Although the Xuan Celestial Vessel carried a civilization that had endured for ten thousand years, its internal space was not particularly vast; otherwise, its people would not have been constantly plagued by scarce resources.
As Li Fan expected, the elders of the celestial vessel dragged the Tianyang immortal puppet deep into the vessel's secret reservoir.
First layer, second layer...
Celestial Star Light Lotuses bloomed across the sky.
Countless beams of light flickered as glowing orbs materialized one by one, weaving together into a doorway.
The elders cast their techniques in unison, and the doorway burst wide open.
Inside the passageway, an eerie, chilling emerald light radiated outward. An array of ominous auras rode upon the green glow, threatening to spread and corrode everything around them.
Stimulated by the intrusion, the Celestial Star Light Lotus divided into blossoms of starlight, forming a barrier before the gate.
The sea of lotuses was boundless. Even though every lotus wilted wherever the green light touched, the emerald glow could not break through the blockade for the time being.
"Quickly!" Zhong Daogong urged, seemingly terrified that the green light would breach their defenses.
Knowing full well the danger, the elders slowly pushed the slumbering giant puppet into the secret reservoir's third layer.
Of all the elders, only Jian Daosheng followed it inside.
He wore armor woven of starlight, bore a seven-colored bowl upon his head, and stepped atop a skiff.
While he looked somewhat comical, it was ample proof of how seriously Jian Daosheng took this.
The doorway slowly closed, leaving behind only a strip of luminous cloth trailing from Jian Daosheng's starlight armor to maintain a connection with the outside.
It was not sealed entirely shut.
Through Jian Daosheng's vantage point, the appearance of the third layer of the vessel's secret reservoir, the All-Encompassing Immortal Record, gradually emerged before everyone's eyes.
Inside a spherical Great Void, countless viscous, green organic masses wriggled ceaselessly, producing hair-raising sounds as they grew along and clung to the walls.
A colossal gray stone statue towered within the hollow void.
Judging by the growth trajectories of the green tissues spread throughout the void, they appeared to originate directly from that gray stone statue.
A sea of green submerged most of the statue's torso.
Thousands of green trails extended from the statue's head, each originating from a hollow eye socket upon its skull.
No one knew what manner of bizarre entity this gray statue depicted.
It had a human torso, but its head possessed no facial features—only a dense cluster of eyes.
The moment the Tianyang immortal puppet entered the third layer of the secret reservoir, even without emitting the slightest aura, it immediately drew the attention of the green growth filling the void.
Like writhing tentacles, they traversed empty air, lunging toward Tianyang from every direction.
Jian Daosheng took the opportunity to slip inside one of the hollow eye sockets on the gray statue's head.
The green tentacles were repelled by the invisible force field around Tianyang.
Yet perhaps because they had drawn close and sensed the scent of True Immortal flesh and blood on Tianyang, the tentacles grew increasingly excited.
The green matter throughout the entire Great Void was aroused, surging toward Tianyang in violent frenzy.
In an instant, the Tianyang immortal puppet was submerged in endless green.
Trapped within a sea of emerald light, it was surrounded by sounds like silkworms gnawing on leaves.
Li Fan's wisp of divine sense checked the sensations transmitted by Tianyang.
"Hmm? It cannot see these green masses at all?"
The feedback from Tianyang caught Li Fan off guard.
"It feels merely like... wind and rain lashing down..."
Li Fan pondered this thoughtfully. He ceased observing outward with his divine sense and instead isolated his perception, relying solely on Tianyang to "look" at the surroundings.
His surroundings suddenly fell still.
It was as though he had arrived in an open wilderness, atop high mountains, inside a deep canyon.
Murmuring water flowed like knives, carving stone and splitting mountains day and night.
Howling gales and pattering drizzles hacked like axes, reshaping the terrain without pause.
And Tianyang was like the mountain, the earth, the valley—mercilessly corroded by the invisible power of passing time and shifting eras, slow yet relentless.
The Tianyang immortal puppet instinctively guarded itself.
But according to the intent Tianyang conveyed, under the erosion of this green matter, it could hold out for at most half a year—assuming it did not retaliate.
Li Fan did not act rashly for the time being.
