Chapter 1382: The Death of a Past Li Fan
His thoughts surged, but his hands moved without pause.
He separated the myriad Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformations from the main body of Ink Death.
Each of these transformations was capable of giving birth to a formidable cultivator at the Xuanhuang Realm's Spirit Transformation stage.
"Though their name speaks of destruction, they are, in essence, transformations of life," Li Fan mused.
"I can gather them for now. Even if the Xuanhuang Realm ascends to an Immortal Realm in the future, releasing them all at once would be enough to plunge it into chaos in an instant!"
As he considered this, golden threads flew out, forming a cocoon that sealed the countless world-ending transformations and suppressed them within his body.
"And as for Ink Death..." Li Fan's expression grew solemn once more.
The black shadow, which had been consumed until it was nothing more than a tiny speck of ink, had fully recovered in the short time it was given a reprieve.
"The one contains the all. A weakened, preliminary version of the Dao Annihilation Calamity indeed. If I don't eradicate it completely, even a single trace will be enough for it to make a full comeback!"
Li Fan recalled everything he had once seen concerning Ink Death.
Ink Death rarely acted, but each time it did, its appearance was earth-shattering, annihilating an entire province.
Both the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council, even when they detected Ink Death's manifestation, would choose to avoid it, letting it rampage unchecked.
"Those five old turtles must have long since realized that Ink Death is extraordinary. It's far from being comparable to an ordinary Spirit of Heaven and Earth."
"Ink Death has fused with the natural laws of the Xuanhuang Realm, causing the world to develop a corresponding resistance. Even after it annihilates everything, life will eventually re-emerge."
"If that's truly the case, doesn't it mean that once the Xuanhuang Realm ascends, it will possess the power to resist the Dao Annihilation Calamity?" His heart leaped at the thought.
"The True Immortals of the past must have designed it this way. Of course, whether it will succeed or not remains to be seen in this era."
Li Fan contemplated this for a long time. After running several more tests and slowly gaining a clear understanding of Ink Death's various properties, he had a new idea.
He brought it to the center of the Star Sea, near the ocean of black qi.
The roiling black qi was devouring the surrounding Star Sea at a steady pace. The Star Sea's consciousness was oblivious, but Li Fan frowned, shaken by the unending expanse of black qi, which grew more terrifying with every glance.
Even with the layers of golden threads sealing it, Ink Death instantly became more "agitated" upon sensing the presence of the nearby black qi.
Where it had been a contracted mass, patiently awaiting a chance to break free, it now thrashed about wildly, desperately assailing the golden threads in an attempt to escape.
"Indeed!" A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
Having confirmed that Ink Death was indeed connected to the Dao Annihilation Calamity, he noticed that the sealed entity seemed to be drawing some kind of energy from the vast sea of black qi due to their proximity. Li Fan dared not linger and quickly departed.
He returned Ink Death to the Xuanhuang Realm, back within the Cong Yun Sea.
He was still waiting for it to ascend into a Heavenly Immortal Spirit so he could use it for Dao Integration; he certainly couldn't destroy it now.
Ink Death broke free and searched the entire world, but it couldn't find the enemy who had sealed it. It could only unleash its full fury upon Hongxi and the Cong Yun Sea.
The unfortunate Hongxi had just completed her Dao Integration and was returning to Ten Thousand Immortals Island, receiving the worship of the cultivators in the Cong Yun Sea.
Suddenly, she saw a swath of black unfurl across the sky.
Then, it enveloped and devoured everything.
Although Ink Death had only been in brief contact with the black qi, subtle changes had still occurred within it. Not only Li Fan, but even the consciousness of the Xuanhuang Realm seemed to have noticed this.
Ink Death's destructive rampage was not carried to completion. Just as the Cong Yun Sea was eroded down to a thin final layer of bedrock, the world's consciousness forcibly recalled the entity.
"Its actions were swifter and more brutal than before."
"And..."
Li Fan appeared in a flash, arriving at the last remaining vestige of the Cong Yun Sea to observe it carefully.
Though Ink Death had vanished, a certain residual corrosive power lingered.
It hindered the rejuvenation of life in the Xuanhuang Realm.
"This conflicts with the Xuanhuang Realm's original intent. The whole purpose of unleashing Ink Death was for the sake of a complete fusion later. But now..."
Li Fan extended his right index finger and pressed it against the bedrock of the Cong Yun Sea.
"Sizzle..."
A sound like scorching fire or corrosive acid hissed through the silence.
The nihilistic power of utter destruction began to devour Li Fan's body and soul through the point of contact.
It was exactly the same as when he had touched Ink Death itself.
