Ideals were grand, but after days of careful observation, Li Fan still failed to find the slightest trace of the so-called Dao Net. It seemed even more elusive and inscrutable than the Great Dao of heaven and earth itself.
Yet Li Fan felt no discouragement. From what he could tell, the Dao Net was most likely the Shuoxing Sea's trump card for countering True Immortals. If it could contend even with Nameless True Immortals, how could a newcomer like him crack it so easily?
"No matter how impregnable a fortress is, it can always be breached from within."
"Since I can't force my way into the Dao Net for now, I may as well slip in and lurk within the Shuoxing Sea first. I can't place all my hopes on Di Sanmo..."
Li Fan shook his head slightly. First, he meticulously harnessed his dream power to take a "rubbing" of the lingering vibrational traces in this area. Only then did he feel his way forward toward the Shuoxing Sea.
On the surface, every mark of the great battle had been undone by the white-robed cultivator's Heaven Mending arts. Yet Li Fan knew well that nothing in this world was absolute. As long as something had occurred, it would inevitably leave behind traces. That he could not perceive them now was simply a matter of insufficient ability, but that did not stop him from recording them first to study repeatedly in the future.
Not every corner of the distant Shuoxing Sea teemed with life. Instead, vitality formed numerous clusters like islands scattered across the expanse. The auras emanating from these clusters were not determined by physical size; each bore its own distinct character.
"To have survived in this starry sky until now, none of them can be simple figures."
Li Fan watched from afar, picking out a few familiar auras among them.
One after another, he identified the Sword Domain, suspected to be the gathering grounds of the Xuanhuang Realm's former Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao. Yet he found no sign of the Sacred Shang from Qin Zhuang's memories.
"The Xuan Celestial Vessel can still sense the existence of the Shang Celestial Vessel beyond the wall. The Xuan-Shang people shouldn't be extinct."
Recalling the Sacred Shang's peculiar actions from Qin Zhuang's memories—severing communication with the outside world and even recalling previously sold treasures—the Dao Assimilation Stone flickered in his sea of consciousness. After running through several deductions, the most probable hypothesis surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
"There is a very high probability that the Sacred Shang discovered something, and either sealed themselves away from the world or outright fled."
The Sacred Shang was merely an entry point; Li Fan was not fixated on tracking down that former merchant vessel.
He began testing the Shuoxing Sea's factions one by one, searching for weak defenses.
Just as his senses had told him, the strength of these factions bore little relation to the volume of life force gathered within them.
In one place, two lone strands of life force—one large and one small—existed on the fringes of the Shuoxing Sea as if ostracized. Yet before Li Fan could even draw close, a mere distant glance triggered a sharp surge of danger in his heart. Even his dream tentacles were affected, twisted and partially mutated. Li Fan had no choice but to keep a respectful distance.
Elsewhere lay a massive settlement teeming with tens of millions of living beings. Yet hanging above it was a colossal dark cloud woven from slaughter, hatred, greed, and a multitude of other foul, stench-ridden negative emotions. Many layers of defenses surrounded the settlement, cutting off Li Fan's dream power from eroding it directly.
Yet, observing that emotional cloud from afar, Li Fan already spotted a breakthrough point for dream infiltration.
Even so, Li Fan did not rush into action.
Such a flaw could easily be a deliberate trap fabricated by the Shuoxing Sea's factions to snare True Immortals.
He probed every other gathering place and confirmed that only this one offered a chance to connect to the Dream Paradise. Remaining exceedingly cautious, Li Fan first accumulated a massive store of dream power to forge an extra instance of the Dream Paradise. He cast a strand of his divine sense into this sub-realm, then severed its connection with the primary Dream Paradise world.
Once he was certain nothing could go wrong, Li Fan's divine sense initiated the infiltration into the settlement.
This instance of the Dream Paradise was entirely empty. As a severed replica, its dream power was finite and would dwindle with every bit used. If it were not replenished before its energy ran dry, the sub-realm would collapse.
Though Li Fan had only sent out a single strand of divine sense, he had equipped it with nine Xuanhuang Realm phantoms and the computational capacity of a top-grade Dao Assimilation Stone.
"If all these preparations still can't tear open an opening, I'll have to find another way."
Progress was far from smooth.
That invisible barrier completely severed all contact between the dream power and the minds of living beings. Even though the suppressed negative emotions of the inhabitants hung across the sky like tangible matter, a single membrane separated them, rendering them utterly unreachable.
"If I disregard the consequences and expend all of this instance's power in a single burst, I might be able to force a breach. But that would inevitably alert the entire Shuoxing Sea."
