Chapter 1383: Stone Tablet Reveals Immortal Characters

"Clumsy," it was said, in contrast to the perfectly natural and untraceable Descent to the Mortal Realm by the White Circle.

In fact, the three-eyed figurine's method of refining humans into objects had completely surpassed Li Fan's understanding. Even with the actual object before him, Li Fan was almost at a loss as to how to begin his research. Among all the theories he had encountered in his life, only the Alchemy Scripture, personally passed down by Sun Piaomiao, bore some resemblance to it, but not much.

"When humans are transformed into objects, their life attributes are also retained, and they also possess the attributes of objects."

Li Fan conducted a series of experiments on the three-eyed figurine he had acquired. First, he confirmed that the figurine's self-awareness had been erased; it could only act according to pre-set rules. Li Fan then tested the figurine's durability. After the three-eyed figurine became ineffective, Qin Zhuang casually discarded it. This showed that outside the High Wall, it was certainly not an object of high value. Yet, despite being such a small thing, Li Fan almost had to resort to his most powerful technique, the Nine Heavens Dustfall Finger, to inflict noticeable damage on it.

"If they were merely cultivators from the Dust Abyss Realm, even if they were rumored to possess True Immortal bloodlines, they couldn't achieve this level. The added layer of object attributes, perfectly fused and flawless, is what significantly boosted its defense..."

Entities from beyond the High Wall seemed to possess an exceptional resistance to illusion arrays. Li Fan used the three-eyed figurine to test most of the immortal arrays he had mastered, one by one. He found that the figurine, even in an unconscious state, repeatedly evaded the fatal strikes of the arrays, moving through them with ease.

"Besides human and object attributes, there seems to be a third type of attribute superimposed."

While observing, Li Fan promptly adjusted the immortal arrays based on the three-eyed figurine's evasive movements. Then, he re-tested with new arrays optimized by the Ultimate Disintegration Disk. The result remained unchanged; the figurine still easily evaded them. Li Fan didn't fret and continued with a new round of iterations.

After the array improvements reached the fiftieth iteration, the three-eyed figurine's flawless evasive movements finally showed flaws. It began to be occasionally caught by the operating immortal arrays. A bright light suddenly flickered in Li Fan's eyes.

"My immortal arrays are like a large net woven together. Although seemingly invincible in the Darkest Star Sea, with the arrays capable of enveloping all living beings, to the three-eyed figurine—a creation from beyond the High Wall—every gap in the array's net is a flaw! However, as I plug these flaws one by one, the net is woven tighter and tighter, and the holes become smaller and smaller... It won't be as easy for it to resist the arrays purely by instinct! In short, while my array mastery hasn't qualitatively improved, it has become increasingly difficult to break through!"

Li Fan intently stared at the Dust Abyss Clan figurine in the immortal array, his thoughts surging. He applied all the detailed changes from the iterated and upgraded arrays to all his grand arrays. It was as if an initially rough sketch was becoming increasingly refined with the continuous addition of details.

"This level of refinement in array details cannot possibly be achieved by one person in a short time. It requires continuous research by generations, much like the Immortal Ark Faction, for such mastery to emerge!" In a trance, Li Fan seemed to see countless figures working tirelessly day and night, meticulously studying the path of arrays.

"My rapid completion is merely due to directly applying existing knowledge. In fact, without the aid of the Disintegration Disk, I couldn't have iterated the arrays this quickly! The three-eyed figurine was brought by Qin Zhuang from beyond the wall five hundred years ago, whereas the White Circle and the Cat Treasure are more recent creations. Has the High Wall's methods advanced so significantly over five hundred years?"

With a thought, Li Fan pulled out the Descent to the Mortal Realm and threw it towards the evolving array. He wanted to compare its reaction to the shifting array with that of the three-eyed figurine. However, as Li Fan had somewhat expected, the Descent to the Mortal Realm was immune to all array techniques applied to it. His observation plan failed before it even began.

"I couldn't even observe its evasive movements within the array, similar to the three-eyed figurine. Instead, all the immortal arrays I currently possess seemed completely ineffective! As if they operated on entirely different mechanistic levels..."

Li Fan's eyes flickered thoughtfully: "It seems that over these five hundred years, the technology beyond the High Wall has undergone a qualitative leap." Inspired by the varying flow of time within the Darkest Star Sea, Li Fan speculated that the flow of time beyond the High Wall might also be significantly faster than within. Since the descent of the Immortal Realm Catastrophe, over ten thousand years had passed within the Darkest Star Sea. Beyond the High Wall, perhaps millions of years had elapsed.

