After being tempered in the Ash pocket world and surviving a brush with death under the "Return" Formula, Sun Luyao had indeed improved significantly compared to before.
A faint glow quietly blossomed, piercing through the Xuanhuang Realm's surface continent straight down toward its core.
After some searching, remnants suspected to belong to the realm-protecting array were indeed discovered.
Yet compared to those in the Ash pocket world, the array lines of the Xuanhuang Realm were far more ancient and profound.
Li Fan continued driving the Boundless Mirror to investigate while feeding the gathered array data into the array model previously deduced by the Terminal Dissociation Disc.
"The vast majority match. But at certain critical nodes..." Li Fan's eyes flickered. Clutching the Boundless Mirror, he turned into a streamline and traversed the depths of the earth, descending into the profound subterranean abyss lying even further beneath the Xuanhuang earth veins.
All around was primordial chaos. Under unimaginable pressure, physical matter no longer existed. Only streams of dark crimson vapor flowed past, carrying eerie sounds that resembled whispers.
In such an extreme environment, even Li Fan's divine clone had no choice but to take refuge inside the Boundless Mirror, relying on the immortal artifact's form to survive.
Nor was the Boundless Mirror having an easy time. It actively released a dim glow to shield its frame, while Sun Luyao surveyed their surroundings with deep vigilance.
"Senior, the array remnants I scanned from above clearly pointed right here. But now that we're up close, I can't see them at all..."
"Moreover, I can sense the aura of those immortal seal characters here. So many of them..."
"Far stronger than before," Sun Luyao emphasized.
"After coming into contact with the immortal seal characters, did any of your memories return?" Li Fan asked while observing their surroundings.
When the Boundless Mirror had shattered, all information within it related to the Immortal Realm had vanished along with it. Even though Li Fan had helped roughly reassemble it, the lost records had never returned.
However, returning toward the Immortal Realm via "Return" might have introduced some variable, which was why Li Fan asked.
Seemingly a casual inquiry, Li Fan was actually watching Sun Luyao closely to catch any shift in his demeanor.
"No," Sun Luyao replied truthfully, his emotions showing no strange fluctuations. "After being annihilated by the power of the seal character, my consciousness fell into a total blank. As for the lost parts, I cannot sense their existence whatsoever."
"However..."
"However..."
Sun Luyao abruptly trailed off, seemingly falling into thought and doubt.
"Hmm?"
"Er, I'm not sure how to explain it to you, Senior. In short, it was an extraordinarily wondrous experience. While they really ceased to exist, it felt as though they instantaneously flew off to an extremely distant world elsewhere. It felt so bizarre and fantastical that I truly don't know whether it was a real perception or just an illusion born at the threshold of life and death," Sun Luyao said slowly, his tone somewhat dreamy and dazed.
Hearing his words, Li Fan's thoughts paused for a moment.
*If the Immortal Realm still existed, this "Return" Formula would be equivalent to forcibly opening a passage to the Immortal Realm—even if only accessible to specific targets.*
*Yet now that the Immortal Realm has been destroyed...*
*The passage still remains, but the destination is gone. Yet according to Sun Luyao's firsthand experience as the Boundless Mirror, it is also possible that the true Immortal Ruins have not vanished entirely. Perhaps after lingering briefly, one is forcibly expelled—in other words, the old laws find no place!*
An impulse suddenly surged in Li Fan's heart.
To use his remaining Source Power Essence to see if he could disguise himself as an immortal artifact and harness the power of the "Return" Formula to venture into the true Immortal Ruins and see what lay there.
Once the thought arose, it surged like a raging flood, impossible to contain. In the end, it was the spontaneous circulation of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation that quelled the desire.
Li Fan instantly understood in his heart: *This is the yearning of mortality for the immortal, the pursuit of sublimation from a lower tier of life. Inscribed deep within the soul, innate and indelible.*
*For me, testing it with a divine clone while my true body prepares thoroughly to activate Trueness at any moment poses relatively little risk. Hmm... seeing as it will take quite a long time to sit back, watch the tigers fight, and await the final curtain in this life, I can plan this out carefully...*
As Li Fan's divine clone pondered, he also discovered how to unravel the concealment of the Xuanhuang Realm's primordial realm-protecting array.
To his slight surprise, it was identical to the method Chuanfa had once used to hide and seal the Book of Crossing Adversity!
