Chapter 961: The Fragmented Soul of a Thousand Worlds

The originally dim and broken look in Master Yin’s eyes suddenly turned into one of hope.

As if struck by revelation, he said, “I understand now!”

“The only dual Heavenly Sovereign of the Xuanhuang Realm, both ancient and new, a person of such supreme goodness and beauty…”

“He must also be a being of unmatched intelligence!”

Master Yin’s voice grew louder and louder. “So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…”

“In those years, when he defied the laws of heaven and suffered the destruction caused by the Immortal-Mortal Miasma, he did not die instantly. His strength merely declined gradually.”

“That period of time would have been enough for him to set up countless contingencies! All the mysteries, all the confusion… perhaps the answers can be found within those very arrangements!”

“Yes, that must be it!”

Hearing this, Li Fan’s heart stirred. “Mr. Bai’s contingencies?”

He recalled his experiences within the Fallen Immortal Realm. Every scene, every event was tied to Mr. Bai’s past. It was clear that all of it was a kind of guidance.

The Fallen Immortal Realm must ultimately conceal the true goal that Mr. Bai wanted to convey.

Perhaps…

Li Fan remembered his 115th reincarnation, when Mr. Bai’s traces left in heaven and earth had been enough to grant him a limited resurrection.

Who could say that the real “Su Bai” might not have, through some means, truly been reborn thousands of years later?

…

As Li Fan pondered this, Master Yin in front of him became increasingly deranged.

“Yes! He is still waiting for me! I must go find him!”

The crack running through the center of his body—formed through cultivation of the Oneself as the Foundation Method—was becoming more and more visible.

Within Master Yin’s body, another figure seemed to stir restlessly, as though trying to crawl its way out.

In Li Fan’s ears, faint sounds of falling rain began to echo.

At first, it was subtle, like an illusion.

But soon, the rain grew heavier, turning into a torrential downpour flooding the land.

Within this phantasmal storm, even the stone floor of the laboratory softened and turned to mud.

Li Fan’s expression remained calm, but his body floated into the air, quietly retreating a few steps—just beyond the range of the mud.

From the soft, oozing ground, countless pale arms began to writhe and stretch out. Li Fan’s pupils shrank sharply.

Master Yin’s body began to spasm uncontrollably.

His voice grew broken and indistinct.

Moments later, the countless pale arms surged toward him like fish swimming through water.

The instant they touched his flesh, they forcibly pierced into it.

At the point of contact, the arms dissolved—and then burrowed deep into his body.

A faint pop, like a bursting bubble, sounded clearly.

Then, thousands more pale arms rushed toward him in a frenzy.

In an instant, Master Yin’s entire body seemed to boil violently, churning in grotesque waves.

Even the surrounding space began to twist and distort.

Watching the horrifying sight, Li Fan’s expression turned grim.

He had seen much and fought beings on par with Dao Integration experts, yet he had never encountered anything like this. Not once in all his cycles of reincarnation had he even heard of such a phenomenon. ꞦÂ₦O͍BЁꞩ

Li Fan closed his eyes. The nightmarish visions before him vanished instantly.

Everything became calm and still, as if nothing existed.

Even the sounds in his ears faded into complete silence.

His divine sense could perceive nothing at all.

When he opened his eyes again, the terrifying scene returned.

The “water” boiled even more violently, yet Master Yin, at the center of it all, now wore a serene expression.

Like a monk attaining enlightenment, the pain and confusion left his face completely.

Amid the surreal vision, only one thing remained unchanged—the rib belonging to Mr. Bai, hidden at Master Yin’s chest.

It stood out starkly, like a cord tethering him firmly to the real world as his form grew more and more ethereal.

Master Yin gazed at the rib reluctantly, then his expression hardened with resolve.

He flung it toward Li Fan.

As Li Fan caught it, the sound of the rain suddenly intensified, as if reaching a critical point—then everything fell silent.

In the absolute stillness, a blinding light erupted from Master Yin’s body.

That light tore open space itself like a blade.

Li Fan narrowed his eyes, trying to see what lay within the radiance.

But no matter how hard he tried, he could only discern that, besides Master Yin, there were many other figures within—floating in the air, shapeless, of varying sizes.

They all seemed to be staring at Master Yin, urging him toward something.

The light grew unbearably bright, engulfing Li Fan’s vision completely.

When the glow faded, Master Yin had vanished.

Li Fan stood in silence for a while before making his way to the underground chamber of Yin Island. He found that all the corpses once placed there had disappeared as well.

In this lifetime, Master Yin had not chosen to self-immolate.

Because of Li Fan’s few words, his attention had been diverted, steering him away from self-destruction.

Instead, he had…

“Chosen to return?”

The scene within the white light brought this phrase to Li Fan’s mind.

“Return my rain…”

There was something profoundly strange about Master Yin. Li Fan had once investigated the records of that incident when countless corpses rained from the heavens.

But aside from Master Yin’s case, not a single other clue existed.

“It is not an anomaly, yet every part of it feels wrong.”

“Even as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, he was nearly impossible for me to kill without using the ‘Chaos’ character technique.”

Li Fan recalled the scenes of his encounters with that person, his brows tightly furrowed.

“Could it be…”

A sudden thought arose in his heart.

In the Mending Heaven Record, there was a detailed explanation of the mechanisms by which the Heavenly Dao of a world operates.

It stated that just as cultivators could absorb spiritual energy to cultivate and advance their realms, the world itself could also devour and assimilate other worlds to strengthen and elevate its own existence.

