Chapter 602: The Darkest Void Sea

“Very possible. And very reasonable.” Li Fan pondered for a long time, then slowly nodded.

This conclusion also explained a long-standing doubt Li Fan had.

When the Immortal Ruins first appeared, why didn't they directly engulf the Xuanhuang Realm? Instead, why did the cultivators within have enough time to continuously capture surrounding Grotto-Heavens and minor worlds to resist it?

Judging by the terrifying suction of the Immortal Ruins now, the original Xuanhuang Realm alone should have been impossible to resist. Furthermore, capturing minor worlds was not an overnight task; the countless heavenly worlds were likely the result of thousands of years of tireless effort by the Xuantian Sect and the Ten Immortal Dao Sects.

All of this indicates that the suction of the Immortal Ruins has been growing and strengthening day by day.

As for why the suction was getting stronger…

It was very likely because the Xuanhuang Realm was drawing closer and closer to the Immortal Ruins.

An image instantly formed in Li Fan's mind.

On the endless Sea of Void, numerous cultivation worlds floated like ships. Suddenly, one day, above the Sea of Void, a black hole named the Immortal Ruins appeared. Its powerful suction continuously devoured everything around it, forming a vortex. Influenced by the Immortal Ruins, the cultivation worlds in the Sea of Void were uncontrollably pulled closer and closer.

Initially, due to the minimal changes, people in various cultivation worlds remained unaware. Only when their descent towards the Immortal Ruins accelerated did they realize something was wrong. Thus, just as a drowning person instinctively clutches at anything they can grasp to survive, the cultivators in the Xuanhuang Realm began to use "ropes" to tether themselves to distant, relatively fixed "reefs" in the Sea of Void—namely, the various Grotto-Heavens and minor worlds—in an attempt to delay their inevitable doom.

Indeed, during this process, some cultivators undoubtedly wished to abandon ship and seek new "vessels" for themselves. But if everyone did so, the Xuanhuang Realm would likely sink even faster. Therefore, the helmsmen of the Xuanhuang Realm—be it the Xuantian Sect, the Ten Immortal Dao Sects, or even the current Myriad Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council—all tacitly chose to keep the true situation of the Xuanhuang Realm a secret to prevent such a scenario.

They had initially believed that by pulling on these ropes, they could slowly extricate the Xuanhuang Realm from the vortex. But facts proved them wrong.

“The 'weight' of cultivators is probably related to these 'ropes.' Originally, the world was directly connected to the Grotto-Heaven worlds, but after cultivators seized control of heaven and earth, they themselves became part of that link.”

“If they die suddenly, it's like several strands within a rope suddenly vanishing.”

“Although cultivators' paths return to heaven upon death, and Grotto-Heavens revert to the world, it still takes time for heaven and earth to automatically repair these ropes.”

“If the rate of cultivators perishing is normal, there's no issue. But once it exceeds a certain threshold…”

Li Fan recalled his previous life, when Ji Hongdao, confronting Senior Sister Zhao in Tianling Prefecture, used the Sky Profound Spirit-Locking Array to instantly kill all the cultivators in the prefecture, using mutual destruction as a deterrent. At the moment countless cultivators lost their lives, the entire Xuanhuang Realm even trembled slightly.

“Those subordinate Grotto-Heaven and minor worlds concern the life and death of the Xuanhuang Realm. The so-called 'ropes' are probably not that easy to cut.”

“Otherwise, there would surely be cultivators escaping into minor worlds via the Immortal Isolation Passages, then severing their connection with the Xuanhuang Realm.”

“It's not that they don't want to, but that they can't.”

“As for the Imperial minor worlds using one hundred thousand Rift-Splitting Whales to open paths in the void, their action isn't so much cutting the ropes as extending them.”

“Once the extended length—that is, their distance from the Xuanhuang Realm—is sufficient, and the Xuanhuang Realm falls into the Immortal Ruins and turns to dust, the sudden disappearance of what the ropes were tethered to might indeed allow them to escape with their lives.”

“Unfortunately, this process takes too long, and the Xuanhuang Realm might not be able to last that long.”

Li Fan suddenly thought: Since the Xuanhuang Realm could capture Grotto-Heavens and minor worlds using ropes, why didn't it tie ropes to other cultivation worlds of similar scale in the distance? Logically, a complete world would be far more effective than a Grotto-Heaven.

“Perhaps they tried, but failed.”

“Or perhaps…”

“They simply couldn't pinpoint their locations.”

Li Fan's heart stirred.

As fellow "ships" on the Sea of Void, other cultivation worlds surely wouldn't want to be dragged down by those already within the Immortal Ruins' sphere of influence. Once they understood the current situation on the Sea of Void, to prevent themselves from being used as a last resort, they would very likely take action to actively conceal their own worlds.

Grotto-Heavens and minor worlds might not be capable of this. But highly developed cultivation worlds should be. Or rather, any that couldn't achieve this were probably already affected by the numerous dying worlds and dragged towards the Immortal Ruins themselves.

Furthermore, due to the Immortal Ruins, the entire Sea of Void was more or less affected. The relative positions of all cultivation worlds shifted. The original navigational beacons, which had determined locations, were now useless. Finding other hidden cultivation worlds again would surely be incredibly difficult. This might explain why the Xuanhuang Realm suddenly lost contact with all other cultivation worlds back then.

“The once brilliant Sea of Void instantly turned dark. Every world, besides fearing being devoured by the Immortal Ruins, also had to conceal itself to prevent detection by other cultivation worlds.”

“What a truly despair-inducing scenario to even imagine.”

Although Li Fan thought this, he clearly felt little fear in his heart. A faint, peculiar smile even appeared on his face. With the Existence of Truth, finding a path to survival among hundreds of millions of possibilities was no difficult task for him.

Moreover, since the True Immortal's remains could still maintain an intact body within the Immortal Ruins, it indicated that falling into the Immortal Ruins might not necessarily be a dead end. Inability to survive merely meant one was not yet powerful enough.

After a long silence, Li Fan looked up, his gaze passing through the transparent walls of the Medicine King Cauldron directly to the sky.

“Whether my hypothesis is correct is actually very easy to verify.”

“I just need to fly out of the Xuanhuang Realm again and face the Immortal Ruins myself.”

“Thousands of years ago, Liu Ruchen piloted the Medicine King Cauldron in the void for some time before being pulled by the Immortal Ruins.”

“Now, so much time has passed since then, it's likely that once one leaves the Xuanhuang Realm and loses the world's protection, they will immediately plummet towards the Immortal Ruins. There won't be much time to react.”

“Perhaps, as we get closer and closer to the Immortal Ruins, one day we might even clearly see the Immortal Ruins' remains and the quietly standing True Immortal's corpse in the sky.”

Li Fan extended his left hand, summoning the Medicine King Cauldron's control core.

“Before I 'return to truth' in this life, I can put this to good use.”

“To investigate thoroughly.”

His thoughts churned for a long time before Li Fan finally put away the rhombus-shaped crystal.

“Now I possess full authority over the True Medicine King Cauldron. The lives and deaths of the slumbering individuals of the Medicine King Sect are merely at my whim.”

“Currently, there are still six cultivators at the Dao Integration stage and twenty-three at the Spirit Transformation stage alive.”

“And various cultivators at the Nascent Soul stage and below.”

“Apart from these cultivators, the greatest gain this time was learning about that hidden secret realm.”

“Evergreen Valley.”

“I just wonder if it's still there after thousands of years.”