The aura around Li Fan plummeted precipitously.
Yet his voice boomed with immense resonance, ringing across all of Ningyuan City in an instant.
Song Hesong stared dumbfounded at the scene before him, his mind turning completely blank for a moment, unable to react in time.
Li Fan flew swiftly toward Zhang Qianmo, not forgetting to whip around and hurl the jade box containing the three Longevity Fruits in the opposite direction.
Song Hesong hesitated for a fraction of a second, but ultimately chose to catch the jade box first.
This bought Li Fan precious breathing room.
"Junior Brother?!" Sensing what was happening on Li Fan's end, Zhang Qianmo roared furiously. Flashing like purple lightning, he arrived beside Li Fan in an instant.
"Strike!" Though they did not know why Song Hesong had chosen to make his move early, things had already come to this, and an arrow notched upon the bowstring had to be loosed.
Chu Liang and the three other Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals cultivators ambushing in the city immediately revealed themselves.
Having caught the Longevity Fruits, Song Hesong also flew over slowly.
With hostile expressions, the five surrounded Zhang Qianmo and the seemingly unconscious Li Fan in the center.
The other four glared fixedly at Zhang Qianmo, while only Song Hesong stared at Li Fan, a flicker of suspicion passing through his eyes.
"Senior Brother Zhang! Long time no see!" Chu Liang sneered.
"Senior Brother? Do I know you?" Zhang Qianmo's frigid gaze swept over him, traces of murderous intent lacing his tone.
Chu Liang choked on his words, then flew into a rage.
What followed was no different from what Li Fan had experienced before.
However, because he had to protect his severely injured "Junior Brother" under the siege of multiple foes this time, Zhang Qianmo revealed his purple core in advance.
Facing the encirclement of the five, Senior Brother Zhang suppressed and slaughtered them with overwhelming, crushing might.
Paying no further heed to these insignificant figures, he carried the still-unconscious Li Fan and swiftly returned to the Purple Cloud Sect.
Amid a flurry of commotion, Li Fan soon felt someone treating his injuries.
To make the act convincing, the blow he had struck against himself earlier had truly not been light.
Fortunately, it was not beyond healing.
After gradual recuperation, his condition finally stabilized, and his life was no longer in danger.
Yet, under Li Fan's deliberate control, he remained perpetually comatose.
In the beginning, quite a few people came to visit him.
However, as time passed and Li Fan showed no signs of waking, gradually, only Zhang Qianmo would drop by occasionally.
Li Fan's room grew quiet and deserted.
And so, half a year went by.
One night, a ghostly figure quietly slipped up to Li Fan's bedside.
In the dark of night, the figure's features were obscured.
It merely stared down at the sleeping Li Fan, lips curling into a sinister grin.
Then, a faint dividing line appeared between him and Li Fan.
The scene twisted and warped, and the room was cleaved in two along the dividing line.
It turned into two perfectly mirrored halves.
The shadowy figure also took the appearance of being grievously wounded, lying quietly upon the bed.
As the dividing line flickered with fluctuating radiance, the two mirrored worlds gradually drew closer and merged together.
When the two figures fused completely, the dividing line vanished without a trace.
Tranquility returned to the dark, small room as if nothing had happened.
Yet within the sea of consciousness of the body on the bed, earth-shaking, tempestuous changes were taking place.
"What is this? How can this Li Chen's divine soul be an empty shell?"
After devouring the Purple Cloud Sect's Li Chen lying on the bed, the Dharma King of the Profound Heaven Sect reaped nothing at all from his divine soul.
It was like an apple hollowed out by worms, leaving only the thinnest outer peel!
The Dharma King inwardly cursed, thinking this was a trap set by the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao to capture him.
Immediately after, his expression shifted abruptly.
Because having fused with "Li Chen's" divine soul, something foreign seemed to have slipped into his own mind as well.
It was exceptionally well concealed.
In his earlier shock, he had even overlooked its presence.
Now that he had regained his senses, this tiny speck naturally could not escape his discerning sight.
"Courting death!"
Realizing that this entity was actually prying into the memories within his mind, the Dharma King flew into a violent rage.
His divine intent roared, crushing that speck to pieces in an instant.
...
"Ugh..."
Returning from the Fallen Immortal Realm to reality, Li Fan let out a muffled groan.
Evidently, due to this encounter in the Fallen Immortal Realm, his divine soul had suffered considerable injury.
The Limitless Waxing and Waning Method circulated naturally, repairing the damage.
Li Fan remained immersed in the memories he had just glimpsed from the Dharma King of the Profound Heaven Sect.
Though it had only been a fleeting glimpse, it had allowed him to glean an abundance of critical and staggering information.
"The King of Profound Heaven, the Grand Star-Crossing Array..."
"And..."
"The Faceless True Immortal."
A strange glow flared in Li Fan's eyes.
This Dharma King who possessed Li Chen was named Mo Rubin.
In the ancient cultivation world, before the Profound Heaven Sect had been founded, he was once a member of the cultivation sect known as the Nine Refinements Abbey.
Later, he was persuaded by the King of Profound Heaven to join the Profound Heaven Sect.
...
"The Pitch-Black Star Sea, the High Wall..."
"To think I transmigrated into such a desperate predicament."
Yet Li Fan felt not the slightest despair.
Having learned of the greater backdrop of this world, his horizon had broadened exponentially in an instant.
"It seems my previous thought of escaping the Xuanhuang Realm is impossible to realize. If I want to seek a sliver of survival, I must establish a firm foothold in the Xuanhuang Realm after all."
"Only the power of a True Immortal can leap over the High Wall, eh?"
Li Fan's eyes flickered.
Suddenly, Li Fan thought of the supreme treasure, the fishing pond.
He seemed to realize a certain possibility for breaking the deadlock, and his thoughts spun rapidly.
"Senior Stone Slab said that while we fish in the pond, the fishing pond is also fishing across the heavens, gathering treasures from the outside world to replenish itself."
"If the information I learned from Mo Rubin's sea of consciousness is true, then in this starry expanse where the Xuanhuang Realm resides, the vast majority of cultivation realms have long since been swallowed by the Immortal Ruins."
"In that case..."
"It is very likely that the treasures recently gathered by the fishing pond come from beyond the High Wall."
"This also implies that the so-called High Wall is not completely sealed shut."
"Contact can still be maintained between the inside and outside of the High Wall. Just like..."
"...that statue of the Faceless True Immortal."
Having learned part of the truth, Li Fan's worries regarding the stone statue lessened somewhat for the time being.
Evidently, even a True Immortal would not readily set foot in a place like the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Looking on the bright side, this also meant that aside from the True Immortal within the Immortal Ruins, Li Fan at least did not have to worry about another True Immortal suddenly descending and swatting him to death.
"The Pitch-Black Star Sea. A forbidden zone for living beings."
"Yet for me, it is a relatively safe place to grow."
"The premise is that I can successfully walk out of this dead land."
Having learned so much about him, Li Fan's dread regarding Mo Rubin had also diminished considerably.
He even began calculating how to extract some benefits from him.
Chapter 899