Chapter 933: The Tragedy of the Immortal Elect
Chapter 933: The Tragedy of the Immortal Elect
Even when they extended their spiritual senses, they found only an endless, featureless void.
Constantly immersed in the lingering aura of the Dharma Spreader, the bodies and souls of the thirty-three Immortal Elect slowly began to transform.
In the darkness, time lost all meaning.
By the time they were finally released, their expressions, mannerisms, and even the look in their eyes had become strikingly similar.
...
As he watched this, a flash of insight struck Li Fan.
He finally understood the source of his familiarity with the middle-aged cultivator.
The cold glint in the man's eyes was a near-perfect match for Young Master Jinglun's!
"No wonder I could never find anyone with an identical face."
"Young Master Jinglun, this middle-aged cultivator... they're subtly different from those black-robed cultivators who seem to have walked out of a bygone era, and different again from that figure known as 'Wu'. Just how many secrets is the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance hiding?"
Countless thoughts raced through Li Fan's mind before he refocused on Wei Qizheng's unfolding fate.
...
After the second lesson came the final phase of their training.
The thirty-three Immortal Elect were led to separate prefectures across the land.
There, in a series of special pocket dimensions, they were tasked with sensing the residual power hidden within the statues of the Heavenly Venerate.
Thanks to their prior training, this objective was significantly easier.
Relatively speaking, of course.
In the sealed spaces, this was the only thing they could do.
A subtle force within these chambers even guided their minds, making it impossible to think of anything else.
Day and night, they did nothing but focus on this sensation, striving to achieve synchronization.
It had to be said that by this point, there was virtually no difference between any of the thirty-three Immortal Elect.
They all succeeded at nearly the same time, with a total margin of no more than two days.
All thirty-three of them completed the initial attunement to the Heavenly Venerate's lingering will.
Afterward, connected by a beam of pure light, they found themselves linked despite being in different parts of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance's territory.
Their consciousnesses were now intertwined.
It was a wondrous, almost surreal experience.
The thirty-three of them felt like a single entity, able to communicate instantaneously without a single word.
A single thought conveyed more than a thousand words ever could.
And the perfect rapport they had developed over time made their collective thoughts remarkably uniform, almost without fluctuation.
...
"Hm?" Li Fan's train of thought was broken once more.
"What's this? That beam of pure light..."
"Why does it feel a bit like Senior Sister Zhao's 'One Heart' ability?"
A flicker of confusion crossed Li Fan's eyes.
Senior Sister Zhao was the Longevity Heavenly Venerate he knew best, and he had personally experienced the unique nature of her "One Heart" ability more than once.
After re-examining the scene of the pure light beam's appearance dozens of times, Li Fan finally noticed something amiss.
The minds of the thirty-three Immortal Elect were in perfect unison, a state that should have been impossible for any outside presence to penetrate.
"It's a pure application of a law, not another One Heart Heavenly Venerate. Has Senior Sister Zhao's power been stolen?" Li Fan's brow furrowed slightly.
"The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance is capable of something like this?"
And what followed confirmed Li Fan's suspicions.
As the minds of the thirty-three Immortal Elect merged more completely, the pure beam of light gradually faded away.
Eventually, they no longer needed any external aid.
The thirty-three of them could communicate telepathically.
After thousands of attempts, they finally succeeded in invoking the immense power left behind by the Dharma Spreader for the first time.
The middle-aged cultivator's words—"a single glance from the Heavenly Venerate is equal to a full-force strike from a Longevity Immortal"—had left an enormous impact on them.
Thus, by the unanimous decision of the thirty-three Immortal Elect, the first manifestation of the Heavenly Venerate's power was the "Gaze That Leveled the Nine Mountains."
After this first success, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance finally granted them a period of rest.
This "rest," however, was merely a brief respite.
They were still confined to their special chambers, forbidden to leave.
After the brief interlude, they resumed their attempts, one after another.
They grew more proficient, and the power of the Heavenly Venerate they invoked became increasingly immense.
Until one day...
...the day the Heavenly Venerate's manifestation seized the great net woven from Sky Patrolling Arrows and hurled it toward the territory of the Five Elders Council.
This act finally provoked the intervention of the Longevity Heavenly Venerates of the Five Elders Council.
According to the plan, the thirty-three Immortal Elect immediately detonated the manifestation, unleashing its instantaneous power to the absolute maximum.
They sought to obstruct the five Heavenly Venerates and ensure the great net landed.
And they succeeded.
Though exhausted, they couldn't help but feel a surge of pride.
They had not even reached the Dao Integration realm, yet they had gone head-to-head with the five strongest Heavenly Venerates in the Xuanhuang Realm!
What an honor!
However, they had no time to celebrate.
Another command was issued.
"Continue manifesting the power!"
A jolt went through the minds of all thirty-three.
Even now, invoking the Dharma Spreader's power was no easy feat for them.
It was an extreme drain on their minds and spirits, requiring a period of recovery afterward.
But this inexplicable voice seemed to possess a demonic power.
It made it impossible for the thirty-three Immortal Elect to resist.
They all began to comply subconsciously.
And so, another manifestation appeared.
Before they could even rest, the cold, merciless voice echoed once more.
"Continue!"
The thirty-three Immortal Elect now realized something was terribly wrong.
If this continued, they would all die from the sheer exhaustion!
Yet they were powerless to disobey the voice's command.
Command after command came.
Finally, five manifestations of the Heavenly Venerate appeared simultaneously between heaven and earth.
And because so much of their vital energy, essence, and spirit had been drained in such a short time, the thirty-three Immortal Elect reached the end of their lives.
"Why?"
"Weren't we the hope for the revival of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance?"
"Weren't we heroes?"
In their final moments, the minds of the thirty-three were filled with confusion and bitter resentment.
Yet, even as their consciousness faded completely into darkness...
...no one ever came to offer them an explanation.
Not even a single word.
There was not even mockery.
...
"The world calls me, Grand Preceptor Li, a great villain."
"And I used to see myself that way."
"But today, I've discovered something..."
"Compared to the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, I still have much to learn."
Li Fan couldn't help but marvel at this after witnessing the entirety of Wei Qizheng's tragic fate.
Back in the present.
Due to the confrontation between the five manifestations and the five Heavenly Venerates, the tremors shaking the Xuanhuang Realm were still growing in intensity.
The battlefield itself, however, seemed to have fallen into a momentary stalemate.
The five radiant glows were locked in a struggle with the manifestations of the Heavenly Venerate.
These manifestations, summoned by consuming the very life force of the thirty-three Immortal Elect, were far stronger than those that had appeared before.
Facing the combined assault of the five Heavenly Venerates, their forms shattered, but did not disperse.
They held firm until the great net of Sky Patrolling Arrows finally fell upon the lands of the Five Elders Council.
Then, the image in the Tianxuan Mirror shifted once more.
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