Chapter 1366: The Heavenly Doctor's Secret
The Heavenly Doctor's pale hair and beard stirred, untouched by any breeze.
His face, a roadmap of deep-set wrinkles, flickered through a thousand different visages in an instant.
It was a mystery why the Celestial Demon, imprisoned in ice for millennia, sought to possess him the very moment it broke free.
However, the Heavenly Doctor was now the Grand Venerable of All Laws, far too powerful for the enfeebled Celestial Demon to overcome.
He raised his left hand, plunging a long golden needle straight into the crown of his head.
In a flash, his features stabilized, and the demon's ethereal form was violently expelled from his body.
Simultaneously, innumerable golden threads materialized, weaving themselves into an intricate, intersecting web that seemed to construct a tangible world of its own.
The newly expelled Celestial Demon, unable to control its own form, found itself being slowly drawn into this gilded cage.
The Celestial Demon let out a series of low growls but was ultimately subdued by the Heavenly Doctor's power.
After a brief examination, his tightly knitted brow relaxed. "This might be for the best. Its fundamental nature—the ability to corrupt the hearts of mortals—remains. This will only make my task easier."
He let out a soft sigh, a brief lament for the fall of a once-powerful being, before swiftly turning his attention back to the matter at hand.
He began to tow the sealed Celestial Demon, along with another suitable world fragment he had acquired, back toward the Tianfa Realm.
Naturally, the Heavenly Doctor did not let the year-long journey go to waste.
As he blazed through the void, countless fine golden threads, like ethereal tentacles, danced around him.
They keenly sensed every trace of residual True Immortal power he encountered along his path.
He was still swayed by the suggestion Su Bai, the Heavenly Venerate who had attained the Dao, had offered.
"Indeed," he mused, "if wielded correctly, the power contained within these True Immortal Scripts might just be enough to challenge the Immortal Ruins..."
Lost in thought, the Heavenly Doctor used his hand as a brush, tracing several characters in the empty void.
Though they were mere phantoms of light, their appearance sent ripples of immense power echoing through space.
The intensity of these tremors grew steadily as he drew closer to the Tianfa Realm.
This was the result of less than a year of study.
It was a testament to the Heavenly Doctor's terrifying genius.
When the Tianfa Realm finally came into view, the Heavenly Doctor casually dispelled the True Immortal Scripts he had conjured.
He then unleashed his full aura, making a grand spectacle of feeding the world fragment to his home realm.
The act was designed to draw the attention of nearly every Longevity-stage expert within the Tianfa Realm.
Meanwhile, he silently dispatched a phantom of himself, which carried the sealed Celestial Demon toward the domain of a being known as the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate.
It was hard to say if this particular Heavenly Venerate was supremely confident in his power or simply a fool.
Most of the other Longevity-stage beings in the Tianfa Realm went to great lengths to conceal their auras and keep their locations hidden and unpredictable.
Only this Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate made no effort to hide his presence.
Consequently, the Heavenly Doctor's phantom had no trouble slipping unnoticed into the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate's vicinity.
The Venerate appeared to be in deep meditation, startled from his seclusion by the Heavenly Doctor's grand display. He glanced skyward, a flicker of resentment in his eyes.
In front of the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate, a phantom map of the Tianfa Realm hung in the air, and it immediately captured the Heavenly Doctor’s attention.
Several locations were highlighted within the projection—places that were somehow entirely outside his perception, despite his status as the Grand Venerable of All Laws!
A chill ran down the Heavenly Doctor's spine. After a moment of intense scrutiny, realization dawned. "So, these are the remnants of the Xuanhuang Realm!"
"This Venerate's ascension to the Dao must have inadvertently helped the Xuanhuang Realm cling to existence. That's why its lingering Heavenly Dao consciousness sought him out!"
"He's courting death!"
Killing intent flared in the Heavenly Doctor's heart.
The Tianfa Realm was his home, the repository of his past and the memories of his friends and family.
He would never allow anyone to covet it, let alone harm it!
"By the Everlasting Law of Tianfa, freeze!"
Without another moment's hesitation, the Heavenly Doctor unleashed his most powerful technique.
Across the Tianfa Realm, the wind died, the rain halted. All things, even the very flow of heaven and earth, ground to a standstill.
The Longevity-stage cultivators, themselves embodiments of the world's principles, were no exception.
The Heavenly Doctor materialized behind the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate, slowly raising a hand to rest it upon the unsuspecting cultivator's head.
With a sudden burst of ethereal light, he infused the tamed Celestial Demon into his target.
The Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate's face began to flicker wildly through countless visages, just as the Heavenly Doctor's had.
Halting the fundamental laws of an entire realm was clearly an immense strain, even for the Heavenly Doctor.
The moment a part of the Celestial Demon was successfully implanted within his victim, he immediately allowed the world to resume its natural course.
In that single instant, more silver streaked the Heavenly Doctor's hair, and the light in his eyes grew dimmer, tainted by a touch of murkiness.
