were now being rapidly "digested" by the heavens.
...
Faced with this change, unprecedented in the annals of the Xuanhuang Realm, the three powers that had arrived from the star sea reacted in vastly different ways.
The Sage Emperor watched the cataclysm, momentarily stunned.
He could feel the bond he had forged with the Xuanhuang Realm through his many deeds weakening as the world expanded. It felt like drifting apart from a childhood friend, the intimacy fading with age and distance.
A pang of loss struck his heart, but the Sage Emperor quickly regained his focus. He looked down at his Great Qi soldiers still locked in senseless slaughter. With a single thought, he transmitted the [Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra] to them all. Few among the frenzied would have the clarity to cultivate it, but if he could save even one, it was worth it.
The Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate watched the transformation unfold, his expression complex.
It was impossible to know his thoughts, but his actions were clear: he kept a tight watch on the restless Mysterious Immortal Boat hovering nearby.
From the deck of the Mysterious Immortal Boat, the voices of its elders carried through the void.
"What a blasphemous waste! A blasphemy! Immortal spiritual energy... so rare in the Star Sea! How can it be squandered on these mortals?"
"If I could obtain but a single wisp, I might be able to unleash the full power of the True Immortal Script..."
"Dharma Spreader, stand aside! Let the Mysterious Immortal Boat gather some of this energy, and we can wipe the slate clean between us!"
Gan Jingda, managing to restrain his excitement, declared in a low voice.
The Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate stood tall, his high crown piercing the void, his figure as immovable as a mountain. "Your Mysterious Immortal Boat..." he began.
"...will stay right here and watch."
"You're not going anywhere."
Gan Jingda snorted, his anger flaring. "Such arrogance! Obstruct us further, and don't blame the Mysterious Immortal Boat for what happens next!"
"The Xuanhuang Realm may be the last bastion of purity in this Star Sea, that's true... but this immortal energy is far more important!"
"Precisely! Jingda, enough talk with this old relic! That's immortal energy we're talking about! If we could control enough of it, we might even be able to cross the High Wall! We wouldn't have to rot in this Darkest Star Sea any longer!"
Listening to the cacophony from the Mysterious Immortal Boat, which sounded like a common marketplace, the Dharma Spreader's face remained impassive, though a flicker of mockery danced in his eyes.
Hidden beneath the world's deafening roar, silent footsteps echoed from behind the Mysterious Immortal Boat.
Without warning, a shadow latched onto the vessel.
An instant later...
The entire ship vanished into thin air.
It was as if it had never been there at all.
The footsteps faded, leaving behind only a faint, frost-like aura of death.
The Sage Emperor's pupils constricted.
"What was that?!"
The shadow had come and gone in a flash.
It had moved so fast that not only had it caught the Mysterious Immortal Boat completely off guard, but even the Sage Emperor hadn't gotten a clear look.
He had only sensed an aura of death so thick it was almost tangible.
The Sage Emperor turned to the Dharma Spreader.
Clearly, the Dharma Spreader had anticipated the shadow's appearance. He might have even orchestrated the attack.
"I'm not powerful enough to make that thing obey my commands," the Dharma Spreader said, his gaze fixed on the changes in the Xuanhuang Realm. "I merely gave It a small suggestion."
"And to deal with the likes of the Mysterious Immortal Boat, It is the perfect tool."
The Dharma Spreader's attention remained locked on the metamorphosis of the Xuanhuang Realm, showing little interest in the mysterious shadow or the fate of the immortal boat.
Realizing he would get no answers, the Sage Emperor did not press the matter. Instead, he too turned his gaze back to the mortal world below.
The world's upheaval continued.
If the realm's total power before the energy's release could be quantified as "1," then in less than half a day, it had swelled to nearly "19."
This wasn't just the raw power of the immortal energy; it was acting as a catalyst, enabling the Xuanhuang Realm to truly digest and integrate the world origins it had previously swallowed.
Where before it had been a crude stitching of flesh, now it was true assimilation.