In Tianyang's perspective, those writhing green tissues did not exist in the Great Void, allowing it to see the third layer of the secret reservoir with complete clarity.
The bizarre gray statue with a human body and a thousand eyes gave Li Fan a jolt.
And the faint gleams of treasure glimmering within the thousand hollow eye sockets on the statue's head brought realization to Li Fan.
'The aura of the final Go piece.'
'So these hollows are the vessel's treasure vaults.'
'They are far from full—there look to be fewer than five items.'
'They certainly aren't as defenseless as they appear; there must be hidden safeguards.'
'Jian Daosheng... disappeared?'
'Hmm, this gray statue seems a bit different from before.'
Li Fan swiftly analyzed the situation.
The third layer of the vessel's secret reservoir was indeed extraordinary; it even harbored power capable of harming an immortal puppet.
Yet right now, in addition to Tianyang's own might, there was the power of an immortal formation Li Fan had prepared in advance.
Even if it proved no match, escaping would pose no problem whatsoever.
Hence, Li Fan did not plan to make a move right away. He chose to observe further.
When Jian Daosheng merged into the gray statue through some method, the corrosion speed of the green matter suddenly accelerated.
In Tianyang's perception, gales howled and rain poured torrentially.
Amidst the storm, the various forces constituting its body were being washed away and diluted.
'Interesting.'
Though Li Fan had never seen this green matter before, he detected a faint familiarity from it.
In particular, from his and Tianyang's differing perspectives—mortal versus immortal—the scenes witnessed were completely different.
This discrepancy made Li Fan associate it with something.
The roar of wind and rain grew louder.
Confronting the crisis of being corroded and surrounded by an uncanny substance, Li Fan felt not the slightest panic.
He pondered quietly.
After an indeterminate time...
Like a bolt of lightning illuminating the night sky, Li Fan snapped to attention. "The obliteration wind calamity?"
He did not mean it was the obliteration wind calamity itself, but that the two shared nearly identical origins.
However, the obliteration wind calamity Li Fan had sensed within the Boundless Mirror was several notches more severe than the corroding green matter before him.
It was as if the wind and rain of his perception had been amplified to their absolute extremes.
At this thought, Li Fan could not help directing his gaze toward the gray statue in the Great Void.
'The corroding green matter is meant to erode power at the level of Immortals.'
'If so, then this statue...'
The celestial vessel elders' subsequent words echoing in the Great Void validated Li Fan's conjecture.
Through the strip of starlight cloth Jian Daosheng had left outside the doorway, the elders inside and outside the secret reservoir could communicate with one another.
However, the voices were somewhat muffled, as if separated by an entire world.
"Elder Jian, do not linger inside the Desolate God for too long."
"Although the Desolate God is dead and its consciousness has been entirely erased, it remains an existence above the mundane realm after all..."
The reminders sounded like routine protocol.
At regular intervals, different elders spoke up to caution Jian Daosheng, who had fused with the Desolate God.
Only after all the elders had finished a round of warnings did Jian Daosheng reemerge.
During the brief period he had vanished, his appearance seemed to have changed slightly.
Li Fan was certain it was no illusion.
It was the influence the Desolate God statue exerted upon Jian Daosheng!
'A Desolate God...' Li Fan's thoughts raced.
In the ancient Xuanhuang Realm, there had been a powerful sect known as the Desolate God Sect.
They wielded the Desolate God Seal, capable of entreating twelve Desolate Gods from the upper realm to descend into the mortal world and crush any foe.
In the eyes of a Desolate God, cultivators were like ants. Thus, the Desolate God Sect had been invincible in its era, dominating virtually all before it.
Yet later, for reasons unknown, the Desolate Gods gradually ceased responding to mortals and descended to the lower realm no more.
Deprived of their greatest reliance, the Desolate God Sect eventually collapsed.
'Is this Desolate God of the same kind?'
'A Desolate God is not an Immortal. Otherwise, it would never serve mortals, no matter their sacrifices or pleas.'
'Yet it possesses power belonging to Immortals...'
'A servant of Immortals?'
A bold conjecture arose in Li Fan's mind. When he looked at the statue again, his sentiment shifted.
After separating from the Desolate God stone statue, Jian Daosheng remained hidden in one of the hollow eye sockets.
