Chapter 1578: The Seizing Heaven Seven Miraculous Medicines
Chapter 1578: The Seizing Heaven Seven Miraculous Medicines
A light ignited in the darkness, and a moment later, it erupted in a blinding flash. Everything in its path was obliterated, instantly reduced to ash.
"Eternal!"
Watching as the countless souls aboard the Merchant Immortal Boat vanished before his very eyes, the Lord of the Holy Merchants showed no hint of panic. He simply called out the name, his expression impassive.
One breath. Two breaths. Three.
When the blinding light finally dimmed and subsided, the scene the Lord of the Holy Merchants expected—the Merchant Immortal Boat restored to its former glory—failed to materialize.
A flicker of doubt crossed the Lord of the Holy Merchants’ face.
His first instinct, however, was not to consider the possibility that the Eternal Dao had failed.
Instead, he called out once more: "Eternal."
Panic finally began to creep into the Lord of the Holy Merchants' heart.
He repeated the name again and again, his voice growing more desperate. He even took up the Tai Yi meditation cushion and approached the Eternal Immortal Skeleton.
His body trembled as he pointed down at the empty space where the Merchant Immortal Boat had once been.
The Eternal Immortal Skeleton, naturally, offered no response.
The Lord of the Holy Merchants realized what had happened, but the truth was too sudden, too horrifying to accept. His reason began to fray, and he even began to strike at the Eternal Immortal Skeleton.
"Fraud! Fraud! Fraud!"
"Bring it back!"
An endless torrent of blue symbols erupted from his body, surging toward the skeleton like a furious storm.
This strike, born of the Lord's incandescent rage, sent tremors through the dead expanse of space once more. It was like a boulder dropped into a placid lake, sending out wave after wave of blue ripples that echoed through the void.
And the Eternal Immortal Skeleton—the very foundation of the Merchant Immortal Boat for millions of years—simply shattered like a soap bubble in the turbulence, vanishing without a trace.
The Lord of the Holy Merchants froze, utterly dumbfounded.
The Eternal Dao could not possibly be shattered so easily by his hand. He was nowhere near that level of power. Therefore, there was only one possible answer.
The skeleton he had just destroyed was not the real "Eternal" at all!
The true Eternal Immortal Skeleton had vanished, and he had no idea when.
Almost instantly, the Lord of the Holy Merchants made a connection to the recent, mysterious disappearance of the boat’s gatekeeper: Wu Xin.
For millions of years, Eternal had been hidden aboard the Merchant Immortal Boat without a single incident. For it to disappear at the same time as Wu Xin...
"Aaaahhhhh!"
The Lord's eyes turned crimson with absolute fury. Countless familiar faces flashed through his mind. The thought that he himself had destroyed the entire Merchant Immortal Boat, along with the untold millions of souls aboard, unleashed a wave of indescribable guilt and self-loathing that threatened to shatter his consciousness.
"Wu Xin, I will kill you! Kill you!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill! Kill!"
In the span of a few breaths, the once brilliant and strategic Lord of the Holy Merchants descended into madness. His mind was consumed by a single, all-encompassing thought: find Wu Xin, kill him, and avenge his people.
But Wu Xin had long since been suppressed by Li Fan within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
No matter what methods the Lord employed, he could not find a single trace of his quarry.
And so his impotent fury grew, compelling him to destroy everything in his path.
In a daze, he left the star sea where the Merchant Immortal Boat had once floated and drifted toward Shuo Xinghai.
The tremendous shockwave from the boat's destruction had already attracted the attention of the cultivators in Shuo Xinghai.
When the two parties met, a deadly and inexplicable battle erupted.
The Lord of the Holy Merchants, having lost all reason, recognized neither friend nor foe. Caught off guard, the cultivators of Shuo Xinghai suffered grievous losses before their own tempers flared. They banded together, vowing to put down this madman.
"And that is why I say one must never grow too attached to external things," Li Fan remarked, watching the show from a safe distance with the easy detachment of an uninvolved party. "My entire family was wiped out in the crossfire between Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi, and did I not just laugh it off? If I had succumbed to despair back then, would I be where I am today?"
The Lord of the Holy Merchants may have gone mad, but the information stored in his mind regarding the myriad possibilities of the Mountain and Sea was still immensely valuable. Li Fan had no intention of letting him go so easily.
"Let them fight it out for a while. Once they've worn each other down, I'll take care of them both at once."
Neither the Lord of the Holy Merchants nor Shuo Xinghai would be easy to defeat and suppress.
For now, Li Fan withdrew his gaze and turned his attention back to the former site of the Merchant Immortal Boat.
After that violent explosion, the entire expanse of space had fallen into a dead silence. It seemed as though nothing had survived.
But Li Fan knew that the two Seizing Heaven cats, Pi Pa and Bai Qian, had not fled.
They were still hiding somewhere in this region.
"Come out," Li Fan said softly, revealing his hidden form and addressing the empty stretch of stars.