The Xuanhuang Realm was now like a cultivator absorbing the spiritual qi from a spirit stone, making the power its own.
The efficiency was immeasurably greater.
Even the latent, hidden remnants of world power deep within the annexed realms were now being roused by the immortal energy, located, and consumed.
All became sustenance for the growing Xuanhuang Realm.
"Hehehe..." A low chuckle escaped the Dharma Spreader. "So that's how it is."
Sensing an aura approaching rapidly from the star sea, he let out a laugh of sudden understanding.
The laughter died on his lips. His expression changed in an instant as he turned to the Sage Emperor.
"Come," he commanded. "Let's fight again!"
His face a blank mask, he unleashed another [Object in Palm] technique, the colossal hand descending upon the Sage Emperor.
Without the support of the Xuanhuang Realm, he could not manifest the [Eternal Xuanhuang Realm]. But having faced this attack before, he was prepared. The essence of his golden source power erupted, forming colossal pillars that shot up to meet the descending hand, holding it fast.
The moment they collided, the Sage Emperor realized the Dharma Spreader wasn't using his full strength.
The power behind this [Object in Palm] was a pale imitation of the one he had faced in the void.
He saw the Dharma Spreader trap him and then immediately try to depart, as if desperate to find something—or someone—to halt the world's transformation.
In that instant, the Sage Emperor understood.
It seemed unbelievable, but he didn't question it. He unleashed his full power, shattering the palm's grip.
"The Sacred Heart is eternal!" he chanted. "The Sacred Favor endures!"
A brilliant column of light shot down from the Great Qi's pocket dimension.
This was the source power essence stored in the Sacred Heart Halls across his empire, one of his final reserves.
Using it would severely weaken him, but he did not hesitate for a second.
The immortal energy continued to spread, driving the fusion of worlds with the Xuanhuang Realm at its core.
Events were finally turning in the realm's favor.
"As long as I can keep the Dharma Spreader occupied..."
"My mission will be complete," he thought. "Even if the path was a winding one."
With renewed purpose, the Sage Emperor engaged the Dharma Spreader once more.
Neither wanted to destroy the Xuanhuang Realm, so they reined in their true power.
And the transformed realm, now far more resilient, could endure the shockwaves of their battle.
For a time, the fight between the Dharma Spreader and the Sage Emperor reached another stalemate.
...
On the lands of Xuanhuang, countless cultivators were still slaughtering each other for a taste of immortal energy.
Tongyan Province.
For some unknown reason, the immortal spiritual energy that gathered here seemed denser than in other provinces.
Thus, the fighting here was the most brutal.
Another fierce battle for a wisp of energy ended as they all did: with a Soul Transformation cultivator turning to ash in a moment of pure bliss.
So many cultivators had already died that the competition was no longer as intense as it had been at the start.
A rare lull in the fighting descended.
Before the next wave of cultivators arrived, a small figure bathed in golden light appeared silently.
The golden figure stared at the wisp of immortal energy, a flash of greed in its eyes.
But this greed was different from the madness that possessed the cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Just as the small figure was about to make a move, it sensed something and spun around.
A scruffy-looking cultivator with a dark complexion and a thick beard was trying to sneak up on it.
In his hands, he held a net, apparently intending to capture both the figure and the immortal energy in one fell swoop.
Caught in the act, the dark-faced man quickly hid the net and laughed awkwardly.
"You court death..." A murderous glint appeared in the golden figure's eyes.
The man's cultivation was so pitifully low that a single slap would have been enough to kill him. How dare he harbor designs on it...
It was about to strike when a sudden sense of crisis washed over it.
Without a moment's hesitation, it abandoned the immortal energy it was about to claim and transformed into a streak of light, vanishing in an instant.
Watching the golden figure disappear in the blink of an eye, Jiao Xiuyuan slapped his thigh in frustration.
"Damn it! I tracked it for so long, and it still got away!"
His expression shifted, but in the end, he decided against giving chase.
Instead, he turned his solemn gaze to the wisp of immortal energy that was beginning to dissipate into the world.
