Xiao Heng rubbed his eyes and groggily took in his surroundings.
Waves of an eerie, sinister chill wafting around him made him instinctively uncomfortable.
In the distance, five bizarre, strikingly prominent white pillars stood crookedly, jutting straight into the sky.
Xiao Heng looked beneath his feet; the ground was made of the same white material.
"Where is this...?"
Xiao Heng was bewildered.
He remembered he was supposed to be on an uninhabited island, wasn't he?
Could he be dreaming?
Xiao Heng instinctively gave himself a hard pinch.
"Ouch!"
The sharp pain jolted him completely awake.
"It's not a dream?"
Xiao Heng immediately felt a surge of fear.
Shivering, he looked around.
Far in the distance lay a dark, endless void permeated by an ancient, weathered aura.
The ground beneath his feet and the five distant white pillars formed a single whole, floating all alone in this expanse of space.
Xiao Heng suddenly thought the place looked somewhat familiar, as though he had seen it somewhere before.
After studying it closely for a moment, an image suddenly flashed through his mind.
The various details grew more and more similar the longer he looked.
In sheer terror, Xiao Heng tumbled to the ground, his entire body trembling.
"Is this... that jade-like skeletal hand?"
Something so bizarre far exceeded Xiao Heng's realm of comprehension.
Fear instantly seized his heart, causing him to instinctively curl into a ball like an ostrich, burying his head in his chest.
Yet a newborn calf fears not the tiger.
After a long while, seeing that there was still no other movement in the space, Xiao Heng's curiosity gradually overwhelmed his fear.
He clambered up and began cautiously exploring the space.
The metacarpal region where he currently stood was relatively wide and open, so there was no need to worry about losing his footing and plunging into the endless void.
The area was mostly covered in dilapidated walls and ruined masonry, as though a fiercely violent battle had once taken place here, destroying all the structures.
As he moved through the ruins, something caught Xiao Heng's eye after a moment.
A battered longsword stood planted straight into the ground.
The blade was covered in dark red bloodstains.
Only when Xiao Heng drew closer did he notice that the longsword had pierced through a cranium before pinning it to the ground.
"Who knows how long this place has existed? For this sword to have survived all this time without much damage, it must be some incredible treasure!" Xiao Heng thought to himself as he crept forward.
Grabbing the blade with both hands, he gave a mighty tug.
He pulled the sword free.
Yet before the delighted Xiao Heng could inspect the treasure he had just acquired, the ground beneath his feet began to shake violently.
"Despicable Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals!"
The skull that had been pierced through by the longsword actually let out an enraged roar and soared into the sky.
Xiao Heng was so startled by the spectacle that he collapsed to the ground once more.
With a clatter, the longsword fell from his grasp to the ground.
As though drawn by the sound, a jet-black ray of light shot out from the dark, hollow eye sockets, striking the blade dead-on.
Bang!
The longsword disintegrated into ash amidst a burst of explosion.
Xiao Heng, having leaped back instinctively the instant the beam shot out, avoided the blast.
Still, he broke out in a cold sweat.
"Senior, spare me! Senior, spare me!" Xiao Heng immediately dropped to his knees and kowtowed. He shouted while knocking his head on the ground, his eyes fixed on the skull, ready to bolt the moment things went south.
Xiao Heng's cries seemed to have an effect.
The skull's voice turned somewhat puzzled: "Huh? Not from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals? Where did this little brat come from?"
The skull then flew high into the air and circled around on patrol.
After quite a while, it returned to its original spot, sighing in desolation, "So that much time has passed..."
Seeing that the skull appeared to bear no malice, Xiao Heng breathed a sigh of relief.
He asked tentatively, "Senior, where is this place? Could you let me go back?"
The skull let out a cold laugh. "What a strange little brat you are. Since you could enter this place, how can you not know where it is? To think you'd ask me instead!"
Xiao Heng said aggrievedly, "Senior, I truly haven't lied to you. I really don't know where this is!"
"Hmph!"
Unconvinced, the skull swooped down and spun around him several times.
It inspected him closely with its pitch-black eye sockets.
"Hmm? There are no traces of a ritual. How did you get in here?" After a long pause, as if realizing something, the skull asked in shock and doubt.
"Ah?" Xiao Heng was thoroughly baffled.
Yet he soon caught on. "The hand bone! I have a skeletal hand identical to this place!"
"Senior, is this the inside of that skeletal hand?"
"A skeletal hand?"
The skull came to an understanding. "So that's how it is."
"Little brat, you aren't from the Xuanhuang Realm, are you?" the skull asked.
"The Xuanhuang Realm? What is that?" Xiao Heng had no idea.
"Heh heh, it is what is commonly referred to as the cultivation world. Little brat, did the world you came from have legends of immortal cultivators?"
