Chapter 864

Starry Sky Doomsday Fiend

"Consuming your ability?" Li Fan was startled by these words. The ability Tianyang spoke of naturally came from the spatial power of the Heaven-Earth Soul Inkstone. It was formed by the Xuanhuang laws, and once absorbed by cultivators through the new method, even the current Xuanhuang Realm had no means to strip it away. Yet, in this strange, remote minor world, it could actually be consumed?

"Senior Brother, there's no need to worry. To me, those unknown entities are like ants crawling all over my body. Perhaps it's painful or itchy, but it can't threaten my life." Tianyang conveyed his meaning through a brief visual impression.

However, Li Fan did not take it lightly. This Soul-Yin Realm was clearly different from the conditions detected by the 115th Immortal Alliance Expedition Team when they arrived. Becoming vigilant, Li Fan and Tianyang began exploring within this Soul-Yin Realm.

This minor world was not vast; its area was even smaller than the Spirit-Wood Realm. Strangely, however, Li Fan did not find the spirit entities described by the Immortal Alliance Expedition Team. The vast land was dim and gloomy, with no topographical variations whatsoever. It was entirely composed of gray soil. Let alone plants and animals, there wasn't even a single intact stone.

Li Fan's divine sense swept across the Soul-Yin Realm, and surprisingly, apart from himself and Tianyang—the two outsiders—there was no other existence. Li Fan's expression was solemn as he picked up some of the gray soil from the ground and observed it carefully.

It seemed like ordinary dirt. But seeing the scorched-like marks on his hand after only a moment of contact, Li Fan knew this was definitely no ordinary substance. "No pain. It corrodes silently," Li Fan's eyes flickered.

A surge of vitality emerged from within him, attempting to heal the injury on his hand. However, to Li Fan's surprise, this injected vitality seemed to become nourishment for the scorched area! The black mark on his palm rapidly expanded, threatening to spread across his entire body.

Li Fan made a decisive move and directly severed his hand. What happened next made Li Fan's pupils contract sharply. The moment his flesh-and-blood hand landed on the gray soil, it faded and turned to ash, like embers after a fire. Then it merged with the soil.

"What in the world..." Li Fan looked at the gray soil covering the entire world, struck by a chilling realization. The strangeness of this place somewhat exceeded Li Fan's imagination.

Just as he was considering leaving, Tianyang suddenly sent a spiritual message. "Senior Brother, the intensity of the consumption around here seems to vary in different places. Perhaps we can identify where the anomaly is by the strength of the force."

Li Fan hesitated for a moment, then nodded in agreement. With Li Fan's approval, Tianyang swiftly flew across the Soul-Yin Realm, sensing as he went. Soon, he pinpointed a location. The "consuming force" there seemed exceptionally strong. Li Fan could faintly feel inexplicable fluctuations emanating from Tianyang. It was as if Tianyang was engaged in a fierce battle with an equally matched opponent. After only a brief stay, Tianyang had no choice but to leave.

"It's like thousands of ants gnawing at my body. Senior Brother, can't you feel it?" Tianyang asked via spiritual message. Li Fan shook his head and simply steered his Seven-Colored Divine Light towards that location. Indeed, he felt no anomalies whatsoever. However, Li Fan had a faint premonition that if he were to use his fire-attribute spiritual energy again, as he had before, the consequences would likely be far more severe than merely having his physical body frozen into a statue. Therefore, Li Fan suppressed all the spiritual energy within his body. He acted solely relying on his physical body and the power of the Seven-Colored Divine Light.

Arriving above the target location, Li Fan carefully observed, attempting to find useful clues. And indeed, he noticed something amiss. Previous investigations had confirmed that the entire Soul-Yin Realm was perfectly flat. But that particular spot... seemed somewhat raised. It was as if something was buried beneath the gray soil.

This time, Li Fan was experienced; he protected his right hand with the Seven-Colored Divine Light and began digging away the soil. Digging continuously downwards, Li Fan suddenly felt something hard. With a solemn expression, he picked it up from deep within the gray soil.

The gray soil clinging to its surface disappeared on its own shortly after it left the ground. The hard object thus revealed its true form. "What is this?" Li Fan was somewhat stunned.

The object in his hand was, shockingly, a human skull. But unlike an ordinary human skull, there appeared to be a third eye at its glabella, with an empty socket the size of an eye. Moreover, the cranium naturally bore gold and black patterns.

Li Fan turned the skull over to examine it, and to his horror, he found that the inside of the cranium looked as if it had molded. Numerous gray spots were horrifying to behold. Furthermore, these gray spots seemed to possess a consciousness of their own. After lying dormant for countless years, they immediately began to writhe eerily upon sensing the presence of living beings nearby. They appeared to be exploring their surroundings.

An indescribable sense of crisis suddenly surged within Li Fan's heart. He cast out beams of Seven-Colored Divine Light, forming a perfect seal. This isolated Li Fan's aura. Only then did the gray mold spots calm down again.

Looking at the strange skull encased within the Seven-Colored light sphere, Li Fan frowned slightly. "A head with three eyes, resembling a human's but distinct. Clearly not from the Xuanhuang Realm. It seems that the gray mold spots are what caused the catastrophe in the Soul-Yin Realm. Could it be that this outsider brought the gray mold spots here, leading to this place becoming a gray wasteland? And this originator, due to the erosion of the gray mold spots, didn't even leave behind a complete corpse. It was only preserved because of the black and gold runes etched on the skull."

A possible answer emerged in Li Fan's mind. "This place is the most remote from the Xuanhuang Realm, very likely already within the reach of other cultivation worlds. This three-eyed being is from one of those cultivation worlds. Did they come here to escape? Yet they brought these terrifying gray mold spots with them." A series of images flashed before Li Fan's eyes.

Li Fan discovered that the Seven-Colored Divine Light was not entirely sufficient to resist the power of the gray mold spots. Even merely sealing it, Li Fan still felt the Seven-Colored Divine Light being continuously consumed. If not for the continuous replenishment of power from the Five Elements Grotto-Heaven, the seal would likely have broken on its own long ago.

After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan did not return the skull to its original place. Instead, he attempted to store it in his storage ring. Somewhat unexpectedly, it went in with unusual smoothness. Without the slightest hindrance, it was stored. Observing through the storage ring, Li Fan found that the gray mold spots were still not inert. Not only were they consuming the power of the Seven-Colored Divine Light, but even the space within the storage ring began to destabilize.