Chapter 1546: The First Venerable as an Immortal Puppet
After serving as the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate for ten thousand years, Yi Yutong was, in theory, eligible to end her mission.
But finding a suitable successor was no easy task.
When a probability becomes small enough, it is functionally no different from an impossibility. Yi Yutong searched painstakingly for another six thousand years, scouring nearly the entire Xuanhuang Realm. Yet, she never found anyone who met the requirements for succession.
Only then did Yi Yutong truly understand why the Xuan Tian King had been so overcome with surprise when he first discovered her.
With her prolonged, fruitless search, Yi Yutong gradually grew detached. In her spare time from patiently managing the affairs of the Xuanhuang Realm, she found solace in the mountains and rivers. In her heart, she prepared to live and die with this world.
Until...
The great war between the Xuanhuang and Taiyuan Realms erupted. A rift tore across the sky, and the image of a Xuanhuang True Immortal achieving a breakthrough mid-battle to turn the tide appeared before the eyes of the world.
As one of the people in the Xuanhuang Realm with the most profound understanding of "Immortals," she recognized the unique aura of the True Immortal realm the moment that being revealed their power.
Immense confusion flooded her heart.
Later, after that True Immortal blazed with incomparable radiance, they vanished as swiftly as a shooting star. Only then did understanding dawn in her heart.
At the same time, however, an irrepressible impulse surged within her.
"If I had the power of a True Immortal, perhaps I could ignore the various shackles of this Great Heavenly Venerate position. After all, the Immortal World was destroyed long ago..."
Once the thought took root, it could no longer be suppressed.
And so, she took a tremendous risk, leaving the Xuanhuang Realm for the first time in her life to travel to the Taiyuan Realm.
It was a perilous move. The vast majority of her power came from the blessings of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate. Outside the Xuanhuang Realm, she was no different from an ordinary Dao Integration cultivator. Yi Yutong was keenly aware of how many cultivators of that stage had fallen on that land. Even though the war had subsided and the threat from Taiyuan cultivators was gone, no one could say what dangers one might encounter in a foreign land.
But Yi Yutong went nonetheless.
She not only visited the site where the Xuanhuang True Immortal fell to pay her respects but also gazed upon the world-shaking sword scar left behind.
Upon her return, Yi Yutong had indeed gained some insight.
The lingering aura of that Xuanhuang True Immortal felt incredibly familiar to her.
This sense of familiarity came from the Xuan Tian King, whom she had known in the first half of her life, and also from the faceless idol she had worshiped since childhood.
"I see now. I was wrong."
"Since there are still Immortals alive in this world, it means the path to immortality is not truly severed. The destination called 'immortality' has always been there. It was only the Immortal World that was destroyed—just one of the paths leading to that final destination..."
Guided by this sense of familiarity, Yi Yutong felt as if she could faintly touch the very boundary of immortality.
As she painted, her consciousness followed the thread of familiarity in her heart, drifting out of the Xuanhuang Realm.
In a trance, she beheld a vision of a vast and continuous landscape of mountains and seas!
...
Li Fan slowly closed the book of Yi Yutong's life, a solemn expression on his face.
To have glimpsed the Infinite Sea and the Upper Mountain during her enlightenment.
This was clearly something Yi Yutong could not have achieved with her talent alone. The only plausible explanation was the encroaching influence of that so-called familiarity.
It was just as Li Fan himself would occasionally see the towering back of a figure sitting on a mountain, gazing at the sea.
This vision was not something he had seen with his own eyes.
Rather, it was a change that occurred after he began cultivating the Shou Qiu Prose and entered the Dao path passed down by Shou Qiu Gong.
"So the source of Yi Yutong's vision of the Mountain Sea is..."
Now that Yi Yutong had transformed into a heavenly pillar, an existence akin to an artifact, Li Fan used her as a medium to completely occupy her mind, carefully studying the source of this familiarity.
"Not the Xuan Tian King."
"It's the Nameless True Immortal..."
After some discernment, Li Fan reached his conclusion.
After all, in past cycles, Li Fan had been deeply entangled with both of them.
Especially the Nameless True Immortal; he had even fallen into its trap once, losing his face just like Yi Yutong's parents who had met a wrongful end.
But the Li Fan of today was a different man entirely. He had met powerhouses like Shou Qiu Gong, Ziyi, and the Tai Tian Emperor—beings who could traverse the Eternal Silent Void Realm.
Why would he fear this paltry Nameless True Immortal?
"Such a close connection indicates it is still within the `Primal` Possibility. It is not a transcendent expert..."
Li Fan's eyes flickered, his mind racing with thoughts.
