Chapter 1350: Fissures Throughout the Star Sea
Since mastering the Wooden Sword Shadow Evasion, this was the first time Li Fan had ever felt the technique so violently affected by an external force. He even had a faint premonition that if [Truth] hadn't just absorbed the trident-like tree, deepening his understanding of the transformation between reality and illusion, this sudden plunge would have shattered the technique and left him severely wounded at the very least.
Fortunately, Li Fan had indeed progressed, however slightly.
It was this minuscule improvement that allowed him to barely maintain the Wooden Sword Shadow, successfully entering the lowland node within the Realm Fragment Great Wall!
This place was different from the reservoir-like lowland Li Fan had encountered before, which had been used to store the remnant power of a True Immortal.
Upon entering this node, he could clearly perceive how the drastic shift in cosmic potential made it distinct from the outside world.
It was like a deep, bottomless fissure had suddenly split open the earth.
Li Fan and the others were now at the bottom of that abyss, looking up at a continuous sliver of sky.
Except here, the sky was a sheet of silent, pitch-black darkness.
And this fissure-like lowland...
He, however, flickered out from under its cover.
He wanted to experience this place for himself.
The surroundings remained shrouded in a deep gloom.
But the “blackness” here was different from the dead void outside.
It felt more like the fall of a summer night, teeming with a burgeoning vitality that lay hidden within!
“A fissure node in the High Wall holds such an immense concentration of life force?” Li Fan was inwardly astonished.
After a more careful examination, he confirmed that it was no illusion.
Li Fan observed further.
Apart from the pure life force, it seemed no living creatures had yet been born within this fissure node.
Moreover, the actual scope of this place was not confined to a small corner as it appeared from a normal perspective. Instead, it stretched endlessly outward, seemingly without any end at all.
Seeing no immediate danger, Li Fan finally dismissed his technique.
Yin Shangren and Bai Hua gazed at their surroundings in utter amazement.
The genesis of the life force here was clearly beyond their comprehension. They remained tense, fearing that some unknown creature would suddenly emerge from the nearby gloom and attack.
Li Fan noticed their reactions and realized with a start that they did not share his composure.
Perhaps it was their first time experiencing this "shift in potential," this departure from the region they had known their entire lives, that left their minds unsettled and filled with a profound sense of insecurity.
It was as if mortals who had spent their entire lives on a high plateau were suddenly transported to the edge of a cliff or a chasm deep within the earth, stripped of any means of self-preservation. A change in their state of mind was only natural.
After speaking a few words of reassurance, Li Fan began to slowly explore the fissure-lowland with them.
An absolute silence reigned.
A pure life force, like that which might have existed at the dawn of creation, flowed quietly here, like a subterranean river.
The life force billowed upward, yet it could not escape the deep fissure.
It simply lingered and gathered in this place.
Li Fan keenly sensed that the life force here was markedly different from the kind that birthed life in the Xuanhuang Realm.
If the Xuanhuang Realm possessed such a staggering amount of vitality, it would undoubtedly trigger all sorts of incredible transformations. Mountains would rise from the earth, and forests of towering trees would stretch to the heavens. It would certainly be accompanied by the birth of countless new species and beings.
But here, life force was merely life force.
It did not meet the conditions for life to arise and evolve, giving it the bizarre feeling of a stagnant pool.
“Perhaps the potential of this place is too low,” Li Fan couldn't help but think.
After slowly exploring for the better part of a day, the scenery remained utterly unchanged.
Frowning, Li Fan instructed Yin Shangren and Bai Hua to wait where they were.
He then commanded the Wooden Sword Shadow and shot forward at incredible speed.
At his current pace, he could cross the entire Darkest Star Sea in less than a day.
Yet, to his astonishment, Li Fan discovered that this fissure-lowland was far, far longer than he had ever imagined!
As he advanced, he even found that the fissure branched out like a labyrinth, with different paths splitting off from the main channel.
At first, it was manageable, with only a handful of forks.
But soon, each branch led to dozens, even hundreds, of different tunnels.
And not long after, each of those tunnels split into a multitude of new branches.
Eventually, despite his heaven-defying speed, Li Fan dared not venture deeper.
This fissure-maze was simply too vast.
He had explored at high speed for three days—theoretically long enough to have toured the entire Darkest Star Sea.
Yet he still couldn't see any end to the labyrinthine fissure.
Li Fan had no choice but to rely on his memory to find his way back.
