Chapter 1398: A Flick of the Finger Draws a High Wall
Chapter 1398: A Flick of the Finger Draws a High Wall
Before Li Fan had time to react, the voice materialized, sharp and clear, in his mind.
It seemed to have locked onto him with pinpoint accuracy.
Then, just as quickly, it faded, melting away like snow in water, leaving no trace behind.
Only after it was all over did Li Fan’s body tense, his breath catching in his throat.
His gaze swept around the area as he maintained a vigilant watch.
Staring at the [Truth] interface he had just summoned, he held his breath for a long moment before finally exhaling, silently willing it to close.
“Thank goodness, it was a false alarm.”
“The message seemed to be targeting whoever destroyed the bronze crane.”
“Did it come from beyond the High Wall?!” Li Fan’s mind reeled with uncertainty.
He narrowed his eyes, meticulously replaying the voice he had just heard.
“Heavenly Net Era, year two hundred and thirteen. Beginning in the age of Shangzhang Dayuanxian and Zuo'e E'feng, concluding in the age of Zhuyong Chifenruo and Yanmao Xuan'yi...”
“...”
“What does that even mean?” Li Fan frowned, his brow deeply furrowed.
It sounded like a jumble of disjointed words, devoid of any practical meaning.
But for a message to cross the High Wall with such a clear target...
It had to hold some profound significance.
“It seems to be a reference to a specific period of time.”
“But it’s layered, complex. What could that imply?”
“Perhaps it’s a calendrical system unique to the Immortal Realm?”
Li Fan pondered for a long time but couldn’t come to any conclusion.
The concepts involved in the message were entirely new to him, things he had never encountered in any previous reincarnation.
“This message is only triggered by the destruction of the bronze crane.”
“And the bronze crane was left with the Immortal Domain chess piece...”
“Perhaps this is a vital piece of information left by Sun Piao Miao for the one who completes the reconstruction of the Immortal Domain.”
For now, this was the only plausible guess Li Fan could make.
He knew far too little to delve any deeper, so he committed the message to memory, locking it away for the future.
What concerned Li Fan more was the implication of the message coming from beyond the wall.
“Could the reason Sun Piao Miao vanished without a trace be that he was already outside the wall?”
“The timing of his disappearance was before the great calamity that shattered the Immortal Realm, before the High Wall even existed. Later, the invisible High Wall rose from the ground, enveloping the Star Sea. And Sun Piao Miao never returned...”
“What exactly does the High Wall signify?” A thousand thoughts flooded Li Fan’s mind in an instant.
This transmission from beyond the High Wall had once again ignited his intense curiosity about that unknown territory.
“Regardless, the Immortal Domain left by Sun Piao Miao must be an important clue.”
“My current strength is still insufficient to probe its secrets.”
“Dao Integration! The Immortal State!”
The more Li Fan explored, the more he encountered, the more he felt shrouded in endless mysteries and unknowns.
His desire to grow stronger burned with an intensity he had never felt before.
...
In the Xuanhuang Realm, time flowed on, second by second.
The Great Heavenly Venerate Wuming, devoid of knowledge or consciousness, followed the natural currents of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, tirelessly mending the wounds accumulated over ten thousand years.
Coupled with Li Fan’s continuous and covert nourishment through various methods, three years had passed, and the Xuanhuang Realm had grown strong, reaching a new pinnacle.
It had arrived at the tipping point where quantitative change would trigger a qualitative transformation.
Every living being in the world, even those trapped within illusionary arrays, was swept up in this great momentum naturally birthed by heaven and earth, their hearts filled with a mixture of anticipation and boundless dread.
The three-year period was over.
Li Fan sensed that the restriction on Wuming had begun to slowly dissipate on its own.
The true Great Heavenly Venerate of the Xuanhuang Realm, after a vacancy of ten thousand years, was about to descend upon the world once more!
An invisible weight suddenly pressed down on his shoulders.
It was the authority and power originating from the Great Heavenly Venerate of the Xuanhuang Realm!
Feeling the restraint upon him, Li Fan frowned slightly. This was an unexpected development. But after a moment of reflection, he quickly came to terms with it.
The Great Heavenly Venerate of the Xuanhuang Realm was an appointment made by the Immortal Realm, a being who wielded the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao and governed all life in the world.
After Su Bai, although the position had been vacant for ten thousand years, the title and its authority remained.
The Dharma Spreader had taught the new method of devouring heaven and earth to all living beings. From absorbing the spiritual energy of the world to reversing the logic of heaven and earth, the higher a cultivator’s realm, the deeper their bond with the world became.
To this day, the cultivators of the new method and the Xuanhuang Realm had become inseparable, an integral part of the world itself.
The Xuanhuang world had to obey the commands of the Great Heavenly Venerate. It could not defy them.
This meant that when the new Great Heavenly Venerate appeared, every cultivator practicing the new method felt the force of this restraint as well.
