High in the sky, an anomaly manifested once more!
A great sword, tempered a thousand times, had been cast into the dark, neglected and unvisited for a thousand years.
With the passage of time, its blade was no longer bright, its edge no longer sharp, and it was covered from hilt to tip in rust!
Yet an emotion of rage and indignation suddenly surged forth!
The corrosion of the rust grew increasingly severe, but the extraordinary majesty of that great sword swelled with each passing day as well!
"Foundation Establishment cultivator Dao Xuanzi, having pursued the Dao for two hundred and one years in all, achieved his Dao foundation with the rare object 'Rusty Sword Dao Xuan.' In the land severed from immortality, he engaged in mortal combat and ultimately perished at the hands of Foundation Establishment cultivator Kou Hong."
"Now, his body has died and his Dao has dispersed, returning the Dao to Heaven!"
A magnificent spectacle illuminated thousands of li of sky like fireworks.
"Dao Xuanzi..." Kou Hong gazed up at the resplendent display, seemingly struck dumb, muttering incessantly under his breath.
All the soldiers present looked up at the sky as well, lost in a daze.
"This old man, Li Fan, greets the Immortal Master."
Right then, an old man with snow-white hair and beard, leaning on a cane, tottered over to Kou Hong's side.
Kou Hong paid him no mind, but Li Fan was in no rush either. Standing to the side, he waited while signaling the surrounding soldiers to be patient.
After a long while, once the anomaly in the sky faded, Kou Hong finally turned his gaze toward Li Fan.
"You are the leader of the mortals here?" Kou Hong's tone was brusque, clearly harboring little favor toward Li Fan. "That voice ringing out everywhere earlier was yours, wasn't it?"
"Trifling tricks, unworthy of the Immortal Master's notice." Li Fan cupped his hands, deftly deflecting the matter, and bowed deeply. "I beg the Immortal Master to show mercy and spare the lives of over a thousand members of my clan."
"Mercy..." Kou Hong sneered upon hearing this. "Dao Xuanzi and I fought using our own abilities; life and death were left to fate. A mere mortal like you actually dared to interfere in a battle between us immortal cultivators."
He glared at Li Fan, the killing intent in his words unmistakably laid bare. "Speaking of which, although Dao Xuanzi and I fought tooth and nail over a Core Formation technique, he was still my brother of more than a century. Now that you ambushed him, shouldn't I kill you to avenge Dao Xuanzi?"
Unruffled by Kou Hong's hostility, Li Fan merely offered a bitter smile. "It was nothing more than seeking a slim chance of survival! As this old man said before, if the Immortal Master had been defeated, my clan would surely have faced certain doom."
Hearing this, Kou Hong's expression softened slightly. He let out a soft sigh. "A fine 'seeking a slim chance of survival.' You're right. The world is harsh; who isn't struggling bitterly for that slim chance of survival?"
Seeing Kou Hong's tone soften, Li Fan immediately pressed his advantage. "Earlier, Immortal Master Dao Xuanzi promised me that if..."
Before he could finish, Kou Hong frowned and cut him off. "If it's about that, I'm afraid you will be disappointed. Perhaps Dao Xuanzi never intended to honor his promise from the very start."
Li Fan froze. "What does the Immortal Master mean by that?"
Kou Hong said with a trace of mockery, "For a century, Dao Xuanzi presented himself in public as an upright man of his word. Who would have thought he actually acted without a shred of scruples, stooping even to deceive mortals?"
He paused, observed Li Fan's expression, and continued, "How perilous the Immortal Severing Formation is! That the two of us managed to force our way in earlier was partly down to luck. Even for ourselves, leaving will take considerable effort, so how could he possibly take a mortal out?"
"What? You don't know a way to leave this place either?" Li Fan was shaken to the core, his complexion turning terribly pale. Over a century of anticipation had been flatly shattered by the immortal cultivator before him; Li Fan's composure nearly collapsed.
Fortunately, having weathered the trials of several lifetimes, his will was resolute. He steadied himself and said to Kou Hong, "This is no place to talk. Immortal Master, please come with me."
With that, he guided Kou Hong through the ruins of Xuanjing for a short distance, arriving at an underground shelter.
While Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi had been locked in combat earlier, the city's soldiers had hidden inside these shelters. Throughout Xuanjing, there were over a hundred such shelters, large and small.
Though buried deep underground, the shelter was lit by electric lights, as bright as day. Ventilation pipes connected to the outside world as well, keeping the air from turning stifling.
