Chapter 1370: The Star Sea Ascends to an Immortal Realm
Chapter 1370: The Star Sea Ascends to an Immortal Realm
After a brief rest, Xu Ke’s energy surprisingly replenished in a short time.
The green light of the mask flared once more, and he resumed his work of carving out ravines and hollows in the void.
“I received Senior Xing’s legacy, and my lifespan has been greatly extended. This is a gift of rebirth. With this worn body, it should be enough to complete the creation of the dark rivers.”
“After all, before Senior Xing passed away, he had already extended the dark rivers through most of the Star Sea. All I need to do is add the finishing touches...”
Xu Ke rambled on, seeming to explain himself to Li Fan and Mo Rubin, though it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself.
His hands never stopped moving as the green light carved a path ahead.
He was completely focused, tireless.
Li Fan wasn't concerned whether Xu Ke's desire to continue carving the dark rivers was his own will or the influence of Xing Wuque's legacy. To him, there was no difference between the two.
These ravines and hollows were still within the Star Sea, but they were the lowest points of potential.
Li Fan could currently use his Ascension Array to constantly elevate his own potential. However, he had no effective method for lowering it.
Li Fan faintly sensed that the high and low points of this potential were two sides of the same coin. To comprehend only one side was to have an incomplete understanding.
If he could grasp the method of creating these ravines, his understanding of "potential" would advance another step.
Xu Ke appeared to be carving forward, but in reality, he was digging and blasting into the Star Sea, creating low points of potential that did not previously exist.
They were essentially the same as the natural high platforms within the Realm Fragment Great Wall, just differing in their level of potential.
“It relies mainly on the green light emanating from that mask.”
“This mask...” After a moment of observation, Li Fan understood.
When he used the Ascension Array, he needed the flesh and blood of a True Immortal as an auxiliary material.
And Xing Wuque's mask served a similar function to that of True Immortal flesh and blood.
“It's not just an immortal artifact; it holds another, extremely special power.”
Li Fan stared at the eerie green glow on Xu Ke's face and, for some reason, felt a vague sense of familiarity.
The feeling was fleeting. By the time he tried to trace it, he found no clues, as if it had been an illusion all along.
But Li Fan would not give up on this inspirational clue so easily.
Scenes of everything he had ever witnessed flashed through his mind, appearing and being compared in rapid succession.
The more reincarnations he went through, the richer and more complex his experiences became. The pressure of reviewing the past also grew immense.
As time passed, that sense of familiarity began to fade rapidly. To succeed in finding his target, Li Fan pushed the operational efficiency of the Dao Transformation Stone to its absolute limit.
Beads of sweat dripped from his forehead, and fine cracks even appeared on the Dao Transformation Stone. An infinite amount of spiritual power, under Li Fan's control, surged into it, mending the fractures.
It even served as fuel for the consumption.
Perhaps it was Li Fan's good luck, or perhaps it was the help from subconsciously pushing the Dao Transformation Stone's efficiency to the extreme.
Finally, just before that sudden sense of familiarity vanished completely.
Li Fan finally found its source among his countless past experiences.
“With the molted husk left by the first Great Heavenly Venerate for protection, and the detonation of those immortal artifacts for power, together we have a high chance of crossing the High Wall!”
“We've prepared for so long, how can you suddenly change your mind?!”
Even after so long, Li Fan could still feel the endless resentment in the speaker's voice.
It was...
the scene that appeared during the Fallen Immortal Realm's illusionary trial to become the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate, after he made the same choice as the Su Bai of the past!
The Fallen Immortal Realm—an illusion so vivid it was like reality.
Everything that happened in the Fallen Immortal Realm was both illusory and real.
When the splintered consciousness of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao roared its questions.
In the illusion of the Fallen Immortal Realm, as "Su Bai," Li Fan had also felt a strange sensation in that instant.
The so-called molted husk of the first Great Heavenly Venerate...
truly existed.
At the point in time recorded by the illusion, the first Great Heavenly Venerate's husk was even on Su Bai's person.
Therefore, after experiencing it again in the illusion, Li Fan was able to use "Su Bai's" body to sense its unique aura.
When he first sensed it, Li Fan couldn't form a cognitive understanding of it. Thus, for all this time, he hadn't realized its existence. The Dao Transformation Stone had simply recorded everything silently.
Returning to the present, as Li Fan carefully sensed the mask left by Xing Wuque.
That familiar aura finally awakened Li Fan's perception.
“A relic from the first Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate?”
This thought immediately surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
But he quickly realized something was wrong.
