Chapter 1319: 指落灭苍穹

Li Fan had always held two hypotheses regarding the Great Wall's formation.

One possibility was that the Great Wall was created by the True Immortals who achieved enlightenment within the Immortal Ruins. It would be similar to the restrictions cultivators place during secluded meditation to prevent disturbance. The other possibility was that the Great Wall was built by an unknown entity from outside, sealing off the Star Sea to isolate the calamity of True Immortal Script that was spreading at the time. Both hypotheses had some merit.

The Great Wall, though formless, could completely seal off the entire Star Sea. This was a method beyond the comprehension of ordinary cultivators, achievable only by beings at the immortal level. Although the Darkest Star Sea was vast and contained countless cultivation worlds in the eyes of lower-realm cultivators, a True Immortal could perceive its entirety with a single glance. The area casually demarcated and sealed off might be just the right size for an immortal's cultivation ground.

On the other hand, the Star Sea is boundless, and the mere Darkest Star Sea is certainly not the entirety of the lower realms; it might not even be considered a corner of them. After the great catastrophe in the Immortal Realm, Xuanhuang Realm's location saw the return of King Xuantian after his ascension and the escape of the Faceless Immortal. Is it possible there are no other Immortal Realm survivors beyond the Darkest Star Sea? It's highly plausible that preventative measures were taken after detecting anomalies in the Xuanhuang Realm's star domain.

"With the collapse of the Immortal Realm, the vast lower realms have become a battleground where various forces converge. What exactly is the situation like beyond the Great Wall now?"

"Do the surviving Immortals still hold dominion? Or have former cultivators risen in defiance, found ways to combat True Immortals, or even developed civilizations capable of hunting True Immortals?"

Li Fan pondered thoughtfully, a sense of longing emerging in his heart. His emotions surged, unable to calm for a long time.

"Soon. In this life, with the Mysterious Immortal Ark leading the charge and attempting to cross the Great Wall, even if they ultimately fail, I can help them learn from it, and they can continue in the next life. In three to five attempts at most, there will be a significant chance of crossing the Great Wall."

"And once I achieve Dao Integration with my Heavenly and Earthly Immortal Souls and become the strongest in the Darkest Star Sea, I'll be able to unify the powers of Xuanhuang and the Immortal Ark to the greatest extent possible, and begin exploring beyond the Great Wall."

"Just like how I, step by step, explored the Cloud Sea and Xuanhuang Realm, starting from the Great Xuan Minor World back then!"

In a brief moment of reverie, the memory of finally breaking through the Immortal Sealing Grand Array and arriving in the cultivation world after countless hardships suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.

"Beyond the Great Wall, though perilous, I am no longer who I once was."

Li Fan's eyes flickered, "The difference in stature..."

Overlooking the Star Sea beneath the Great Wall from an ascended dimension perspective, the insights that welled up within him were dozens of times more active than when he comprehended the Dao within the Star Sea itself. Moreover, what he naturally comprehended while standing at such a peak was inherently a level higher than what he would grasp in his usual state. It was as if he were truly comprehending the Dao as a True Immortal!

"Why are all below Immortals mere ants?"

"A True Immortal can destroy Xuanhuang with a single glance. Yet, even the strongest ordinary cultivators would have to expend considerable effort to destroy such a vast world."

"This is because Immortals stand high enough. In a True Immortal's eyes, a mere world is nothing more than a tiny speck!"

He recalled the scene he had witnessed earlier at the peak of the Remnant World Great Wall. The continuous fragments of the remnant world, as height increased, gradually shrank and then twisted into rings, eventually converging into a single point. Compared to the colossal Remnant World Great Wall, the current Xuanhuang Realm was merely an insignificant fragment. The Great Wall became a point. To view the Xuanhuang Realm as a point, one didn't even need to ascend to such a height.

Relishing the sensation of continuous ascent, in Li Fan's eyes, the Great Xuan Minor World and the Xuanhuang Realm slowly shrank amidst distortion. Although they hadn't yet reached the point of converging into a single dot, they transformed into a yellow misty cloud, as if viewed from outside the realms in the void.

Li Fan instinctively wanted to reach out and touch it, but found himself frozen as if encased in ice. There was endless resistance around him, preventing him from moving even an inch!

"I'm still too weak now! Although by sheer chance I can perceive things from a True Immortal's perspective, vision and actual action are entirely different concepts..." Li Fan made several attempts, but the results were always the same. His body seemed to be outside the world, utterly incapable of effective control. Moreover, these attempts rapidly depleted his internal energy. Even with Li Fan's current foundation, he quickly found himself stretched thin, almost to the point of exhaustion.