After he explained the situation to Yin Shangren and Bai Hua, both were shaken beyond words.
“This strange fissure is not confined to the area beneath the Realm Fragment Great Wall.”
“It might be like a network of subterranean channels, extending from all directions to every corner of the Darkest Star Sea!” Yin Shangren exclaimed, a glimmer of understanding in his eyes.
Bai Hua nodded in agreement. “I can faintly sense the source of the life force here. It comes not only from the ruins of countless shattered worlds within the Realm Fragment Great Wall, but also from every corner of the silent Star Sea!”
“It truly is like an underground river, drawing in every nascent spark of life, gathering it here like a thousand trickling streams.”
If the High Wall was the supreme existence that confined the Star Sea, then this fissure-lowland hidden beneath its nodes was the absolute lowest point of the entire cosmos.
The vast majority of the life force generated as the Star Sea recovered from its destruction was funneled through these omnipresent fissures, slowly accumulating here.
It was precisely because it had gathered most of the Star Sea's life force for millions of years that the sheer volume of vitality contained here was enough to make even Li Fan's heart pound.
“This magnificent creation... it could never be the work of man...”
“Could it be the handiwork of a True Immortal again? Like the High Wall, designed to completely seal off the life force of the Darkest Star Sea,” Yin Shangren mused, his expression a mixture of awe and uncertainty.
As for Bai Hua, she had gradually recovered from her earlier fear.
“Venerable Master, may I absorb some of this life force?” she asked.
Li Fan’s eyes flickered. After a moment of contemplation, he answered, “If you only take a small amount, not enough to agitate the river of life force, it should be safe.”
“But remember, do not be greedy. Know when to stop. Otherwise...”
Li Fan gazed at the calmly flowing river of life force, his expression grave. “The quantity is too immense. If its magnificent power were to erupt, even life force can kill!”
Bai Hua nodded. “I understand. In truth, I don't need much. Just enough to awaken the frozen Glazed World...”
Her voice was wistful. As she spoke, she transformed into her Glazed Golden Body.
Deep within the core of the brilliant, transparent golden figure, a miniature world, exquisitely carved like a sculpture of ice and jade, was clearly visible.
One could faintly make out the scenes of countless cultivators, sects, mountains, and rivers from its past.
“Glazed... Blossom...”
Bai Hua chanted softly, and her golden body suddenly morphed into a thirty-two-petaled Glazed Golden Flower.
Sacred and solemn.
The Glazed Golden Flower drifted into the river of life force, yet it caused no splash, no ripple.
It simply floated in silence.
Its thirty-two petals slowly began to unfurl.
Li Fan watched as threads of life force were drawn in by the petals, all of it funneled into the miniature world at the flower's heart.
But the vast life force here seemed incredibly viscous, not so easily extracted.
Despite the combined efforts of all thirty-two petals, only a single drop, then another, materialized within the central projection.
But even this tiny amount of life force was like a downpour after a long drought for the miniature world.
Like a wilted flower restored by water, it regained its former vibrancy.
All sorts of incredible changes began to unfold within that miniature world—the Wansheng Realm.
A look of ecstatic joy washed over Bai Hua’s face.
Yin Shangren, too, was momentarily captivated by the wondrous sight.
Li Fan, however, noticed that Bai Hua’s absorption of life force was causing the surrounding energies to slowly coalesce into a tiny whirlpool around her.
At first, the whirlpool was small, but it soon showed signs of expanding at a frantic pace.
It was as if the life force from the entire fissure was about to come roaring toward them. The sheer, overwhelming pressure, like the sky itself collapsing, made even Li Fan narrow his eyes.
“That's enough!” Li Fan warned, his brow furrowed.
Bai Hua was clear-headed enough not to be blinded by the immediate benefit.
Though deeply reluctant, she ultimately retracted the thirty-two-petaled Glazed Golden Flower.
Without an outlet, the gradually roaring river of life force began to quiet down once more.
However, the life force that had already gathered did not dissipate, instead forming a torrential current where they stood.
The scouring power of the rushing vitality made Li Fan and the others feel as if their very souls were about to be swept away with it.
Li Fan had to reinforce the protection of the Wooden Sword Shadow.
Yin Shangren stared at the seemingly tranquil yet treacherous scene and had a sudden epiphany. “I know where that contradictory, ever-present sense of danger comes from! What flows here isn't just life force. On its surface flows another layer, an unknown power that absorbs vitality!”
