Practicing the Boundless Tianshu Soul Separation Art created a distinction between countless divided souls and a primordial soul. Previously, what Li Fan had found at Crater Mountain in Dongyong Province were merely memories residing within those countless divided souls.
The truly vital primordial soul had eluded him all along.
It was only when the white circle, Descending into the Mortal Dust, struck and utterly obliterated Crater Mountain that the primordial soul concealed within finally revealed itself.
Unlike the myriad flowers of spiritual energy drifting outside, the divine soul flowers hidden inside Crater Mountain seemed to remain in deep slumber.
Even when touched intentionally, they did not attack.
Having lost their shelter and been exposed to the open air, these divine soul flowers began to gather spontaneously in an orderly fashion, gradually coalescing into a single, colossal white radiant blossom.
Across the region of Crater Mountain, the innumerable spiritual energy flowers drifting between heaven and earth seemed to find their backbone, swirling around that luminous white flower.
In the gathering storm, the primordial divine soul flower began taking on the exact appearance of those spiritual energy flowers, apparently attempting to hide itself through this mimicry.
Unfortunately for it, the instant Crater Mountain collapsed and the divine soul flowers dispersed outward, Li Fan's immensely powerful divine sense had already locked onto every single one.
How could such a clumsy trick possibly fool Li Fan?
Yet Li Fan soon realized he was mistaken.
When his divine sense touched one of the primordial divine soul blossoms, the images transmitted back felt vaguely familiar. They were the very same scenes he had encountered earlier within an ordinary spiritual energy flower!
"It does have some tricks after all. Even under my lock, it can silently swap and transfer..."
Looking at the trillions of blossoms before him, Li Fan gave a cold snort. "Now that I've found you, though, how could I let you escape again?"
"If you hide in a boundless sea of flowers, then I shall boil the sea!"
"Xuanhuang World-Extinguishing Transformation: Heaven's Punishment and Earth's Ruin, Soul-Gathering Life-Coagulation!"
A monstrous baleful aura suddenly surged from Li Fan's body.
His eyes turned pitch-black, and the baleful aura condensed into near-tangible substance, swaying in the wind like countless tiny tentacles.
Within this black baleful aura, streaks of lightning faintly flickered, as though heaven's punishment had descended upon the world to slaughter every living thing!
This was one of the transformations of Li Fan's Xuanhuang World-Extinguishing Transformation.
When the Xuanhuang Realm faced absolute ruin, it would slay all living beings within itself to survive, absorbing their flesh, blood, and divine souls to bolster its odds against the world-extinguishing calamity.
This transformation was even more extreme than the Heaven and Earth Extinction, All Things Frozen he had used before. It was a desperate survival measure that left nothing in existence except itself.
Above Dongyong Province, boundless dark clouds rolled in from the horizon. This was the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao's stress response upon sensing the extreme change taking place here.
Li Fan even perceived that with the emergence of this transformation, the Xuanhuang Realm's favor toward him deteriorated rapidly. The affinity he had worked so hard to accumulate plunged to nearly zero in an instant.
Li Fan, however, did not care in the slightest.
The tentacles of baleful aura continually branched out, entangling every spiritual energy flower they could reach and thrusting savagely into them.
One after another, the spiritual energy flowers withered.
At the same time, streams of peerlessly pure yet strangely eerie energy were drawn out and gathered, mingled with numerous fragmented memories.
Some belonged to Ji Yuzhen, while others came from the cultivators who had perished here.
Li Fan categorized and organized the pieces belonging to Ji Yuzhen, gradually piecing together a coherent picture.
Meanwhile, he remained intensely focused, awaiting the discovery of the primordial divided soul.
The immortal arts of the Xuantian Sect each possessed their own bizarre subtleties. To be safe, Li Fan was not greedy enough to directly absorb the energy converted from these spiritual energy flowers.
Instead, he gathered it into one place and sealed it using Source Power Essence.
The black tentacles lashed out wildly, and the sky full of flowers vanished in vast swathes at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Soon, the first primordial soul could hide no longer and was caught by Li Fan.
He did not drain or destroy the divine soul, merely peering into the memories hidden within it.
Boom!
Like a revolving lantern, scenes flashed past rapidly.
They seemed veiled in a layer of white light, flickering between bright and dim, elusive and faint like flowers seen through mist.
"Zhen'er, have you memorized the method to activate the Golden Lock Traversing the Void Array?" King Xuantian's voice echoed, though his face remained concealed beneath the white light, impossible to see clearly.
"Big Brother Xuanyuan, am I really that foolish in your eyes?" Ji Yuzhen teased softly.
King Xuantian hurriedly explained, "Don't misunderstand, Zhen'er. I know your talent is by no means inferior to mine. But this array is, after all, an adaptation based on an immortal array. Without experiencing the difference between immortal and mortal firsthand, it is truly difficult to grasp properly."
