Chapter 1333: The Mystery of the Heavenly King's Disappearance
Li Fan’s face was a mask of sincerity. "For years, I have searched high and low for the heroes of the old Xuantian Sect, scouring every corner of the Xuanhuang Realm. I was fortunate enough to find some traces of the Law Kings, but never a single clue related to the Xuantian King. Still, I refuse to believe that a man of his peerless power could have truly fallen..."
Mo Rubin listened in silence, his expression betraying no emotion.
"Tens of thousands of years have passed," Li Fan continued, "and the situation in the Xuanhuang Realm has grown ever more precarious. We are but a hair's breadth away from falling into the Immortal Ruins. If not for the many arrangements the Xuantian King left behind, I fear we would not have lasted this long!"
"The arrangements from back then?" Mo Rubin murmured, his eyes narrowing.
"The Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation!" Li Fan declared with deep feeling. "Built upon an ancient immortal array, it could manifest near-immortal power through mortal means! It's a tragedy that the formation is now incomplete..."
His expression turned serious. "Reactivating the Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation may be the only way to save our world. The array is so profound and wondrous that even though it was built ten thousand years ago, I cannot begin to comprehend it."
Mo Rubin snorted. "But of course. How could a mere mortal cultivator hope to fathom a legacy from the Immortal World!"
Li Fan nodded in agreement. "First, the Ten Great Immortal Sects fled en masse, then came ten thousand years of calamitous conflict. So many legacies have been severed. Today, the standards of arrays, artifacts, alchemy, and talismans in the Xuanhuang Realm have, far from improving, actually regressed to a pale shadow of what they once were!"
"To rebuild and restore the Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation, finding the Xuantian King is our only hope! But as I said, there isn't a single trace of him! My own time is running out, and I can wait no longer. As a last resort, I had no choice but to awaken you, my friend."
"When the ten sects besieged the Xuantian Sect all those years ago, where were you? According to Law King Ji's memories, you never left the Xuantian King's side!" Li Fan’s voice grew increasingly solemn.
Seeing this cultivator from a later era begin to press him, Mo Rubin felt no anger. His brow furrowed slightly as he recalled the events of the past, his mind drifting back to the very day that had altered the destiny of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"At that moment, I was guiding the core cultivators of the ten sects deep into the heart of our sect."
Mo Rubin's words were startling.
Li Fan's eyebrows shot up, but he did not grow agitated. Instead, he waited quietly for what would come next.
Mo Rubin, slightly surprised by Li Fan's composure, gave a small nod and continued, "At the time, Brother Xuanyuan had long been aware that some within the sect harbored treachery in their hearts and were plotting with the ten sects."
"Brother Xuanyuan had also just achieved a breakthrough, so he decided to play along with their scheme to lure the snakes from their holes..."
Mo Rubin paused, taking a deep breath. "The plan went smoothly at first. I successfully gained the trust of the ten sects and led them through the defensive restrictions of the Xuantian Sector's headquarters. . ."
A flicker of regret crossed Mo Rubin’s eyes.
"But those restrictions were only ever meant to cause a delay. The real killing blow was Brother Xuanyuan's newfound power and the death array he had personally laid. By actively dispelling the defenses, we could lower their guard. We just never expected..."
"Flee!"
The Xuantian King's final message seemed to echo in his ears again, and Mo Rubin clenched his fists instinctively.
"When I heard Brother Xuanyuan's message telling me to run, I knew something had gone terribly wrong. I immediately sped toward the place where his aura had vanished..."
"It wasn't the designated ambush point, nor was it Brother Xuanyuan's usual place of secluded cultivation. It was merely the great hall where the statue of the Faceless Immortal was displayed. Brother Xuanyuan had ordered it sealed long ago. I don't know why he would have been there."
"By the time I arrived—the first to get there—Brother Xuanyuan had vanished completely. And that statue..." Mo Rubin suddenly fell silent.
Hearing Mo Rubin's account, Li Fan was shaken to his core. Still, he feigned ignorance. "The statue of the Faceless Immortal? What is that? And why would the Xuantian Sect seal it away? After the Ten Great Immortal Sects unified the Xuanhuang Realm, they erased everything related to the old Xuantian Sect. Even Law King Ji's remnant memories don't seem to contain any mention of this statue."
Mo Rubin looked up and studied Li Fan for a moment before finally explaining, "The Faceless Immortal was a True Immortal who once saved Brother Xuanyuan's life. When Brother Xuanyuan first arrived in the Immortal World, before he even had time to forge a True Immortal's body, a calamity struck. If not for this Faceless Immortal casually saving him, he would have perished in the Immortal World right then and there."
