Chapter 1174: The Fundamental Power of Immortality

The material of this command flag artifact itself was quite ordinary. In this ocean of relics, it held no particular value to be singled out.

"Could it be for the power of the True Immortal Seal Script, whose side effects had already faded?"

Li Fan's heart stirred, and he instantly understood.

Gently stroking the command flag, he sensed a familiar aura.

"'Chaos' character art..."

"However, with the passage of time, even the power of the True Immortal Seal Script had ultimately reached its end."

The complete 'Chaos' character instantly appeared in his mind. A moment later, Saint Embryo Li Fan's hand, holding the command flag, stiffened slightly.

He discovered that just moments ago, the last trace of power attached to the command flag had completely dissipated.

In its place, his own understanding of the 'Chaos' character art had subtly, yet distinctly, deepened!

This improvement was very subtle.

However, Li Fan's own comprehension of the 'Chaos' character was still at the most basic level of merely imitating, so it seemed relatively obvious. Li Fan caught it in an instant.

"It could actually become a material for enlightenment?"

Saint Embryo Li Fan was inevitably a little shaken. Now, looking at the countless floating relics here, his gaze was distinctly different.

"Unfortunately, it seemed only relics where the power of the True Immortal Seal Script was on the verge of dissipating could be used as resources for enlightenment; otherwise, there would be a risk of being harmed. The method to distinguish them..."

Saint Embryo Li Fan cast his gaze towards the hidden sanctuary.

For the next half year or so, Li Fan continued to hide in the shadows. Each time a cultivator went out to collect relics, he would follow suit.

He would send out a split consciousness to attach to the collected relics.

Firstly, to study how the alarm was triggered, and secondly, to incidentally acquire all relics containing the True Immortal Seal Script that could aid in enlightenment.

In the Xuanhuang Realm, the Calamity Disintegration Plate in the True Body's Sea of Consciousness was fully engaged in analyzing the unknown formation.

Meanwhile, Saint Embryo Li Fan, through his study of the eight relics he had acquired, became even more convinced of his judgment.

The other surviving civilization in this Darkest Star Sea collected these relics precisely to study, and even utilize, the power of the True Immortal Seal Script.

"They actually had a way to distinguish the extent of this power..."

"It seems their strength here should not be underestimated."

Of these eight relics, three were from 'Chaos' and two were from 'Hunger'.

As for the remaining two, they were influenced by other True Immortal Seal Scripts, currently unknown.

And Li Fan also discovered the differences among them.

He had personally seen the original forms of 'Chaos' and 'Hunger', these two True Immortal Seal Scripts. Even if they were imitations written by someone unknown, he still had a general understanding of their origins. Thus, he could smoothly absorb the residual power from the enlightenment relics, transforming it into resources for enlightenment.

The situation with the other two was quite different.

Relying solely on the residual power that was about to dissipate, it was difficult even to sense their properties, let alone continue to comprehend their essence.

In terms of utilization, compared to the 'Chaos' and 'Hunger' characters, the efficiency was more than ten thousand times worse.

"This was the difference between understanding from top-down and from bottom-up. Knowing the true meaning of the True Immortal Seal Script's origin allowed for a high-level understanding that clarified everything."

"But if one started from complete ignorance, like a blind person feeling an elephant, slowly exploring and researching on their own..."

"It would be as difficult as ascending to heaven! To attempt to explore the power of a True Immortal with mortal strength..."

At the same time, Li Fan was deep in thought.

"Not all cultivators could have sufficient fortuitous encounters to be fortunate enough to personally witness the true meaning of the True Immortal Seal Script's origin."

"The 'Chaos' character art was hidden within the mirrored illusion domain in the white mist, something ordinary people would find difficult to encounter in a lifetime. And the 'Hunger' character art was inscribed on the Immortal Ruins! To see it meant death. If I didn't have 'Returning to Truth', I wouldn't have been able to master it at all."

"There's also the 'Non-existence' character art, which I also fortuitously discovered in a golden skull within a ruined minor world..."

Li Fan looked at the unknown civilization hidden in the shadows, and a thought naturally emerged.

"As the saying goes, 'rare commodities are worth hoarding.' The value of these original true meanings to this civilization might be even higher than I imagined."

Thirty-odd days later, the Calamity Disintegration Plate finally broke through the alarm trigger mechanism.

To be safe, Saint Embryo Li Fan did not directly put himself at risk.

Instead, he still used a split consciousness to probe.

Over the past half year or so, although he had severed many split souls, the vicinity of this civilization's sanctuary seemed to contain some strange power.

It could resist all sorts of bizarre intrusions in the void, thus Saint Embryo Li Fan's recovery speed was also very fast.

Severing a split consciousness was already only a minor pain for him.

The Calamity Disintegration Plate was indeed trustworthy.

This time, the relic, with the split consciousness attached, successfully passed the inspection and entered the interior of the passage.

The sensation became much weaker, but he could barely still perceive the situation inside the sanctuary.

The three-person team collecting relics continued to drag them forward with black ropes. After passing through the inspections of three passage defenses in total, they finally entered a safe zone.

They impatiently removed their armor, complaining repeatedly.

"Useful relics near the Immortal Vessel are becoming scarcer. This time, we only found this much..."

"Next time we execute a mission, we'll probably have to leave the safe zone."

"We've been staying here for a century already? I don't know why we haven't moved yet."

"I heard there were plans to change our mooring location, but recently..."

"Shh, it's better to discuss less. Wu Xing was confined for ten years because of this."

The three wisely avoided further discussion.

Taking their current haul, they continued deeper into the sanctuary.

"Immortal Vessel?" Li Fan heard their conversation and became thoughtful.

After passing through a narrow, dark passage, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

They had surprisingly arrived in a picturesque valley with clear waters and lush mountains.

Ahead, a white-haired elder, holding a strange artifact resembling a book, was waiting for the three of them.

"Let me see this time..." The elder's face was originally smiling, but upon seeing the quantity of relics behind the three, his expression immediately turned grim.

"Elder, please forgive us, our luck was truly bad on this trip," the oldest-looking cultivator among the three said with a bitter smile.

The elder shook his head and sighed. Ultimately, he didn't say much more.

The book-like artifact in his hand emitted a beam of light, enveloping all the relics.

As the beam of light retracted, it seemed to have completed the inspection of the relics.

"Try to make up for it next time."

"You all understand the situation with the Immortal Vessel," the elder snorted coldly. "If we're short one or two pieces every time, it's fine for a short period. But if it goes on for too long, won't all of us suffer?"

The older cultivator did not retort, but merely nodded repeatedly.

"Help me send these relics to the Broken Immortal Tower," the elder then instructed.