Chapter 433: Spiritual Light Breaks the Mist

Angry Squid:Are the Small Worlds and the Profound Yellow Realm not located in the same space-time?

As the woman in green regarded Li Fan with a faint, unreadable smile, Li Fan's own thoughts raced. Was it true, or false? Was it a test, or a fabricated lie to use as a bargaining chip? In a flash, Li Fan quickly analyzed the situation.

Assuming the other party had already discovered he was a complete fraud, she shouldn't waste time talking and explaining. The logical course of action would be to flee, or to set an ambush to capture and interrogate him. This meant that, to a large extent, the woman in green was still unsure about his identity.

After all, there had indeed been instances in the history of the Profound Yellow Realm where Small Worlds united to counter-attack the cultivation world. And if he truly were an envoy of the Myriad Worlds Alliance, he couldn't possibly be unaware of whether the Small Worlds and the Profound Yellow Realm were in the same space-time. Since the future of the empire was at stake, this Saint Master would likely not fabricate such an easily exposed lie. Therefore, it was highly probable that what she said was the truth — at the very least, it was the truth in her eyes.

A question naturally arose from this. If the Small Worlds and the Profound Yellow Realm were not in the same space-time, then why, when faced with the threat of the Immortal Ruins, did the cultivators of the Profound Yellow Realm not choose to escape to various Small Worlds via the Immortal Severance Passages, and then sever their connection with the Profound Yellow Realm?

While Nascent Soul, Spirit Transformation, and Dao Integration cultivators might face issues like insufficient spiritual energy or inability to sever the passages within the Small Worlds, for the Immortality Venerables, these limitations would be almost negligible. So why didn't the Immortality Venerables flee?

The answer to this question could only be one of three possibilities: they were not afraid, they did not want to, or they could not.

Not afraid? In the previous life, Venerable Yixin chose to retreat when faced with the threat of mutual destruction from the Spirit Lock Array. This indicated that even powerhouses at the Immortality stage could not preserve themselves within the Immortal Ruins. Thus, this possibility could be ruled out.

Did not want to? Upholding righteousness, never abandoning it in life or death? Falling into the Immortal Ruins along with the Profound Yellow Realm? Judging by the current path to Dao for cultivators in this realm, this would absolutely not be the choice of the current Immortality Venerables.

That left only one answer: The Immortality Venerables could not leave the Profound Yellow Realm?

The moment this thought surfaced, Li Fan found it absurd and laughable. How terrifyingly powerful were the experts of the Immortality stage! How could that be...

But Li Fan suddenly paused, slightly stunned. What if, what if it were true?

All along, Li Fan had harbored a question: Why was it that by defying the laws of heaven and earth, one could attain immortality? All living beings in the world have a finite lifespan. Even the legendary immortal species only lived a bit longer than ordinary creatures. If anything within the Profound Yellow Realm could truly be worthy of the term "immortality," it would likely only be heaven and earth themselves.

Why could one achieve a complete transformation by defying the laws of heaven and earth? To have a cultivator's body and live as long as heaven and earth?

"The laws of heaven and earth, defying the laws of heaven and earth..."

Suddenly, a scene flashed through Li Fan's mind. In the previous life, Ji Hongdao, when confronted by Senior Sister Zhao's aggressiveness, once said: "After a Heavenly Venerate establishes their principles, they should no longer participate in worldly disputes."

"Establishes principles." These two words were like a bolt of lightning, cutting through the fog. They made Li Fan notice a point he had long overlooked. Rules like "Living beings in the world forget worries and find joy" and "Living beings in the world must respect the cultivation methods of the Dharma Transmission Heavenly Venerate," contrary to common sense, now truly existed between heaven and earth.

In other words, after reversing the original laws of heaven and earth, the Heavenly Venerates' principles of achieving Dao replaced them, becoming the new laws of heaven and earth, integrating into the world itself. It was precisely for this reason that the Heavenly Venerates gained lifespans as long as heaven and earth. And it was also for this reason that the Immortality Venerables could not leave the Profound Yellow Realm.

Before reaching the Immortality stage, cultivators were like robbers entering a house and plundering at will. The furniture and treasures inside were all pocketed by them. But some greedy individuals set their sights on the house itself, wanting to usurp the owner and claim the house for themselves. They succeeded, but this triggered the house's ultimate counter-mechanism. The door slammed shut; while they became the masters of the house, they were also permanently confined within it.

"Is this heaven and earth's counterattack?" Li Fan suddenly understood.

Li Fan had understood a principle before: Facing cultivators who plundered heaven and earth, heaven and earth themselves were not entirely without means of resistance. Besides newly emerged laws like "Immortal Arts cannot be cultivated simultaneously," and the descent of the Soul of Heaven and Earth to perform its heavenly duties—measures aimed at ordinary cultivators—when faced with Immortality Venerables powerful enough to threaten their very existence, heaven and earth chose an extreme countermeasure. That was: if it couldn't defeat them, it would absorb them.

It must be said, this move was indeed effective. Because once they achieved the status of Immortality Venerables, their allegiance shifted from cultivators to heaven and earth themselves. If cultivators plundered heaven and earth without restraint, it could ultimately lead to the exhaustion and decay of heaven and earth. And the Immortality Venerables, who had effectively become one with the world, had to act to prevent this from happening for their own safety. Thus, it was necessary to artificially control the number of cultivators. This was also one of the reasons why the number of cultivators could not be too high.

Li Fan then recalled that the Ten Immortal Sects had once offered a reward for the Profound Heaven Treasure Mirror, proclaiming that anyone, with this mirror alone, could exchange it for a position of Immortality. "It seems that in ancient times, the Immortality stage was likely also achieved by some method of stealing the original principles of immortality from heaven and earth." Li Fan was pensive.

This line of deduction left Li Fan feeling a little disappointed. The Immortality Venerables of the Profound Yellow Realm seemed quite far from his ideal of "immortality." They had merely borrowed the power of heaven and earth to gain longevity that wasn't inherently theirs.

"Pseudo-immortality, then..." he mused. "But strictly speaking, it's not something particularly hard to accept. After all, the Immortality stage in this realm was merely an attempt by cultivators to extend their lives after the immortal path in the Profound Yellow Realm was severed. Moreover, it might not be impossible to advance further."

Li Fan thought of the Dharma Transmission Heavenly Venerate, who had disappeared in the previous life. "This pioneer of new methods might have already taken another step, breaking free from the world's shackles. No wonder the Dharma Transmission Heavenly Venerate did not appear for thousands of years in the previous life. And facing the intermittent wars between the two sides, the Heavenly Venerables of the Council of Five Elders never intervened. Because in the eyes of the Council of Five Elders' Heavenly Venerables, since Immortality stage experts could not leave the Profound Yellow Realm, the Dharma Transmission Heavenly Venerate must still be somewhere. A mere agreement kept them restrained. It wasn't until later that they finally realized something was wrong. Only then did they eagerly intervene themselves to test the situation..."

The effects of the Enlightenment Pill had not yet completely faded. In a flash of inspiration, and by a stroke of luck, through the fact inadvertently revealed by the woman in green, Li Fan deduced a plausible, logically consistent truth about the Profound Yellow Realm.