"Senior, I don't think I can take it anymore!" the agonizing voice of the Boundless Mirror spirit, Sun Luyao, drifted faintly from the mirror.
"Hmph, it won't kill you." Li Fan acted as though he hadn't heard a thing. Not only did he not halt the Boundless Mirror's reconnaissance, he instead cast an incantation gesture, directing it to shine its eerie light toward the Great Realm-Splitting Maelstrom once more.
As his words fell, intricate patterns suddenly surfaced across the mirror's face. Perfectly aligning with the cracks on the glass, they gradually knit the wounds together beneath a faint, tranquil glow.
"Urgh... ahh..." A contradictory cry, sounding both agonizing and intensely pleasurable, escaped Sun Luyao.
Li Fan merely narrowed his eyes, staring intently at the fragmented images flashing continuously within the mirror's profound radiance.
"Let me see what truly happened here back then."
In truth, the Genesis Stone Slab held records of the beast race splitting the realm to escape.
However, once a cataclysmic power capable of destroying heaven and earth erupted from Mount Nanming, the Xuanhuang Stone Slab had lost its ability to monitor this place.
By the time the violent energy riot subsided and the area became visible once more, the former sacred mountain of the beast race and their entire kind had vanished without a trace. All that remained was a terrifying, hollow wound that had failed to heal for several thousand years.
Li Fan's purpose in using the Boundless Mirror was partly to ascertain whether the beast race had successfully escaped through the split realm, but more importantly, he sought to decipher their method of realm-splitting.
Space had been pierced by an unimaginably formidable power, breaching even the barrier of the High Wall to connect beyond the Star Sea.
In that instant, it was as if a seal had been stamped into spacetime, leaving behind an indelible imprint.
Even though time had flowed on and millennia had passed in the blink of an eye, this imprint still lingered within spacetime itself, yet to dissipate.
By studying and analyzing this realm-splitting imprint, he might be able to recreate one of the only two instances in the Xuanhuang Realm's history of successfully escaping the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Like flickering, intermittent black-and-white footage, through the fleeting scenes Li Fan could faintly see Di Yi reveal His true form, rallying the beast race for their final mobilization.
He also saw many beasts watching from afar, not following them in their departure.
The scene flickered. The giant serpent coiled around Mount Nanming unleashed a sky-shaking roar. Wailing and writhing, its body emitted a blazing radiance, as if something were tearing its way out from within.
Yet Di Yi, Master of All Beasts, looked on with cold detachment. It was not until the serpent collapsed powerlessly onto the sea, sending towering waves surging upward, that Li Fan clearly saw what had emerged from its body.
It was astonishingly a key, magnified countless times over!
Across Di Yi's writhing, grayish mass of flesh, ripples suddenly spread out. Moments later, an indifferent, emotionless face surfaced upon His body.
This face seemed endowed with miraculous, uncanny power.
Not only did the other heads and countenances stirring restlessly across Di Yi's main body quiet down instantly and turn still, but around Sacred Mount Nanming, countless onlooker beasts could not help lowering their heads and averting their gazes, not daring to look upon that visage.
Even thousands of years later, gazing at this image through the river of time and space via the realm-splitting imprint, Li Fan felt a sudden surge of instinctive dread at the sight of that face, as though directly confronting a higher order of being.
"This is..." His body, formed merely from a sliver of divine sense, grew slightly unstable for an instant under the divine face's oppressive aura. Yet it was only a phantom image from thousands of years ago after all, and Li Fan's foundation far surpassed ordinary people. After a brief moment of acclimation, the invisible pressure quietly dispersed.
Within the realm-splitting imprint, the subsequent scene met Li Fan's eyes.
After Di Yi's true body revealed the divine face, the colossal key gleaming with antique bronze luster shrank visibly in an instant.
Under Di Yi's guidance, it flew straight toward Sacred Mount Nanming, which towered into the firmament.
The tip of the key aligned with the summit of Mount Nanming.
A dazzling point of brilliance manifested at the point of contact.
An identical sheen spread instantaneously from that tiny dot across the entire key and Mount Nanming.
As if completing some sort of authentication, moments later, the key and the sacred mountain bathed in radiance, turning ethereal and barely visible.
And around the sacred mountain, countless beasts—including Di Yi—were enveloped in waves of white light, transforming into strands of radiance that flew into the bronze key and Mount Nanming.
And then...
A terrifying brilliance akin to a cosmic cataclysm erupted from them.
It blinded every prying gaze.
Even as Li Fan endured the white glare that seared his divine soul to continue watching, all that met his sight was endless blinding light.
At that moment, the Boundless Mirror truly reached its absolute limit.
