Killing intent surged in Li Ping's mind, but soon the aura emanating from his body faded without a trace.
As the Holy Emperor of Great Qi, he naturally had to keep his emotions hidden from his countenance, even when no outsiders were present.
"Reclaiming the power of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao does not necessarily require killing them."
"If they willingly return that power, I am disinclined to slaughter needlessly. But if..."
Li Ping's heart grew icy cold.
Though Ruomu and the stone slab were each alone, their combat prowess was definitively comparable to a cultivator at the Longevity realm. Going to war with them would be a fine test run before the final showdown with the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
"A lion uses all its strength even when hunting a rabbit. I cannot underestimate them."
"Ruomu is slightly weaker, so I will start with him. I must also evade the stone slab's eyes and ears..."
A plan vaguely took shape in the Holy Emperor's mind.
As one of Ruomu's three major branches that had fallen into the mortal realm, the Earth Vein Ancient Tree inevitably maintained a specific connection with its parent body.
Ever since being heavily wounded by cultivators, Ruomu had been raving mad, remaining hidden from the world.
Perhaps through the Earth Vein Ancient Tree, he could first pinpoint Ruomu's true hiding place, and only then weaken his power.
With a thought, before long, Wang Xuanba arrived before the Holy Emperor Throne.
With the Xuanhuang malice completely devoured by Li Ping, there was naturally no need for Wang Xuanba to remain at the mountain peak of the sealing pocket world.
Having received the Holy Emperor's voice transmission not long ago, he had already returned to Shengjing.
As for the heaven-sent grace when Li Ping made his breakthrough, because Wang Xuanba had clone daughter-bodies in that pocket world, he had also enjoyed a portion of it.
At this moment, Wang Xuanba's cultivation had faintly approached the peak of the Nascent Soul realm, not far from Soul Formation.
However, Wang Xuanba's true strength was mostly reflected in the abilities of various anomalous beasts. Cultivation realms were not particularly important to him.
"Among the Dao-One Worms, there is a variant capable of corroding spirit wood. Cultivate some first; I will have great use for them soon."
Wang Xuanba nodded and accepted the order.
...
Just as Holy Emperor Li Ping was preparing to reveal his might to the Xuanhuang Realm for the first time, far away on the other side of the Pitch-Black Star Sea, outside the Xuan Immortal Boat, Sacred Embryo Li Fan encountered a crisis.
The source of danger came neither from the residual True Immortal power in the starry expanse nor from unknown cultivators.
Rather, it stemmed from the very sea of relics he was currently in.
Not long ago, this expanse of ruins—which had originally been exceptionally stable—inexplicably began to vibrate faintly for unknown reasons.
The trembling of the sea of relics was secondary; more critically, once this continuous ruin ceased behaving as a single cohesive entity, the gravitational pull emanating from the High Wall deeper within the star sea became increasingly pronounced.
In Sacred Embryo Li Fan's eyes, the entire starry sky was like an ocean suddenly experiencing a surging tide, sweeping up countless clustered relics and dragging them toward the shore.
The Xuan Immortal Boat had activated a special emergency protocol.
Even though the immortal boat had not revealed itself and remained concealed within the void, Sacred Embryo Li Fan could still clearly sense its movements.
It was not proceeding in a fixed direction, but shifting and maneuvering, constantly changing its orientation.
Like a compass needle spinning endlessly, it deflected and discharged the gravitational pull coming from the High Wall.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan initially thought to imitate this method to resist the High Wall's suction.
Yet it was far from as simple as it looked.
"The immortal boat's rotation doesn't rely merely on itself as a node, but is faintly linked to the entire sea of relics. Only by relying on these near-infinite relics can it barely avoid the pull."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan only felt a force dragging at his body.
Even as he flew in the opposite direction aboard his sword, he was steadily pulled in, bit by bit.
Seeing himself drifting farther and farther from the Xuan Immortal Boat, about to be dragged into the depths of the sea of relics, Sacred Embryo Li Fan could not help but contemplate forcing his way into the boat for refuge.
Even if that triggered a bitter battle, it was better than slamming headlong into the invisible High Wall.
Just as he prepared to act, in the Pitch-Black Star Sea, coming from the direction of the Xuanhuang Realm and the Immortal Ruins, the sudden flash of a seven-colored rainbow light caught his attention.
At first startled, he quickly realized what it was: those were the sixteen Dao Integration cultivators from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals who had answered Chuanfa's summons!
"Arriving this fast?"
Sacred Embryo Li Fan could not help being astonished.
Even factoring in the differing rates of time flow across regions of the star sea, the arrival of this rainbow light was far ahead of what Li Fan had estimated.
