"As far as I know, aside from our sect's foundational method, the Scripture of Saving the World and Cultivating Longevity, several fellow disciples cultivated other techniques back then," Linghu Chang mused aloud. "Awakening them ahead of schedule shouldn't pose much of an issue. Once I gather enough techniques—"
He trailed off when he noticed Xiao Heng and the others eyeing him with peculiar looks.
Catching himself, he couldn't help asking, "What is it, Fellow Daoist Xiao? Is there something wrong with my plan?"
Xiao Heng gave a bitter smile. "Fellow Daoist Linghu, I'm afraid the current situation in the cultivation world is far from as simple as you imagine."
With that, Xiao Heng outlined the general state of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association—the two colossal behemoths that monopolized virtually every cultivation method under heaven.
Linghu Chang's face instantly went deathly pale.
"How could this be?"
If these people were telling the truth, then the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association were evidently even more terrifying entities than the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao had been in the past.
Su Xiaomei chimed in, "The Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals isn't made of good people. If they learn about the Medicine King Sect's current condition, they will never let you go, not with so many treasures and techniques at stake."
Zhang Haobo nodded as well. "The Alliance's grip on cultivation methods is truly frightening. The ancient method you cultivate, Fellow Daoist Linghu, is undoubtedly extraordinary, easily capable of reaching Dao Integration. Given how the Alliance operates, they would never allow such a true technique to remain in the wild. Once word gets out, they will surely dispatch cultivators from the Protector Hall to reclaim it."
Drawing on their own impressions of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, the three embellished their accounts to impress its horrors upon Linghu Chang.
Linghu Chang didn't swallow every word, but he well understood the adage that an ordinary man incurred guilt simply by possessing jade.
Surrendering himself to the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and placing the lives of the hundreds of slumbering disciples in someone else's hands was something he could never do—not after receiving Liu Ruchen's dying entrustment.
After thinking it over, he gave a solemn bow to Xiao Heng and the others.
"I have been gone from the Xuanhuang Realm for several millennia. The world has changed, and much of this is entirely unfamiliar to me. If the members of my Medicine King Sect are to survive and thrive going forward, I must trouble you all for your assistance."
Xiao Heng quickly demurred, insisting he dared not accept such deference.
After seeing to matters inside the cauldron, Linghu Chang and Xiao Heng's group flew out of the Medicine King Cauldron.
Linghu Chang stowed the cauldron away.
They then planned to retrace their steps and return to Shilin Province.
Along the way, the party flew with a low profile.
Seeing the magnificent sky cities lining their journey and the swarms of Alliance cultivators within them, Linghu Chang grew even more convinced of his judgment, becoming increasingly cautious.
***
Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals headquarters.
The Museum of Divine Archives.
Guided by the Guide, Li Fan had by now arrived within this immensely grand building.
As he toured the premises, his steps suddenly faltered.
The docent walking ahead of him glanced back in surprise.
"Is there a place to rest here?" Li Fan asked apologetically.
Seeing Li Fan's head of white hair and evident decrepitude, the black-robed docent showed an understanding expression.
He promptly led him to an enclosed room.
The decor was simple, but fully furnished with tables and chairs.
"You may rest here. Whenever you wish to resume the tour, simply contact me through this jade token."
Handing Li Fan a jade token inscribed with the characters "Bingyin," the docent quietly departed.
Li Fan took a deep breath, digesting the information transmitted back from Xiao Heng and the others.
"The Immortal Ruins?"
His eyes narrowed slightly.
"Immense gravitational attraction, devouring everything.
"It can even warp spacetime—drawing close, an instant is a thousand years.
"This is...
"A black hole?
"Or rather, a force remarkably similar to a black hole.
"Does that inexplicable presence above Daoyuan Province have any connection to the Immortal Ruins as well?"
As Li Fan sorted through the information, he suddenly froze.
"Wait. The Immortal Ruins... and the Xuanhuang Realm below, constantly in danger of being drawn in and swallowed...
"As well as the strange tremors across the Xuanhuang Realm after the cultivators died..."
In an instant, synthesized with what he had witnessed in Tianling Province, all the clues linked into a single thread.
A logically self-consistent conclusion surfaced in Li Fan's mind, one that completely and reasonably unraveled his prior doubts.
"To avoid the fate of the entire Xuanhuang Realm being devoured by the Immortal Ruins above, it must maintain a certain 'weight.'
"And cultivators are an extremely crucial link in that 'weight'...
"When cultivators died on a massive scale, the Xuanhuang Realm became lighter as a result.
"Thus, slightly pulled by the Immortal Ruins, it drew a fraction closer.
"...
"If the number of cultivators in the Xuanhuang Realm drops below a certain threshold, the entire realm will irreversibly...
"Plummet completely into the Immortal Ruins.
"When that time comes, even Longevity Heavenly Venerables will likely find it hard to escape destruction.
"That is why Ji Hongdao's deterrent worked.
"'Mutual destruction.'
"This is also why 'the number of cultivators cannot be too few.'"
Li Fan's thoughts raced. Connecting this to Senior Sister Zhao's words and actions, he faintly sensed that this conclusion was exceedingly close to the truth.
Yet another question immediately followed:
Why would cultivators have "weight"?
It was understandable that heaven and earth possessed weight.
How could the mortal flesh of a cultivator...?
In an instant, as if a bolt of lightning cleaved the mist, Li Fan understood.
"For ancient method cultivators, of course there was no talk of weight.
"But new method cultivators plunder heaven and earth.
"Absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, borrowing the wonders of heaven and earth, prying into the laws of heaven and earth, seizing the essence of heaven and earth, extracting the marrow of heaven and earth...
"They absorb a part of the world and make it part of themselves.
"And so, they naturally acquire the property of the world's 'weight.'"
This was not yet obvious for Golden Core cultivators and below.
Once reaching the Nascent Soul realm, however, where one swallowed a "grotto-heaven" that originally belonged to heaven and earth and turned it into one's own domain, it became entirely clear.
"Grotto-heavens...
"The 'weight' of the world..."
Li Fan's thoughts went even further.
According to what Linghu Chang of the Medicine King Sect had witnessed, the Immortal Ruins above the Xuanhuang Realm had likely already existed long before the new methods spread.
Back then, the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao joined hands to avert the Xuanhuang Realm's doom of being devoured.
What exactly did those powerhouses standing at the peak of the cultivation world do back then?
Thinking about the Xuanhuang Realm's present state, a bold conjecture sprang into Li Fan's mind.
"Back when I first learned the path of new method cultivation from the Five Spirits Qi-Sensing Method, a doubt arose in my mind:
"Cultivators plunder heaven and earth to such a degree, yet this world has managed to endure for so long—it was truly somewhat unbelievable.
"After gaining a deeper understanding of the Xuanhuang Realm's many secrets, I also harbored suspicions:
"The various grotto-heavens and small worlds contained within the Xuanhuang Realm...
"Seemed far too numerous.
"Great Xuan, the Li Realm... not to mention countless subsidiary worlds, and one oddly shaped grotto-heaven after another.
"Looking at it now, these places may not have originally belonged to the Xuanhuang Realm at all.
"Rather, to avoid being swallowed by the Immortal Ruins, the cultivators of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao captured them from the void!"
Chapter 407