"All manner of things defying reason in this world—mountains and rivers shifting, the Essence-Devouring White Mist, the immortal-mortal miasma..."
"Ever since the Heavenly Venerable disseminated the Dharma, they have taken the stage one after another in endless succession."
"From that day on, I did everything in my power to pry into the secrets behind it all."
Master Yin spoke in a profound, distant tone, a dazed look in his eyes.
Li Fan listened with rapt attention.
Yet what followed was an extended silence.
After a long while, Master Yin turned his head, looking at Li Fan with a sneer of ridicule. "Were you expecting me to give you the answer?"
"What are you thinking?"
"I am merely an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator. Just the immortal-mortal miasma alone has consumed every ounce of my energy amidst the world's secrets. As for the rest..."
Master Yin scoffed. "I couldn't care less about them."
Li Fan took no offense, remaining calm. "If that is so, would Fellow Daoist be willing to impart the mystery of the immortal-mortal miasma to me?"
"Very well," Master Yin readily agreed.
"The immortal-mortal miasma, he is—" Halfway through his sentence, his expression abruptly shifted.
His face twisted with utter disdain. He spat on the ground and glared furiously at Li Fan. "Do you even deserve to hear it?"
"A selfish, callous cultivator like you who holds life in contempt! Letting you know of his deeds would be the greatest desecration!"
"I would rather his actions remain buried under the dust of history, forever unknown to the world! Otherwise, people like you would not feel the slightest reverence; you would only mock him in secret..."
Master Yin grew agitated, glaring at Li Fan as though looking at a sworn enemy.
Li Fan's gaze, in turn, slowly turned cold.
Without hesitation, he activated the Insect Binding divine ability to subdue him for a soul searching interrogation. At the same time, he braced himself for Master Yin to suddenly lash out and reveal his true strength.
Yet things went extraordinarily smoothly. Without offering the slightest resistance, Master Yin was captured, pinned completely immobile.
Moments later, however, Li Fan's expression changed slightly.
He suddenly realized that the "Master Yin" bound by the Insect Binding divine ability had lost all trace of life in an instant, turning into a corpse.
Li Fan immediately turned his gaze toward the other corpses in the cellar.
The bodies that had been haphazardly piled across the floor like heaps of rotting meat were now all raising their heads.
Every single one stared at Li Fan, their lips curling into sinister grins.
"Playing tricks!" Undaunted by the bizarre spectacle, Li Fan gave a cold snort, and his Five Elements grotto-heaven domain expanded in an instant, blanketing Yinyin Island.
The power of the five elements circulated seamlessly, locking down like heavy shackles to suppress the hundred-plus corpses in the chamber.
Yet before Li Fan could strike, those "corpses" of Master Yin within the reach of the grotto-heaven domain inexplicably lost their lingering life force one after another, perishing completely.
It felt like Li Fan had swung a heavy punch into thin air, leaving him stifled and vexed.
His spiritual sense swept across the entire island in an effort to locate Master Yin. But on the island at this moment, aside from Li Fan, not a single living creature remained.
"Suicide? I don't believe it!"
Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Applying pressure with the power of his grotto-heaven, he crushed every corpse on the ground into fine dust, one after another.
Yet until they had vanished entirely, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.
It was as if Master Yin had genuinely perished.
Even so, Li Fan did not let down his guard; on the contrary, his vigilance grew sharper.
Drip... drop...
Hearing the sound by his ear, Li Fan's pupils abruptly contracted.
He held out a hand. A single drop of rain condensed out of thin air above him.
Then it fell onto his palm.
Patter, patter...
The rain fell heavier and heavier. Gradually, dark silhouettes began plunging from above, tumbling down alongside the downpour.
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
*Thud!*
They were corpses, some broken, some intact!
What sent a chill down Li Fan's spine was that the faces on these bodies no longer belonged to Master Yin. They bore his own likeness!
After hitting the ground, the corpses squirmed and struggled in grotesque, unnatural contortions, lifting their heads.
Just like Master Yin moments ago, they stared fixedly at him!
Their faces wore the same sinister, unnatural smiles.
"What foul monstrosities..."
Li Fan's heart sank.
Holding nothing back, he willed the Sky-Breaking Heart Sword to gleam instantaneously within the cellar.
Sword light swept crisscross through the chamber, tearing the carpet of corpses to shreds.
"*Jie-jie-jie...*"
As they were obliterated, bizarre cackles broke from their mouths, resembling a formless mockery.
In the brief lull as the corpses dissolved, Li Fan's figure blurred. In a flash, he departed Yinyin Island, trying to shake off the pursuit of these bizarre bodies.
And yet...
Drip.
Drop.
Even after flying over a hundred li in the blink of an eye, Li Fan still felt cold raindrops striking his face.
This time, Li Fan switched to the Reverse Five Elements Creation and Annihilation Sword.
The moment countless corpses fell from the sky, Li Fan's sword light annihilated them.
Yet Li Fan's expression darkened further.
He noticed that disposing of these corpses required slightly more effort than the previous time. Even if the difference was exceedingly subtle, the expenditure was undeniably increasing.
Over the moments that followed, the relentless rain and the repeated rounds of destroying the corpses validated his suspicions.
"This is trouble..."
Li Fan's complexion turned grim.
He had exhausted nearly every method at his disposal, yet he still could not shake off the entanglement of these bizarre corpses.
Moreover, those corpses—which looked more and more like him—also seemed to be steadily growing "stronger," becoming increasingly difficult to dispatch.
If this went on...
"Am I going to be forced into a True Reversion?" Li Fan frowned.
Suddenly, his eyes fell upon a divine ability on the True Reversion panel that he had never fully unleashed.
"Chaos."
"Might as well treat a dead horse as a live one. I'll give it a try."
Thus, when cold rain began falling from the heavens once more, Li Fan looked upon the sea of sneering corpses with a grave expression. Using his finger as a brush, he inscribed the character for "Chaos" in the air in a single, fluid stroke.
*Boom!*
The instant the Chaos character took shape, Li Fan felt the spiritual energy within his body erupt into immediate turmoil.
As though placed under immense pressure, the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens began creaking and groaning continuously.
Even the natural circulation between the powers of the five elements was disrupted.
Within the wood grotto-heaven, energies of water, fire, metal, and earth surged forth.
The other grotto-heavens suffered the same.
The nascent Five Elements Grotto-Heavens instantly plunged into utter disarray. All manner of eerie and bizarre phenomena began unfolding.
Yet Li Fan, the master of these grotto-heavens, was powerless to attend to them.
Countless illusions burst into view before his eyes.
No, rather than illusions, it was as if in that single moment, he had personally experienced hundreds and thousands of cycles of reincarnation all over again.
The distinct memories of each reincarnation flooded his mind with terrifying realism.
As though fractured into countless versions of himself, Li Fan felt his head on the verge of exploding.
In this moment of grave peril, the Xuanhuang Heart-Refining Incantation—which had been circulating silently on its own—suddenly surged into a wild roar.
Chapter 637