He responded from afar to the vessel elders outside.
First, he recited an incomprehensible, cipher-like cadence, and only then did he speak: "The quality of this immortal puppet is exceptionally high. To hold out so long under the Desolate God's corrupting power without showing any sign of collapse..."
"Should I ramp up the channeling?"
Zhong Daogong quickly intervened. "Better not. Take it slowly. Otherwise, if the decay accumulates, the Celestial Star Light Lotus might not be able to contain it."
"Besides, you might not be able to bear it either."
Jian Daosheng nodded with a touch of regret.
"Is there any sign of the immortal puppet reviving?" Zhong Daogong asked again.
"None. It seems it truly is a puppet that has lost its control core. Otherwise, facing a peril like a blade hanging over its head, it would never stay this still."
"Good, then. All we have to do is wait."
"Once the erosion reaches the halfway mark, pull the puppet right back out."
...
In their back-and-forth deliberations, the vessel elders seemed to have sealed the slumbering immortal puppet's fate.
Meanwhile, amid the erosion of the corrupting green matter, Tianyang suddenly sent Li Fan an alert:
"I can temporarily retract the True Immortal flesh into the immortal bronze bones."
"This decay's ability to damage those immortal artifact remnants will be greatly reduced."
Li Fan pondered in contemplation and stayed Tianyang's actions for the moment.
He even instructed Tianyang to willingly drop its force field protection and use its flesh to experience the erosion of the corrupting green matter.
"Do not worry. True Immortal flesh can regrow. I can even reforge the immortal bones for you. As long as the core is unharmed, it is a minor matter."
Only the Tianyang immortal puppet, stripped of nearly all subjective agency, could endure such mortal danger to obey Li Fan's instructions.
Tianyang actively withdrew the force field.
In an instant, the green matter collided head-on with the True Immortal flesh.
The speed of the corruptive erosion was far swifter than Li Fan had imagined.
It was like a bundle of dry grass rapidly catching fire.
Only, what ignited the True Immortal flesh was not flame, but corruptive green matter.
Green light blazed and spread; once burnt out, it left behind a floor of ashes.
The vibrant flesh turned into a stone-like statue.
The instantaneous transformation sent a slight chill through Li Fan as an onlooker.
What shook Li Fan even more was the sensation conveyed by Tianyang when the vitality within its flesh was depleted.
It was unlike ordinary aging or natural loss of life force.
Rather, the vitality that served as an essential element of life was ignited and annihilated in an instant.
Words could not accurately describe the sensation.
Only firsthand experience could reveal the terror of having one of life's fundamental components ripped away directly.
As when the death of a hare grieves the fox, mourning one's own kind: the instant vitality was stripped away, the remaining elements of life stirred in response.
They scattered in sheer terror.
Li Fan seemed to see the crisscrossing lines of Great Dao principles composing the Tianyang immortal puppet. As one thread was pulled out, the rest collapsed in rapid succession!
In an instant, the mighty immortal puppet was reduced to ashes!
With a swift thought, Li Fan controlled the Tianyang immortal puppet at the final juncture, retracting a small portion of flesh back into the immortal bones.
When the corrupting green matter encountered the immortal bones forged from immortal artifact remnants, it was like crashing into a wall. Its triumphant advance came to an abrupt halt.
And Li Fan saw clearly.
The primary reason the green matter's erosion failed was precisely that the puppet's immortal bones did not contain the Dao of Vitality!
'If this were the obliteration wind calamity of the Immortal Realm's tribulations instead, the outcome would be different. I fear this heap of so-called immortal bones would turn to powder in an instant!'
'So, do the different tribulations of the Immortal Realm evolve from different principles of the Great Dao? Are they specialized attacks targeting specific Daos?'
'The tribulation of Dao Annihilation...' Li Fan fell into deep thought.
Inside the Great Void, seeing the immortal puppet's defensive power vanish in an instant and witnessing it nearly corroded away in a flash, Jian Daosheng could not help crying out in shock.
"How could it be so fast?"
Subconsciously, he fused with the Desolate God statue once more, attempting to manipulate the corruptive green matter to slow the erosion.
Li Fan had not forgotten the purpose of this trip.