“It is this power that continuously siphons life force from every corner of the Star Sea, sealing it here!”
Having returned to her normal form, Bai Hua nodded in agreement. “In order to separate that power from the pure life force, my absorption was incredibly difficult. Strictly speaking, the rank of this life-stripping power doesn't seem to be very high. Even I was able to separate it.”
“But...” A flicker of fear crossed Bai Hua’s face.
“Its quantity is simply too immense. For as much life force as there is in this fissure, there is an equal amount of this stripping power. We might be able to withstand the assault of a few waves, but we would never survive an endless barrage.”
At this, Bai Hua couldn’t help but glance at Li Fan.
She paused. “Perhaps, Venerable Master, with your transcendent evasion technique, you could escape.”
Li Fan did not respond.
Instead, he reached out his hand, touching the rushing current of life force to feel it for himself.
The corrosion of the life-stripping power was immediately apparent.
The hand that touched the current instantly turned deathly pale.
Its flesh seemed to have been hollowed out, the bones within becoming faintly visible.
Moreover, this loss of vitality began to slowly creep up his arm, spreading to the rest of his body.
Li Fan decisively severed his own arm, halting the advance of the life-stripping power.
The dismembered hand fell into the river of life.
Without the protection of his main body, it melted like a wax figure in extreme heat, dissolving until nothing remained.
It had become a part of the river of life.
“This power...”
Regrowing his arm, Li Fan flexed it slightly, recalling the details he had just perceived.
It wasn’t a simple drain of life force.
Instead, it instantly scoured away the very foundation upon which life force depended.
If the skin is gone, what can the hair attach to? Without its foundation, life force had nothing to cling to and was simply swept away.
It was a profound and esoteric sensation.
Li Fan still didn't understand what this “foundation of life force” truly was.
But he could clearly feel its loss.
“Truly incredible.”
“But...”
“It seems to share something in common with the High Wall.”
Li Fan mused, “The so-called High Wall is, in essence, a supreme rule, a limitation. It dictates that there is no path forward—or rather, that there is no ‘forward’ at all!”
“And this life-stripping power within the fissure causes the very foundation that sustains life to vanish.”
“...”
The fissure-lowland lay hidden beneath the normal Star Sea.
Like a subterranean river, it stretched to every corner of the cosmos.
Its scale was so magnificent that only the being who had constructed the High Wall could possibly have created it.
“Perhaps it truly is as Yin Shangren guessed, a mechanism to extract and seal away the Star Sea's life force?”
But a flicker of doubt soon entered Li Fan’s mind.
It did extract life force, but not completely.
Because the vast amount of vitality the fissure had siphoned over countless millennia was still lying here, dormant and untouched!
Admittedly, entering the fissure was exceedingly difficult. Li Fan himself had traveled past the Realm Fragment Great Wall countless times without ever noticing the minuscule entrance to the node.
But it wasn’t an absolute impossibility.
There was still a chance of entering by a stroke of fortune.
For example, it was pure chance that allowed someone to be struck by the roiling stellar energies and fall into this fissure.
“If the true goal was to extinguish all life in the Star Sea, then with the power to build the High Wall and carve these fissures, the creator could have simply siphoned all this vitality outside the High Wall’s boundary.”
“And yet, it was left here, inside the Star Sea...”
Li Fan pondered this, a strange expression on his face. “Either the creator of the fissure and the creator of the High Wall are two different entities.”
“Or, this was done intentionally.”
An image of the entire Darkest Star Sea appeared in Li Fan’s mind.
On all sides, the High Wall towered, sealing it off.
At its base, a dense network of fissures snaked through the void, channeling and preserving the Star Sea’s life force.
And at the very edge of the Star Sea...
The highest High Wall and the lowest fissure...
Converged.
“A cosmic marvel.”
“For the creatures living within the Star Sea, both are symbols of utter despair. However...”
“Perhaps this fissure is not.”
The image in Li Fan’s mind shifted once more.
“The Star Sea is recovering from its destruction. But to nurture new life is not a feat that can be accomplished overnight.”
“Especially when, for millions of years, the remnant power of True Immortals has lingered and not yet dissipated. Even if life force were to re-emerge, it would quickly be tainted by that remnant power. It would be like a few drops of rain in a scorching desert, evaporating in an instant.”
“The trickles of life slowly appearing across the Star Sea are a complete waste; they cannot truly allow life to flourish here.”
“But if they were all to be collected...”
Li Fan’s eyes narrowed.
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