Parting Ways from Here

By now, He Zhenghao had completely cast his daughter's warning to the back of his mind. As he saw it, even if the process of refining an anima of Heaven and Earth was exceedingly perilous, he was hardly a reckless man. It was simply a matter of acting according to the circumstances; if things proved truly impossible, he would never throw his life away for nothing. Risking a little danger to gamble on a chance to ascend to the heavens in a single step—what was wrong with that? Yet He Zhenghao could never have imagined that a true anima of Heaven and Earth was on an entirely different level from what he envisioned. In the end, it was a limitation of his horizon. He Zhenghao currently possessed merely a Golden Core cultivation. Although he had traveled widely and possessed a vast network of acquaintances, he had never seen with his own eyes, nor even learned from written records, the true might of an anima of Heaven and Earth. He merely knew such a thing existed. Just like a peasant imagining the Emperor's hoe must be forged of solid gold, his perception was vastly removed from reality. And this, it seemed, also sealed the tragic fate awaiting He Zhenghao in this lifetime. ... While the crowd of cultivators remained in the Administration Hall, discussing the undersea cave estate that would ascend according to Li Fan's prophecy, the man himself had already quietly arrived at the cave estate's location. Across a span of merely several hundred li, the seabed dropped like steep stairways, forming three massive faults. Between each tier lay a sheer vertical drop of four to five thousand meters. Atop each fault, violent movements of the earth veins had thrust up numerous underwater mountain ranges. The scenery was magnificent and wondrously rugged, surpassing even terrestrial peaks and rivers. This was none other than the site where He Zhenghao had formed his core in the previous life: the Three Undersea Faults. "In the previous life, though He Zhenghao was somewhat frustrated and unrecognized, he never lost his drive to advance. Once he obtained the Mountain River Hidden Dragon Technique, he was like a dragon emerging from the abyssal depths, rising with unstoppable momentum. Comprehending a Golden Core through four methods, his future was boundless. "Yet in this life, although He Zhenghao holds power and influence far exceeding back then and even cultivates a Dao Integration technique, he neglected his cultivation and formed his core with only a single method. "I gave you an opportunity, yet you failed to rise to it." Li Fan felt a faint twinge of melancholy. Shaking his head slightly, he got down to business. His divine sense swept across the faulted mountain ranges below, and his eyes narrowed slightly. "The Chaoyuan Sect..." What Li Fan had said earlier in the Administration Hall was no falsehood. Although the Chaoyuan Sect was bizarre, anomalous, and laden with perils, in the previous life Shuo Feng, Su Xiaomei, and the others had all advanced by an entire major realm after entering it and returning safely. Setting aside the unexpected variable of He Zhenghao forming his core in the previous life, these ruins were originally supposed to fly away from the Congyun Sea in Anchor Year 22 and head toward Jiushan Province. Therefore, at this moment, they remained quietly concealed beneath the faults. Having fully inherited the memories of Linghu Chang from the Medicine King Sect, Li Fan searched through them for a while, but found no trace of the Chaoyuan Sect. Not only that, but the same held true even for the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, which was hailed as the overlord of the Congyun Sea. Neither sect could be found. "Strange. Whether the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace or the Chaoyuan Sect, according to records in the Heavenly Profound Mirror, both were fairly renowned sects in the ancient era. While they couldn't be compared to the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao, they were definitely somewhat stronger than the Medicine King Sect. Why was there no information about them in the mind of a Medicine King Sect disciple? "Could it be that they did not even exist in the same era, and that the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace existed much closer to the present?" Li Fan pondered in secret for a moment without finding an answer. Instead, he felt that many clues contradicted one another, riddled with anomalies and incongruities. Setting the thought aside for now, Li Fan looked down at the seabed below and unleashed his newly comprehended divine ability: Sky-Breaking Heart Sword. In the next instant, countless sword lights suddenly burst forth across the continuous undersea mountain ranges. After illuminating the pitch-black ocean depths, an enormous rumble continuously echoed through the water. Mountains cracked and collapsed, and vast fissures opened one after another across the seabed. As if torn apart in an instant by countless streaks of sword light, this wondrous undersea spectacle stretching across a hundred li completely disintegrated and vanished at a mere thought from Li Fan. And amid this catastrophe, Li Fan finally uncovered traces of the concealed Chaoyuan Sect. He did not obstruct it, merely watching as the cluster of ruined buildings rose upward and broke through the surface of the sea. Shrinking steadily, it eventually took the shape of a cave estate and sped off toward Jiushan Province. After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, Li Fan's spiritual intuition had grown increasingly keen. At the moment he had faced the Chaoyuan Sect ruins just now, even he had felt a faint sense of mortal peril. "Opportunities under heaven are endless; there is no need to take this risk. Let the world's cultivators test their fortune in it first. I will wait until its mysteries are fully understood." Li Fan watched the Chaoyuan Sect depart, thinking to himself. Even though Li Fan did not care for it, the Chaoyuan Sect ruins caused an uproar among the cultivator community. He had only just informed everyone that an opportunity would appear in an ascending undersea cave estate, and before the cultivators could even fully disperse from the Administration Hall, the cave estate had manifested. This was simply too coincidental! Some cultivators even wondered whether this cave estate was a fabrication staged by Li Fan simply to show off his unfathomable prophetic abilities once again. Soon, however, that theory was dismissed. The ancient, vicissitude-laden aura permeating the Chaoyuan Sect ruins was something that could never be faked. Furthermore, because it drew the attention of the world, through collective effort the cultivators quickly uncovered the origins of the ruins' main hall, the Taiyuan Hall. An ancient immortal sect: the Chaoyuan Sect! What was more, a Soul Formation cultivator well-versed in ancient cultivation history personally endorsed it, cementing the authenticity of the ruins. Consequently, within the Congyun Sea and across the entire Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, many cultivators were lured by the so-called "opportunity" and pursued the ruins all the way. Among them was someone Li Fan had never expected. Inside the Administration Hall. "You're going too? No matter how great the Chaoyuan Sect's opportunity is, it can't possibly compare to... can it? Or are you just going to observe for a bit and come right back?" Faced with Gao Yuan's farewell, He Zhenghao asked in utter bewilderment. "Heh. After I went back and turned it over in my mind, I kept feeling something was off. It took me three whole days and nights of contemplation to finally figure it out," Gao Yuan said with a sigh. "To strike iron, one must be hard oneself. No matter how much favor I enjoy from his Lordship, my strength is only at the Golden Core realm. Here in the Congyun Sea, I can still hold the fort. But if his Lordship truly succeeds in Dao Integration, his subordinates by then will surely include Soul Formation and Nascent Soul figures in droves. How could I command respect? To better follow in his Lordship's footsteps, I, Gao Yuan, must stake everything on a gamble too!" He Zhenghao was not swayed by these righteous-sounding words. He scrutinized Gao Yuan with suspicion. "Don't look at me like that." Gao Yuan chuckled self-deprecatingly. "I'm not bluffing you this time. I've already applied for leave from his Lordship and am setting off immediately. "Daoist He, what about you?" Gao Yuan cast a meaningful glance at He Zhenghao. He Zhenghao hesitated, but in the end refused Gao Yuan's invitation to go together on the grounds that someone needed to oversee and maintain the administrative affairs of the Congyun Sea. Seeing this, Gao Yuan said no more. He cupped his hands in farewell and floated away into the distance.