Chapter 961: The Remnant Ghosts of a Thousand Realms
The dim, defeated light in Yin Shangren's eyes suddenly blazed with hope.
“I understand now!” he exclaimed, as if struck by a revelation.
“The one and only dual Heavenly Venerate of both the ancient and new laws in the Xuanhuang Realm, a person of such supreme goodness and perfection...”
“He must also have been a man of unparalleled intelligence!”
Yin Shangren's voice grew louder and more fervent. “So that’s how it was, that’s how it was...”
“Back then, after he successfully reversed the logic of heaven and earth and was ravaged by the Immortal-Mortal Miasma, he didn’t perish on the spot. Instead, his strength gradually declined.”
“That period of time would have been more than enough for him to set up numerous contingencies! All the mysteries, all the unanswered questions—the answers can surely be found in those plans!”
“It must be so!”
Hearing this, a thought sparked in Li Fan's mind. “Mr. Bai’s contingencies?”
The Fallen Immortal Realm must ultimately hide the true message Mr. Bai intended to convey.
Furthermore...
Li Fan thought back to his 115th life, when Su Bai had managed a partial resurrection based solely on the traces he had left upon the world.
Who was to say that the real “Su Bai” couldn't find a way to be truly reborn, even after thousands of years?
...
As Li Fan pondered, Yin Shangren before him grew even more frenzied.
“That’s right! He’s still waiting for me! I must go and find him!”
The fissure running down the center of his body, a consequence of practicing the Foundation Establishment Through Oneself technique, became increasingly pronounced.
Another body, hidden within Yin Shangren, seemed to stir restlessly, as if trying to crawl out from within.
At the same time, Li Fan faintly heard the soft patter of falling rain.
It was subtle at first, almost an illusion.
But the sound quickly intensified, swelling into a torrential downpour that seemed to lash the very earth.
In this illusory storm, the stone floor of the laboratory began to soften.
It even started to turn into a muddy mire.
Li Fan’s expression remained unchanged, but he had already levitated into the air, backing away slightly.
He moved clear of the spreading mud.
His pupils contracted as he watched countless writhing arms emerge and stretch out from the ground.
Yin Shangren’s body began to twitch bizarrely.
His voice became intermittent and indistinct.
A moment later, the pallid arms, like fish swimming beneath water, swarmed toward Yin Shangren.
The instant they touched his body, they plunged directly into his flesh and blood.
At the point of contact, the limbs dissolved.
Then they burrowed into Yin Shangren’s body.
“Pop...”
A sound, as clear as a bursting bubble, echoed in the room.
The thousands of pale arms continued to surge into Yin Shangren.
In an instant, his body began to roil like boiling water, churning with a grotesque motion.
The very space around him seemed to warp and twist.
Li Fan’s expression grew grave as he witnessed this heart-stopping scene.
He had seen and experienced much by now, his strength comparable to that of a Dao Integration expert. Yet the bizarre phenomenon unfolding before him was something he had never encountered in all his years of reincarnation, something he had never even heard of.
Li Fan closed his eyes, and the grotesque scene before him vanished in an instant, as if it had never existed.
Everything was perfectly calm.
Even the cacophony in his ears disappeared along with it.
His spiritual sense could detect nothing at all.
When he opened his eyes again, the horrifying scene rushed back in full force.
The "water" was boiling more violently now, yet the expression on Yin Shangren’s face, the man at the center of it all, grew increasingly serene.
He looked like an enlightened monk who had suddenly attained the Dao, all pain and confusion vanishing from his features.
Amidst this chaotic tableau, the only thing that remained unchanged was the rib bone of Mr. Bai, tucked away in Yin Shangren's chest.
It was so out of place, yet it acted like a lifeline.
It firmly anchored the increasingly ethereal Yin Shangren to the real world.
Yin Shangren glanced at the rib with a hint of reluctance before his gaze hardened with resolve.
He tossed it in Li Fan’s direction.
As Li Fan caught the rib, the sound of rain in his ears instantly grew more intense.
Suddenly, as if a threshold had been crossed, all sound ceased.
In the absolute silence, a brilliant light erupted from Yin Shangren's body.
The light shone out, slicing open a rift in the fabric of space.
Li Fan squinted, trying to make out the scene within the white light.
But even with his utmost effort, all he could discern besides Yin Shangren were numerous other figures of varying heights, all without distinct features, floating in mid-air.
They all seemed to be staring at Yin Shangren, urging him to do something.
The light grew increasingly blinding, eventually overwhelming Li Fan’s vision completely.
When the white light faded, Yin Shangren was gone.
Li Fan stood in contemplation for a moment before descending into the secret chamber beneath Yinyin Island. He discovered that the corpses once stored there had also vanished.
In this life, Yin Shangren had not chosen self-immolation.
A few stray words from Li Fan had captured his attention, steering him away from the extreme path of self-destruction.
Instead, he had...
“Chosen to return?”
For some reason, the scene within the white light brought that word to Li Fan’s mind.
“The rain that restores me...”
Everything about Yin Shangren was strange. Li Fan had even searched for records of that great rain of falling corpses.
Yet, aside from what he learned from Yin Shangren himself, he hadn't found the slightest trace of it anywhere else.
“It’s not a Weirdness, yet it is thoroughly bizarre.”
“Even though he was only a Foundation Establishment cultivator, I would have had a hard time killing him without using the [Chaos] character.”
Li Fan recalled every moment of their interaction, his brow furrowed in thought.
“Could it be that...”
A theory began to form in Li Fan’s mind.
The [Heaven Mending Record] described in detail the operational mechanisms of a world's Heavenly Dao.
The book mentioned that just as a cultivator could absorb spiritual energy to advance their realm, a world itself could plunder and devour other worlds to strengthen itself and achieve its own ascension.
The Heavenly Doctor called this the world’s [feeding].
But just as humans leave behind scraps when they eat, a world’s [feeding] also produces indigestible remnants.
Perhaps it was because a certain law from another world was incompatible with the host world, or perhaps it was "foreign matter" that was detrimental to the world's development and was thus naturally rejected.
These “ghosts” of old worlds would not be integrated into the new one.
They could only exist forever in the cracks between realities.
“Remnant Ghosts” were different from “Weirdness.”
A Weirdness was a product of world fusion; strictly speaking, it was still a part of the host world.
Although it might appear incompatible with the host world's laws, it was actually, over time, slowly integrating into the new world.
Given millions of years, a long enough span of time, a Weirdness might very well be able to fully merge with the host world.
But “Remnant Ghosts”...
They were beings utterly rejected by heaven and earth.
Even if the world were to be destroyed at the end of time, it would never go back on its decision to cast them out.
Connecting this with the phantom-like figures he had just seen, Li Fan mused, “Could that have been a collective of Remnant Realm Ghosts, left behind after the Xuanhuang Realm devoured countless other cultivation worlds?”
“The ghosts of the old worlds don’t wish to exist forever in the cracks of reality. They dream of a day they can make a comeback.”
“But as the vanquished, they can only resort to petty schemes in the dark. Perhaps Yin Shangren was chosen by these ghosts through some accident long ago.”
“No wonder ordinary methods couldn’t kill him. But the [Chaos] character could destroy him...”
“Because he was, in essence, a fragment of a broken world’s laws.”
“...”
Li Fan continued his analysis based on the records in the [Heaven Mending Record].
“For some reason, Yin Shangren still retained the mark of the Xuanhuang Realm; his transformation was incomplete. He was half-human, half-ghost. But just now, he completely embraced the side of the ghosts.”
“Hmm... As an existence on par with the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, it’s indeed plausible that he could glimpse all sorts of secrets.”
Li Fan wouldn't have been surprised by any action from the increasingly crazed Yin Shangren.
Even Yin Shangren's obsession with Mr. Bai might have been influenced by the Remnant Realm Ghosts in the background.
“Hmph, nothing more than scheming vermin. Nothing to fear.”
