Countless black and white lines sprang to life in an instant, veering from their original paths and darting toward Li Fan. Like writhing tentacles, they sought to bind and ensnare him.
This space, known as the Root of Heaven and Earth, was where the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heavens were conceived.
Black and white lines crisscrossed and intertwined like a colossal loom weaving the world of Xuanhuang. Not just the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heavens, but the primordial mountains, rivers, grotto-heavens, and blessed lands of the Xuanhuang Realm had all been born here.
It was the origin of the world, the confluence of heavenly laws, and the dawn of creation.
When Li Fan had first witnessed this magnificent spectacle, he had merely marveled at the wonders of nature and seized the rare fortune to contemplate the stray fragments of primordial laws drifting through the Root of Heaven and Earth.
Now, returning here after more than a hundred cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan perceived many things he had once been blind to.
For instance, though extremely faint and almost entirely melded into the space of the Root of Heaven and Earth, there remained an influence governing the whole operation from the very foundation—
Artificial traces.
Confronted by the instinctual assault of the countless black and white lines within the Root of Heaven and Earth, Li Fan neither dodged nor deflected. He let them plunge deep into his body.
Normally, when a cultivator entering this realm met such an attack, their body—likewise formed of countless lines—would rapidly disperse, dissolve, and dissipate completely into this space.
Yet at this moment, an inexplicable, titanic force resided within Li Fan, firmly locking his own lines in place.
No matter how the Root of Heaven and Earth tried to siphon him, he stood immovable as a mountain!
The anchor pinning Li Fan with absolute solidity was none other than the grasp he had gained over the interplay of truth and falsehood.
Virtually all creations originating from the Xuanhuang Realm were powerless to resist the Root of Heaven and Earth's method of reverting things to their source.
Yet the interplay of truth and falsehood came from Trueness. It was far beyond what Xuanhuang's Root of Heaven and Earth could analyze or deconstruct.
Instead, tiny gray specks of imprints traveled along the countless lines embedded in him, spreading toward the depths of the Root of Heaven and Earth.
These were not the world-annihilating True Immortal seal characters, but myriad strands of Li Fan's divine intent. He intended to use this attack to pry into the secrets of the Root of Heaven and Earth.
Countless images flashed before his eyes in a heartbeat.
Amidst the void, bright light pulsed without ceasing. Every alternation of brilliance and dark signified hundreds of billions of lines intertwining.
From nothingness to substance, within the darkness, a world was being born.
*Boom!*
Just as Li Fan's mind was immersed in watching, the profound scene abruptly shattered. The Root of Heaven and Earth had detected Li Fan's intent to intrude; all the lines pierced into his body faded away in an instant and melted into nothingness.
Li Fan's connection to the Root of Heaven and Earth was severed alongside it.
Even more, the lines endlessly weaving creation within his vision slowly receded into the void, no longer visible.
The light suddenly flared bright, and he was expelled by the Root of Heaven and Earth, returning once more to Xuanhuang's Tianling Province.
"What a pity."
"Its instinctual crisis response is still remarkably swift."
Though he said so, he felt little real regret. Li Fan narrowed his eyes, recalling the artificial traces he had just glimpsed.
Prying into the secrets of the Root of Heaven and Earth was merely a pretense; Li Fan's true objective had been to draw its attention, allowing him to perceive more of those concealed imprints.
The imprints were a mix of new and old.
If the newer traces could barely be discerned with Li Fan's current strength, the older imprints were nearly impossible to distinguish.
He had sensed their presence purely by instinct, guided by a familiar aura he had encountered once before.
Old and new were relative terms.
Even the newer traces were several millennia old.
"The Five Elements Great Grotto-Heavens were the handiwork of the former Yishi Sect. To contend with the world-ending catastrophe, they guided the generation of laws within Xuanhuang's Root of Heaven and Earth."
"Complete in five elements, circulating in a primal cycle, forming a world of its own. Gestating each Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven drains the Xuanhuang Realm severely. It is just like a mortal woman bearing a child. Reasonably speaking, giving birth to one is already the limit. Yet within Xuanhuang's Root of Heaven and Earth, the guidance left behind by the Yishi Sect never faded. Hence, this gestation never ceases..."
Li Fan's eyes flickered, already discerning the origin and cause of those newer traces.
Pointing a finger toward the empty air ahead, Li Fan relied on his own sheer might to force his way back in despite feeling a tremendous repulsive force.
As though stirring a hornet's nest, the countless black and white lines within the Root of Heaven and Earth instantly rioted. They surged toward Li Fan in unison, as if refusing to rest until he was dead.
This time, Li Fan did not act as a sitting duck. Shifting his form to evade the attacks of the Root of Heaven and Earth, he used his fingers as blades and severed one by one the imprints left by the Yishi Sect.
*Buzz, buzz, buzz...*
The Root of Heaven and Earth vibrated in resonance. Seemingly understanding the reason for Li Fan's actions, the once-furious lines softened.