Li Fan nodded slowly, then asked with great curiosity, "From the sound of it, this Faceless Immortal seems like a benevolent figure. Why, then, would the Xuantian Sect seal away his statue, as if wary of him?"
Mo Rubin scoffed. "Benevolent... It is not a person, but a True Immortal, through and through. The same event, viewed from the standpoint of a mortal cultivator versus a True Immortal, will elicit entirely different reactions! Initially, Brother Xuanyuan erected the statue of the Faceless Immortal for two reasons. First, to express his gratitude for being saved. And second, to try and establish contact with this True Immortal he had only met so briefly."
"If we could have obtained the help of this True Immortal senior, saving the Xuanhuang Realm would have been far easier..."
As he spoke, Mo Rubin's expression grew increasingly grim. "However, Brother Xuanyuan soon realized his mistake. The attitude of a True Immortal toward mortal creatures can only be described as utter indifference."
"The Faceless Immortal was willing to casually save Brother Xuanyuan because Brother Xuanyuan had already stepped onto the immortal path. Even without a True Immortal's body, he was a genuine 'half-immortal.' He was one of its own kind."
"But as for mortal beings... even an entire world of them, even if it took no effort at all, the Faceless Immortal was unwilling—and disdained—to lift a finger!" Mo Rubin spat, his voice laced with cold hatred.
"It even went so far as to admonish and warn Brother Xuanyuan..."
Mo Rubin was seething with resentment, and Li Fan couldn't help but narrow his eyes, his breathing quickening as he put on a display of righteous indignation.
"The gulf between immortals and mortals is as wide as the abyss between heaven and earth. But no matter what, aren't immortals just mortals who ascended? To witness death and offer no aid, to be so cold!"
Mo Rubin continued, "As the saying goes, those with different paths cannot walk together. After their disagreement, Brother Xuanyuan ceased all contact with this True Immortal and sealed the statue. He even planned to have the Xuantian statues across the land re-carved."
"But before he had the chance, the cataclysm struck."
"According to what you've said, is it possible the Xuantian King met his end at the hands of the Faceless Immortal?" Li Fan asked, his voice filled with shock.
"If a True Immortal acted personally, even someone as peerless as the Xuantian King could hardly have escaped, could he? No wonder I haven't found a single trace of him after all these years..." Li Fan feigned a sudden, devastating realization, his face falling.
Mo Rubin frowned, cutting off Li Fan's muttering. "Although the Faceless Immortal and Brother Xuanyuan had their ideological differences, it had no reason to deliver a killing blow."
"Besides, as powerful as a True Immortal is, it would have been absolutely impossible to kill Brother Xuanyuan instantly," Mo Rubin stated with conviction.
"Brother Xuanyuan was already a half-immortal who had ascended to the Immortal World. Before we executed the plan to lure out the snakes, he told us that after his battle with the Tiandu Grandmaster, he had achieved another breakthrough. Even if he wasn't an immortal in the true, traditional sense, he possessed enough power to cross the High Wall on his own."
Li Fan was once again shaken internally. "Then what could possibly have made an even more powerful Xuantian King vanish without a trace?"
Though he voiced the question, his mind couldn't help but drift back to his last life, to the moment the Cat Treasure had appeared out of nowhere, swallowed the phantom of a True Immortal in a single gulp, and then whisked away the True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins in an instant.
The two situations were so strikingly similar!
"Could there be a connection?"
"But the incident with the Xuantian King happened tens of thousands of years ago. And if my guess about time flowing differently on either side of the High Wall is correct, then for those beyond it, the event might as well have been a hundred thousand, or even a million years in the past..." Li Fan felt something was amiss.
"Still, looking at it this way, the methods of the powers beyond the wall for hunting True Immortals have improved far too much. The Xuantian King wasn't a conventional True Immortal, yet he had time to send a warning before he met his fate. The one from the Immortal Ruins, on the other hand, was a genuine True Immortal from the Immortal World who had meditated in the ruins for millennia, perhaps even approaching the realm of a Nameless True Immortal. Yet his end was even more pathetic." A chilling sensation washed over Li Fan.
Faced with Li Fan's question, Mo Rubin could only remain silent.
If he had known the answer, he wouldn't have been so lost and terrified when the ten sects were hunting him, as if he had lost his very anchor.