Kou Hong examined the lights on the ceiling with keen interest and praised, "No wonder Dao Xuanzi sought to cooperate with you mortals earlier. To constrain and utilize the power of lightning—it seems that over several millennia, you mortals in this land severed from immortality have developed quite well. And those concealed weapons from earlier packed quite an impressive punch as well."
Immediately after, he shook his head. "A pity that these artifacts are only of any use in this land where the Great Dao is incomplete. Once outside, under the suppression of the Great Dao's laws, none of these things will have any room to shine."
"Speaking of which, when did Dao Xuanzi find you and arrange for you to ambush me here? The timing doesn't add up. Could it be that he secretly cultivated an avatar technique?" Kou Hong asked abruptly as a thought crossed his mind.
Li Fan remained outwardly unperturbed. Just as he was about to answer, Kou Hong suddenly lost interest and waved his hand dismissively. "Forget it, why bother agonizing over this? Once body dies and Dao disperses, all returns to void." Having said that, he sat straight down on a chair, looking rather dispirited. Clearly, he had been shaken quite heavily by Dao Xuanzi's death.
*It's best he doesn't press the matter. Saying too much would inevitably expose flaws,* Li Fan thought to himself.
Then, with an uneasy expression, he asked Kou Hong, "Is it true what the Immortal Master said earlier about being unable to take mortals out of this land severed from immortality?"
Kou Hong scoffed. "You are a mere mortal; why would I bother lying to you? Perhaps a Golden Core cultivator could shield a mortal through that Immortal Severing Formation, but with only Foundation Establishment cultivation, it is utterly impossible!"
"Of course, if you don't mind ending up as nothing more than a few minced chunks once outside, I wouldn't mind giving it a halfhearted try."
Paying no heed to Kou Hong's tasteless dark humor, Li Fan asked, refusing to let the matter rest, "Could it be that we mortals have no hope whatsoever of leaving this world?"
Kou Hong pondered for a moment, then still shook his head. "To leave the land severed from immortality, one must brave the Immortal Severing Formation. With a mere mortal fleshly body, there is simply no possibility of making it through. Any attempt is merely courting death. Besides, you already have one foot in the grave; why are you so obsessed with leaving this place? Isn't it fine living like a local king?"
Kou Hong wore an expression of complete indifference.
"This old man does not mind dying, but I still want to leave a sliver of hope for my descendants." Refusing to give up, Li Fan asked again, "If my descendants could cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage like the Immortal Master, wouldn't it be possible to leave then?"
Kou Hong roared with laughter upon hearing this. "Setting aside that there isn't the slightest wisp of spiritual energy here, making cultivation entirely impossible—the simple fact is that immortals and mortals are eternally divided. The mortals here are steeped through and through with miasma. How could they possibly cultivate the Immortal Dao?"
Kou Hong sneered. "I advise you to give up on that idea. If you mortals wish to cultivate, you must first go to the outside world to reforge your physical bodies and wash away the miasma clinging to you. Otherwise, even if the Great Dao of immortality were set right before your eyes, you could look at it, but never touch it."
Met with such absolute certainty across several questions, Li Fan seemed to finally concede.
"Immortals and mortals are eternally divided... immortals and mortals are eternally divided..." Li Fan murmured, looking somewhat despondent. "Does that mean... there really is no way?"
"Truly none." Seeing Li Fan's spirits plunge to rock bottom, Kou Hong felt unaccountably pleased for some reason.
"Truly none," he repeated.
"Just as the Immortal Master said: immortals and mortals are eternally divided." Li Fan let out a long sigh.
"Yeah, exactly, precisely." Kou Hong nodded repeatedly.
"Since immortals and mortals cannot coexist..." Li Fan paused, enunciating each word carefully, "...then how could a mere mortal like me dare to place complete trust in the Immortal Master's words?"
His aura shifted abruptly. The subservience in his eyes vanished, replaced by the gaze of a hunter sighting its prey.
"What do you mean?" Kou Hong froze. Looking at the unremarkable mortal old man before him, Kou Hong suddenly felt a perilous aura.
"Nothing more than seeking a slim chance of survival!" Li Fan looked at Kou Hong and spoke softly, his face devoid of expression.
The floor beneath Li Fan's feet suddenly split open.
The trapdoor snapped shut once more, and in an instant, Li Fan vanished into thin air.
Kou Hong stared dumbfounded at this sudden turn of events, his heart pounding wildly as he felt an extreme crisis closing in.
Before he could react, plume after plume of dense fog reeking of immortal-mortal miasma surged out from every corner of the room.
"Argh!"
Kou Hong let out a bloodcurdling scream, swallowed whole by the dense fog.
Chapter 8