Chapter 1259: Immortal Folding Array

Having been tempered in the Cinder Minor World and narrowly escaping death under the Gui Formula, Sun Luyao had indeed made significant progress.

A faint light quietly blossomed, penetrating the surface of the Xuanhuang Realm and reaching its innermost core. After a thorough search, remnants suspected to belong to the world-protecting grand formation were indeed discovered. However, these formation lines in the Xuanhuang Realm were far older and more profound than those in the Cinder Minor World.

As Li Fan continued his investigation with the Boundless Mirror, he simultaneously fed the discovered formation data into the formation model previously derived by the Final Disintegration Disc. "Most of it matches," Li Fan murmured, his eyes flickering. "But at some crucial nodes…" Gripping the Boundless Mirror, he transformed into a stream of light, traversing the nine layers of earth until he reached an extremely deep underground location, still beneath the Xuanhuang geomantic veins.

Chaos reigned all around. Under unimaginable pressure, matter itself had ceased to exist. Only dark red energy flowed, carrying mysterious, murmuring sounds. In this extreme environment, Li Fan's clone had no choice but to retreat into the Boundless Mirror, relying on the immortal artifact's main body to survive. The Boundless Mirror was not having an easy time either; it actively released faint light to protect its main body. Sun Luyao, meanwhile, cautiously surveyed the surroundings.

"So this is how it works," Li Fan thought. A sudden impulse surged within him. While the Boundless Mirror remained unaffected, Li Fan's clone aged visibly and rapidly. Just as Li Fan's clone was about to completely dissipate due to aging, an inexplicable surge of vitality suddenly emerged from its core. To his surprise, it was identical to the method the Dharma Transmitter had once used to hide and seal the Book of Deliverance!

This involved the superposition of space in multiple directions. In simpler terms, a line segment was hidden across different spatial dimensions. From a certain angle, nothing could be seen. Only by continuously shifting perspective and "rotating" all distributed components into a single coherent whole would the hidden formation finally reveal itself.

"And I also sensed the aura of the immortal inscriptions here. Many of them…" "Huh?" Such a change left Sun Luyao, the spirit of the Boundless Mirror, dumbfounded.

"If the Immortal Realm still existed," Li Fan mused, "this Gui Formula would be equivalent to forcibly opening a passage to it, though only for specific targets." "This unexpected turn at the formation node, surprising yet seemingly inevitable, shows my previous understanding was too shallow." What seemed like a casual, unthinking question was in fact Li Fan keenly observing Sun Luyao, watching for his reaction. "Wonderful, truly wonderful."

"The passage still exists, but the destination is gone. However, according to the Boundless Mirror, which directly experienced it, it's also possible that the true Immortal Ruins didn't simply vanish. Instead, after a brief stay, it was forcibly expelled. This is what is meant by 'old laws cannot tolerate it!'"

"No," Sun Luyao replied honestly, his emotions showing no unusual fluctuations. "After being annihilated by the power of the immortal inscription, my consciousness was in a blank state. I completely lost all sense of the parts that disappeared." Sun Luyao's words suddenly stopped, as if he had fallen into deep thought and doubt. After the Boundless Mirror shattered, all information related to the Immortal Realm within it vanished. Even when Li Fan helped it achieve a rough reorganization, the vanished records did not return. This was simply caused by the proximity that resulted from the act of "seeing."

Using the remaining essence of source power, he wondered if he could disguise it as an immortal artifact and, utilizing the Gui Formula's power, explore the true Immortal Ruins. "But now that the Immortal Realm is destroyed…" Li Fan instantly realized: "This is the mortal's yearning for the immortal, the pursuit of sublimation by lower life forms. It is inscribed deep within the soul, innate and inextinguishable."

"After coming into contact with the immortal inscription, did any memories return?" Li Fan asked, simultaneously observing his surroundings. Li Fan exclaimed repeatedly in awe, deeply immersed in the traces and remnants of the true immortal-level grand formation. He seemed oblivious to the crisis of his own aging and impending disappearance. This was the first time Li Fan had seen a truly existing immortal-level formation, not just a theoretical one.

"Um, I don't know how to explain it, Senior," Sun Luyao said slowly, his tone somewhat dreamlike and bewildered. "In short, it was a very magical experience. Although it truly ceased to exist, it also felt as if I instantly flew to another extremely distant world. The feeling was too mysterious; I truly don't know if it was a real perception or an illusion between life and death."