As the Grand Venerable of All Laws, the Heavenly Doctor was intrinsically linked to his realm; the toll on his body manifested across the Tianfa Realm itself.
Lands turned barren for hundreds of kilometers, glaciers melted, and countless beings withered and died.
The entire world seemed to have suffered a grievous wound from that momentary 'pause'.
But he watched as the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate's contorted, shifting features finally settled into a placid expression. The Venerate showed no trace of hatred toward his assailant; he even offered a slight nod of acknowledgment.
The Heavenly Doctor finally let out a long sigh of relief.
Thanks to the return of the Celestial Demon's Dao and the nourishment from the new world fragment, the vitality the Tianfa Realm had lost was quickly replenished.
No one in the Tianfa Realm suspected that the Heavenly Doctor had used a Celestial Demon to seize control of the Reverse Fusion Heavenly Venerate.
To be absolutely certain, the Heavenly Doctor inserted eighty-one golden needles into the Venerate's body.
This measure would completely prevent the original consciousness from ever reawakening and ensure the Celestial Demon remained under his control.
What could be done once could be done again.
Over the next thirty years, the Heavenly Doctor employed the same method to bring every Longevity-stage cultivator in the Tianfa Realm under his firm control, with the sole exception of the One Heart Heavenly Venerate.
The One Heart Heavenly Venerate, Zhao Ruoxi, had countless incarnations scattered across the realm.
Eradicating and possessing all of them would be a monumental task, and since she posed no immediate threat, the Heavenly Doctor decided to leave her be for the time being.
Having unified the Tianfa Realm under his absolute authority, the Heavenly Doctor could finally dedicate himself wholeheartedly to his plan to save it.
Time slipped by, and a century passed in what felt like the blink of an eye.
The Tianfa Realm consumed nearly a hundred world fragments, each carefully chosen by the Heavenly Doctor, and swelled to more than twice its original size.
A ceaseless infusion of vitality allowed it to fully digest the last remnants of the Xuanhuang Realm.
At last, the world was free of hidden dangers.
The Heavenly Doctor's own power swelled in tandem.
He could faintly feel himself touching the very limits of what this corner of the cosmos could contain.
A breakthrough seemed imminent, yet there was no path forward.
He simply could not take that final, crucial step.
Even a being of the Heavenly Doctor's temperament could not help but feel a creeping sense of frustration and despair.
"So this is the so-called Supreme Realm?"
The Heavenly Doctor remained silent for a long while.
Then, a cold, bitter laugh escaped his lips.
"Supreme..."
"What a joke. It's nothing more than a self-comforting lie for those who fail to achieve true immortality!"
"The path to immortality lies before me, yet it cannot be walked... it cannot be walked..."
As he felt the shackles of some fundamental law of the Great Dao binding him completely, the Heavenly Doctor's thoughts drifted back to his long years spent studying the High Wall.
"The two feel... similar in some way."
"And yet, they are fundamentally different."
As this thought crossed his mind, his perspective suddenly soared.
The vast Tianfa Realm shrank until it looked like a toy in the palm of his hand.
The High Wall, at the very edge of the Star Sea, now seemed within arm's reach.
The Heavenly Doctor took a single step and vanished. When he reappeared, he had already crossed a vast distance within this new, miniaturized perspective of the Darkest Star Sea.
This technique, which shrunk worlds to mere inches, was one of the insights he had gained over the past century.
He had spent years traversing the Star Sea, becoming intimately familiar with the forces of the High Wall and the Immortal Ruins.
While his cultivation realm had not advanced, his true power had grown to an unimaginable level.
What once took him over a year—crossing the Star Sea—he could now accomplish in less than two days.
Moreover, he had a premonition that his speed would only continue to increase as his understanding of the Star Sea's fundamental 'flow' deepened.
Perhaps one day, he might be able to cross the entire Star Sea in the blink of an eye.
Arriving before the High Wall, the Heavenly Doctor skillfully unleashed thousands of golden threads.
They spread out like quicksilver, probing and sensing the invisible barrier.
He had performed this same act countless times over the years.
Despite never gaining anything from it, he persisted in what seemed a futile endeavor.
He was driven by a faint premonition that he was destined to discover something within this wall.
On this day, as if in answer to his long, patient vigil, the thousands of threads sweeping across the barrier like a golden waterfall came to a sudden, collective halt.
The Heavenly Doctor's body trembled, and his murky eyes, now completely clouded, suddenly blazed with a brilliant light.
It was as if a breach had opened in a boundless sea.
Like a flood tide, all the threads surged into the opening.
"A pity. It is not a breach."
"Merely a flaw."
"And it bears the marks of something... artificial."
The Heavenly Doctor examined it closely, a sense of regret in his heart. "Perhaps it was left by some great expert from the Star Sea, long ago."
As his perception plunged deeper, all extraneous thoughts vanished from his mind.
He devoted his entire being to understanding the flaw in the High Wall.
For a century, he had explored the High Wall, yet its true nature had always remained hidden from him.
