Chapter 1352: The Dao Annihilation Approaches the Star Sea
Chapter 1352: The Dao Annihilation Approaches the Star Sea
Guided by Li Fan’s subtle suggestion, Wuming did not leave the Thirteen Peaks World immediately.
Instead, he simply and naturally rose from his supine position of gazing at the heavens, standing up.
He was now a little closer to this world’s Heavenly Dao. He gently extended his arms, touching the wind, touching the sky.
The blue sky and white clouds remained as they always were.
The creatures of the Thirteen Peaks World noticed nothing amiss.
Only Li Fan could see that the entire world had fallen into a slight tremor at Wuming’s touch.
“It seems to have sensed Wuming’s intention to leave, and the speed at which this world’s Heavenly Dao is merging with him has accelerated...”
“In the future, the world’s Heavenly Dao will remain, but an imprint of it will follow Wuming out into the greater world beyond.”
“If one had the power, who would wish to remain a bird in a cage forever?”
Li Fan sighed softly, then his expression turned solemn. “Then I shall give you another push.”
A phantom of the [Creation] True Immortal Seal Character flashed across the firmament of the Thirteen Peaks World and vanished.
This world was so minuscule that the mere appearance of the Creation character was enough to bring about earth-shaking changes.
Spiritual energy began to burgeon within the world.
The thirteen mountain peaks slowly began to rise.
The grass and trees on the mountains flourished with vigorous life.
Standing atop the highest peak, Wuming felt a stirring in his heart. Jolted from his state of immersion, he looked around, but ultimately found nothing.
Sensing the changes in the world around him, Wuming, though perplexed, gradually broke into a happy smile.
...
The transformation of the Thirteen Peaks World was still ongoing.
Li Fan, however, left behind a sliver of his divine sense to monitor Wuming’s actions, while his main consciousness departed.
Returning to the Xuanhuang Realm, he took out a jade talisman that was blinking erratically, its light flashing with a frantic urgency.
It was the very talisman Mo Rubin had given him before.
Mo Rubin had remained within the Tian Beast's Eye, intending to use its power to search for traces of the Xuantian King throughout the Xuanhuang Realm and the Darkest Star Sea. He had said he would have results in three to five months at most.
By his calculations, the time was about right.
As his divine sense made contact, Mo Rubin’s voice instantly appeared in Li Fan’s mind.
It was intermittent and unclear, as if subject to some kind of interference.
“I’ve found... something strange...”
“Come quickly.”
The message was just that one line.
The talisman’s light dimmed, but Li Fan could faintly sense it guiding him toward the Tian Beast’s skeletal veins in Nine Mountains Prefecture.
With a single step, Li Fan arrived in the territory of the Nine Mountains Prefecture.
The so-called skeletal veins of the Tian Beast were the nine mountain ranges that stretched across the land.
Following the guidance of the jade talisman, Li Fan reached the summit of Yulan Mountain.
Yulan Mountain was the tallest of the nine mountains.
Standing at its peak, he could take in the entire layout of the nine mountain ranges.
It was likely due to the power of the Tian Beast's Eye channeled through Mo Rubin's talisman; Li Fan had looked down upon Nine Mountains Prefecture from high above many times before, but never with such clarity.
All the mountains and rivers that had formed over the Tian Beast's skeleton were erased from his sight.
In Li Fan’s eyes, only the most primordial parts of the Tian Beast remained.
Just as Mo Rubin had said, though the Tian Beast was dead, its skeletal veins endured. Through these nine mountain ranges, even after tens of thousands of years, Li Fan could still faintly discern the majestic form of the ancient colossal beast.
“The nine mountains represent the nine aspects of the pulse: long, short, empty, rapid, knotted, substituting, confined, moving, and fine.”
“This Tian Beast was formed from a jade pendant the Xuantian King brought back from the Immortal World, yet its meridians are no different from a human’s...”
The guiding force from the jade talisman grew stronger, and suddenly, it felt as if he were enveloped by a thin membrane.
Li Fan did not resist the force wrapping around him, allowing it to lead him.
A moment later, Li Fan found himself back inside the Tian Beast's Eye.
The palpable sense of danger made him instinctively reinforce his own defenses.
Compared to when he had left, something here seemed to have changed.
And Mo Rubin’s condition did not look good.
It wasn't that he had any obvious injuries, but he seemed utterly depleted, as if his very life essence had been drained away.
For a cultivator of Mo Rubin’s power, this was something that would almost only happen after suffering a fatal blow.
“Brother Mo, what happened?” Li Fan exclaimed in a low, astonished voice.
Mo Rubin waved his hand. “I’m fine now. It was caused by that strange thing I told you about.”
He wasted no time and got straight to the point.
“Fellow Daoist, look.”
The space within the Tian Beast's Eye suddenly brightened.
