Chapter 796: 異界白先生

It was currently the sixth year of the anchoring. Li Fan did not go to the Myriad Immortals Alliance. Instead, he quietly came to the entrance of the Boundless Realm first.

Passing through the spatial passage, Li Fan flew directly to the vicinity of the volcano in the center of the Boundless Realm. The hot air was filled with a strong smell of sulfur. Faint traces of recent lava flows, not yet fully solidified, were visible nearby. It seemed as if the volcano had just experienced a violent eruption.

Suspended in mid-air, Li Fan carefully observed the volcano. The strange feeling in his heart grew stronger. "As expected, there's something peculiar about this."

After a while, a strange look appeared in Li Fan's eyes. Perhaps it was because he had once ascended to the Nascent Soul realm, possessing a 'Grotto-Heaven' within his body. Or because he had once integrated with the Heavenly Dao of a minor world in the form of Xu Bai. Li Fan's perception of "Grotto-Heavens" and "minor worlds" had become much keener.

Under this observation, he immediately understood where the anomaly he felt whenever he saw this Boundless Realm volcano came from. "This volcano does not belong to the Boundless Realm at all. It comes from another minor world!"

"No wonder there has always been a sense of incongruity and disharmony!"

The surrounding topography was, in fact, quite telling. A fierce volcano rose abruptly from an endless plain. This was clearly highly unusual. However, mortals merely attributed it to the great power of nature's creation. But cultivators like Li Fan could indeed uncover the underlying reason.

Li Fan's interest was immediately piqued. "What's going on? Why would a volcano from another minor world suddenly appear in the Boundless Realm?"

Li Fan casually set up a protective barrier around himself, then flew into the volcano's crater. The scorching, churning magma couldn't harm him in the slightest. Li Fan delved deep into the volcano, attempting to find the source of the anomaly from within. All the way to the very bottom, at the intersection of the volcano and the earth's ley lines, it was there that he finally made a discovery.

"This is..."

Li Fan extended his hand and drew a wisp of "earth fire" into his palm. Even with his Mid-Core Formation stage defensive capabilities, he still found it somewhat hot to the touch. "It's not spiritual energy. But it is a kind of extraordinary power."

"The Boundless Realm is a purely mortal world; it doesn't have the conditions for such earth fire to be born."

Li Fan returned the earth fire and carefully observed the space around him. Compared to the volcano's crater, the magma flow here was relatively gentle and calm. Only occasionally did a few bubbles surface. At the edge of the magma sea, there was a very indistinct demarcation line. Hidden within the orange-red magma, it was inconspicuous. Unless one specifically looked for it, its presence could easily be overlooked. From this demarcation line, a faint power, originating from the same source as the earth fire, was subtly transmitted.

"Another spatial passage?" Li Fan pondered.

After a moment of contemplation, he set up a protective formation around himself and then leaped into it. As his vision blurred, no sooner had he entered than a fireball hurtled towards Li Fan. However, its power was not great, and it was automatically repelled by his protective formation. Li Fan had initially thought it was an attack, and his mind tensed. But upon closer inspection, he relaxed. He was instantly captivated by the scenery of this world.

This was a world purely of "fire," completely devoid of life. A purgatorial sea of scorching lava churned ceaselessly. Enormous explosions reverberated intermittently. Magma would erupt skyward, then burst apart in mid-air, streaking across the sky as countless red fiery lines, before raining down in all directions. Falling into the sea of magma, it would trigger a new round of chain reactions.

Fire was the eternal theme of this world. Not only did countless independent "fire seeds," like flowers, exist within the endless magma sea below. In the sky, enormous, canvas-like flames of various forms and colors could be vaguely seen drifting with the wind. They varied in color and form. The aura of the strongest fire among them even made Li Fan feel slightly challenging. But that was the extent of it.

After spending some time fully exploring this world, Li Fan couldn't help but feel a little regret: "The power level is, at most, only at the late Core Formation stage."

"If I had come during my Nascent Soul stage, even if all the fires in this world burned me together, they wouldn't be able to cause me the slightest harm."

"It has some value. But not much."

Li Fan shook his head slightly. In his estimation, even cultivators particularly interested in fire-attribute power wouldn't pay more than two thousand contribution points for this world. Naturally, Li Fan didn't care about such a small amount of contribution points.

"Disappointing!" Li Fan immediately lost interest.

Just as he was about to return to the Boundless Realm through the spatial passage he had used to enter, he suddenly remembered something and paused. After a moment of contemplation, he changed direction and flew towards the sky. He flew all the way to the edge of the world, near the boundless void. Looking down, he could vaguely make out the full panorama of this world. It was quite evident that the topography of the lava sea near the spatial passage leading to the Boundless Realm was somewhat different from other areas, as if it had been subjected to a violent impact. There was a very conspicuous outline.

And in the void, looking further afield, he could faintly discern the scenery of the Boundless Realm.

Li Fan immediately understood: "These are two minor worlds in the void that have collided for some unknown reason."

"A part of the Fire World has deeply embedded itself within the Boundless Realm."

"Two sides of the same coin. And as time passes, the two will become inseparable, gradually merging."

Li Fan quickly returned to the magma sea below. "The energy level of this Fire World is clearly much higher than that of the mortal Boundless Realm."

"With one strong and one weak, if this continues, the Boundless Realm's ultimate fate will only be to be swallowed and assimilated."

Li Fan was deep in thought. "Hmm?"

He suddenly thought of the extraordinary talents displayed by Su Xiaomei, Su Heng, Ye Feipeng, and others from the Boundless Realm. In the 115th cycle, he had first trapped them on Transformation Island, and then imprisoned them in Medicine King Valley. This continued for many years. Finally, when they resumed their true cultivation, they discovered that everyone in the Boundless Realm had lost all spiritual energy. At that time, Li Fan had even expelled them from Medicine King Valley, wanting to see if they, like dragons returning to the sea, could re-display their talents. Unfortunately, until the world's end, he heard no more news of them. They had, so to speak, faded into obscurity among the masses.

"The talents of the Boundless Realm's people didn't originate from themselves."

"But rather..."

Li Fan then recalled Su Xiaomei's birth. "She had a mother but no father, conceived through a sensing of the Heavenly Mandate." Li Fan's eyes lit up.

Having found the crux of the problem, he passed through the spatial passage beneath the volcano and returned to the Boundless Realm. Not long after, he found his target in the Grand Academician's Residence in the capital. It was none other than Su Xiaomei's mother, Su Yuqing. At this time, she was not yet pregnant. She was merely a young girl in her early teens, with a face full of innocence, in her backyard garden, playfully teasing a butterfly resting on a flower. She was utterly focused.

The moment he saw her, a familiar sensation immediately surged into Li Fan's heart. "Mr. Bai?"