Li Fan closely examined the [Dissociation Disc, Immortal Series].
In his previous life, Li Fan had already experienced firsthand just how terrifying the Dissociation Disc became after its formal ascension into an immortal artifact.
With a single thought, an immortal array could be formed.
And once formed, it could slay immortals and butcher gods!
Among all Heaven-and-Earth Essences, Mo Sha had been one of the foremost in power. After undergoing the metamorphosis from mortal to immortal alongside the Xuanhuang Realm, the sheer might of Mo Sha in its Heaven-and-Earth Immortal Essence state was easily imagined.
A wash of ink-black darkness veiled Li Fan's eyes. Countless squirming black specks surged forth from the fingertips of his right hand.
Li Fan reached out his right hand, gently pressing that wisp of inky darkness against the clump of bound True Immortal residual power in his left palm.
Under the erosion of the Heaven-and-Earth Immortal Essence Mo Sha's power, the True Immortal residual power that had once ravaged the starry sea was utterly incapable of resisting. Engulfed by the dense inkiness, it was wiped out of existence completely.
The inky tide surged like waves, and once it receded, nothing remained between Li Fan's hands.
"Being able to annihilate True Immortal residual power means that even if I go up against a True Immortal, I won't fall at too much of a disadvantage. Such is the advantage of ascending through the New Method. So long as the devoured Heaven-and-Earth Immortal Essence is powerful enough, its power can instantly be made my own.
"With the power of Mo Sha protecting me, even if a 'half-immortal' like me lacks the methods a true immortal ought to possess, such as immortal spiritual energy, it is still enough to traverse and crush the starry sea.
"Yet my true trump card is still the Immortal Series Dissociation Disc!"
In his mind, thousands of dissociation discs blazed with radiance at the same time. From every celestial body, wisps of silvery-white starlight were released, flowing and coalescing together.
They manifested in Li Fan's palm.
"Mo Sha as a Heaven-and-Earth Immortal Essence is already formidable enough. Yet before a Dissociation Disc capable of deploying genuine immortal arrays, it would still perish in an instant like an ant!"
Li Fan's current status as a half-immortal had come from integrating with the Dao of Mo Sha. In other words, having just completed Dao Integration, and before upgrading his other divine abilities to the half-immortal status, he was not significantly stronger than Mo Sha in its Heaven-and-Earth Immortal Essence state.
He, too, would be utterly defenseless before the immortal arrays he deployed.
"Like a toddler wielding an immortal treasure, offensive power and defense are completely disproportionate.
"And the reason for this absurd disparity..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly and attempted to absorb the silver starlight from his palm into his body.
Yet it did not budge in the slightest.
"Immortal spiritual energy. Yet I cannot use it?"
The reason the Dissociation Disc exhibited such unimaginable performance was that at the critical juncture of Dao Integration in his previous life, Li Fan had drawn a strand of the immortal spiritual energy that the Xuanhuang Realm obtained from the legacy of Great Heavenly Venerable Xuanhuang, and bestowed it upon the Dissociation Disc.
Only after receiving that immortal spiritual energy did the Dissociation Disc undergo a true metamorphosis.
Moreover, this transformation seemed even more thorough than those of the Xuanhuang Realm and Li Fan himself.
To verify the hypothesis in his mind, Li Fan stirred his thoughts slightly, and the thousands of stars within the Dissociation Disc shimmered.
Immortal spiritual energy flowed, instantly laying out a miniature immortal array before Li Fan.
On the surface, it looked like a palm-sized silver hoop. In reality, its core was the [Perplexity, Xuanhuang Multitude] Great Array, integrated with the laws of the "Restrain" character formula. If this single ring flew forth, it could effortlessly suppress any existence below the realm of an immortal.
The starlight of the Dissociation Disc pulsed without pause. One silver ring after another materialized in succession.
They lined up in a row before Li Fan. Only after a full ninety-nine rings had been generated did the power within the Dissociation Disc fail to sustain further production, forcing it to a halt.
The energy contained within each of these silver rings exceeded that of the mortal Perplexity Great Array that Li Fan had painstakingly erected to envelop the entire Xuanhuang Realm in his previous life. After all, the gulf between immortal and mortal could not be measured by conventional standards.
Even though it had ascended into an immortal artifact, setting up ninety-nine immortal arrays all at once seemed to have pushed it to its limit.
Li Fan stared at the Dissociation Disc, which appeared completely drained of immortal spiritual energy.
Yet within the myriad star-like sub-discs, new immortal spiritual energy was astonishingly and slowly regenerating!
Li Fan was certain that throughout the entire process of depletion and regeneration, the Dissociation Disc had not absorbed any energy from the outside world.
"In a certain sense, it is infinite," Li Fan mused.
At the same time, a trace of regret and deep bewilderment welled up in his heart.