But on the other hand, while cultivators were indeed a part of the world, the collective power of the cultivators in the Xuanhuang Realm was far too great. Even without counting the Dharma Spreader, who stood above all others, the combined strength of the remaining cultivators was not much weaker than the Xuanhuang Realm itself.
The ancient restriction from the Xuanhuang Realm, while it could affect the cultivators, had a limited effect.
“This is what they call the ever-shifting dynamics of power. The strong govern the weak; the weak cannot command the strong!”
The burden on his shoulders was far lighter than that of carrying the chess piece containing the fragment of the Immortal Domain. For Li Fan, it had no effect on his actions whatsoever.
“However, such a drastic change in the Xuanhuang Realm cannot be hidden from the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor. They will surely return to the Xuanhuang Realm immediately.”
“Fortunately, I have made ample preparations over these three years.”
Li Fan’s gaze shifted to the space beyond the Xuanhuang Realm.
Golden threads enveloped the celestial boundary of the Xuanhuang Realm, forming an invisible high wall that separated it from the outer void!
Within the condensed golden light, countless different phantoms seemed to flicker and shift, constantly evolving.
Li Fan looked at his meticulously prepared creation with great satisfaction.
“An improved version of the Xuanhuang Sentient Beings Grand Array. Combined with a replica of the invisible High Wall...”
“And the most crucial element, the deterrent power of the Nameless True Immortal’s leg bone!”
“With the support of the infinite power of the Star Sea, trapping the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Spreader for a period of time should be no problem!”
The reason the Heavenly Doctor had escaped so quickly in the previous life...
was because Li Fan was, after all, still in the mortal realm. The immortal array was a downgraded version maintained only by source power essence. It could not truly simulate the might of an "Immortal."
So when the Heavenly Doctor, within the illusionary array, faintly sensed something was amiss and chose to confront the True Immortal directly, the immense disparity allowed him to immediately discover the array’s flaw.
But this life was different.
Li Fan had connected the core of the array to the leg bone of the Nameless True Immortal.
Even as just a fragmented bone of a deceased True Immortal, the faint aura it emitted was not much weaker than that of a living one!
The encounter with the Hunger Immortal from the Immortal Ruins and the Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar in the previous life was a testament to this fact.
Under the suppression of an aura indistinguishable from a True Immortal's, the Heavenly Doctor would certainly not risk his life without reason.
And if he still insisted on trying...
Even a Supreme Realm cultivator would likely be turned into a character on the Nameless True Immortal’s leg bone, utterly powerless to resist!
It could be said that the Xuanhuang Sentient Beings Grand Array, anchored by the Nameless True Immortal's leg bone, had undergone a qualitative transformation of its own. It wasn't an iterative improvement of the array itself, but an ascension brought about by the transcendent quality of its core material!
And this was merely Li Fan's first line of defense.
Beyond the illusionary array, Li Fan had used the art of drawing a prison on the ground to erect a high wall outside the Xuanhuang Realm.
This wall, of course, couldn't compare to the invisible High Wall that enclosed the entire Dark Star Sea. But it was a replica, forged from Mo Rubin’s insights into the wall's weaknesses in the previous life, and in this life, from the collective contemplation of countless beings, all refined and improved by Li Fan.
Li Fan had tested it himself.
To scale this wall, even if one didn’t need to be a True Immortal, one's power would have to reach the critical point of ninety-nine point nine percent of that state.
Without a vast amount of True Immortal flesh as fuel and the assistance of an ascension array, the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor, with their current cultivation, would be unable to cross the wall in a short amount of time!
“My high wall, even if it seems to be just a hair's breadth away from the real invisible High Wall...”
“That tiny difference is a world of difference.”
“The Heavenly Doctor’s strength, a Supreme Realm at the limits of the Star Sea, is not to be underestimated. I can’t expect this wall to hold them for too long.”
“I still have a third measure!”
Li Fan’s gaze retracted from the celestial canopy.
He looked towards various locations within the Xuanhuang Realm.
“Once the Xuanhuang Realm’s ascension begins, all the qualitative changes happening within can serve as my weapons. The super Immortal-Mortal Miasma, the countless heaven-and-earth immortal souls...”
“As long as I don't show any intention of refining Ink Death, they can all be used by me! After all, I am the greatest hero who pushed the Xuanhuang Realm to ascend to the Immortal Domain. If this succeeds, I can truly be called the second parent of the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“The power of an Immortal Domain’s laws should be enough to contend with even a reawakened Hunger Immortal.”
“All preparations are complete. It is time to begin.”
A cold smile touched Li Fan's lips.
His gaze then locked onto Wuming, the Great Heavenly Venerate.
Since the restrictions of the trial were lifted three years ago, Wuming had been in a state of motionless stillness.
It seemed he was in the process of formally accepting the office of Great Heavenly Venerate.
However, his trait of being without knowledge or consciousness kept his expression serene, devoid of sorrow or joy.
The edict from the Immortal Realm no longer existed. Now, every action of the Great Heavenly Venerate was predicated on the highest interests of the Xuanhuang Realm.
