Li Fan's expression darkened, and he said not a word.
Immediately, he circulated the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method in an attempt to repair the damage to his divine soul.
Yet to his immense surprise, the method—reputed to have "inexhaustible power, an immortal divine soul"—completely lost its restorative potency against this withered divine soul!
Noticing that the smudge of blackness within his divine soul seemed poised to spread, Li Fan's heart sank. Decisively, he chose to excise the decaying portion.
As if struck squarely on the head by a heavy hammer, Li Fan saw stars and was overcome with dizziness.
His face grew somewhat pale. In that single instant, at least half a year's worth of soul-nourishing benefits from the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method had been wiped clean!
Li Fan instantly understood what had just happened to him.
If one were to quantify the strength of a divine soul into a concrete value, all the various soul injuries Li Fan had suffered in the past had merely been temporary reductions of that number. Once he ran the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method, the value would return to its peak.
However, this soul withering of unknown origin directly affected the maximum cap of his soul strength!
No matter how adept the Limitless Waxing and Waning Method was at patching things up, once the ceiling itself was shaved away out of thin air, it was powerless to help!
A dangerous glint flickered in Li Fan's eyes. His figure flashed, instinctively putting distance between himself and the dead-drunk Han Zhong before him.
The drunkard seemed entirely oblivious to what had transpired, continuing to babble nonsense.
Forcibly suppressing the murderous intent in his heart, Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly, and a torrent of water suddenly manifested above Han Zhong's head.
*Splash!*
A continuous cascade poured down upon Han Zhong.
"Hm? Huh?!"
Han Zhong truly was dead drunk. Only after being thoroughly drenched for quite some time did he groggily come to his senses.
He stared blankly at the column of water falling from above, his face filled with bewilderment.
"Awake?" Li Fan's cold voice then reached his ears.
Only then did Han Zhong realize an uninvited guest had appeared in his room at some unknown point.
Raising a hand to shield himself from the water, he slowly stood up.
"You are..."
"Who I am is not important. What is important is that I am very interested in your experiences." Li Fan's gaze swept back and forth across Han Zhong.
A chill immediately crept into Han Zhong's heart.
Recognizing that the newcomer was not someone to be trifled with, Han Zhong dared not be remiss.
Cupping his hands with great respect, he said, "Senior, please ask whatever you wish. I will surely tell you everything I know, holding nothing back."
Li Fan nodded slightly. "I just heard you muttering in your drunken stupor that no one believed you... What was that about?"
Hearing this, Han Zhong's expression turned somewhat peculiar.
"Actually, it is a rather... wondrous experience of mine. I once spoke of it to others, but not a soul would believe me. I even reported it to the Alliance, yet in the end it was simply shelved without resolution. If Senior is truly interested, I can recount it once more," Han Zhong said, feeling rather uneasy.
Having received Li Fan's assent, he fell silent for a moment, seemingly organizing his thoughts.
Only then did he slowly say, "I don't know how many years ago it was, but I did something foolish..."
At his very first sentence, Li Fan interrupted him.
"What do you mean, 'don't know how many years ago'?" Li Fan looked at the Golden Core cultivator before him, who could not possibly be more than a hundred years old, his brow furrowing slightly.
Han Zhong gave a wry smile. "Because Junior truly does not know how much time elapsed between my departure from the Xuanhuang Realm and my return. People I knew have already passed away, and even my original Alliance identity was expunged because too much time had passed.
"Even the Heavenly Profound Mirror no longer recognized me. The considerable contribution points I had accumulated back then are all gone."
Hearing the words "departure from the Xuanhuang Realm," Li Fan's heart gave a leap.
And the subsequent "return" made him certain that the culprit behind that abnormal spatial fluctuation was none other than the Han Zhong standing before him.
This naturally piqued Li Fan's curiosity regarding what the man had gone through.
"Continue."
Seeing that Li Fan had not mocked him, Han Zhong felt his spirits lift.
He reached for the wine jar beside him and took a swig.
Then he continued his tale: "Back then, I was young and headstrong, skeptical of all authority.
"When my travels brought me to Jiushan Province, I was awestruck by the wondrous sight of the nine mountains stretching across the land where cultivators were forbidden to fly. I also heard that using a teleportation array within Jiushan Province carried immense risk...
"I don't know what got into my head back then, but I just had to court death and try it."
Han Zhong sighed.
Li Fan's eyes narrowed, and something instantly clicked in his memory.
Back when he had researched information on Jiushan Province, Li Fan had come across an anecdote.
It spoke of an unfortunate cultivator who, harboring a reckless hope of luck, insisted on trying to use a teleportation array in Jiushan Province.
As a result, he was directly teleported beyond the Xuanhuang Realm, never to return.
"You are that unlucky bastard who was supposedly teleported beyond the Xuanhuang Realm?" Li Fan could not help asking.
Han Zhong had not expected this senior to have heard of his deeds, and an old blush instantly flushed across his face.
"It was indeed Junior. Back then, not knowing the heights of the heavens or the depths of the earth, I truly committed a foolish act."
Li Fan grew even more interested. "After leaving the Xuanhuang Realm, where did you go? And what did you see?"
A trace of terror and bewilderment flickered across Han Zhong's eyes.
"Actually...
"I'm not quite sure where I was after leaving the Xuanhuang Realm either. It felt as though I was enveloped in an invisible bubble, drifting and wandering through boundless darkness.
"Most of the time, the outside was an unchanging expanse of black. But occasionally, distorted sights would flash past at blinding speed.
"Yet..."
Han Zhong shivered. "I was on the brink of being driven mad back then. So I'm not certain whether what I saw was an illusion or not."
"So what exactly did you see?" Li Fan's tone carried a hint of impatience.
"I saw..." Han Zhong went silent for a long while.
The expression on his face suggested he was waging an intense internal struggle.
Only then did he lower his voice and stammer tremulously, "I... I think I saw the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable."
With that, he cast the Water Mirror Technique to display the imagery he had witnessed.
Upon the circular screen of light lay limitless darkness.
Suddenly, a flash of golden light burst forth.
It was strikingly conspicuous against that expanse of black.
Drawing closer, the golden radiance faintly revealed a figure.
A head of white hair, a flowing long beard. Solemn in countenance, exuding majestic authority without anger.
And this person's appearance was something that ought to be known to everyone throughout the Xuanhuang Realm and the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals!
It was identical to the stone statues of the Dharma-Transmitting Heavenly Venerable erected in every floating sky city!
"He...
"He should be Chuanfa, right?"
Han Zhong asked somewhat uncertainly.
Li Fan stared at the scene on the screen of light and slowly nodded.
As for Chuanfa appearing outside the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan was not surprised.
What truly drew his attention...
was what lay behind Chuanfa.
Chuanfa was hurtling through the endless void, with several golden chains extending from his body.
They were connected to whatever was behind him.
Chapter 909