"The disparity between the three-eyed figurine and other creations that arrived in the Xuanhuang Realm, at different times, seems to confirm my speculation in some ways. Of course, it's also possible that the Cat Treasure and Descent to the Mortal Realm are extremely rare entities even beyond the High Wall. It might simply be a common value difference..." However, because both the Cat Treasure and the White Circle were fished out of the fishing pond, Li Fan instinctively believed that such "bait" would not be particularly rare objects.

"With the three-eyed figurine helping me correct and reduce flaws in my immortal arrays, perhaps in this life, I'll have the chance to complete the array and extract some useful information from Qin Zhuang's mind."

The experiment was now on track, with little likelihood of further complications. What followed was merely mechanical repetition. Li Fan designated a simulated persona to handle the improvement of complex arrays. He then began researching the golden rays that the three-eyed figurine had shot out to capture Jiao Xiuyuan. It had previously been determined that these golden rays were the innate divine ability of a Dust Abyss cultivator, representing a law itself. And what could make it easier to analyze laws than the nameless True Immortal's leg bone?

Enveloping himself in the golden light, Li Fan flashed into the Nether Clan's small world. Thanks to the protection of Li Fan's phantom statue, the Nether Clan, once nearly extinct, had reoccupied most of the small world's territory. However, periodically, the terrifying stone tablet in the center of the world would erupt with boundless disaster, claiming the lives of almost half of the Nether Clan. The presence of the stone tablet and the phantom ensured that the Nether Clan lived perpetually under fear and fervent prayer.

Arriving before the nameless True Immortal's leg bone, Li Fan first checked the progress of the True Immortal seal script manifesting on the tablet. Perhaps due to a quantitative change leading to a qualitative one, the characterless tablet, having consumed a large amount of Nether Clan flesh and blood, was manifesting characters much faster than Li Fan had expected. Currently, less than a fifth of the mysterious character had been revealed. Yet, Li Fan could already faintly sense a unique power emanating from it.

Unlike the characters for "Hunger" and "Innate," this True Immortal seal script, related to the transformation between immortal and mortal, was able to penetrate the stone tablet's power restraints to some extent when it manifested on the tablet, emitting its own power outwards. It was precisely due to this subtle influence that the Nether Clan's ancestral awakening process was slowly progressing, even without Li Fan personally activating it. All of this happened quietly. Even the simulated persona, which had been continuously supervising, didn't notice. Only now, with Li Fan's personal presence, did he keenly perceive the changes occurring here.

Li Fan slightly frowned and decisively set up multiple layers of immortal arrays around the stone tablet, isolating the True Immortal seal script's influence from the outside world.

"It's not that the standing of this 'Immortal-Mortal Transformation' seal script has surpassed the nameless True Immortal. Rather, this particular seal script has a certain uniqueness. The Grand Dao it involves even influenced the nameless True Immortal during his life. And this stone tablet is not the complete Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar; it's merely a broken leg bone. Such a change is not surprising. But anything involving True Immortals truly is full of pitfalls. One must not be careless!" Li Fan secretly cautioned himself.

He then began the main task. He projected a static golden ray towards the stone tablet. The moment it approached, it was absorbed by the stone tablet. A new True Immortal seal script began to appear in the corner of the stone tablet. What struck Li Fan as odd, however, was that whether it was "Hunger," "Innate," or the still-forming "Immortal-Mortal Transformation" seal script, they had all appeared in the central area of the stone tablet. Yet this new seal script, instead of appearing in the large central area, squeezed itself into the very corner. Li Fan tried to recall which True Immortal seal scripts had appeared in the corresponding area of the characterless tablet in his previous life. Unfortunately, it had been merely a fleeting glimpse, leaving no lasting impression. Thus, after much thought, he found not a single clue. He decided to ignore it and continued to feed in the golden light. As expected of a pure creation of law, it was far more efficient than simply feeding in material and then analyzing it. With one golden ray remaining unsungested, the True Immortal seal script on the stone tablet had fully manifested!

"This is..."

"Restrain?"