Jiao Xiuyuan's eyes held a hint of greed for this treasure, so rare in the star sea, but only a hint.
What he felt most was an unprecedented caution.
He extended his hand, and a small sapling sprouted from his palm.
The sapling quickly grew into a small tree, its lush green leaves rustling in the wind.
He carefully guided the wisp of immortal energy into the tree, allowing it to be slowly absorbed.
Jiao Xiuyuan closed his eyes, sensing it carefully.
After a short while, he opened them again.
"It is indeed immortal spiritual energy," he murmured, a sharp light in his eyes, quickly followed by a flood of confusion.
"This is too strange. Such a vast amount of immortal energy could be used for so many things."
"Why is it being wasted like this?"
The more he thought about it, the more uneasy he became.
"And..."
Jiao Xiuyuan glanced up at the sky.
For a fleeting moment, he thought he had sensed a familiar aura. It was gone now.
"Was I imagining things?"
"It can't be. If it were them, they'd be fighting madly over this immortal energy right now."
Jiao Xiuyuan's brow furrowed. Sensing someone approaching, he vanished.
...
Chaos reigned in the headquarters of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
A short while ago, due to the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate's return to the Xuanhuang Realm, all the Dharma Transmitters, Mirror Holders, and even the Illusionary Truth Sage lineage had temporarily departed to pay their respects.
During their absence, a world-shaking explosion had occurred in the Museum of Divine Treasures.
Not only were many of the museum's artifacts damaged, but the entire Alliance headquarters was rocked by the violent tremor.
Before the surviving Alliance cultivators could even begin to investigate the cause of the disaster, they discovered to their horror that the headquarters had been cut off from the outside world.
Unsure of what had happened, panic and fear spread through the Alliance.
However, the chaos had not yet reached the Law Enforcement Hall, within the space of the Deduction Jade.
The successive tremors had unsettled the three Dao Integration guardians.
Especially "Sun Ang."
His aura was unstable, his face was flushed, and beads of sweat constantly dripped from his forehead.
"Fellow Daoist Sun, are you alright?"
The three had worked together for a long time and had grown close.
Zhang Xu couldn't help but ask.
While he also felt a slight sense of dread, it was nothing compared to Sun Ang's distress.
"He's still too young, after all," Zhang Xu thought to himself.
"Something feels... wrong," Sun Ang, who was Li Fan's true body, said, looking somewhat unnerved.
"I just tried to contact Elder Xu, but there was no response."
Hua Yueye offered some comfort. "Brother Sun, don't overthink it. No matter what happens, nothing can go wrong within the Alliance headquarters."
Zhang Xu also chimed in with a frown. "Actually, my predecessor experienced a similar situation. It was about five hundred years ago. The space shook just like this, and contact with the outside was lost. But everything turned out fine in the end."
"I hope so," Li Fan said, wiping the cold sweat from his brow.
An eerie silence fell once more over the Deduction Jade's space.
The occasional violent tremor struck at the three cultivators' nerves.
Li Fan's mind sank deep within himself, ignoring even the calls of the Deduction Jade.
He was not as distressed as he appeared.
In fact, Li Fan had never felt better.
"Immortal spiritual energy... so this is immortal spiritual energy..."
In his sea of consciousness, the Final Dissociation Disc was radiating an unprecedentedly brilliant light.
Having finally witnessed the legendary immortal spiritual energy, the last piece of the puzzle for deducing an immortal-grade grand array had fallen into place.
In the past, although he had obtained the formation diagrams for three immortal-grade arrays through various fortunate encounters, without immortal spiritual energy, they were nothing more than castles in the sky, theories on paper.
The arrays were profound, but they remained within the limits of the mortal world.
But now, things were completely different!
Knowing the nature of immortal spiritual energy, the Final Dissociation Disc, supplemented with this new data, was truly on the verge of breaking the mortal limits.
It now possessed the ability to truly deduce and deploy an [Immortal Array].
