Chapter 856: Stone Tablet Condensing Time

The Slate Scholar stared at Li Fan for a moment, appearing somewhat surprised. After a pause, he finally spoke, his tone inexplicable.

"Even if you still harbor resentment, what's the point of competing with the dead?"

Li Fan was slightly startled.

"The Calamity Sect of old has long ceased to exist," the Slate Scholar said with some emotion. "The World-Observing Divine Eyes are merely carrying out the last orders they received."

"The Calamity Sect is gone?" Li Fan was shocked by this news.

Seeing Li Fan's disbelief, the Slate Scholar smiled faintly and nodded in confirmation: "Absolutely true. They couldn't be more dead."

"Could it be a smokescreen to avoid disaster?"

His long-standing imagined enemy, the sinister old mastermind hiding in the shadows, had apparently already been utterly annihilated. Li Fan, unable to immediately accept that he had actually been battling with thin air, still asked stubbornly.

The Slate Scholar chuckled derisively: "The Dharma-Imparting Celestial Venerable personally intervened. There's no way the Calamity Sect could have survived. It was widely acknowledged by all sects back then."

"But your Myriad Realms Alliance is relatively new, so it's normal for you not to know."

Hearing this, Li Fan fell silent.

"After the Dharma-Imparting Celestial Venerable achieved immortal status by defying the principles of heaven and earth, he rarely took action. Annihilating the Calamity Sect was one of those rare instances. Even fleeing outside the realms didn't save them from their demise," the Slate Scholar remarked with a hint of emotion.

"Although the perpetrator is dead, the damage caused is irreversible. The World-Observing Divine Eyes can only be allowed to remain."

"Fortunately, if you don't pay close attention, you truly won't notice these things. So, we've just let them be."

"Furthermore, in at most a hundred thousand years, these paper figures will naturally dissipate due to the passage of time. So, no one really takes them to heart." The scholar explained very seriously.

Li Fan now understood the situation.

It was still the previous analogy, comparing the Xuanhuang Realm to a house. After defying the principles of heaven and earth, the Immortal Celestial Venerable became part of the house. However, due to a momentary oversight, the house became filled with surveillance cameras. Cameras were everywhere, and none of them were aesthetically pleasing. Most critically, when these monitors were installed, they were all connected to the main structure of the house.

If they wanted to remove them, it would inevitably cause irreversible damage to the house. Already hovering between life and death beyond the Immortal Ruins, this outcome was unbearable for the cultivators within the Xuanhuang Realm. Thus, no matter how unwilling they were, they could only grudgingly accept this fact.

Filled with rage, the Dharma-Imparting Celestial Venerable, who considered himself the owner of the house, personally acted and annihilated the Calamity Sect that had installed the surveillance.

Li Fan, having put the pieces together, fell silent for a moment. "Why exactly did the Calamity Sect do this?"

A hint of nostalgia flickered in the Slate Scholar's eyes. "Those fellows were always so mysterious. Who could possibly know what was truly going on in their minds?"

"However, what's certain is that they must have foreseen the potential consequences of their actions. Yet they still persisted."

"I'm quite curious myself, actually," the scholar said with a smile. "Unfortunately, the dead are gone. Perhaps this mystery will never be unraveled."

Li Fan's expression became solemn. Judging from the other party's words and his demeanor since appearing, this scholar was undoubtedly a powerful cultivator who had survived from ancient times.

"May I ask for your name, Senior?" Li Fan asked, cupping his hands.

The scholar did not hide it: "Among the Ten Immortal Sects, the one without a name — that would be me."

Li Fan's mind reeled.

In the past, whenever he searched for information on the Ten Immortal Sects, he could only ever find the names of nine sects. The last one had no records whatsoever. Li Fan had even once thought that the "Ten Immortal Sects" was merely a conventional term, or that one sect had already been wiped out.

He had never expected to encounter today the most mysterious, nameless final sect! Furthermore, the Slate Scholar's words were very intriguing.

"'The one without a name among the ten sects, that would be me...'"

"Like Senior Sister Zhao, one person is an entire sect?" Even though the scholar before him seemed harmless, Li Fan's vigilance was at its peak.

This was possibly the second Immortal Realm expert he had truly encountered. The Slate Scholar looked at Li Fan, who appeared as if facing a formidable enemy, and shook his head slightly.

"No need to be so tense. I don't care about the disputes between the Council of Five Elders and the Myriad Immortals Alliance."

"I'm not even very interested in the survival or destruction of the Xuanhuang Realm."

"If one day the Xuanhuang Realm truly perishes, I will certainly be the first to applaud," the scholar said, seemingly with a deeper meaning.

The scholar glanced at the slate on his back, his expression somewhat complex. Seeing that the other party didn't seem to be lying and had shown no malice, Li Fan grew bolder.

"Senior, this slate..."

"In ancient times, cultivators mostly used the fruits of the Ruomu Tree to steal the power of immortality from heaven and earth."

"However, by a fortunate coincidence, I obtained this slate. This allowed me to coexist with heaven and earth, enduring for myriad years," the scholar said, his voice filled with weariness and the weight of ages. "This object is called the Creation Slate. Everything that occurs within the Xuanhuang Realm, no matter how trivial, automatically appears on this slate."

"Everyone in the world considers it a supreme treasure and wishes to seize it from me."

"I would be more than willing, but no one can take it."

"Fellow Daoist from the Alliance, would you like to try as well?" the scholar asked very genuinely.

Li Fan's heart trembled.

Everything in the Xuanhuang Realm would automatically appear and be recorded? Wasn't this the ultimate, enhanced fusion of the Bloodline Annals and the World-Observing Divine Eyes? If he could obtain it, all secrets, past and present, would be within his grasp.

What an immense fortune! Li Fan's mouth immediately went dry. However, he still retained some semblance of rationality.

Faced with the scholar's inquiry, Li Fan dared not act rashly, shaking his head repeatedly.

The Slate Scholar seemed a little disappointed, explaining: "My words are not false. There's truly no harm in trying."

Although the other party spoke very sincerely, Li Fan still refused to listen.

The scholar shook his head with a hint of loneliness, not insisting further. "People nowadays are getting more timid."

Li Fan closed his eyes, pretending completely not to have heard.

After a while, seeing that the other party no longer brought up the matter, he asked again: "Senior, given your status, what prompted you to come and meet me?"

The Slate Scholar stared at Li Fan, a smile flashing in his eyes. "I came precisely for you."

Li Fan's heart tightened: "Senior, please don't scare me. How could a mere Nascent Soul cultivator like me catch your eye?"

"While the Creation Slate can record everything in the world," the Slate Scholar stated clearly, "some things, however, transcend the world itself."