"After Wuming succeeded as Great Heavenly Venerable, I used the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao to spy on and examine the four remaining immortal artifacts.
"There was indeed immortal spiritual energy inside them, but each bit spent was gone forever. They could not replenish it endlessly like the Immortal Series Dissociation Disc!"
"Just why is this..." Li Fan's eyes flickered, his thoughts churning.
After contemplating for a long while, he arrived at a tentative conclusion: "Perhaps it was a deliberate restriction placed upon the Xuanhuang immortal artifacts when the Immortal Realm bestowed them.
"Now that the Immortal Realm has been destroyed, a newly born immortal artifact free of the Upper Realm's constraints has reverted to the intrinsic properties an immortal artifact ought to have."
"Yet..." Li Fan faintly sensed something was amiss.
If merely relying on immortal spiritual energy could mass-produce immortal artifacts in their prime condition, then the past Great Heavenly Venerables of the Xuanhuang Realm would surely have destroyed the old immortal artifacts long ago to forge new ones.
"Perhaps it has to do with the Terminal Dissociation Disc itself."
After a long while, Li Fan suddenly came to an understanding.
"The Terminal Dissociation Disc was formed from the fusion of the Terminal Disc and the Dissociation Disc. Both were secondary bodies of the Heavenly Mystery Realm.
"And the Heavenly Profound Mirror was one of the immortal artifacts that King Xuantian, Xuanyuan Hong, had brought back from the Immortal Realm.
"In a certain sense, the Terminal Dissociation Disc is itself the offspring of an immortal artifact."
"Moreover..." The process of acquiring the Terminal Dissociation Disc flashed through Li Fan's mind.
The Medicine King Sect disciple Gu Xinghan, who had held the Dissociation Disc that Li Fan had transformed into, had obtained the Terminal Disc by pure serendipity.
As the two came close, they gradually merged into one.
After Gu Xinghan died, the object was buried deep underground alongside him, enduring thousands of years.
One could say that the birth of the Terminal Dissociation Disc was an extraordinarily rare and difficult event to begin with.
"Perhaps merely fusing two secondary bodies is not enough. It also required tempering through ages of time, and even the destruction and rebirth of a world, before qualifying for ascension into an immortal artifact..." Only now did Li Fan realize just what a stroke of sheer fortune it had been to obtain the Terminal Dissociation Disc back then.
Even though he could not fathom its underlying principles, Li Fan was now the master of this immortal artifact.
Li Fan was naturally very satisfied with the power of the Dissociation Disc. His sole vexation was that he was completely unable to absorb or utilize the immortal spiritual energy contained and generated within the immortal artifact.
Li Fan made several more attempts to channel the immortal spiritual energy from the Dissociation Disc into other items, such as the Ten Thousand Beasts Condensed Crystal and the Dao Assimilation Stone.
Without exception, the silver starlight passed right through without lingering for even a moment.
The items being infused did not even seem to perceive the existence of the immortal spiritual energy.
"It seems this infinite immortal spiritual energy can only be used by the Dissociation Disc itself.
"It's not just that I can't; no one else can either."
Li Fan shook his head slightly, musing to himself, "No wonder that back then, even though King Xuantian, Xuanyuan Hong, had plundered so many treasures from the Immortal Realm, advancing from the half-immortal realm was still so difficult.
"Artifacts differ from artifacts, and artifacts differ from immortals.
"Most likely, even the immortal spiritual energy within the Faceless Immortal—that True Immortal—could not be transferred to Xuanyuan Hong either. Otherwise, given their friendship and the infinite nature of immortal spiritual energy, the Faceless Immortal wouldn't have been stingy about lending a helping hand."
Suddenly, another past event regarding King Xuantian, learned from Ji Yuzhen's memories, crossed Li Fan's mind: "Yet it is said that King Xuantian was able to seize immortal spiritual energy from Archmage Tiandu, refining and absorbing it? How is that explained?
"The fragmented memories of a Dharma King of the Xuantian Sect cannot be wholly trusted.
"Still, it serves as a reminder. Upon returning to Xuanhuang in this lifetime, I must beware that sinister Archmage..."
Standing in the starry sea, Li Fan took a long time to calm his thoughts.
Only then did he open the [Trueness] panel once more to check the specific changes after achieving Dao Integration and reaching the half-immortal realm.
Name: Li Fan
Cultivation Realm: Immortal
Physiological Age: ...
Psychological Age: ...
Reversion Charging Progress: 50%
Anchor Charging Progress: 0%
Current Anchor Count: 3
Currently Available Anchor Count: 1
Bound Items: [... Leg Bone], [Descending into the Mortal Dust], [Dissociation Disc, Immortal Series], Dao Assimilation Stone, Heavenly Profound Mirror origin (damaged), Taiyan Boat, Ten Thousand Beasts Condensed Crystal, Essence-Blood of Ten Thousand.