With a shift in thought, the Tianyang immortal puppet, which had been slumbering all this while, finally opened its eyes.
The force field reemerged, repelling the green clinging to its exterior.
True Immortal flesh welled out from the immortal bones once more, transforming from a skeletal form back into the puppet's appearance—though its body was no longer as colossal as before.
With a flash, it arrived at the head of the gray statue.
Faced with the puppet's sudden eruption, Jian Daosheng acted as if he had anticipated it all along.
Dozens of eyes on the thousand-eyed head suddenly locked onto the Tianyang immortal puppet, firing fierce, scorching beams of light.
Not only were these rays immensely destructive, causing the immortal puppet's defensive force field to tremble violently, but they also acted like ropes, binding and shackling the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Within the Great Void, lights and shadows flashed continuously.
One vessel elder after another appeared in succession.
Zhong Daogong's voice echoed continuously: "We were originally just guarding against contingencies, but to think our predictions were spot on!"
"Did you truly take our celestial vessel for fools? Handing it over so plainly—did you really think we would take the bait?"
"Heh heh, our vessel has secluded itself from the world for ten thousand years. The only thing that could tie us to the outside world and draw greed is that gray Go piece left behind by Sun Piaomiao. We have been waiting for you to come, yet we never expected you to use such a foolish scheme!"
Derisive voices echoed, and then the vessel elders flew one after another into the Desolate God's hollow eyes.
Once occupied by the elders, the originally dim eyes were reignited, blazing with searing white light.
As the beams multiplied, the shackles binding the Tianyang immortal puppet grew heavier and heavier.
The Tianyang immortal puppet tried to move, only to find the binding force from the Desolate God unexpectedly formidable—taking even a single step was an arduous struggle!
"So this is not the third layer of the All-Encompassing Immortal Record after all."
"It was a trap to lure the tiger into the pit."
Tianyang produced a low voice, looking ahead at the Desolate God, which seemed to have regained full vitality through its fusion with the vessel elders.
The gray hue receded from its form, and the corruptive green matter that had occupied most of its body retreated below the knees.
The ancient Desolate God, with a single face bearing a thousand eyes, locked onto the Tianyang immortal puppet.
Tianyang had been pieced together by Li Fan utilizing immortal power to the utmost, after all; it was not a puppet truly forged by a True Immortal.
Faced with the revived Desolate God, it gradually lost ground in the clash of strength, slowly being suppressed.
Seeing victory within their grasp, the elders smugly spoke out:
"Indeed! With such a slumbering immortal puppet, how could we ever leave it in a vital sector of our vessel without waking it up?"
"We thought it would take some effort to draw you out, yet you couldn't hold back after just a brief while!"
"A mere immortal puppet trying to storm our vessel and seize treasure all on its own? You underestimate us far too much!"
...
Jeers and taunts rose from all sides.
Yet the Desolate God's binding force did not diminish in the least; rather, it intensified.
Moreover, Li Fan sensed that as vitality gradually revived, a distinct aura was slowly welling up from the Desolate God's body.
Creak, creak...
Beyond the thousand beams of light, an invisible pressure instantly bore down upon the Tianyang immortal puppet.
In a trance, it was as if an ancient Desolate God had truly appeared before Li Fan—ferocious of visage, its thousand eyes glaring in unison!
"I was careless," the Tianyang immortal puppet said in a low voice, first acknowledging its miscalculation, then asking with mild surprise, "I merely did not expect your vessel to actually be willing to use that Go piece as bait. The aura originating from an Immortal Realm fragment cannot be forged."
"Weren't you afraid that a single slip would deliver the piece into my hands?"
"We were only left with this final piece anyway. Without being able to assemble a full set, this lone one is useless!"
"Hmph, you can't catch the wolf without sacrificing the cub. If we hadn't deceived you into acting, we wouldn't have activated this Desolate God lightly..."
"Heh heh, not only is the Go piece real, but the other treasures are real too! If you're going to put on a show, you have to make it convincing!"
"Cut the chatter with him. Subdue him completely first!"
Hummm—
Amid the elders' clamor, the ancient Desolate God actually raised its right hand, seemingly about to reach out and seize the Tianyang immortal puppet.
The colossal palm was on the verge of descending.
