"Yeah. The Immortal Pivot Court has always opposed researching realm-annihilation force, cracking down on it fiercely for all these years. Who knows how many cultivators were reduced to fertilizer for the Divine Tree because of it? If they hadn't truly become unable to hold out in recent years, I doubt they'd have compromised either."
"Thinking about it that way, Severing Immortal Tower has made such massive progress in just over five hundred years. Meanwhile, the Immortal Pivot Court has held power for nearly ten thousand years, yet has accomplished nothing the whole time, causing the celestial vessel to deteriorate day by day and go from bad to worse. The Immortal Pivot Court truly deserves to die."
"The heavens above the celestial vessel are about to change. We brothers need to plan ahead. Perhaps we can seize this opportunity to shed our status as convicted criminals..."
The three glanced at one another, each recognizing the ambition in the others' eyes.
However, their hushed whispers ceased as soon as they left the deserted emptiness of the void.
Once they returned to the original valley, they reverted to being sullen and taciturn, looking thoroughly indignant.
After reporting back to Elder Gou, they went to reside in a wooden cabin within the valley.
A total of about a hundred other cultivators lived here as well.
Every so often, some among them would venture outside the celestial vessel to scavenge realm-annihilation relics.
The people of the celestial vessel seemed extremely terrified of the Pitch-Black Star Sea outside; before setting out on each mission, they always looked anxious and uneasy.
And scavenging relics indeed had a high casualty rate.
It was not because they suffered tangible injuries in the star sea beyond the vessel, but rather that each time they ventured out, their lifespans seemed to drastically decrease.
After going out just twice, this cultivator surnamed Zhao—Zhao Tianjiang—had visibly deeper wrinkles on his face.
*No wonder I haven't seen any young cultivators here; they're all middle-aged or elderly,* Li Fan realized.
The hundred-odd people in the valley did not cultivate during ordinary days.
Apart from undertaking the mission of venturing out to scavenge relics, they had no other duties.
From their daily idle chatter, Li Fan also gathered a vast amount of information regarding the celestial vessel.
This valley was known among them as the Valley of Suppressed Guilt, a place of exile for cultivators who had violated the celestial vessel's laws yet committed crimes that did not warrant death.
Scavenging realm-annihilation relics was done to expiate their guilt.
Once they accumulated enough merits to atone for their misdeeds, they could leave this place and resume a normal life.
Through their hopeful words, Li Fan caught a glimpse of daily life for the vessel's inhabitants.
All affairs on the celestial vessel, great and small, were governed by the Immortal Pivot Court.
Ordinary people of the celestial vessel did not need to worry about survival; the Immortal Pivot Court provided a fixed quota of subsistence supplies every year.
Yet it was merely just enough to scrape by.
Aboard the celestial vessel, strict controls were placed over both the total population and the number of cultivators.
Not only did bearing the next generation require official approval, but even cultivation had strictly fixed quotas.
Apart from obtaining the qualification to cultivate through lotteries, one could also earn it by making outstanding contributions to the celestial vessel—
such as venturing out to salvage realm-annihilation relics.
In this Valley of Suppressed Guilt, the vast majority of people had no cultivation.
That was why they harbored immense dread toward stepping outside.
The reason mortal beings could move freely and survive in the Pitch-Black Star Sea was the secret celestial armor crafted by the Immortal Pivot Court that they wore on their missions.
Besides ensuring their safety, it could also distinguish which relics met the requirements and could be redeemed for merits...
As for what purpose the Immortal Pivot Court had for these realm-annihilation relics...
These lower-class folk of the celestial vessel naturally had no clue.
...
"It seems this celestial vessel is even more severely stratified than the Xuanhuang Realm."
"The information that can be gathered by staying here is limited. I have to find a way to leave this place."
The power of his single divided soul was simply far too frail to withstand much depletion.
Crossing the void of the celestial vessel on his own was practically impossible.
Moreover, the invisible green pathways in the void only manifested when authorized. Anyone who recklessly tried to approach the void without permission would only fall to pieces and be reduced to fertilizer for the celestial vessel.
Thus, Li Fan's divided soul remained in hiding, waiting for an opportunity. However, what he did not expect was that before an opportunity arrived, a catastrophe struck.
It began when the three men around whom he lurked—Zhao Tianjiang and his companions—suddenly fell ill.
At first, Zhao Tianjiang thought he was merely exhausted and spent several days lying in bed.
Later, he could not fall asleep at all; his whole body began to itch intensely, leaving him restless and unable to sit or stand still.
Zhao Tianjiang seemed to recall something, and boundless terror welled up in his eyes.
Yet he spoke of this to no one else.
He even forced down his discomfort, showing his face before everyone several times and actively applying to venture out once more to scavenge relics.
Only when he began coughing incessantly and black spots broke out across his skin did Zhao Tianjiang hide inside his room, refusing to come out.
Clutching a jade tablet-like magical artifact, he busied himself with something unknown.
Afterward, fresh blood began steadily oozing from his seven orifices, and the coppery stench spread. At last, the secret could no longer be kept.
"Sigh. His days are numbered. It's better to send him back early so he can reunite with his family."
"Fate is truly fickle. Old Zhao had the sturdiest physique among us, yet he still couldn't escape catching the strange void sickness."
"He even concealed his condition for a time, just to hoard a few more merits for Little Zhao before he died..."
The crowd sighed and groaned, looking on with grief born of a shared plight.
Elder Gou, however, showed not the slightest ripple of emotion, strictly adhering to protocol as he sent Zhao Tianjiang away.
Before long, the celestial vessel dispatched another person to the Valley of Suppressed Guilt to fill Zhao Tianjiang's vacancy.
After Zhao Tianjiang died, the other two cultivators who stayed with him also broke out with the symptoms not long after and met miserable ends.
Everyone in the Valley of Suppressed Guilt lamented their sheer bad luck.
Yet Li Fan alone knew that their successive deaths from the so-called strange void sickness were likely caused by his divided soul lurking near them for so long.
*The bodies of these celestial vessel dwellers...*
*Are terribly fragile. They couldn't even endure the minuscule trace of void aura carried by my divided soul. If my true body entered, wouldn't I be a cataclysmic source of contagion?*
Li Fan was somewhat at a loss for words.
Taking the lives of those three had not been intentional.
It was simply that he had crossed more than half of the Pitch-Black Star Sea and remained in the void for far too long.
His divine soul had probably long since become tainted by certain mysterious forces within the void.
Although his own divine soul was resilient enough not to fear infection by these uncanny forces,
the fragile inhabitants of the celestial vessel were another matter entirely.
In the Valley of Suppressed Guilt, one day blurred into the next as if a decade passed without change.
The entire celestial vessel also resembled a pool of stagnant water, devoid of ripples.
The opportunity Li Fan's divided soul awaited never arrived.
Until this day...
The habitually stern and humorless Elder Gou suddenly put on a completely different expression.
He summoned every last occupant of the Valley of Suppressed Guilt.
They were all assembled outside the valley, seemingly awaiting the arrival of some prominent figure.
The people from the valley were filled with trepidation, while Li Fan's divided soul sensed from afar a powerful aura rapidly drawing near.
"Dao Integration stage?"
"More than that. Yet it lacks the oppressive presence of the Longevity realm."
"Hm? It's even laced with a ripple of power from a True Immortal seal character?"
Chapter 1186