"Its main body was recalled, yet its power lingered."
"For a Spirit of Heaven and Earth, this should be virtually impossible. And yet, it has happened..."
"It hasn't even made full contact, and there are already signs of it losing control?"
Chipping off a large piece of the bedrock to take back for research, Li Fan's brow remained tightly furrowed.
After realizing Ink Death's probable true nature, the unease that stemmed from [Truth]'s spontaneous simulation of a lifetime not only failed to subside but grew even stronger.
He temporarily set aside all other matters and, out of habit, went to the place where Jieli Mountain once stood.
There, at the center of his Lecture Stage, he sat cross-legged and began to contemplate.
"I must trust my intuition."
"This level of anxiety... it's something I've never experienced, not in all my countless cycles."
"The source of this unease..."
"It must be that one time [Truth] initiated a simulation on its own."
"Normally, unless I actively activate it, [Truth] should never begin a new simulation by itself."
"The three-pronged tree left by Sun Piao Miao must have involved some kind of Dao resonance, perhaps even the Dao itself. That's why absorbing it caused such a bizarre change in [Truth]."
"Actually, a spontaneous simulation by [Truth] isn't what's so frightening. The truly terrifying part is that I retained absolutely no memory of it."
A shadow passed over Li Fan's face.
"Up to this point, every simulation from [Truth] has been based on me as the subject. Every cycle of rebirth has been my own personal experience."
"And now, [Truth] is still one with me; there are no signs of it losing control."
"So, there is only one possibility. In that simulation, due to some unforeseen event..."
"I died."
A cold glint flashed in his eyes.
His body stiffened for a moment before he continued his train of thought. "I must have died so suddenly that I didn't even have time to activate [Truth] myself."
"It was [Truth] itself that reversed everything."
"Therefore, the experience of that lifetime exists only within [Truth], not within my own memory."
"Only after I absorbed Kou Hong's near-eternal memento did [Truth] finally release that memory."
As his thoughts flashed and he deduced this conclusion, the unease in Li Fan's heart suddenly lessened slightly.
Though it hadn't vanished completely, he had at last grasped a possible reason for it.
"I... have already died once?"
An unprecedented chill filled his heart.
"So those fragmented, blurry memories I received from [Truth] weren't from this life. They were from the life in which I died."
"Right now, I am continuing along the original trajectory."
"If I don't make a change..."
"It's a dead end!"
As if seeing a vision of his own future demise, a sense of relief suddenly washed over him.
"In short, after absorbing that three-pronged tree, [Truth] initiated a simulation. The 'me' in that simulation was unaware that this fork in the path had occurred. I continued to execute my original plan: promoting the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension and integrating with a Heavenly Immortal Spirit."
"Unaware of the hidden crisis, despite all my preparations, I still died and failed."
Li Fan let out a long breath.
"That three-pronged tree truly is a divine object. If not for this advance simulation, I'm afraid I would have followed that path to failure."
"I wonder if [Truth] will be willing to absorb it again in the next life."
Li Fan's thoughts quickly returned to the matter at hand.
If his deductions were correct, then a life-or-death question now stood before him.
What exactly had caused the death of the Li Fan in that simulation?
The current Li Fan was protected by immortal arrays and supreme escape arts.
He also had Tianyang and another supreme guardian at his side.
Even if the Dao Integration plan failed, it was inconceivable that he wouldn't even have enough time to react and activate [Truth].
"In truth, there are not many things that can truly threaten me."
"Within the High Wall, there's the True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins, the True Immortal's corpse in the Xuanhuang's sea of darkness with its will to survive, and the black qi representing the Dao Annihilation Calamity."
"Beyond the High Wall, there are all sorts of unknown existences."
His thoughts paused here, and then a flash of realization crossed his face.
"And... there's the Immortal Realm fragment left by Sun Piao Miao, one of the main components for the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension."
After careful consideration, eliminating all other possibilities, only these suspicious targets remained.
"The Dao Annihilation Calamity is a terrifying catastrophe specifically targeting Immortal Realms. Even though it doesn't show signs of fully descending now, with only the endless black qi revealed, it might suddenly occur the moment I push the Xuanhuang Realm to ascend."
"Even the countless True Immortals of the past couldn't escape it. If I were caught off guard, I would surely perish."
Li Fan first identified the most likely cause of his failure.
"As for the two True Immortals—one dead, one alive—in the sea of darkness and the Immortal Ruins, the Xuanhuang All-Beings Array should be able to hold them off for a moment."
"The powers beyond the High Wall... with the wall itself as a screen, and based on the experience of my last life, I should have enough time to react. But that's not enough!"