Ultimately, however, he decided to temporarily suppress these notions. He would deal with the other matters in the Xuanhuang Realm first.
Reviewing Yi Yutong's memories, her account to him was indeed a mixture of truth and falsehood.
The first Great Heavenly Venerate did exhibit a tyrannical temperament, but it was a side effect of the Immortal-Mortal Separation. As the symptoms worsened, the first Venerable did his best to seal himself away, no longer appearing before the world, and began searching for a second-generation Venerate early on.
The escape of the first Venerable's bloodline was also a result of his deliberate indulgence.
It was precisely out of respect for the first Great Heavenly Venerate's past contributions that the Xuan Tian King, despite the many evils committed by his descendants, did not completely eradicate his bloodline during the reckoning.
"Knowing that ascension was hopeless, the first Venerable later gave up on the idea of returning to his immortal state."
"Instead, he gifted his immortal body to the succeeding Xuanhuang Heavenly Venerate, to be used as a trump card in times of emergency."
"An immortal artifact, an immortal body, and the power of the Xuanhuang Realm. These three things established the supreme status of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate in this world."
"The current location of the first Venerable's immortal body is..."
Li Fan found the answer in Yi Yutong's memories, and in the next instant, he teleported to the corresponding location.
"So it's here."
Space and time shifted in Li Fan's mind as he connected this place with its appearance ten thousand years later.
It was Tianling Province, where the One Beginning Sect would one day construct the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
At this point in time, however, the space known as the Root of Heaven and Earth had not yet been occupied by the One Beginning Sect.
And the first Venerable's immortal body lay quietly within.
Wisps of immortal power emanated from the body, nourishing the Xuanhuang Realm.
With Yi Yutong's memories, Li Fan passed through the multiple layers of restrictions unimpeded.
He arrived before the first Venerable's immortal body.
"Not weak. No wonder he was entrusted with such a heavy responsibility by the Immortal World," Li Fan commented dispassionately from a distance.
Judging by the aura emanating from the body, while it hadn't reached the level of a Nameless True Immortal, it was stronger than the Immortals Xi and Yi whom he had encountered in the Shuo Xinghai.
"The shell of a True Immortal, and a body completely devoid of its own consciousness. Truly the perfect material for refining a puppet." Li Fan couldn't help but be tempted.
The first Venerable's immortal body had lain quietly in the Xuanhuang Realm for ten thousand years, inviolable.
This was surely because the successive Great Heavenly Venerates had the will but lacked the power.
Even without a consciousness of its own, the immortal spiritual power would automatically protect the body. It was not a defense that just anyone could breach.
But it could not stop Li Fan.
"Perhaps the Xuan Tian King could have done it, but given Xuanyuan Hong's character, he might not have been willing to."
Li Fan, on the other hand, didn't care.
In his eyes, everything in the world could be used by him. And he felt no psychological burden in doing so.
This "world" did not just refer to the Xuanhuang Realm.
It referred to the entire mortal realm of the Mountain and Sea!
Although the idea of putting it to good use had crossed his mind, Li Fan did not let his guard down.
He meticulously inspected the first Venerable's immortal body from top to bottom, then set up an array on the spot. Only after ensuring there would be no problems did he begin refining the immortal puppet.
This time, Li Fan deeply absorbed the advanced experiences of refining puppets and clones from previous cycles. He adopted a state that was a hybrid between a clone and an independent puppet.
The immortal puppet would still possess its own independent consciousness, but Li Fan would also have the ability to control it completely.
Every thought that formed in its mind would be under his control. If necessary, Li Fan could even temporarily freeze the immortal puppet's thoughts and seize control of the body.
With a single thought, he could annihilate the puppet's consciousness, create a new one, and start everything over. These were all practical functions.
The refining of this immortal puppet was truly a culmination of Li Fan's abilities.
Even at his current half-immortal realm, the process took a great deal of effort.
Fortunately, with the support of the immortal power from the ancient immortal array protecting the Taiyuan Realm, he was finally able to complete the refining of the first immortal puppet.
As the puppet's consciousness slowly awakened, the immortal power that had been naturally emanating from it, nourishing the Xuanhuang Realm, was inevitably withdrawn.
In an instant, the world of Xuanhuang seemed like a vibrant flower losing its color.
It became subtly different.
If it had been in a state of flourishing prosperity before, now, having lost the nourishment of the first Venerable's immortal body, it instantly shifted from bloom to decline.
Although this change was still extremely subtle, perceptible to only a handful of individuals in the entire world, it was certain that as time went on, the change would become more and more obvious. The rate of change might even accelerate.
