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Chapter 1585: Xuan and Shang, Inseparable

Chapter 1585: Xuan and Shang, Inseparable

"It's not targeting me specifically. It repels the mortal world—in fact, it repels everything within the Mountain and Sea."

"If this Dao of the Awl were cultivated to its apex, it could perhaps carve out a niche for itself from the very fabric of the Mountain and Sea, a space utterly its own!"

"But that's only in theory. To reach such a state would require eons of work, without a single moment of negligence. Even the slightest oversight could render ten thousand years of painstaking cultivation null and void."

"This is no path for an ordinary person."

As the power of Ink Death encroached, Li Fan's understanding of the Awl Dao deepened, and he couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

At the same time, he was drawing ever closer to the solitary figure.

Yet, the figure showed no sign of panic. Instead, it bowed deeply to Li Fan from a distance.

Li Fan was momentarily taken aback, but a heartbeat later, he was stunned to find that the distance between them had inexplicably increased by a vast margin!

Li Fan stood frozen, savoring the experience. Through the feedback from the Dao One worm and Ink Death, he understood the reason behind this phenomenon.

It was a principle in action: for every foot of respect he was shown, he was forced to grant ten feet in return!

Realization dawned on Li Fan. "This is another Dao altogether. It's only because of this divine ability that he's been able to cultivate the Awl Dao to its current level so smoothly."

"If he had cultivated the Awl Dao alone, I doubt he would have even reached the realm of the Nameless by now."

The Awl Immortal's ability—"For every foot of respect I am shown, I must repay it with ten feet of distance"—was executed in an instant. Neither the Dao One worm nor Ink Death had detected any fluctuation of its power.

But Li Fan remained unconcerned. As long as he continued to approach, the Awl Immortal would be forced to use it again to protect himself.

And sure enough, as Li Fan closed the distance once more, the isolated figure bowed again.

The scene before him flickered like a mirage. To Li Fan, it felt as though the other man was stuttering through space, blinking from within arm's reach to the edge of the sky in a single moment.

He was like a person with crippling social anxiety, seeing a stranger approach and instantly fleeing in terror.

Li Fan almost laughed out of sheer exasperation.

And in this brief exchange, the Awl Immortal had also come to fully appreciate Li Fan's unbelievably fast learning ability.

Thus, he wisely abandoned any attempt to compete for the Lord of the Holy Merchants.

After a series of three bows, he vanished completely from Li Fan's sight.

He left behind only the Lord of the Holy Merchants, who stood senselessly in place.

"The Awl Dao, combined with that divine ability... his escape speed is truly astonishing. And it's not based on pure speed, but on the pressure of my pursuit. In other words, the stronger I am, the more pressure I exert, and the faster he can flee from me."

"It's like a spring."

"For now, I don't have a particularly effective way to deal with him..." Li Fan glanced in the direction the Awl Immortal had fled, but he didn't give chase. He would let him go, for the moment.

As long as the Awl Immortal remained within the Primal possibility, Li Fan could always track his position from afar with the Supreme Dao Scripture in his hands.

"To capture him, I'll need a special method. Perhaps... a dead end from which there is no escape, like the heart of the Dao Annihilation..." Li Fan's eyes glinted as he withdrew his gaze.

He turned his attention to the target of his journey.

The Lord of the Holy Merchants was indeed completely unhinged. Even though the Awl Immortal who had constrained him was gone, he remained within the previously demarcated area.

He swiped erratically at the empty air, squandering the last vestiges of power within him.

"Come here!" Li Fan reached out, grabbing at the Lord of the Holy Merchants through the void, intending to drag him into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm for suppression.

As expected, although the Lord was nearly spent, the protective measures around his body were still active.

A white light flashed, and Li Fan felt the portion of his Dao Net that tried to approach the Lord be harmlessly deflected. He had grabbed nothing but air.

"It didn't truly vanish. Instead..."

Every part of the Myriad Phenomena Dao Net was like a tentacle, an extension of Li Fan's power. He could faintly sense that this part of him still existed.

It was just no longer in Shuo Xinghai. It wasn't even in the Primal possibility anymore.

Instead...

"It was transferred to another possibility?"

Li Fan tried to perceive the specific situation on the other side through the vanished portion of his Dao Net. But the distance from the Primal was immense, separated by countless mountains and seas of reality. Even with all his effort, he could only perceive a few blurry images.

Beneath a somber sky, mountains of chaotically piled objects stretched out endlessly. The entire world was like an infinite junkyard with no visible end.

The piece of his Myriad Phenomena Dao Net, upon arriving there, lost the support of Li Fan's main body and couldn't even remain airborne. It fell straight down, becoming just another piece of trash on the infinite mountain of junk.

