Having used the Faceless Stone Statue to utilize the power of the Dark Sea several times before achieving the Half-Immortal realm, Li Fan was quite familiar with it. Now, as a Half-Immortal, capturing the energy accumulated within the Dark Sea was easy.
Since he wasn't its master, the Dark Sea's power resisted fiercely. However, Li Fan was far stronger now. Their resistance was futile. He subdued them all, gathering the power, which, being born from a True Immortal's remains, possessed a quasi-infinite nature similar to true Immortal power. It converged in his palm, compressing endlessly.
When the entire Dark Sea was absorbed, its darkness fading, only a small, shimmering black pearl remained in Li Fan's palm. As the lingering darkness dissipated, Li Fan finally saw the True Immortal remains, or rather, what was left of them.
The body had been completely drained by the Spirit Gathering Ascension Formation, leaving only faint traces, thinner than shadows, barely visible even to Li Fan's enhanced perception.
"The Immortal has returned~" Li Fan observed the fading remnants. They were too fragile to offer any useful information. He gently blew on them, scattering them completely.
This wasn't an act of compassion, but a way to check for other remnants within the Dark Sea. There were none. Besides a faint roar from the True Immortal's will to survive below, there were no other reactions within the vast Dark Sea, the Xuanhuang World, or the countless Star Seas within the testing ground.
"It seems this True Immortal is truly dead."
The original purpose of the Spirit Gathering Ascension Formation within the Dark Sea was to power the Xuanhuang World's escape from the Immortal Ruins. Now, Li Fan could achieve this single-handedly. Even with the Hill-Guarding Immortal's help, his displayed power far surpassed the entire Dark Sea. Subduing and cleansing it was effortless.
Li Fan then turned his attention to the last element here: the True Immortal's will to survive. It resembled a withered branch, a hunched figure. Sensing Li Fan, it displayed both fear and longing, like a wild beast observing a hunter, torn between fleeing and greed.
Like feeding a pet, Li Fan offered it a sliver of his energy. The will to survive circled it cautiously before devouring it. Li Fan smiled faintly.
"Truly a foolish creature driven only by instinct."
"This is the Ink Slaughter Immortal Soul, merged with the Great Dao. You can't digest it so easily."
The will to survive tried to consume the energy, but couldn't even make a dent. Instead, the "food" began to devour it from within!
The will to survive roared like an ancient beast, but its struggles were futile against the Ink Slaughter Immortal Soul. It thrashed helplessly in the depths of the Dark Sea. Finally, it was assimilated, becoming another Dao image within the Ink Slaughter Immortal Soul.
Li Fan searched for remnants of memories within this fragment of the True Immortal's will, but found only instinctive desires for consumption and survival.
"What a pity."
"I couldn't uncover the identity of this True Immortal buried in the Dark Sea."
"But it's just an ordinary True Immortal. Insignificant." Capable of casually suppressing even those in the Unnamed realm, Li Fan could now say this.
He looked at the empty Dark Sea, pondering its future use, when he sensed a faint energy forming.
"Hmm?"
The energy source had been completely absorbed. Where was this new energy coming from? Li Fan was surprised but not alarmed. He scanned the area, discovering that the faint energy, like tiny points of light, originated from various parts of the Xuanhuang World.
These points were even smaller than the remnants of the True Immortal. If not for their sudden appearance within the now empty Dark Sea, Li Fan would have overlooked them. He tried to grasp them, but they popped like bubbles upon contact, seemingly not entering his body but vanishing into the unknown.
After pondering, he gathered all the points of light, forming a glowing sphere, and observed carefully. When the quantity reached a certain level, a sense of familiarity arose.
"This is…"
"Spirituality?"
"No. Not on the level of True Return, much lower."
"But still a concentration of cultivation talent."
Holding the glowing sphere and the black sphere formed from the Dark Sea, Li Fan understood.
"The beings in the Xuanhuang World were originally designed as chess pieces, their attributes – appearance, talent, personality – predetermined."
"These spheres of light are the power that bestows talent upon them, drawn into the Dark Sea because the True Immortal's will to survive instinctively tried to seize it…"
Li Fan frowned.
"Although the beings in the Xuanhuang World are chess pieces, they belong to the high-ranking figures of the Immortal Realm. A mere will to survive…"
He looked at the Xuanhuang World, wanting to replicate this process, to plunder the talent of its beings, but he couldn't.
"Although the will to survive is gone, this outflow of talent continues."
Li Fan recalled a discussion with Daoist Hundred Flowers and Craftsman Qiao. During the calamity, many cultivators witnessed their homeworlds collapsing into the Immortal Ruins, transforming into distorted rings of light. As the worlds vanished, a stream of something seemed to erupt from the opposite direction, undetectable by sight or divine sense.
The former ancestor of the Heavenly Mechanism Realm's Immortal Puppets had decayed due to the constant drain of something near the Immortal Ruins. Craftsman Qiao had even used it as an excuse for becoming "dumber."