As if stripped of its spirituality in an instant, it could not even sustain its levitation and plummeted from the air. The mirror spirit Sun Luyao lost consciousness completely, falling entirely silent.
Li Fan pondered and retrieved the Boundless Mirror.
Yet his mind continuously replayed the scene he had just witnessed.
"Previously in the Fallen Immortal Realm, Di Yi explained the principle behind Mount Nanming's successful realm-splitting. He claimed that this place was the edge of the sky and the corner of the sea—the end of the world—and had therefore gathered much of the free-floating energy accumulated since the Xuanhuang Realm's creation..."
"Looking at it now, it was nowhere near as simple as He claimed. Relying purely on the Xuanhuang Realm's own power would hardly suffice to break through the realm, let alone stray residual energy."
"The bronze key and that divine face must have been the true keys to their realm-splitting departure."
Li Fan suddenly recalled the secret lore that the Sacred Emperor had heard from the Crossing Adversity Sect in this lifetime.
"From the fissure left by the Heavenly Sword Sect's realm-splitting, the Crossing Adversity Sect obtained a wondrous power capable of monitoring the Xuanhuang Realm—one that even Chuanfa was helpless against once implanted. And here, at the second realm-splitting site, a mysterious existence transcending the Xuanhuang Realm itself has also appeared."
"Even among the numerous ancient cultivation realms, the Xuanhuang Realm was extraordinarily peculiar. These two places seem to touch upon the crux of the matter."
Musing to himself, Li Fan drifted into motion, carrying the Boundless Mirror away from the Great Realm-Splitting Maelstrom.
"The principles of the world may manifest in countless ways, but their essence remains constant. The deliberate establishment of the post of Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang to oversee and inspect the Xuanhuang Realm indicates that in the eyes of the Immortal Realm, the Xuanhuang Realm definitely possessed a unique utilitarian value."
"Just like the myriad islands of the Cloud Sea—only on islands with valuable specialties does the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals dispatch cultivators to garrison them and construct island-protecting arrays."
"Changing one's angle of thought to simplify matters: the so-called Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang was equivalent to a Xuanhuang Garrison. And the Xuanhuang Realm was essentially an island in the lower realm's Star Sea."
"And the wondrous power discovered by the Crossing Adversity Sect used to refine the World-Observing Divine Eyes, as well as Sacred Mount Nanming unlocked by Di Yi with the bronze key, were likely parts of the Xuanhuang Realm's 'island-protecting array'—its realm-protecting array."
"It was not power native to the Xuanhuang Realm itself, but something constructed by the upper realm."
"It was merely that with the cataclysm of the Immortal Realm, this realm-protecting array was also impacted to a degree."
"Back then, King Xuantian deduced the Grand Star-Crossing Array based on the numerous ancient texts he obtained in the Ascension Path; perhaps it was also remodeled and constructed upon the foundation of this realm-protecting array. Otherwise, it is truly hard to fathom how someone with only a half-immortal physique, relying solely on the resources of the Xuanhuang Realm, could ever construct an immortal-grade array capable of spanning across the High Wall."
"Furthermore..."
Li Fan flew faster and faster as the clues scattered across the mists of the past instantly connected.
"The Grand Star-Crossing Array can span the endless void to lock onto other cultivation worlds deep within the distant Star Sea."
"With the aid of the Terminal Dissociation Disc, my array attainments have already touched the limits of mortality. Moreover, of the Xuanyuan Primordial Spirit Arrays, I already know three. Even when it comes to immortal-grade arrays, I have taken my first steps into the domain. Even so, how the Grand Star-Crossing Array precisely targeted destinations across the endless Star Sea with those golden chains remained an utter mystery to me."
"Previously, I thought it was due to my own insufficient array mastery causing the Terminal Dissociation Disc's deductions to fail time and again, and that King Xuantian, possessed of heavenly erudition and a half-immortal body, had array mastery surpassing even a wondrous item like the Terminal Dissociation Disc..."
"Looking back now, perhaps I overlooked a vital factor."
A sharp gleam flashed through Li Fan's eyes.
"What if those locked cultivation worlds shared certain common elements with the Xuanhuang Realm? It was by virtue of this mutual resonance that the golden chains of the Grand Star-Crossing Array could precisely lock onto each of them."
"Namely, that realm-protecting arrays existed in all of them!"
"Baihua once mentioned that even the primordial Xuanhuang Realm was an absolute titan among the many cultivation worlds. Her homeland, the Wansheng Realm, was merely the size of a single province."
"Analogizing the Xuanhuang Realm to an island in the Cloud Sea once more: it was like Liuli Island where I went in the past, a relatively large presence. The other worlds and grotto-heavens captured by it were the smaller entities drifting in the Star Sea."