"The loss outweighs the gain."
After studying it further, Li Fan decided against startling the snake in the grass. Instead, he chose to wait patiently for an opportunity.
Cultivators in the Shuoxing Sea did venture out of their settlements to travel through the starry sky. Li Fan refused to believe that every single passerby was too powerful for him to approach.
Events proved his judgment correct.
Although the faction he was watching saw far less foot traffic than the others, travelers were not nonexistent.
After watching for half a year, Li Fan finally saw a streak of light shoot forth from within.
Its destination appeared to be the Sword Domain.
As the streak darted out, it stirred up a large plume of the emotional cloud. The traveler's emotional fluctuations were so pronounced that Li Fan did not even need to actively eavesdrop to read his thoughts with perfect clarity.
"Sending me on errands again!"
"I, Ma Tiande, passed the grand examination and earned certification as a Dao Helmsman in the Shuoxing Sea! Even if I've only scratched the surface, I can still coordinate and manipulate the Dao Net lines across an entire sector!"
"Having me run petty errands every single day is an utter waste of my life..."
Bristling with thick resentment, this cultivator named Ma Tiande sped through the cosmos.
Li Fan held back, watching the man enter a settlement adjacent to the Sword Domain. After lingering there for three days, he finally began a sluggish return journey.
Having evidently vented his frustration, the resentment had vanished. Humming a cheerful tune, he ambled back along his original path.
Just as Ma Tiande was about to pass through the defensive barrier, Li Fan struck without hesitation.
Ordinary methods of possession or infiltration ran a high risk of being detected by the settlement's defensive perimeter. Any power associated with Immortals, in particular, could trigger alarms.
Therefore, Li Fan utilized the Xuan Celestial Vessel's Dao Pill technique. Floating in the void, Ma Tiande merely paused for a brief instant.
Yet he had already been refined into a "human pill" ready to be swallowed at any moment. Li Fan's divine sense soundlessly consumed the pill, instantly transforming into Ma Tiande.
Temporarily severing the link to the Dream Paradise instance, Li Fan sorted through the information in Ma Tiande's mind while flying straight toward the settlement ahead.
"The City of Ultimate Bliss?"
"Interesting."
Theoretically, the physical body remained Ma Tiande's. It was merely that his mind contained one more train of thought than before.
Any living creature would inevitably experience fluctuations of thought.
Moreover, the Dao Pill technique was unique to the Xuan Celestial Vessel and had never appeared in this starry sky before.
Formidable as the barrier surrounding the City of Ultimate Bliss was, it could hardly guard against such unfathomable arts.
Without a hitch, "Ma Tiande" flew smoothly into the City of Ultimate Bliss.
In stark contrast to the foul-smelling emotional cloud visible from outside, what met Li Fan's eyes was a spectacle of singing, dancing, and revelry.
Rainbow-colored lights stretched to the horizon. Unrestrained laughter, lewd moans, and brazen shouts filled every corner of the city.
"The City of Ultimate Bliss has three years of day and three years of night, cycling once every six years."
"During the night, indulge in pleasure without care or restraint."
"During the day... slaughter goes unpunished?"
While organizing the information in Ma Tiande's mind, Li Fan headed toward the manor to report back on his mission.
Ma Tiande's trip to Blade Island had been to deliver an invitation on behalf of the City Lord.
In thirty days, the City of Ultimate Bliss would undergo its shift between day and night.
The invitation bade the people of Blade Island to witness the grand occasion.
...
With the details sorted in his mind, Li Fan arrived composedly at the heart of the City of Ultimate Bliss.
Compared to the bustling revelry outside, the central manor was remarkably desolate and eerie. The striking contrast naturally sent a shiver down the spine of anyone who stepped inside.
Even though this was not Ma Tiande's first visit, an instinctive dread gripped him all the same.
Li Fan did not suppress the sensation, letting his expression shift to match the man's natural fear.
Step by step, he approached the City Lord and delivered his report.
"Scholar Zhu, I have delivered the invitation. But as for how many from Blade Island will come, it is hard to say."
Feigning difficulty, Li Fan reported faithfully, "The moment I entered, the people on the island challenged me to a spar. They claimed that if I refused, they would tear up the invitation. Left with no choice, I had to agree."
"They called it a spar, but it was just a one-sided beating for me..."
Li Fan channeled Ma Tiande's usual demeanor, airing his grievances to the City Lord.
The Lord of the City of Ultimate Bliss—the Scholar Zhu of Ma Tiande's recollections—appeared decrepit with age.