Although it would require guiding the immortal spiritual energy, leveraging the Xuanhuang Realm's ancient world-protecting array and the newly appointed Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate made Li Fan's plan to activate an immortal array a distinct possibility.
The array's name: [The Immortal Descends, All Things Return to Void]!
He had to admit, this life had presented many variables that had caught him off guard.
This included, but was not limited to, the loss of control over his Sage Emperor clone and his clone's subsequent cooperation with the Dharma Spreader.
"Once a being reaches a certain level of power, it becomes impossible to control them like a chess piece."
Fortunately, the numerous backup plans he had laid had prevented the situation from spiraling completely out of control, saving him from having to hastily use [Truth] after having laid his plans so far into this life.
The sudden arrival of the Mysterious Immortal Boat was, of course, largely thanks to Li Fan's Sacred Embryo clone.
To successfully persuade the Mysterious Immortal Boat to launch an expedition to the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan had not only collected the boat's ancient records to argue that a complete True Immortal Script might exist within the Immortal Ruins, but he had also secretly controlled a cultivator to severely wound the boat's Divine Tree.
With the Divine Tree damaged and their foundation for survival compromised, the entire Mysterious Immortal Boat had no choice but to unanimously agree to an early expedition to the Xuanhuang Realm.
Although the boat's council of elders suspected that someone had been pulling strings behind the scenes, the fact remained that the Divine Tree was severely injured.
The cultivator responsible had self-destructed, leaving no evidence behind.
To continue surviving in this Darkest Star Sea, coming to the Xuanhuang Realm was their only option.
Upon arriving near the Xuanhuang Realm, the Mysterious Immortal Boat acted with caution, choosing not to invade directly.
Instead, they prepared to first investigate the realm's strength, planning to quietly infiltrate with a portion of their forces.
However, before they could implement their plan, the violent energy fluctuations in the void caught their attention.
It was, of course, the battle between the Dharma Spreader and the Sage Emperor.
The power displayed by the two supreme experts with every move left the crew of the immortal boat grim-faced.
But when they later discovered that the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate was the very thief who had stolen treasures from their boat years ago, and that their own existence seemed to have been detected, the immortal boat was forced to reveal itself.
In the ensuing confrontation with the two supreme beings, the Mysterious Immortal Boat had consumed a nearly complete True Immortal Script.
The Sacred Embryo guessed it was likely the character for [Hate].
It had been personally written by the Great Elder of the Broken Immortal Tower, Zhong Daogong, who had never appeared before the public and was solely dedicated to researching the remnant power of True Immortals.
The Great Elder's strength was unfathomably deep. For this expedition, he had released a total of three nearly complete True Immortal Scripts.
However, after the first script, [Hate], failed to produce the desired effect, the crew of the immortal boat became more cautious.
They began to consider forming alliances.
But their plans were forcibly interrupted by the sudden wave of immortal spiritual energy emanating from the Xuanhuang Realm.
When they arrived and saw true immortal spiritual energy coursing through the world, they felt the dormant True Immortal characters scattered across their own ship stir and come alive.
The people of the immortal boat went completely mad.
Even the Great Elder Zhong Daogong made his first public appearance, his expression entranced as he gazed down at the immortal energy.
"It's pure immortal spiritual aura."
After a moment of observation, Zhong Daogong made his judgment.
"It's useless to ordinary cultivators. But not to us."
"If we guide the immortal energy and infuse it according to the original flow of the True Immortal Scripts..."
Zhong Daogong muttered to himself before reaching a final conclusion: "The power we could unleash would be comparable to a [True Immortal]!"
"If we were to unleash the boat's entire stock at once..."
"We might even be able to leap across the High Wall!"
Zhong Daogong's words quickly unified the opinions of everyone on the immortal boat.
However, just as they were about to force the Dharma Spreader to clear a path, Zhong Daogong roared, "Be careful!"
But it was too late.
One moment, they were in the Xuanhuang Realm, where immortal energy ran rampant.
The next, they found themselves in an unknown location.