Knowing he couldn't force it, Li Fan quickly descended from the high vantage point. Only when his perspective lowered did his movements become free again.

Li Fan let out a long breath, recovering from the recent expenditure. A moment later, his gaze slightly sharpened. He had noticed something peculiar. At his usual recovery rate, he should have returned to full strength after just a few breaths. After all, he had the Five Elements Grand Caverns as a foundation, and he had also absorbed the Xuanhuang Doomsday Transformation. How enormous was the energy that the merged Xuanhuang Realm could unleash during a doomsday crisis? For an individual cultivator, it was almost inexhaustible. Yet now, merely attempting to act from "above" had rapidly drained this energy reserve.

"Not only does the height change, but the energy consumption required for movement and normal actions also increases almost exponentially."

"This is also one of the fundamental reasons for the disparity between immortals and mortals. Spiritual energy, even that of an entire world, cannot sustain the expenditure of acting from 'above'."

"The energy level is too low; I need to find a higher-grade substitute."

"Immortal spiritual qi..."

Various realizations flashed through Li Fan's mind.

Stepping out, Li Fan left Great Xuan Minor World and arrived at another desolate minor world, uninhabited and covered only by continuous primeval forests. After quietly waiting to recover, Li Fan once again attempted to ascend. This time, however, Li Fan controlled the rate of ascent. He stopped when the primeval forest before him appeared no larger than a glass bead. For Li Fan, who was originally at the lowest point, merely maintaining this "height" also required a vast amount of energy.

But this time, he chose not to use his own spiritual energy to sustain it. Instead, he opted for refined source energy, which was very similar to immortal spiritual power. As golden light enveloped him, the sensation of restraint slightly loosened. Compared to his previous completely frozen state, it was far more relaxed.

Li Fan looked at the minor world before him, resembling a glass bead, and slowly extended his right index finger.

*Buzz...*

As if sensing a fatal crisis, a mournful lament, like weeping, suddenly resounded in the sky of this desolate minor world. However, it was destined not to prevent what was about to happen.

Li Fan's finger gently descended. Above the desolate minor world's firmament, a finger appeared synchronously. With a slight exertion of force, Li Fan felt a slight resistance. The golden refined source energy surged and roared. The resistance, like paper, was instantly shattered. The finger's shadow on the firmament, like a vast black cloud, completely enveloped the entire minor world.

There was no earth-shattering explosion. Just a soft crunch, like glass being crushed. The desolate minor world vanished into dust and ashes in an instant!

Violent hurricanes spread through the void, born from the world's destruction. But no matter how they blew, Li Fan remained standing within them. Protected by the golden light, the storm could not harm him in the slightest.

He narrowed his eyes, looking at his finger. He was still immersed in the power of that world-destroying finger strike he had just unleashed. The massive consumption of refined source energy had already caused him to fall from "above" and return to a normal perspective. But to effortlessly wipe out a minor world like that... This truly gave Li Fan the illusion of being a supreme deity.

Li Fan closed his eyes and took a long time to dispel this sense of displacement.

"When the True Immortal of the Immortal Ruins destroyed Xuanhuang with a single glance back then, fundamentally, it was no different from what I just did. It's just that they stood higher and could wield greater power..."

"Give me enough time, and in due course, I'll be able to do it too."

Li Fan gently touched the tip of his right index finger, as if wiping away non-existent dust.

"This move, descending from above, like a True Immortal's finger..."

"Let's call it the 'Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger'!"

"It signifies both a True Immortal descending to the mortal realm and the power of a True Immortal subduing the mortal realm."

"Not bad!"

Li Fan was quite satisfied with his naming. Sensing divine consciousnesses approaching to investigate the inexplicable destruction of this minor world, Li Fan transformed into a sword shadow and directly departed. The desolate minor world was too small; its disappearance would not affect the overall stability of the Xuanhuang Realm.

Returning to Great Xuan, Li Fan savored the sensation of performing the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger while contemplating how to more easily unleash this divine ability in the future. Although the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger possessed world-destroying power, its drawbacks were obvious. It took too long to activate. Just ascending to a certain height required Li Fan to build up momentum for a considerable time. And then he had to gather refined source energy to act freely at that specific height... If the target was a world, it would be fine. After all, a world wouldn't grow legs, and its specific location wouldn't change. But if the target was a cultivator, they likely wouldn't give Li Fan so much time to prepare.