Hunched and curled inside a loose, billowing robe, he looked almost comical. Yet the overwhelming, sinister malice radiating from him was something Li Fan dared not underestimate.
Li Fan even vaguely sensed that nine-tenths of the colossal emotional cloud gathered above the city was tethered to Scholar Zhu himself.
Faced with Ma Tiande's relentless complaints, Scholar Zhu did not interrupt. He merely listened in silence, tapping his skeletal, withered fingers against the tabletop. From time to time, his fingernails scraped across the long table, producing an ear-grating screech.
Li Fan saw with complete clarity that the table before Scholar Zhu had been constructed and polished entirely from human skulls.
The lingering grievances within the skulls had not even fully dissipated. As Scholar Zhu's fingers dragged lightly across them, faint, agonized wails drifted up from the bone.
Cold sweat dripped from "Ma Tiande's" forehead. Even so, he did not stop, seeing his report through to the very end.
When he finished, he stood respectfully before the table, awaiting the City Lord's instructions.
A long silence hung in the manor.
From time to time, clamorous noise from outside drifted through the halls.
Huddled within his robe, Scholar Zhu tapped his finger on the skull table. With every press, a pocket of noise outside was snuffed out entirely.
Only when total silence descended and not a single murmur could be heard from beyond did Scholar Zhu speak.
His voice was not that of an aged elder, but the innocent, carefree voice of a child.
"You had a hard journey running errands."
"Have some dinner before you go back."
As the words fell, a ghostly silhouette drifted from the shadows and came before Li Fan.
With a rustle, a steaming bowl of red broth was set before him.
Ma Tiande's body shuddered slightly.
It was both the physical body's instinctual reaction and, to some extent, a reflection of Li Fan's own inner disturbance.
The red broth in the bowl was formed of countless minced scraps of flesh mixed with blood.
Floating within were eyeball after eyeball.
As though still retaining their own consciousness, every single eye stared unblinkingly at Li Fan.
Though Li Fan had brought about world annihilation multiple times and viewed the living beings of the world as mere trivialities, he had never done anything so utterly repulsive.
"Drink it quickly, Mr. Ma. Why aren't you drinking?"
Seeing Li Fan hesitate, Scholar Zhu's voice turned petulant and impatient, like a mischievous child suddenly robbed of a favorite toy. A bizarre aura began to spread across the man.
"Are you not hungry? Or are you displeased with this soup?"
"No matter. I will have the servants prepare something better right away."
Ma Tiande's knowledge of the City Lord flashed through Li Fan's mind.
*He manifests many temperaments.*
*An old man, a child, an alluring maiden, a brutal butcher...*
*And the most volatile among them is the child.*
Li Fan made up his mind. "There is no need to trouble yourself, Scholar Zhu. This broth is remarkably delicious."
With that, Li Fan took the bowl of red soup and drank it down in one gulp.
Contrary to his expectations, it was not the least bit bloody to the taste. There was not even the slightest hint of raw meat or gore.
Instead, it was indescribably delicious. Even with Li Fan's vast experience—having cycled through a hundred reincarnations in the Xuanhuang Realm and unearthing nearly all of its secrets—he struggled to recall anything from his memories that could match its flavor.
As the bowl of red broth settled into his stomach, Li Fan looked at the empty bowl and felt an unexpected pang of reluctance.
"What, would you like another bowl?"
Scholar Zhu noticed the shift in Li Fan's mood. Like someone who had found a kindred spirit, he grew visibly excited.
With immense willpower, Li Fan shook his head in refusal.
"Such rare delicacy must be savored thoroughly."
"Better to have too little than too much," he said solemnly.
Upon hearing this, Scholar Zhu let out a muffled chuckle.
His voice quietly shifted from that of a child back to an old man's.
"What you say makes sense."
"In that case, you may take your leave."
Li Fan bowed in farewell.
Just as he was about to step out of the manor, Scholar Zhu's airy voice drifted into his ears.
"For this Grand Rite of Day and Night, I have prepared a seat for you as well."
Delight showed on Li Fan's face, and he hastily bowed once more. "Thank you, Lord Zhu!"
Light and shadow blurred before him, and the City Lord's manor vanished from view.
In its place stood a red pavilion where wanton sounds echoed without pause.
Li Fan licked his lips.
The memories of Ma Tiande surfaced once more: *Scholar Zhu, a member of the Shuoxing Sea's Governance Council.*
*Once a True Immortal, he later shed his divinity for mortality!*
Chapter 1436