A Blessing in Misfortune

"What the ancient cultivators did was truly akin to plucking the stars and seizing the moon." Thinking of the countless grotto-heavens and small worlds across the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan could not help but sigh in wonder. It was precisely the accumulation from those ancient days that had forged such a profound foundation for the Xuanhuang Realm, enabling it to endure millennia of plunder by cultivators. "When cultivators of this world perish, their Dao is returned to heaven. This was a response spontaneously devised by the world itself once it sensed danger. "This recycling mechanism also greatly slows the rate at which 'weight' is lost. "However..." Li Fan pondered. The so-called "weight" was merely a term he used, given his limited information, to represent the Xuanhuang Realm's ability to resist the gravitational pull of the Immortal Ruins. At present, it appeared that after a cultivator fell and returned the Dao to heaven, the "weight" restored was far less than what they had possessed while alive. "Perhaps it is because when a grotto-heaven collapses, the energy returning to heaven and earth is formless. And for heaven and earth to reconceive that energy into tangible substance endowed with 'weight,' it takes ages upon ages. "When the rate of grotto-heavens being born falls below the rate at which they vanish—when expenditures exceed income—the Xuanhuang Realm's safety is compromised. "Thus, the number of cultivators must be controlled to maintain an equilibrium. "That is one possibility. "The other possibility is..." Li Fan furrowed his brows. "When cultivators perish, not all of them return the Dao to heaven. A portion vanishes instead... "It is chilling to contemplate, yet in this Xuanhuang Realm, such things are almost par for the course." Li Fan recalled once more the scene recorded when the Medicine King Cauldron breached the realm barrier back then. Having cast off the world's protection in an attempt to traverse the void, the cauldron had been drawn helplessly toward the Immortal Ruins like a moth to a flame. "The Immortal Ruins..." The deepest fear was always the fear of the unknown. Why had the ancient pathway to the Immortal Realm transformed into an all-devouring entity like this? Did the Immortal Realm of old still exist? If the Immortal Realm was no more, what had brought about its destruction? The more Li Fan pondered, the more an instinctive dread welled up within him. Moments later, he took a deep breath, suppressing the stray thoughts. These matters were still far too distant for him. At the very least, he wouldn't need to consider them until after achieving the realm of a Longevity Heavenly Venerable. Tucking the questions away in his heart for the time being, Li Fan turned his thoughts to his current predicament. "Though this world I crossed into teeters perpetually on the brink of annihilation, when I think about it carefully, this situation is actually more favorable for me. "After all, even the aloof cultivators of the Longevity realm are, in reality, grasshoppers tied to the same rope as the Xuanhuang Realm's ordinary mortals. "Aboard this sinking ship that is the Xuanhuang Realm, the Longevity Heavenly Venerables must act with a measure of restraint. They cannot be completely wanton and reckless. "If this were a world under the absolute dominion of almighty beings who could refine or wipe out all living creatures on a whim without a second thought, that would be true doom without reprieve. Even with the aid of True Reversion, I would only be able to sigh in helplessness. "A silver lining in misfortune!" With that thought, Li Fan's mind gradually settled into calm. "The Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation is equivalent to the 'nuclear deterrent' of my previous world. "Until the Five Elders Association finds a way to crack it, large-scale war will probably not break out. There will only be occasional minor skirmishes. "However, this also confirms that the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable has indeed vanished. It is truly hard to say how the situation will develop from here." Li Fan summoned the True Reversion interface. "Physiological age: 884/899." "As they say, one must stand high to see far. In the past, I could never live more than fifty years past my anchor before being forced into True Reversion. Fifty years of foresight was plenty for a mortal, but in this unpredictable Xuanhuang Realm, it falls a bit short. "Perhaps in some lifetime, I could try doing nothing at all, quietly observing the shifts and turns of the Xuanhuang Realm. With the passage of time, I might actually discover far more valuable information." *** Having sorted out his thoughts, Li Fan retrieved the jade token given to him by guide Bing Yin to avoid arousing suspicion, resuming his tour of the Museum of Divine Archives. In truth, having reached this point in this life, Li Fan could have simply reverted immediately. Still, as a vital Alliance stronghold, the Museum of Divine Archives was exceptionally difficult to visit. Since he was already here, broadening his horizons was worthwhile. Li Fan had long been curious about the severed head at the center of the museum—the first cultivator ever infected with immortal-mortal miasma. According to Bing Yin, the Museum of Divine Archives was partitioned into several major zones based on the nature of their exhibits. Li Fan was currently in the zone every visiting cultivator had to tour first: "The Splendid Era." "What is this?" Li Fan asked with great interest, gazing at the immense sphere of light floating before him. The sphere was composed of several distinct sectors displaying different scenes. The images flickered at blinding speed, offering only fleeting glimpses. One could see not only architecture of vastly different styles, but also countless silhouettes darting within. Yet the contrasting aesthetics and atmospheres of each sector remained unmistakable. "This is the 'Eras,'" Bing Yin explained with consummate professionalism. "With a Dao Transformation Stone as its core, it deduces and manifests scenes from various periods throughout the Xuanhuang Realm's history. "This desolate expanse of boundless ruins is the Wasteland Era of the past. "This section soaked in blood-red light and murderous aura is the Great Dark Era. "And here, where countless silhouettes flicker, is the Great Plague Era. Mmm, by the looks of it, it should be simulating the Great Migration, when cultivators forcibly relocated mortals." As Bing Yin spoke, each era he mentioned expanded, allowing Li Fan to just barely make out the rapidly shifting details. "A Dao Transformation Stone..." Li Fan stared at the sphere of light for a moment and could not help asking, "What is meant by the 'Splendid Era'?" Bing Yin smiled. "The Dao Transformation Stone was a wondrous treasure of the ancient Taiyan Sect, possessing the power to deduce heavenly secrets and forecast the future. "Its deductions blur the line between real and unreal, so exquisitely illusory as to verge on reality. "Perhaps to outside onlookers like us, the worlds across different times and spaces simulated within the 'Eras' are mere illusions. "Yet to the tens of millions of living beings within, everything they experience is undoubtedly real. "Furthermore, if we project a wisp of divine sense or a strand of our soul into it, we can experience those historic events firsthand as they truly unfolded." Bing Yin first gave an overview of the Eras' background before continuing, "We once conducted an experiment using one million blank souls stripped of their memories. "We cast them into different eras, ran the deduction for five hundred years, compiled the final outcomes, and ranked them. "And our era—the era governed by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals—ranked first without question. "Whether in cultivator survival rate or overall cultivation realms, it utterly crushed all other periods. "The name 'Splendid Era' is well and truly deserved!" Bing Yin declared with pride.