These corpses were all sealed within pale-blue, transparent ice crystals.
Through the ice crystals, one could still faintly discern the final expressions on the faces of the dead from when they were alive.
Anger, terror, bewilderment...
Lifelike, as though they were still living.
Densely packed coffins of ice crystal filled their entire field of view, covering the pitch-black ocean.
Leave alone the Dao Integration cultivators; even the three Dharma Transmitters leading the group felt their skin crawl, struck dumb with horror at the sight before them.
Shaken by this spectacle, by the time they came back to their senses, the True Immortal remains that had lured them here had long since vanished without a trace!
“W-What kind of ghostly place is this?!”
After a dead silence, a Dao Integration cultivator in the group named Zhu Gongchuan could not resist speaking up.
Fearing he might disturb the cultivators slumbering here, Zhu Gongchuan kept his voice hushed. Still, the fear deep within his heart was faintly audible.
It was not as though he had never seen dead men before.
Yet such an immense quantity of corpses gathered in one place, every one of them still preserving the vivid expression they held in life...
The shock of this spectacle was far beyond words.
No one answered Zhu Gongchuan's question.
The party flew silently above the dead sea. Even after half a day, they still found no end to it.
“By a rough estimate, there are over two billion corpses here... I'm afraid all the cultivators and mortals living across the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals' surface territories combined wouldn't even come close to this number. What in the world...”
“These people are not from the Xuanhuang Realm. Or rather, the vast majority are not,” Dharma Transmitter Wei said slowly.
“Judging by the style of their clothing, these people likely hail from various different cultivation realms. Yet, for reasons unknown, they are all frozen in ice here.”
“So many corpses, hidden right within the borders of our Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals. And for so long, we were completely unaware.” The face of another Dharma Transmitter, Chu, turned exceedingly grim.
“What was the True Immortal remains' purpose in luring us here? Could it be that it intends to turn us into this as well?”
“No. We have been inside for so long, yet we haven't suffered a single attack.”
...
They discussed in hushed tones, yet remained completely clueless as to the True Immortal remains' true motive.
“Let's keep searching.”
And so, they continued flying above the dead sea for a long time.
Finally, Dharma Transmitter Wei noticed a clue: “These countless frozen corpses seem to form a colossal array.”
“An array?”
Hearing this, the group exchanged bewildered glances, then looked around more closely.
“An array on such a scale must possess world-destroying power. Could this be a covert trap the Five Elders Association laid over the years to destroy our Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals?”
Not everyone present was skilled in array dao; after puzzling over it to no avail, their minds wandered into wild speculation.
“This array is intricate beyond measure. Glimpsing merely a corner without seeing the whole picture makes it impossible to deduce its true purpose. The pressing matter is to report what we have found to Alliance Headquarters first. Lingering here for too long gives me an uneasy feeling,” Dharma Transmitter Chu said gravely.
“Fortunately, this array shows no malice toward outsiders like us. It is neither a trapping array nor a killing array. As long as we locate the array eye, we should be able to get out,” Dharma Transmitter Wei assessed.
With the two Dharma Transmitters reaching this conclusion, the others secretly let out sighs of relief.
After wandering within the array for several days, the party finally found the array eye. Passing through it, they expected to leave this bizarre and uncanny region behind, but never anticipated that they would not return to the white mist at all.
Instead, they emerged over another unfamiliar ocean.
Unlike the dead, icebound black sea from before, a gentle, salty ocean breeze intoxicated the senses, and the calls of seabirds echoed constantly in their ears.
From time to time, schools of fish could be seen leaping out of the water or darting through the waves.
Bursting with vibrant life, it refreshed the mind and lifted the spirits.
Following a brief moment of astonishment, the group quickly scanned their surroundings and found no danger.
The Dao Integration cultivators grew slightly at ease.
However, the three Dharma Transmitters leading them took on unprecedentedly solemn expressions.
Dharma Transmitter Wei frowned deeply, gazing into the sky as he muttered to himself, “Different worlds, two sides of the same coin.”
“One for life, one for death.”
Dharma Transmitter Chu cut in, “No. Death is the source of life; life is the gathering of death. This is...”
The two exchanged a look, horror dawning on their faces.
*Reversing life and death?*
Sharing a tacit understanding, neither spoke those four words aloud.
Instead, they switched to divine sense transmission.
“So that's how it is. In that case, is this the Dao sanctuary of Heavenly Venerable Rebirth?”
“No wonder... I was wondering why he managed to reverse the principles of Heaven and Earth and attain the Dao as a Heavenly Venerable so quickly! It turns out he had long been hiding in this white mist, using an array as a foundation to thoroughly unravel the Principle of Life and Death!”
“Then what relation do the True Immortal remains have with Heavenly Venerable Rebirth?”
As one mystery was solved, fresh doubts surged in their hearts.
“Judging by the current situation, they shouldn't be on the same side.”
“Had it discovered this Dao sanctuary long ago, and deliberately led us here to probe Heavenly Venerable Rebirth's secrets?”
Both fell into deep thought.
After pondering for a long while without reaching a definitive conclusion:
“If we find the array eye of this world of life, we should be able to exit from here.” Having pondered to no avail, and having searched throughout the Dao sanctuary without finding any clues regarding Heavenly Venerable Rebirth's true identity, the three Dharma Transmitters decided to withdraw for now and plan carefully.
Yet just before they turned to depart, Dharma Transmitter Wei froze slightly, as though an idea had struck him.
“Reversing life and death... reversing life and death...”
“The grand array is already complete, yet those dead cultivators haven't awakened. What is truly being revived is the *world*?!”
“Which means Heavenly Venerable Rebirth's true goal is...”
Dharma Transmitter Wei was struck as if by lightning, his face turning deathly pale in an instant.
“Leave!” he barked without hesitation.
Yet, as if sensing the thought in his mind,
a figure seemingly formed of white mist silently appeared, barring everyone's path.
Faced with this abrupt enemy—and very likely the elusive Heavenly Venerable Rebirth himself—the crowd grew tense to the absolute extreme.
A battle was on the verge of erupting.
Dharma Transmitter Wei stared at the figure before him for a moment. After a brief pause, a look of utter disbelief flashed through his eyes.
“It's...”
Before the words could leave his mouth, the misty figure suddenly opened its eyes.
Endless white mist billowed from the entity, surging forth to blot out the sky and earth.
In an instant, it engulfed the group from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Ten Dao Integration cultivators, three Dharma Transmitters.
Such a colossal force was utterly powerless to resist, vanishing completely into the white mist in the blink of an eye.
Chapter 1110