The Heavenly Doctor called this the world’s “Feeding.”

Yet just as humans leave behind food residue after eating, a world too leaves behind undigested remnants after its “Feeding.”

These remnants could be incompatible laws from other worlds or foreign essences rejected by nature as harmful to the world’s growth.

These “specters” of old worlds could not merge with the new one.

They could only exist eternally within the cracks between worlds.

These “specters” were different from the “aberrations.”

Aberrations were born from the merging of worlds. Strictly speaking, they still belonged to the native world.

Though they might seem out of tune with the world’s laws, they were in fact gradually assimilating over time.

Given enough ages, perhaps even aberrations could completely merge with the native world.

But “specters”…

They were entities utterly rejected by Heaven and Earth.

Even if the world were destroyed and time reached its end, it would never reclaim them.

Linking this to the ghostly figures he had just witnessed, Li Fan thought to himself, “Could those have been the collective specters of worlds that the Xuanhuang Realm devoured during its conquests?”

“The specters of old worlds do not wish to remain trapped forever in the rifts between realms. They too long for a chance to rise again.”

“But as the defeated, they can only resort to secret, subtle schemes. Perhaps Master Yin was chosen by these specters through some ancient accident.”

“No wonder ordinary means cannot kill him, yet the rune of Chaos can destroy him…”

“Because it itself is like a fragment of a shattered world’s law.”

Li Fan continued analyzing based on the Mending Heaven Record.

“For some reason, Master Yin still retained the mark of the Xuanhuang Realm. His transformation was incomplete. He existed half as man, half as specter. But just now, he has fully embraced the realm of the specters.”

“As a being on the same level as the Heavenly Dao of Xuanhuang, it is natural that he could glimpse certain cosmic secrets.”

Given how deranged Master Yin had become, Li Fan found none of his actions strange anymore.

Even his obsession with Mr. Bai might have been influenced by those world specters.

“Hmph. Just a bunch of petty vermin. Not worth worrying about.”

Li Fan gave a cold snort, not taking them seriously.

It was not arrogance. The truth was that these specters could only pose a true threat to the Xuanhuang Realm when it was already gravely wounded, teetering on destruction.

Only when the realm was at its weakest could the specters even have the slightest chance to seize control.

But even then, if they somehow succeeded in reclaiming the Xuanhuang Realm, their end would still be ruin.

In essence, these specters were like a virus that only erupts when the body is at the brink of death.

By the time they emerge, everything is already beyond salvation.

“It is a pity about Master Yin, though. His comprehension surpassed even mine. I had hoped he could help me deduce the method for the Primordial Golden Core.”

Li Fan shook his head slightly.

He looked at the island before him. With a flicker in his eyes, all the monsters Master Yin had cultivated there were instantly annihilated.

However, the treasures stored in the underground chamber were collected and preserved within his Five Elements Cave Heaven.

The only surviving creature on the island, aside from Li Fan himself, was a strange little dog—its limbs were human hands and its belly was covered in wandering eyes.

Sensing Li Fan’s killing intent, the creature immediately scurried over, tongue lolling, trying its best to please him.

Li Fan smiled faintly and spared its life, sealing it into the Five Elements Cave Heaven as well.

Leaving Yin Yin Island, Li Fan pondered his gains on the journey back.

“As the only Heavenly Sovereign in the Xuanhuang Realm to have mastered both the Ancient and the New Paths, Mr. Bai’s strength is beyond question.”

“He may even be the reincarnation of the ancient King Xuantian himself…”

“No wonder Emperor Sanmo placed his remains at the very center of the Divine Treasure Museum. And no wonder the Eternal Will lingering in his skull exerts such powerful allure upon [Truth].”

“Eternal Will… it must contain the obsessions he held in life. But what was it? What was Mr. Bai’s obsession?”

“It couldn’t have been… saving the Xuanhuang Realm, could it?”

Li Fan could not help but think so.

Now that he knew the true value of the skull, he was already devising a way to obtain it.

“The Eternal Will cannot be carried into [Truth]. It can only be absorbed on the spot.”

“But fortunately, I do not need to take Mr. Bai’s skull itself. My goal is merely the Eternal Will attached to it.”

“As long as I get close enough for [Truth] to absorb it, that will suffice.”

“Of course, the whole process must be done without alerting Emperor Sanmo…”

“Best to find an excuse to draw him away from the Divine Treasure Museum.”

After much thought, his mind returned to the idea of working with Mo Rubin.

“Surely Emperor Sanmo must give at least some respect to a Dharma-Transmitter.”

Li Fan extended his senses. The number of cultivators practicing the Divine Descent Body had reached an astonishing level.

They had already become a major headache for the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance.

Mo Rubin must have learned of this by now.

Through the experiences of his believers, Li Fan sensed that several distinct factions were active within the Alliance’s investigation teams.

“It seems the time has come to make contact.”

Li Fan’s eyes narrowed. Through the divine demons and gods thought, he sent out waves of influence to guide the minds of his followers.

Returning to the Spiritwood Realm, Li Fan waited quietly for developments.

While he waited, he once again took out the Mending Heaven Record to study.

“The Mending Heaven Record truly is vast and profound.”

“In the past, I would never have been able to uncover Master Yin’s origins. Few in the entire Xuanhuang Realm could even know of the existence of world specters.”

“This is the importance of having a true teacher.”

Revisiting the Mending Heaven Record, new insights once again surfaced in Li Fan’s heart.

Truly, each reading brings new understanding.