Chapter 1346: Bearing the Weight of the Immortal Realm
Chapter 1346: Bearing the Weight of the Immortal Realm
It was just as the Xuanxian Immortal Boat had speculated.
Each gray chess piece had been forged from an entire world.
As Li Fan gazed at the four pieces spinning before him, a torrent of phantom visions flooded his mind.
He saw these four desolate worlds as they were before their transformation: a land of ice that stretched for countless miles; a vast, endless plain where dynasties founded by different cultivators stood tall and proud; a terrifying sword scar that cleaved the world in two, surrounded by a constellation of sword sects dedicated to enlightenment; a vast, azure ocean that covered the globe, where terrifying storms perpetually raged, whipping up colossal waves thousands of feet high that annihilated everything on the surface, forcing all life to exist only on the seabed...
The names of the four worlds appeared in Li Fan's mind along with these visions.
"Jingji, Baiqiu, Jianhe, Yuanhai."
Though their landscapes varied, all four worlds had once teemed with vibrant life. But then, in a single moment, a terrifying power beyond all imagination descended.
Everything in these worlds froze in an instant.
Amidst a relentless pounding, like that of a colossal hammer, all life was annihilated in a flash. Only the worlds themselves were able to survive the devastating blows.
Like blocks of iron heated until molten, then cooled and hammered into swords, the four disparate worlds slowly began to change under the deafening roars, their properties and very essence undergoing a mysterious transformation.
The chaotic visions vanished, returning at last to the four gray chess pieces spinning in the air.
"Saint Teacher, this..." Li Fan wasn't the only one to notice the extraordinary nature of the gray chess pieces. The rapidly spinning black and white of Yin Shangren's eyes revealed the turmoil in his own heart.
"Forging worlds into chess pieces. The power of a True Immortal is truly extraordinary," Li Fan remarked, glancing calmly at Yin Shangren before letting out a soft sigh.
"True Immortal... chess pieces?" Catching the two key phrases, Yin Shangren's body trembled slightly. He immediately declared, "Indeed, my premonition was correct. The Yin-Yang Pearls I absorbed before might also be related to a True Immortal!"
Li Fan looked at Yin Shangren, waiting for him to continue.
Yin Shangren paused, as if organizing his thoughts. Then, with perfect composure, he explained, "The moment I saw these four pieces, I felt a flicker of familiarity. Not because I've seen them before, but because it's the familiarity of a shared origin. Just like when I encounter those world ghosts..."
Li Fan's eyes glinted as he pondered for a moment, then nodded. "The immense energies of death and life contained within those Yin-Yang Pearls were likely beyond the control of cultivators like us."
Yin Shangren continued, "But these... chess pieces, while they feel familiar, also evoke an instinctive fear within me. It's as if they exist within a strict hierarchy, placing them high, high above!"
"I can also sense that although these worlds are now utterly devoid of the power of life and death, they still hold an immense attraction for me. It feels as if devouring them would bring me incredible benefits! Benefits far greater than even the Yin-Yang Pearls!" Yin Shangren's tone grew hazy, and just as the greed in his eyes threatened to overwhelm him, he squeezed them shut.
A long while passed before the seductive whispers, like those of a demon, faded from his ears. He gradually returned to normal, yet he didn't dare to look at the four chess pieces again.
Li Fan, of course, knew the source of the fear and temptation the gray chess pieces instilled in Yin Shangren.
"They are fragments of laws from the Immortal Realm..."
Silently activating the altered version of the Heaven Mending Record, Li Fan's vision once again resolved the four chess pieces into a lattice of intersecting lines.
Those were the laws of the worlds after they had been forged and remolded.
Li Fan compared their similarities and differences.
Tens of thousands of years had passed; the Star Sea had been shattered and then reborn. Yet, the fundamental Daoist principles that formed the bedrock of worlds had not changed much.
Through countless reincarnations, Li Fan had already developed a profound understanding of the laws of heaven and earth in the cultivation world. After several rounds of observation and comparison, he did indeed discover the parts of these four chess-piece worlds that did not belong to the "lower realms."
They appeared almost indistinguishable from the lines representing ordinary laws of heaven and earth.
But in reality, they were a higher-order replacement for the laws of the lower realms, a rebirth born from sublimation and transformation.
Though they were only fragments of laws used in construction, to Li Fan's eyes, they were like the most brilliant gems in existence.
If the laws of the lower realms were a low hill, no more than a hundred meters high, then the fragments from the Immortal Realm within these four chess pieces were a majestic mountain range stretching for fifty kilometers, all-encompassing and bursting with vitality.
The two simply could not be compared.
And perhaps it was a coincidence, but the fragments of Immortal Realm law contained within each of the four chess pieces were different from one another.
