Chapter 1336: 承仙界之重

Just as the Xuanxian Boat had previously speculated, each gray chess piece was forged from a world.

As Li Fan gazed at the four chess pieces spinning before him, numerous illusory scenes instantly surged into his mind. These were scenes of the four desolate worlds before their transformation: vast stretches of icy land spanning millions of miles; on endless plains, various dynasties established by different cultivators stood majestically; around a terrifying sword scar that cleaved through the world, numerous Dao-comprehending Sword Sects dotted the landscape; and a vast blue ocean covered an entire world, where terrifying storms raged year-round, stirring up colossal waves thousands of feet high and destroying everything on the surface, leaving life to survive only at the bottom of the sea.

The names of the four worlds also appeared in Li Fan's mind along with these illusions:

"Jingji, Baiqiu, Jianhe, Yuanhai."

Although the scenes varied, all four worlds were teeming with life. However, at a certain moment, a terrifying power beyond imagination descended.

Everything in the world fell into stillness.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Amidst continuous impacts, as if from a heavy hammer, all life was instantly annihilated. Only the worlds themselves survived this devastating blow.

Just like an iron block, heated and melted into liquid, then cooled, hammered, and forged into a sword, the four distinct worlds also slowly underwent an inexplicable change in their form and essence amidst the rumbling.

The chaotic illusions vanished, and ultimately reverted to four constantly spinning gray chess pieces.

"Holy Master, this..." It wasn't only Li Fan who noticed the extraordinary nature of the gray chess pieces; Venerable Yin's rapidly swirling black-and-white eyes also indicated the turmoil within him.

"To forge chess pieces from worlds," Li Fan murmured, casting a faint glance at Venerable Yin, then sighing softly, "The mighty power of a True Immortal is truly extraordinary."

"True Immortal, chess pieces?" Venerable Yin, catching these two keywords, trembled slightly. He immediately said, "Indeed, my premonition was correct. The Yin-Yang Orbs I absorbed earlier might also be related to a True Immortal!"

Li Fan looked at Venerable Yin, waiting for him to continue.

Venerable Yin paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts. Then he said calmly, "The moment I saw these four chess pieces, a sense of familiarity arose within me. Not that I had seen them before, but a familiarity of belonging to the same kind, like when I encounter those world-ghosts..."

Li Fan's eyes flickered. He pondered for a moment, then nodded, "The immense death qi and life force contained within those Yin-Yang Orbs are indeed beyond the control of cultivators like us."

Venerable Yin continued, "But with these... chess pieces, while I feel a sense of familiarity, a trace of fear instinctively arises within me, as if they belong to a strict hierarchy, high above!"

"I also feel that even though there is no longer any power of life or death within these worlds, they still hold an immense attraction for me," Venerable Yin continued, his voice slowly becoming hazy. "It's as if devouring them would bring me incredible benefits, even greater than those from the Yin-Yang Orbs!" Just before the greed in his eyes could become uncontrollable, he promptly closed them.

After a long while, the seductive whispers, as if from a heavenly demon, faded from his ears, and he gradually returned to normal. However, he dared not look at the four chess pieces again.

Li Fan naturally knew the source of the fear, temptation, and other feelings these gray chess pieces brought to Venerable Yin.

"Fragments of laws from the Immortal Realm..."

Silently, he activated the altered version of the Heaven Mending Record within his mind. In Li Fan's vision, the four chess pieces once again transformed into interwoven horizontal and vertical lines.

These were the constructed and reformed principles of the world.

Li Fan compared their similarities and differences.

Tens of thousands of years had passed; the Star Sea had been destroyed and then revived. However, the Grand Dao principles that served as the foundation for building worlds had not, in fact, changed much.

Through countless cycles of reincarnation, Li Fan had gained a profound understanding of the laws of heaven and earth in the cultivation world. After several rounds of observation and comparison, he indeed discovered parts within these four chess piece worlds that did not belong to the "lower realms."

They appeared no different from the lines representing ordinary laws of heaven and earth.

In reality, they were a higher-level replacement for the laws of the lower realms, a new birth after sublimation and transformation.

Although merely fragments of laws used for construction, in Li Fan's eyes, they were like the most brilliant gems in the world.

If the laws of heaven and earth in the lower realms were a low mountain peak no more than a hundred meters high, then the parts originating from the Immortal Realm within these four chess pieces were magnificent mountain ranges stretching for hundreds of miles, all-encompassing and full of vibrant life.

The two simply could not be compared on the same level.

And it was unknown whether it was a coincidence, but the fragments of Immortal Realm laws contained within these four chess pieces were all different from each other.

"The laws contained within each chess piece are like a jigsaw puzzle piece," he mused. "After completely merging them, they might form a complete picture."

