Chapter 1573: Xuan Merchant Never Leaves

"It's not directed at me; rather, it rejects the mundane world and everything between the mountains and seas."

"When this Cone Dao is cultivated to its extreme, it might be able to forcefully carve out a place for itself within the mountains and seas!"

"However, this is merely theoretical. To reach such a realm requires years of effort, without a single moment of slack. Even the slightest oversight could cause tens of thousands of years of arduous cultivation to be utterly wasted."

"This path is not for ordinary people to cultivate."

As Mo Sha's erosion deepened, Li Fan's comprehension of the Cone Dao grew, and he couldn't help but shake his head slightly.

At the same time, he was getting closer and closer to that solitary figure.

The figure opposite showed no panic. Instead, it bowed deeply towards Li Fan from a distance.

Li Fan was slightly taken aback, but a moment later, he suddenly realized that the distance between himself and the figure had inexplicably increased significantly!

The distant isolated figure, whose appearance he could almost discern earlier, became blurry once more.

Li Fan stood rooted, pondering the situation carefully. Through the feedback from Dao Yi Worm and Mo Sha, he understood the reason for this phenomenon.

It was precisely: "If I show an inch of respect, you must retreat a foot!"

Li Fan immediately grasped it: "This is another kind of Dao path. It is precisely because of this divine ability that he was able to cultivate the Cone Dao so smoothly to its current realm."

"If he had only cultivated the Cone Dao alone, he probably wouldn't even have reached the Nameless Realm by now."

The Cone Immortal's divine ability, "If I show an inch of respect, you must retreat a foot," was deployed in an instant. Even Dao Yi Worm and Mo Sha did not sense its Daoistic fluctuations.

However, Li Fan paid it no mind. As long as he continued to approach, the Cone Immortal would be forced to use it again for self-preservation.

Sure enough, when Li Fan and the Cone Immortal's distance became close once more, the isolated figure bowed again.

A phantom flickered before Li Fan's eyes, like an illusion. He felt as if the other party, constantly shimmering, had instantly fled from within reach to the horizon.

It was like an extremely socially anxious person seeing a stranger approach and immediately fleeing in panic.

Li Fan almost laughed in exasperation.

In this brief exchange, the Cone Immortal had also fully understood Li Fan's astonishing "learning" ability.

Therefore, he wisely gave up on competing with Li Fan for the Lord of Holy Merchants.

After three consecutive bows, he completely vanished from Li Fan's sight.

Only the insane Lord of Holy Merchants remained standing in place.

"The Cone Dao, combined with that divine ability, makes his escape speed incredibly fast. Moreover, his escape doesn't rely on mere speed, but on the pressure I exert when pursuing him. In other words, the stronger I am and the greater the pressure I bring, the faster he can flee from me."

"It's like a spring."

"Currently, there isn't any particularly effective method to deal with him..." Li Fan looked in the direction the Cone Immortal had fled, but did not continue the pursuit, simply letting him go for now.

As long as the Cone Immortal did not leave the Origin, Li Fan could always remotely pinpoint his location with the help of the Grand Dao Scroll in his hand.

"To capture him, I need to devise a special method. For example, a dead end of Dao Annihilation where there's no retreat..." Li Fan's eyes flickered as he withdrew his gaze.

He then looked towards his primary target for this trip.

The Lord of Holy Merchants had indeed become completely irrational; even with the Cone Immortal, who had restrained him, now gone, he remained within the previously designated area.

He flailed his arms wildly at the void, expending the last vestiges of his power.

"Come here!" Li Fan grabbed at the Lord of Holy Merchants from a distance, intending to pull him into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm for suppression.

As expected, even though the Lord of Holy Merchants was nearly at his limit, his defensive measures remained active.

With a flash of white light, Li Fan felt all his attempts to approach the opponent's Dao Network energy being invisibly dissipated. He grabbed nothing but air.

"It didn't truly disappear. Instead..."

Any part of the Myriad Phase Dao Network, like a tentacle, was an extension of Li Fan's power. He could vaguely sense that this part of him still existed.

However, it was no longer within the Shuoxing Sea. It wasn't even within the Origin.

It was...

"Transferred to another possibility?"

Li Fan tried to perceive the specific situation at the distant end through the vanished Myriad Phase Dao Network energy. But separated from the Origin by numerous mountains and seas, even with his full power, he could only sense some vague images.

Under a gloomy sky, jumbled items piled up into mountains, stretching endlessly. The entire world seemed like an infinite junkyard with no end in sight.

Once a part of the Myriad Phase Dao Network arrived there, it lost the support of Li Fan's main body and couldn't even remain suspended in the air. It plummeted to the surface, becoming part of the boundless mountain of junk.

