"Exploring ordinary white mist zones yields contribution points, so what one obtains from exploring Lost Domains should be these Qingxuan points."
Li Fan's gaze inadvertently swept once more over the Heaven-Measuring Mirror suspended above the Puxian True Boat, which cast a clear azure radiance illuminating an area of a hundred zhang around them.
"With a Profound Heaven formation as its core and the Qingxuan Mirror as its foundation..."
The Qingxuan Mirror was something Li Fan had heard Zhang Zhiliang mention in his previous life.
It was one of the secondary bodies of the Heavenly Profound Mirror, replicating and storing all the knowledge and information that had existed within the Heavenly Profound Mirror before its separation from the matrix.
Encompassing everything under the sun, it could be called an offline encyclopedia of the Xuanhuang Realm.
As for the core formation...
In this life, after the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals unearthed the Profound Heaven Dharma King sleeping within the Purple Cloud Sect, the formation centered on the Heavenly Profound Mirror had become vastly different from the previous life. It had shifted from "Heavenly Profound Spirit Lock" to "Profound Heaven Spirit Sealing."
It was far more aggressive. Furthermore, and most crucially, the inverted order of the characters "Profound" and "Heaven" seemed to indicate that the Profound Heaven Spirit-Sealing Formation was under the cultivators' control.
Whether it was that small mirror Immortal Lord Hongxi had wielded against Crimson Flame, or this Heaven-Measuring Mirror right now—existing as an independent entity yet possessing a fraction of the Heavenly Profound Mirror's might—both served as corroboration for this view.
"Come to think of it, I wonder if the Dissociation Disc—the biggest gimmick in the Heavenly Profound Spirit-Locking Formation construction contest of my previous life—will appear in the exchange list for Qingxuan points this time."
As entities separated and derived from the Heavenly Profound Mirror, these secondary bodies fell far short of the original, yet they still ranked among the Xuanhuang Realm's finest treasures.
Among those Li Fan knew of: the Qingxuan Mirror recorded all things under heaven; the Dissociation Disc possessed formidable computing power and peerless formation-breaking capability; and the Calamity Extinction Stone Platter could even shield against the Profound Net's perception and create loopholes...
"If I have the fortune to obtain one of these secondary bodies in this life, when True Reversion concludes and I make my preservation selection, it should unquestionably be my choice."
"After all, even if I revert to the Golden Core stage, reaching the Nascent Soul realm is nothing more than going through the motions once again."
Just as Li Fan's thoughts churned and his imagination ran wild, a sudden murmur drifted by his ear, startling him from his reverie.
Li Fan abruptly looked left and right.
Within the white mist, dead silence reigned. In comparison, these inexplicable whispers that had suddenly surfaced were strikingly distinct and eerie.
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, trying to discern the source of the voice.
Yet the sound shifted unpredictably—now to the left, now to the right, now ahead, now behind—at times even sounding as though it were whispered directly into his ear.
It made the hairs on his neck stand on end.
Li Fan's strange behavior quickly caught Huangfu Song's attention.
"Brother Li, what is it?" he asked with a touch of concern.
The perpetually listless Dongfang Yao also perked up at the words, casting an inquiring look his way.
"Did either of you hear anything?" Li Fan asked gravely in return.
"Huh? A sound? It's quiet as can be inside this white mist..." Dongfang Yao and Huangfu Song exchanged puzzled glances.
Waving a hand, Li Fan cut short any further questions they might ask.
He leaped onto the prow of the Puxian True Boat, focusing his mind to listen intently to the whispers emerging from the white mist.
The flying boat sailed steadily forward, and only after the time it took an incense stick to burn did the whispers fade from his ears.
"Strange."
Li Fan linked his consciousness to the Heaven-Measuring Mirror to check their current position.
They had already left the vast expanse of charted greenish-black area, carving out a narrow corridor through the endless white as they pressed forward.
A flash of inspiration struck Li Fan, and something clicked in his mind.
"Turn the boat around. Head back," Li Fan told Huangfu Song in a deep voice.
Huangfu Song hesitated for a moment, but seeing Li Fan's earnest expression, he complied immediately.
Retracing their path, before long, the murmurs that had faded away echoed beside Li Fan's ear once again.
"Fly this way." Standing at the prow, Li Fan discerned the direction of the sound while guiding Huangfu Song.
As the Puxian True Boat kept shifting its course, the continuous whispering grew progressively louder.
Once it crossed a certain threshold, Li Fan could finally make out the words.
"Heavenly..."
"Physician..."
A tremendous sense of oppression instantly surged into his heart. Yet having anticipated something of the sort, he was not terrified by the whisper's words.
"It seems the voice of the 'Heavenly Physician' I heard on my way to the Chizha Abyss in my previous life was no hallucination born of my deepest fears."
"It truly exists."
Li Fan had a sudden realization.
The Puxian True Boat continued flying forward under Li Fan's guidance.
All around remained a boundless expanse of white, seemingly unchanged.
Yet Li Fan acutely sensed that in a single instant, the Qingxuan points of all three people aboard jumped from zero to one hundred.
And as the Puxian True Boat continued its uncharted exploration, the tally climbed rapidly.
"Slow down. We should have entered a Lost Domain," Li Fan instructed in a low voice.
Huangfu Song was taken aback at first, but after checking the Heaven-Measuring Mirror, he was overjoyed.
"Brother Li, how did you know a Lost Domain was here? Was it because of that sound you mentioned earlier?" he asked Li Fan in a rush.
"Yes. But oddly enough, as soon as we entered this place, those strange sounds vanished," Li Fan replied with a nod, while sweeping his divine sense around in exploration.
"We've really hit the jackpot this time! This must be an unknown Lost Domain where no one has ever set foot. Our Qingxuan points are skyrocketing," Huangfu Song said gleefully.
Dongfang Yao cautioned, "We'd still better be careful. It feels chillingly eerie to me."
After flying forward for some distance, the Essence-Devouring White Mist began to thin.
Eventually it dissipated entirely, revealing the hidden face of this Lost Domain.
Taking in the sight before them, even Huangfu and Dongfang, who prided themselves on their vast experience, froze on the spot, their limbs turning cold.
Li Fan took a deep breath, suppressing the shock in his heart.
As far as the eye could see lay a dead, black ocean. Not a single ripple stirred the water's surface; only countless ice-crystal cubes floated upon it.
Within each cube, the corpse of a cultivator was frozen.
Through the crystal ice, the final expressions they bore in life were faintly discernible.
Rage, terror, bewilderment...
Lifelike, as though they were still alive.
Densely packed ice-crystal coffins filled the entire field of view, covering the black ocean.
It was impossible to fathom just how many there were.
It was as if the cultivators of an entire world had all been frozen and entombed here.
The overwhelming visual impact plunged the Puxian True Boat into dead silence.
After a long while, Huangfu Song swallowed hard and whispered a suggestion: "How about... we turn back..."
Clearly, the ever-greedy Huangfu Song had been terrified by the utterly bizarre and horrific spectacle before them.
Chapter 695