"There are a total of twelve gray chess pieces," he continued, "They should correspond to the twelve waypoint messages left by Sun Piaomiao back then."

"In that case..."

"Actually, there should be thirteen," Li Fan thought. "The Medicine King Cauldron, which has been passed down through the Medicine King Sect in the Xuanhuang Realm since ancient times, is not within the scope of my current sensing."

Thinking of this, Li Fan couldn't help but look up towards the outside of the Xuanhuang Realm.

The Medicine King Cauldron of the Medicine King Sect was currently still struggling near the Immortal Ruins and had not returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.

"Anyway, the day it falls isn't far off. I just need to wait," he mused. "There's no need to risk going to the Immortal Ruins to retrieve it."

As Li Fan thought this, he reached out and took one of the chess pieces.

Indeed, a peculiar sensation immediately surged into his mind.

Subtly, he sensed the approximate location information of other gray chess pieces within the Star Sea.

"There are four pieces here."

"One is with the Xuanxian Boat."

"There are also four within the continuous Great Wall of Shattered Realms."

"There are three more, and one of them should be in the Sea of Relics."

"The remaining two..."

A strange glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.

Because he discovered that these two gray chess pieces were actually within the Xuanhuang Realm!

"The worlds they originally belonged to must have been used by Tianyi and Chuanfa to repair the Xuanhuang Realm."

"Watch over this place. I'll be back shortly," he instructed Venerable Yin and Baihua. Ignoring their astonishment, a wooden sword phantom flickered, and Li Fan, following the general direction of the sensation, arrived at one of the locations first.

It was the bottomless Cangwu Abyss.

The Cangwu Abyss, located in the southwestern corner of the Xuanhuang Realm, resembled a massive fissure in the realm. Its currently explored depth had reached 300,000 zhang.

Within it, layer upon layer, were distributed many strange sights and objects.

What was once a perilous natural barrier could barely pose any threat to Li Fan, who could now even traverse the Star Sea.

Following the sensation, he descended.

Li Fan watched the scenes continually drifting upwards in his vision, and a feeling suddenly surged within him: "All the things within this Cangwu Abyss must have come from different, shattered cultivation realms. Piled up here, it looks like a temporary storage area for various materials during the process of stitching the Xuanhuang Realm back together."

"If anything is missing during the world-mending process, it can be retrieved from here at any time. One day, this Cangwu Abyss will be filled in. But by then, perhaps the Xuanhuang Realm will have already gained new life."

Li Fan observed the many strange sights within the abyss with great interest.

The closer the abyss was to the Xuanhuang Realm's surface, the more it was influenced by the realm's life aura, giving rise to various unique landscapes such as the Forest of Spirit Whispers, the Puppet Chasm, and the Lost City.

But the deeper he went, the more the floating world fragments around him resembled their original forms.

After the worlds were shattered, a deathly silence remained.

On some world fragments, there were even faint traces of True Immortal power remaining.

"It could almost be considered a miniature Great Wall of Shattered Realms."

"However, its stability is not as high as that of the true Great Wall of Shattered Realms. The residual True Immortal power that accumulates from time to time will still erupt..."

"No wonder this place is a forbidden zone for cultivators."

When the sword phantom descended to a depth of 530,000 zhang underground, Li Fan once again sensed the presence of the Immortal-Suppressing Force within the abyss.

"This Immortal-Suppressing Force should be the oppressive power exerted on cultivators who intrude into the Cangwu Abyss, which Tianyi constructed by imitating the Great Wall of Shattered Realms."

"More precisely, the 'power' of the Cangwu Abyss, from top to bottom, escalates in a staircase-like manner," he mused. "Although the elevated height is extremely limited, and in total does not exceed that of the Xuanhuang Realm by much, for cultivators within the abyss, the sensation is extremely distinct."

"Only by reaching the corresponding cultivation level can one safely survive within the abyss layers of matching power," he continued. "Otherwise, just like a mortal straying into the Immortal Realm and arriving at a height not meant for them, there will only be one outcome: being crushed."

Li Fan, who had uncovered the mysteries of the Cangwu Abyss, now also roughly pinpointed the location of the stray gray chess piece here.

Amidst scattered architectural ruins, as if shattered by countless sword slashes, Li Fan found the fifth gray chess piece.

It was a majestic and imposing stone statue of a Qilin, quietly half-toppled on the ground, just as it was when the world was destroyed tens of thousands of years ago.

The statue was originally a pair; however, Li Fan examined the other and found it to be made of ordinary stone.

"Well hidden," he muttered.

Li Fan crushed the stone statue, restoring it to its chess piece form. Then he surveyed his surroundings.

Based on the appearance of the surrounding ruins, Li Fan also reconstructed the world it originally belonged to.

