Chapter 1311: Xuanhuang's Initial Recovery
"Carefree Dreamscape." The scenes from the world he’d just endured—of countless demonic cultivators devouring humans—flashed through Sun Erlang’s mind. He simply couldn't reconcile such horrors with the word "carefree."
The trio turned their gaze back to the border of Qiuxi Prefecture. The Demonic Sect World that had once stood there was gone.
In its place, a barrier of white mist now stood, obscuring their view.
"Can we go back now?" Wang Xuanba exclaimed, overjoyed.
But matters were clearly not as simple as he hoped. As the trio from Great Xuan attempted to pass through the wall of white mist and return to their home...
Thud!
What had once been mere essence-devouring mist had now solidified into an impenetrable wall, as unyielding as iron!
Wang Xuanba, who had charged ahead, slammed right into it, leaving him dazed and seeing stars.
"It seems leaving this Carefree Dreamscape won't be easy," Yue Zhenwei remarked, his voice heavy.
They had a feeling that only by completing the trials of all three worlds would they learn what to do next.
...
The experiences of the trio from Great Xuan within the Land of Carefree Joy were transmitted flawlessly into Li Fan's mind through the silver eyes of the Lecture Stage.
"Interesting."
Having lived through more than a hundred lives, Li Fan had witnessed the destruction of the Xuanhuang Realm, the rebirth of the Star Sea, and the collapse of the High Wall.
From the same events, he could perceive far more than his three Golden Core disciples ever could.
"This must be a shallow region of the Land of Carefree Joy. The dreamscape’s construction seems to be based on events from the Xuanhuang Realm—like that giant seaside rock in Shilin Province, or the purple lightning that descended from the heavens to annihilate the demonic beasts. A cultivator's experience and knowledge of the Xuanhuang Realm would certainly be helpful in exploring dreamscapes of this level. So, you pass the trials in these border worlds, grow stronger, and only then do you earn the right to enter deeper dreamscapes...?" Li Fan smiled. The pattern felt remarkably familiar.
"The Land of Carefree Joy appears to operate under its own set of rules. If I want to learn more about it, I'll just let Sun Erlang and the others continue their slow exploration."
Sun Erlang and his companions were merely the vanguard. Soon, more disciples of the Saint Teacher would be dispatched to the Land of Carefree Joy in a steady stream.
To gather intelligence.
As they say, the Land of Joy may be vast, but even ants can chart its course!
The reason Li Fan paid such close attention to the Land of Carefree Joy was because of an incredibly conspicuous dark cloud he had witnessed in his previous life. It had appeared over the Five Elders Council's territory when he activated the world-destroying immortal array.
Beneath the shroud of that cloud, even beings who had already perished were granted sanctuary.
To put this in perspective, when the "Immortal Descends, All Things Return to Void" array was unleashed, even the Dharma Spreader could only struggle for survival.
Yet this cloud not only remained intact amidst the world-ending devastation but also possessed enough power to save others...
In Li Fan's previous assessment, the five Longevity cultivators of the Five Elders Council simply did not possess the strength to accomplish such a feat!
Even after so many lives, Li Fan had never uncovered this secret of the Five Elders Council. It was a testament to how deeply it was hidden.
But in the storm of worldly annihilation, these deeply hidden truths had all been laid bare.
"The Five Elders Council had something else besides the Land of Carefree Joy that withstood the array's assault."
Li Fan's eyes glinted.
The remains of a Dharma Spreader... the Soul Grinding Pan.
In his 119th life, Li Fan had heard of this artifact. In that timeline, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance had launched a surprise attack on the Five Elders Council by summoning an avatar of the Dharma Spreading Heavenly Venerate through their chosen immortals. They ultimately forced the Council to surrender what they called a "lost treasure of the Alliance."
"The Soul Grinding Pan held fifty-six remnant souls and one hundred and three sets of skeletal remains."
"And yet, those remnant souls and bones had remained perfectly intact amidst the raging immortal power..."
"The entire region housing the Soul Grinding Pan was reduced to nothingness, yet the artifact itself was unharmed. And the Soul Grinding Pan is just an ordinary magical tool..."
Four words instantly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
Eternal Remembrance.
"The Eternal Remembrance cannot be brought into [Truth]. Neither my clones nor my spiritual sense can perceive its existence. Only I can absorb it through [Truth]."
"Unfortunately, like Mr. Bai's skull, both are located deep within the enemy's core territory. They won't be easy to obtain."
"In this life, I can try to maneuver things and see if I can acquire both items. If that doesn't work, I'll just wait until I reach Dao Integration and take them by force!"
Li Fan grunted softly, his thoughts returning to the present.
Standing tall in the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan held a common steel spear, his eyes narrowed to slits.