"Since Big Brother Xuanyuan is so worried, why don't you teach me one more time?" Ji Yuzhen said gently.
"Well... all right." King Xuantian hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement.
He said in a deep voice, "The Golden Lock traverses the void, bridging the myriad heavens. Even if a target lies on the far side of the distant Sea of Stars, once locked on, the chains can arrive in an instant to capture it."
"As I mentioned before, the reason it achieves this effect is that it incorporates the Worlds Apart Yet Close at Hand Array. That array was originally engraved on the Immortal Realm's Immortal Ascending Platform. When I fled back then, I dismantled and brought down the entire immortal array..."
Looking at Xuanyuan Hong, Ji Yuzhen seemed to picture him fleeing for his life while gathering relics of the Immortal Realm, and she could not help letting out a light chuckle. "Even though this isn't the first time I've heard you tell it, I still find it hard to imagine that you're this kind of person, Big Brother Xuanyuan."
Xuanyuan Hong gave an awkward cough. "When calamity struck the Immortal Realm, it was obvious it would spread to the lower realms. Naturally, I had to make preparations. Besides, they had already become ownerless objects..."
After solemnly defending himself, King Xuantian continued his explanation. "Due to shifts in the space-time of the Sea of Stars, the position of a cultivation world observed through the Eye of the Tian Beast may deviate slightly from its actual location. Therefore, when using the golden locks for capture, corresponding adjustments must be made. For now, there is no reliable method to resolve this deviation, so it relies entirely on the controller's experience and intuition."
"The Worlds Apart Yet Close at Hand Array consumes immense energy. Every so often, it must be repaired and replenished. Still, you needn't worry about damage. I have already made three replicas of the critical core components. At worst, the capture efficiency will drop a little, but it won't affect the array's operation..."
King Xuantian explained in meticulous detail, and Ji Yuzhen listened word for word.
Yet her gaze remained fixed on Xuanyuan Hong's face, never once straying.
...
Returning from memory to reality, Li Fan carefully sealed away this primordial soul.
He then turned his gaze toward the remainder of the sea of flowers.
As more and more wrong choices were eliminated, the collection of primordial souls proceeded ever faster.
Ji Yuzhen's memories surfaced one after another.
...
It seemed to be inside a secret chamber.
Ji Yuzhen and Xuanyuan Hong stood facing each other.
"Big Brother Xuanyuan, have you finally come to your senses, asking me to meet you here alone?" Ji Yuzhen's beautiful eyes rippled with emotion as she gazed at King Xuantian.
"Stop fooling around, Zhen'er. We have serious business today," Xuanyuan Hong said sternly.
"The other eleven brothers have all chosen their immortal arts, yet you alone have delayed..."
"I told you, I want you to choose for me, Big Brother Xuanyuan," Ji Yuzhen interrupted.
Xuanyuan Hong showed a helpless expression. "That is precisely why I asked you here."
"Have you chosen one for me, Big Brother Xuanyuan?"
"The Boundless Tianshu Soul Separation Art. Even among the many immortal arts I gathered, it stands at the very pinnacle. It allows you to divide your divine soul boundlessly, granting unyielding, imperishable souls. More importantly, you can nurture your own soul to produce primordial souls. Each primordial soul can embark upon an independent immortal path..." King Xuantian spoke with eloquence.
"I trust you, Big Brother. I'll cultivate this one," Ji Yuzhen decided before he could even finish.
Xuanyuan Hong paused, then gave a slight nod. Pointing a finger toward the space between his brows, dark characters flew out one by one.
Xuanyuan Hong closed his eyes, his expression calm, though his brows furrowed from time to time as if enduring immense agony.
"The spirit is the flower of life. Wandering the Great Void, its luster is like the fresh green of spring willows—luxuriant yet orderly, dividing and rejoining..."
The moment she saw those swimming dark characters, an exceedingly profound technique appeared in her mind.
It was not just the text of the technique, but countless memories of cultivating it, along with detailed insights.
Though she was only a beginner, it felt as though she had reincarnated through thousands of lives and cultivated it countless times already.
After an unknown length of time, the dark characters slowly returned to King Xuantian's sea of consciousness.
"Big Brother Xuanyuan, are you all right?" Ji Yuzhen stepped forward with deep concern to check on him.
Suddenly, myriad other ferocious faces flashed across King Xuantian's countenance, attempting to seize control, but in the end, it returned to Xuanyuan Hong's original face.
"Big Brother Xuanyuan, you could have just transcribed the technique. Why did you have to use this kind of inheritance method?" Ji Yuzhen asked with a hint of reproach in her tone.
