Although during the standoff between the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association, both sides had developed various techniques at no slow pace, with endless new methods emerging, in truth, this period of rapid development had lasted for less than three thousand years. For tens of thousands of years following the great catastrophe of the severed immortal path, the Xuanhuang Realm had spent most of its history embroiled in mutual slaughter and strife.
Civilization had regressed rather than advanced.
"If my conjecture is true, it is terrifying to imagine just how vast the civilization gap between the inside and outside of the High Wall might be."
A closed civilization might boast of being the mightiest nation under heaven. Yet the moment a passage to the outside world was suddenly opened, in the face of an enemy possessing military might eras ahead, it would have no power to resist and would quickly fall and perish.
Such occurrences were common throughout the history of civilization.
Not to mention back before he transmigrated—even now, there was no lack of pocket worlds that had lost contact with the Xuanhuang Realm and forgotten the existence of cultivators. Mortals had established flourishing empires there, with historians chronicling their glorious deeds in grand detail.
Yet a single Foundation Establishment cultivator was enough to easily topple such a so-called "flourishing dynasty."
Li Fan's lifelong goal had always been transcendence and longevity.
To that end, he had undergone countless reincarnations, solely to carve out a path amidst the perils and looming doom of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Ultimately, he would leave this Pitch-Black Star Sea and venture beyond the High Wall.
Yet at this moment, the speculation that civilization might exist beyond the High Wall sent a chill through his heart.
"If a cultivation civilization truly exists out there and has developed for so many years, they might wield power rivaling True Immortals. They might even be capable of influencing True Reversion to some degree..."
Li Fan's eyes flickered, his thoughts churning.
Yet he felt no fear.
True Reversion was his greatest confidence.
He could backtrack time and time again, carrying his memories and experiences back to an established anchor. Even if the world beyond the High Wall were tens of millions of years ahead, he could simply level the playing field across a few cycles of reincarnation.
"I merely need to be cautious. Before getting a clear read on the situation, I will deploy clones and my sacred embryo, and my true self will never step outside. Prudence comes first above all else!"
"I do not fear whatever monsters might lurk beyond the High Wall; what I fear is finding nothing beyond the High Wall at all."
...
In the pitch-black void, the sword light of Sacred Embryo Li Fan followed closely behind the twenty-nine puppets.
Only half a year had passed in the Xuanhuang Realm since he had broken through the world's boundary.
From Sacred Embryo Li Fan's perspective, however, a full ten years had elapsed since he left the Xuanhuang Realm.
The divergence in the flow of time widened further as he plunged deeper into the star sea.
Not long ago, it had peaked at a chilling ratio of fifty to one.
Yet as Sacred Embryo Li Fan pressed onward, the time difference between his location and the Xuanhuang Realm gradually began to reconverge.
From fifty to one, it plummeted all the way to ten to one.
It was now comparable to when he had just departed the Xuanhuang Realm.
Li Fan knew this was because he was steadily drawing near another immense power source distorting the flow of time.
"The star sea is vast indeed. Even with the aid of this unknown mighty power, accelerating my speed to a hundred times the limit of flight within the Xuanhuang Realm, it has still taken this long to reach my destination," Sacred Embryo Li Fan murmured with a sigh.
Over these ten years, he had severed his divine soul more than three hundred times.
From his peak, when he could almost rival a Dao Integration cultivator of the Xuanhuang Realm, he had now degraded to the strength of an ordinary mortal.
The agony endured throughout the process was something even Li Fan, with his unyielding willpower, had no wish to experience a second time.
Fortunately, over the past few years, perhaps because his strength had deteriorated to an exceptionally frail level, the infection frequency of the black specks had drastically decreased.
Moreover, from the insights gained through over three hundred soul splittings, Sacred Embryo Li Fan had developed some understanding of how to handle this bizarre affliction.
"Although I still do not understand the mechanism of its manifestation, one thing is certain: these black specks are connected to the cultivation worlds that have already collapsed and vanished into the Pitch-Black Star Sea."
A single divided soul corrupted by a black speck might not have been enough for Li Fan to sense anything.
Yet all the withered, dead souls he had cast aside along his journey through the Pitch-Black Star Sea, taken together, revealed their commonality to him.
After appearing completely dormant, they had not remained where they were left.
Instead, they drifted quietly toward various locations across the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Their movement was profoundly esoteric, not traveling through space in the ordinary sense.
Rather, like droplets of water naturally rolling from high ground to low, they streaked swiftly through the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Once they reached their destinations, they vanished one by one from Li Fan's perception forever.
"Those locations—between the depths of the star sea and the Xuanhuang Realm—seem to overlap with the voids I passed through."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan looked back and gazed into the distance, remaining silent.
"It seems the various incomprehensible phenomena within the Pitch-Black Star Sea may all be linked to one another."
"Then what exactly is this star sea might rivaling the Immortal Ruins? Why was there not the slightest perception of it while I was in the Xuanhuang Realm, only for it to erupt so suddenly of late?"
Brimming with questions, Sacred Embryo Li Fan grew increasingly curious about the unknown journey ahead.
"Hm?"
Lost in thought, he was suddenly struck by a wave of vigilance and looked ahead.
That illusion of being watched resurfaced once more.
And this time, it was far more intense than anything he had experienced over the past ten years.
It sent chills down Sacred Embryo Li Fan's spine, setting his heart pounding furiously.
It was as though some exceedingly horrifying entity lurked in the dark void ahead!
With a thought, Li Fan first commanded a stone puppet to hurtle toward the source of the sensed danger.
Immediately afterward, he slashed out a sword ray from afar.
The stone puppet seemed to collide with something, letting out a dull thud.
Right after, the puppet vanished from Li Fan's perception.
Under the impact of his severed divine soul, the sword ray Li Fan unleashed was far less dazzling than when he had first left the Xuanhuang Realm.
Even so, it still illuminated the surrounding darkness.
A pair of enormous eyes abruptly appeared from the gloom.
They stared unblinkingly at Li Fan.
Meanwhile, an emaciated giant hand had already crept silently before Sacred Embryo Li Fan, about to seize him in its grasp!
"Fuck!"
He had voyaged through the dark void for more than ten years without encountering a single living creature besides himself.
Now, suddenly crossing paths with such a terrifying entity, Li Fan's heart leapt wildly and his scalp went numb.
Instinctively, countless sword shadows flew forth.
Whether it was because he had grown too weak or because the monster was simply too formidable, the sword shadows—capable of cleaving mountains and parting seas back in the Xuanhuang Realm—failed to inflict the slightest damage.
Seeing that he was on the verge of falling completely into the monster's grasp, Li Fan prepared to fight to the death.
Yet very quickly, he noticed something amiss.
The giant, emaciated human body ahead...
possessed not the slightest trace of life.
Its posture and expression remained frozen, entirely unchanged.
Chapter 1180