Instinctively, the Ink Death within the Dao Net began to devour everything around it.

Although this world seemed to be filled with useless garbage, the composition of this junk was surprisingly pure.

Not only was it incredibly easy for Ink Death to consume, but the degree of enhancement it provided was far greater than anything in the Primal possibility.

His connection with the junkyard world was intermittent, but he could basically confirm that the transferred portion of his power was thriving there.

So Li Fan decided to let that part of his power develop on its own.

"I just don't know if the Lord of the Holy Merchants' protection always transfers things to the same destination."

With this thought, at Li Fan's command, Ink Death swarmed toward the Lord once more.

Once again, the attack was silently neutralized, ceasing to exist within the Primal possibility.

But this time, it wasn't sent to the junkyard world, but to another, even more remote possibility.

It was so distant that even Li Fan lost his perception of that part of his Dao Net.

Although it theoretically still existed, it was now beyond his control, which was no different from being lost. Moreover, Li Fan was wary of such an uncontrollable situation.

After a moment of contemplation, he abandoned further attempts with the Myriad Phenomena Dao Net.

Instead, he simply used the other Daos he had mastered to unleash a continuous, saturating barrage.

Layers of immortal arrays replaced the Awl Dao's blockade. An endless torrent of sword light erupted from within the formations, chipping away at the Lord of the Holy Merchants' last ounce of strength.

Demonic sounds echoed as a colossal, illusory furnace slowly took shape, enveloping the Lord within.

At this moment, the Lord of the Holy Merchants was like a sandbag, enduring Li Fan's unrestrained, tempestuous assault.

The protective measure that transferred attacks away from him ultimately had a limit to what it could bear.

The previous siege by the immortals of Shuo Xinghai had already worn it down significantly. After Li Fan's relentless saturation attacks, it finally reached its breaking point.

It shattered like a star exploding, dissolving into motes of white light before vanishing completely.

Without this protective ward, the Lord of the Holy Merchants was no different from a mortal before Li Fan.

In a flash, he was suppressed and imprisoned within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

Li Fan nodded in satisfaction and surveyed his surroundings. The immortals of Shuo Xinghai had long since scattered like birds.

The few Nameless True Immortals who had still harbored some lingering hope for the Lord of the Holy Merchants had seen Li Fan's thunderous methods—first repelling the Awl Immortal, then shattering the protective ward—and had completely abandoned their ambitions, fleeing in panic.

"Fleeing... but where can you possibly flee to?" Li Fan chuckled softly.

He didn't pursue them himself, even though he had already grasped all their escape routes.

Li Fan planned to leave these individuals for the soon-to-be-unleashed Dao Integration True Immortals of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, to serve as their training partners.

Shuo Xinghai was merely an appetizer before the real battle. The more distant Guangwu Xinghai was Li Fan's true target.

With a single thought, Li Fan was already back in the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

Above the highest heaven, he began to invade the mind of the Lord of the Holy Merchants.

Beside him, Pi Pa, the orange cat, manifested its form. It let out several cries at the Lord of the Holy Merchants, its voice dripping with merciless mockery.

In such a short time, their roles had been completely reversed.

However, the Lord of the Holy Merchants was even beyond feeling indignation.

When Li Fan entered his mind, what he saw was the moment the Shang Immortal Boat was destroyed.

Time seemed to be frozen at this very instant.

The Lord of the Holy Merchants relived it over and over again, drowned in regret and powerlessness.

"His thoughts are completely occupied by the desire to save the Shang Immortal Boat. Even his past memories are submerged, impossible to access."

"In that case..."

Li Fan snapped his fingers softly.

As the Shang Immortal Boat was once again engulfed by the light of the explosion and the Lord cried out the word "Eternity," something impossible happened.

The Shang Immortal Boat, which should have vanished, reappeared out of the void!

The experimental space that imprisoned Pi Pa, the various structures on the immortal boat, and even every single citizen of the boat—they were all exactly as they had been before!

Gazing at the scene before him, the maddened Lord of the Holy Merchants was inexplicably stunned.

"It's... back?"

Two streams of tears rolled down his cheeks involuntarily. He remained in a daze for what felt like half a day before slowly regaining his senses.

His heart was still filled with disbelief. The Lord of the Holy Merchants flickered through every corner of the Shang Immortal Boat, repeatedly looking at the familiar people, events, and objects from his memory.

He could find no flaws.

It all felt so real.

"Could it be that what just happened... was only a nightmare?"

"Was it a cryptic warning from the heavens, telling me that even the Dao of Eternity cannot be relied upon too heavily?" The Lord of the Holy Merchants felt a wave of disorientation wash over him.

