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Chapter 1446: The First True Immortal Hunt

The True Immortal’s fury stirred the storm to a greater frenzy.

The downpour fell in dense, piercing sheets, like a series of watery curtains that partitioned the battlefield into isolated pockets.

Through the gaps in the torrential rain, Li Fan saw more than a dozen cultivators seize the critical opportunity to besiege the True Immortal, only to be crushed into fine powder by the immense pressure of the downpour. Then, in a grotesque display, the dust of their bones mixed with the rainwater, squirmed, and reformed into figures made of rain.

Drawing power from the omnipresent storm, these "rain people" surged toward Li Fan from all directions in an instant.

Feigning a look of sheer panic, Li Fan held his umbrella as his form blurred into a streak of light, rocketing out of the encirclement. His speed was so astonishing that it seemed to outpace the falling rain itself.

He moved so swiftly that the storm seemed to pass right through him, leaving him utterly untouched.

After retreating to a safe distance, Li Fan faced the True Immortal, whose gaze was still locked on him. A cold smile touched his lips as he pointed a finger once more. "Be shorn!"

His voice carried a strange, mesmerizing power that caused everyone present to stiffen, their attacks faltering for a fraction of a second.

"I'll kill you! I'll kill you! I'll kill you..."

His resentment blotted out the sky, his rage boiling over.

The rain, which had been falling evenly across the battlefield, now seemed drawn by an unseen force. It converged from all directions, forming a colossal waterspout that spiraled violently toward Li Fan.

But the True Immortal’s act of retaliation could not halt the command Li Fan had already issued through the Dao Net.

An invisible ripple from the Dao Net instantly traversed the battlefield and descended upon the True Immortal once more. It was as if countless pairs of scissors were trimming his hair and beard simultaneously. As the shattered remnants of his disguise were slowly sheared away, the True Immortal's true face was finally revealed.

Though his features were somewhat gaunt, his handsome profile was still discernible. His body, however, was a canvas of horrific wounds, gashes so deep they exposed the bone, yet refused to heal. His flesh writhed ceaselessly, but some mysterious power prevented it from regenerating.

The remaining cultivators besieging him acted with a shared, unspoken understanding. Their spells and divine abilities all converged on those open wounds.

The True Immortal cried out in agony.

Not far away, Li Fan found that his umbrella alone was no longer enough to fend off the colossal vortex of rain. The downpour assailed him from every direction, eroding his body and mind. The sounds around him were drowned out by the roar of the storm, and his vision was obscured by the dense curtain of rain.

Even after cloaking himself in a tightly sealed raincoat, Li Fan slowly felt himself being severed from the world around him.

It was as if he were a speck of dust, being utterly washed away by this relentless storm.

"So this is the Dao of Rain..."

"If I don't do something, I fear I will vanish from this world completely. Every trace of my existence will be washed away like mud in a storm, never to be seen again."

"Even bound by the Dao Net, this True Immortal can unleash such power. He must have been a formidable figure in his prime."

Standing in the heart of the storm, Li Fan felt a surge of insight as he experienced the Dao's power up close.

At the same time, as these flashes of inspiration filled his mind, another rain began to fall around him. The droplets descended in the opposite direction to the storm wielded by the True Immortal. As the two downpours collided, the tempest around Li Fan immediately weakened.

While it couldn't completely neutralize the True Immortal's ability, with the added protection of his raincoat, he was now out of danger.

Li Fan continued to study the Dao of Rain manifesting around him, his gaze fixed on the True Immortal, who was losing his composure under the cultivators' assault. Suddenly, a flicker of light sparkled in his mind.

"It's just being stripped of armor and clothes, being left naked."

"Compared to being captured alive by mortals, this humiliation is nothing. This golden-armored True Immortal's reaction is far too exaggerated. He's screaming and shouting, acting as if he's lost all reason..."

"This behavior doesn't fit a being who could comprehend such a profound ability."

"Something's wrong!"

A shiver went down Li Fan's spine as he realized the truth.

His eyes swept across the battlefield, searching for the golden armor and severed hair that his "Remove Armor" and "Be Shorn" commands had stripped away. They had vanished without a trace, right under everyone's noses.

"His outburst was a decoy, a feint to draw everyone's attention. His real goal was to use that distraction to escape."

Li Fan's mind raced, and he was about to connect to the local Dao Net and issue the "Seize" command.

But then he remembered that this wasn't a real battle to the death with a True Immortal. It was merely a test conducted by the Shuo Xinghai Administrative Council to recruit members for the Immortal Hunt.

With so many powerful figures watching, could they really let a mere True Immortal escape?

"This must be an additional part of the test. If I expose it, I'll undoubtedly attract extra attention from the council. But if I pretend not to notice..."