Namely: the superposition of space in multiple directions. In layman's terms, a segment of a line was concealed across different spatial dimensions. Viewed from a single angle, nothing could be seen. Only by continuously shifting perspectives and "rotating" all distributed components into unity would the hidden array finally reveal itself.
Under Li Fan's guidance, traces of the array lines gradually reflected upon the Boundless Mirror's ancient surface.
They were far clearer than what had been seen from above ground.
They resembled imprints left behind by a terrifying colossus ruthlessly crushing through, imbuing even space itself with a profound sense of antiquity.
While the Boundless Mirror felt nothing unusual, Li Fan's divine clone began aging in sync at a rate visible to the naked eye.
And this was merely caused by the proximity brought about by the act of "seeing."
This was the first time Li Fan had witnessed an immortal-grade array that truly existed rather than one confined to theory.
Though it was only a few sparse strokes, it offered immense insight to Li Fan, an array master who considered himself to have reached the pinnacle of mortal formations.
"So it works like this."
"This inexplicable turn at the array node is unexpected, yet feels as natural as if it could be no other way. My previous understanding was still too shallow."
"Marvelous, truly marvelous."
Li Fan marveled repeatedly, thoroughly engrossed in the remnants of a genuine immortal-grade array, seemingly oblivious to the crisis of his own aging and imminent dissipation.
As for the Boundless Mirror's Sun Luyao, he seemed too stunned to react, merely staring blankly as Li Fan's divine clone weakened at terrifying speed without offering any warning.
Just as Li Fan's divine clone was about to dissipate completely from senescence, a strange vitality suddenly surged from its core.
All intent of death vanished, like withered wood bursting into spring. Even the lingering aura of the Xuanhuang realm-protecting array could no longer shake the remnant soul that had just been like a candle guttering in the wind.
This sudden transformation left the mirror spirit Sun Luyao dumbfounded.
"Se... Senior!"
Having regained the ability to move and speak amidst the array's aura, Li Fan glanced at Sun Luyao and gave a faint smile. "What, want to learn it?"
"This is called the Mysterious Art of Life and Death. Reversing life, dissolving death, beyond life and death."
Sun Luyao trembled, not daring to utter a word.
After holding his tongue for a long time, he finally managed, "Senior's divine might is truly beyond this junior's imagination..."
Li Fan couldn't be bothered to settle scores with him for the moment. Gathering his full concentration, he delved into studying the Xuanhuang primordial realm-protecting array.
Judging from the corner of the array glimpsed so far, the primordial realm-protecting array's scale was unexpectedly vast.
If these discovered details were scaled up proportionally into the model deduced by the Terminal Dissociation Disc, then theoretically, the primordial realm-protecting array's scope was tens of times larger than the original Xuanhuang Realm itself!
It defied all common sense!
*Where did it go wrong?*
Li Fan was slightly taken aback. After a brief contemplation, he continued urging the Boundless Mirror to reflect the remaining array remnants.
As the actual data of the primordial realm-protecting array was gradually filled in and several pivotal array nodes emerged, Li Fan adjusted his deduced array model.
He finally understood why the theory had conflicted with reality.
In the earlier deduction, the realm-protecting array had simply been a massive formation blanketing the Xuanhuang Realm. In reality, this primordial array was folded upon itself several times in slightly different configurations across the very same space!
Layer upon layer folded inward, compressed and transformed to form the true Xuanhuang realm-protecting array!
"Mere stacking elevates the array's potential severalfold. Furthermore, unfolding the folded array allows it to instantly unleash power far beyond its normal upper limit."
"More importantly, if the Xuanhuang Realm were to expand its territory, the realm-protecting array could seamlessly extend into new domains through this continuous unfolding. Even if severed from the Immortal Realm, as long as one wielded the authority to control the primordial realm-protecting array, one could maintain the array in a flawless state indefinitely."
Within his true body, the Terminal Dissociation Disc operated at maximum capacity, aiding the divine clone deep beneath Xuanhuang in comprehending the primordial realm-protecting array.
Combined with the Boundless Mirror's dim light, which inherently possessed a degree of analytical capability, Li Fan was able to convert the array remnants into his own knowledge with relative ease.
During his research, Li Fan discovered that the primordial array utilized array-folding techniques with extraordinary frequency.
Any seemingly simple structure could conceal thousands or even tens of thousands of exquisitely complex array units.
To ensure he did not fail to decipher the array due to a missed detail, Li Fan had to slow his pace.
Not letting a single detail slip by, he used the Boundless Mirror to reflect every last one of them. This, however, was torment for Sun Luyao.