"Wait, could this abrupt surge in suction have been meant to guide the Alliance's rainbow light?"
Watching the rainbow light streak across the star sea, this thought surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
After a moment of contemplation, he abandoned his futile struggle and used the suction to fly along toward the depths of the star sea.
The rainbow light moved at extreme speed, but within the debris-laden sea of relics, it inevitably slowed down.
Shielded by his sword formation, Li Fan quietly followed behind.
Originally, Li Fan had assumed the sea of relics had limited scope.
Yet after tailing them for roughly three days in Xuanhuang Realm time without ever leaving this continuous stretch of ruins, Li Fan finally gained a rough conception of the sheer scale of the cultivation realm during its peak in the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Beyond the relics, no end was in sight, nor were there distinctions between north, south, east, and west.
Yet the Alliance's rainbow light clearly had special guidance, maintaining a constant heading throughout.
Its path also seemed meticulously calculated, avoiding all the hazardous zones within the ruins.
Thanks to them, Sacred Embryo Li Fan followed smoothly behind.
Another four days passed.
The dense clutter of shattered relics ahead suddenly cleared.
Li Fan's spirits lifted; he knew they were about to exit the bounds of the sea of relics.
With no obstacles in its path, the rainbow light gradually sped up.
Barely half a day later, a sight appeared before Li Fan that he would never forget.
A Great Wall stood erect in the dark void ahead.
At first, Li Fan thought this was the so-called High Wall.
Yet once he saw the Great Wall's details clearly, Li Fan abruptly understood.
The "bricks" forming this wall that stretched on without end were unmistakably shattered worlds, one after another!
Just like the ruins and relics in the sea of relics, what lay ahead was a graveyard of ruined worlds!
Li Fan made a rough estimate: even after devouring numerous cultivation realm fragments, expanding to a scale far exceeding ancient times, the Xuanhuang Realm would amount to nothing more than an insignificant stretch along this Great Wall of Remnant Worlds.
"Just how many cultivation worlds perished during the ancient calamity?"
"And what mighty power brought them all together here?"
"The High Wall..."
Li Fan gazed into the far distance, trying to spot the High Wall whose name he had heard so often yet whose form he had never seen.
Yet within the darkness, aside from countless world fragments, nothing unusual could be seen.
After a momentary daze, Li Fan found himself still flying uncontrollably toward the ruins of remnant worlds.
And his speed was accelerating.
"If I slam headfirst into that, even with my Celestial Sword Body, my dao will perish and I'll be dead," Li Fan frowned inwardly.
Yet he soon locked onto the Alliance's rainbow light ahead.
For some reason, that rainbow light had no intention of slowing down.
Instead, it proactively accelerated once more, hurtling forward.
"This..."
After a moment's thought, Sacred Embryo Li Fan decisively followed closely behind.
"Chuanfa went through so much trouble to summon these Dao Integration cultivators; surely he wouldn't let them die in vain like this."
As if confirming Li Fan's conjecture, after penetrating a certain distance into the sea of remnant worlds, the rainbow light unexpectedly disregarded the High Wall's suction, abruptly turned, and flew toward one of the world fragments.
It was as though something possessing an attraction far stronger than the High Wall's reverberating astral power existed there.
An inexplicable flash of unease crossed Sacred Embryo Li Fan's mind.
"Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa?"
Upon nearing the spot where the rainbow light turned, he also sensed that force.
Guided by inner warnings, however, Sacred Embryo Li Fan did not follow them inside.
Instead, he continued flying deeper into the sea of remnant worlds for a time. Perhaps due to the influence of Chuanfa's power, Li Fan's speed gradually slowed.
At last, he found a stable point and brought himself to a halt.
Still, Li Fan knew this stability was only temporary.
As soon as that suspected power of Chuanfa disappeared, he would once again hurtle uncontrollably toward the High Wall.
Li Fan tried flying into the broken worlds here to take shelter.
Unfortunately, the corpses of these worlds clearly would not provide protection for cultivators the way the Xuanhuang Realm did.
"Looks like my days are numbered."
Just as Sacred Embryo Li Fan was thinking this, not far away, at the destination where the Alliance's rainbow light had landed:
The sudden disappearance of an aura gave him a violent jolt.
Before he could react, a second, then a third Dao Integration cultivator's aura vanished in succession.
A Dao Integration cultivator, even one rushed through artificial shortcuts, was ultimately a supreme powerhouse beneath the Longevity realm.
An existence countless cultivators dreamed of becoming.
Yet here, within this dark void, inside the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds, they could not make even the faintest noise of struggle, dying in utter silence.