Li Fan hesitated for only a moment before making the decision to reveal his unique capabilities.

He let out a great shout that echoed across the field. "Everyone, be careful! Don't let him slip away!"

His gaze darted around as he intoned in a solemn, commanding voice, "Bind!"

The visible lattice of the Dao Net across the battlefield suddenly shimmered as if stirred by a gust of wind. The intersecting strings of the Dao hummed, growing sharper and clearer.

With a faint tremor, they radiated a brilliant silver light. The golden armor and strands of hair, which had already scattered to the edges of the battlefield, were instantly locked in place, bound by an invisible force.

The strings of the Dao thrummed violently, a clear sign that the True Immortal was struggling with all his might.

Only then did the other cultivators on the battlefield snap out of their stupor. Some continued their assault on the True Immortal's main body, while others moved to intercept the escaping armor and hair.

The outcome of the battle was now clear. The True Immortal had lost his final chance to turn the tables. His demise at the hands of these ants was imminent...

A flash of light cut through the chaos, and the dying True Immortal vanished from sight.

He hadn't escaped. The second trial was simply over.

Li Fan felt the strange, probing glances of the surrounding cultivators but simply met them with a calm smile.

"The third trial..."

"Survive!"

Before the cold voice had even finished speaking, the Dao Net, which had served as a mere backdrop until now, came crashing down. It was a cataclysmic sight, the heavens themselves seeming to fall as the strings of the Dao descended like colossal, fractured cliffs.

Caught completely off guard by this disaster, many cultivators were killed on the spot. From the looks of it, they weren't teleported away at the brink of death—they had truly perished.

The Dao Net, the very tool they had always relied upon, had turned against them, becoming an instrument of slaughter. The cultivators taking the test were forced to rely on their own skills to survive this unforeseen calamity.

But...

The cultivators of Shuo Xinghai, especially those aspiring to join the Immortal Hunt, had built their entire power base on Dao source symbols and Dao Net commands. Without the support of the Dao Net, the techniques at their disposal were pitifully few.

How could they possibly survive such a world-ending catastrophe?

Aside from the prodigies of the major factions, the rest were cut down in mere moments.

Even those who remained were only struggling desperately against the overwhelming might of the collapsing Dao Net. As the lattice fell further, the space for them to evade shrank, bit by bit.

They were gradually being cornered, driven toward a dead end.

Thanks to his light-speed escape technique, Li Fan was still moving with relative ease. However, looking around at the brutal selection that had left only sixteen people, including himself, a question arose in his mind.

"The previous Immortal Hunt trials were never this strict. Could it be that some major event has recently shaken Shuo Xinghai?"

The severity of this examination had clearly exceeded everyone's expectations. The composed expressions they had worn earlier were gone, replaced by an unconcealable panic.

They unleashed every trick in their arsenals, fighting for their lives in this apocalyptic scene.

"Ah!"

Another person was crushed to death by a falling string of the Dao.

It happened right before Li Fan's eyes. The cultivator's body and soul were annihilated, dissolving into motes of light that were absorbed into the Dao Net.

Yet, in that fleeting glance, Li Fan noticed something was off.

Li Fan had witnessed the extinction of countless beings. But the "death" happening here seemed different from the true demise of a cultivator.

A thought clicked in his mind, and he instantly understood.

"I see. This trial appears to test the candidates, but it's actually testing their deaths. To survive a disaster like the collapse of the Dao Net without using its power, one's own cultivation and skills would need to be almost supernatural. The cultivators of Shuo Xinghai are taught from birth to rely on the Dao Net. It's nearly impossible for them to pass this trial by surviving..."

"If someone actually manages to hold out until the very end, they'd likely be identified as a hidden infiltrator from an enemy domain!"

"Dying is how you pass the test. Surviving until the end would probably get you captured and interrogated."

As Li Fan contemplated, he unraveled the ingenious design of this trial.

"Of course, dying too quickly would also be a failure. That first group of people probably died for real. But then again, if they had no reaction time in the face of disaster, they deserved it. Only by dying at the right moment—not too early, not too late—can one be selected." Viewing the test from the perspective of the examiner rather than the candidate, Li Fan quickly grasped the underlying logic.

And so, he gradually began to feign exhaustion, putting himself in a precarious position. It had to be said, even if one could guess the truth behind this trial, facing the collapsing strings of the Dao Net made it nearly impossible for an ordinary person to simply give up and accept death.

There is a great terror that lies between life and death.

And the sight of the Dao Net crashing down was more than enough to trigger a person's most primal instinct for survival.

Even for someone like Li Fan, who had walked the line between life and death for years and survived countless near-death experiences, the urge to break free and escape when he felt the silver string of the Dao Net about to crush him was almost overwhelming.

