My Longevity Simulation - Chapter 1268: Nullified Immortal Power

This situation was exactly the same as when he first encountered the Hunger Character Seal Script.

The moment the True Immortal script at the core of the world protection formation appeared within Li Fan’s sea of consciousness, he immediately understood its meaning.

Return!

Unlike characters such as Mock or Chaos, which carried the nature of curses, this instead resembled a command.

“A complete True Immortal character seal script…”

While Li Fan’s mind trembled, he had already silently memorized the form of this “[Return]” character.

“Return? Return to where? Or return to its original state?”

Li Fan narrowed his eyes and carefully examined this mysterious power.

Meanwhile, the spirit of the Boundless Mirror had already completed the probing of all regions except for the central core of the world protection formation.

“Senior, that place…” Sun Luyao stared blankly at that void region.

An invisible connection formed instantly, as if linking the “Return” character with the Boundless Mirror.

Li Fan could clearly sense the sudden surge of fear and confusion in Sun Luyao’s heart.

Even the Boundless Mirror itself began to tremble without warning. As the shaking intensified, Sun Luyao, as the artifact spirit, showed signs of being “thrown out” of the mirror.

“Senior, save me!” Sun Luyao cried out instinctively.

Li Fan immediately noticed the changes in the Boundless Mirror.

Without even directly confronting the power of the [Return] character, merely being affected and locked onto by its residual influence, the formation inside the mirror that Li Fan had painstakingly repaired, Boundless, Primal Chaos Reveals in Form, already showed signs of gradual collapse.

Not only that, even the Boundless Mirror itself began to gradually disintegrate.

In Li Fan’s perception, the entire mirror was like a sheet of paper set ablaze. As its fundamental composition vanished, it inevitably began to turn illusory. Those ignited portions, the parts affected by the [Return] character, turned into wisps of green smoke, drifting off to an unknown destination.

Li Fan’s heart sank. He attempted to stop the disintegration of the Boundless Mirror. However, the power of the True Immortal seal script was not something even his main body could resist, let alone this mere projection of divine sense.

With a trace of regret, he watched as the Boundless Mirror grew smaller and smaller amid Sun Luyao’s continuous screams.

Just as Li Fan thought that this immortal artifact, which had been of great assistance to him, was about to completely vanish, something unexpected occurred.

Those wisps of green smoke that had been summoned away by the [Return] character, to an unknown place, suddenly returned.

It was as if time had reversed upon the Boundless Mirror. The mirror, which had shrunk to the size of a thumb, rapidly restored itself before Li Fan’s eyes, becoming whole once again.

Sun Luyao, who had been wailing and believing his end had come, grew quieter and quieter. In the end, he stared dumbfounded at the restored Boundless Mirror, completely unable to understand what had happened.

Li Fan was also momentarily stunned as he looked at the Boundless, Primal Chaos Reveals in Form formation, which had once again reconstructed itself from nothingness.

What had just happened felt like a dream.

After a brief moment of confusion, Li Fan came back to his senses and looked once more at the [Return] character.

Perhaps because it had already carried out its command once, the reconstructed Boundless Mirror was now able to ignore the existence of the [Return] character.

Likewise, the [Return] character also chose to ignore the Boundless Mirror, continuing to rest quietly within the void core of the formation.

Both remained undisturbed.

“What is this situation? Nothing left to return?”

The scene unfolding before him left Li Fan somewhat puzzled. However, based on the meaning of the character “[Return]” itself, as well as the changes in the Boundless Mirror before and after, he could roughly infer a thing or two.

“Each lower realm’s world protection formation is created by the Immortal Realm and is also governed by it. The Boundless Mirror is an immortal artifact and is likewise subject to the Immortal Realm’s control.”

“If these are regarded as elite soldiers of the Immortal Realm, then the [Return] Character Seal Script is equivalent to possessing the authority to mobilize and command troops. Whether this is a unique power of the [Return] Character itself or a common phenomenon in the Immortal Realm remains unknown.”

“Under normal circumstances, anything summoned by the [Return] Character should discard its armor and return. But now, with the destruction of the Immortal Realm, the execution of such orders has been affected.”

“It seems this [Return] Character is fundamentally different from the other True Immortal seal script characters. It may even be part of the foundational mechanism by which the Immortal Realm’s power system once operated.”

Li Fan pondered, “However, this speculation inevitably raises a question.”

“Since the [Return] Character Seal Script is already in a partially ineffective state, where have the core hubs of these world protection formations gone?”

Li Fan gazed at the [Return] Character resting quietly within the core region.

Several possibilities had already formed in his mind.

The [Return] Character might have been written by some existence and sent flying toward the formation cores of various worlds. Yet upon reaching the designated locations, it found its targets already missing. Thus it continued to circle here, waiting for them to appear.

Or perhaps the [Return] Character had successfully acted upon the formation cores, causing the lower realm cores to vanish and return to the Immortal Realm. When the Immortal Realm was destroyed, the cores should have reappeared. However, at that very moment, they were intercepted by an unknown existence and taken away.

…

“There are too few clues at present. The truth cannot yet be determined.”

“If the scope of the [Return] Character is limited only to the original powers of the Immortal Realm, then even as a True Immortal seal script character, its usefulness to me is limited,” Li Fan said, shaking his head slightly.

“However, since the [Return] Character can affect an immortal artifact…”

“I wonder if it would work on the Tianxuan Mirror?”

Even if it could not cause real damage to the Tianxuan Mirror, if it could disable it for a period of time, it would still be of immense use at a critical moment.

It should be known that the current system of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, especially the defensive measures at its headquarters, are all closely tied to the Tianxuan Mirror.

If the Tianxuan Mirror were to malfunction, the seemingly impregnable Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance would instantly be riddled with flaws.

Li Fan’s true body possessed the origin of the Tianxuan Mirror, so this might not be particularly meaningful for him.

But for the Holy Emperor Li Ping, it would be entirely different.

It could instantly turn the tide of battle, a power comparable to dozens of Dao Integration cultivators.

After his true body transmitted the contents of the [Return] Character Seal Script to Holy Emperor Li Ping through a faint connection, the divine sense clone in the ashen world began its next course of action.

The [Return] Character was an unexpected gain.

His purpose here was still to verify his previous speculation.

“By analogy, there should also exist a world protection formation within the Xuanhuang Realm.”

“Moreover, since world protection formations were left behind by the Immortal Realm, they should only exist in the original Xuanhuang Realm.”

With a casual wave, Li Fan set up a formation to seal the ash world, preventing anyone from accidentally entering and coming into contact with the [Return] Character. Then his clone, carrying the Boundless Mirror, returned to the Xuanhuang Realm.

He arrived at the region of the four central states under the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance.

In his mind, a miniature projection of the Xuanhuang Realm appeared, though it only depicted the original Xuanhuang.

Lines intersecting both vertically and horizontally emerged across the model. These were the world protection formations Li Fan had deduced.

Even if there were slight errors, they were sufficient to roughly determine their locations.

Then, by using the power of the Boundless Mirror and spending some time, he could locate the hidden core regions of the Xuanhuang Realm’s world protection formation.

The only concern was that the disturbance might be too great and attract the attention of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance.