"Dead?" Still shaken, Li Fan let out an immediate breath of relief.
Yet the faint sense of crisis lingering in his heart told him matters were not so simple.
Sure enough, after the several beams of sword light unleashed by Sacred Embryo Li Fan struck the corpse ahead, they vanished into the darkness in an instant, like snuffed-out candles.
From start to finish, not the slightest sound of impact or roar echoed.
That massive, shriveled corpse resembled a primordial behemoth lurking in the void, devouring every existence that dared approach it.
A spell flared to life, illuminating the surrounding space once more.
This time, the view was much clearer.
The overall appearance of the dried corpse differed little from that of an ordinary mortal, except for its exceptionally colossal size.
It stood over thirty zhang tall, its hands alone far larger than Li Fan himself.
Having drifted through this void for countless ages, the garments clinging to its body had long since rotted away.
Yet as Sacred Embryo Li Fan observed it more carefully, what shook him even more was that the dried corpse before him...
Appeared to be nothing more than a newborn infant.
Its hair was sparse, and not a single tooth had erupted.
Hanging from its neck was an ornament resembling a longevity lock, and around one ankle was tied a rotted red string.
Its panicked posture, reaching out a hand, was exactly like a frightened child desperately grasping for its parents.
"It was already this gigantic in infancy. It is truly difficult to imagine how large it would have grown in adulthood."
Li Fan suddenly recalled the Eternal Immortal Bastion outside the Chizha Abyss.
That fortress shrouded in white mist was also known as Broken Palm Immortal City.
It earned that name precisely because the entire bastion had been constructed atop the colossal severed palm of an Ancient Heavenly Venerable that had drifted out from the white mist.
"Perhaps there is some connection between the two," Li Fan pondered privately.
After all, in all the records of the Xuanhuang Realm, he had never come across any mention of such indigenous behemoths.
Though the giant was dead, an ominous, mysterious power still lingered across its body, intent on dragging everything around it down into the depths.
"This mysterious power must be the culprit that caused its death—and the source of the profound unease in my heart."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan pondered for a moment, a glint of resolve flashing in his eyes.
Even though he had vowed never to attempt it again, he still raised a sword against his own divine soul, cleaving out a sliver of divided soul.
"Ah..."
With his divine soul having grown extremely feeble, his tolerance for pain had also plummeted drastically. Li Fan could not endure it and let out a wretched cry.
His face turned deathly pale, and he panted heavily.
Without hesitation, he then bypassed the dried giant before him and pressed deeper into the star sea.
Meanwhile, the divided soul left behind in place recovered for a moment before voluntarily floating forward to make contact.
As the saying went, know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles. It was foreseeable that for a considerable time to come, the Pitch-Black Star Sea would remain a place Li Fan had to venture into. Thus, regarding the perils within the star sea, rather than blindly avoiding them, it was far better to take the initiative and probe their true nature.
In any case, his original self was far away in the Xuanhuang Realm, with True Reversion backing him. He did not fear triggering any unmanageable consequences.
Yet while the cleaved divided soul was still some distance from the dried giant, darkness engulfed its vision.
It completely lost all perception of the outside world.
Consciousness remained, but it felt as if it had been shut inside a prison. All around lay absolute, eternal darkness.
No sound, no color, no passage of time.
It felt as though he were the only soul left in the entire world.
Even the connection to the sacred embryo and his original self grew increasingly distant and dim.
On the other side, the sensation experienced by the sacred embryo and the original self was equally bizarre.
That divided soul was clearly a part of himself, yet an ever-deepening sense of estrangement crept over it.
More crucially, the endless loneliness enveloping the divided soul followed the link between body and clone, slowly beginning to erode him.
Only then did Li Fan realize that after being engulfed by the darkness, the state of the divided soul seemed permanently frozen.
As if solidified, it could make no movement whatsoever.
It could not even bring about its own demise.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan's expression shifted slightly. He unleashed several beams of sword light toward the location of the divided soul,
Seeking to sever the connection between the divided soul and himself.
Yet it proved futile.
Just as when the sword light had touched the dried giant before, all attacks vanished without a sound.
After several attempts, he had no choice but to give up.
Frowning slightly, he sensed the encroachment of that boundless loneliness, finding a small measure of relief.
The distance across space and time still exerted a degree of restraint upon this profoundly bizarre existence.
The speed at which his original self was being eroded was very slow.
Judging by the present rate, it would not threaten the safety of his divine soul for a century.
As for the sacred embryo, being so close, the situation was far from optimistic.
He estimated he could hold out for only around thirty-odd days before succumbing completely.
These units of time were all the absolute time experienced by each respective entity.
"However, as I travel further away, the situation will continuously improve."
"Though it remains unavoidable, it will buy enough time. As long as I can witness the true face of the mighty power causing this Xuanhuang upheaval, dying will be of no consequence."
"Furthermore, the only reason my original self can sense the divided soul is primarily through me. If I perish, my original self will be safe as well."
With this thought, Sacred Embryo Li Fan cast aside all distractions. Commanding the remaining stone puppets, he pushed forward at full throttle, speeding toward the depths of the star sea.
Even as he flew at breakneck speed, he pondered the mysterious power he had just encountered, the force clinging to the dried giant.
While the mysterious power was eroding Li Fan, he used the opportunity to observe it.
"This sensation is not unfamiliar."
A flash of insight struck Sacred Embryo Li Fan, and a conjecture formed in his mind.
"A True Immortal seal character! Another True Immortal seal character!"
According to Daoist Baihua's account, the tribulations encountered by the various worlds in the Pitch-Black Star Sea differed from one another.
Some faced [Extinction], some [Chaos], some [Hunger]...
And what Sacred Embryo Li Fan had just encountered in the void was unmistakably another True Immortal seal character that had wrought catastrophe.
"Is this [Solitude]? Or perhaps [Isolation]?"
Without seeing the true physical manifestation of the seal character, Li Fan had no way of knowing the truth.
He could only speculate based on the character's outward display of power.
"True Immortal seal characters wreak havoc across the realms. Even if they are likely not the genuine originals, merely copies penned by someone, they have still brought apocalyptic catastrophe down upon countless cultivation worlds in this starry expanse."
"Among these True Immortal seal characters, the character [Hunger] closely aligned with the Dao of the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins. Finding inspiration in it, he sat in contemplation amid the ruins of the Immortal Realm passage, attempting to grasp the true essence of [Hunger]."
"To him, it was perhaps only a momentary epiphany. Yet it birthed the terrifying existence of the Immortal Ruins, plunging the entire star sea into ruin..."
"Such is the power of an 'Immortal' above the mortal plane."
Thoughts surged through the sacred embryo's mind.
"And now, not far ahead, there actually exists a power comparable to that of the Immortal of the Immortal Ruins."
"What on earth is it?"
Chapter 1181