Judging from the phenomena discovered at the bottom of the Sea of Endless Gloom, the Xuanhuang Realm seemed to possess an extraordinarily high degree of "malleability." Having lingered beside the Immortal Ruins for nearly ten thousand years, the prolonged exposure meant that even though it was now far from the ruins, the world itself had yet to recover from their lingering influence.
"The precipitation of spiritual essence from the living beings of Xuanhuang will likely continue for another hundred years or so before it is thoroughly reversed.
"The loss of this sliver of spiritual essence does not actually make much difference to those with low or mediocre aptitude, for the upper limit of their cultivation is already fixed there. Whether they lack this bit or not is inconsequential. Conversely, the greater a prodigy is, the more essential it is that they keep themselves intact. It is the very same principle as the Archmage turning to stone after I sheared away every scrap of his spirituality."
Li Fan set up an array within the now-empty Sea of Endless Gloom to collect these invisible spiritual substances that had precipitated out. A portion would be kept for his own research, while the rest would be used to nurture the finest prodigies of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The plan to assimilate myriad manifestations through Dao Annihilation had gotten off to a wonderful start thanks to the Archmage's generous "gift." But moving forward, it would be nearly impossible to find another opportunity to reap such rewards without effort, swallowing so many Dao principles without drawback. Yet if Li Fan were to comprehend them all one by one on his own, progress would be far too slow.
Relying on the many prodigies of the Xuanhuang Realm was therefore the best choice.
Before attaining the half-immortal realm, Li Fan had already used the geniuses of Xuanhuang to comprehend the Dao. Doing so now was merely returning to an old trade.
"However, the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm is broken and incomplete. Not only does it pale in comparison to its complete state in the Primordial possibility, it cannot even rival the Dao principles manifest within the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
"Yet leaving this safehouse behind the Great Wall is out of the question..."
After a moment's contemplation, Li Fan had an idea.
A figure appeared in the Annihilation Lands outside the Great Wall. It was an avatar Li Fan had fashioned by channeling the power of the Duke of Shouqiu's phantom.
It, too, was a body constructed from the projection of the Dao Net.
However, because this figure was intended solely to "pave the road," he had not refined flesh and blood for it, leaving it in a purely energetic form.
It flew steadily toward the exterior of the Annihilation Lands. Upon reaching a certain distance from the Great Wall, it suddenly halted. "This is the furthest reach of the Duke of Shouqiu's phantom. Hmm... I still haven't left the Annihilation Lands; I'm still within the withered zone of the Great Dao."
Sensing this, the figure continued forward at a measured pace. Strands of luminous thread drifted unceasingly from its body like the strings of the Dao Net, weaving a path of the Dao through the dim starlight.
It was as if he were forging a tentacle for the Duke of Shouqiu's phantom within the Great Wall, allowing its power to extend beyond the starry reaches.
Of course, that was not Li Fan's primary objective.
If he disregarded the Dao Annihilation atop the Great Wall and forcibly increased his invocation of the Duke of Shouqiu's phantom, he could have extended its power to this point anyway.
The real goal was to use this path of the Dao to mend the fractured Great Dao within the Great Wall.
The road of the Great Dao stretched endlessly outward until it finally emerged from the Annihilation Lands, establishing a connection with the Shuo Star Sea.
Li Fan had originally been pondering how to avoid alerting the Dao Net of the Shuo Star Sea. Yet upon careful observation, he found that the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net had actually contracted and pulled away from this border star region.
Gazing at it from afar, he detected no signs that the Dao Net had suffered severe damage. On the contrary, it appeared brighter and more unfathomable than before.
"They must be showing deference to the nameless Immortal Emperor I'm impersonating."
Though a mere gesture of courtesy, it inadvertently made things much easier for Li Fan. Feeling the myriad Great Daos within the Shuo Star Sea—which were comparatively well-preserved—rays of light separated from the figure.
As if woven swiftly by an extraordinarily deft pair of hands, a miniature Dao Net took shape in the starry sky within just a few breaths.
Compared to the true Dao Net of the Shuo Star Sea, this miniature net seemed sparse and tattered. This was because its entire foundation was supported by the numerous Mo Sha Dao forms within Li Fan's body.
Fortunately, he possessed the accumulation of the Archmage's ten thousand years of secluded meditation; otherwise, Li Fan's personal comprehension alone might not have been enough to weave this net.
The miniature net was merely a primer, responsible for guiding the complete Great Daos from the Shuo Star Sea into the Great Wall.
Turning the road into a net was simply to accelerate the efficiency of the channeling.
Li Fan was not greedy. Once the miniature Dao Net occupied a modest pocket of the starry sky beyond the Annihilation Lands, he halted its expansion.
"This level of efficiency is enough."