"The laws contained within each chess piece are like a single piece of a puzzle. Once they are all seamlessly integrated, they might form a complete picture."
"There are twelve gray chess pieces in total, which should correspond to the twelve Daoist markers left by Sun Piao Miao back then."
"In that case..."
"There should actually be thirteen. The Medicine King Cauldron, passed down since ancient times in the Xuanhuang Realm and the Medicine King Sect, is not within the range of my senses."
Thinking of this, Li Fan couldn't help but look up and out beyond the Xuanhuang Realm.
The Medicine King Sect's cauldron was still struggling near the Immortal Ruins, having not yet returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
"In any case, it won't be long before it falls. I can just wait. There's no need to risk venturing into the Immortal Ruins to retrieve it."
With that thought, Li Fan reached out and drew one of the chess pieces to him.
As expected, a peculiar sensation washed over him.
In the unseen depths of reality, he could sense the approximate locations of the other gray chess pieces scattered throughout the Star Sea.
"There are four here."
"The Xuanxian Immortal Boat has one."
"Within the vast Realm Fragment Great Wall, there are four more."
"That leaves three. The location of one of them should be the Relic Sea."
"As for the remaining two..."
A strange light flickered in Li Fan's eyes.
He had discovered that these two gray chess pieces were actually located within the Xuanhuang Realm!
"The worlds they originally belonged to must have been used by the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Spreader to repair the Xuanhuang Realm."
"Watch this place. I'll be right back," he instructed Yin Shangren and Bai Hua. Ignoring their astonishment, the phantom of his wooden sword flickered, and following the general direction of the senses, Li Fan was already gone, heading toward the first location.
It was none other than the bottomless Cangwu Abyss.
The Cangwu Abyss, located in the southwestern corner of the Xuanhuang Realm, resembled a massive gaping wound on the world. Its currently explored depth had already reached a staggering one million feet.
Layer upon layer, it was filled with many strange sights, events, and objects.
What was once a perilous, forbidden land now posed little threat to Li Fan, who could even traverse the Star Sea with ease.
Following his senses, he descended ever downward.
Watching the scenery drift ceaselessly upward toward the sky, a thought suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind: "The various things within this Cangwu Abyss must have come from different, shattered cultivation worlds. Piled up here, it looks like a temporary storage site for the materials used to stitch the Xuanhuang Realm back together."
"If anything is needed during the world's repair, it can be taken from here at any time. One day, this Cangwu Abyss will be filled. But by then, perhaps the Xuanhuang Realm will have already been reborn."
Li Fan observed the many strange sights within the abyss with great interest.
The closer the abyss was to the surface of the Xuanhuang Realm, the more it was influenced by the world's aura of life, giving rise to unique landscapes like the Spirit Language Forest, Puppet Gorge, and the Lost City.
But the deeper he went, the closer the floating world fragments were to their original appearance.
After the destruction of a world, all that remained was dead silence.
Some world fragments even had traces of a True Immortal's power lingering on them.
"This could almost be considered a miniature version of the Realm Fragment Great Wall."
"However, its stability is not as high as the real Great Wall. The accumulated residual power of True Immortals occasionally erupts..."
"No wonder this is a forbidden zone for cultivators."
When the sword's shadow descended to a depth of over 1,700 kilometers, Li Fan once again sensed the presence of an "Immortal-Suppressing Force" within the abyss.
"This Immortal-Suppressing Force must be the pressure generated by the Cangwu Abyss on any cultivators who intrude, an imitation of the Realm Fragment Great Wall constructed by the Heavenly Doctor."
"To be precise, the 'presence' of this Cangwu Abyss increases in step-like increments from top to bottom. Although the elevation gain is extremely limited, and overall doesn't even exceed that of the Xuanhuang Realm by much, for cultivators within the abyss, the sensation is incredibly distinct."
"Only by reaching a corresponding level of cultivation can one safely survive in the abyss layer with the appropriate level of presence. Otherwise, it's like a mortal stumbling into the Immortal Realm—reaching a height that doesn't belong to them, with being crushed as the only possible outcome."
Having deciphered the secrets of the Cangwu Abyss, Li Fan had now roughly pinpointed the location of the wandering gray chess piece.
Amidst a field of shattered architectural ruins that looked as if they had been hacked to pieces by a thousand blades, Li Fan found the fifth gray chess piece.
It was a majestic stone statue of a qilin, lying quietly on its side on the ground, just as it had been when its world was destroyed ten thousand years ago.
The statue was one of a pair, but after examining the other, Li Fan determined it was just ordinary stone.
"Very well hidden."
Li Fan crushed the statue, restoring it to its chess piece form, and then surveyed his surroundings.
