And so, having received their orders, Li Fan and Senior Sister Zhao descended the mountain.
Due to the massive death toll among mortals, the concentration of the Immortal Plague in the environment had spiked dramatically.
To help them cope, before their departure, Sect Master Ji bestowed upon them an ample supply of resources, including the Fortune Purple-Gold Pill.
Yet this was not enough to fully ease the heavy weight on their hearts.
After all, having confirmed the news that the Immortal Plague could infect a person multiple times, they knew that no matter how well prepared they were and how thoroughly they protected themselves, constantly being exposed to it meant they would inevitably contract that strange affliction once more.
The sheer agony they had endured while sick over the past month was still fresh in their minds.
As cultivators, it had been a very long time since they had tasted a feeling worse than death itself.
If it were to happen repeatedly, again and again...
Such torment would truly make one wish to simply die and be done with it.
Of course, that was merely venting in frustration.
Both Senior Sister Zhao and Li Fan were single-mindedly devoted to the Dao and sought only longevity; how could they throw away their lives so easily?
However, orders from a master were hard to disobey. Even though Senior Sister Zhao was now the noble Dao Child of the Dadao Sect, she could only comply obediently.
"There is still something strange about this matter. I've inquired about it—although the other sects of the Ten Sects have also dispatched disciples to travel the realm, at most they sent true disciples. I've never heard of any sect sending out someone of the Dao Child rank like our Dadao Sect!" Li Fan shook his head slightly, his eyes filled with bewilderment.
"Senior Sister, you are the candidate to become the next sect master—what an esteemed position. In such troubled times, what you should be doing most is staying in secluded cultivation within the mountain gate, striving to raise your own cultivation. Not running off to do some bizarre task. If by any chance..."
Li Fan glanced at her before continuing, "I mean if, by some chance, you meet with misfortune and perish, how great would the sect's cost be to nurture another Dao Child?"
"Wouldn't everything invested in you before go completely down the drain?"
"Sect Master Ji's decision this time is truly hard to understand. And yet, not a single elder raised any objection..."
Senior Sister Zhao glanced at Li Fan and said calmly, "Junior Brother, you are overthinking it. As the leader of the world's immortal sects, doesn't our Dadao Sect dispatching a Dao Child simply show how seriously we take this matter?"
"Besides..."
Her voice suddenly grew somewhat low. "Junior Brother, in the past, your guess might have been correct. But now..."
"The times have changed."
Li Fan was instantly jolted with shock.
Indeed. He had still been immersed in the prosperous era of great cultivation from before, his mindset having not yet caught up.
In the cultivation world today, every pit held only one radish.
What Dao Child? The faster one's cultivation grew, the more of a threat they became in the eyes of the sect elders.
In the past, people could cultivate the same techniques together. If someone no longer wished to serve as sect master, they could step down early and become a Grand Supreme Elder, vacating the position of sect master.
Yet now, you don't want to be sect master? Fine, but you can't keep monopolizing the *Heaven-Slaying Dao Scripture*, can you? Please switch to another cultivation method!
No one could possibly tolerate that.
Thus, suppressing the growth of a Dao Child had naturally become the logical course of action.
Having grasped the intricacies of the matter, Li Fan spoke no more.
Following the blood-red light that filled the sky, the two arrived above a set of ruins.
They remembered that just a few years ago, this had been an extraordinarily bustling mortal city with a population of at least five hundred thousand.
To their surprise, not a single breath of life remained now.
As their divine senses swept across, mortal corpses lay strewn everywhere amid the ruins.
Men and women, young and old—none had been spared. Such a horrific scene was something one would never see even in the most terrifying nightmare.
"Utterly deranged..."
Killing intent flared in Senior Sister Zhao's eyes. While carefully maintaining her defenses against the Immortal Plague drifting constantly from below, she cast a spell to trace the perpetrator's trail.
"Let's go!"
A moment later, having locked onto her target, Senior Sister Zhao turned into a streak of escape light and sped away.
Li Fan hurriedly kept pace.
Falling slightly behind, by the time Li Fan caught up, he found Senior Sister Zhao standing frozen on the spot, looking at a loss.
As it turned out, the cultivator who had previously slaughtered the city had already succumbed to a severe case of the Immortal Plague and died without a cure.
With the culprit dead, Senior Sister Zhao had nowhere to vent her surging wrath.
"Are they in the wrong? If it were us, without so many pills to protect our lives, would we do the same when facing life and death?" For a moment, Senior Sister Zhao could not help asking in bewilderment.
Li Fan was just about to answer when he noticed a strange phenomenon suddenly emerge in the sky overhead.
"Cultivator Qu Xinfeng, who pursued the Dao for a total of fifty-six years, established his Dao Foundation with the 'Deep Mountain Stone Sword'..."
"Now his body perishes and his Dao is snuffed out, returning the Dao to heaven!"
The moment he saw the vision in the sky, a message flashed in Li Fan's mind.
"What is this?" Li Fan was taken aback.
"Hmm?" Senior Sister Zhao also noticed the bizarre spectacle across the firmament and looked up.
Moments later, her expression darkened.
She swung out an arc of sword qi, attempting to shatter the phenomenon.
Yet the vision seemed carved into the highest heavens; Senior Sister Zhao's attack was entirely in vain.
"What is this supposed to be? Heaven mocking us?"
Li Fan remained silent.
Dharmas could not be cultivated concurrently, and then came the Immortal Plague.
Now even this bizarre "death proclamation" had appeared. He truly wondered what would follow in the future.
He sighed softly.
"Let us go, Senior Sister. Let's not linger here. The sooner we finish our mission, the sooner we can return to the mountain," Li Fan urged.
Senior Sister Zhao did not answer for a long time.
She merely blasted the corpse of Qu Xinfeng—the one who had wrought boundless slaughter, only to perish himself—into ashes.
Only then did she turn into an escape light and fly off.
Over the next two-plus years, the two traversed the entire Xuanhuang Realm, preventing countless tragedies.
While slaying numerous cultivators who had lost their sanity, they saved the lives of countless mortals.
Upon learning of the Great Migration Plan, the remaining cultivators gradually calmed down, no longer slaughtering mortals with such reckless abandon.
Of course, sporadic incidents in certain places were inevitable.
The two had more will than strength, and simply could not oversee everything.
Having accomplished what the sect master had assigned them, the two were about to return to the sect according to the original plan.
However, an order caught them completely off guard.
As it turned out, Ji Changxi stated that the Great Migration Plan was officially underway.
They were not to return for the time being.
They were to remain in the Xuanhuang Realm to help coordinate among the various sects, large and small, and carry out this plan of paramount importance to all cultivators.
Looking at Senior Sister Zhao's face, which had darkened to the point of nearly dripping water, Li Fan did not dare speak.
Not knowing how to comfort her, he simply stood quietly by her side.
After a long silence, Senior Sister Zhao's expression returned to normal.
She broke into a radiant smile. "Let us go, Junior Brother."
"After all, orders from our master cannot be disobeyed."
For some reason, seeing that expression on Senior Sister Zhao, an unspeakable dread quietly welled up in Li Fan's heart.
"Heh, of course, Senior Sister," he replied hurriedly and cautiously.
In the blink of an eye, a century passed.
Through the concerted efforts of the cultivators, the Great Migration Plan was fully carried out.
All mortals were driven into grotto-heavens and pocket worlds, leaving the Xuanhuang Realm thoroughly cleansed.
Senior Sister Zhao and Li Fan, who had not returned to the sect in over a century, were finally able to return to their mountain gate.
Chapter 520