Instinctively, Mo Sha within the Myriad Phase Dao Network began to devour everything around it.

Although the world seemed to be filled with useless junk, the composition of this "junk" was surprisingly pure.

Mo Sha not only devoured it with extreme ease but also experienced a much greater enhancement to itself after consumption than it did in the Origin.

The connection with the junkyard world was intermittent, but it was generally certain that the transferred Myriad Phase Dao Network energy was thriving there.

Li Fan simply allowed that portion of his power to develop on its own.

"I wonder if the Lord of Holy Merchants' defense always transfers attacks to the same destination," Li Fan mused.

With that thought, Mo Sha surged towards the Lord of Holy Merchants again at Li Fan's signal.

This time, it was again silently dissolved, no longer existing within the Origin's possibilities.

However, it wasn't transferred to the junkyard world, but to another, even more distant possibility.

So distant, in fact, that Li Fan lost all sensation of that part of the Dao Network.

Although they theoretically still existed, they were beyond Li Fan's control, making it no different from losing them. Moreover, Li Fan was quite wary of such uncontrolled situations.

After a moment of contemplation, he abandoned further attempts to test with the Myriad Phase Dao Network.

Instead, he simply used other Dao principles he commanded to launch continuous, saturated strikes.

Layers of immortal formations replaced the Cone Dao's blockade. Infinite sword light illuminated from within the formations, eroding the Lord of Holy Merchants' last remaining strength.

Demonic sounds echoed, and a massive, illusory alchemy furnace slowly formed, enveloping the Lord of Holy Merchants.

At this moment, the Lord of Holy Merchants was like a sandbag, enduring Li Fan's relentless, unbridled assault.

His defensive measure, which transferred attacks, ultimately had a tolerance limit.

The previous siege by the immortals of Shuoxing Sea had already largely depleted it. After Li Fan's continuous saturated strikes, it finally reached its breaking point.

It burst like a star, transforming into specks of white light, and eventually dissipated.

Without this protective measure, the Lord of Holy Merchants was no different from a mortal before Li Fan.

He was suppressed in an instant and confined within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

Li Fan nodded with satisfaction and looked around. The immortals of Shuoxing Sea had long since scattered like birds and beasts.

The few nameless True Immortals who had still harbored some lingering hopes for the Lord of Holy Merchants, upon witnessing Li Fan's lightning-fast methods of repelling the Cone Immortal and then breaking the defenses, completely abandoned their notions and fled in haste.

"Flee... but where can they flee to?" Li Fan chuckled softly.

However, he did not pursue them, even though he had mastered all the escape routes of the immortals.

Li Fan intended to leave these individuals for the emerging True Immortals of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, to be used for training purposes.

The Shuoxing Sea was merely an appetizer before the main engagement; the distant Guangwu Star Sea was Li Fan's true expedition target.

With a thought, Li Fan returned to the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.

In the Heavens Beyond Heavens, he began to attempt to infiltrate the Lord of Holy Merchants' thoughts.

Beside him, the orange cat, Pipa, materialized. It meowed several times at the Lord of Holy Merchants, letting out an unfeeling mockery.

In a short span, their roles had been reversed.

However, the Lord of Holy Merchants no longer even harbored emotions of grief or indignation.

When Li Fan entered his mind, what he saw was the exact moment the Merchant Immortal Ship had been destroyed.

Time seemed to be frozen at that instant.

The Lord of Holy Merchants repeatedly relived this experience, overwhelmed by regret and powerlessness.

"His thoughts are completely consumed by the desire to save the Merchant Immortal Ship. Even past memories are submerged and difficult to explore."

"In that case..."

Li Fan softly snapped his fingers.

After the Merchant Immortal Ship was once again engulfed by the light of the explosion, and the Lord of Holy Merchants cried out "Eternity,"

The Merchant Immortal Ship, which had clearly vanished, suddenly reappeared out of nothingness!

The experimental space where the cat treasure was imprisoned, all the various buildings within the Immortal Ship, and even every single resident of the Immortal Ship—everything was exactly as before!

Seeing all of this before him, the deranged Lord of Holy Merchants was inexplicably stunned.

"It's... it's back?"

Two streaks of tears involuntarily streamed down his face. It took him half a day to slowly awaken from his stupor.

Still feeling a sense of disbelief, the Lord of Holy Merchants repeatedly flickered through every corner of the Merchant Immortal Ship, repeatedly observing the familiar people, events, and objects from his memories.

He found no flaws whatsoever.

Everything seemed real.

