The surrounding seawater poured endlessly toward the black hole, only to be instantly vaporized into steam the moment it touched the event horizon.
Due to the extreme heat above the abyss, the air warped and rippled entirely.
Shrouded by the continuously rising plumes of white mist, the void and vapor intertwined into a striking scene of stark black and white.
Piloting the Taiyan Boat midair, Li Fan looked down upon the sight, suddenly engulfed by an overwhelming sense of dread.
Wanxian Island... was simply gone?
Scenes of his past days on Wanxian Island flashed rapidly through his mind.
The Dharma Transmission Plaza lined with ten thousand statues, the ceaseless stream of countless cultivators,
even the magnificent and grand architecture at the island's center where mighty Soul Formation cultivators were said to dwell...
Just gone?
Not even a speck of ash remained.
What kind of power could accomplish such a feat?
The malice of the Heavenly Dao?
Li Fan did not know.
Confronted by this profoundly shocking spectacle, his mind was trapped in absolute chaos.
Cultivating immortality, seeking eternal life.
The goal he had pursued all along now seemed utterly ridiculous.
Before this abrupt cataclysm, cultivators were reduced to the level of mortals, no different from mere ants.
Once terror took root in his heart, it could no longer be contained.
"Flee! Get away from this damned place!"
Li Fan's eyes turned bloodshot. He steered the Taiyan Boat, fleeing west across the Congyun Sea for dear life.
He wanted to escape to the mainland, far away from this purgatory of a sea.
In a daze of confusion, Li Fan flew on, unaware of how much time had passed.
*Boom!*
The Taiyan Boat seemed to collide with something and was forced to a dead halt.
Fortunately, its protective formation held, sparing him from a catastrophic crash that would have destroyed both boat and passenger.
Though Li Fan suffered minor injuries from the violent jolt, the impact gradually brought him back to his senses.
He peered outside the vessel.
There was nothing.
In the distance stretched a continuous coastline; the mainland was not far ahead.
Li Fan steered the boat, attempting to push forward.
*Boom!*
Something obstructed his path.
Li Fan rammed it again and again.
Yet he could not advance even an inch.
He tested other directions, only to find the exact same result.
An invisible barrier sealed off the Congyun Sea from the nearby mainland.
Allowing entry, but no exit.
Li Fan froze in place.
A phrase suddenly crossed his mind.
*Turtles trapped in a jar.*
After a long silence, Li Fan let out a laugh.
He tilted his head toward the heavens.
How ruthless.
Then he fell into a state of lost aimlessness. Should he summon True Reversion and return to the initial anchor?
Or perhaps look around a bit more first.
Li Fan felt somewhat helpless, having lost his sense of purpose.
He piloted the Taiyan Boat, wandering aimlessly across the Congyun Sea.
He passed Yelan Island. Just like the rest, it presented an apocalyptic wasteland, stripped of all life.
He passed Liuli Island.
Its Island-Protecting Grand Formation had shattered, and He Zhenghao was nowhere to be found. Corpses littered the ground, completely devoid of any trace of life.
Liuyun Island, Zhongqiu Island...
All of them had turned into dead zones.
The occasional surviving cultivators he encountered had all gone mad.
The moment they saw Li Fan, they screamed as if encountering a ghost and fled in terror.
...
Eventually, Li Fan somehow found himself back at Tai'an Island.
Only here did he sense a long-lost spark of vitality.
Perhaps these were the only living people left across the entire Congyun Sea.
Walking along the streets, Li Fan observed the mortals of Tai'an Island.
Unaware of the catastrophe that had unfolded beyond their shores, their faces still bore the grateful smiles of those who had survived a brush with death.
Little did they know that what awaited them was an unavoidable doom.
Yet, perhaps ignorance truly was bliss.
Witnessing such an apocalyptic devastation would likely haunt a person with nightmares every single night.
Li Fan could not help but laugh self-deprecatingly.
He kept walking forward when, suddenly, waves of devout prayers drifted into his ears.
