Li Fan lingered at the boundary of the High Wall, unable to recover from the sudden upheaval for a long time.
The eighteen Star Spirits had unexpectedly broken away at the critical moment when the Celestial Vessel was about to traverse the High Wall...
One thing was certain: this was definitely not of the Star Spirits' own accord.
The elders of the Celestial Vessel cared for and worried over the vessel without question. They were even willing to sacrifice their lives without hesitation for its continuation.
"It was the Star Sea's Source Consciousness that sensed something in that instant."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Wary and apprehensive, he retreated a distance toward the far expanse.
"The Star Sea's consciousness acts on instinct, devoid of mortal posturing. It seems an inexplicable, immense horror truly descended just now."
"Yet having watched the entire process, I was completely oblivious."
This was what concerned him the most.
Li Fan could not help but recall a memory.
It had been before his transmigration, during a stroll along a submerged boardwalk in a wetland park.
Walking along it, one could see the underwater scene clearly through the transparent glass. Compared to the landscapes on land, what one saw was entirely different, carrying a unique charm.
The underwater fish would gather and draw close to the glass wall.
The young ones remained oblivious even when tourists pressed against the glass to stare at them, continuing to frolic and play as before.
Yet the large ones that seemed to have lived for a long time sensed danger with acute sensitivity before anyone even drew near, flicking their tails and fleeing, vanishing into the depths.
...
How strikingly similar that scene was to what had just occurred!
As the past memory awakened, Li Fan felt a belated chill run down his spine.
"My current strength still puts me among the young fish incapable of perceiving that lurking danger."
"Perhaps only the Star Sea itself, or Supreme realm cultivators at the pinnacle of the Star Sea, count as adult fish."
"Yet whichever it is, compared to those eyes silently watching from beyond the High Wall..."
At this thought, Li Fan's expression darkened, and his wariness toward what lay beyond the High Wall deepened even further.
"Beyond the High Wall... I wonder if the Xuan Celestial Vessel, in its desperate gamble, actually broke through the High Wall or not?"
Li Fan carefully recalled the sensory connection he had left within the vessel at the moment it disappeared.
After a long time, Li Fan's expression shifted slightly. To verify his hypothesis, he returned to the vicinity of the High Wall once more.
He split off a strand of divine sense and steered it to slam against the invisible High Wall.
This action of Li Fan's was undoubtedly throwing an egg against a stone.
The instant it collided with the High Wall, the fragile divine sense was shattered into nothingness by the recoil of the wall's power.
Li Fan did not stop, casting strand after strand of divine sense forward.
Finally, after tens of thousands of attempts, he vaguely discerned something.
"The disappearance after colliding with the High Wall is different from the disappearance inside the vessel earlier."
"When destroyed by the impact with the High Wall, the process of destruction can still be faintly sensed. Even though this process is exceedingly brief—requiring tens of thousands of repetitions for me to detect—it is fundamentally unlike the instantaneous vanishing after clearing the High Wall."
"The Xuan Celestial Vessel succeeded; it truly broke through the blockade of the High Wall!"
Li Fan felt quite shaken.
"Eighteen Star Spirits joined together, infinite Star Sea energy, combined with the explosive power of fused True Immortal seal characters... truly, it possessed the power of transcendence in that split second."
The Xuan Celestial Vessel's success finally allowed Li Fan to see hope in crossing the High Wall.
The methods used in this life could be entirely replicated.
For a moment, Li Fan's emotions surged.
Yet very quickly, remembering what happened after the Xuan Celestial Vessel crossed the High Wall, the faint joy in Li Fan's heart vanished without a trace.
"Once crossed, all perception disappears. Even if it succeeded, to me it is no different from failure."
"Beyond the High Wall, dangers clearly abound. There are even unknown forces coveting and hunting True Immortals. There is no way I will rashly venture beyond the wall knowing nothing."
Placing his own safety first was Li Fan's most fundamental principle of action. He would never compromise it for short-term gain. Of course, unforeseen accidents occurring in the course of executing his principles were another matter.
"I must find a way to maintain perception across the High Wall."
"Perhaps that can only be achieved by gaining a certain understanding of the High Wall's true nature."
Li Fan turned his head toward the only known flaw in the High Wall.
Suddenly, an idea stirred in his mind, and he drew slightly closer again.
He carefully observed and sensed in the direction where the Xuan Celestial Vessel had vanished.
Strands of golden thread spread out in all directions like spilled mercury. This was the technique Li Fan had learned from the Heavenly Physician within the illusory array to probe the High Wall.
After a long while, Li Fan retracted the golden threads, his expression becoming subtle. "Even though the Xuan Celestial Vessel has broken through the High Wall, I still do not sense any so-called flaw in the wall."
"Yet back then, a single thought transmission from Xuanyuan Hong could leave an indelible mark on the High Wall across the ages?"