On the countless circular bubbles lining the curved perimeter, the exact same scene appeared.
“This isn’t a real-time observation from the Tian Beast's Eye. It’s a recorded image from before,” Mo Rubin reminded him.
Countless bubbles overlapped, their myriad images merging into one.
Instantly, Li Fan felt as if he were there.
A star sea, silent yet hiding a flicker of life.
A miniature black vortex spun slowly but relentlessly.
It was a black that represented the annihilation of all things, expanding outward slowly but with grim determination.
The residual power of True Immortals, the restorative energy of the recovering Star Sea...
No matter what it was, everything was devoured and assimilated as the black vortex swept over it.
The perspective of the image suddenly zoomed out.
From a corner of the Star Sea, it expanded to encompass almost the entirety of the Darkest Star Sea.
The black vortex, within the already pitch-black expanse, was hardly conspicuous.
But after witnessing the full panorama of the Star Sea, Li Fan’s gaze remained locked on that vortex.
He couldn't suppress the sense of crisis rising in his heart. His heart, quite unusually, skipped several beats.
Only then did Li Fan realize that the location of the black vortex was the very center of the Star Sea he had visited before, where he had made contact with the true will of its origin!
Moreover, the black energy that constituted the vortex...
It was strikingly similar to what he had obtained by decomposing True Immortal flesh with the Falling into the Mortal Dust ring, and to the energy contained within Han Zhong, who was trapped in the Tian Beast's Eye.
And yet, the feeling each of the three gave him was distinctly different.
There was a clear hierarchy.
The energy in the black vortex was far more dangerous.
Li Fan couldn't help but frown slightly.
“What is this?” he asked.
“I don’t know. But I am certain it is related to the [Dao Annihilation Calamity] of the former Immortal Realm,” Mo Rubin said with the utmost gravity, his words shocking.
“?” Li Fan’s heart jolted. “The Dao Annihilation Calamity?”
Mo Rubin waved a large hand, and the black vortexes on the countless bubbles vanished, returning to their normal observation of the Star Sea.
“I discovered this black vortex by chance while using the Tian Beast's Eye to search the Star Sea for Brother Xuanyuan.”
“At first, I didn’t pay it much mind. I thought it was just a normal anomaly that had developed in the Star Sea over the years. But later...”
Mo Rubin coughed, then extended his ten fingers toward the bubbles of the Tian Beast's Eye.
In the blink of an eye, tens of thousands of inky-black threads shot from Mo Rubin’s fingertips, each flying toward a different bubble.
Li Fan saw clearly that at the end of each black thread was a miniature version of Mo Rubin.
However, the expressions on their faces were all different—some snarling, some terrified, some driven to madness.
When the thousands of Mo Rubins surged toward the bubbles of the Tian Beast's Eye and made contact, they seemed to suffer some unspeakable torture, letting out sharp, piercing screams in unison.
But their bodies did not stop moving.
They plunged their hands deep into the bubbles and then yanked with all their might.
As if tearing off a rotting, foul-smelling outer skin, they ripped a layer of viscous, black, unknown substance from the Tian Beast's Eye.
“Aaaah!”
The miniature Mo Rubins howled even more fiercely.
Their forms were corroded by the black substance, becoming blurry and indistinct, looking as if they might dissipate at any moment.
But under the control of the main Mo Rubin, they never let go.
They completely tore the black, decaying skin away from the Tian Beast's Eye.
Gulp, gulp...
Then, instead of collecting the black substance, they opened their now-unclear mouths and began to devour it in great gulps.
As the viscous, decaying blackness entered their stomachs, the faces of the miniature Mo Rubins became impossible to discern.
“The demonic heart is indestructible, the immortal body is eternal.”
At that moment, Mo Rubin’s cold voice suddenly rang out.
A mysterious power instantly descended, blanketing the blurry figures.
It kept them from completely dissipating.
They were like little pouches, holding firm, containing that black, viscous substance.
Mo Rubin’s expression was incredibly grave. With extreme caution, he summoned his demonic hearts to return.
Not to himself, of course.
He took out a jade box and sealed them all inside.
Only after finishing all this did Mo Rubin let out a long sigh of relief.
Li Fan, however, could see that Mo Rubin had grown even weaker.
He stared at him intently, waiting for an explanation.
Mo Rubin rested for a moment before speaking, his voice weak. “This is already the fourth time I’ve had to cleanse it.”
“I originally thought this black energy was a normal phenomenon in the Star Sea and harmless, but I never imagined that after just a few observations, the Tian Beast's Eye would be eroded by it.”
“Fortunately, the Tian Beast's Eye originates from the Immortal Realm, so its essence is superior to that of the lower realm’s Star Sea. And it wasn’t direct contact. So there was still a chance to salvage the situation.”
“I can use the cleansing method you just saw to completely remove the black energy attached to it.”