In the current situation, using the immortal spiritual energy from the Great Heavenly Venerate’s legacy to help the Xuanhuang Realm ascend became an inevitable choice.
Under the urgent prompting of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, a massive amount of immortal spiritual energy soon surged forth from Wuming.
Like pouring oil on a blazing fire, it propelled the Xuanhuang Realm to take the final step on the path of ascension.
Either successfully advance to an Immortal Domain, or face eternal damnation and turn to dust!
With the thorough preparations Li Fan had made, success was almost inevitable, provided there was no external interference.
Thus, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao did not hesitate in the slightest.
Amidst roiling winds and surging clouds, it blew the immortal spiritual energy to every corner of heaven and earth.
Even though it wasn't his first time seeing true immortal spiritual energy, Li Fan was still deeply mesmerized by this mysterious and wondrous power.
Even as the immortal spiritual energy appeared before him, Li Fan still could not comprehend its form of existence.
Let alone utilize it.
Perhaps, just as Li Fan had predicted, only by ascending to the Immortal State, even just a half-immortal, could one command this transcendent might.
But just because Li Fan couldn’t use it didn’t mean the other objects around him couldn’t.
“Dissociation Disc! Little Turtle!”
With a thought from Li Fan, two balls of light appeared on his shoulders, one on the left and one on the right.
The Final Dissociation Disc had accompanied Li Fan throughout his growth. Its ability to infinitely deduce arrays had been a great help to him. For a long time, the arrays deduced by the disc were Li Fan's strongest trump card.
But it was, after all, a mortal creation. Hampered by the inherent limitations of its material, the Final Dissociation Disc had reached its limit long ago. Even though Li Fan continuously fed it data on immortal arrays, it only achieved a theoretical breakthrough. It could smoothly deduce immortal arrays, but in reality, it still couldn't analyze or create true ones, having to resort to downgraded versions instead.
And now, sensing the immortal spiritual energy permeating the world, the Final Dissociation Disc trembled uncontrollably. Like a cultivator seeing a heaven-and-earth soul, it was filled with greed and yearning.
The Little Tian Beast’s situation was similar to the Dissociation Disc's.
The little creature's appetite was frighteningly large. Only after devouring four Immortal Domain chess pieces in a row did it finally stop eating.
But it seemed to have overeaten, as the Tian Beast had yet to undergo its own metamorphosis and evolution. It had been in a deep slumber for a long time.
After some investigation and brief communication with the Tian Beast, Li Fan surmised that since the Immortal Domain was incomplete, what it had consumed were just fragments of laws. This less-than-healthy diet had given the Tian Beast a case of indigestion. It needed pure immortal spiritual energy as a catalyst to aid digestion.
Both of these were on the cusp of a breakthrough.
All they needed was a touch of immortal spiritual energy to undergo a qualitative change, just like the Xuanhuang Realm!
The immortal spiritual energy diffusing through the world grew ever denser.
The avarice of the Dissociation Disc and the Little Tian Beast grew stronger, almost breaking free from Li Fan's control.
After some negotiation and reassurance from Li Fan, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, albeit reluctantly, separated two extremely fine but absolutely pure strands of immortal spiritual energy.
They drifted over to Li Fan's side.
The moment he received the immortal spiritual energy from the Great Heavenly Venerate’s legacy, Li Fan felt the Xuanhuang Realm's goodwill toward him plummet significantly.
He snorted coldly, choosing to ignore it for the moment. Resisting the urge to investigate it himself, Li Fan injected the two strands of immortal spiritual energy into the Dissociation Disc and the Little Tian Beast respectively.
A crystalline, dazzling light gradually enveloped the two objects.
Even Li Fan, their master, lost his perception of them.
He was even forced back continuously by the sheer power radiating from the two balls of light.
Two immortal artifacts seemed to be gestating within.
Li Fan also sensed that the interception array he had set up in the center of the Star Sea had been triggered.
The loss of a little immortal spiritual energy did not slow the momentum of the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension.
Li Fan’s hands formed a series of seals, and vast quantities of writhing True Immortal flesh were rapidly incinerated.
This served as the driving force to elevate the Xuanhuang Realm's momentum.
At the center of the Xuanhuang Realm, a phantom image that touched the heavens and stood firm on the earth suddenly appeared.
Its surface was mottled with light and shadow, and profound, esoteric characters were revealed upon it.
It was the stone stele formed from the Nameless True Immortal's leg bone!
It had long been established by Li Fan to serve as the sturdy pillar that would prevent the Xuanhuang Realm from collapsing after its ascension.
A tremendous roar echoed between heaven and earth.
On the celestial canopy of the Xuanhuang Realm, countless tearing wounds appeared.
It seemed the world could not withstand the immense impact of its ascension and was beginning to shatter into pieces.
At this moment, the nourishment Li Fan had provided over more than a decade played its crucial role.
(End of this chapter)
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