"Bless us, Immortal Master of Salvation, grant us favorable weather and abundant food every year."
"Bless us, Immortal Master of Salvation, protect my little Yu'er so she grows up safe and sound."
...
Li Fan paused and turned to look.
A temple had been erected on Tai'an Island at some point.
Inside stood an enshrined statue, and upon the memorial tablet before it were carved the prominent characters: *Immortal Master of Salvation*.
The statue faintly resembled Li Fan, its eyes cast slightly downward, gazing with compassion upon the crowd kneeling before it.
"Immortal Master of Salvation..." Li Fan lapsed into silence.
After a long pause, he let out a deep sigh.
"So be it. I will shelter you for however long I can."
...
However, sheltering mortals under the killing intent of heaven and earth was far from an easy task.
Li Fan had initially assumed the worst of the disaster had passed.
He never expected that the true catastrophe was only just beginning.
One year, two years, three years...
Still, the sky showed no sign of rain.
The sea level began to drop, the waters receding ever farther from the island.
Even with the desalination formation, fetching water became increasingly difficult for the mortals of Tai'an Island.
Each time, they had to walk great distances just to find water.
They did not know why the heavens had visited such affliction upon them, but they dreaded the day the Congyun Sea would dry up completely.
Consequently, every household carved wooden statues of Li Fan to revere, praying day and night without pause.
Li Fan was powerless to change it.
How could he possibly contend against a cataclysm of heaven and earth?
The only piece of good news across these three years was that, perhaps because the vast majority of cultivators in the Congyun Sea had perished, the killing intent directed at practitioners gradually dispersed.
Li Fan seized the opportunity to rebuild his cultivation back to the middle Qi Condensation stage.
*Whenever you stop worshipping me, I will return to the anchor,* Li Fan resolved inwardly as he activated the Discern Mechanism divine ability, watching the aura of death above the mortals grow denser by the day. Being prayed to day and night by a throng of mortals was indeed a peculiar sensation.
*Wait, why is there a faint trace of white concealed within this black aura of death?*
Li Fan paused in surprise.
Ever since his cultivation had recovered, Li Fan examined Tai'an Island's vital mechanisms every day.
Yet today, for some reason, he detected a glimmer of life that had eluded him before.
Where was this vitality coming from?
Pushing the *Golden Chapter of Thousand Mechanisms and the Jade Cosmos* to its limit, Li Fan discovered that the lifeline of the people on Tai'an Island corresponded directly to himself!
This left him even more bewildered.
After repeated verification, Li Fan finally realized that the source of vitality did indeed stem from him.
Not from Li Fan himself, but from an object in his possession.
Something he had almost forgotten.
Wonder of heaven and earth: Vast Sea.
Because it had not yet fully formed, he had left the Vast Sea Pearl sitting in an obscure corner of the Taiyan Boat all along.
Only today, illuminated by the alignment of vital mechanisms, did Li Fan remember it.
Unlike when he had first obtained it over a decade ago, it had turned an azure blue, suffused with a dense aura of moisture.
It was as though a veritable ocean were gestating within.
"As a vast sea perishes, a vast sea is born."
Li Fan stared blankly at the Vast Sea Pearl in his hand. A sudden realization struck him. Steering the Taiyan Boat, he climbed straight up into the sky, ascending ten thousand meters before looking down.
Below, across the Congyun Sea, vast swathes of the seabed lay exposed due to the prolonged drought.
Submarine mountain ranges gradually revealed their true contours.
And the original islands of the Congyun Sea were nothing other than the very peaks of those mountain ranges.
Kou Hong's warm and earnest face flashed across Li Fan's mind.
He had once said to Li Fan: *"No matter. Once you make your way out, Fellow Daoist, you may seek me out in Lingtian City within the Congyun Mountain Range."*
Li Fan began to laugh.
The Congyun Sea.
The Congyun Mountains.
They had been the exact same place all along.
Chapter 56