Based on the appearance of the surrounding ruins, Li Fan pieced together the world to which it originally belonged.
"The Seven Fiends Realm. A world where seven types of malevolent qi raged, permeating every corner. They could even take form and attack people. For this reason, all buildings in that world were adorned with various beast statues of all sizes to absorb and suppress the fiendish energy."
"It was once a cultivation world of considerable scale. The cultivators of the Seven Fiends Realm were born tainted by this malevolent qi, and their every move carried its characteristics. The most exceptional geniuses could even master all seven..."
"What a pity. Time flows on, and everything has long since turned to dust." Li Fan sighed, shook his head slightly, and left the place.
The other gray chess piece remaining in the Xuanhuang Realm was buried deep beneath Tianyun Province.
There were no strange phenomena occurring at its location.
"It must have originally been within another world fragment but has now been fully integrated into the Xuanhuang Realm as the fusion process progressed."
"Just like those fragments from the Tianfa Realm at the bottom of the Cong Yun Sea. Under normal circumstances, they would eventually become deeply buried beneath the Cong Yun mountains as the world evolves."
Without alerting anyone, Li Fan successfully retrieved it.
At this point, Li Fan had collected a total of six gray chess pieces.
Returning to the Lecture Stage of the Great Qi, he arranged the six pieces together.
With nearly half of the set assembled, the influence between the pieces seemed to grow stronger.
They began to orbit each other, their speed increasing with every rotation.
Li Fan saw that in this high-speed rotation, the lines representing the laws of the worlds were attracting each other, slowly merging.
And the fragments of Immortal Realm law drifted closer, completing more of the puzzle.
Even though it was only six out of thirteen pieces, it was enough to trigger a qualitative change.
The puzzle of Immortal Realm laws was like a sudden void appearing in the middle of the ocean.
The worlds, which had been frozen in stillness, were like the calm sea itself.
The moment the void appeared, the seawater couldn't help but surge and pour into it.
The six worlds, like wet, distorted planar paintings, were drawn like liquid into the puzzle of Immortal Realm law fragments.
Following the template already designed by the puzzle, they formed a brand-new world.
Blue sky, white clouds, and a sprawling meadow.
It seemed like an ordinary pastoral scene from the mortal world.
Yet Li Fan felt a breadth and vastness from it that he had never before experienced between heaven and earth.
Even the tender green blades of grass growing vigorously on the ground contained an unimaginable, thriving life force!
"The Immortal Realm?!" Li Fan's heart pounded as he caught a glimpse of the scene within the fused chess piece.
"No, this is just a fragment of what the Immortal Realm once was. It would be more accurate to call it a piece of an Immortal Domain."
"And this Immortal Domain is still incomplete."
Between the grasslands and the sky of this Immortal Realm, there was clearly something else that should have existed.
But because the remaining seven gray chess pieces were missing, it could not be fully rendered.
Li Fan stared, entranced, at the scene before him, a profound sense of regret rising in his heart.
An uncontrollable urge, as if he had personally shattered a priceless treasure and was desperate to repair it, welled up from every corner of his mind.
If not for the protection of his Immortal Heart Mantra and his vast experience with similar situations, he might have lost control right then and there, driven to immediately chase after the remaining pieces.
But as it was, Li Fan ignored the temptation.
With the fusion complete, only a single chess piece remained. It was no longer gray but shimmered intermittently with a seven-colored radiance. It had even swelled in size.
Li Fan reached out and solemnly stored away the six-in-one chess piece.
"Hmm?"
To Li Fan's surprise, the moment he took the piece into his body, it felt as if countless great mountains had been pressed down upon him.
Caught off guard, his body plummeted downward several feet.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly. The power of the Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformation revived and flowed through him, providing an endless stream of strength that allowed him to just barely bear the load.
"Is this... the weight of the Immortal Realm?"
"I can barely carry a mere fragment of a broken Immortal Domain?"
"I'm afraid that once all thirteen fragments are gathered and fused into a true Immortal Domain, with my current cultivation, I won't be able to bear it at all!"
Once again, Li Fan felt the terrifying difference between immortals and mortals.
But at the same time, a sense of joy, not alarm, rose in his heart.
"I was just worrying that after the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension, I wouldn't be able to find an anchor point to sustain that state."
"Now it seems that if I integrate this Immortal Domain into the Xuanhuang Realm, it will definitely be able to adapt and won't easily fall from its new state."
"With this Immortal Domain as its core, the Xuanhuang Realm might even be able to climb higher!"
"Heaven itself is aiding me!" Li Fan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement.
But soon after, his instincts kicked in, and he began to feel suspicious about the origin of these Immortal Domain fragments.
(End of Chapter)
Comments