"Senior," Sun Luyao began, "the formation remnants I just scanned from above were clearly here. But up close, I can't see them anymore…" "Much more intense than before," Sun Luyao emphasized.

The intent to die vanished completely, like withered wood returning to spring. Even the lingering aura of the Xuanhuang Realm's world-protecting grand formation could not shake the miserable souls that had previously been like flickering candles in the wind. But after "returning" against the Immortal Realm, there might have been some unforeseen change, which prompted the question. "However…"

Once the thought arose, it was like a raging flood, difficult to suppress. It was only when the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation spontaneously activated that the desire was suppressed. It was like the imprint left by a terrifying behemoth crushing mercilessly, imprinting even space itself with a sense of ancient desolation. "However…" Li Fan's thoughts paused slightly after hearing his words. It was much clearer than what he had seen on the surface.

As Li Fan's clone pondered, he also discovered the method to decipher the hidden aspects of the Xuanhuang Realm's original world-protecting grand formation. Li Fan could already move freely within the grand formation's aura, muttering to himself. He glanced at Sun Luyao, a slight smile on his face, and asked, "What, do you want to learn?" Under Li Fan's guidance, traces of the formation lines gradually appeared on the ancient surface of the Boundless Mirror.

"For me," Li Fan mused, "sending a clone to attempt this, while my main body remains fully prepared for any real danger, the risk isn't high. Hmm… conveniently, waiting for the final act of this world's 'watching tigers fight from a mountain' scenario will still take a long time. I can plan this out thoroughly…" Sun Luyao, the Boundless Mirror, seemed too shocked to react. He simply stared blankly, allowing Li Fan's clone to rapidly weaken without offering any warnings. Though just a few sparse lines, they provided immense insights to Li Fan, a formation master who prided himself on standing at the pinnacle of mortal realm formations.

"Se… Senior!" "This is called the Profound Life-Death Art," Li Fan explained. "It reverses life into death, existing in a state of neither living nor dying." Sun Luyao trembled, not daring to speak. After a long moment of holding back, he slowly said, "Senior's divine might truly exceeds this junior's imagination…"

Li Fan, too lazy to settle accounts with him for now, focused all his attention on studying the Xuanhuang original world-protecting grand formation. From the glimpse of the formation currently observed, the scale of the original world-protecting grand formation was unexpectedly vast. If these discovered details were proportionally scaled up into the model derived by the Final Disintegration Disc, then theoretically, the scope of the original world-protecting grand formation would be dozens of times larger than the original Xuanhuang Realm! This completely defied common sense!

"What went wrong?" Li Fan was slightly stunned. After a brief moment of thought, he continued to activate the Boundless Mirror, illuminating the remaining formation remnants. As the actual formation data of the original world-protecting grand formation was gradually completed, and after some key formation nodes appeared, Li Fan modified the derived formation model. He now knew why the theory didn't match reality.

In previous derivations, the world-protecting grand formation was merely a large formation covering the Xuanhuang Realm. In reality, this original grand formation was folded several times at the same location, in slightly different forms! Layer upon layer folded inward, and after compression and transformation, it formed the true Xuanhuang world-protecting grand formation!

"Simple stacking alone increased the formation's potential by several times," Li Fan observed. "Furthermore, if the folded formation were unfolded, it could instantly erupt with the maximum power of the formation in its usual state." "More importantly," Li Fan continued, "if the Xuanhuang Realm itself expanded its territory, the world-protecting grand formation could perfectly expand into new territories by continuously unfolding in this manner. Even if contact with the Immortal Realm was temporarily severed, as long as one controlled the original world-protecting grand formation, its perfect state could always be maintained through this method."

The Final Disintegration Disc in his main body operated at maximum power, assisting the clone deep within Xuanhuang in comprehending the original world-protecting grand formation. Furthermore, the Boundless Mirror's faint light, with its inherent analytical capability, allowed Li Fan to relatively smoothly transform the formation remnants into his own knowledge.

