Although he had decided to seek information regarding the great power of the star sea from this other surviving civilization, Sacred Embryo Li Fan did not rush recklessly to their doorstep.
After all, having crossed more than half of the Pitch-Black Star Sea, his strength had been severely depleted by repeatedly slicing away parts of his divine soul to resist the erosion of the void's strange black-dot affliction.
If he failed to gather intelligence and instead carelessly ended up captured alive, would that not be the joke of the century?
"Since a civilization can survive here, there must also be a way to ward off the various strange erosions of the void. I will lurk in secret, slowly recover my strength, and then make my move."
In a flash, Sacred Embryo Li Fan settled on a plan.
First, he tapped his own brow, placing a restriction within his already exceedingly frail divine soul. If anything went awry, he could release himself in an instant, scattering his soul to the winds.
Only then did Li Fan conceal his presence and begin exploring this ocean of relics.
He did not pursue the suspicious silhouette from earlier, wary that it might be a ploy to lure him into an ambush. Instead, Sacred Embryo Li Fan chose a different direction and turned to delve deeper.
"The void is fraught with peril. If cultivators are hiding here, they must rely on formations and restrictions for protection. I only need to find traces of those auras to follow the trail. My mastery of array Dao is several eras ahead of the Xuanhuang Realm, so I should be unmatched here as well."
Such had been Li Fan's initial thought.
Yet after searching the ocean of relics for more than ten days, he failed to detect the slightest aura of civilization—no formations, no restrictions, not even a trace of vital energy.
It reached the point where Sacred Embryo Li Fan began to doubt whether the vague figure he had seen before had been an illusion.
Still, he did not give up easily. Like a patient hunter, he remained lurking in the shadows, waiting for his quarry to appear.
Another seventeen days passed before his efforts finally bore fruit.
A squad of three cultivators appeared. Clad in strange armor, they walked back-to-back, moving with extreme caution.
And the manner of their arrival took Li Fan entirely by surprise.
The positions of the lifeless relics floating quietly in the void suddenly shifted, and a passageway opened out of thin air.
Once the three emerged, the lifeless relics drifted back to their original positions, and the entrance closed behind them.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, surveying the area and taking in all the nearby remnants of bygone cultivators.
A moment later, understanding dawned.
"Brilliant! It isn't an isolated formation, but one adapted and built directly into these naturally floating relics, blending almost seamlessly into the surrounding environment."
"More importantly…"
Sacred Embryo Li Fan slowly drifted closer to the floating debris.
"These objects from destroyed cultivation worlds are all tainted, to varying degrees, by the power of True Immortal seal characters. This creates a natural barrier that shields them from a cultivator's divine sense to the greatest extent possible. That explains why I couldn't find their hiding place no matter how hard I searched…" Li Fan realized in an instant.
In truth, the formation itself was only average in sophistication. But once mixed and infused with the power of the True Immortal seal characters that had caused the destruction of so many worlds, it rose by several tiers. Even with Li Fan's current mastery of formations, he could not find a clean way to unravel it.
Of course, if he disregarded the potential side effects of those relics and chose to force his way through, he could still do so. But that ran counter to his plan of lurking in the shadows to gather information.
Li Fan glanced at the entrance to the hidden passage and ultimately abandoned any thought of forcing his way in.
Instead, he tailed the trio, observing them closely along the way.
Aside from wearing peculiar suits of armor, the three cultivators differed in no way from the people of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Their outing seemed intended to scavenge for supplies in this sea of relics.
Yet the items they gathered struck Li Fan as rather bizarre.
There seemed to be no common thread among them. Shattered magical treasures, chunks of ruined architecture, and even dried cultivator bones were all targets of their collection.
They did not store them directly into storage rings, but instead bound them together with a black rope, dragging the bundle behind them.
"This scene…" Li Fan froze for a moment.
It reminded him of Chuanfa using golden chains in the void to haul world fragments.
"Could there be some connection between them?"
Nearly half a day later, once more than twenty relics were tethered behind them, a disagreement seemed to break out among the three cultivators.
In the end, led by the foremost figure, they called an end to their foraging.
Carrying their salvage, they turned and flew back toward the passage entrance.
Seeing this, Li Fan shadowed them silently.
The three cultivators seemed bound by a strict perimeter; they had not wandered far from their haven. Soon enough, they arrived back before the hidden passage.
Suddenly, the armor of one cultivator began to flash with rhythmic pulses of light.
Li Fan sensed an exquisite rhythmic fluctuation radiating from the armor.
As if a mechanism had been triggered, the surrounding lifeless relics shifted rapidly, and a circular entrance quietly opened.
The three cultivators pulled the twenty-odd items together and flew inside.
Li Fan remained concealed, intending to slip in right behind them.
To his surprise, the moment he reached the threshold, a piercing alarm suddenly blared.
Li Fan's heart leaped. He instantly attached a pre-prepared divided soul onto one of the dragged items.
His true body, meanwhile, retreated at top speed.
Because the divided soul remained, the blaring alarm did not cease when Sacred Embryo Li Fan pulled away.
Tensely scanning their surroundings and finding no sign of an invading enemy, the three cultivators turned their attention to the salvage they had gathered.
After a brief discussion, they separated the items and tried carrying them in one by one.
Eventually, they pinpointed the item bearing Li Fan's divided soul.
Instead of destroying it, they hurled it with great force into the depths of the relic sea.
With the source of the threat gone, the warning klaxon ceased.
Only then did the three turn back and re-enter.
Not far away, watching the passage slowly seal shut, Li Fan chose not to force his way through after all.
"Fascinating. Their warning measures could actually detect me."
Eyes gleaming, he drifted over to the discarded relic.
"Sure enough, there's something strange here. On the surface, the influence of the True Immortal seal character still lingers, but in reality, the power clinging to it is negligible."
"After all this time, my frail divided soul didn't suffer any harm…"
Recalling the divided soul into his body, Li Fan picked up the relic and examined it closely once more.
It seemed to be a command banner treasure, though the fabric had long rotted away, leaving only a bare pole.
Its spirituality completely drained, it could no longer unleash its original power.
"What on earth are they gathering this junk for?"
Chapter 1183