"I remember now. The Sacred Ancestor had warned of this long ago. Before he left, he gave special instructions that besides the Dao of Eternity, we needed another, ultimate life-saving measure. The split of the immortal boat back then was actually subtly encouraged by the Sacred Ancestor. Otherwise, even with disagreements over the plan to crash into the High Wall, how could the Xuanxian Immortal Boat, with all its power under the Sacred Ancestor's control, have ever split apart?"

"If the Shang Immortal Boat were to be completely destroyed, we were to return behind the High Wall and find the Xuanxian Immortal Boat. In the deepest part of the Xuanxian Immortal Boat's treasury, there is a hidden backup of the original Shang Immortal Boat. Likewise, we on the Shang Immortal Boat hold a backup of the Xuanxian Immortal Boat from the time of its separation. As the saying goes, Xuan never leaves Shang, and Shang never leaves Xuan. Located in two different star seas, as long as either of the Xuan or Shang Immortal Boats survives, the Xuanxian Immortal Boat will exist for all eternity."

"Moreover, the area behind the High Wall where the Xuanxian Immortal Boat is located is far safer than Shuo Xinghai. With the numerous treasures they received during the split, they must have been able to develop peacefully. This means the Shang Immortal Boat will always have a line of retreat."

"This secret is known only to the successive Holy Lords. But over the years, the immortal boat's reliance on and misuse of the Dao of Eternity has grown ever more severe. And no matter what disaster occurred, Eternity could restore the boat to its original state. Over time, even the successive Lords of the Holy Merchants slowly forgot the life-saving plan left by the first Sacred Lord..."

"In my delirium, I saw the immortal boat destroyed. My mind collapsed, and I almost forgot this crucial matter."

"Thankfully, it was just an illusion." The Lord of the Holy Merchants muttered to himself.

"Could this be a subtle reminder from the first Sacred Lord? A sign that I should make a trip back behind the wall?"

"That's right..."

The thought of what lay behind the High Wall seemed to trigger a keyword. Another series of long-sealed memories surfaced in the Lord's mind.

"Before the first ancestor left, he also mentioned that if we ever faced the desperate situation of the Xuanxian Immortal Boat being utterly destroyed, we should return to the Ancestral Land."

"The Xuanxian Immortal Boat was formed from a grotto-heaven in the Ancestral Land. The Immortal Boat Grotto-Heaven, and all its citizens, apart from the first Sacred Lord, have backups that exist within the Ancestral Land world."

"That place is an experimental site, created and monitored by a True Immortal from the upper realm."

"When the Sacred Ancestor led the masses to escape, he triggered the experimental site's defense mechanisms. The Ancestral Land has been sealed ever since. According to the Sacred Ancestor's deductions, that experimental site is quite special. Unless it is affected by the Dao Annihilation calamity, ordinary disasters will find it difficult to impact it."

"Strange. How is it that I'm remembering all these past events today..." The Lord of the Holy Merchants felt a sense of bewilderment.

His expression turned hazy for a moment before he looked at the vibrant, lively space of the immortal boat and comforted himself, "It seems the illusion just now was a greater shock to me than I realized."

"To be mindful of danger in times of peace... that is a lesson we have forgotten for far too long."

After just a brief moment of clarity, the Lord of the Holy Merchants once again sank back into his memories of the past.

...

In the reality of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, this Lord of the Holy Merchants had been standing stock-still from the very beginning, immersed in the illusory world Li Fan had woven for him.

Li Fan had once explored the Shang Immortal Boat in meticulous detail. With his current power, creating a lifelike illusion to deceive the Lord of the Holy Merchants was well within his capabilities.

"Even if there were any flaws, he would likely convince himself to ignore them."

Li Fan commented dispassionately.

The memories of the Lord of the Holy Merchants indeed contained quite a few valuable things.

Aside from the arrangements the Sacred Ancestor had made behind the High Wall, there was also a wealth of data transmitted back by successive Holy Merchants from their explorations of other possibilities.

"A total of twenty-eight possibilities are involved."

"These are all safe havens where the Dao Annihilation did not cause a world-ending catastrophe."

"In fact, if the situation was not better than the Primal, the Lords of the Holy Merchants would not have bothered to transmit the specific details back."

Li Fan quickly scanned through the states of these possibilities.

Every small change in the long river of history could lead to vastly different futures. These possibilities were starkly different from the Primal where Li Fan resided.

Among them, the one that interested Li Fan the most was a timeline where the Immortal Realm had successfully resisted the great tide of Dao Annihilation by absorbing countless lower worlds.