This time, there was no great commotion. Di Yi merely pointed lightly toward Xu Ke's forehead between his brows, and then made no further move.
Xu Ke touched his forehead, but seemed unable to feel anything.
"When the time comes, you will naturally know its use," Di Yi said.
"What's with this? Everyone speaks in riddles. It's driving me crazy," Xu Ke muttered under his breath. He stole a glance at Di Yi, but ultimately lacked the courage to lash out.
He had no choice but to swallow his irritation.
"Now that matters here are settled, Nanming is no place for humans to linger. I shall escort you out."
In the space below, the gathering of myriad demons had finally reached an outcome.
"We resolutely uphold and support His Majesty Di Yi's great decision!"
"Under the leadership of His Majesty Di Yi, our demonic beast clan will surely usher in a brighter future!"
"The petty Xuanhuang Realm is not worth staying in anyway!"
...
The beasts' cheers resounded like a tidal wave; a consensus had already been reached.
As for how much sincerity lay within, one could perhaps catch a glimpse from the faint, mocking smile playing on the face of the child Di Yi looking down from above.
The child Di Yi led Xu Ke through winding, deserted corridors, arriving before the very gate where they had first entered.
"Go on, then," Di Yi stopped and instructed.
Xu Ke hesitated, opening his mouth as if to speak.
"Rest assured. You and I..."
"...shall meet again one day," Di Yi said, her tone laden with meaning.
Yet while her voice still echoed in the air, her figure had already vanished without a trace.
Xu Ke could not help feeling a sense of wistful loss.
Holding the sphere that seemed to have a heart beating steadily inside, Xu Ke summoned Xiao Qing and left the place with Li Fan.
On their journey back across the Nanming Ocean, perhaps because of Di Yi, they encountered no other demonic beasts.
The entire journey went smoothly, bringing them closer and closer to the Beast Taming Sect.
Li Fan flew and perched atop the sphere Di Yi had given Xu Ke.
He seemed intensely interested in it, a greedy gleam in his eyes as if he wished to swallow it whole.
"Xiao Hei, what are you doing!"
Confronted by Li Fan's predatory stare, Xu Ke hugged the sphere tightly, his eyes filled with vigilance.
"This has to be delivered to Senior Brother Lu Ya when we get back. You can't let your appetite get the better of you and steal it for a snack!"
Li Fan rolled his eyes disdainfully at Xu Ke and swiped at him with a claw, offering no explanation.
The only reason he had been staring at the sphere all this time was that he sensed a familiar aura from it.
After careful discernment, he was certain that this faint familiarity stemmed from the pods of Realm-Rifting Whales that roamed outside the Immortal Severing Formation in later generations.
"Earlier, Xu Ke and I did find realm-leaving whales, but they were clearly vastly different from the ones I saw in later times.
"Not just in physical size—more importantly, according to the information provided by the Empire, the later Realm-Rifting Whales could reproduce entirely on their own just by devouring energy from the void.
"Only then could they flourish so profusely in the vast void and multiply in such enormous numbers, ultimately fulfilling the plan to thoroughly detach the pocket world from the body of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"The ones Xu Ke and I found before clearly lacked such a trait.
"Yet this little creature..."
Li Fan fell into deep thought.
The Beast Taming Sect must have crossbred the realm-leaving whales with this sphere-like creature, thus breeding a new subspecies that met the requirements.
"So after all this running around, does it still trace back to Mr. Bai's mission?"
Li Fan could not help wondering.
This episode within the Fallen Immortal Realm seemed a bit too long-winded.
Even now, he had not figured out what obsession maintained this span of space and time,
nor how to resolve it.
Still, Li Fan had a hunch: once they returned to the Beast Taming Sect, the mystery might finally be unraveled.
The journey from Nanming back to the Beast Taming Sect was long.
Before they had covered even half the distance, his time limit in the Fallen Immortal Realm expired.
His vision blurred, and Li Fan returned once again to the real world.
"The Di Yi Beast..."
Li Fan reflected on what he had witnessed in the Fallen Immortal Realm, and a question surfaced in his mind.
Did the demonic beasts' relocation plan succeed in the end?
If it had succeeded, such a massive undertaking could never have been kept secret from the cultivators of that era.
And if there had been a successful precedent of escape, cultivators would inevitably have followed suit.
They, too, would have attempted every possible method to shatter space and time and break free from the shackles of the Xuanhuang Realm.
"Back then, even the Dadao Sect had three Longevity-realm cultivators living in seclusion. Not to mention the other sects; throughout the Xuanhuang Realm, the number of Longevity-realm cultivators was far from small.
"Yet none of them can be found today. Perhaps a portion of them departed back then as well."
Li Fan suddenly recalled Di Yi's words.
"Even among the demonic beast clans, there was much dissension over leaving the Xuanhuang Realm entirely.
"Let alone human cultivators.
"Those who wanted to leave naturally existed, just as those who wanted to stay did."
When faced with an unprecedented Great Cataclysm, everyone simply made different choices.
Li Fan pondered thoughtfully.
-----
Having returned from the Fallen Immortal Realm to reality, the groundbreaking ceremony for Congyun Immortal City was about to commence.
True to his word, Zhou Kebao had brought along the immortal city abode.
"Have a look, Fellow Daoist!"
He extended his right hand, and a miniature city radiating multicolored light promptly appeared.
In appearance, it was identical to the immortal cities of the various provinces under the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals.
"There is no room to display it here. Please follow me, Fellow Daoist Li."
Zhou Kebao smiled faintly and handed over a white jade figurine shaped like an exquisite pagoda.
"This is..." Li Fan looked at the small object in his hand, finding it somewhat familiar.
"This is the key to a Vanguard Realm. You need only use it as a core to activate the ritual, and you will be transported to the designated Vanguard Realm," Zhou Kebao explained.
"I see." Li Fan had rented the White Bone Vanguard Realm in the past to deceive the people of the Li Realm, so he was no stranger to this.
After a brief pause, he gripped the pagoda figurine and initiated the ritual.
Following a mild wave of dizziness, Li Fan opened his eyes to find himself inside a celestial palace surrounded by drifting white clouds.
Besides Zhou Kebao, a group of cultivators had already been waiting there for some time.
"We have long heard of your renowned name, Fellow Daoist Li. To have the honor of meeting you today is truly our good fortune!"
"Haha, Fellow Daoist Li Fan, we can practically be considered old acquaintances through our past skirmishes!"
Upon seeing Li Fan, they came forward warmly to greet him.
Li Fan returned their greetings with a smile, one by one.
"Very well, let Fellow Daoist Li Fan inspect the goods," one square-faced cultivator said in a deep, naturally imposing voice once the pleasantries concluded.
Zhou Kebao nodded and immediately manipulated the immortal city abode in his palm, expanding it to its full size.
In an instant, an enormous airborne city materialized above the palace among the clouds.
"Fellow Daoist Li, after you!"
With that, Zhou Kebao took the lead and flew toward the floating city.
Chapter 537