"When the High Wall collapses and the Star Sea is in turmoil, I must stir up monstrous waves in the Star Sea to obscure the view from the outside!" In an instant, Li Fan thought of the endless life force within the chasm and the so-called 'Shape of Living Beings'.
"The arrival of powers from beyond the wall will inevitably pose an extreme threat to the Star Sea itself. If I catalyze it with the Taijia Divine Art..."
"The infinite power of the Star Sea should be able to delay the forces from beyond the wall for a short time."
After some thought, Li Fan added another pile of preparations to his to-do list.
"Finally, there's the Immortal Realm formed from the many chess pieces."
"Although I already tried to fuse it before and got more than halfway through without sensing the presence of any True Immortal—it just seemed like a pure Immortal Realm world."
"But thinking about it now, I was too hasty."
Li Fan's expression was grave. "A True Immortal, after all, could deceive my senses without much difficulty."
"How can I be certain of its safety without fully unfurling the Immortal Realm?"
"At worst, it's just wasting one reincarnation cycle and twenty or thirty years."
With this in mind, Li Fan had already made his decision.
Regardless of the cost, he had to first completely unfurl the Immortal Realm within the chess pieces and confirm its safety.
"The reappearance of an Immortal Realm will surely shake the Star Sea."
"I must find a secure location and prepare in advance."
"If a True Immortal is truly hidden within, I will activate [Truth] without hesitation. In the next life, I'll find another method to anchor the world's momentum."
"If there's nothing suspicious inside, that would be even better..."
Li Fan still wanted to minimize the impact of unfurling the Immortal Realm.
"Use the lowness of the chasm to offset the highness of the Immortal Realm."
"The chasm, the lowest point of the Star Sea, should be an ideal location."
"Besides, the chasm is intricate and complex, and with the Shape of Living Beings present, it should be able to confuse any potential enemies to some extent."
And so, Li Fan descended once more to the depths of the Star Sea.
Without disturbing Xu Ke, who was still tirelessly carving out new territory, he went to the center of the already-explored region to ensure minimal outside interference.
With a level of focus he had never before displayed, Li Fan slowly laid down layers upon layers of immortal arrays.
Using every method at his disposal, Li Fan resolutely reinitiated the unfurling of the Immortal Realm.
Hummm...
Within the arrays, it was as if a great gale had begun to blow, mercilessly battering and ravaging everything.
The formations Li Fan took pride in were like a dilapidated thatched hut, unable to hold for long and on the verge of collapse.
Li Fan could only keep patching them up with Source Power Essence, trying to delay the inevitable for as long as possible.
His expression was focused, his eyes fixed on the overlapping, blurry lights and shadows at the center of the arrays.
Resembling figures, yet not figures. Resembling a landscape, yet not a landscape.
It was just as he had seen before.
Only last time, the unfurling of the Immortal Realm was disturbed and interrupted by the black qi in the center of the Star Sea.
This time, under Li Fan's willful control, it was allowed to continue!
Boundless, countless rays of light blossomed from within the nascent Immortal Realm.
Li Fan faintly saw that those figures were, in fact, profoundly abstruse characters.
They scattered in all directions, then, like salt dissolving in water, they transformed into innumerable intersecting horizontal and vertical lines, propping up heaven and earth!
Countless characters poured forth from the boundless light.
More and more horizontal and vertical lines intertwined, weaving the world into something increasingly bright and vibrant.
An Immortal Realm was about to be born in the darkest Star Sea!
Li Fan could already feel the various changes occurring throughout the Star Sea.
These included, but were not limited to, the awakening of the True Immortal in the Immortal Ruins, the astonishment of the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Transmitters, and the tremors in the Star Sea's consciousness.
But he had no time to pay them any mind now.
His gaze was locked onto the forming Immortal Realm.
He had to determine whether the Immortal Realm fragment left by Sun Piao Miao all those years ago contained anything other than the laws of an Immortal Realm!
"The commotion from the Immortal Realm's appearance is even greater than I imagined!"
"It seems that even if there's no danger within, I can't stay long in this life."
"But it's not a wasted effort. After all, I've avoided a fatal trap. All I need to do in the next life is repeat these steps systematically!"
Li Fan's thoughts moved like lightning.
And at that moment, as the Immortal Realm bloomed like a fruit from a flower, on the verge of bursting through the chasm and returning to the normal Star Sea...
Li Fan finally saw it clearly: the phantom image that was the last to emerge within the Immortal Realm.
A wordless stele, standing between the heaven and earth of the Immortal Realm!
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