Chapter 686: The Great Maelstrom At The Broken Boundary

Li Fan left Qihong Isle and took out An Examination of Mountains and Rivers Through the Ages.

His divine sense flipped through the pages. In a few breaths, he had absorbed its entire contents.

A ball of flame leaped from his hand and consumed the terrain survey.

Li Fan turned his gaze southeast.

Extreme south, now south by east? The changes across ages are truly inconceivable.

Ximen Yu was indeed speaking the truth. Over millions of years, the Xuanhuang World has expanded as a whole. Some places have vanished entirely, while new stretches of land have sprung up where none existed before...

The former Southern Abyss Sacred Beast Mountain has become a deep-sea whirlpool, a gateway to an endless ocean.

According to Ximen Yu's probing, the Sacred Beast Mountain no longer exists there. However...

A gleam of sharp light flashed in Li Fan's eyes.

Around the periphery of the great whirlpool, a ring of islands coiled like a dead giant serpent.

This should be the red serpent I saw in the Fallen Immortal Realm, the one that once wound around the Southern Abyss Sacred Beast Mountain.

It's dead now. The beast race's journey out of the Xuanhuang World might not have gone as smoothly as they'd hoped.

Li Fan flew toward Yueyang Province's sky city.

Along the way, he shifted back to his original appearance. As a guest elder of the Xuan family, his permission level was now Yan 30, granting him free use of the ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays.

Traveling via ordinary teleportation arrays would have taken at least half a month.

The ultra-long-distance array would get him there in less than half a day.

Soon, he arrived at the statue of the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher in Yueyang Sky City.

The reception personnel verified Li Fan's identity and were slightly startled. Then, with great reverence, they led him into the ultra-long-distance teleportation array chamber.

They bypassed several cultivators already waiting in line and activated the array for him right away.

Those cut in line showed little anger. They knew Li Fan's status was no simple matter, and their gazes held only curiosity and envy.

A faint vertigo washed over him, and in the next moment Li Fan arrived in Ningxu Province, where the deep-sea whirlpool lay.

Hmm?

He exited the teleportation array and let his body adjust. Something felt unusual.

He had taken ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays before. Crossing multiple provinces and cutting across White Mist Barriers exacted a toll beyond physical dizziness and discomfort. The drain on one's lifespan was viscerally felt, as though something essential had been quietly extracted from the body, leaving behind a hollow ache.

But this time...

Li Fan checked his age on Return to Truth's panel.

It's not a misperception. My lifespan hasn't dropped much.

Is the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist weaker now, or has the Myriad Immortals Alliance's teleportation technology advanced?

Li Fan recalled his previous journey through the White Mist after exiting Longevity Valley.

The effect of the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist still lingers. How should I put it...

He thought of how the Myriad Immortals Alliance had been secretly dispatching personnel deep into the White Mist, as if searching for something.

It seems that the Myriad Immortals Alliance has also found a way to counter the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist aside from the Samantabhadra True Boat.

What are they looking for in there?

Li Fan's mind conjured the Roaring Abyss he had seen in his past life, and the many Lost Domains said to lie hidden within the White Mist.

Wait.

Li Fan's pace faltered.

He remembered a Lost Domain he had once encountered, the one where he had faced the contorted monster and comprehended "Chaos" from a stone.

Could it be that the Myriad Immortals Alliance's push into the White Mist was prompted by my use of "Chaos" back then?

Li Fan's thoughts raced.

It's not impossible. But by normal logic, they should have investigated the known regions of the Xuanhuang World first. To lock onto a target directly in the depths of the White Mist...

Did they already search the rest of the Xuanhuang World and find nothing?

Or did "Chaos" appear before, and did it originate from somewhere within the White Mist?

If that's true, what does it mean?

Li Fan sank deep into thought.

The Dao Transformation Stone glowed with a deep, azure light as Li Fan extrapolated endlessly on the possibilities. His body did not stop moving, though. He continued flying toward the great whirlpool.

Before long, the water attribute spiritual qi in the air grew denser and more violent, a sign that he was nearing his destination.

Hsss...

A series of stabbing pains pulled Li Fan from his thoughts.

The spiritual qi here is... unusual. Li Fan frowned.

Even inadvertently absorbing the turbulent water attribute spiritual qi caused him a lingering, unbearable pain, as though countless blades were slicing through his insides.

Li Fan blocked the influx of external spiritual qi and captured a single strand, holding it in his palm to study it.

Not only is its nature violent, making it difficult for a cultivator to absorb or use, it also has an innate Rending attribute...

No wonder this province is so sparsely populated. The closer to the whirlpool, the fewer traces of human activity.

Li Fan raced on toward his destination, and the spiritual qi around him grew sharper still.

Whoosh!

The gale-force winds scraping against his face actually cut him, and his skin stung with pain.

He laid down an additional protective layer of spiritual qi around his body.

Good thing I have the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens, which allows my body to sustain its own internal energy cycle. An ordinary cultivator would have exhausted all their spiritual qi after flying this short a distance.

Li Fan felt the rate at which his spiritual qi was being consumed and grew secretly alarmed.

He flew on without pause. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn, he finally saw it: the deep-sea whirlpool, immense and awe-inspiring, with the serpent-shaped island coiled beside it.

He kept his distance and only observed.

For a moment, it felt as if he had returned to the scene of the demonic beasts' mass exodus thousands of years ago.

This whirlpool must be the anomaly left behind after the Sacred Beast Mountain broke through the world's boundary and departed.

Thousands of years have passed, and it still hasn't subsided. That alone shows the scale of the original event. Isn't this, in its own way, another form of destruction upon the Xuanhuang World?

A sudden understanding bloomed in Li Fan's mind.

This world is like a great balloon on the verge of getting devoured by the Immortal Ruins. Every group that breaks free and leaves the world cuts a gash into it.

Once the people inside the Xuanhuang World discover this, they naturally won't allow it.

They will come to stop it. That Red Serpent might have died in battle for that very reason.

And the Heavenly Sword Sect back then? Did none of the other sects come knocking, since it was one of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects? Or perhaps those who left with the World-Breaching Divine Armament weren't only the people of the Heavenly Sword Sect.

Or did the other cultivators of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects only realize after the Heavenly Sword Sect had already gone?

Li Fan's thoughts churned without rest, and his anticipation for the next trip into the Fallen Immortal Realm grew stronger.

"The greater the storm, the mightier the Dao Technique I shall grasp!

"This place. This is the very ground where I will attain the Dao!"

Amid the howling gale stirred by the monstrous maelstrom, a faint, wild shout drifted into Li Fan's ears.