"How truly pathetic..."
Everything he had learned from the young Dharma Transmitter's mind regarding the events in the Xuanhuang Realm during his slumber gave this Profound Heaven Dharma King the absurd illusion that he was reading a third-rate farce.
"A great calamity looms near, yet they still squabble endlessly..."
"Perhaps human nature is simply so. The King of Profound Heaven's judgment was not mistaken back then."
The Profound Heaven Dharma King shook his head slightly.
Of course, he harbored no desire to set the world right.
What he wanted now was simply to find the King of Profound Heaven, and then flee before the Xuanhuang Realm plummeted completely into the Immortal Ruins.
If the King of Profound Heaven was truly gone without a trace...
Then he would have to find a way on his own.
Within the young Dharma Transmitter's mind, there were numerous contingency plans for escape.
Yet in the eyes of the Profound Heaven Dharma King, none of those plans held much feasibility.
What was meant by the "Pitch-Black Star Sea"?
Why had the King of Profound Heaven insisted so adamantly that only those possessing the might of the True Immortal realm could escape this dead domain?
The myriad escape plans deduced by the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals could indeed allow a portion of people to break away from the Xuanhuang Realm and temporarily escape the pull of the Immortal Ruins.
However, the reach of the Immortal Ruins spanned an unimaginably boundless void.
Within that void, the numerous cultivation worlds that were once brimming with vitality like clusters of stars had all been swallowed by the Immortal Ruins over the years.
Because of this, the once-brilliant sea of stars had turned pitch-black and utterly dead.
Escaping the Xuanhuang Realm was something many could achieve.
Yet escaping this dark cage...
It was not merely because this dark void was far too vast. Even a powerhouse of the Longevity realm who rashly flew into it without reference points or guiding beacons would meet only one end: becoming hopelessly lost and trapped until death.
More importantly, beyond the Pitch-Black Star Sea, an artificial "High Wall" had been erected.
Standing at the edge of the Pitch-Black Star Sea, it was an insurmountable barrier that caused every living being who sought to break through to sigh in despair.
The King of Profound Heaven speculated that this High Wall had likely been built by cultivators beyond the Pitch-Black Star Sea to prevent the catastrophe of the Immortal Ruins from spreading further outward.
To cross the High Wall, one had to unleash power transcending mortals in a single instant.
Otherwise, any so-called escape was merely moving from one corner of the cage to another.
"If the Grand Star-Crossing Array were still intact, given the current scale of the Xuanhuang Realm, running the array at full capacity might produce a peak burst sufficient to clear the High Wall."
The youth pondered, glancing around at the ruins of the Purple Cloud Sect.
With a casual wave of his hand, he dispelled the Nine Heavens Ten Earths Array blanketing the area.
His figure then blurred and vanished into thin air.
The Purple Cloud Sect ruins once again sank into their long-standing tranquility.
A full seven days passed.
The air twisted, and a figure abruptly materialized.
The Profound Heaven Dharma King, who had supposedly departed, had unexpectedly returned.
Or rather, he had never left at all.
His earlier "departure" had been nothing more than an illusion.
"I had hoped to meet that brother from our sect. What a pity."
Since fate did not align, the Profound Heaven Dharma King did not insist.
With a flicker, his form vanished entirely.
This time, it was no feint—he had truly left.
More than ten days later, a furtive figure arrived outside the Purple Cloud Sect ruins.
His features were obscured, and his aura was completely concealed.
It was Li Fan.
He observed from a distance for a while, confirming there was no danger and sensing no warning in his heart.
Only then did he cautiously step forward.
During this time, after shifting trouble onto the Alliance's Dharma Transmitter, he had waited patiently in the vicinity.
He had waited until he sensed the aura here had completely vanished, and then waited much longer before finally returning.
He had originally expected that when two titans clashed, at least one would be wounded.
Yet somewhat beyond his expectations, the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals had shown no reaction to this incident at all.
Even the exposed members of the Congyun Sea Mutual Aid Society had not faced pursuit from the Alliance.
It was as though none of it had ever happened.
Li Fan wanted to know what on earth had transpired here.
A silver gleam rose in his eyes, and a hidden array in the air was activated.
This was an array Li Fan had deduced using the Terminal Dissociation Disc, standing an entire tier above the current era and nearly impossible for other cultivators to detect.
It possessed only a single function: to record everything that occurred within its coverage.
As Li Fan continuously cast his technique, the scenes from a dozen days prior resurfaced in the air, vivid and lifelike.
Seeing the Profound Heaven Dharma King's bizarre and uncanny divine ability, Li Fan felt a wave of horror rise within him.
In particular, when the Dharma King devoured the young Dharma Transmitter—who was suspected to be at peak Dao Integration—with almost effortless ease, Li Fan's mind was deeply shaken.
Taking a deep breath, he finally quelled the shock within his heart.
"Is this the strength of a Profound Heaven Dharma King?"
"It truly is unimaginably grotesque and impossible to guard against."
Putting himself in the young Dharma Transmitter's shoes, Li Fan could not think of an appropriate countermeasure for a moment.
Although he possessed the immense strength of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens and the protection of the Seven-Colored Divine Light, against such an extraordinarily bizarre offensive method of the Profound Heaven Sect, they offered no significant advantage.
Li Fan could not help but recall the several divine arts of the Profound Heaven Sect he had witnessed back in Senior Sister Zhao's illusion:
The *Heaven and Earth Mutual Conquest Rhapsody*, the *Eternal Sole Self Incantation*, the *Soul-Severing Spirit-Illuminating Art*, and the *Heaven-Grieving Earth-Lamenting Scripture*.
With just the single *Eternal Sole Self Incantation*, Senior Sister Zhao had been able to become Heavenly Venerable Yixin.
That alone proved how formidable the Profound Heaven Sect's heritage truly was.
"Fortunately, I was prudent enough not to provoke him just because my strength had grown so much. Otherwise, I might have been forced into True Reversion once again," Li Fan sighed inwardly.
Li Fan then saw that after devouring the young Dharma Transmitter, the Profound Heaven Dharma King had fallen into a daze.
From time to time, the man looked up at the sky or muttered to himself.
Upon hearing that, through a trick of fate, the other party had mistaken him for a member of the Profound Heaven Sect, Li Fan's expression shifted slightly.
After that, the Dharma King seemed to fall into reminiscence.
Li Fan could only faintly make out words like "King of Profound Heaven" and "escape" that the man uttered from time to time.
However, he had no way of knowing what the Dharma King was actually thinking.
Li Fan continued playing the recording.
When he saw the Dharma King play a trick and lie in ambush waiting for him, Li Fan could not help but sneer.
If he had not been one hundred percent certain of his safety, how could he have shown himself?
Patiently fast-forwarding through the remaining recorded footage, Li Fan erased the array.
He then hurried back to the Spirit Wood Realm.
Arriving at the circular hall where the faceless Profound Heaven Divine Statue stood, Li Fan stared intently at the stone figure.
"Originally, I thought I could use this as bait to lure out remnants of the Profound Heaven Sect."
"Then shut the doors to beat the dog, capture them alive, and extract ancient secrets of the Profound Heaven Sect from their minds."
"Now it seems I overestimated myself."
"If I truly lured in someone at the level of a Profound Heaven Dharma King, I'm afraid I would be the dog being caught instead."
Chapter 896