With a slight shift of intent, he returned to the Xuanhuang Realm in a single thought. There, high in the sky above the Xuanhuang Realm, he wove another Dao Net.
The aura of the complete Great Dao from beyond the Great Wall gradually began to spill forth from the net, breathing vitality into the Xuanhuang Realm and the entire Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Unlike crude, blunt infusions of life force or immortal power, this repaired the myriad perforations left by the Dao Annihilation from within, at their very core. Though in essence it was robbing Peter to pay Paul, for this star region behind the Great Wall, it was nothing short of a rebirth.
Wisps of grateful consciousness naturally arose from the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm and the primal source of the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
As one, they drifted to the Dao Net formed by Li Fan's avatar, thirstily and ravenously absorbing the "complete" Great Dao from beyond.
At a speed perceptible to the senses, this starry expanse—desiccated for ten thousand years—began to brim with vitality.
The broader backdrop of the Primordial possibility remained an apocalypse under the threat of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation. The grand total was immutable: wherever the Great Dao became abundant, somewhere else was bound to wither.
To delay as long as possible the moment when the outside world would notice his subtle movements, Li Fan took the initiative to sever the channel after maintaining the connection for only a brief while.
Ignoring the flurry of consciousness stirring within the Xuanhuang Realm and the Pitch-Black Star Sea, Li Fan immersed himself alone in comprehending the Great Dao beyond the Great Wall.
Using himself as a path of the Dao and actively receiving the myriad Daos of heaven offered insights, sensations, and perceptions vastly different from when he was an ordinary mortal.
It became much easier for Li Fan to clearly discern the gaping holes within the Great Dao.
Positions where a Dao ought to have existed were vacant for various reasons, a sight that was utterly chilling.
Although the Great Dao seemed bursting with life when compared to the Pitch-Black Star Sea that had suffered Dao Annihilation, behind that apparent vigor Li Fan perceived the fading twilight of an old age, like an aged elder displaying every symptom of frailty and decay.
"If even I can see it so clearly through this miniature Dao Net, how could the people in the Shuo Star Sea be unaware of the situation?" Li Fan sneered inwardly.
He gazed into the distance at his nearby neighbor, that colossal, murky Dao Net.
Their progress in securing cooperation with the True Immortals did not appear to be going very smoothly. Compared to when Li Fan had peeked earlier, only three to five phantom Dao-bearers had been added. It was hard to tell whether the surviving True Immortals were unwilling, or if simply too few remained.
Li Fan had no leisure to concern himself with them for the moment. Instead, he devoted all his efforts to digesting his gains from within the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Gradually peeling away the past memories of the Hunger Immortal Heavenly Pillar, having Li Buren construct a true physical body from the myriad manifestations of Dao Annihilation, and relying on the living beings of Xuanhuang to comprehend the Great Dao of the star sea...
Li Fan was about to enter a protracted period of accumulation and growth.
Fortunately, with the Great Wall in place, the Pitch-Black Star Sea served as a natural hidden sanctuary, free from outside disturbances.
Time slipped quietly by.
The Pitch-Black Star Sea was no longer dark. Specks of living light began to crop up across every corner.
This shift became noticeable first in the sunken underground river beneath the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
At the river's lowest depth, the underground river of vitality, which had been tranquil for so long, began to roar and churn once more. Droplets of life force drawn from across the star sea converged into a river, pouring into this very place.
The seething, majestic life force drew the attention of an entity within the river.
It was none other than the Phantom of the Nameless Immortal, formed when the ripples of the Hunger Immortal's attainment of the Nameless realm were recorded by the sunken river.
It bore no resemblance to the Hunger Immortal himself, being merely a ghostly black shadow.
It existed in a senseless, ignorant stupor, standing in silence ever since its birth. Only when the life force within the river welled up did it instinctively drift toward the spot where vitality was most concentrated.
Like a whale drawing in water, the Phantom of the Nameless Immortal inhaled every drop of spilling life force into its mouth.
The image, originally so gossamer that it seemed on the verge of scattering at any moment, gradually solidified.
After lingering beside the underground river of vitality for a long time, the black shadow became indistinguishable from a living person.
Yet once all of this was done, it made no further moves. As if it had lost its purpose, it simply stood motionless beside the roaring river just as it had before.
Meanwhile, Li Fan's consciousness, watching the figure in secret, waited with immense patience.
If the enemy did not move, neither would he.
As the saying went, how could one allow another to sleep peacefully beside one's own bed? Until the hidden perils within the Pitch-Black Star Sea were fully resolved, there was no way Li Fan could enter secluded cultivation in peace.
Now, virtually all hidden threats in the Pitch-Black Star Sea had been cleared away.
Aside from the fishing pond, which he did not yet wish to deal with, the only loose end was this Phantom of the Nameless Immortal newly born within the underground dark river.
