Chapter 1341: The Cause of the Ancient Annihilation
Chapter 1341: The Cause of the Ancient Annihilation
“An ingenious way to hide something in plain sight. Its abnormality would only reveal itself to someone actively searching for it, someone who already suspected it held a secret.”
“But to anyone else...”
“It would look like nothing more than an ordinary object.”
A flicker of understanding passed through everyone present.
“If Brother Li hadn't stumbled upon the secret of that puppet by a stroke of luck, we might have overlooked these oddities for another thousand years,” Lu Yuzhi remarked with a sigh.
“The problem now is that we know they're peculiar, but we have no way to unlock their secrets.”
“Heh, let's not get ahead of ourselves. We managed to decipher True Immortal Scripts; surely these little trinkets can't stump us? Or are you suggesting that Sun Piaomiao was more powerful than a True Immortal?”
The elders of the Immortal Boat were brimming with confidence.
After seven days of continuous observation, someone finally discovered something unusual about Sun Piaomiao's relics.
“Everyone, direct your attention to this small cauldron.” The speaker was Mo Yinfeng of the Broken Immortal Tower, a man typically quiet and absorbed in his own research.
“Previous analyses by the Immortal Boat all identified this as a high-grade alchemical artifact. It even possesses a grotto-heaven space capable of generating spiritual energy and cultivating spiritual plants. However...” As he spoke, Mo Yinfeng projected a 'Reveal' character, which enveloped the Medicine King Cauldron.
As if submerged in a hazy, luminous fog, tangible lines of varying thickness emerged from the mist surrounding the cauldron. They sliced through space, shooting off in different directions before vanishing from sight in an instant.
“This means... the Medicine King Cauldron isn't a singular artifact? It's connected to other things out in the Star Sea?!” The faces of the other Immortal Boat elders paled slightly at the sight.
Li Fan also narrowed his eyes.
For among all those present, only he could discern that one of the misty lines extending from the cauldron pointed directly toward the Xuanhuang Realm.
And the others...
“The vast majority pointed toward the Realm Fragment Great Wall. But two or three others led to some unknown location within the Darkest Star Sea!”
One of the functions of the 'Reveal' character was to expose the hidden connections between all things. And so, under its light, the Medicine King Cauldron's secret, hidden for ten thousand years, was finally laid bare.
“If I'm not mistaken,” Zhong Daogong began, his gaze fixed on the empty air as if he could still see the faded lines, “Sun Piaomiao must have forged numerous Medicine King Cauldrons. They are all interconnected, sharing some kind of mystical bond. They can sense one another even when separated by half the Star Sea.”
“According to the records of Sun Piaomiao's activities on the Immortal Boat, the man traveled extensively throughout the Star Sea, covering distances that rivaled or even surpassed our own,” Mo Yinfeng added in a measured tone. “These cauldrons would have been difficult to forge. Scattering them across the cosmos... perhaps one of his aims was to use them as navigational anchors to pinpoint his own position.”
“I suspect it's far more complex than that. This was before the great annihilation, when the positions of the cultivation worlds were still relatively fixed. If he just wanted to avoid getting lost, there were far simpler methods. There was no need for such an elaborate scheme!”
“Exactly. If I recall correctly, the navigational beacons for the various realms weren't exactly state secrets back then. For someone like Sun Piaomiao, who could already traverse the Star Sea, acquiring them would have been trivial.”
A flurry of discussion erupted among the elders, but Mo Yinfeng simply listened in silence.
He waited until the elders fell silent before clearing his throat. His voice was distant, almost ethereal. “For exploring the known Star Sea, such methods would be overkill. But what if the goal was to venture beyond the Great Void?”
His words hung in the air, and a variety of expressions crossed the faces of the assembled elders.
“The Great Void?” It was a term Li Fan had never heard before.
The confusion on his face was genuine. Li Fan turned to the thoughtful-looking Zhong Daogong, searching for an explanation.
After a moment of contemplation, Zhong Daogong slowly explained, “In its time, the Xuanshang Immortal Boat traveled throughout all the known star domains. We even had merchants stationed in the untamed lands at the very edge of the Star Sea.”
“But the civilized Star Sea is not infinite. Beyond those untamed lands lies the Great Void—a seemingly endless expanse of pure nothingness.”
“No one knows how vast the Great Void truly is, and no one has ever emerged from the other side. Every cultivator who has ever attempted to cross it has met the same fate: they become utterly and irrevocably lost.” Zhong Daogong’s expression grew grim.
