It was an exact replay of when he had first encountered the "Hunger" Formula.
The instant the True Immortal seal character at the center of this realm-protecting array surfaced in Li Fan's sea of consciousness, he understood what it signified.
Return!
Unlike curses like "Derision" or "Chaos," it felt more like an imperial edict!
"A complete True Immortal seal character..."
Even as his mind shook, Li Fan had already quietly etched the form of the character "Return" into his memory.
*Return? Return to where? Or return to its original state?*
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, savoring the marvelous power of it.
Meanwhile, the Boundless Mirror's spirit had also finished investigating all regions other than the realm-protecting array's central core.
"Senior, over there..." Sun Luyao stared blankly toward that void.
An invisible connection formed in an instant, seeming to link the character "Return" with the Boundless Mirror.
Li Fan could clearly sense the sudden fear and confusion welling in Sun Luyao's heart.
Even the physical form of the immortal artifact, the Boundless Mirror, began to tremble faintly without warning. In the midst of that escalating violent shaking, Sun Luyao, as the artifact spirit, showed signs of being flung out of the mirror!
"Senior, save me!" Sun Luyao cried out instinctively.
Li Fan naturally noticed the shift in the Boundless Mirror immediately.
Without even directly confronting the power of the "Return" Formula, merely brushed and locked onto by its overflowing residue, the "Wuliang, Primordial Chaos Squared" array within the mirror—which Li Fan had expended tremendous effort to repair—showed signs of slowly collapsing.
Not only that, the immortal artifact itself began to gradually disintegrate.
In Li Fan's perception, the entire Boundless Mirror was like paper set ablaze; the disappearance of its fundamental fabric caused it to fade into incorporeality.
And those portions set alight—the components affected by the "Return" Formula—drifted away like wisps of blue smoke toward an unknown destination.
Li Fan's heart sank. He tried to halt the mirror's dissolution, but against the power of a True Immortal seal character, even his true body could not contend, much less this mere strand of divine sense.
With a twinge of regret, he watched as the Boundless Mirror shrank smaller and smaller amid Sun Luyao's ceaseless, agonized wailing.
Just when Li Fan believed this immortal artifact, which had aided him so greatly, was about to perish completely—
The unexpected occurred.
Those wisps of "blue smoke" summoned away by the "Return" Formula to parts unknown actually returned!
As though time itself were reversing over the Boundless Mirror, the thumb-sized relic suddenly swelled and replenished before Li Fan's eyes!
Sun Luyao, who had been wailing in terror thinking his final hour had arrived, grew quieter and quieter. In the end, he stared dumbfounded at the restored Boundless Mirror, utterly bewildered.
Li Fan was momentarily stunned as well, watching the Primordial Chaos Squared array reconstruct itself spontaneously out of nothingness.
What had just happened felt like a fleeting dream.
After a brief daze, Li Fan snapped back to reality and looked toward the "Return" Formula once more.
Perhaps because it had already endured the imperial edict once, the reappeared Boundless Mirror was actually able to disregard the existence of the "Return" Formula.
And the "Return" Formula likewise chose to ignore the mirror, continuing to lie quietly within the array's void core.
Neither disturbed the other.
*What is going on here? Nowhere left to return?*
The scene before him left Li Fan somewhat perplexed. However, from the inherent meaning of the character "Return" and the mirror's changes before and after, he could infer a thing or two.
"The realm-protecting arrays of the lower realms were all created by the Immortal Realm and subject to its control. And the Boundless Mirror, as an immortal artifact, must also be governed by the Immortal Realm.
"If they are viewed as the elite soldiers and generals of the Immortal Realm, then this 'Return' Formula is equivalent to the authority to mobilize and command troops. Whether this is a unique might inherent to the 'Return' Formula or common practice in the Immortal Realm remains unknown.
"Under normal circumstances, whatever is summoned by the 'Return' Formula should lay down its arms and return. But now, with the Immortal Realm shattered, the execution of the imperial decree has been compromised.
"It seems this 'Return' Formula is fundamentally different from the other True Immortal seal characters. It might even have been part of the cornerstones that kept the Immortal Realm's system of power operating in days gone by."
Li Fan pondered. "Yet this speculation inevitably raises a question.
"If the 'Return' Formula is already half-defunct, where did the central cores of these realm-protecting arrays go?"
Li Fan gazed at the "Return" Formula resting quietly in the core region.
Several possibilities crossed his mind.
The "Return" Formula might have been penned by some entity with a flourish of ink and sent flying toward the array cores of the various realms. Yet upon reaching its designated position, it found the target already gone. Thus it hovered here, waiting for the target to appear.
Alternatively, the "Return" Formula successfully acted upon the array cores; the lower-realm cores dissolved one after another to return to the Immortal Realm. But when the Immortal Realm collapsed and the cores were about to re-emerge in the world, an unknown entity intercepted them and took them away.
...
*Too few clues exist right now. The truth cannot yet be determined.*
"If the scope of the 'Return' Formula is confined only to the original power of the Immortal Realm, then despite being a True Immortal seal character, its usefulness to me is limited." Li Fan shook his head slightly.
"Still, since this 'Return' Formula can shake an immortal artifact...
"I wonder if it would work on the Heavenly Profound Mirror?"
Even if it caused no substantial damage to the Heavenly Profound Mirror, freezing or halting it for a short time could prove tremendously useful at a crucial juncture.
One had to keep in mind that the current system of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals—especially the defensive measures of Alliance Headquarters—was inextricably linked to the Heavenly Profound Mirror without exception.
The moment the Heavenly Profound Mirror malfunctioned, the seemingly impregnable Alliance would instantly become riddled with vulnerabilities.
Li Fan's true body possessed the Heavenly Profound Mirror's origin, so it might not mean much to him.
On Sacred Emperor Li Ping's side, however, it was an entirely different story.
It could reverse the battlefield situation in an instant, its mighty power rivaling dozens of Dao Integration experts!
After his true body relayed the contents of the "Return" Formula to Sacred Emperor Li Ping through their faint mystical resonance, the divine sense avatar in the Ash pocket world also initiated its next move.
The "Return" Formula was an unexpected windfall.
His purpose in coming here was still to verify his earlier conjecture.
"Extrapolating from this, a realm-protecting array should also exist in the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Furthermore, since the realm-protecting array was left behind by the Immortal Realm, it only exists within the Primordial Xuanhuang Realm."
After casually setting up an array to seal off the Ash pocket world and prevent anyone from stumbling in and coming into contact with the "Return" Formula, Li Fan's divine sense avatar took the Boundless Mirror and returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.
He arrived at the four central provinces of the Alliance.
A miniature projection of the Xuanhuang Realm surfaced in his mind—the shadow of Primordial Xuanhuang.
Crisscrossing lines appeared upon the model, representing the realm-protecting array Li Fan had deduced.
Even if there were slight discrepancies, it would allow him to roughly pinpoint its position.
Then, by deploying the Boundless Mirror's authority and spending a bit of time, he could locate the hidden central core of the Xuanhuang Realm's realm-protecting array.
The only concern was that if the disturbance proved too great, it would be detected by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
Chapter 1268