Surrounded and locked by layers of light beams, the Tianyang immortal puppet appeared to face a dead end.
Yet for some reason, the immortal puppet showed not the slightest trace of despair.
"Your plan..."
"Was quite good."
"Unfortunately, everything ends here."
The Tianyang immortal puppet looked at the ancient Desolate God within the Great Void.
"Today, I shall teach you a lesson."
"In the cultivation world, the strong reign supreme. In the face of absolute strength, all scheming is nothing more than a joke!"
Upon the Tianyang immortal puppet's forehead, a faint glimmer suddenly flashed.
Within the Great Void, winds abruptly surged.
"Not good! Stop him, quick!"
The vessel elders instantly sensed something amiss.
From the Desolate God's thousand eyes, an unprecedented brilliance suddenly erupted.
Vitality grew denser, and the Desolate God's movements accelerated severalfold.
Yet it was already too late.
Immortal Descent, All Things Return to Emptiness!
A world-annihilating tempest erupted from that single point of light upon the Tianyang immortal puppet's forehead.
It swept outward across the surroundings.
To Li Fan's surprise, the corruptive green matter that had been suppressed by the Desolate God's vitality was not negated by the immortal formation's power to reduce all things to nothingness.
Instead, like a fish in water, it harnessed the power of the world-annihilating immortal formation to corrode the Desolate God's body once more.
The Returning to Void immortal formation and the corruptive green matter—under this dual onslaught, the Desolate God's lower body was overwhelmed by unstoppable force.
Only its thousand-eyed head remained.
"God of Desolate Antiquity, Bearer of the Immortal's Decree!"
"Shield the Calamity!"
"Congeal!"
Amid the elders' collective roars, the glowing eyes on the head darted rapidly and fused into one in an instant!
A colossal, hollow eye abruptly materialized right at the center of the ancient Desolate God's face!
A sacred power manifested, repelling the encroaching force of destruction from below.
Seeing this, the Tianyang immortal puppet did not retreat; it charged forward.
Swept up in the might of the world-annihilating immortal formation, it faced the one-eyed Desolate God head-on.
Behind it, boundless green matter surged like dragons, floods, and serpents, sweeping in tight pursuit.
Two powers originating from the Immortal Realm collided.
Facing the Desolate God's single eye, the Tianyang immortal puppet's remaining True Immortal flesh melted away like ice and snow.
Yet the immortal bones remained, their momentum undiminished.
Riding the waning might of the immortal formation, it drove straight in under the gaze of the Desolate God's lone eye.
It smoothly arrived at the side of the head, where the remaining hollow eye sockets lay.
The elders' frenzied shouts rang out.
The Tianyang immortal puppet locked onto the final Go piece.
It reached inside to pull it out, feeling a binding force identical to the scorching light that had shot from the Desolate God's eyes earlier—in fact, it was even firmer, sufficient to intercept the prying of almost any cultivator in the world.
Yet compared to the puppet's power, it was trivial.
Applying slight force, it retrieved the final gray Go piece into its palm.
Li Fan quickly looked toward the nearest target.
After snatching one more item and sensing that the immortal formation's tempest was waning while the Desolate God was about to recover, Li Fan hesitated no longer and drove the Tianyang immortal puppet to beat a hasty retreat.
"Close the entrance!" Nangong Lie's slightly crazed voice could be faintly heard.
"Are you mad?! Do you want us to be buried alongside the Desolate God?!"
The vast majority of the elders retained their sanity, and the Celestial Star Light Lotus exit remained open.
Li Fan flew out and swept his gaze across the treasures in the second layer of the secret reservoir.
He attempted to take some along, only to discover that these treasures were enveloped by light lotuses; without special methods to open the lotuses, one could only destroy the lotuses entirely.
After all, Li Fan's true self was not present, and the power of the immortal formation he had left behind was already exhausted.
Losing no time to linger, the Tianyang immortal puppet turned into a streak of light and escaped, treating every protective ward within the vessel as nothing.
Before departing, Li Fan caught a glimpse through the doorway of the swarming green matter engulfing the Desolate God's head like a tidal wave.
A short while later.
