Li Fan did not know what consequences would follow from plunging into those voids.
Nor did he have any way to discern their presence.
He had no choice but to resort to the clumsiest method: continue letting the remaining stone puppets scout the path ahead, while personally avoiding the routes traversed by the puppets that had inexplicably vanished.
As the number of stone puppets steadily dwindled, Li Fan's heart gradually sank.
At this rate of attrition, he would never reach the depths of the star sea in this lifetime.
Yet what Li Fan feared did not come to pass.
When only the final thirty-three puppets remained, after flying through the void for a considerable time, no more puppets abruptly vanished.
"It seems these voids do not exist extensively across the Pitch-Black Star Sea. Rather, they are densely gathered in a specific area."
"Outside the Xuanhuang Realm?" Sacred Embryo Li Fan pondered thoughtfully.
Thirty-three puppets led the way, with the sword light of Li Fan's form following behind.
Accelerating steadily, they forged ahead into the unknown darkness.
"This is going even more smoothly than I anticipated."
"I am now quite a distance away from the Xuanhuang Realm, yet this Xuanhuang Realm Sword Dao avatar of mine has not felt any decline in power."
"Now that is rather interesting."
Reason dictated that without the backing of a world's power, laws drifting outside the world would inevitably weaken to some degree.
Yet no such diminishment had occurred.
In fact...
His comprehension of the Sword Dao, which had reached its limit within the Xuanhuang Realm and could advance no further regardless of his efforts, actually began to loosen after lingering in the void for just a short while.
Even though this sacred embryo's talent was by no means extraordinary, he felt endless thoughts and insights pouring in uncontrollably.
It was as if he had directly transformed into some peerless genius.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan even felt an urge welling up within him to cast everything aside and concentrate entirely on comprehending the Dao.
Yet Li Fan circulated the Immortal Heart Incantation, forcefully suppressing it.
This anomalous phenomenon could not help but stir Li Fan's imagination.
"Does the entire Pitch-Black Star Sea actually share a single system of laws?"
"The Xuanhuang Realm's Sword Dao is merely a part of the shared Sword Dao of the entire star sea."
"Beyond the world, amidst the void, one beholds a vaster domain. The upper limit is invisibly pushed open..."
"It truly is a place where danger and opportunity coexist."
"I suspect the Heavenly Physician and Chuanfa constantly venturing into the Pitch-Black Star Sea has something to do with this as well."
Recalling the Heavenly Physician and Chuanfa, Li Fan felt a heavier gravity settle over his heart.
He had lingered here for only a brief while, yet had already reaped such remarkable gains.
It was difficult to imagine what heights those two had reached after living in the star sea for thousands of years.
The Heavenly Physician's advice had truly been words of gold.
The void "sickness" that even he treated with utmost caution had nevertheless descended upon Sacred Embryo Li Fan.
Without the slightest warning.
Just as Li Fan was immersed in the joy of his impending breakthrough in Sword Dao comprehension, an inexplicable wave of weakness abruptly surged into his heart.
Looking inward, sure enough, a black speck had appeared within his divine soul.
The black speck eroded the divine soul, as if directly usurping the original soul itself.
No matter the soul-protecting treasures Li Fan had consumed beforehand, none could halt its invasion.
Nor did his prepared methods for nourishing the soul have any effect.
"The upper limit of my divine soul strength has decreased, rather than the soul itself suffering damage."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan grew grim.
Fortunately, the black speck did not spread very rapidly, leaving Li Fan enough time to take countermeasures.
Within his divine soul, a sword shadow emerged.
Sword light flashed brilliantly, directly slicing off the portion of the divine soul occupied by the black speck!
And as the divine soul was divided, Sacred Embryo Li Fan's sword body instantaneously split into two.
The portion untainted by the black speck abruptly accelerated, fleeing from where it had been.
The infected half, however, ceased its forward flight.
It sat cross-legged in the void, focusing its spirit to perceive the inexplicable darkness within its weakened soul.
The agony of sundering the divine soul was beyond words.
Even with the support of the Immortal Heart Incantation, Sacred Embryo Li Fan felt his vision black out, nearly fainting on the spot.
A sense of weakness even worse than the erosion of the black speck immediately engulfed him, but he could not afford to dwell on the pain or fatigue.
He hastily absorbed the refined essence of the soul-nourishing treasures he had processed earlier.
Without the suppressing effect of the black speck, Sacred Embryo Li Fan's cleansed divine soul slowly regained its strength.
"This is what one calls scraping bone to heal a wound," Li Fan sighed softly with emotion.
Only the strange and treacherous nature of the new method—where as long as one's cultivation foundation remained undestroyed, the physical form would not perish—combined with his having built his entire foundation upon the Xuanhuang Sword Dao, could support him carving up his own divine soul so recklessly without turning into an idiot on the spot.
"A pity that without the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven and the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method, relying on external items is not a sustainable solution."
"With every cut, I become weaker than before."
"..."
"I can only hope I can hold out until I reach the depths of the star sea."
Li Fan closed his eyes, casting aside all stray thoughts for the moment to heal the wound in his divine soul.
Meanwhile, the other portion left behind in the void, which had been infected by the black speck, met its final end in complete death.
It was an ending even more despairing and horrific than dying of old age.
Like a mortal afflicted with senile dementia, that half attempting to comprehend the black speck saw its thoughts growing slower and slower.
Its mind grew increasingly sluggish, requiring long moments of thought just to recall what it had wanted to do.
Even when synchronized consciousness arrived from the other body, it felt blocked by layers of separation, utterly incomprehensible.
Ultimately, it sank entirely into the stillness of thought.
Just like its divine soul, it turned completely into dead silence.
...
"Just like this Pitch-Black Star Sea."
Xuanhuang Realm, Yanfa Jade space.
Li Fan's true self inwardly shuddered as he perceived the sensory impressions and imagery transmitted by the sacred embryo.
What made him frown was not the invisible voids or the black-speck plague of the star sea.
Rather, it was the time discrepancy between his true self and the sacred embryo.
With the sacred embryo having transformed his body into a sword and utilized the vast might of the star sea, he had already traveled a great distance away from the Xuanhuang Realm.
Because of this, Li Fan was able to discover that between the Xuanhuang Realm and the depths of the Pitch-Black Star Sea...
The flow of time was out of sync.
"It seems it is still affected by the Immortal Ruins."
"Even if it is not as terrifying as the edge of the Immortal Ruins, where a thousand years pass in the blink of an eye, the flow of time here is still slower than in other parts of the Pitch-Black Star Sea."
"Right now, it is roughly a ratio of one to two."
"Moreover, as the sacred embryo continues to move further away, this ratio is still widening."
Li Fan could not help thinking further.
"The Pitch-Black Star Sea within the High Wall is unavoidably influenced by the Immortal Ruins, differing only in degree."
"Does that mean the flow of time within and beyond the High Wall is also not the same?"
"Could it be that while over ten thousand years have passed in the Xuanhuang Realm since the ancient catastrophe that severed the immortal path,"
"beyond the High Wall, in reality..."
"even more time has elapsed?"
At this thought, Li Fan could not help closing his eyes, masking the faint glint within them.
Chapter 1179