"Mhm... Perhaps later, as those worlds were slowly drawn toward the Immortal Ruins, the Xuanhuang Realm captured more along the way. After the Ten Great Immortal Sects fell, Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician took over, stitching and patching them together to create the magnificent spectacle the Xuanhuang Realm presents today."
"If my deduction is correct, then those regions initially captured by the Xuanhuang Realm definitely possessed realm-protecting arrays."
At this thought, Li Fan seemed to realize something, his thoughts pausing slightly.
In the beginning, the Xuanhuang Realm merely engaged in simple capture and annexation, rather than dismemberment and reconstruction as done today.
Therefore, those regions devoured earliest should actually be on the outer periphery of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"The edge of the sky, the corner of the sea. The fringes of the world."
"Add to that, Di Yi's words seemed to hint vaguely that the Xuanhuang beasts came from beyond..."
"So that's how it is."
Enlightenment dawned upon Li Fan.
"It appears the bronze key Di Yi used did not activate the realm-protecting array native to the Xuanhuang Realm itself..."
Thoughts churned rapidly through Li Fan's mind.
In fact, there was a simple way to test his hypothesis.
In the pocket world where he found the golden skull and the "Mo" Formula, there were vivid memories of the Grand Star-Crossing Array's golden chains breaking through the boundary to lock down that world.
All he needed was to pay another visit and investigate.
With that thought, Li Fan altered his course and sped directly toward his destination.
En route, Sun Luyao gradually regained consciousness.
"Senior, where are we going?"
Without the slightest complaint about Li Fan's ruthless exploitation of his labor, Sun Luyao merely asked in confusion.
"To an interesting place. Take advantage of this respite to rest well. I may need you to act again soon," Li Fan said flatly.
Hearing this, the phantom figure within the mirror shuddered uncontrollably.
"Senior, I feel so very weak right now..." After a moment of silence, Sun Luyao plucked up the courage to speak.
What answered him was a clump of dense, golden substance.
Sun Luyao's attention was instantly seized, as if he had laid eyes upon a peerless treasure.
He knew this was the miraculous substance Li Fan had previously used to draw out the obliterating wind calamity from within the Boundless Mirror.
It possessed a fatal, irresistible instinctive allure for him, and an obscure intuition whispered that this substance would be immensely nourishing to his being.
Sun Luyao immediately clamped his mouth shut, ravenously devouring the Source Power Essence.
Moments later, his spirit was invigorated, and the feeling of weakness vanished completely.
"Hmph."
Savoring the wonderful taste, Sun Luyao intended to curry favor with Li Fan to ask for more.
Yet a cold snort from the other party snapped him back to reality.
Not daring to raise further demands, he could only hope to receive another reward after completing the upcoming task.
Before long, traversing a long void passage, Li Fan finally returned to that silent, dead world covered in ash.
"Go!"
At Li Fan's signal, the Boundless Mirror once more emitted waves of eerie light.
Compared to before at the Great Realm-Splitting Maelstrom, this bout of peering and analysis was undoubtedly far smoother.
With great ease, the images within the eerie light reconstructed the past of this place.
A vibrant world teeming with life.
A great river nurturing boundless living beings.
Upon dying, the beings were reborn within the river, forming a perfect cycle.
...
"Not this. Probe deeper."
Just as Sun Luyao was lost in the scene, Li Fan's voice rang out.
Sun Luyao's heart jolted, and he increased the intensity of the Boundless Mirror's probe.
The vibrant scene became fragmented and ethereal.
The river turned dreamlike and insubstantial, resembling starlight.
Beneath the surface of it all, crisscrossing lines abruptly appeared upon the face of the Boundless Mirror.
"Ah!"
However, the moment those lines came into view, it was as if some restriction had been triggered.
Sun Luyao felt an irresistible, scorching heat suddenly wash over him.
As though roasted in blazing flames, the Boundless Mirror felt as if it could melt at any moment.
"Senior, save me!" Sun Luyao could not help crying out in anguish.
Li Fan remained unmoved, pouring down golden Source Power Essence to compel Sun Luyao to endure the excruciating pain and keep probing.
Amidst Sun Luyao's agonized screams, the foundation stones hidden beneath the ruins of the world gradually began to surface.
Unlike the pocket world that had already been reduced to ruins, those lines, though broken and carrying an aura of decay as if struck by some calamity, still preserved their original configuration.
As more lines were uncovered, the embryonic form of an array emerged within Li Fan's mind.
At the same time, within the space of the Dharma Deduction Jade, the Terminal Dissociation Disc temporarily suspended all other tasks to record and analyze the fragmented array lines.
"Save me..."
Yet this array ruin was simply too vast. With less than a tenth of the probing complete, Sun Luyao was already at his last gasp, on the verge of destruction.
Chapter 1265