Chapter 1175: Dark Gold Three-Eyed Skull

The three cultivators were slightly taken aback upon hearing the old man’s request.

“Elder Gou, this doesn’t comply with the rules…”

“Hmm?” The old man eyed them coldly when he heard that.

The three had no choice but to swallow their words. Realizing the power imbalance, the older cultivator cupped his hands, then secured the relic and left the valley.

On the way.

“Brother Zhao, the Immortal Boat’s law clearly stipulates that world-destroying relics must be handed over to the Immortal Nexus Institute after collection. Those who violate this law will be prosecuted for treason. But now he wants us to deliver it to the Severing Immortal Tower…”

“Exactly. Everyone on the Immortal Boat knows that the Severing Immortal Tower and the Immortal Nexus Institute are at odds right now. That old coot wants to curry favor with the Severing Immortal Tower, but instead of doing it himself, he just orders us around. If anything goes wrong, we’ll definitely be held responsible.”

The older cultivator, referred to as Brother Zhao by the other two, also looked displeased, but he didn’t join in the complaining. Instead, he subtly gestured for the two to be silent. He then secretly transmitted something to them, after which they quieted down.

The three didn't fly; they simply walked step by step along a small path out of the valley. The scenery before them suddenly changed, as if they had returned to the starry void. However, this void was unlike the frigid, desolate “Uttermost Dark Star Sea” outside. A gentle breeze seemed to blow from within the void, bringing vibrant life. Faint, colorful starlight occasionally flickered, visible in the hazy expanse.

In stark contrast to this harmonious and warm scene was an incredibly bizarre sight: a colossal giant, towering into the heavens, stood in the void. Its eyes were tightly shut, and its body was shriveled, like a zombie that had been dead for ages. Yet, its chest continuously rose and fell, and with each breath, warm wind emanated in all directions.

If it were merely a dying giant, it would have been less unsettling. But what was truly horrifying was a thick tree branch extending from the giant’s mouth. It grew tenaciously upwards, forming a dense canopy. Upon closer inspection, the giant’s entire body was pierced through by branches. Its lower half, moreover, had transformed into a dense, intertwined mass of fibrous tree roots. They swayed occasionally in the breeze, as if alive. It was an uncanny sight, leaving one unsure whether it was a tree parasitizing a person or a person transforming into a tree.

The three were long accustomed to this scene. They merely sighed, “It looks like this Path-Pursuing Giant is failing. I wonder what else the Immortal Nexus Institute can come up with.”

“The Severing Immortal Tower talks a good game, saying they’ll completely solve the Immortal Boat’s energy problems. They’ve been saying it for so long, yet there’s still no effective result to be seen.”

“We’ll see. It’s said there’s truly been a revolutionary breakthrough this time, otherwise that old dog of an Elder wouldn’t have suddenly become so amiable.”

The group chatted idly about various things.

As they left the valley and ascended into the void, a streak of green suddenly emerged beneath their feet, forming an aerial path leading elsewhere. There was no need to fly; the green path itself was moving rapidly. Once in the void, the overall appearance of the Immortal Boat finally came into view. It resembled a myriad of floating continents, scattered like the stars in the sky. There was the giant in the void, parasitized by strange trees. From the giant tree, countless green, thread-like paths extended, appearing and disappearing as they connected the various continents.

Li Fan’s spiritual clone, hidden within the world-destroying relic, secretly observed everything. This form of cultivation civilization, vastly different from that of the Xuanhuang Realm, greatly piqued his interest.

“The Immortal Boat…”

“Ancestor Sun Piaomiao of the Medicine King Sect, during his past spiritual travels beyond the heavens, recorded the beacon information of eighteen cultivation realms. Among them was a colossal flying ship that drifted erratically through the void, trading between various realms. It contained its own self-contained world, named ‘Xuan Shang’.”

“I wonder if there’s any connection to this Immortal Boat.”

Li Fan then looked at the giant that was constantly being drained, emitting life force into its surroundings. “Is it the Path-Pursuing Race?”

The green, intangible path moved extremely quickly through the void, and it wasn’t long before the group, including the cultivator surnamed Zhao, arrived at the so-called Severing Immortal Tower. It was a spherical orb glowing with dark gold light. On closer inspection, it was astonishingly built upon the remains of another giant. However, this time it wasn’t a complete corpse, but a single, massive skull. What truly shook Li Fan was that in the center of this skull, there was still an eyeball! The eyeball had not lost its vitality with the death of the skull. It was merely tightly shut, yet still constantly rotating slightly.

A sense of inexplicable danger arose within him. Li Fan’s spiritual clone made an immediate decision and fled from the world-destroying relic it had possessed. It merely remained in the void, not following the three into the Severing Immortal Tower. His judgment was correct. The massive eyeball suddenly opened, scanned its surroundings, and then closed again after detecting no abnormalities. Only then were the three cultivators, including the one surnamed Zhao, able to enter the Severing Immortal Tower.

Li Fan’s spiritual clone no longer fixated on the three-eyed skull. Instead, it patiently waited for their return outside the Severing Immortal Tower, in the void.

“A dark gold skull, three eyes.”

“It’s very similar to the one I found that contained the ‘Wordless Incantation’. However, this one on the Immortal Boat…”

“Seems a bit weaker?”

Greater size doesn’t necessarily mean greater strength. The dark gold, three-eyed skull Li Fan encountered previously, even though its third eye was gone and it had merely become a petri dish for the gray mold of the ‘Wordless Incantation’, still gave Li Fan an extremely dangerous feeling. It seemed as though it could revive at any moment. Thus, Li Fan had always sealed it with multicolored divine light, not daring to foolishly research it. Although the three-eyed skull before him was even larger and its eyeball was still alive, Li Fan felt that it was completely dead and had no chance of revival. This was a profound and mysterious intuition.

“I haven’t encountered many things from outside the Xuanhuang Realm during my cycles of reincarnation, but after arriving here recently, I’ve come across almost all of them.”

“It seems this Immortal Boat indeed has some secrets.”

“Without complete world resources, one is bound to extract what’s needed for survival from the ‘Uttermost Dark Star Sea’ and make the most of everything. It seems the foundation of this Immortal Boat might far exceed my imagination…”

Li Fan’s thoughts surged, as he constantly pondered where to find a breakthrough point. From the conversation of the three cultivators just now, he learned that the Immortal Boat seemed to be caught in a power struggle between the Immortal Nexus Institute and the Severing Immortal Tower. This situation was exactly what Li Fan, as an outsider, was pleased to hear. “Only in troubled waters can one catch fish. I need to find a way to stir things up on this Immortal Boat.”

Not long after, the three cultivators, including the one surnamed Zhao, emerged from the Severing Immortal Tower. In stark contrast to their previous indignation, this time they all wore joyful expressions, with unconcealable excitement in their eyes. Standing on the green, intangible path, they didn’t begin their enthusiastic discussion until they reached the center of the void.

“I can’t believe the Severing Immortal Tower actually found a way to utilize world-destroying power!”

“The void is full of endless relics! Now we truly won’t have to worry about running out of energy anymore!”

“Now we’re in for a good show!”