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Li Fan felt disheartened as he looked at Kou Hong's confession on the table.
Kou Hong hadn't lied to him; he truly didn't know of any way for mortals to leave the Severed Immortal Land.
"Severed Immortal Land..." Five reincarnations, three hundred years of anticipation, all now seemed like a distant, unattainable dream.
His dream of immortality shattered, Li Fan seemed to age overnight.
Not just physically, but also mentally.
"Severed Immortal Land..." He repeated the name in his heart, a surge of unwillingness rising within him.
"Why did I end up being reborn in such a place? If I had been reborn in the outside cultivation world, with the infinite simulation capabilities of [True Illusion], I would surely have a chance at eternal life. How hateful, it had to be this Severed Immortal Land!"
Kou Hong's confession once again flashed through Li Fan's mind.
The so-called Severed Immortal Land, as the name suggests, is a place where immortals have vanished. Thousands of years ago, the ancient cultivation world faced a great change.
At first, it was just a pandemic that swept through the mortal world, and no cultivators paid much attention to it.
But later, when a cultivator accidentally contracted this mysterious pandemic, things completely spiraled out of control.
After this infection, the pandemic seemed to gain some mysterious strength, becoming capable of spreading among cultivators.
The means of transmission was none other than the spiritual qi on which cultivators depend.
The pandemic spread rapidly through the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, infecting the entire cultivation world. Cultivators who contracted this pandemic either regressed in cultivation, fell from their realms, or lost all their cultivation overnight, becoming no different from mortals. They would die within a few days, their paths returning to the heavens.
As large numbers of cultivators died, a sense of despair began to spread among the cultivator community.
Some cultivators, in their despair, vented their anger on the source of all this, the mortals.
Thus, large-scale massacres began.
Faced with the high and mighty Immortal Masters, mortals had almost no means of resistance and could only be slaughtered.
But soon, these massacres were forcibly halted.
Not because they had a change of heart, but because the cultivators were horrified to discover that as they massacred, and large numbers of mortals died, the pandemic within these mortals did not disappear with death. Instead, it seemed to lose its restraints and spread through the spiritual qi that permeated the world.
For a time, the amount of pandemic in the cultivation world skyrocketed.
This led to even more cultivators falling.
Reluctantly, the cultivators abandoned these massacres against mortals.
But sitting idly by waiting for death was not the way of cultivators. On one hand, a group of cultivators began to develop methods to treat and resist this pandemic. On the other hand, the cultivators proposed the infamous [Great Migration Plan].
Although this plan was opposed by a significant number of cultivators from the start, most of them ultimately voted in favor of it for their own survival.
The so-called [Great Migration Plan] was based on the following considerations:
Mortals could not be killed, and finding a way to completely solve this pandemic was a distant prospect. If mortals were allowed to reproduce freely, the pandemic would only increase, making life increasingly difficult for cultivators.
Since this strange pandemic spread through spiritual qi, a logical solution was proposed.
All the mortals in the cultivation world were to be exiled to small worlds, shattered grottos, and other places without spiritual qi. Then, using formation arrays, these mortals would be permanently isolated, preventing them from returning.
This would solve the mortal problem once and for all, allowing cultivators to focus on researching ways to combat the pandemic.
After all, undeveloped small worlds were virtually endless, and there was no worry about not having enough space for these mortals.
Thus, under the unified will of the entire cultivation world, the migration of all mortals in the cultivation world began, lasting for hundreds of years.
The number of mortals who would die during this migration over the course of these hundreds of years was not a concern for these cultivators. After all, in the face of the power of cultivators, mortals had no means of resistance.
And so, after hundreds of years of mass migration, all the mortals in the cultivation world were dispersed to the surrounding small worlds. After nearly a thousand years, the concentration of the pandemic in the cultivation world finally decreased to a lower level.
Over a thousand years, cultivators, through constant research, finally found a way to purify this pandemic.
It took several thousand more years for the cultivators to completely eliminate the threat of this pandemic.
However, what embarrassed the cultivators was that this pandemic lingered, hidden in the bloodlines of mortals.
Originally, the world had no mortals, but not every descendant of cultivators had the aptitude to cultivate.
Over time, many mortals were born again in the world, and these mortals carried the shadow of this pandemic within them.
Since this pandemic had a special lethal effect on cultivators, the descendants of mortals who wished to cultivate had to clear the pandemic from their bodies.
Over time, this pandemic became a symbol of the distinction between mortals and immortals, and it was named Mortal Immortal Miasma.
The rampant spread of Mortal Immortal Miasma left a deep psychological shadow on all cultivators. To prevent its resurgence, cultivators made it a common practice to avoid the places where mortals had been exiled.
Over time, these places became known as the Severed Immortal Lands.
There are countless Severed Immortal Lands, and the number of cultivators willing to risk entering these places is few and far between.
For Li Fan to encounter two of them was already a stroke of luck.
Now, since these two cultivators had no way to help mortals leave, how could Li Fan expect another, more powerful cultivator to come along?
Moreover, as a mortal, his lifespan was limited. Even if he could continuously simulate reincarnation, it would only be a repetition within the bounds of his lifespan.
He was already seventy years old, and his physiological lifespan limit was eighty-six years.
In these sixteen years, the possibility of encountering another cultivator was virtually zero.
Given this, how could Li Fan not feel desperate?
He had seen the hope of cultivation and eternal life, only to find that it was all a false joy.
Was he really destined to repeat the life of a mortal, lifetime after lifetime?
Li Fan was truly unwilling.
The path to immortality was right before his eyes, within reach, yet far away, out of reach.
How could Li Fan accept this?
Thinking about everything he had experienced through his several reincarnations and the nearly three hundred years of waiting, Li Fan was unwilling to give up on the path to immortality.
Was there really no way?
Suddenly, as if a lightning bolt had cut through the fog, Li Fan remembered something he had overlooked.
Thousands of years ago, how did the masses of mortals migrate?
Small worlds and the cultivation world, though adjacent, are not the same world.
These mortals couldn't have walked here, could they?
There must have been some means of transportation to bring them here.
Do these tools still exist?
If he could find these tools, could he then go to the cultivation world?
Even if it was just a tiny, insignificant possibility, it gave Li Fan a glimmer of hope for cultivation.
His mood became excited, and he immediately went to the prison where Kou Hong was being held.
He wanted to verify the feasibility of his idea with Kou Hong.
(End of Chapter)