Having left behind a sliver of divine sense long ago to monitor it, the shadow's movements had naturally never escaped his grasp.
The Phantom of the Nameless Immortal was, after all, not a true living being.
It could not retain the vitality it had drawn in without letting it dissipate.
As it stood like a stone statue, its life force gradually waned over time.
Seemingly unable to bear the loss of vitality any longer, a hidden light-shadow finally stirred.
A broken, mottled mask that looked severely eroded by time came speeding out from the depths of the underground river, heading straight for the Phantom of the Nameless Immortal.
Upon plunging into the shadow, it thrashed about wildly like a rabid beast, causing the silhouette to roil violently.
Amidst a chorus of bone-chilling chewing sounds, the shadow's tremors gradually subsided, and the mask settled over the face of the Nameless Immortal's figure.
He looked at the vast pool of life force gathered nearby, and greed surged within his heart. Parting his lips slightly, he prepared to swallow it all into his body.
Just then...
A hand abruptly clamped down on his shoulder.
"What manner of petty thief is this?"
"How dare you steal what belongs to this sovereign?" The voice was calm, yet carried an innate, intimidating majesty.
The figure froze instantly. Its instinct was to flee, but it found a weight like an endless mountain range pressing upon its shoulder.
It could not budge in the slightest!
"Curse it! This is merely someone else's Dao phantom after all. If only it were my own body..." Before he could finish the thought, his vision spun, and he found himself hauled into an unfamiliar space.
Two towering stone pillars stood alone before him.
Gazing upon the stone pillars, an ominous premonition suddenly flooded his heart. "That is..."
After a split second of recognition, the figure began to tremble uncontrollably.
Naturally, he recognized what stood before his eyes. It was precisely out of fear of becoming an immortal within the pillar that he had once paid a tremendous price to dispatch an avatar secretly into the mortal realm, searching for a way to evade the calamity.
Never had he imagined the catastrophe would arrive so abruptly. Faced with the overwhelming tribulation of Dao Annihilation, even the immense divine powers of his true body were of no avail, reducing it to ashes. The creeping corruption of Dao Annihilation had even reached his avatar.
Nearly wiped out in both form and spirit, only a tiny wisp of lingering intent remained. Paralyzed and helpless, he had no choice but to linger in desolation within this underground river of vitality he had excavated himself.
"If I hadn't completely suppressed my avatar's self-awareness back then to prevent discovery, I wouldn't have ended up in such a wretched state," he had lamented to himself over the countless years spent lying in the river.
Even so, compared to the countless True Immortals and Immortal Emperor Tianluo who had perished in the great calamity of the Immortal Realm, having a sliver of consciousness survive was already a stroke of fortune amidst tragedy.
He could only gather strength slowly to recover, praying that the Dao Annihilation Tribulation would not reach down here before he could move again.
Not long ago, however, he had sensed the ripples of a Nameless True Immortal attaining the Dao above.
He had never expected that so many years after the extinction of the Immortal Realm, a new Nameless True Immortal would be born. His heart was struck by a whirlwind of shock, fear, and delight.
Delight because perhaps the Immortal Realm was not entirely extinct; otherwise, where could this Nameless True Immortal have come from? Fear because the newcomer might discover him.
Although he was reduced to a broken remnant whose memories were patchy and incomplete, he had once been a Nameless after all.
If the other party grew greedy and swallowed him whole to refine him...
Amidst his hesitation and anxiety, he ultimately chose to gamble.
Mustering all his accumulated power, he activated the Form of Living Beings carved into the excavated underground river, recording the phantom of the Nameless Immortal who had attained the Dao.
"With this Dao phantom, I can turn my fortunes around!"
The mere thought of finally being reborn made him dazed. The suffering of the past ten thousand years had simply been too excruciating.
After staking everything on that desperate effort and using up every scrap of his accumulated strength, he fell into an unprecedented state of weakness.
He could not even sense the activity of the Nameless True Immortal above anymore.
Yet watching the phantom of the Nameless True Immortal he had crafted from afar, he felt that everything had been worth it.
"Countless streams of life force gather here. A little longer, once I can move, I will control the Dao phantom, swallow all the life force, and escaping this wretched place shouldn't be a problem."
He had planned it meticulously.
And it seemed luck was finally on his side: the long-dormant underground river of vitality had suddenly grown turbulent.
It was not just life force either.
There was also the sign of the Great Dao becoming abundant!
For a desperate Nameless True Immortal like him, this was even more crucial.
Although his original body as a Nameless True Immortal had vanished into Dao Annihilation, his comprehension of the Great Dao remained intact.
By absorbing life force and Dao principles, he could recover from his injuries almost in an instant. Even if he could not return to the Nameless realm right away, reconnecting to the Sea of Infinity and restoring his True Immortal strength should have been well within his grasp.
Chapter 1485