A chilling intent, cold enough to freeze all of creation, suddenly descended upon him.
But it vanished in a flash.
It was a Spirit of the Heavenly Dao, summoned by Li Fan using his divine ability, False Claiming Heavenly Geography.
He canceled the spell just before the spirit could fully manifest.
Though the Spirit of Heaven and Earth appeared and vanished without a trace, the steel spear in Li Fan’s hand had been imbued with its power, and was slowly transforming into something extraordinary.
Silver light pulsed from it, radiating a biting cold. Wisps of illusory snowflakes now drifted around its shaft.
After just a few attempts, the mundane steel spear had been utterly transformed into a peerless divine weapon.
Li Fan used False Claiming Heavenly Geography again. This time, he summoned not a spirit of frost, but one of dancing, crimson flames.
Hiss...
As the crimson flame washed over the silver spear, the image of nine lifelike dragons was instantly etched onto its shaft.
Sensing the growing animosity of heaven and earth in this location, Li Fan's figure flickered, and he vanished, reappearing elsewhere.
"I'll call you the Flame Dragon Ice Soul Spear." Li Fan casually named the newly crafted marvel and tossed it into the Lecture Stage, adding it to his collection of over ten thousand wondrous items.
Crafting Foundation Establishment Wonders by manifesting the laws of the Xuanhuang Realm.
It was a process he had grown increasingly adept at.
He wasn't just preparing Foundation Establishment materials for his disciples; his primary goal was to use these newly created Heaven and Earth Marvels to constantly gauge the progress of the Xuanhuang Realm's recovery.
The restorative effect of the Xuanhuang Malice on the Xuanhuang Realm had somewhat exceeded Li Fan's expectations.
Even after all this time, the Xuanhuang Realm's enhancement was still continuing.
And because this ascension was happening deep within the realm's core, conventional methods couldn't track its progress. Therefore, Li Fan needed to find an alternative approach.
He had no choice but to pay close attention.
After all, the boon from the Heavenly Dao for helping the malice return to Xuanhuang had yet to materialize.
"When a part of its will attached itself to Mr. Bai all those years ago, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao became incomplete. This deficiency was never filled by absorbing other remnant realms. On the contrary, as the world grew stronger, the absence became all the more... conspicuous."
Li Fan continued to forge his artificial Heaven and Earth Marvels, observing meticulously all the while.
"In short, the Xuanhuang Realm had always been flawed. Returning the Xuanhuang Malice was tantamount to mending that flaw."
"Wonderful! It seems the Super Xuanhuang Realm in this life will be even stronger than I predicted."
As his thoughts swirled, another marvel was complete.
"Hmm? The improvement this time is almost negligible. It seems the digestion is finally complete." A flicker of thought crossed Li Fan's mind as he gazed up at the sky.
A peculiar sensation slowly washed over him.
Several hours later, that faint, mystical connection to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao re-established itself.
However, because his true body possessed the Dao foundation of the Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformation, the Xuanhuang Realm was naturally hostile toward him.
The boon of "Heavenly Grace" in this life merely served to counteract most of that hostility, with only a little surplus.
It was nothing compared to the favor he had received as the Sage Emperor in a past life.
"Still, now that its attitude has shifted, there will be plenty of ways to increase its favor in the future," Li Fan thought.
Through his senses, he knew that Yin Shangren, Qiaogong, and the others had also begun to feel the descent of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Grace.
For otherworldly cultivators like Qiaogong and Bai Hua, the sense of alienation from the Xuanhuang Realm that had long plagued them finally vanished.
Xu Ke had once been a man blessed by fortune. But after millennia of guarding the sealed Xuanhuang Malice, and with the death of his companion beast, Little Black, that fortune had long since faded. Now, however, he was blessed by Heavenly Grace once more. His white hair turned a youthful black, and his stooped back straightened. In the blink of an eye, Xu Ke transformed from a man on the verge of death into a composed, middle-aged figure.
Yin Shangren's reaction, however, was far more peculiar. It was as if something had detonated inside his skull; his head instantly exploded into a mist of blood.
From the gaping wound where his neck should have been, one could vaguely see the body within his body disintegrating piece by piece.
The small figure's face was contorted in a savage grimace as it continuously spat out bloody fragments. The flesh of the outer body writhed and then reabsorbed the gruesome vomit.
The body gestured with a hand, stopping the others who rushed forward to help.
A strange, gurgling laugh emanated from Yin Shangren.
Just then, Li Fan's figure materialized beside them.
"Don't worry. This is a good thing for him," Li Fan reassured them.
Yin Shangren was a world ghost, an amalgam of remnant realms that the Xuanhuang Realm could not absorb. He could only exist within it as a parasite, a ghost.