Zhong Daogong reacted the fastest, unleashing a character.
An instantaneous silence fell over the entire immortal boat.
The crew broke out in a cold sweat as they stared at the scene outside.
It was as if they were in a pot, the Mysterious Immortal Boat floating on the surface of the water.
Outside the pot, an unseen entity seemed to be stirring the water within.
The water's surface spun ceaselessly, and the Mysterious Immortal Boat drifted aimlessly.
The crew of the immortal boat clearly felt the surrounding temperature drop significantly.
"Everyone, what do we do now?"
After a long silence, Elder Gan tried to communicate via spiritual transmission.
However, the transmission seemed to be audible to the formless entity outside the pot.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
The entity peered down, its gaze fixed on them.
The temperature on the immortal boat plummeted once more.
From that single glance, a tenth of the life on the boat could not bear it and perished instantly.
What terrified the crew even more was what followed.
The bodies of the dead dissolved into faint white lights, passing through the hull of the boat and flying towards the entity outside the pot.
A small sphere condensed in the formless entity's hand.
Inside the sphere, the very crew members who had just died lay peacefully!
The formless entity put the sphere away. It seemed to have noticed the living beings below.
It cast its gaze upon them again.
This time, it even tried to reach out a hand to scoop the immortal boat out of the pot.
A bone-chilling cold seized everyone on the boat.
At the critical moment, Zhong Daogong once again unleashed a True Immortal Script.
The formless entity's movements slowed.
Then, as if forgetting what it was doing, it slowly stopped reaching for the boat.
It merely continued to stir the water in the pot, showing no signs of leaving.
Having learned their lesson, the crew no longer dared to communicate with their divine sense.
Instead, they resorted to the most primitive method of communication, using their hands as brushes to write in the air.
"Elder Zhong, what is that thing outside?"
"Its gaze seems to absorb life force. That one glance caused massive casualties."
"And it doesn't seem to discriminate based on cultivation level; it appeared to be random..."
"How can such a terrifying existence be in the Xuanhuang Realm?!"
...
Fear, mixed with confusion, coalesced within the immortal boat.
Li Fan, however, was gazing outside the vessel.
He had seen that formless entity before, during this lifetime, before he had left the Xuanhuang Realm.
It was the mysterious being he had encountered with Shang Shaojun while exploring the Life and Death Reversal Grand Array.
What he had thought was an entire pocket dimension within the array had turned out to be just one of nine Yin-Yang pearls.
And each pearl contained countless frozen cultivators from a bygone era.
"The Dharma Spreader can actually control this formless entity..."
"It seems he really is connected to the Rebirth Heavenly Venerate."
"This being's aura is ancient. It must have existed since the primeval Xuanhuang Realm."
Seeing this entity again, the Sacred Embryo Li Fan had a completely different understanding.
And Zhong Daogong's subsequent analysis confirmed his suspicions.
"This thing is likely not a living creature."
"There might be a record in the immortal boat's archives that corresponds to it."
Zhong Daogong's fingertips moved rapidly through the air as he explained his theory.
"In the ancient cultivation world, those with close ties to the Upper Realm, in addition to establishing the position of [Great Heavenly Venerate] to communicate with the Immortal World..."
"...would sometimes also set up so-called [Observers] to prevent potential loss of control."
"Observers don't exist in every cultivation world, and they aren't even necessarily living beings or cultivators."
"But without a doubt, they carry out a mission given to them by the Immortal World."
"A mission entirely different from that of the Great Heavenly Venerate."
The auras of the immortal boat's crew grew chaotic.
A creation of the Immortal World was clearly beyond their ability to handle.
It was precisely because they were so adept at wielding the power of the True Immortal Scripts that they understood just how powerful an [Immortal] truly was.
And how could an [Observer], entrusted with a mission by an Immortal, be anything but powerful?
An atmosphere of despair began to spread throughout the Mysterious Immortal Boat.
Fortunately, the next words written by Zhong Daogong gave them a renewed sense of hope.
(End of Chapter)
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