They returned to their places, restoring peace.
In that fleeting instant, Li Fan had destroyed all the marks the Yishi Sect had branded into the Root of Heaven and Earth. From this moment forth, the Xuanhuang Realm would never again gestate a new Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
After all, Li Fan planned to foster the birth of the Super Xuanhuang Realm. Gestating the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens was an outright drain on Xuanhuang's worldly power. Li Fan naturally would not sit idly by and let such a thing continue.
Not just the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heavens—any other grotto-heavens within the Xuanhuang Realm whose gestation and birth were unnecessary would all be stopped by Li Fan. All to preserve strength for Xuanhuang.
The repulsion from the Root of Heaven and Earth had vanished entirely, allowing Li Fan to inspect those barely visible ancient traces in closer detail.
"Sure enough. Exactly the same as the ancient immortal array guarding the Nine Stars Red Beads."
The ancient imprints, like innate birthmarks, were virtually melded into the space of the Root of Heaven and Earth. Had Li Fan not been fortunate enough to see a similar existence before, he might have taken them for inherent features of the Root of Heaven and Earth itself.
Part of the imprint had already reached deep into the space, preventing Li Fan from glimpsing the original appearance of the immortal array here.
Yet when compared against the array deduction data previously stored in the Terminal Dissociation Disc, the vast majority matched.
"Found you at last." A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
In Li Fan's earlier deductions, the Grand Star-Crossing Array consisted of four subordinate formations.
Over his previous reincarnations, Li Fan had already confirmed three of them.
They were the golden chains used to lock onto and capture cultivation realms beyond the Sea of Stars; the Eye of the Tian Beast acting as an observation station; and the Sea of Endless Gloom used to break free from the pull of the Immortal Ruins, which was the Spirit Gathering Ascension Array.
The remaining one had eluded him despite scouring the Xuanhuang Realm.
Even in his previous life when the immortal array annihilated the world, Li Fan had failed to pinpoint its possible location.
He had not expected that revisiting this place in this lifetime to absorb an anchor would yield such an unexpected harvest.
"This Star-Crossing Array here must have been renovated by King Xuantian on the foundation of the ancient realm-protecting immortal array."
"Unlike the other arrays, the modifications here were exceedingly slight—it could almost be called untouched."
"With the Root of Heaven and Earth constantly weaving creation, even when navigating the Sea of Stars, the Xuanhuang Realm possessed the ability to continuously repair and even expand itself."
"This self-sustained growth is entirely different from the external stitching of remnant realms practiced by Chuanfa and the Heavenly Physician. It won't produce anomalies triggered by the clash of worldly laws, nor will there be side effects during the fusion process..."
A vision suddenly arose before Li Fan's eyes.
Amidst the boundless dark void, the Xuanhuang Realm sailed steadily forward like a colossal star-faring dreadnought.
The Eye of the Tian Beast took charge of observation and positioning. The golden chains hunted external targets and gathered resources. The Sea of Endless Gloom provided an endless supply of propulsion. And the Root of Heaven and Earth handled repairs and growth.
A truly flawless survival across the Sea of Stars.
"Star-Crossing, Star-Crossing."
"Relying on this grand array, one could indeed traverse the starry sky and disregard calamities. King Xuantian was truly a peerless genius!" Li Fan praised from the bottom of his heart.
"What a pity..."
"For such a remarkable figure, just as he was about to ascend to immortality, to suddenly meet with foul play." Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
King Xuantian's disappearance was one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the Xuanhuang Realm. Even after reincarnating so many times, even after triggering the immortal array to destroy the world and tearing away all the cloaking curtains of darkness, Li Fan had still been unable to uncover the truth.
He could only vaguely guess that the formal process of ascending to immortality carried immense danger.
"Though King Xuantian is no longer here, this Star-Crossing Array can serve my purposes."
"Earlier, I guessed that King Xuantian might have hidden inside the final Star-Crossing Array after mysteriously vanishing. But looking at it now..."
Because Li Fan had helped "sterilize" it, the Root of Heaven and Earth chose to let bygones be bygones regarding his earlier devouring of the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven.
However, it did not develop much fondness toward him either.
It merely allowed Li Fan to roam through this world where laws converged.
Though seemingly boundless, it was an illusion created by the interweaving of heavenly laws and the immortal array.
Skilled in formations, Li Fan did not lose his way.
Before long, he had completely searched the interior of the Root of Heaven and Earth.
Just as Li Fan had suspected, he found no traces of King Xuantian.
"When the immortal array destroyed the world in my last life, Mo Rubin was nowhere to be seen in the end."
"Had he remained in the Xuanhuang Realm, with his strength, he could have certainly held out for a time. Could it be..."
Li Fan frowned slightly.
Mo Rubin had no reason to abandon his long-cherished goal and flee the Xuanhuang Realm outright. Therefore, it was highly probable that he had traveled to the Eye of the Tian Beast, located at some unknown point outside the Xuanhuang Realm.