During the research process, Li Fan discovered that the original grand formation frequently utilized formation folding techniques. Any seemingly simple formation structure could potentially conceal thousands, or even tens of thousands, of extremely complex formation units. To ensure he wouldn't fail to analyze the formation due to omissions, Li Fan had to slow down his deciphering speed. He missed not a single detail, thoroughly illuminating every one of them with the Boundless Mirror. This, however, was hard on Sun Luyao. Even though he was accustomed to being exploited to the point of exhaustion, such high-intensity work still made him miserable. However, having just made a mistake, Sun Luyao felt guilty and could only grit his teeth and endure. Before Li Fan finished analyzing the original world-protecting grand formation, he wouldn't truly allow the Boundless Mirror to disintegrate. He would still precisely rescue Sun Luyao with source essence just before he collapsed.

Time slowly passed, and most of the formation analysis was complete. They had reached the area just outside the central core. But at this point, Li Fan proactively halted the exploration. The remaining source essence was sufficient for the Boundless Mirror to complete its final work. However, near this central core area, Li Fan vaguely sensed a crisis. After careful discernment, Li Fan confirmed that this premonition of crisis did not come from the original grand formation itself, but from elsewhere.

"Is there a restriction here?" Li Fan narrowed his eyes. "Sun Luyao!" he commanded skillfully. Sun Luyao responded, rousing his extremely weary spirit, and meticulously scanned the surroundings once more. "Senior, apart from the formation remnants, no anomalies were found!" Sun Luyao reported eagerly after completing the scan. Li Fan pondered for a moment, then said, "Scan again!"

This time, Li Fan personally guided the Boundless Mirror's faint light towards the space outside the original formation's central core, and using the method of investigating "folds," he thoroughly checked again. As expected! He discovered a circle of alarm restrictions that had been folded multiple times, completely concealing their traces under normal conditions! The aura of the alarm restrictions was equally ancient. But compared to the original formation remnants, they had a somewhat "strong on the outside, hollow on the inside" feel. They had already been breached, their core power gone, leaving only an empty shell. Yet even this empty shell still gave Li Fan a fatal premonition of danger.

"It should be from the Upper Realm, just like the Xuanhuang original grand formation," Li Fan concluded after a careful investigation, without moving rashly. "If the restriction were complete, even with my accumulation of over ten generations of the Xuanhuang Realm's foundation, I probably couldn't do anything to it," Li Fan mused. "Fortunately, such a terrifying immortal restriction has already been breached by predecessors!"

Li Fan discovered the loophole in the restriction. For caution, he split off a wisp of his spiritual consciousness to test it. After confirming it wasn't a trap, he then brought the Boundless Mirror and entered the central core area through the restriction's loophole.

After a brief period of darkness, when light shone again, what appeared before Li Fan was no longer empty void. Instead, it was a strange device. It was composed of countless concentric circles of varying sizes. They shared the same core, but the rings were distributed in different orientations. To say "countless" was not an exaggeration. For the rings making up this peculiar device genuinely could not be counted clearly by divine sense or by eye. Though it had clearly lost its power source and was stationary, it still seemed to constantly change its number of rings.

As he focused his attention on this device, the world before his eyes itself seemed to splinter into different branches. "It's not an illusion." "Is my existence being weakened?" Alarm bells rang loudly in Li Fan's clone's mind. Not only this clone, but also his main body, hidden in the Myriad Immortal Alliance's Dharma Jade space, felt a terrifying, almost tangible, pressure of crisis.

Li Fan's clone very wisely instantly gave up investigating the strange ring device. The feeling of splitting and the sense of crisis instantly disappeared. Li Fan attempted to recall the appearance of the ring device in his sea of consciousness. He found that although he could reconstruct it, the number of rings in the device was fixed. Furthermore, it was not identical to the physical object he had seen; there was a very obvious, yet unidentifiable, difference. What was even more startling to Li Fan was that each time he recalled it, the number of rings in the device that appeared was different. Yet, his intuition told him that every recall was correct. This bizarre phenomenon reminded Li Fan of quantum superposition, a concept he had heard of before his transmigration.

"This ring device, it seems, is also a relic from the Immortal Realm." Li Fan changed his approach. His attention was no longer focused on the ring device itself, but on the parts that were missing from it. Clearly, something was missing from those rings. It wasn't Li Fan's conjecture; rather, mural-like existences in the surrounding space already depicted what this strange device originally looked like. Endless patterns of the ring device formed the entirety of the murals. Similarly, the number of rings in these depicted devices was also never the same. However, all the devices shared one common feature. It was a bead floating in the center of the rings. A reddish-crimson bead, seemingly engraved with the shape of nine stars.