Xiao Heng looked strange. Thinking it over, he answered honestly, "To tell Senior the truth, the place I originally lived was called the Great Li Dynasty. But not long ago, several of us from my homeland were brought to the cultivation world by a senior cultivator."
"What?" The skull seemed shocked and pressed anxiously, "Your true body is in the cultivation world right now? Then are there any cultivators from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals around you?"
Xiao Heng shook his head. "The cultivator who brought us out of Great Li seemed to encounter a cultivator from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, who accused him of committing some crime of realm treason. A fight broke out between them, and we took the opportunity to flee to a deserted island."
"Though that senior cultivator later found us, he unfortunately perished."
"Hmph! The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is truly rotten to the core! Merely helping mortals return to the cultivation world, yet they slapped on such a treasonous label. When one wishes to condemn someone, any excuse will serve!" the skull declared with immense fury and disdain.
"Little brat, remember this: under no circumstances must you let any cultivator from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals discover that jade skeletal hand on you."
"Otherwise, your life will certainly be forfeit!"
the skull warned gravely.
"How could that be?" Xiao Heng's eyes went wide.
"That concerns the grievances between a great existence and the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals." The skull sighed, then recounted a tale of the past to Xiao Heng.
Long, long ago, a True Immortal descended upon the Xuanhuang Realm.
He was benevolent and virtuous, holding the welfare of all living beings in his heart.
Knowing the hardships of cultivation and the suffering it entailed, he spared no effort in preaching and teaching the principles of cultivation to all cultivators in the world.
Countless practitioners received his grace, their strengths advancing by leaps and bounds.
Because of this, the cultivation world ushered in a period of unprecedented prosperity and flourishing.
However, just as the True Immortal's allotted time in the lower realm reached its limit and he was about to return to the Immortal Realm, he was ambushed by a band of cultivators acting in concert.
These people possessed profound cultivation and fought with utter disregard for death.
What was more, they shattered the passage connecting the Immortal Realm and the Xuanhuang Realm, leaving the True Immortal with no way of escape.
Worn down through ceaseless, wave-after-wave attrition, the True Immortal's wounds grew increasingly severe.
In the end, he perished in the Xuanhuang Realm after all.
Though the True Immortal's body died, his obsession did not dissipate.
Before his demise, he cast one final look upon the Xuanhuang Realm.
Every sight and object in the world was etched into his memory. His obsession lingered on without fading, and through thousands of years of evolution, it formed a vast world of consciousness: the Fallen Immortal Realm.
And the band of cultivators who ambushed the True Immortal back then was the original Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
...
The story contained so much information that it took Xiao Heng a long while to digest it all.
"Senior, why did the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals attack the True Immortal?" Xiao Heng asked.
"Why? For profit, of course! The True Immortal hailed from the upper realm, carrying countless immortal methods and immortal artifacts on his person."
"Gaining any one of them would be a supreme fortune."
"Take the foundation upon which the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was built today—the Heavenly Profound Mirror was one of the very immortal artifacts the True Immortal carried with him in the past."
"It holds boundless wondrous functions."
the skull explained, its tone overflowing with venomous hatred toward the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
It then went on to describe the wondrous marvels of the Heavenly Profound Mirror to Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng, having never seen such an incredible treasure, listened with glowing eyes.
Afterward, he couldn't help but say fiercely, "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals is truly despicable!"
After a moment, Xiao Heng asked again, "Then what kind of person are you, Senior? How did you end up like this?"
The skull fell silent for a long time, seemingly lost in reminiscence.
Only then did it speak slowly: "Not all immortal cultivators were as utterly deranged as the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals back then."
"There were still countless cultivators who, having received the True Immortal's benevolence, felt boundless gratitude and reverence toward him."
"Upon hearing that the True Immortal had been ambushed by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, they were overwhelmed with grief and swore to avenge him."
"They voluntarily banded together to form the Immortal Restoration organization to oppose the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals."
"Alas, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals was too powerful, far beyond what Immortal Restoration could match."
"Through thousands of years of extermination campaigns, fewer and fewer of Immortal Restoration remained. Today, only I am left clinging to life in this world."
The skull's words were imbued with an endless solemnity and sorrow.
Xiao Heng, possessing a strong sense of justice, was moved by the tragic tale, his eyes turning slightly red.
"Senior..." He wanted to offer a few comforting words, but the skull cut him off.
"Haha, this old man doesn't need pity from a little brat like you!"
"Before, with only my consciousness left, I barely survived in this crack within the Fallen Immortal Realm, leaving Immortal Restoration without a successor."
"Little did I expect that the heavens would not extinguish our Immortal Restoration and would deliver you before me!" A ghostly ray of light beamed from the skull's eye sockets, enveloping Xiao Heng.
