Leaving Qihong Isle, Li Fan retrieved the Studies of Topography Across Past and Present. Sweeping through the pages with his divine sense, he finished reading its entire contents in mere breaths.
A ball of flame flared from his hand, reducing the treatise to ash. Li Fan turned his gaze toward the southeast.
"The extreme south shifted toward the southeast. The changes between antiquity and today truly are unfathomable.
"What Ximen Yu said earlier wasn't false after all. Over the course of tens of millions of years, the Xuanhuang Realm really has expanded as a whole. Some places vanished entirely, while others appeared out of thin air...
"The Nanming Sacred Beast Mountain of the past has now turned into a deep-sea maelstrom connecting to the boundless ocean.
"Although according to Ximen Yu's surveys, no sacred beast mountain exists there anymore, still..." A sharp gleam flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
Around the outer rim of the great maelstrom lay a ring of islands, like a dead giant python.
"That must be the red serpent I saw coiled around Nanming Sacred Beast Mountain back in the Fallen Immortal Realm.
"If even it ended up dead, the journey of the demon race leaving the Xuanhuang Realm back then might not have been so smooth." Li Fan flew in the direction of Yueyang Heavenly City.
Along the way, he shifted back to his original appearance. As a Guest Elder of the Xuan Clan with level thirty clearance, he had access to the ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays free of charge.
Making the journey through standard teleportation arrays would have taken over half a month of roundabout travel. Using the ultra-long-distance teleportation array, he could arrive in less than half a day.
Upon arriving at Yueyang Heavenly City, inside the Statue of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable, the attendant verified Li Fan's identity and was slightly startled.
With utmost deference, the attendant guided Li Fan into the teleportation chamber. Bypassing several cultivators waiting in line, the attendant directly activated the array for him first.
The cultivators who were cut in line showed little anger. Recognizing that Li Fan was no ordinary figure, their gazes carried only curiosity and envy.
A faint sensation of vertigo washed over him, and in the next moment, Li Fan arrived in Ningxu Province, where the deep-sea maelstrom lay.
"Hmm?" Stepping out of the teleportation array and letting his body adjust, Li Fan noticed something unusual.
He had used ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays before. Because traversing across many provinces required crossing multiple layers of the White Mist Barrier, in addition to dizziness and physical discomfort, the bodily toll caused by the loss of lifespan had also been exceedingly distinct. It felt as though a part of oneself had been extracted, leaving a subtle sense of emptiness in the heart.
Yet this time... Li Fan checked his age on the True Reversion interface.
"It isn't an illusion; barely any lifespan was lost.
"Has the effect of the Essence-Devouring White Mist weakened, or has the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals improved their ultra-long-distance teleportation technology?" Li Fan recalled the scene of crossing the white mist from the Valley of Longevity.
"The effect of the Essence-Devouring White Mist clearly persists. In that case..." Considering that the Alliance had been secretly mobilizing personnel to delve deep into the white mist searching for something, his thoughts connected.
"It seems that beyond the Puxian True Boats, the Alliance has found another way to counter the Essence-Devouring White Mist.
"What lies within the white mist?" Li Fan immediately recalled the Chizha Abyss he had seen in his previous life, as well as the numerous Lost Domains said to be hidden within the fog.
"Wait." Li Fan paused mid-stride. He remembered the Lost Domain where he had encountered the backward-jointed monster and comprehended the Chaos Formula from the severed monolith.
"Could it be because of the Chaos Formula I unleashed back then that the Alliance plunged deep into the white mist?" Thoughts raced through Li Fan's mind.
"It isn't impossible. Yet ordinarily, the first direction of an investigation should have been within the Xuanhuang Realm. For them to immediately lock their target onto the depths of the white mist...
"Either they already conducted a thorough sweep and found nothing within the Xuanhuang Realm, or...
"The Chaos Formula has appeared before, and its source lay precisely within the white mist?
"If that is true, what does it signify?" Li Fan sank into deep contemplation. The crystal of the Dao Transformation Stone gleamed with a pure blue light as he deduced the possibilities one after another.
Meanwhile, his body did not cease moving, speeding through the air toward the great maelstrom. Before long, the increasingly dense and turbulent water-attribute spiritual energy in the air signaled that he was nearing his destination.
"Hiss..." Sudden pangs of stabbing pain pulled Li Fan from his reverie.
"The spiritual energy here is rather bizarre." Li Fan frowned slightly. Given his current physique, accidentally drawing in the turbulent water-attribute spiritual energy here still caused an unbearable ache.
It felt as if sharp blades were slicing away within his body. Li Fan temporarily sealed off his body, blocking the outside spiritual energy from forcing its way inside.
He captured a wisp of it in his palm and studied it closely.
"Not only is its nature violent and difficult for cultivators to absorb, but it naturally carries the attribute of tearing...
"No wonder this province is sparsely populated, and the closer one gets to the great maelstrom, the more deserted it becomes." Li Fan continued flying toward his target, and the surrounding spiritual energy indeed grew increasingly sharp.
Whoosh! As he flew, the astral winds buffeting his face stung with cutting force. He was forced to lay down an extra layer of protective spiritual energy around himself.
"Fortunately, I possess the Five Elements Great Grotto-Heaven and an internal circulation. Any ordinary cultivator flying here would likely exhaust their spiritual energy before long." Sensing the rate at which his spiritual energy was depleting, Li Fan was inwardly astonished.
Flying swiftly like this for the time it took an incense stick to burn, he finally saw the thunderous deep-sea maelstrom and the serpent-shaped ring of islands coiled beside it.
He did not draw close, observing only from afar. For an instant, he felt as though he had returned thousands of years into the past, witnessing the grand retreat of the beast tribes.
"This maelstrom must be the anomaly left behind after Sacred Beast Mountain sundered the boundary.
"Thousands of years have passed, yet it still hasn't subsided. One can imagine what immense scale it had back then. In a way, isn't this also a form of devastation wrought upon the Xuanhuang Realm?" At this thought, an epiphany stirred in Li Fan's mind.
"Every faction that breaks through the boundary to flee is like cutting a hole into the great balloon of Xuanhuang as it teeters on the verge of being swallowed by the Immortal Ruins.
"Once the people within the Xuanhuang Realm discover it, they naturally will not permit it.
"They would inevitably come to put a stop to it. That crimson serpent might well have perished fighting for that very reason.
"What about the Heavenly Sword Sect back then? Was it because they were one of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao that no one came knocking, or was it that the people fleeing along with the Boundary-Splitting Divine Weapon weren't just from the Heavenly Sword Sect alone?
"Or did the remaining cultivators of the Ten Sects realize it only after the Heavenly Sword Sect had already departed?" Li Fan's mind churned restlessly, making him look forward all the more to his next venture into the Fallen Immortal Realm.
"The rougher the winds and waves, the greater the Dao law one can comprehend!
"This place shall be where I attain my Dao!"
Suddenly, amidst the howling gale driven by the great maelstrom, a crazed roar faintly reached Li Fan's ears.
Chapter 685