The two Seizing Heaven cats gave no reaction whatsoever.
Li Fan let out a derisive laugh. To think they were playing a game of cat and mouse with him...
With a single grasp of his hands, he tore the entire section of the star-filled sky free, shaping it into a square cage.
As the Myriad Phenomena Dao Net swiftly retracted, Li Fan brought the cage—and the Cat Treasures inside—back with him to the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
He left behind only a strand of his divine sense to monitor the situation at Shuo Xinghai, ready to intervene at a moment's notice.
Perhaps sensing the stark difference between the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm and the ordinary star sea, the two hidden Seizing Heaven cats immediately leaped out of their concealment the moment they arrived.
"Such a method of concealment..." Li Fan’s eyes flashed with interest.
The Seizing Heaven cats' bodies seemed to completely dissolve, assimilating with their surroundings to become a part of the world's Great Dao itself. That was how they achieved such perfect concealment.
Even though Li Fan knew they were hiding there, he had been unable to distinguish them from the void.
But this camouflage was clearly not adapted for the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm. The moment they entered, their disguise was broken.
"Still, that doesn't mean they're incapable of hiding here. They just need a little time to adapt..."
Li Fan studied the two Seizing Heaven cats before him—one orange, the other black and white. He perceived that their bodies were undergoing changes to adapt to the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm’s environment at an utterly terrifying rate.
He had only ever witnessed such adaptability in the newborn Ink Death.
"Pi Pa is adapting even faster than Bai Qian."
"So these are the so-called Seizing Heaven Seven Prototypes."
The two Seizing Heaven cats huddled together, watching Li Fan from a distance with wary eyes.
As their bodies began to slowly integrate with the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, even Li Fan, the father of this world, began to find the two cats increasingly pleasing to the eye. If he felt this way, one could only imagine how the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm perceived them.
The intangible hostility that the world naturally held for foreign invaders simply vanished without a trace.
And just like that, the two Seizing Heaven cats effortlessly transitioned from being outsiders to beings favored by heaven.
This was clearly an effect brought about by the Cat Treasures’ innate ability to evolve.
"If the Heavenly Doctor had possessed such a method back then, there would have been no need for any Heavenly Demon Reincarnation," Li Fan mused in awe, taking in every minute change.
Only he, the father of the Xuanhuang Realm, could truly comprehend how incredible this transformation was.
Just moments ago in Shuo Xinghai, surrounded by the void of a lower world, the two Seizing Heaven cats’ power was merely at the level of a Nameless True Immortal. But now...
It was as if a cultivator had ascended to the Immortal Realm in broad daylight. Amidst their rapid transformation, the aura emanating from the Seizing Heaven cats already surpassed that of an ordinary Nameless Immortal.
And this trend of enhancement showed no signs of stopping. It seemed poised to continue climbing toward the realm of Transcendence!
"It’s less that they’ve advanced to this stage in such a short time, and more that this was their pre-set limit from the moment of their creation. They are simply returning to their original state."
"To be entrusted with such an important mission by the Tai Wei Saint Emperor and deployed to other possibilities, it’s no surprise they possess the power of Transcendence. After all, the very definition of a Transcendent is one who can traverse the Mountain and Sea and travel freely to other possibilities."
"But their realm is the only thing they share. The cats’ method of traversal seems more like a clever trick. Compared to a true Transcendent cultivator, their actual combat prowess is surely far inferior."
The Seizing Heaven cats were adapting to their environment, integrating themselves into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
Meanwhile, Li Fan was using his connection to the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm to perceive the two cats before him.
Just as he had seen through the true nature of the Eternal Immortal Skeleton on the Merchant Immortal Boat, his understanding of the Cat Treasures’ essence deepened. Before his eyes, the images of the orange and black-and-white cats began to slowly change.
The fur receded, the skin dissolved, the bones vanished.
Their inner core was revealed to be two plants!
Or, to be more precise, medicinal herbs!
A fact that corresponded perfectly to their names.
One was a loquat, and the other, a cynanchum!
Boom! The images of the two medicinal herbs instantly shattered, and Li Fan felt a wave of dizziness wash over him.
A moment later, he faintly perceived a figure standing tall.
The figure was tall, its face indistinct, holding the loquat and cynanchum, as well as other herbs.
He focused his observation.
And every herb that passed through its hands was instantly transformed, gaining all manner of miraculous effects that were previously unimaginable.
Countless medicinal herbs lay scattered before the figure.
Among them, seven specimens shone with the most brilliant light.
"The Seizing Heaven Seven Prototypes... so they're actually the Seizing Heaven Seven Miraculous Medicines..." Sensing this scene, understanding dawned on Li Fan.
Since their true essence was that of medicinal herbs, then the Cat Treasures’ greatest function must undoubtedly be related to medicine.
Their so-called abilities to create living beings and replicate items were merely the most basic functions bestowed upon them at their creation.
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