"Could it be that what just happened was merely a nightmare?"

"Was it a subtle warning from the heavens, telling me that even the Eternal Dao cannot be overly relied upon?" The Lord of Holy Merchants felt a sudden daze.

"I remember now. In fact, the Sacred Ancestor had warned about this long ago. Before departing, he specifically cautioned that besides the Eternal Dao, we needed another ultimate life-saving measure. The split of the Immortal Ship back then was actually subtly instigated by the Sacred Ancestor. Otherwise, even if there were disagreements about the plan to collide with the high wall, how could the Xuan-Shang Immortal Ship, with all its power under the Sacred Ancestor's control, have split?"

"If the Merchant Immortal Ship were completely destroyed, we could return within the high wall to find the Profound Immortal Ship. Deep within the Profound Immortal Ship's treasury, the original backup of the Merchant Immortal Ship is secretly hidden. Likewise, within our Merchant Immortal Ship, there's a backup of the Profound Immortal Ship from its split state. As the saying goes, Profound is inseparable from Merchant, and Merchant is inseparable from Profound. Separated in two star seas, as long as either the Xuan-Shang Immortal Ship or the other continues to exist, the Xuan-Shang Immortal Ship will endure forever."

"Moreover, the high wall where the Profound Immortal Ship is located is far safer than the Shuoxing Sea. With the numerous treasures they acquired back then, they would certainly be able to develop steadily. This means the Merchant Immortal Ship always has a fallback."

"This secret was only known to successive Holy Lords. However, over the years, the Immortal Ship's reliance on and misuse of the Eternal Dao became increasingly severe. And no matter what disaster struck, Eternity could restore the Immortal Ship to its original state. Gradually, even successive Lords of Holy Merchants slowly forgot the life-saving strategy left by the First Holy Lord..."

"In my daze, I saw the Immortal Ship destroyed. My mind collapsed, and I almost forgot about this."

"Fortunately, it was just an illusion," the Lord of Holy Merchants murmured.

"Could this be a subtle reminder from the First Holy Lord? Asking me to return within the wall?"

"Right..."

Thinking of "within the high wall" seemed to trigger a keyword. A series of long-sealed memories then emerged from the Lord of Holy Merchants' mind.

"Before the First Ancestor departed, he also mentioned that if the Xuan-Shang Immortal Ship were ever completely destroyed and reached a desperate situation, we should return to the ancestral land."

"The Xuan-Shang Immortal Ship was transformed from a grotto-heaven in the ancestral land. The Immortal Ship's grotto-heaven, and all its residents, except for the First Holy Lord, have backups existing in the ancestral land world."

"That is an experimental site created and monitored by True Immortals from the upper realm."

"When the Sacred Ancestor led his followers to escape back then, it triggered the defensive mechanisms within the experimental site. The ancestral land has been sealed ever since. According to the Sacred Ancestor's conjecture, that experimental site is quite special; unless it's affected by the tribulations of Dao Annihilation, ordinary calamities can hardly impact it."

"Strange. These past memories, how could I..." The Lord of Holy Merchants was somewhat confused.

After a period of bewilderment, he looked at the vibrant Immortal Ship space and comforted himself: "It seems the recent illusion was too much of a shock to me."

"Being prepared for danger in times of peace—we have forgotten this principle for far too long."

After being lucid for only a moment, the Lord of Holy Merchants once again sank into memories of the past.

Meanwhile, in the reality of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, the Lord of Holy Merchants remained motionless and frozen from the beginning, immersed in the illusory world Li Fan had woven for him.

Li Fan had previously meticulously investigated the Merchant Immortal Ship. With his current power, he was capable of fabricating vivid illusions to deceive the Lord of Holy Merchants.

"Even if there are any flaws, he will probably convince himself to ignore them," Li Fan commented indifferently.

Indeed, there were many valuable things in the Lord of Holy Merchants' memories.

Besides the Sacred Ancestor's arrangements within the high wall, there was also a wealth of information transmitted back by successive Holy Merchants after their explorations into other possibilities.

"A total of twenty-eight possibilities are involved."

"These are all safe places where Dao Annihilation did not cause catastrophic destruction."

"In fact, if the situation wasn't better than the Origin, the Lords of Holy Merchants wouldn't have transmitted back detailed information."

Li Fan quickly scanned through these possible states.

Every small change in the river of history leads to entirely different outcomes in the future. These possibilities greatly differed from the Origin where Li Fan was located.

Among them, Li Fan was most interested in the one where countless lower realms were absorbed by the Immortal Realm, allowing the Immortal Realm to successfully resist the tide of Dao Annihilation.