...
When Li Fan saw the solitary word "Immortal" under Cultivation Realm on the Trueness panel, his eyebrows rose slightly.
"It seems that in the eyes of Trueness, there is no substantive difference between a so-called half-immortal and a true immortal."
Li Fan stared at that word "Immortal," admiring it with great delight for quite a while before continuing downward.
Having stepped from mortal to immortal in a single bound, physiological age was no longer a shackle to Li Fan.
And the limit on psychological age—long the sole constraint that had caused Li Fan some worry—had likewise vanished like smoke. For a moment, Li Fan looked somewhat dazed.
"I suppose, provisionally, I have achieved longevity in the conventional sense."
His milestone had been reached. And though he was still quite far from the "longevity" he truly desired and envisioned, it was by no means ethereal or unreachable.
What struck Li Fan as peculiar was that the values displayed for physiological and psychological age on the Trueness panel were not "infinite."
Nor were they fixed numbers.
Instead, much like the prefix on the nameless True Immortal's leg bone or the Immortal Realm copper coin he had seen in the past, they presented a constantly shifting scene.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, trying to discern what they were specifically conveying.
It had to be said that after ascending to immortalhood and elevating his status, feats that once required every ounce of effort and came with terrifying backlash could now be accomplished with almost no effort at all.
"7,365,864 years, 13 days, and 7 hours..."
Upon deciphering the age—or rather, the upper limit of age—displayed on Trueness, Li Fan's brow furrowed tightly.
A mere 7,365,000-odd years was far less than he had imagined!
How could that be worthy of a legendary immortal?
What was more, according to Li Fan's observations, this constantly shifting number did not change at a steady rate.
In the vast majority of cases, after a period of time, it would plummet.
Only on rare occasions would it increase.
Li Fan stared intently at this profoundly mysterious string of numbers.
Suddenly, an inexplicable epiphany welled up in his heart.
"The lifespan of an immortal cannot possibly be a mere few million years.
"Yet in Trueness's judgment, I can only survive for this long at most..."
A golden light flashed sharply in his eyes, and Li Fan understood in an instant: "It's because this is the lifespan of the mortal world, not mine!"
As if having uncovered an earth-shattering secret, even as a half-immortal, Li Fan felt his heart pound violently several times. "When that constantly shifting number hits zero, the entire mortal world will reach its end.
"All living beings within it will be plunged into eternal damnation alongside it!
"If I remain within it and do not activate Trueness, the same will happen to me!"
"Wait, that's not right?!"
As Li Fan pondered, his heart began to pound even faster.
"In the past, my psychological age never changed with the activations of Trueness.
"It was solely tied to my own experiences.
"So now that my psychological age has merged with this string of numbers and disappeared..."
Li Fan's expression darkened noticeably.
"Does that mean even if I keep activating Trueness, this death countdown for the mortal world will not change at all?
"Is the arrival of this true world-ending catastrophe something that cannot be reversed simply by using Trueness?"
He had just ascended to immortalhood, before the excitement could even settle.
Yet Li Fan was already forced to confront the terrifying omen of doom revealed by Trueness.
Resilient though Li Fan's mind was, he found it difficult to bear in this moment.
The only silver lining was that there was still plenty of time before the true apocalypse arrived.
Moreover, the number displayed by Trueness was not immutable.
Taking a deep breath, Li Fan gradually calmed himself.
"As it stands, what Trueness displays is actually its deduction and prediction of the mortal world's lifespan.
"A massive problem has definitely arisen. Even the destruction of the Immortal Realm might be inextricably linked to this apocalypse!
"It's not that I cannot live that long, but that the world itself cannot exist for that long!"
A thick, dark cloud seemed to cast a shadow over Li Fan's heart. The joy brought by ascending to immortalhood vanished in an instant.
Regardless of the myriad living beings in the mortal world, if only for his own obsession with longevity, Li Fan had to try to resolve this apocalyptic crisis.
"Perhaps in Trueness's estimation, only an immortal can introduce variables capable of changing the apocalyptic crisis.
"Those below the immortal realm, no matter how they struggle, cannot alter its fate in the slightest.
"Even if displayed, it would have been useless, only adding unnecessary worry."
Li Fan looked out at the Pitch-Black Star Sea before him.
"Perhaps to uncover the truth behind the apocalypse, I must start with the Tribulation of Dao Annihilation."
...
Li Fan continued reading the rest of the Trueness panel.
After ascending to immortalhood, Trueness's reversion charging progress had also undergone a qualitative change.
It seemed Trueness's own capability had been enhanced as well; after activating Trueness to return, there was no longer a need to build up the charging progress from scratch.
Instead, it was already directly charged to 50%.
Chapter 1405