Like all True Immortal seal scripts, the moment Li Fan saw it, its true meaning appeared in his mind. This character wasn't particularly complex. But to Li Fan, it had a different flavor. After encountering a large number of True Immortal seal scripts, Li Fan had once categorized them simply. Not by the strength of their power, but by their function. Most True Immortal seal scripts were annotations of the Grand Dao laws between heaven and earth. But a small portion were evolutions of Immortal Realm decrees! For example, the "Return" character technique, which had caused the core of the Xuanhuang Realm's ancient immortal array, the Nine-Star Crimson Pearl, to mysteriously disappear. And now, the "Restrain" character technique appearing before Li Fan was also among this category.

"The Dust Abyss Realm cultivators possessing True Immortal bloodlines. This might not be an empty boast. True Immortals descending to the lower realms comes at a high cost. The Immortal Realm also needs to find representatives in the lower realms to execute its will. Perhaps the Dust Abyss Realm cultivators serve as the Immortal Realm's enforcers in the lower realms..."

Li Fan suddenly remembered that, according to legend, the Dust Abyss Realm was one of the first cultivation realms affected when the Immortal Realm Catastrophe descended. It should have been long extinct. Yet, many years later, cultivators still seemed to have survived and were refined into objects by forces beyond the High Wall.

"There are several possibilities. One, there isn't just one Dust Abyss Realm in the entire lower realm. The one in the Darkest Star Sea is just one of them. Second, some cultivators from the Dust Abyss Realm survived that year and escaped the Darkest Star Sea's range before the High Wall was created. They then flourished outside the High Wall. However, judging by the current situation, their condition is probably not very good."

Li Fan reined in his thoughts and began experimenting with the newly acquired "Restrain" character technique. It bore a striking resemblance to the "Binding Worm" divine ability he had acquired long ago. Or perhaps, it was a complete superior replacement for the Binding Worm ability. The Binding Worm still required the caster's strength to be greater than that of the target. But under the "Restrain" character technique, as long as the opponent couldn't immunize themselves to the power of the True Immortal seal script, they would be instantly restrained. Their body, soul, and mind would all fall into a state of frozen stillness, completely at the mercy of the caster!

Li Fan summoned Autumn Water and Heavenly Sun for an experiment. Both were in the Supreme realm. However, perhaps because Heavenly Sun had absorbed immortal puppet combat experience and thus acquired some of its characteristics, it appeared extremely discomfited under the "Restrain" character technique. It barely managed to break free, almost unleashing its full power. Autumn Water's response, however, was much better. By leveraging the infinite power of the Star Sea, she could minimize the influence of the "Restrain" character technique.

"The True Immortal seal scripts derived from Immortal Realm decrees seem to originate differently from those copied from the Grand Dao laws." As Li Fan personally experienced the power of the "Restrain" character technique, a thought flashed through his mind. "Besides its power within the normal scope, it also has a special suppression bonus against certain entities." Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly. He had previously had the fortune to glimpse a full view of the Immortal Realm. Within the boundless, vast ocean, True Immortals were but a minority. Most areas of the Immortal Realm were filled with creations of True Immortals, such as immortal puppets and immortal servants.

"Immortal Realm decrees might be the means specially used to control these beings. Furthermore, this decree could even be useful from superiors to subordinates." When Li Fan said "superiors to subordinates," he didn't just mean True Immortals to mortals. It also included the tall figure from that True Immortal's memory, who was superior to True Immortals.

"Your subordinate..."

Pondering the fragments of memory from that True Immortal who had descended to the lower realms, Li Fan had a vague realization. "I don't know their name, so for now, I'll call them the Sovereign. In the Sovereign's eyes, True Immortals are like ants. Perhaps this is inextricably linked to these strict Immortal Realm decrees... Like an imperial decree in a mortal dynasty, a single word can lead to the confiscation of property and extermination of a clan! But an imperial decree originates from the Emperor's authority. Whereas an Immortal Realm decree is..."

Li Fan once again wrote the character "Restrain." "Something seems... missing," Li Fan murmured, his brows slightly furrowed. It wasn't that the "Restrain" character technique manifested by the stone tablet was incomplete, but rather Li Fan vaguely perceived that certain constraints were absent during the process of writing the "Restrain" character.

"Under normal circumstances, not everyone would have the authority to write the 'Restrain' character. However, with the destruction of the Immortal Realm, the Sovereigns who commanded the True Immortals have all turned to dust. This restriction has also disappeared." Li Fan acutely realized the preciousness of this True Immortal seal script derived from an Immortal Realm decree. "As long as one masters its composition, its power can be activated."

As his thoughts surged, Li Fan couldn't help but look up at the sky. He wondered about casting the "Restrain" character on the True Immortal from the Immortal Ruins above to see its effect.