“Still, the explorable Star Sea of that era was far more vibrant than the Darkest Star Sea we know today. There was plenty of space to thrive, and most cultivation worlds couldn't even reach the savage frontiers. As a result, very few cultivators gave the Great Void much thought.”
“But it is the nature of cultivators to break free from all shackles. So, there has always been a small, determined few who sought to breach the Great Void and discover the secrets beyond. Sun Piaomiao was evidently one of them. Regrettably, none have ever succeeded. He was no exception.”
“The Great Void... the High Wall.” Li Fan's voice was low and resonant. “It seems the plight of a cultivator never changes, from ancient times to the present day.”
He mused internally, *The Great Void... so perhaps that's why Sun Piaomiao's explorations came to a halt. If that's the case, the twelve navigational beacons he left behind seem even stranger. He explored such a vast region of space; there must have been far more than twelve cultivation worlds. Why leave only those specific ones behind...?*
*And what secret could be so great that it couldn't be spoken of openly, that it had to be concealed in this elaborate manner?* Countless questions swirled in Li Fan's mind.
“Xiaoyao, Xuanshang, Guanghai, Beige, Lingqiu...”
As the former young master of the Medicine King Sect, Li Fan was naturally aware of the information passed down by its founder, Sun Piaomiao. At the time, however, he hadn't given it much thought.
For one, the great calamity had descended, shattering countless realms. For another, the very existence of the Immortal Ruins meant that even if those cultivation worlds had survived, their spatial coordinates would have undoubtedly shifted. Sun Piaomiao's beacons had become meaningless.
*What if... what if Sun Piaomiao predicted all of this? What if he left the Medicine King Cauldrons behind as a backup?* A bold hypothesis surfaced in Li Fan's thoughts.
It was a guess born from a flash of inspiration, with no concrete evidence to support it.
The Immortal Boat elders' discussion continued.
“The power within this cauldron is quite mysterious. Perhaps this connection could be used to maintain one's bearings within the Great Void. That way, even if an expedition failed, one could at least make it back safely instead of needlessly perishing.”
“We must remember that the Great Void is void in the most literal sense. The limited records we have describe a place with no light, no spiritual energy... not even a medium for divine sense to travel through. It is a place of absolute nothingness...”
Mo Yinfeng's theory garnered agreement from several of the Immortal Boat elders.
Exploring the Great Void was one of the loftiest ambitions for cultivators of that era. It was entirely plausible that Sun Piaomiao had attempted it.
“Whatever his purpose was, figuring out the mysterious power that links these cauldrons would be a great boon for the Immortal Boat.”
With a clear objective in mind, their research proceeded much more smoothly.
After a unanimous vote among the elders, Li Fan included, they decided to smelt the Medicine King Cauldron down completely, to force out the mysterious power it contained.
Ostensibly an alchemical treasure, the Medicine King Cauldron was undeniably durable. After all, one of its counterparts had once shouldered the mission of carrying the entire Medicine King Sect across the void.
For the Immortal Boat, however, which wielded the power of True Immortal Scripts, the cauldron's durability was negligible.
Crack! Snap!
Under the crushing force of an invisible power, the small bronze cauldron instantly shattered into a thousand fragments, which were then ground down further, disintegrating into microscopic particles.
Finally, even those particles ceased to exist.
The expressions of the Immortal Boat elders, however, grew increasingly solemn as the dissolution process continued.
They discovered that the substance that made up the Medicine King Cauldron hadn't vanished as the external force increased.
It had merely become more condensed.
“Our previous analysis suggested the cauldron was forged from a combination of rare ores and various celestial treasures from across the cultivation worlds.”
“It seems that was merely a facade!”
“This substance...”
The elders of the Immortal Boat stared intently at the final transformation taking place within the force field.
It was too small to be seen with the naked eye; without continuous monitoring, even divine sense would have struggled to perceive it.
Condensed to its absolute limit, it was not a perfect sphere.
Instead, it was slightly flattened, convex on both sides, resembling a game piece!
“The entire Medicine King Cauldron was formed from this single object?”
The elders were all dumbstruck.
Li Fan stared at the grey game piece, his thoughts drifting back to the life when his Holy Embryo clone piloted the reinforced Medicine King Cauldron and charged into the Immortal Ruins.
