Chapter 1186: Eradicating the Soul Invisible
"Yes, the Tian Shu Academy has always been opposed to the research on the power of boundary annihilation. Over the past few years, they have been suppressing it fiercely. I don't know how many cultivators have become nourishment for the God Tree because of this. If it weren't for the fact that they couldn't hold out in recent years, I don't think they would compromise."
"Thinking about it this way, the Duànxiān Tower has made such great progress in just over five hundred years. The Tian Shu Academy has been in power for nearly ten thousand years, but has been ineffective, causing the immortal boat to decline day by day. The Tian Shu Academy deserves to die."
"The skies of the immortal boat are going to change. We, brothers, need to make plans early. Maybe we can take this opportunity to get rid of this burden..."
The three looked at each other and saw each other's ambition.
However, their covert conversation was limited to the empty space with no one around.
When they returned to the valley, they became silent and seemed resentful.
After reporting to the senior elder, they settled in a wooden house in the valley.
There are a total of one hundred cultivators living here.
Every now and then, some of them go out to the immortal boat to collect boundary annihilation relics.
The people of the immortal boat seem to be extremely afraid of the darkest starry sea outside, and they always appear uneasy before carrying out their tasks.
And indeed, the casualty rate is very high when collecting relics.
It's not that they suffer any actual harm in the dark starry sea outside the immortal boat, but every time they go out, their lifespan seems to decrease significantly.
The cultivator surnamed Zhao, Zhao Tianjiang, had noticeably deeper wrinkles on his face after going out twice.
"No wonder I haven't seen any young cultivators here. They're all middle-aged and elderly," Li Fan realized.
The people in the valley, about a hundred of them, don't practice much in their daily lives.
Aside from taking on the task of collecting relics outside, they don't have to do anything else.
From their casual conversations, Li Fan also gathered a lot of information about the immortal boat.
They call this valley the "Valley of Atonement" and it's a place of exile for cultivators who have violated the laws of the immortal boat but don't deserve death.
Collecting the boundary annihilation relics is to atone for their sins.
After making amends, they can leave this place and start a normal life again.
In their hopeful words, Li Fan glimpsed the daily life of the people of the immortal boat.
All matters in the immortal boat are governed by the "Immortal Pivot Academy".
Ordinary people in the immortal boat don't have to worry about their survival, as the Immortal Pivot Academy provides a certain amount of living supplies every year.
But it's just enough to survive.
In the immortal boat, there are strict controls over the total population and the number of cultivators.
Not only does giving birth to the next generation require approval, even cultivation has a fixed quota.
In addition to obtaining the qualification for cultivation through a draw, one can also earn it by making outstanding contributions to the immortal boat.
Such as collecting boundary annihilation relics.
In this Valley of Atonement, most people are not cultivators.
That's why they have a great fear of going out.
As ordinary people, they are able to move freely in the darkest starry sea and remain unscathed, all because of the special Immortal Armor they wear when carrying out their tasks.
In addition to ensuring their safety, it also helps identify which relics are eligible and can be exchanged for merits.
As for the purpose of the Immortal Pivot Academy in collecting these boundary annihilation relics...
The people at the bottom of the immortal boat naturally wouldn't know.
...
"It seems the immortal boat is even more divided than the Xuanhuang Realm."
"We have limited access to information by staying here. We need to find a way to leave this place."
His current divine power is too weak and cannot withstand any consumption.
It's almost impossible for him to traverse the void in the immortal boat.
And the invisible green road in the void only appears when permission is granted. Anyone who attempts to approach the void without permission will be shattered and turned into nourishment for the immortal boat.
So Li Fan remained hidden, waiting for an opportunity.
However, what he did not expect was that the opportunity did not come, but a disaster arrived.
It started with the three people, Zhao Tianjiang and his group, whom he was spying on suddenly falling ill.
At first, Zhao Tianjiang thought he was just tired and remained in bed for several days.
Later, he couldn't sleep at all, started itching all over, and couldn't sit still.
It seemed that Zhao Tianjiang remembered something, and a boundless fear surged in his eyes.
But he did not tell anyone else about it.
He even suppressed his discomfort and appeared in front of others a few times, then actively applied for another mission to collect relics.
But as he couldn't stop coughing and black spots appeared on his skin, Zhao Tianjiang hid in the house.
Holding a jade-like artifact, he was doing something unknown.
After blood began to flow from all seven orifices, the smell of blood began to spread, and the truth could no longer be hidden.
"It won't be long now. Send him back early and reunite him with his family."
"The uncertainty of fate. Old Zhao was the strongest among us physically, but still couldn't avoid being infected with the void sickness."
"He even hid his condition for a while just to earn more merits for his son before he died..."
The people sighed and looked sad.
But the senior elder showed no emotional fluctuation and simply sent Zhao Tianjiang away.
Soon, people from the immortal boat came to take Zhao Tianjiang's place at the top of the Valley of Atonement.
After Zhao Tianjiang's death, the other two cultivators with him also fell ill and died tragically shortly afterwards.
In the Valley of Atonement, everyone considered it unfortunate for them.
But only Li Fan knew that their consecutive deaths from the so-called void disease were probably due to his long-term covert presence.
"The bodies of the people of the immortal boat..."
"So fragile. They can't even withstand the slightest trace of the void aura I carry. If my true self were to come in, it would be a destructive source of infection."
Li Fan was speechless.
He didn't intend to take the lives of the three.
It's just that he had traveled a long way across the darkest starry sea and spent too long in the void.
It's likely that his soul had already been contaminated by some mysterious force in the void.
Although his spirit was strong and resistant, the fragile people of the immortal boat might not be.
In the Valley of Atonement, time passed as if nothing changed.
The entire immortal boat seemed like stagnant water, without any movement.
The opportunity that Li Fan was waiting for never came.
Until one day...
The usually serious senior elder suddenly changed his demeanor.
He called all the people in the Valley of Atonement out.
Gathered at the entrance of the valley, it seemed they were waiting for a prominent figure to arrive.
The people in the valley were uneasy, and Li Fan's divine power sensed a strong presence rapidly approaching from afar.
"Harmony stage?"
"Not only that. But it doesn't have the oppressive feeling of the Longevity Realm."
"Hmm? It also contains a hint of the power of the True Immortal Seal?"
The End.