The Tianyang immortal puppet did not return immediately to Great Xuan to deliver the Go piece to Li Fan's true self. Instead, it stood quietly in the void, gazing at the celestial vessel not far away.
The celestial vessel shuddered slightly, but in the end, it calmed down once more.
'They really have some tricks up their sleeve.'
'To even hold off the corruptive green matter provoked by the world-annihilating immortal formation.'
'A Desolate God...'
Li Fan felt a touch solemn.
Judging from the brief clash just now, even without its power fully unleashed, the Desolate God hidden within the Xuan Celestial Vessel was evenly matched with the Tianyang immortal puppet. Its power at its peak was easy to imagine.
"And yet, it is merely a servant of True Immortals."
"To think the Xuan Celestial Vessel can manipulate this ancient Desolate God..."
"They truly have pushed the path of relying on external objects to its absolute limit," Li Fan remarked with faint admiration.
"In my previous life, under the world-annihilating immortal formation, this Desolate God never showed itself."
"It seems that Great Void is not situated within the interior of the vessel at all, but is a passageway opened through the Celestial Star Light Lotus."
As Li Fan pondered, the celestial vessel ahead, which had settled down, started up again.
It was not pursuing the Tianyang immortal puppet, however, but changing its hiding location within the sea of stars.
'From the vessel's perspective, having lost the Go piece, the enemy has also lost the means to locate the vessel.'
'As long as they conceal themselves again, they should be able to regain peace.'
'As for the other immortal treasure they lost...'
Li Fan's divine sense swept over the other item held in the Tianyang immortal puppet's hand alongside the gray Go piece.
It was an archaic copper coin.
The designs on its obverse and reverse sides were completely different. Yet no matter what method Li Fan employed, he could not clearly see what was engraved upon it.
Shifting his attention away from the immortal treasure copper coin for the moment, Li Fan cast one last glance at the Xuan Celestial Vessel.
'These losses are, in truth, barely acceptable for the richly endowed Xuan Celestial Vessel.'
'I fear the vessel's real trouble will stem from the Desolate God.'
'After all, borrowing the power of True Immortals is never that simple.' Li Fan smiled faintly, controlling the Tianyang immortal puppet to fly toward the Close Horizons Array.
Before long, it returned to the Great Xuan pocket world.
Li Fan's true self had already prepared fresh True Immortal flesh, rearming the puppet.
The Tianyang immortal puppet handed over the two treasures it had retrieved to Li Fan and began adapting to its new body.
In the battle against the thousand-eyed Desolate God just now, Tianyang had instinctively gained some enlightenment.
After remaining silent for a time, it gradually entered seclusion.
Seeing this, Li Fan did not disturb it.
First, he inspected the copper coin.
Once his true self inspected it, endowed with a sufficiently powerful divine soul, he could finally faintly make out the engravings on the copper coin.
On one side was an imprint of magnificent, continuous palaces.
On the other side was an overlay of countless ever-shifting scenes.
'No wonder my divided intent could not see it clearly before.'
'The speed of these shifts...'
Li Fan's expression changed slightly.
Clutching the copper coin tightly, Li Fan narrowed his eyes, attempting to perceive each scene that flashed past.
At the same time, the Dao Assimilation Stone in his mind radiated a faint glow, recording every single image one by one, then reassembling them.
In this manner, sixteen full days passed before Li Fan finally managed to record every scene depicted upon this seemingly tiny copper coin.
'Does this coin record the scenery of a certain star domain in the upper Immortal Realm?'
Before Li Fan, the reassembled, magnificent scroll slowly unrolled.
'There is no sign of any True Immortal—only pure natural landscapes and scattered buildings.'
Li Fan scrutinized this scene of the Immortal Realm.
The moment he took in the full picture of this immortal domain, a name naturally surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
"Beilin."
"The palaces on the other side of the coin should be where Sovereign Beilin resides."
Recalling the memories he had glimpsed within the True Immortal flesh earlier, Li Fan remarked thoughtfully, "Who knows what the structure of the ancient Immortal Realm was truly like?"
"Judging by this, could there really have been an Immortal Emperor?"
"If that is true, then what kind of status did a Nameless True Immortal hold?"
With an odd expression, Li Fan let his thoughts drift into endless contemplation.
Chapter 1362