"No wonder Su Bai didn't take the first Venerable's immortal body with him when he wanted to escape the high wall. Without the support of the immortal body, it's doubtful whether the Xuanhuang Realm could even survive for another ten thousand years."
While Li Fan was still pondering, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's consciousness, the first to sense the change in the world, descended in a hurry.
He could feel its shock and fury.
But upon seeing Li Fan, it froze instantly. Its emotions then transformed into a mixture of grievance and fawning.
"Very good. It seems you learn quickly."
Li Fan nodded in satisfaction.
He separated a small portion of the immortal power drawn from the Taiyuan ancient immortal array and set up an immortal array here to supply the Xuanhuang Realm.
In any case, given the infinite nature of immortal power, siphoning off a portion had no substantial impact on Li Fan. And since the Xuanhuang Realm served as his foundational anchor point in the river of time, he would not sit by and watch it fall into turmoil.
Nourished once again, the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's sorrow turned to joy in an instant. It happily departed once more.
It was completely unaware of what a terrifying thing it was to have its very lifeline now controlled by Li Fan.
As for Li Fan, he paid little mind to the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao.
He was trying to peer into the life of the first Great Heavenly Venerate through the few remaining memories within the immortal puppet.
It had to be said, the first Great Heavenly Venerate truly had some skill.
The division of the Immortal-Mortal Separation method was indeed quite thorough.
Even after Li Fan completely cleansed the body, he only found a few of the most profound memory fragments.
These memories had occupied an extremely important place in the first Great Heavenly Venerate's life. They were so deeply branded into his essence that not even the Immortal-Mortal Separation could erase them.
"So this is the Dao Annihilation Calamity..." The first Venerable watched as the distant Immortal World collapsed in silence. The golden, resplendent celestial palaces were plunged into an inky, silent death in an instant.
And this silent death was rapidly spreading towards his position.
Countless immortals, like ants, vanished into this terrifying calamity. They couldn't even cry for help or wail before they were gone forever.
The first Venerable's heart was filled with despair. He didn't even have the thought to flee.
Because he knew there was no escape.
Just as he closed his eyes to await death, a figure that appeared slightly thin but was in fact immeasurably mighty suddenly appeared between heaven and earth.
All the other immortals were retreating in panic.
Only he faced the great tide of Dao Annihilation, heading straight into it.
One man, like a mountain. Like a dike.
He stood there, and the terrifying, surging tide that devoured everything before it could not advance another inch!
A distinct dividing line split the field of vision in two.
On the other side of the line was death and nothingness.
And here, where the first Venerable stood, was life and light.
Like all the other rescued immortals, the first Venerable stared blankly at the towering figure before him, unable to recover his senses for a long, long time.
It was not until much later that the first Venerable learned the name of this peerless powerhouse.
Shou Qiu Gong.
...
"Something even Shou Qiu Gong couldn't do, the Heavenly Net Emperor thinks he can?"
The first Venerable seemed to be arguing with someone.
Even though the other party was trying hard to persuade him, an irrepressible anger still raged in his heart.
"He has no self-awareness! And yet he's attracted a group of followers..."
"No wonder even Shou Qiu Gong had to leave."
"The Immortal World is beyond saving."
Once this thought arose, it echoed like thunder in the first Venerable's mind, never to be silenced.
"I hear the Heavenly Net Emperor is cracking down hard on dissent against his immortal regime. Especially the many True Immortals who have fled to the lower realms..."
At that moment, the voice of a friend reached the first Venerable's ears.
...
"This is the Rotten Axe Dojo."
"Since you've come seeking refuge, feel free to choose any cultivation world."
The first Venerable's divine sense swept across the countless, partitioned, block-like spaces. Suddenly, his gaze halted on one of the worlds.
"If I'm not mistaken, that person seems to be..." In this world, the first Venerable had discovered an extremely familiar figure.
Back when he had followed in Shou Qiu Gong's footsteps, he had caught a distant glimpse of this person standing beside an Immortal Emperor.
"Shh..." The person next to him let out a soft laugh, one that could only be understood, not explained.
The first Venerable could only swallow his words.
"Indeed, my decision was correct."
"Then I'll choose this place. A world where such great figures reside can't be a bad choice."
...
"He's dead."
"Such a powerhouse... could actually die."
"And he died in the mortal realm."
The first Venerable stared at the slowly forming, illusory version of the Xuanhuang Realm.
His heart was filled with shock and incomprehension.
The fall of that person was certainly unexpected.
But the birth of this illusory world was equally astonishing to him.
"Though illusory, it is real."
"It needs no foundation in reality."
"Even if the Dao Annihilation Calamity were to come, it could float upon it, like a wooden boat!"
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