Even though he had grown used to being squeezed dry to utter exhaustion, work of such high intensity still caused him unspeakable misery.
Yet having just acted in bad faith, Sun Luyao had a guilty conscience. He had no choice but to grit his teeth and endure.
And Li Fan, before finishing his analysis of the primordial realm-protecting array, would not truly allow the Boundless Mirror to disintegrate either. He would still use Source Power Essence to rescue Sun Luyao with precise timing before he could break down.
Time passed slowly, and the array analysis was largely complete.
They had reached the outskirts of the central core region.
Yet at this point, Li Fan actively halted the survey. The remaining Source Power Essence was sufficient to support the Boundless Mirror through the final stretch, but beside this central core region, Li Fan faintly sensed danger.
After carefully sensing it, Li Fan determined that this premonition of danger did not stem from the primordial array itself, but from another source.
*Is there a restriction here?*
Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
"Sun Luyao!" he ordered routinely.
Sun Luyao answered. Rousing his exhausted spirits, he meticulously surveyed the surroundings once more.
"Senior, aside from the array remnants, I found nothing unusual!" Having finished the scan, Sun Luyao reported eagerly.
Li Fan pondered for a moment and said, "Check again!"
This time, Li Fan personally guided the Boundless Mirror's dim light toward the space outside the primordial array's central core, investigating once more using the method of uncovering "folds."
Sure enough! He discovered an alarm restriction that had undergone multiple folds, completely cloaking its traces under normal conditions!
The aura of the alarm restriction was equally ancient.
Yet compared to the primordial array remnants, it felt hollow. It had already been broken, its core power long gone, leaving behind nothing more than an empty shell.
Even so, this very empty shell still gave Li Fan a premonition of mortal peril.
*It likely shares the same origin as the Xuanhuang primordial array—both the handiwork of the Upper Realm.* Without acting rashly, Li Fan reached this conclusion after a meticulous examination.
*If the restriction were intact, even with my accumulated foundations across more than a dozen lifetimes in the Xuanhuang Realm, I likely wouldn't be able to do anything against it. Fortunately, such a terrifying immortal restriction was already broken by someone before me!*
Li Fan discovered the flaw in the restriction.
To be cautious, he separated a wisp of his soul to probe ahead. Confirming it was not a trap, he then took the Boundless Mirror through the flaw in the restriction and entered the central core region.
After a brief darkness.
When light shone once more, what appeared before Li Fan was no longer empty void.
Instead, it was a bizarre apparatus.
It was composed of countless concentric circles of varying sizes, all sharing the same center but with their rings oriented in different directions.
To describe them as countless was no exaggeration.
Rather, the rings forming this strange device truly could not be counted by divine sense or naked eye.
Clearly, it had lost its power source and stood motionless, yet its rings seemed to perpetually shift in number.
Focusing attention on this apparatus made the world before his eyes seem as though it were branching off into another reality.
*It's not an illusion.*
*Is my very existence being eroded?*
Alarm bells rang wildly in the heart of Li Fan's divine clone. It was not just this clone; even his true body, concealed within the Yanfa Jue space of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, felt a terrifying, tangible pressure of mortal crisis.
Li Fan's divine clone wisely broke off his examination of the strange ring apparatus in an instant.
The branching sensation and the feeling of peril vanished immediately.
Li Fan attempted to recall the appearance of the ring apparatus in his sea of consciousness.
He discovered that while he could reconstruct its image, the number of rings in his memory was fixed. Furthermore, it did not match what he had actually seen, bearing differences that were glaringly obvious yet impossible to pinpoint.
What made Li Fan shudder even more was that with every recall, the number of rings on the apparatus varied.
Yet intuition told him that every single recollection was correct.
This uncanny phenomenon could not help but remind Li Fan of the quantum superposition he had heard of before transmigrating.
*This ring apparatus also seems to be a relic of the Immortal Realm.*
Li Fan switched approaches, focusing not on the ring apparatus itself, but on what was missing from it.
Plainly, something was missing from within those rings.
This was not mere speculation on Li Fan's part; mural-like depictions in the surrounding space had already illustrated how this strange device was originally supposed to look.
Endless illustrations of the ring apparatus formed the mural as a whole. Likewise, the number of rings on the devices in these pictures varied from one to the next.
Yet all of the devices shared one common feature.
At the center of the rings floated a bead.
A crimson bead that appeared to be engraved with the pattern of nine stars.
Chapter 1269