But now, through this single flaw, the Heavenly Doctor could finally glimpse the wall as it truly was.
What he saw is unknown, but two streams of clear tears flowed unbidden from his eyes.
His body, the body of a Supreme-realm expert, began to groan under the pressure of some unseen force, bending inch by agonizing inch.
Far across the Star Sea, the Tianfa Realm shuddered, the heavens and earth letting out a deep, tormented roar.
The sky itself seemed to fracture, sliced apart by invisible blades.
At this critical moment, faced with a choice between continuing his enlightenment and ensuring the survival of his home realm, the Heavenly Doctor chose the latter.
He recoiled, instinctively tearing himself away from his connection to the High Wall.
The terrifying phenomena in the Tianfa Realm vanished instantly.
The Heavenly Doctor touched the tear stains on his cheeks, a flicker of bewilderment in his eyes.
To his horror, he realized that everything he had just seen, everything he had just understood, was already fading from his mind, dissolving the moment he severed his connection.
A powerful premonition warned him that to preserve the memory, he would have to reconnect to the High Wall before the physical sensation faded completely.
He had to continue the inscription upon his very soul.
"But the Tianfa Realm... it has reached its limit. It cannot endure any more..."
For the first time in an age, a flicker of hesitation and conflict appeared in the Heavenly Doctor's eyes.
In the end...
The Heavenly Doctor let out a long, heavy sigh.
He did not step forward, allowing the profound sensation of enlightenment to fade from his body completely.
By betraying his own heart's pursuit of the Dao, the Heavenly Doctor suffered a grievous spiritual backlash, coughing up a violent spray of blood.
He swiftly plunged golden needles into the major acupoints of his body, but they did nothing to suppress the wound deep within his soul. He choked, spitting up several more mouthfuls of blood.
"A physician... cannot heal himself..."
He stood motionless in the void for nearly half a month before he finally recovered.
Still unwilling to give up, he tried once more to explore the flaw in the High Wall.
But it was gone. Lost once, and lost forever.
It was now indistinguishable from any other part of the vast, featureless barrier.
The Heavenly Doctor stood there, stunned, an empty sense of loss filling his heart.
He knew that he had forever lost his chance to uncover the secrets of the High Wall.
But he was the Heavenly Doctor, after all.
After another dozen days or so, he managed to rally his spirits.
"My desire to become a True Immortal was only ever for the sake of saving the Tianfa Realm."
"To attain the Dao at the cost of my home... that is a price I would never pay."
"Besides..."
"Though I cannot grasp its secrets, I can still wield its power."
At his thought, thousands of golden threads wove themselves into a long wall before him.
But the instant it took shape, all the threads disintegrated into a shower of golden light.
"The flaw in the High Wall left an imprint on me."
"From this day forward, the High Wall is no longer invisible to me."
A flash of insight lit up his mind.
"Perhaps..."
"I can build a wall around the Tianfa Realm, a barrier to insulate it from the pull of the Immortal Ruins."
His brief moment of enlightenment before the High Wall had advanced his power yet again.
He spent the next century weaving innumerable golden threads around his home world.
Incredibly, he managed to encase the entire Tianfa Realm in a massive cocoon and began to slowly drag it away from the edge of the Immortal Ruins.
Seeing the Tianfa Realm on the verge of escape, this brazen act—like snatching food from a tiger's mouth—finally drew the attention of the True Immortal who resided within the Immortal Ruins.
The towering figure suddenly materialized above the Tianfa Realm.
It gazed down at the Heavenly Doctor who barred its way, and at the tightly sealed golden cocoon behind him.
Its expression was one of absolute indifference.
The sheer pressure radiating from the True Immortal caused the Tianfa Realm to tremble violently within its protective shell, its mountains crumbling and rivers boiling.
And yet the Heavenly Doctor, facing this True Immortal...
...felt not a shred of fear.
Instead, a sliver of doubt crept into his mind.
"This..."
"...is a True Immortal?"
The phantom of the True Immortal slowly extended a hand.
An infinite suction force erupted from its palm.
At that moment, the entire Darkest Star Sea seemed to collapse toward the True Immortal's hand.
Even light itself was being devoured.
Yet the Heavenly Doctor remained rooted to his spot, as if held by an unshakeable anchor.
He and the Tianfa Realm were tossed about like a kite in a hurricane, buffeted violently, yet the line never snapped.
The doubt in the Heavenly Doctor's eyes deepened.
He stood firm against the True Immortal's power but made no move to counterattack.
Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, he slowly closed his eyes.
...
Outside the Xuanhuang Myriad Beings Grand Array, Li Fan watched the formation spin at a frantic pace, on the verge of collapse, and let out a small sigh.
The Heavenly Doctor's abilities were truly extraordinary.
And this downgraded immortal array was, after all, not a true immortal array.
Besides, even a complete immortal array would struggle to perfectly replicate the true power of a True Immortal from the Immortal Ruins.
It was only to be expected that the Heavenly Doctor would find its flaws.
"No matter," he thought. "I've already uncovered enough secrets."
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