Previously, the Xuanhuang Realm had been aware of Yin Shangren, but chose to ignore him.
But now that Yin Shangren had helped return the Xuanhuang Malice, the realm's attitude had shifted.
In other words, it had now labeled him as "beneficial."
The consequence of this was that the Xuanhuang Realm was now trying to accept him, to integrate him into the natural workings of the Heavenly Dao.
If no other force were to intervene, then in the years to come, Yin Shangren would officially become a [Remnant Realm Ghost], an entity bound to the Xuanhuang Realm, much like the Creation Stone Slab or other world-spirits.
Li Fan wasn't lying. For Yin Shangren, this was indeed a fortunate turn of events.
First, by harnessing the power of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao, he could crush the other remnant consciousnesses within him. He would become purer, no longer plagued by the bouts of madness and confusion that had afflicted him before.
And second...
The Xuanhuang Realm still contained a large amount of residue from devouring other realms—entities known as "Weirdness."
These laws, incompatible with the Xuanhuang Realm, previously required extermination-level measures like Ink Death to be fully purged.
However, once Yin Shangren was integrated into the Heavenly Dao's system, he could freely devour these Weirdnesses. He would grow stronger while simultaneously helping the Xuanhuang Realm purge itself of this internal dross. It was a win-win situation.
Although it was a "good thing" by every measure, Li Fan could sense a deep-seated resistance coming from Yin Shangren.
If Yin Shangren himself were to resist, he could very well interrupt the integration process.
Li Fan’s expression turned grave. He sent a mental transmission, "Why do you resist? Once you integrate with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, you will be no different from a Longevity cultivator who has reversed the logic of heaven and earth."
"The Star Sea is reviving, and the Xuanhuang Realm is the only sanctuary within it. In the future, it might even harness this revitalizing power to shatter its mortal limits and ascend into the legendary Immortal World. If that happens, your achievements will be immeasurable!"
"This is the grand tide of the Dao. Those who follow it will prosper; those who oppose it shall perish!"
With Li Fan's repeated exhortations, the struggle on Yin Shangren's face gradually subsided. When he heard the words "Immortal World," the last vestiges of his resistance vanished.
His exploded head regenerated.
The wound sealed itself, muffling the sound of chewing flesh from within his body.
Yin Shangren returned to his former appearance.
But where before he had been a man whose madness was veiled by an ordinary exterior, the Yin Shangren of today resembled the Creation Stone Slab.
Ancient and profound.
"Congratulations to you all," Li Fan said with a faint smile.
"Thank you for making this possible, Saint Teacher!" Yin Shangren and the others replied. They no longer addressed him as "Fellow Daoist" but used the same title as the disciples on the Lecture Stage: "Saint Teacher."
After all, Li Fan had taken them to the heart of the Star Sea to witness its revival and taught them how to purify and return the Xuanhuang Malice, earning them immense Heavenly Grace.
Either act was a favor tantamount to granting them a new life.
To them, Li Fan was fully deserving of the title "Saint Teacher."
"The Xuanhuang Realm has completed its initial transformation. Next, we must guide it and help it digest the various remnant realms within. But before that, we need to make some preparations."
"Please instruct us, Saint Teacher."
"Although the Xuanhuang Realm has devoured its own malice and mended its flaws, millennia of being plundered by cultivators have left it in a deficit. It's like a person who hasn't eaten in a long time suddenly gorging themselves. Abruptly stimulating it to digest the remnant realms could lead to negative consequences," Li Fan explained.
Bai Hua nodded in understanding. "So, our task now is to help the Xuanhuang Realm digest one or two remnant realms first? Where do we begin?"
"The remnant realms within Xuanhuang have become faintly interconnected; to touch one is to affect them all. Therefore, we can't use them as a primer," Li Fan explained with a slight smile, looking at the group.
Qiaogong's gaze drifted to the void outside the Xuanhuang Realm. "So, we need to find world fragments out there?"
"But where would we find any? We've crossed half the Star Sea, and all we saw was endless void. I fear all the remnant realms have already fallen into the Immortal Ruins!"
Yin Shangren snorted. "Then where did the remnant realms the Xuanhuang Realm has been devouring all these years come from?"
Li Fan nodded. "Correct. There are still vast numbers of realm fragments in the Star Sea."
"At the edge of the Star Sea, beneath the High Wall!"
Li Fan declared, his voice low and resonant.
At his words, Yin Shangren and the others all visibly tensed.
With a wave of his hand, an image appeared before them: a magnificent, unending chain of countless remnant realms, forming a great wall of staggering proportions.
The group stared, momentarily lost for words.
"This..."
Even with their considerable power, they were rendered speechless by the incredible sight.
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