“The similarity in aura isn't because they belong to the same person.”
“It's because their nature shares the same source.”
A flicker of regret passed through his heart, but Li Fan soon began to ponder what this shared nature could be.
Li Fan's unusual state naturally caught Mo Rubin's attention.
“Fellow Daoist, have you met Xing Wuque before?”
“I haven't, I'm just amazed that there could be someone so...”
Li Fan paused for a moment before finally using the word “obstinate” as his assessment.
Mo Rubin gave a wry smile. “More than obstinate, he was simply foolish, idiotic. Forget you, even I, a fellow Law King of the Xuantian Sect, could never have imagined he would go to such lengths.”
Mo Rubin's tone suddenly became somewhat dejected.
“Perhaps that's why Big Brother Xuanyuan entrusted this matter to him back then. Had it been me, or any of the other twelve Law Kings, none of us could have done what Xing Wuque did.”
“It's not that our loyalty was less than Xing Wuque's. But to stay here in these hollows and dark rivers after Big Brother Xuanyuan went missing, not choosing to search for him, but instead carrying out this mission day after day for ten thousand years...” Mo Rubin shook his head repeatedly.
“Xu Ke's temperament is quite similar to Xing Wuque's. Now that he has inherited the mission and chosen to continue expanding the unfinished dark rivers, I can't dissuade him. But, Fellow Daoist Mo, do you know of any other deeper meaning to these ravines and dark rivers?” Li Fan asked, his gaze fixed on Mo Rubin, while he continued to ponder the shared nature.
“If their only purpose was to accumulate life force for the Star Sea's revival, there would be no need to cover the entire Star Sea. Even extending them across a small half of it would have been enough to achieve that goal.”
“The workload for a small half versus the entirety is on a completely different scale. Who is the Xuantian King? He would never make such a mistake. Just as Xing Wuque said, the Xuantian King's instructions must have had their own meaning. What, then, is that meaning?”
Mo Rubin narrowed his eyes, his gaze sweeping over the ravines and dark rivers.
He was stumped by Li Fan's question and couldn't answer for a moment.
Li Fan chuckled lightly. “It couldn't be that the Xuantian King made a mistake when he gave Xing Wuque the mission, could it?”
“That's impossible!” Mo Rubin decisively shook his head in denial.
He frowned deeply, but couldn't figure it out.
When they asked Xu Ke, he just said that Xing Wuque had always diligently carried out the Xuantian King's instructions without ever questioning why.
Mo Rubin was at a loss for words.
“It should be... like a formation that only takes shape once it's completely laid out. Even if it's ninety percent complete, if it's not connected into a whole, it's useless.”
“Yes, that's right, it must be like that.” After a long pause, Mo Rubin offered what seemed to be a very reasonable explanation.
Li Fan was noncommittal. “To cover the entire Darkest Star Sea, what a magnificent undertaking. If a formation of this scale were to be activated, it might not just revive the Star Sea, it could possibly even topple the High Wall.”
Although he said this on the surface, inwardly, Li Fan did not agree with Mo Rubin's explanation at all.
Li Fan believed his own mastery of formations was not far behind the Xuantian King's.
These ravines and dark rivers bore not the slightest trace of a formation. How could he possibly fail to see that?
“However, while it's not a formation, the principle might be the same.”
“Only by achieving ‘completeness’ can the conditions be met for activation.”
Li Fan's thoughts sharpened.
This feeling of being one basket of earth short of completing a nine-ren mountain—wasn't it just like when he used the Ascension Array to climb to the high points of potential?
Until you reach the absolute limit of ascending to immortality, it doesn't matter how high you've climbed; it's all for naught.
Only by completing the final process of ascension does everything done before gain meaning.
“Ascending.”
“Ascension.”
Li Fan stood in the lowest hollow of the Star Sea, but his vision seemed to instantly break free of its constraints.
The entire Darkest Star Sea, surrounded by the High Wall, appeared before him as a miniature panorama.
“Could it be that the Xuantian King's ultimate plan was the same as mine in this life?”
“Except, I want to elevate the Xuanhuang Realm, evolving it into an Immortal Realm.”
“While the Xuantian King...”
“intended to elevate the entire Star Sea?”
Even Li Fan himself found this sudden thought utterly absurd.
Only those who had walked the path could truly comprehend the chasm that separated the mortal from the immortal.
Just count the preparations Li Fan had made in this life to bring about the birth of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
The nourishing life force contained in hundreds of thousands of realm fragments, the explosive, resonant starlight power stored in the hollows.