*Back then, I was too stunned by the True Immortal's world-ending gaze to notice anything unusual. But looking back, some things don't add up.*
*In the eyes of a True Immortal, all cultivators are ants. My Holy Embryo clone, with its mortal cultivation, would have been even less than an ant.*
*How could a True Immortal in seclusion be disturbed by that?*
*It's like me in seclusion—I would never be interrupted by an ant. Any ant that got close would be obliterated by my defenses long before it reached me.*
*And yet, that True Immortal in the Immortal Ruins... his seclusion was truly broken!*
*Remember, in the previous life when I used an immortal array to annihilate the Xuanhuang Realm, He merely sent a phantom clone to investigate.*
*But that time...*
Li Fan's eyes narrowed, the scene replaying in his mind.
In a field of utter blackness, a sprawling wasteland suddenly appeared.
The wasteland was littered with innumerable ruins.
The True Immortal was nothing but skin hanging from a frame of bones, like a living skeleton.
Dozens of blood-red chains, buried deep in the earth, bound the True Immortal to the wasteland.
Upon sensing Li Fan—or more precisely, the Medicine King Cauldron he piloted—that Dao-Enlightened True Immortal had suddenly opened his eyes!
*I see. So what made the True Immortal open his eyes wasn't just some foreign object trespassing in the Immortal Ruins.*
*It was the mysterious material of this game piece, the very substance used to forge the cauldron...*
Li Fan's thoughts returned to the present.
Like the other elders, he stared intently at the grey game piece.
Having reverted to its true form, its connection to its “companions” across the Star Sea seemed to grow even stronger.
They no longer needed the 'Reveal' character; everyone present could now faintly sense the direction of the connections.
However, the signal was intermittent, not nearly stable enough to serve as a reliable guide.
“It seems the piece alone isn't enough. It must require a specific method to be used properly,” Zhong Daogong observed, grasping the hidden subtlety.
“How fascinating. Now I'm truly curious... what did Sun Piaomiao go to such great lengths to conceal?”
“This grey piece, mysterious as it is, doesn't seem to be related to immortal power. The Immortal Boat has collected its share of immortal artifacts; we can tell the difference.”
...
“On the contrary,” Li Fan suddenly interjected into the elders' discussion, offering a completely different perspective, “I believe this grey piece might very well have come from the Immortal Realm.”
“Oh? What makes you say that, Brother Li?”
Li Fan now held considerable sway on the Immortal Boat. No one would dismiss his conclusions lightly, and they eagerly awaited his reasoning.
Li Fan replied in a low voice, “It's simple. We just need to look at its reaction to the 'Reveal' character.”
The elders were momentarily stunned. Then, realization dawned on several faces, and one even slapped his thigh in a moment of clarity.
“Of course! While the 'Reveal' character can activate the connections between objects, the Medicine King Cauldron's—er, the grey piece's—reaction to the remnant power of a True Immortal was far too sensitive.”
“Precisely!”
To test Li Fan's theory, Lu Yuzhi produced a seven-colored stone.
“This stone was carved from a piece of Jade Crystal Marrow. It's one of a set of eighteen; the other seventeen are in my personal residence.”
As he spoke, Lu Yuzhi projected the 'Reveal' character.
The power of the True Immortal Script enveloped the seven-colored stone.
The immortal power seemed to seep in slowly. Only after a long while did the indicative mist and fine lines emerge from within.
The difference in its reaction compared to the Medicine King Cauldron was immediately obvious.
“We had assumed it was because of some mysterious power hidden within the cauldron. But now it's clear it was the material of the cauldron itself!”
“There's a fundamental difference between the immortal and the mortal. An object from the Immortal Realm would naturally be more sensitive to immortal power.”
The elders mused aloud.
“But don't forget,” one of them added, “the piece just indicated there are many more like it out in the Star Sea! Objects from the Immortal Realm...”
A stir of excitement went through the group.
But it was Zhong Daogong who remained level-headed. “Let's first determine the exact nature of this grey piece,” he cautioned.
“Venturing into the unknown can be dangerous. Sometimes, objects from the Immortal Realm bring more disaster than fortune.”
Having confirmed the item's likely origin, the Immortal Boat initiated its standard research protocols for objects from the Immortal Realm.
They no longer had to fear damaging the object with the power of the True Immortal Scripts, allowing them to employ a wide variety of scripts to test it to the fullest extent.
At the same time, Li Fan, participating in the tests, witnessed for the first time the Immortal Boat's ultimate treasure for research.
It was a blank scroll.
“The Map of Myriad Phenomena and Yin-Yang?” Li Fan asked, curious. “It's completely blank. Why give it such a name?”
Zhong Daogong replied with a hint of pride, “It appears blank precisely because it contains all the myriad phenomena of the world.”
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