"One way is to use an array formation to ambush and trap them beforehand, buying me enough time."

"And another..."

Among Li Fan's current cultivation attainments, his array formations were the highest. Now that he had comprehended a near-immortal divine ability but couldn't freely unleash it, he naturally, out of habit, wanted to find a breakthrough from array formations.

"All Great Daos under heaven stem from the same origin. Divine abilities can potentially be transformed into array formations, and array formations can potentially be transformed into divine abilities..."

Ever since ascending to the peak, Li Fan felt his thoughts more active than ever before. His high-level perspective allowed him to contemplate problems from a viewpoint beyond the mundane.

"Doomsday Disintegration Disc, deduce!"

Temporarily suspending all other tasks, Li Fan poured all his recent experiences at the base of the Great Wall, along with his insights into casting the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger, into the disc. However, the requirement to directly convert this divine ability into an array formation clearly exceeded the Disintegration Disc's processing capabilities. The Disc's simulated personality immediately showed a 'stuttering' state.

Seeing this, Li Fan pondered briefly. Then he changed his strategy. He no longer sought to directly transform the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger into a corresponding array formation. Instead, he decided to convert the steps of unleashing the divine ability into a series of tiered array formations. Just as several ancient immortal arrays ultimately formed the Xuanhuang Realm's Void-Traversing Star Formation, Li Fan planned to use several interconnected array formations to achieve rapid activation of the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger.

"The first step, naturally, is ascension."

Having personally ascended several times, Li Fan already had a preliminary understanding of this process. The so-called "ascension" was actually about stimulating energy to elevate one's "momentum" within this star void.

"To achieve this, perhaps I'll need to follow the Mysterious Immortal Ark's plan: collect enough True Immortal Script power, then leverage the Great Wall for a concentrated burst."

"But on one hand, I don't expect to be able to tear down the Great Wall with a single finger right now. So the energy needed for activation isn't as terrifying as one might imagine."

"On the other hand..."

Li Fan's mind once again flashed to the peaks gathered deep within the Abyssal Sea.

"Perhaps I can draw inspiration from the Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array," Li Fan mused inwardly. "The Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array can easily create rare energy peaks in the Darkest Star Sea because it's built upon the remains of a True Immortal."

"If I also used True Immortal remains as array formation materials..."

Li Fan's thoughts instantly opened up. A red light flashed in his hand. It kept squirming, emitting an ominous and bizarre aura. It was some of the True Immortal flesh and blood left over from before, which had been activated by ancient characters on Ouyang Tian's Kunqian bone hand.

"It doesn't have immortal spiritual power, but it belongs to a True Immortal, so it should be of some help, right?" Li Fan mumbled to himself, then began his first experiment using this clump of True Immortal flesh and blood as raw material.

With the Spirit Gathering Immortal Ascension Array as a template, the Doomsday Disintegration Disc's deduction process went very smoothly. Before long, an embryonic array formation was born. Li Fan used refined source energy to arrange the array, mixing in the constantly squirming True Immortal flesh and blood.

After a long time, the preparations were complete. Li Fan squinted, studying it, then activated the array formation.

A moment of silence. Then, an incredibly dazzling pillar of light emerged from within the array formation. Using True Immortal flesh and blood as fuel, the light was exceedingly brilliant. What delighted Li Fan even more was that, from his perspective, this pillar of light was not merely bright. Instead, it slowly ascended, continuously rising, soaring above all beings!

"This smoothly?"

No sooner had this thought crossed his mind than the pillar of light, which seemed capable of illuminating the entire sky, suddenly extinguished. Li Fan was momentarily stunned. After some investigation, he realized it wasn't that there was a problem with the array formation. Rather, the True Immortal flesh and blood used as fuel had been completely consumed.

Li Fan frowned slightly: "The utilization rate is still a bit low."

"I can still find ways to improve it."

"Also, it's not just Ouyang Tian's Kunqian bone hand."

"There should be other True Immortal remains in the Xuanhuang Realm; perhaps I can collect them all..."

The purpose of the Ascension Array was not merely for rapidly casting the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger. Being able to elevate one's 'momentum' might play an indispensable role in traversing the Great Wall and even achieving True Immortal status in the future. Li Fan attached great importance to this. Temporarily casting all external matters aside, he concentrated his entire mind on researching it.

Under the deduction of the Doomsday Disintegration Disc and Li Fan's personal guidance and modifications, the Ascension Array underwent thousands of iterations in just seven days. Finally, the efficiency of utilizing True Immortal flesh and blood reached a level that barely satisfied Li Fan.