Hearing this, Li Fan also breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s a blessing in disguise, then.”
However, he quickly grew alarmed again and asked with dread, “The Dao Annihilation Calamity—you said it was the disaster that destroyed the Immortal Realm. Has it appeared in the Star Sea now? Even True Immortals couldn’t withstand it. Are we not facing imminent doom?”
“Fellow Daoist, you need not be so tense. The situation is not that dire,” Mo Rubin said, shaking his head.
He paused, choosing his words carefully, then slowly said, “Back then, Brother Xuanyuan worried that the Dao Annihilation Calamity of the Immortal Realm would spread to the lower realms.”
“Although he never said it explicitly, I could tell.”
“I’ve told you before, if you do not know the name of the Dao Annihilation Calamity, you would not recognize the disaster even if you saw it face to face. But if you know its name, you will instinctively sense it, even upon seeing the first sign. Fellow Daoist, now that you know the name ‘Dao Annihilation,’ did you feel anything when you observed that black energy?” Mo Rubin asked.
Li Fan recalled what he had just seen. “I did not.”
“Exactly,” Mo Rubin said in a low voice. “I suspect this black energy is not the [Dao Annihilation Calamity] itself. It is the sign of the Dao Annihilation Calamity’s approach!”
“Just as dark clouds gather before a heavy rain, and the earth’s veins tremble before a mountain collapses, worldly disasters are often preceded by some kind of omen. This black energy is perhaps the omen that the Dao Annihilation Calamity is about to descend.”
“And...” Mo Rubin’s expression grew even more solemn.
“It is more than just an omen. As you saw before, the black energy seems capable of devouring anything that approaches it in the Star Sea. If we do nothing to prevent it and allow it to spread, it’s possible that the growth of this black energy will cause the Dao Annihilation Calamity to arrive even sooner.”
Hearing this, Li Fan’s brows furrowed deeply, his expression just as grave.
He remained silent for a long time, as if processing the information in Mo Rubin’s words.
“How could this be?” After a long pause, this was all Li Fan managed to say.
His tone was tinged with a hint of dread.
Mo Rubin could only respond with silence.
“The world is unpredictable. Or perhaps, all of this was destined from the day the Immortal Realm was shattered,” Mo Rubin lamented after a long while.
“Is there no way to stop the spread of this black vortex?” Li Fan asked, unwilling to accept fate.
“Even if there is, it is beyond our knowledge. Brother Xuanyuan... perhaps he would have a way.”
Li Fan’s eyes lit up as if he had found a lifeline. He quickly asked, “Right, did you find any trace of the Xuantian King when you searched the Xuanhuang Realm and the Star Sea with the Tian Beast's Eye?”
Mo Rubin gave a self-deprecating smile. “If I had found him, I wouldn’t have had to go to the trouble of cleaning up this Dao Annihilation black energy myself.”
“However...”
“It wasn’t a complete dead end.”
Li Fan’s gaze immediately fixed on Mo Rubin.
“Back when Brother Xuanyuan mysteriously vanished, he sent out several warnings in his final moments.”
“Several of us Dharma King brothers should have received one.”
“But there was another one, sent beyond the Xuanhuang Realm, even beyond the starry sky.”
“This message was extremely covert. I wouldn’t have been able to detect it under normal circumstances. It was only because I was using the Tian Beast's Eye that a faint trace was left behind, which I was then able to perceive,” Mo Rubin said in a hushed voice.
Hearing this, Li Fan narrowed his eyes. “Beyond the starry sky? Could it be...”
He was startled.
“There is only one possibility. Brother Xuanyuan’s message was intended for the Faceless Immortal,” Mo Rubin stated directly.
“I remember you saying that when the Xuantian King disappeared, the head of the Faceless Immortal’s statue broke off for some unknown reason...”
Mo Rubin nodded. “That’s why I suspect that when Brother Xuanyuan was in peril, the Faceless Immortal offered protection. But it still wasn’t enough, and the conduit for transmitting power—the statue—was severed.”
“In his final moments, Brother Xuanyuan discovered something, and so he sent a message through the Tian Beast's Eye of the [Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation], towards the location of the Faceless Immortal beyond the Star Sea.”
“He wanted to tell that Faceless True Immortal what he had discovered.”
Li Fan was engrossed, and couldn’t help but ask, “Can you use the traces in the Tian Beast's Eye to figure out what message the Xuantian King sent back then?”
“That is impossible,” Mo Rubin said, his voice full of regret.
“Setting aside the fact that Brother Xuanyuan would have certainly encrypted it...”
“My brother did not tell us Dharma Kings the secret hidden in that message, choosing instead to inform the Faceless Immortal. It’s obvious that even if he told us, we would have been powerless to deal with it. Just like the true face of the Dao Annihilation Calamity, knowing would only bring us more sorrow.”
(End of this chapter)
Comments