"Indeed, the High Wall's blockade is more than a notch weaker against non-physical forms. If I want to achieve perception and communication between inside and outside the High Wall, perhaps I can start from this angle."
At present, Li Fan's pinnacle combat strength was primarily concentrated in the Transformation of Real and Unreal and several immortal formations. The mental and divine-soul aspects were not his forte.
"Wuyou, Carefree Paradise." Li Fan suddenly thought of that Longevity Heavenly Venerable in the Xuanhuang Realm.
"I wonder how far the Paradise has spread across the Star Sea. Has it touched the boundary of the High Wall?"
The disciples of the Medicine King Sect and the beings of numerous pocket worlds were still exploring the dreamscape.
However, Carefree Paradise—the dream world—was simply too vast. All newcomers could only explore deeper step by step.
Even the earliest pioneers, Sun Erlang's trio, had only just reached Dream Level 6. Truly uncovering the secret of the dream was still far off.
Nevertheless, Li Fan believed that even if this life yielded no major harvest, with accumulated experience and countless living beings venturing forward in endless succession, completely unraveling the mysteries of the dream would not be too far away.
"At root, it is still because my own strength is too weak. Otherwise, why would I need to rely on Wuyou?" Li Fan sighed inwardly.
"Perhaps once I integrate with the Xuanhuang Celestial Soul to achieve Dao Integration in this life, the situation will improve."
"However..."
Li Fan turned his gaze back toward the High Wall. "It is extremely likely that when Xuanhuang ascends into an Immortal Realm, that gaze from beyond the High Wall will descend once more. I must prepare in advance and stall for as much time as possible."
Fortunately, in the previous life, the event where Cat Treasure hunted immortals, triggering the collapse of the High Wall and turmoil across the Star Sea, provided Li Fan with a reference.
"In this life, an entire realm is ascending into an immortal domain, which might cause an even greater stir. To be safe, I must complete the devouring of the Celestial Soul before half the time it took for the anomaly to occur in the previous life."
"The Heavenly Immortal Soul, though having a different name, is essentially unchanged. It is still born to assume a heavenly mandate."
"To complete the devouring as quickly as possible, the birth of the Soul of Heaven and Earth must be swift."
Li Fan had operated in the Xuanhuang Realm for a long time and could even use the technique of falsifying transposition of heavenly principles to summon a Soul of Heaven and Earth from thin air, so he naturally knew every kind of Soul of Heaven and Earth inside and out.
"From being provoked by the heavenly will to manifesting a physical form, the time required for a Soul of Heaven and Earth varies widely. Across a hundred reincarnations, the one whose descent was fastest..."
"Is none other than Mo Sha!"
A sharp glint flashed through Li Fan's eyes.
In the life where Zhang Haobo furiously slew Crimson Flame with the Twenty-Eight Congyun Swords to become the youngest Dao Integration Immortal Venerable in Xuanhuang's history, he died tragically beneath Mo Sha an instant after achieving Dao Integration.
Almost the instant Crimson Flame was slain, Mo Sha was activated by the heavenly will.
"Unlike other Souls of Heaven and Earth, Mo Sha, as part of heaven and earth's operational mechanisms, is likely in a permanent, active standby. It can be triggered instantly at any moment. Perhaps this is a change spontaneously evolved by the Xuanhuang Realm after being subjected to the suturing of external fragments." After pondering briefly, Li Fan understood.
"Mo Sha will likely undergo a transformation from a Soul of Heaven and Earth into a Heavenly Immortal Soul in sync with Xuanhuang's ascension. Moreover, Mo Sha's actual combat prowess ranks among the strongest of all Souls of Heaven and Earth."
"It truly could not be more suitable." Li Fan nodded slightly. With a turn of thought, he had locked onto his target.
"The matter of the Celestial Vessel is finished. It is time to return and meticulously prepare for the final ascension of Xuanhuang." Sensing the power of one Star Spirit obtained from Equalizing the Star Sea, sealed within the immortal formation inside his body, Li Fan grew a few degrees more confident in executing his plan.
Just as he was about to depart on his wooden sword, another anomaly arose at the edge of the High Wall.
It came not from the High Wall itself, but from the entrance leading into the fissure basin.
A massive surge of life force suddenly erupted outward from within.
Like a geyser, it surged high into the air, rushing toward the Star Sea.
A figure actually escaped from inside by riding this powerful surge.
Li Fan looked closely—it was Layman Qiaogong, who had been out of contact for so long!
Layman Qiaogong had been swept up by the reverberating star-power storm and trapped within the maze-like fissure basin, disappearing without a trace. Li Fan had been unable to contact him, only vaguely sensing that his aura was steady and that he was in no life-threatening danger. Unexpectedly, he had finally escaped the labyrinth now.
