Chapter 1574: Originating from the Divine Witch Realm
At the entrance of the Shang Immortal Boat, the clean-shaven, bald old man seated on a tan wooden chair suddenly shot to his feet.
His stooped frame straightened, and without waiting for Li Fan’s consent, he moved with surprising speed, following the contracting Myriad Phenomena Dao Net as it drew closer.
Though his plea, "Take me with you, senior!" was directed at Li Fan, the old man's gaze was locked on the Eternal Dao within the net. A profoundly complex emotion flickered within his murky, lightless eyes.
It was a mixture of irrepressible longing and a touch of apprehension.
The round-faced man, the avatar of the primordial Eternal Dao, seemed utterly oblivious to the old man’s presence, his expression unchanging from beginning to end.
Li Fan, however, did not ignore him.
Pausing for a moment, Li Fan studied the man and asked, "You are not one of the Holy Merchants?"
Only then did the old man tear his gaze away from the Eternal Dao. He bowed slightly to Li Fan and replied with great solemnity, "That is correct. I hope senior understands. I came to the Shang Immortal Boat countless years ago for the sole purpose of following in the footsteps of the Eternal. Now that the Eternal has moved, I must naturally follow."
Li Fan’s interest was piqued. The Myriad Phenomena Dao Net expanded, enveloping the old man as well, and continued its retreat toward the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm within the High Wall.
During the journey back, in response to Li Fan's questions, he answered everything without reservation.
"When did you arrive at the Shang Immortal Boat?"
"It was far too long ago; this junior can no longer recall the exact time. But back then, the Immortal Boat was not yet a boat, but a grotto-heaven within a cultivation world. Later, the grotto-heaven detached itself from its world, abandoning it to become the Xuan Shang Immortal Boat. After that, the boat drifted through the sea of stars, an aimless wanderer. Eventually, due to a great schism, it was torn in two by civil war. The victors became the Shang, the vanquished the Xuan. I followed the sundered Shang Immortal Boat, passed through the High Wall, and arrived in this new cosmos..." the old man recounted slowly and deliberately.
"You are no True Immortal, merely a mortal of flesh and blood. How could you possibly perceive the Eternal Dao?" Li Fan noted, seeing clearly that while the old man was mysterious, he lacked the aura of a being connected to the Mountain and Sea. He was purely a mortal cultivator. This was the main reason Li Fan felt comfortable letting him approach.
"To answer you, senior, this junior hails from the Divine Witch Realm. We are born with a keen insight into the myriad Daos. It is because of this that I was able to recognize the deeply hidden Eternal Dao at a single glance," the old man answered with deep humility.
"The Divine Witch Realm?"
Li Fan paused, a flicker of surprise in his eyes. An image instantly surfaced in his mind: twelve solemn palaces standing high above the clouds, encircling the sky and dominating the world's firmament. Within each palace was enshrined a statue, and upon the earth below, countless ant-like cultivators knelt in prayer and worship.
With a flip of his hand, Li Fan produced the Azure Nether Pearl. "Do you recognize this?" he asked.
It took only a moment for the old man to recognize the artifact from his homeland. The emotional tremor that ran through him was even greater than when he had witnessed the Eternal Dao being captured. "This... This is the Azure Nether Saintly Pearl?"
The old man strained to get a better look, but Li Fan had already put the pearl away.
"Forgive my outburst, senior," the old man said, his voice tinged with a wistful sorrow. "Seeing a relic from home... I lost my composure."
"Tell me about it."
"The Azure Nether Saintly Pearl is one of the twelve sacred artifacts of my Divine Witch Realm. These twelve artifacts were forged by the twelve Witch Gods, who gathered the Daos of countless realms and fused them with their own blood essence. The twelve Witch Gods existed even before the Immortal Realm was born. Each one possessed unimaginable, supreme power, no weaker than a True Immortal. Legend has it that after the Immortal Realm came into being, the Witch Gods, seeking to glimpse its secrets, sent their sacred artifacts into it as avatars, thereby opening the path of ascension for the countless souls of the Divine Witch Realm."
"Later, when the Great Calamity descended and the Immortal Realm collapsed, the Divine Witch Realm could not escape the disaster. The twelve Witch Gods joined forces to save our world, buying precious time for the people to flee. I was fortunate enough to escape through a transport channel they opened..."
"A channel opened by the Witch Gods... and it just so happened to lead inside this sealed-off High Wall?" Li Fan interrupted with a faint smile.
At that very moment, the Myriad Phenomena Dao Net, carrying the two men and the Eternal Dao, arrived back in the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
But the old man could no longer answer Li Fan's question.
The instant he laid eyes on the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, the old man from the Divine Witch Realm froze as if petrified, standing stock-still in utter shock.
Cultivators from the Divine Witch Realm resonated with, manipulated, and even replaced Daos with their own souls. They possessed a natural, acute perception of the ways of heaven and earth. Thus, the moment he entered the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, the old man saw it all: the heavens were high, the earth was vast, and new Daos flourished with exuberant vitality.
It was a world far beyond what the desolate cosmos outside could ever compare to.
The old man had never been to the Immortal Realm, but from what he saw of this domain, it was perhaps in no way inferior to the Immortal Realm of old!
He greedily drank in the sights, his gaze sweeping across the landscape with an insatiable thirst, as if every corner of this new world held priceless treasures.
And as he observed, his wizened features began to slowly, impossibly, grow younger.
While the old man observed the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, Li Fan observed the old man.
Having already escorted the Eternal Dao to the highest point of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm's firmament and settled it there, Li Fan now studied the cultivator from the Divine Witch Realm with great interest.
It was clear he was comprehending the Dao.
But his process was different from that of an ordinary cultivator.
Li Fan could see that in the short time since entering the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, the man's understanding of the various Daos had not deepened. The reason he was de-aging was that he was simply drawing power directly from the world's countless principles.
As a parent of the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan could keenly sense that the world's Great Daos had weakened ever so slightly due to this man's absorption.
Although the amount absorbed was infinitesimal, it had undeniably happened.
"It's somewhat similar to the abilities of the new Ink Death. The theft is far weaker, but in a mere instant, he can lock onto almost every interwoven principle in the world..."
"Truly fascinating."
Li Fan let out a cold snort and severed the man's connection to the Great Daos of the Xuanhuang Realm.
As if his eyes had been gouged out and his throat seized in an iron grip, the cultivator from the Divine Witch Realm let out a blood-curdling scream.
He quickly realized that his disrespectful actions had angered Li Fan. He immediately fell to his knees, kowtowing repeatedly as he begged for forgiveness.
"This junior did not act intentionally! It was an uncontrollable instinct!"
"Please don't blame me, senior! Please!"
Li Fan could see he wasn't lying.
Nevertheless, the Divine Witch cultivator’s peculiar constitution truly intrigued him.
Ignoring the man's wails and pleas, Li Fan suppressed and sealed him. Then, he dispatched a wisp of his divine sense, sending it into the man's body to observe him more closely.
Just as when he had first entered the Azure Nether Pearl, the twelve grand halls standing tall against the firmament materialized once more before Li Fan's eyes.
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