Xuanyuan Hong sighed softly. "Zhen'er, the complexity of immortal arts is far beyond that of lower-realm techniques. While your talent is extraordinary, without an inheritance to guide you, mastering the basics of this Soul Separation Art would likely consume over a decade of bitter effort. We simply don't have that much time..."
Ji Yuzhen fell silent.
Xuanyuan Hong added, "Besides, judging from the progress of the other brothers, there is a stark difference between receiving the inheritance directly and learning it normally. It appears to be an intrinsic limitation of the techniques within the Azure Nether Pearl."
"That Azure Nether Pearl might not be anything good," Ji Yuzhen snorted coldly.
Xuanyuan Hong disagreed. "Cultivation techniques are neither righteous nor evil; it all depends on the cultivator who wields them. The same applies to the Azure Nether Pearl."
"It can absorb the corpses of fallen cultivators and extract the techniques they practiced during life, which is enough to demonstrate its extraordinary nature."
"Unfortunately, I obtained it far too late. I could only hastily scour the nearby bodies before fleeing in panic," Xuanyuan Hong said with no small regret.
...
Scene after scene flashed across Li Fan's mind.
All of them were the life experiences of Ji Yuzhen, former Dharma King of the Xuantian Sect.
Compared to the fragments preserved in the spiritual energy flowers earlier, the memories within the primordial souls were far more complete.
Furthermore, all of them touched upon numerous secrets regarding King Xuantian and the Xuantian Sect.
For instance, the origins of the immortal arts practiced by the Xuantian Sect's Dharma Kings, and that enigmatic immortal treasure, the Azure Nether Pearl.
For instance, the Grand Floating-Crossing Array, and the methods for activating and controlling the Golden Lock Traversing the Void.
And for instance, the countless moments Ji Yuzhen had shared with Xuanyuan Hong.
Yet what puzzled Li Fan was that the memories within the primordial souls here were still incomplete.
Certain crucial pieces were missing.
Li Fan's gaze swept over the surroundings, confirming that no stray spiritual energy flowers remained.
"Did it escape while I wasn't paying attention? Or..."
"Were those primordial souls simply never preserved in the first place?"
From Ji Yuzhen's memories, Li Fan had obtained the full text of the Soul Separation Art.
Although he could not master it without the so-called inheritance method, he had gained a general understanding of its contents.
Beyond dividing into myriad souls and granting immortality, the primordial souls served an even greater purpose: once one attained the Dao, they could act as a medicinal guide.
Whether consumed by oneself or swallowed by another, they could allow two entirely different Dao paths to fully merge and integrate.
A True Immortal pursued a singular Great Dao.
The Great Dao was unique.
Not only did it reject other cultivators practicing the same Dao, but it was also exceedingly difficult to cultivate two different paths simultaneously.
Yet the Soul Separation Art ingeniously dissolved this limitation.
Compared to this heaven-defying function of Dao integration, the healing effects of consuming a primordial soul were hardly worth mentioning.
"Earlier memories revealed that when King Xuantian was wounded, Ji Yuzhen harbored the thought of feeding her own primordial soul to him."
"Now that her most vital primordial soul is missing, could it be that at the final moment back then, she found King Xuantian and offered herself to feed him?"
Li Fan could not help but speculate.
Ji Yuzhen had clearly loved King Xuantian deeply.
Yet for some reason, Xuanyuan Hong had never accepted her feelings, even deliberately keeping his distance.
Sacrificing herself to save King Xuantian was entirely something Ji Yuzhen would do.
"King Xuantian."
Li Fan murmured softly, glancing up at the sky.
The dark clouds accumulated by the Xuanhuang Realm had reached their limit, looking ready to collapse from the heavens at any second.
Having fully absorbed all of Ji Yuzhen's scattered divine souls, Li Fan dispersed the world-extinguishing transformation.
With a flicker of his figure, he vanished from the spot.
The phenomenon in the sky dissipated along with him.
The cultivators of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, who had previously been barred by the invisible barrier, arrived late.
Discovering that Crater Mountain and the spiritual energy flowers had vanished into thin air, they were terrified and hurriedly reported back to Alliance Headquarters.
...
Li Fan did not immediately go to look for Mo Rubin.
Instead, he first entered secluded cultivation to digest the memories within Ji Yuzhen's divine soul.
Even with some of its most important pieces missing, a Dharma King's life was still vast and immense.
Especially within a primordial soul, it contained not just memories, but also the thoughts and emotions of that time.
While prying into them, one was inevitably eroded by these emotions.
To prevent himself from being influenced and falling victim to body possession by Ji Yuzhen, Li Fan had to pause after experiencing each segment of memory to grind away the intruding emotions.
"Her memory of first meeting King Xuantian is actually missing as well. It seems that was a major reason why she fell in love with him, and thus one of her most precious memories."
"However, her memories regarding the other eleven Dharma Kings have remained intact."
Chapter 1314