"The Hunger Immortal is suppressed. The Immortal Ruins are gone…"
Li Fan appeared in the starry sky outside the Xuanhuang World, taking half of the light points. Here, they didn't flow towards anything, simply floating before dimming and fading. Before they vanished completely, Li Fan gathered them again.
Although a small sphere, if bestowed upon a single person, it would grant them talent comparable to Zhang Haobo or Xiao Fan.
"It seems the Xuanhuang World, having been near the Immortal Ruins for so long, has developed this characteristic."
"The talent and spirituality of its beings are being drawn out in the opposite direction of the Immortal Ruins' pull. Even with the Immortal Ruins gone, this trend persists."
After conducting experiments in various locations within the Dark Star Sea, Li Fan concluded, "At least there's no other anomaly at play." He was relieved.
But naturally, he was curious about the cause. His understanding of the Hunger Seal Character was second only to the Hunger Immortal's in the original possibility. He knew it created a powerful pull that devoured everything, but he hadn't noticed anything being repelled by it.
Testing this was easy. At the center of the Dark Star Sea, he unleashed a Hunger Seal Character. Although weaker than the Immortal Ruins, it still created a massive vortex, causing turbulence in the Star Sea.
Unmoved by the churning chaos, Li Fan grabbed a group of Nether Race members who had fallen into despair after the Dark Sea's disappearance and tossed them into the vortex one by one.
Although physically strong, they were no match for the Hunger Seal Character's power, instantly disintegrating. Li Fan observed dispassionately. He hadn't paid attention to it before, so overlooking the spiritual matter was understandable. Now, observing carefully, he indeed saw the intangible substance.
Since the Nether Race members were descendants of the Xuanhuang World's first Grand Celestial Venerable, the amount of spiritual matter extracted wasn't insignificant. Like a gold prospector, Li Fan gathered it all.
"Interesting. Why does cultivating the Hunger Seal Character cause this phenomenon?"
"Perhaps it's related to the Dao of Hunger itself."
Li Fan recalled suppressing the Hunger Immortal. Even facing the Hill-Guarding Immortal's projections, she hadn't surrendered easily but fought back fiercely. Although futile, what struck Li Fan was her eerie, ghostly cry of "Hungry, I'm so hungry!"
It sounded less like her and more like a mysterious entity from beyond the Great Dao, threatening to devour the mountains and seas, turning everything into sustenance.
Li Fan looked at the Hunger Immortal pillar.
"There's something wrong with this Dao of Hunger."
"Is it not native to the original possibility, but an invader that has usurped its place?" He wasn't entirely certain, but the evidence strongly suggested it.
"Spiritual matter is closely related to the creation of life, a fundamental component of possibilities. This foreign Dao of Hunger, although seemingly in control, hasn't truly merged with this world."
"That's why this expulsion phenomenon occurs during its consumption."
The proof was within the Hunger Immortal's memories. Now a pillar, her past was open to Li Fan's scrutiny. The truth was within reach.
"If the Beastkin Race could escape from another possibility, other outsiders aren't surprising."
"However, from a later perspective, it's rather ironic."
"These outsiders, like the so-called transcendent True Immortals who fled the original possibility, struggled to find safety, only to meet their demise."
"Or perhaps…" Li Fan's eyes narrowed, his mind filled with images of countless possibilities. With his current deductive abilities, even without knowing their names, he could partially reconstruct past events based on their outcomes.
"These outsiders never intended to stay here permanently, merely using it as a temporary refuge. If they could escape once, they could escape again…"
"At least, that's what they believed. If the Dao Obliteration Calamity returned, they would simply flee again."
"Besides favorable circumstances, resisting a calamity requires unity. But if there are such inherent escapists among them…" Having been a Grand Tutor for decades, Li Fan knew the danger of such individuals.
Their own negativity wasn't the biggest problem. The true danger was their influence on others, spreading like a plague, with unimaginable consequences.
"This isn't just my conjecture."
"Such people existed in the Immortal Realm." A figure appeared in Li Fan's mind.
"Sun Piaomiao."
"And those who created the Immortal Domain chess pieces."
"And Qingyin and the True Immortal Ling, who oversaw this testing ground before abandoning it."
"This is just the tip of the iceberg. I can imagine how many more were like them in the Immortal Realm."
"Working with such people, even with his grand ambitions, Immortal Emperor Tianluo was destined to fail. If I were him, I would lure these escapists together and eliminate them all!"
"Not only to solidify morale, but also to gain materials to resist Dao Obliteration…" A sinister glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
This wasn't because he aspired to be a savior emperor, but merely a thought experiment, putting himself in the emperor's shoes. The past was gone. Only remnants remained in this original possibility.
All Li Fan could do now was, like those escapists, find another world to inhabit.
(End of Chapter)