"Though I do not know what manner of terrifying entity caused Brother Xuanyuan's disappearance, I am certain that he is still alive," Mo Rubin said with conviction after a long silence.
"Oh?" Li Fan raised an eyebrow, his expression clearly showing he found Mo Rubin's confidence hard to believe.
Choosing his words with care, Mo Rubin spoke again. "When Brother Xuanyuan vanished, I was the first to arrive on the scene. The hall where the statue of the Faceless Immortal was displayed had been destroyed."
"And that stone statue of the Faceless Immortal..."
"Had suddenly grown a face!"
"The statue had fallen to the ground, its head severed by an unseen force and rolled to the side. And the face on that lone stone head... was identical to Brother Xuanyuan's!"
Mo Rubin’s words left Li Fan utterly stunned.
An image of the scene flashed through Li Fan’s mind.
"This..."
"What happened then?" Li Fan asked, completely baffled as the mystery deepened.
Mo Rubin said in a low voice, "At first, we all thought the Faceless Immortal had harmed the Xuantian King. But later, during our days on the run, I felt that something wasn't right, for the reasons I've already mentioned."
"Later, I took a great risk and found a surviving Xuantian statue. I tried to use the method Brother Xuanyuan had taught me to contact this Faceless Immortal once more..."
Li Fan drew a sharp breath. "That was an incredible risk! You truly put your life on the line!"
Ignoring Li Fan's praise, Mo Rubin continued, "A True Immortal would not normally deign to notice a mortal ant like me. As expected, my first attempt at communication received no reply."
"But I did not give up. I persisted, continuously, for three full years, attempting to make contact at every moment..."
Hearing this, Li Fan instantly understood Mo Rubin's point.
"Even if it disdained to notice an ant, if that ant kept buzzing in its ear, a True Immortal would surely grow enraged and deliver punishment. From what I know of the Faceless Immortal, it certainly had the power to do so."
"But it never did."
"It was as if it were just an ordinary statue. For three years, there was no response at all."
"So, I came to a conclusion. After that day, it wasn't just the Xuantian King. Even that Faceless Immortal must have suffered a grievous blow!"
"The reason the Faceless Immortal's statue bizarrely manifested Brother Xuanyuan's face, and was even decapitated..."
Li Fan finished his sentence, his voice filled with disbelief. "Don't tell me... it was because the Faceless Immortal intervened and helped the Xuantian King escape the disaster?"
Mo Rubin nodded. "That is precisely why I have always been certain that Brother Xuanyuan is still alive. Though their paths differed, from reading between the lines of what Brother Xuanyuan once said, he and this Faceless Immortal actually got along quite well."
"Besides, they are of the same kind. There was a precedent for it helping him once; it's not impossible that it would save him again."
Li Fan was silent for a long time.
After a long while, he shook his head in denial. "That is merely your speculation, my friend."
"I had originally thought the opponent the Xuantian King faced back then was, at most, another half-immortal. If a True Immortal, or an even stronger being, made a move, the chances of him surviving are simply too slim!" Li Fan said, his voice laced with dejection.
"Your speculation alone is hardly convincing."
Seeing this, Mo Rubin hesitated for a long time before finally adding in a deep voice, "It is not just baseless speculation. A faint, mystical connection to Brother Xuanyuan tells me that he is still alive in this world."
Mo Rubin was being deliberately vague, his words extremely unclear.
Li Fan tried to press for more details, but Mo Rubin refused to say another word.
"The Azure Nether Pearl?" Li Fan wondered internally.
"Very well. Since you are so certain, I will trust you this once!" Seeing that he could pry no more information from him, Li Fan pretended to ponder for a long moment before finally relenting.
"I don't have many days left anyway. This is just one last gamble."
"From your words and actions, I am certain you were not the traitor in the Xuantian Sect. Perhaps... we can cooperate to find where the Xuantian King has gone."
Li Fan's gaze was scorching as he stared at Mo Rubin.
"Friend, you know a great deal about the Xuantian King, but you are a stranger to the Xuanhuang Realm of today. Ten thousand years have passed, the world has changed beyond recognition, and the arrangements left by the Xuantian Sect may have vanished with the shifting landscapes."
"But I have spent these years scouring the Xuanhuang Realm. I can lead you directly to the areas worth investigating, greatly increasing our efficiency."
"Furthermore, the remnants of the Ten Great Immortal Sects now operate as the Five Elders Council, controlling half of the Xuanhuang Realm. Without my cooperation, even with your considerable strength, you will inevitably run into a great deal of trouble."
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