Chapter 911: The Dharma Spreader Appears in the Void
A dark expression settled on Li Fan's face as he stood in grim silence.
He immediately began circulating the Limitless Fullness and Emptiness, attempting to repair the damage to his soul.
But to his utter astonishment, the Limitless Fullness and Emptiness—a technique fabled to render the soul immortal so long as its power flowed—had lost all its healing efficacy against this blight!
Sensing that the patch of darkness in his soul seemed poised to spread, Li Fan's heart sank. He decisively chose to sever the decaying portion.
His head felt as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer. Stars burst before Li Fan's eyes, and a wave of dizziness washed over him.
His face turned pale. In that single instant, at least half a year's worth of soul-nurturing from the Limitless Fullness and Emptiness had been utterly erased!
Li Fan instantly understood what had happened to him.
If the strength of his soul could be quantified, all the damage he had previously suffered was merely a temporary reduction of that value. After circulating the Limitless Fullness and Emptiness, the number would always return to its peak.
No matter how skilled the Limitless Fullness and Emptiness was at patching things up, it was helpless when the ceiling itself was carved away!
A dangerous glint appeared in Li Fan's eyes. His figure flickered as he instinctively moved away from the dead-drunk Han Zhong.
The drunkard, seemingly oblivious to what had just transpired, continued to mutter incoherently.
Forcefully suppressing the killing intent rising within him, Li Fan's eyes flickered, and a waterfall suddenly materialized above Han Zhong's head.
Splash!
Then, a continuous stream of water began to douse Han Zhong.
"Ugh? Mmm!"
Han Zhong was truly, deeply intoxicated. He had to be drenched for quite some time before he slowly stirred awake.
He stared blankly at the pillar of water in the sky, his face a mask of confusion.
"Awake?" Li Fan's icy voice reached his ears.
Only then did Han Zhong realize that an uninvited guest had appeared in his room at some point.
He raised a hand to block the stream of water as he slowly got to his feet.
"You are..."
"Who I am is not important," Li Fan interrupted. "What is important is that I'm very interested in your experience."
A chill crept into Han Zhong's heart.
Recognizing that the intruder was not to be trifled with, Han Zhong dared not be careless.
He clasped his hands in a respectful gesture and said, "Senior, please ask anything. I will tell you everything I know, without holding anything back."
Li Fan nodded slightly. "I just heard you say in your drunken stupor that no one believes you..."
"What was that about?"
Hearing this, Han Zhong's expression turned somewhat peculiar.
"It was actually a... rather strange experience of mine, junior."
"I've told it to others, but no one would believe me. I even reported it to the Immortal Alliance, but it was eventually dropped. If Senior is truly interested, I can recount it."
Han Zhong spoke with some trepidation.
After receiving Li Fan's approval, he fell silent for a moment, as if organizing his thoughts.
Then he began slowly, "I don't know how many years ago, I did something foolish..."
His very first sentence was cut short by Li Fan.
"What do you mean, you don't know how many years ago?" Li Fan frowned, looking at the Golden Core cultivator before him, who couldn't be more than a hundred years old.
Han Zhong gave a bitter smile. "Because, I truly don't know how much time passed between my departure from the Xuanhuang Realm and my return. Everyone I knew is dead. Even my official identity in the Immortal Alliance was erased because too much time had passed."
"Even the Tianxuan Mirror no longer recognizes me. All the contribution points I had accumulated over the years... they're all gone."
When Li Fan heard him say "departure from the Xuanhuang Realm," his heart skipped a beat.
And the word "return" confirmed that the culprit behind that anomalous spatial fluctuation was none other than Han Zhong, standing right before him.
This only deepened Li Fan's curiosity about the man's ordeal.
"Continue."
Seeing that Li Fan did not scoff at him, Han Zhong's spirits lifted.
He grabbed a nearby wine jar and took a swig.
Then he continued his tale. "Back then, I was young and arrogant. I was skeptical of all authority."
"When I traveled to the Nine Mountains Prefecture, I was stunned by the strange sight of the nine mountains that prevented cultivators from flying. Then I heard that using teleportation arrays within the prefecture was extremely risky..."
"I don't know what I was thinking back then, but I just had to tempt fate and try it."
Han Zhong sighed heavily.
Li Fan's eyes narrowed, however, as he instantly recalled something.
While researching the Nine Mountains Prefecture, Li Fan had come across an old anecdote.
It told of an unlucky cultivator who, throwing caution to the wind, insisted on using a teleportation array in the Nine Mountains Prefecture.
As a result, he was teleported directly outside the Xuanhuang Realm, never to return.
"You're that unlucky fool who was supposedly teleported out of the Xuanhuang Realm?" Li Fan couldn't help but ask.
Han Zhong hadn't expected this senior to have heard of his exploits, and his old face flushed with shame.
"That would be me. I was young and foolish back then, and indeed did something reckless."
At this, Li Fan's interest was piqued even further. "After you left the Xuanhuang Realm, where did you go? And what did you see?"
A flicker of fear, mixed with bewilderment, crossed Han Zhong's eyes.
"To be honest..."
"I'm not entirely sure where I was after leaving the Xuanhuang Realm. It was as if I was enclosed in an invisible bubble, drifting and floating through an endless darkness."
"Most of the time, the outside was an unchanging black. But occasionally, distorted scenes would flash by at high speed."
"But..."
Han Zhong shivered. "I was on the verge of madness back then. So I can't be sure if what I saw was just a hallucination."
"So what exactly did you see?" Li Fan's tone was growing impatient.
"I saw..." Han Zhong paused for a long while.
The look on his face suggested a fierce internal struggle.
Then, he lowered his voice, his words trembling. "I think... I saw the Dharma Spreader."
As he spoke, he conjured a water mirror to display the scene he had witnessed.
On the circular screen of light, there was only boundless darkness.
Suddenly, a flash of golden light appeared.
It stood out starkly against the blackness.
As it drew closer, the golden light gradually took the form of a figure.
His hair was pure white, his long beard flowing. His expression was solemn, radiating an authority that needed no anger to be felt.
And this person's appearance should be known to everyone in the Xuanhuang Realm, in the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance!
He looked exactly like the stone statues of the Dharma Spreader erected in every floating city!
"He..."
"That should be the Dharma Spreader, right?"
Han Zhong asked, his voice laced with uncertainty.
Li Fan stared at the scene in the water mirror and slowly nodded.
He wasn't surprised to see the Dharma Spreader outside the Xuanhuang Realm.
What truly caught his attention...
...was what was behind the Dharma Spreader.
The Dharma Spreader was seen speeding through the endless void, with several golden chains extending from his body.
Connecting him to something in the rear.
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