"What happened?"
"Did Chuanfa strike?"
"He went through the trouble of summoning them here just to slaughter them?"
While Sacred Embryo Li Fan was seized with shock and doubt, the speed at which the Dao Integration cultivators from the rainbow light disappeared did not slacken.
In the blink of an eye, all sixteen Dao Integration cultivators were dead.
"If they die here, will their dao still perish and return to heaven?" Sacred Embryo Li Fan suddenly wondered.
"Wait... returning dao to heaven..."
Li Fan suddenly realized something. He quickly focused his senses toward the place where the rainbow light had vanished.
Although the cultivators' life auras had disappeared, the power of heaven and earth laws still faintly lingered there.
Yet, like ice slowly melting into water, it weakened in a steady, orderly manner.
"This is..." Li Fan felt a jolt in his heart, finally understanding what had just transpired.
And then, the turbulent sea of remnant worlds inexplicably stabilized once again.
This corroborated Li Fan's judgment all the more.
"Using the Heaven and Earth Essence inside the Dao Integration cultivators to repair the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds?!"
Li Fan was both shocked and furious.
"Going to such great lengths just to tear down the east wall to patch the west?"
Li Fan felt that this was utterly absurd.
Yet the subsequent complete stabilization of the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds and the gradual subsiding of the High Wall's reverberating astral power forced him to believe it.
Though he longed to charge to the place where the rainbow light had vanished to see for himself, Sacred Embryo Li Fan was ultimately not ready to face Chuanfa directly. In particular, his sacred embryo body had been formed from the Xuanhuang Realm's sword law.
Rushing over recklessly, his fate would likely mirror that of the sixteen Dao Integration cultivators—reduced to raw materials for patching the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds.
While Sacred Embryo Li Fan did not fear death, dying like that would be far too wretched and senseless.
"The great turmoil in the Xuanhuang Realm stemmed from the High Wall's reverberating astral power."
"Judging by the scene before me, a delicate balance had faintly formed between this reverberating astral power and the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't propagate all the way to the Xuanhuang Realm."
"So the balance of the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds was broken by an external force, which in turn triggered the great upheaval of the star sea?"
"..."
"For these continuous world ruins that have stood since antiquity to fall out of balance..."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan could not help recalling the time back in the Xuanhuang Realm, inside the Chizha Abyss, when he had destroyed a remnant world.
Afterward, a figure suspected to be Chuanfa appeared and patched it with a new world fragment.
"Could it be that this very action led to the ensuing chain of events?"
A feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry welled up in Li Fan's heart.
"What is this? Tearing down the east wall to patch the west, only to tear down the west wall to patch the east?"
After some thought, Li Fan realized the likelihood of this being the truth was actually very high.
"After all, from the current reality, he really did manage to turn this catastrophe around."
"..."
Li Fan fell silent.
He carefully recalled and reviewed the details of the whole affair once more.
"There are still some strange points."
"If the state of the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds could be disrupted so easily, Chuanfa should have been exceedingly cautious when taking away that world fragment back then. Acting so haphazardly without considering the consequences doesn't match Chuanfa's style at all."
"Unless the mechanism behind the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds is so profound that even Chuanfa only half-understands it. Or..."
"The node within the Chizha Abyss was critically vital to the Xuanhuang Realm and could not be lost under any circumstances. So even if it caused an imbalance in the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds, Chuanfa was forced to do it."
Sacred Embryo Li Fan's thoughts raced.
Given his current knowledge, there was no way to determine which conjecture was correct.
However, he could now be certain: Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa was within this Great Wall of Remnant Worlds.
Or perhaps... it was the Heavenly Physician.
Sacred Embryo Li Fan cautiously concealed his aura again. Rather than acting rashly, he hid quietly.
Fortunately, the energy here was quite convoluted and chaotic.
Although the reverberating astral power had been curbed by the Great Wall of Remnant Worlds, it still rippled across the void like surging waves, perfectly masking the faint sliver of fluctuation Li Fan still leaked outward.
He waited patiently for more than ten days, until the warning bells in his heart completely subsided.
Only then did Sacred Embryo Li Fan fly slowly toward the place where the rainbow light had vanished.
He flew very slowly; a distance that could normally be crossed in the blink of an eye took him nearly half a day.
Once he confirmed no one was left, Li Fan finally began examining the pocket world he was in.
It seemed no different from the other world fragments here.
Yet for some reason, Li Fan felt a lingering sense of familiarity.
"What could it be..."
After a moment, Li Fan came to an epiphany.
"The Congyun Sea..."
Chapter 1240