'The Eye of the Tian Beast functions as the survey formation for the Star-Crossing Array; its observation range should be far vaster than I imagined. Perhaps it gazes not only into the void outside the realm...' Li Fan realized in a flash.
'The Grand Star-Crossing Array is almost entirely merged with Xuanhuang. This Eye of the Tian Beast might even be able to turn backward and observe the Xuanhuang Realm itself. However, Mo Rubin likely did not know its precise location either; searching the stars rashly carries a certain degree of risk. That was why in the 119th cycle, when I pretended to cooperate with him, he did not choose this path. But in the previous life, hunted by the Sage Emperor's avatar to the brink of despair, he was forced to make that choice.'
Li Fan had learned of the Eye of the Tian Beast through an unlucky fellow who had used a teleportation array from Jiushan Province and was randomly cast there. Because of this, Li Fan had even crossed paths with the Heavenly Physician, who had sensed the aura and arrived. Fortunately, relying on his own wits, Li Fan had deceived the Heavenly Physician and won his trust, turning misfortune into a blessing and obtaining the Heavenly Physician's secret legacy, the *Mending the Heavens Record*.
The probability of randomly teleporting to the Eye of the Tian Beast was far too small; Li Fan naturally would not try it himself.
However, Jiushan Province was formed from the skeleton of the ancient Tian Beast. It undoubtedly shared some connection with the distant Eye of the Tian Beast. Perhaps he could use this link to locate the Eye of the Tian Beast.
'The Grand Star-Crossing Array is also of utmost importance for my elevation of the Xuanhuang Realm in this life.'
'Though the grand array has shattered, if I repair and reactivate it...'
In King Xuantian's era, the Grand Star-Crossing Array covered only a small portion of the primordial Xuanhuang Realm.
Compared to the present Xuanhuang Realm after the fusion of multiple worlds, that was merely the core central region.
'I can expand the grand array, thereby seizing control of Xuanhuang without anyone noticing.'
Occupied with heavy tasks, the Terminal Dissociation Disc could not be spared for now.
Li Fan relied solely on his own mastery of array Dao to deduce.
In his sea of consciousness, the Star-Crossing Array radiated outward from the center, gradually enfolding the radiant sphere of Xuanhuang, ultimately transforming into a star-faring dreadnought.
'When expanding and reconstructing the array, I can integrate the world-destroying immortal array I comprehended in my last life.'
'Once the Xuanhuang Realm completes its final metamorphosis, no matter how powerful the descending immortal soul may be, even if it exceeds my expectations, with the array serving as shackles, it will never escape my grasp,' Li Fan mused to himself.
It had to be said that standing on the shoulders of giants made the work far easier.
With the foundation laid by King Xuantian back then, Li Fan's schemes required less than half the effort.
Or rather, without King Xuantian's arrangements, relying purely on Li Fan's current cultivation in the Dao of arrays, completing the construction of a brand-new Grand Star-Crossing Array would have been utterly impossible.
'At present, information regarding the four Star-Crossing arrays is still somewhat scarce.'
Naturally, Mo Rubin's figure surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
From the battle against the Sage Emperor in the previous life, Li Fan had already witnessed seven or eight-tenths of Mo Rubin's methods.
As long as preparations were made in advance, Li Fan was confident he could handle him.
Having been toyed with by Mo Rubin back then, it was now time to settle the score.
However...
Before seeking Mo Rubin for vengeance and information, Li Fan arrived first at the location of another Dharma King of the Xuantian Sect.
Crater Mountain, Dongyong Province.
Spiritual energy blossoms filled the sky in a breathtaking display.
Yet Li Fan knew that hidden within these exquisitely beautiful flowers were the memories of one of the former Dharma Kings of the Xuantian Sect, Ji Yuzhen.
Or rather...
Shards of her divine soul.
The cultivation technique Ji Yuzhen practiced was the Boundless Tianshu Soul Separation Technique.
Even King Xuantian, Xuanyuan Hong himself, had praised this divine art as the finest he had ever seen in his life.
Though Ji Yuzhen appeared to have perished, a sliver of life remained hidden within these boundless flowers of the divine soul.
At the end of the previous life, amidst the tempest of the world-destroying immortal array, this was one of the last points of light to hold out in the territory of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
'My previous soul-searching techniques likely still had minor flaws.'
'There are still true secrets concealed within Ji Yuzhen's memories.'
A sharp light gleamed in Li Fan's eyes, and an ordinary-looking white hoop suddenly appeared in his hand.
It was none other than Descending into the Mortal Dust.
Tossing it lightly upward, the white hoop instantly expanded to enfold the entirety of Crater Mountain.
Descending silently, it reduced everything it covered to spiritual energy.
The massive Crater Mountain shattered inch by inch.
Melded into the mountain and hidden within its core—nearly impossible to detect through ordinary means—the flowers of the divine soul drifted slowly into the air.
Chapter 1313