"The Seven Fiends Realm," he realized. "Within it, seven kinds of terrifying fiendish qi permeated everywhere, and could even transform and harm people. Therefore, outside all buildings in this realm, various strange beasts of all sizes would be placed to absorb and suppress it."

"It was also a cultivation realm of considerable size back then," he continued. "Cultivators of the Seven Fiends Realm were born tainted by fiendish qi, and every move they made carried the characteristics of the Seven Fiends. Among them, peerless geniuses even possessed all seven..."

"Alas, time flows onward. Everything has long turned to dust," Li Fan sighed, shaking his head slightly before leaving the place.

The other remaining gray chess piece in the Xuanhuang Realm was buried beneath Tianyun Prefecture.

No unusual phenomena occurred at its location.

"It should be that with the progress of the Xuanhuang Realm's integration," Li Fan mused, "it was originally within fragments of other worlds but has now completely merged into the Xuanhuang Realm."

"Just like the fragments from the Heavenly Law Realm at the bottom of Congyun Sea," he continued. "Under normal circumstances, they would, with evolution, be deeply buried at the base of Congyun Mountain."

Without alarming anyone, Li Fan successfully acquired it.

By now, Li Fan had collected six gray chess pieces.

Returning to the Great Qi Sermon Platform, he placed the six chess pieces together.

With the number approaching half, the influence between these chess pieces seemed to grow stronger.

They rotated around each other at an increasing speed.

Li Fan saw that amidst this high-speed rotation, the lines representing the principles of the world were attracting each other and slowly merging.

Meanwhile, the fragments of Immortal Realm laws slowly drew closer, completing the puzzle.

Even though it was only six out of thirteen now, it was enough to support the occurrence of a qualitative change.

The Immortal Realm law puzzle was like a sudden void appearing in the middle of a vast ocean.

The worlds that had fallen into stillness were like calm seawater.

The moment the void appeared, the seawater uncontrollably surged and poured in.

The six worlds, like planar paintings that had been soaked and distorted, were absorbed like liquid into the Immortal Realm law puzzle.

Following the template already designed by the puzzle, a brand new world emerged.

Blue skies, white clouds, and endless grasslands.

A seemingly ordinary mortal grassland scene.

The more Li Fan observed, the more he felt an unprecedented vastness within the heavens and earth.

The vibrant green blades of grass growing robustly on the ground also contained an unimaginably vigorous life force!

"Immortal Realm?!" Li Fan, seeing the scene within the merged chess piece, felt a violent tremor in his heart.

"No, that's not right. It's just a fragment of what was once the Immortal Realm," he quickly corrected himself. "Perhaps describing it as an 'immortal domain fragment' would be more accurate."

"Moreover, this immortal domain is not yet complete."

Between the Immortal Realm grassland and the sky, there was clearly something else missing.

Only because of the absence of the remaining seven gray chess pieces could it not be fully manifested.

Li Fan gazed blankly at the scene before him, a sudden feeling of regret surging in his heart.

As if he had personally shattered a rare treasure, a fervent, uncontrollable desire to restore it welled up from every corner of his mind.

If not for Li Fan's Immortal Heart Charm protecting him and his experience with too many similar situations, he might have lost control at this moment and immediately gone to pursue the remaining chess pieces.

But now, Li Fan ignored this temptation.

With the completion of the merge, only one chess piece remained. It was no longer the previous gray, but now shimmered with iridescent light, its size even expanded.

Li Fan reached out and solemnly put away the six-in-one chess piece.

"Hmm?"

To Li Fan's surprise, the moment he absorbed this chess piece into his body, he felt as if countless mountains had been piled upon him.

Caught off guard, his body abruptly dropped slightly.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly. The power of the Xuanhuang World-Annihilation Transformation revived and circulated, providing a continuous flow of strength. Only then could he barely withstand it.

"Is this... the weight of the Immortal Realm?"

"Even a mere fragment of an incomplete immortal domain is so difficult for me to bear?"

"I fear that once all thirteen fragments are gathered and merged into a true immortal domain," he thought, "my current cultivation level will be utterly unable to bear it!"

Li Fan once again felt the terrifying difference between immortals and mortals.

But at the same time, instead of being alarmed, joy arose in his heart.

"I was just worrying that after the Xuanhuang Realm ascended and sublimated, I wouldn't find an anchor point capable of sustaining that state."

"Now it seems that if this immortal domain fragment is integrated into the Xuanhuang Realm, it will definitely adapt and not easily fall."

"With this immortal domain fragment as its core, the Xuanhuang Realm might even be able to ascend higher!"

"Heaven is truly helping me!" Li Fan couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement in his heart.

But soon, he instinctively grew suspicious about the origin of these immortal domain fragments.