Five Elements Heaven Secret Realm

"Master?" Hearing that word, Li Fan felt a moment of daze. In the present cultivation world, pursuing one's own cultivation was hard enough. Who would bother to pass down the Dao, impart knowledge, and resolve doubts? In all the years since he had set foot on the path of cultivation, he had never once seen a proper master-disciple relationship. Driven by curiosity, Li Fan looked in the direction of the voice. There, at the side of this massive Dust-Crossing Boat, stood two cultivators—one old, one young—yet remarkably similar in dress and bearing. Both wore azure robes. The elder possessed white hair and a youthful complexion, his face ruddy and healthy, while the young one had a face marked by the weathering of time, carrying the demeanor of someone who had seen through the ways of the world. To Li Fan's astonishment, the tender, childlike voice he had just heard had actually come from the mouth of the white-haired elder. With an innocent, curious expression, the old man lowered his head to look at the child beside him and asked his question. The child appeared only five or six years old, yet the words from his mouth were by no means something an ordinary child could utter. "All things come from nothingness into being, and what has being returns to nothingness." "The convergence of the five elements is merely returning to what it originally was," the azure-robed child answered with a smile. The azure-robed elder pondered for a moment, then felt as though he had realized the answer. He said with delight, "I understand, Master! You mean that before long, this place will return to a chaotic void, just like what we saw before. Right?" The child chuckled softly and looked at the elder with kindly, benevolent eyes. "You are right. If there were no outside interference and it were allowed to develop and evolve freely, it would indeed be so." "Yet if, one day, outsiders were to intrude and take away some of the matter within this grotto-heaven, then it would be hard to say." The child looked down at the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens below, sighing faintly. Hearing this, Li Fan was slightly startled, then narrowed his eyes to scrutinize the pair of master and disciple before him. Neither the old man nor the child paid him any mind, treating him as though he did not exist. The elder knitted his brows tightly, as if pondering his master's words. A moment later, a sudden flash of insight dawned on him. "In this grotto-heaven, the five elements circulate, blending into an undivided whole, flawless and complete. It can divide from one into five, or the five elements can converge back into one. But if outsiders take away portions from each of the five elements, it will throw the elements out of balance. And then..." "And then..." At this point, the elder seemed to stall, completely unable to work out what came next. The azure-robed child chuckled faintly and took up the thread. "In truth, if it were only small-scale extraction over a long period, the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens could rely on the circulation of its own elemental attributes to regulate itself, and the balance would not be broken." "The danger lies in pillaging vast amounts of resources from only a few specific elemental grotto-heavens in a short time..." "The grotto-heavens' self-regulating mechanism would be overwhelmed, causing the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens to completely lose their elemental balance." "Master, what happens after the balance is completely lost?" the azure-robed elder asked curiously. The azure-robed child wiped the smile from his face. "Do you still remember the Five Elements Sect I told you about before?" The elder nodded. "This disciple remembers! The Five Elements Sect was a subordinate sect of the Dadao Sect. A few years ago, when their sect master came to visit our Crossing Adversity Sect, I even saw him!" Hearing their exchange, Li Fan felt a great shock within his heart. He was finally certain: the two figures before him did not truly exist on this Dust-Crossing Boat. They were an illusion, akin to a mirage! The master and disciple's conversation had clearly taken place in the ancient cultivation world, back before the great cataclysm had descended and when the sects still stood. Li Fan glanced around and saw people coming and going across the Dust-Crossing Boat. Yet for some reason, aside from himself, not a single person could see this illusion. Without raising an alarm, Li Fan continued to observe the dialogue between the ancient master and disciple of the Crossing Adversity Sect. He heard the azure-robed child continue, "The Five Elements Sect was actually not weak in those days. Aside from our Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, it was considered one of the foremost great sects of the Xuanhuang Realm. Within their sect was a secret realm called the 'Five Elements Heaven.' It was practically a world of its own, with resources so abundant they were virtually boundless." "It far surpassed the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven down here." "Relying on that secret realm, if the Five Elements Sect had developed steadily over hundreds or thousands of years, it might well have ascended to become one of the premier sects under the heavens." "What a pity that their former sect master from two generations back, Lan Xiangfeng, was shortsighted..." Speaking up to here, the azure-robed child huffed coldly, an exasperated flicker of anger gleaming in his eyes at such failure to live up to potential. The azure-robed elder widened his eyes, not daring to speak, and quietly waited for what followed. After a brief pause, the azure-robed child finally spoke again. "At the time, it was said that the Heavenly Sword Sect needed an astronomical quantity of Taiyuan Fine Gold to forge the legendary Boundary-Breaking Divine Weapon." "Taiyuan Fine Gold is exceptionally rare, occurring only randomly alongside metallic veins, something one could chance upon but never seek on purpose. The Heavenly Sword Sect had already scavenged nearly everything they could find on the market, yet they remained far short of what they required." "Hearing that the Five Elements Heaven secret realm within the Five Elements Sect might hold a massive reserve, the sect master of the Heavenly Sword Sect personally went to their doorstep to plead for it." "To think that notorious, fiercely arrogant old bastard would actually bow his head to the Five Elements Sect! Lan Xiangfeng became instantly dizzy with pride, floating on air and losing all sense of direction." "Add to that the fact that the Heavenly Sword Sect offered an astonishingly high price, and every elder of the Five Elements Sect was won over." "And so, the Five Elements Sect began excavating Taiyuan Fine Gold on a massive scale inside the secret realm. If that had been all, it still would not have led to the tragedy that followed." "The trouble was, who knows whose whisperings they fell for, but someone argued that since they were digging anyway, the various metal ores unearthed along the way shouldn't go to waste, so they might as well sell them off too. When other sects heard that the Five Elements Sect had vast amounts of metal ores, they rushed in to make purchases." "Blinded by greed, the Five Elements Sect grew ever more frantic in mining their metal veins." "Fearing they lacked sufficient hands, they even hired rogue cultivators." "Finally, one day, the massive drain of metal essence caused the elemental attributes within the Five Elements Heaven to lose balance." "Inevitably, it began evolving toward the state of extinction brought by the convergence of the five elements." "Moreover, once the depleted metal attribute could no longer meet the requirements for the convergence of the five elements, the remaining four attributes—wood, water, fire, and earth—underwent a chaotic, unending clash of energy..." "The ultimate result was a massive explosion that utterly destroyed the Five Elements Heaven." "The losses suffered by the entire Five Elements Sect were far beyond what the words 'heavy casualties' could describe. Their core strength was nearly wiped out, and from then on, they never recovered." "To survive, they had no choice but to throw themselves under the Dadao Sect, relying on a shred of past goodwill to become a subordinate sect." Having finished his tale, the azure-robed child sighed with endless sorrow. Listening nearby, Li Fan felt a sudden chill rise in his heart. Was not the fate of the ancient Five Elements Heaven the exact mirror of the present Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven? If so, once the five elements converged here, would an earth-shattering explosion occur as well? Cursing inwardly, Li Fan looked back toward the master and disciple of the Crossing Adversity Sect, only to find their figures growing increasingly faint and indistinct. Even the words spoken as their lips parted and moved were no longer audible.