Fortunately, he managed to suppress it.

He allowed the string of the Dao to grind him into dust.

His vision was consumed by an endless expanse of silver light.

Li Fan's consciousness seemed to fade.

In that state of nothingness, Li Fan vaguely sensed a vast consciousness sweep through his mind.

Acting on pure instinct, his mind fell completely silent, returning to a state of infinite tranquility. In that instant, he took refuge within the micro-Dao Net hidden in his own consciousness and pushed the memories of Ma Tiande's life to the surface.

The micro-Dao Net and the Dao Net were, in essence, both imprints of the Great Dao; there was no fundamental difference. It integrated perfectly, and even that vast consciousness, after a moment of intense scrutiny, failed to notice anything amiss.

The pressing sensation of being watched by a terrifying monster in the shadows vanished. Li Fan was "reborn," his body and consciousness restored.

He was no longer in the previous testing space but on a circular, floating landmass suspended in a void. Beyond the edge of the platform stood numerous figures. Their faces were indistinct, but they were all observing the remaining participants, pointing and chatting with smiles, though with no ill intent.

Li Fan glanced around.

He noticed that the other survivors still seemed dazed, as if they hadn't fully regained their senses.

Figures continued to flicker into existence, appearing on the circular platform.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, everyone had arrived. The announcer's voice echoed once more, but this time, the cold, stern tone was gone.

It was replaced with a hint of warmth.

"The final trial: combat!"

Li Fan understood. "It seems that reaching this point means we've passed the test. This so-called combat is likely just to determine our final rankings."

It was undeniable that those who had made it this far were among the most elite prodigies in Shuo Xinghai.

Although they hadn't fully recovered, upon hearing the command, they instinctively launched surprise attacks on the "enemies" nearest to them.

Li Fan, naturally, was also targeted.

His body moved like a flash of lightning, effortlessly dodging every incoming attack.

At the same time, he bellowed, "Remove armor!"

The cultivators who had targeted Li Fan all froze for a split second before retreating in unison.

Everyone present was intelligent; they all understood that this final trial was merely a formality. It didn't matter if you lost the fight.

The spectators around them were clearly their future colleagues in the Immortal Hunt. If they were stripped naked in front of everyone, how could they possibly face them in the future?

And so, under the threat of his "Remove Armor" command, the group tacitly agreed to avoid Li Fan as an opponent. They only sent a few stray attacks his way, all of which he easily evaded.

This battle was more of a demonstration than a real fight.

It wasn't long before the outcome was clear.

A curtain of light descended above the circular platform, displaying a list of names.

From top to bottom, there were twenty-eight people in total.

They were ranked based on their combined performance in the four trials.

The name Ma Tiande was ranked fifth.

"My score must have been boosted by my actions during the second trial, the capture of the True Immortal," Li Fan mused.

He looked at the name at the top of the list. At least eighty or ninety percent of the gazes in the arena were fixed on that same person.

It was the cultivator who had used the wind ability to blow back the True Immortal's rain.

His surname was Dao, and his given name was Yuan.

He had a slender build and deep, thoughtful eyes. Faced with the scrutiny of the crowd, he showed no signs of unease, merely offering a faint smile and a courteous nod.

Recalling the information he had reviewed earlier, Li Fan remembered the man's origins.

He was from the Myriad Dao Palace of Shuo Xinghai.

For the Myriad Dao Palace to dare use "Dao" in its name, it naturally had the power to back it up.

They were originally a group of survivors from another shattered star sea, yet they had managed to establish a firm foothold despite the covetous eyes of many factions.

It was said that they had made outstanding contributions to the establishment of the Dao Net and were now a power comparable to the Sword Domain and Knife Island.

"Since you have all joined the Immortal Hunt, from this day forward, you will obey all orders."

"Those who disobey will be executed without mercy."

"Now, for your first mission."

Hearing this, the expressions on the faces of the crowd turned somewhat strange.

They hadn't expected to be sent on a mission immediately after joining the Immortal Hunt, without any training whatsoever.

"Half a day ago, a True Immortal was lured by the 'Immortal Bait' we set. He crossed the Annihilation Zone and has entered the area covered by the Dao Net."

"He is not far from Shuo Xinghai."

"This True Immortal is gravely injured. The Dao he cultivates is 'Yi'. He is the perfect target for your first hunt, a chance to hone your skills..."

A figure stepped out from the crowd of spectators surrounding the floating platform.

Though short in stature, his body was packed with dense, powerful muscle. He wore a blood-red tunic and carried a black stone pillar over his shoulder, giving him a peculiar appearance.

"I hope your first hunt is a resounding success!" the man in red grinned fiercely, patting the stone pillar on his shoulder.