The legacy of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate, the immortal spiritual qi.
The return of numerous small worlds, the unification of the masses.
And even a complete fragment of an Immortal Realm, from the hand of an unknown True Immortal...
With all these elements combined, Li Fan still couldn't guarantee with one hundred percent certainty that the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm could be successfully created.
Compared to the Xuanhuang Realm, the Star Sea was on an entirely different order of magnitude.
If one were to truly elevate the Star Sea into an Immortal Realm...
The required energy would be simply unimaginable!
Even if Li Fan had a supreme treasure like [Truth] that could repeatedly gather all the resources currently in the Star Sea.
he couldn't see any hope of success before his psychological lifespan was completely exhausted.
“In the end, it's just my own strange fantasy.”
“Unless...”
“The Xuantian King saw something that I cannot yet see.”
For some reason, this thought suddenly occurred to Li Fan.
“Brother Mo, are you going to stay here with Xu Ke?”
Silence fell once more in the ravines and hollows. Finally, it was Li Fan who broke it.
Mo Rubin's gaze withdrew from Xu Ke's determined back. He remained silent for a long time.
“We've already tried every possible method.”
“Though I'm unwilling to admit it, it seems highly likely that the Xuantian King vanished into that strange pool of water.”
“He no longer exists in the current Darkest Star Sea.”
“Although the Xuantian King is gone, I will not sit by and wait for doom. However, from now on, saving the Xuanhuang Realm will be entirely up to us,” Li Fan sighed softly.
Mo Rubin, however, remained optimistic. “Since Big Brother Xuanyuan laid such plans, he shouldn't have fallen into trouble so easily. I think the key lies in that strange pool.”
“I want to return to the Xuanhuang Realm and continue my research.”
Li Fan nodded slightly and glanced at Xu Ke again.
“Don't worry about Xu Ke. I will have people come here periodically to help him recuperate, ensuring he's in good enough condition to continue this endless expansion,” Li Fan said in a low voice.
“You heard him just now. Xu Ke calls me by the title of 'Saint Teacher'.”
“It's just that in the process of trying to save the Xuanhuang Realm, I saved some children and then taught them a few things. I'm not really worthy of the title 'Saint Teacher'. I must have made a fool of myself in front of you, Brother Mo,” Li Fan said casually.
Mo Rubin nodded, not paying much mind to the matter.
At his urging, Li Fan first took him back to the Xuanhuang Realm.
He stood before the Fishing Pond, studying and pondering it intently once more.
It seemed that although Xing Wuque was dead, the traces he left behind had given Mo Rubin tremendous encouragement.
“The Xuantian King truly is a man of immense charisma.”
“One person toils for him for ten thousand years, working himself to death without rest. Another holds blind, eternal confidence in him.”
Li Fan snorted inwardly as he openly set up a protective immortal array next to the Fishing Pond.
Ostensibly, it was to prevent outsiders from disturbing Mo Rubin as he tried to comprehend the pond's mysteries.
In reality, the true purpose of the array was to suppress Mo Rubin at a critical moment!
In this lifetime, as the Xuanhuang Realm ascended, absolutely nothing could be allowed to be fished out of the Fishing Pond.
As for Mo Rubin, it would likely be some time before he discovered the Fishing Pond's secret.
Li Fan was still pondering that similarity in nature.
A deep intuition told him that this point of similarity between Xing Wuque's mask and the first Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate definitely concealed a great secret.
Li Fan returned to the small world of the Great Xuan Kingdom and, watching the myriad living beings, fell into deep thought.
He even temporarily set aside the task of fusing the Immortal Realm fragment.
The sun rose and the moon set; in the blink of an eye, three months passed.
Li Fan still had nothing to show for it.
Just as he shook his head, ready to give up, his gaze suddenly fell upon the rising clouds and mist within the small world.
“Clouds, mist, rain, ice. They are all just different forms of water.”
“This is what is meant by a similarity in nature.”
“And...”
The frown that had been fixed on Li Fan's face suddenly smoothed out.
“I shouldn't have been looking for the similarities between the bronze mask and the first Great Heavenly Venerate.”
“Instead, I should have been looking for the similarities between the first Great Heavenly Venerate and the bronze mask.”
“The purpose of the bronze mask is to create the ravines and dark rivers, the low points of 'potential'. The opposite of ascending—descending potential.”
“Therefore...”
Li Fan's thoughts suddenly became crystal clear.
“The first Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate was the same.”
“Descending potential...”
“From immortal, he descended in potential to become mortal!”
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