Li Fan scoffed, not giving them a second thought.
It wasn't arrogance. The only way these ghosts could pose a real threat to the Xuanhuang Realm was if the realm itself suffered a catastrophic blow and was on the brink of destruction.
Only when the Xuanhuang Realm was at its absolute weakest would the Remnant Realm Ghosts have the slightest chance to usurp the host's position.
But then again, by that point, even if the ghosts managed to achieve a hard-won victory and reoccupy the Xuanhuang Realm, they would only be inheriting a world already doomed to collapse.
To put it bluntly, the ghosts were like a virus that only erupts at the moment of death, taking over the body.
By the time they truly emerged, it would all be meaningless anyway.
“It’s just a shame about Yin Shangren. His aptitude for comprehension was even greater than mine. I was hoping he could help me deduce the method for the Mixed Origin Golden Core.”
Li Fan shook his head slightly.
His gaze fell upon the island before him. With a flash of insight, he instantly obliterated all the monstrous creatures Yin Shangren had been cultivating.
However, he collected Yin Shangren’s various collections from the secret underground chamber and stored them safely in his Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
Across the entire island, besides Li Fan, the only living thing left was the strange little dog that walked on human hands and had a belly full of roaming eyes.
The creature’s spiritual sense was remarkably sharp. The moment Li Fan’s killing intent stirred, it immediately scurried over to him, panting eagerly.
It extended its tongue, trying its best to curry favor.
Li Fan chuckled and spared its life.
He also took it into his Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven.
Leaving Yinyin Island, Li Fan contemplated what he had gained on the return journey.
“As the only dual-law Heavenly Venerate in the Xuanhuang Realm, Mr. Bai’s strength was undoubtedly beyond question.”
“He might even have been the reincarnation of the former Xuantian King...”
“No wonder Emperor Sanmo placed his remains at the very center of the Museum of Divine Treasures, and no wonder the eternal remnant will lingering on his skull was so alluring to [Truth].”
“An eternal remnant will must contain the obsessions of one’s life. I wonder what Mr. Bai’s obsession was?”
“It couldn’t have been to save the Xuanhuang Realm, could it?”
The thought crossed Li Fan’s mind.
Now that he understood the true value of the skull, Li Fan began plotting how to get his hands on it.
“The eternal remnant will cannot be brought into [Truth]; it must be absorbed on the spot.”
“Fortunately, I don’t actually need to take Mr. Bai’s skull. My goal is just the eternal remnant will attached to it...”
“I just need to get close enough for [Truth] to complete the absorption.”
“Of course, the entire process must not alert that Emperor Sanmo...”
“It would be best to find some pretext to lure him away from the Museum of Divine Treasures...”
After much consideration, his thoughts eventually circled back to how he could work in cahoots with Mo Rubin.
“I imagine Emperor Sanmo would have to give some face to a Dharma Transmitter.”
Li Fan extended his senses slightly. The number of cultivators practicing the [Divine Advent Body] technique had already reached a considerable figure.
It had already become a major headache for the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
He was sure that Mo Rubin was aware of this by now.
By perceiving the experiences of his followers, Li Fan confirmed that there were indeed several different factions within the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance’s investigation teams.
“It seems the time has come to make contact with him proactively.”
Li Fan’s eyes narrowed. A series of commands flowed through his thought-form demons, influencing the minds of his followers.
Returning to the Spirit Wood Realm, Li Fan calmly awaited developments.
While he waited, he once again took out the [Heaven Mending Record] to study.
“The [Heaven Mending Record] is truly profound and vast.”
“In the past, I would never have been able to discern Yin Shangren’s origins. In fact, there are probably very few cultivators in the entire Xuanhuang Realm who even know of the existence of Remnant Realm Ghosts.”
“This just goes to show the importance of having a good teacher.”
Rereading the [Heaven Mending Record], Li Fan felt new insights welling up within him.
Every reading truly brought something new.
—
Just one chapter today. *Tears.*
(End of Chapter)
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