"You, brat, are a cultivation prodigy the likes of which is rarely seen in a thousand years. Joining our Immortal Restoration and taking up the banner of resisting the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals couldn't be more fitting!"
As it spoke, Xiao Heng noticed a storage ring materialize on his hand.
At the same time, a flood of information poured into his mind.
Most of it consisted of general knowledge necessary for cultivation, and it even included a technique known as the Sea-Calming Divine Sword.
Retracting the ghostly light, the skull said slowly, "I have passed on to you all the knowledge needed for the early stages of cultivation, enough for you to cultivate steadily all the way to the Golden Core stage."
"Remember, though, you must take utmost care to hide yourself and never expose your identity. That Longevity Heavenly Venerable of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals has an unfathomably deep cultivation. Thousands of years have passed, and his strength is likely no inferior to that of the True Immortal of old."
Xiao Heng's expression turned solemn. But immediately after, he asked rather awkwardly, "Senior, I'm so young and all alone. Asking me to go up against the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals... isn't that a bit...?"
The skull scolded him harshly, "Foolish! You can recruit people! If you come across companions with good talent, you can pull them into our Immortal Restoration. Having lain dormant for thousands of years, Immortal Restoration is in dire need of fresh blood."
"Just make certain they are trustworthy; you must not let any spies from the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals infiltrate us."
Hearing this, Xiao Heng said with pleasant surprise, "That's wonderful, then!"
The skull continued, "Passing this knowledge to you consumed far too much of my energy. I am about to fall into a deep sleep."
"For the time to come, the affairs of Immortal Restoration will be left in your hands."
"If new members join, you may bring them to the middle finger bone."
"There stands an altar—a rare treasure of our Immortal Restoration. By offering prayers, one can obtain techniques and items."
"However, the altar possesses a spirit of its own and will only respond to reasonable requests. You will understand the details when the time comes to use it."
The skull's voice grew weaker and weaker, yet it continued giving instructions and precautions.
"Senior, how long will you sleep before waking up?" Xiao Heng asked with concern.
"Heh heh, that's hard to say. I am someone who died long ago, surviving only on a wisp of obsession."
"Perhaps I will awaken in a year or six months, or perhaps I will never wake again."
"Still, if you have the heart and gain the ability later on, you can collect Foundation Establishment wonders extracted from dead cultivators for me. Those things have already lost their wonders of heaven and earth and are useless to others, but they can aid in my recovery,"
the skull said slowly.
Xiao Heng nodded repeatedly, engraving the words into his memory.
"Remember, one more thing. If you sense that my aura has completely vanished, it means this place has likely been exposed. Destroy the hand bone immediately and never enter here again," the skull instructed further.
"Enough, that is all." The skull seemed utterly exhausted, unable to hold on any longer.
"Senior!" Just as the skull was about to lapse into slumber, Xiao Heng hesitated briefly before voicing the question burning in his mind.
"You haven't told me your name yet!"
"...You are not yet worthy of knowing my name. When you can truly shoulder the burden of Immortal Restoration in the future, you will naturally come to know."
With those words, the skull blurred into an illusion and vanished into the darkness.
"Senior? Senior?" Xiao Heng called out several times, but no one answered.
Sighing with regret, Xiao Heng looked at the empty expanse around him and took out a silver necklace from the storage ring.
Following the method taught by the senior, he focused his intent, and the silver necklace emitted a burst of radiance.
Xiao Heng's vision went black. A moment later, he was back inside the flying boat on the deserted island.
His companions around him were still sound asleep; everything that had just happened seemed like nothing more than a dream.
Yet the extra ring in his hand and the necklace hanging against his chest reminded Xiao Heng that it was no dream.
Young Xiao Heng had taken on a heavy burden far beyond what his tender years should bear.
Exhausted in mind and spirit, he drifted off into a deep sleep before long.
Early the next morning, he woke up earlier than the others once again.
He walked to the seashore alone, recalled the technique taught by the senior skull, closed his eyes to sense the surrounding spiritual energy, and quietly began cultivating.
After nearly half a day, Ye Feipeng, who couldn't find any sign of Xiao Heng upon waking, sensed spiritual energy fluctuations by the shore and walked over.
He watched Xiao Heng sitting cross-legged with eyes closed, not noticing anything at first.
As he drew nearer, Xiao Heng abruptly snapped his eyes open, and a faint blue, faintly formed water sword suddenly manifested.
Hovering defensively before Xiao Heng, the blade pointed straight at Ye Feipeng, poised to launch a lethal strike.
Looking as if he had seen a ghost, Ye Feipeng stumbled and fell to the ground.
Pointing a trembling finger at Xiao Heng, his body shook, unable to utter a single word for the longest time.
Chapter 208