Layman Qiaogong seemed utterly thrilled by his escape, dancing about with wild gestures and shouting at the top of his lungs.
Li Fan extended a palm and drew him directly to his side.
The scene before his eyes abruptly shifted, and Layman Qiaogong, thinking he had just leaped from the wolf's den into the tiger's jaws, turned deathly pale.
Only when he clearly saw that the person before him was Li Fan did he heave a long sigh of relief.
Clearing his throat, Layman Qiaogong composed himself and bowed. "Greetings, Saint Teacher."
Li Fan said calmly, "It has indeed been a long time. I previously went down to search for your traces, but those fissure basins meander endlessly beneath the entire Star Sea. Finding you proved impossible, so I gave up."
"Now it appears you may have found a blessing in disguise?"
Compared to before his disappearance, Layman Qiaogong's vitality and spirit had undergone a qualitative transformation. Clearly, he had met with another fortuitous encounter within the endless fissure basin.
At the mention of this, a trace of smugness inevitably appeared on Layman Qiaogong's face. "The Saint Teacher truly possesses discerning eyes. I did indeed reap some modest gains."
"Initially, when I realized I was lost in those continuous subterranean rivers, I panicked a little. But I soon discovered that life force permeated the place. Even if trapped for a lifetime, there was no danger to my life. So I couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief."
"Saint Teacher, you know me. I am accustomed to staying in my workshop doing research without ever stepping outside. Being down in those fissure subterranean rivers was merely a change of scenery. Besides, I had Shangguan's puppet to vent on, so there was no way I'd get bored..." Layman Qiaogong rattled on.
Li Fan said in a deep voice, "Get to the point."
Layman Qiaogong paused, chuckled sheepishly, and continued, "After adjusting for a while, having nothing to do and driven by curiosity, I began studying those endless fissure subterranean rivers."
"Who knew I would happen upon the secret within!"
Layman Qiaogong's tone grew subtly excited. "Those subterranean rivers were simply too convoluted. At first, I tried to memorize them all, but because there were too many branches, I never succeeded."
"I didn't give up, either. During that period, my head was completely filled with the flow patterns of those subterranean rivers."
"One day, after breaking Shangguan, I prepared to repair her. But during the repair process, as if possessed, I actually applied the flow patterns of the fissure subterranean rivers from my memory onto Shangguan's puppet! And what happened next was something I had never even heard of!" Speaking up to this point, Layman Qiaogong could not help but lick his lips, an inscrutable look flashing across his eyes.
Li Fan knew that what Layman Qiaogong called the Shangguan puppet was in truth a memory backup sealing his master, Elder Shangguan Tuo of the Tianji Realm.
However, under the rules of the Tianji Realm, a memory backup did not share the same status as the original person and could only obey the orders of Tianji Realm cultivators unconditionally.
Li Fan had always been well aware of Layman Qiaogong's rather perverse quirks. But since Layman Qiaogong was merely entertaining himself, Li Fan never bothered to meddle.
Yet seeing Layman Qiaogong's expression now, Li Fan could not help but take an interest.
Layman Qiaogong seemed to savor the memory for a moment before speaking word by word: "Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that after the repairs were completed, the Shangguan puppet—which should have had no resistance whatsoever—not only refused my orders, but cursed me out roundly..."
"Her insults were so foul that they reminded me of unpleasant memories from long ago. In a surge of anger, my hand was a bit too heavy, and I broke her again."
"Only after a long while, when I snapped out of it, did I suddenly realize: something incredible had occurred!"
Li Fan said thoughtfully, "Are you saying that the shapes of the fissure subterranean rivers actually activated Shangguan's self-awareness?"
Layman Qiaogong shook his head vigorously. "It was already a consciousness backup, so it originally possessed complete self-awareness. It was merely restricted by the restrictions left by the Tianji Realm of old, forced to obey my commands unconditionally."
"But after inscribing those patterns, things changed."
Layman Qiaogong licked his lips again. "The newly awakened Shangguan was no longer a consciousness backup. In the judgment of the Tianji Realm's restrictions, she had become Shangguan Tuo herself!"
"Shangguan Tuo has been dead for who knows how many years, so of course that is impossible."
"Yet precisely because of the influence of those unknown shapes, in a certain sense, she was brought back to life!"
"And keep in mind, what I engraved was merely a negligible portion of the fissure subterranean rivers' patterns! This is simply... simply..."
"Unimaginable!" Layman Qiaogong marveled.
Listening to Layman Qiaogong's account, Li Fan suddenly understood the purpose of the fissure subterranean rivers spread throughout the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
They were not merely reservoirs for life force.
They were also an incomparably mighty divine ability.
A divine ability capable of causing the Pitch-Black Star Sea, sealed off by the High Wall, to produce an independent self-awareness.
Chapter 1376