Chapter 55 – Life from the Jaws of Death

Half a month later, a crude seawater desalination formation was completed.

With an adequate supply of drinking water and food once again, the surviving residents of Tai’an Island prostrated themselves, kowtowing in gratitude to the immortal master who had saved their lives.

Yet Li Fan felt no joy in his heart. Instead, he was filled with worry.

After constructing a formation with his own hands, Li Fan had barely set foot on the path of formation arts.

It was then that he discovered the island protection formation was deteriorating at an extremely abnormal rate.

Under normal circumstances, an island protection formation could operate continuously for over a hundred years.

But at the current rate of deterioration, in just two or three more years, the formation would lose all effectiveness entirely.

After careful investigation, combined with the descriptions in 《Introductory Formation Theory》, Li Fan identified the cause of the formation’s damage.

The spiritual energy between heaven and earth had become extremely volatile and scorching.

This scorching spiritual energy seemed to have developed a will of its own. Once absorbed by the island protection formation, it began slowly corroding the formation’s critical nodes.

The island protection formation was now like a machine whose critical components were gradually rusting — with each cycle of operation, its lifespan shortened a little more.

Though he had found the cause, Li Fan had no good solution to save it.

The island protection formation was far too complex, with over ten thousand critical nodes, each typically composed of dozens of micro-formations layered together.

It was said that when it was originally constructed, multiple Nascent Soul-level formation grandmasters from the Myriad Immortals Alliance had worked together to build it.

Now that problems had arisen, how could a cultivator like Li Fan, who had only just begun studying formation arts, possibly resolve them?

Moreover, the root cause of the problem lay in the spiritual energy the formation was absorbing.

Even if he temporarily repaired the formation, as long as the violent nature of the external spiritual energy remained unchanged, it would be nothing more than drinking poison to quench his thirst.

“Staying on Tai’an Island is just waiting to die. I have to find a way to leave.”

“But who knows what calamity has struck the outside world. With violent spiritual energy running rampant, venturing out recklessly would also be a death sentence.”

Caught between advancing and retreating, it seemed he had fallen into an inescapable deadlock.

“So this is what it means when heaven unleashes its killing intent…” Li Fan stared intently at the sky beyond the island protection formation, feeling like a fly caught in a spider’s web — unable to move, struggling on the verge of death.

But Li Fan did not choose to use Return to Truth right away.

Setting aside the dozen or so years of recharge time that Return to Truth would waste, if he didn’t figure out exactly what had happened, the next time around he would most likely still be unable to escape death.

Even if he fled far from the Layered Cloud Sea, could he guarantee he wouldn’t encounter new crises?

After all, the malice of this world’s Heavenly Dao toward cultivators was omnipresent.

Li Fan did not believe that simply changing locations would help him avoid it.

So unless there was truly no other option, he would not choose to abandon this lifetime outright.

Over the following period, Li Fan continued his cultivation while searching for a way to break through the impasse.

Yet the violent spiritual energy outside showed no signs of subsiding. On the contrary, it grew ever more savage with the passage of time.

Under its relentless assault, the island protection formation teetered on the brink of collapse.

It could crumble at any moment.

“Is there truly no way?” Li Fan felt somewhat helpless.

To end this lifetime so inexplicably — he was truly unwilling to accept it.

But it seemed there were no other options left.

“Return to Truth!”

Li Fan cast one last reluctant glance at Tai’an Island and called upon Return to Truth, preparing to end this lifetime.

Just then, he stopped.

Because, looking down at the mortals below who were gradually recovering their vitality, Li Fan suddenly realized that the violent spiritual energy outside didn’t seem to target mortals.

According to the island’s mortal residents, outside the island protection formation it was merely a bit hotter than usual — aside from that, there was no particular danger.

“The killing intent of heaven and earth only targets cultivators. Mortals should be unharmed.”

If he could dissolve all his cultivation and temporarily become mortal again, wouldn’t he be able to survive?

Li Fan thought of the Supreme Primordial Scripture.

With this miraculous technique, dissolving his power and re-cultivating wouldn’t cost him much in terms of actual progress. As long as he found a safe place, it wouldn’t take long to return to his former level.

“Is this what they call finding life from the jaws of death?” Having found a solution, Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a surge of elation.

Then, naturally, further considerations followed.

He was currently cultivating two techniques.

One was the Minor Ripple Water Art, which he had exchanged for within the Myriad Immortals Alliance. The other was the 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》 from the ancient Celestial Mysteries Sect.

One was a new technique, the other was old.

The cultivation method of new techniques was to plunder from heaven and earth.

It was precisely because of this that they drew the malice of heaven and earth.

Now that heaven and earth had laid down layers of killing intent, the targets were cultivators who practiced new techniques.

What if he only dispersed the Minor Ripple Water Art while preserving his progress in the 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》?

Would the killing intent of heaven and earth be somewhat diminished?

Li Fan was a decisive man.

The formation could collapse at any moment, so he acted without hesitation. Spiritual energy circulated within his body as he activated the Supreme Primordial Scripture.

“The Supreme is nameless, returning to the primordial origin…”

As the technique operated, the water-attribute spiritual energy gained from cultivating the Minor Ripple Water Art slowly dissipated like melting snow, transforming into a stream of pure energy that settled in Li Fan’s dantian.

In less than half a day, the Minor Ripple Water Art had been completely dispersed.

And Li Fan felt no discomfort whatsoever.

“This Supreme Primordial Scripture truly is miraculous.” Li Fan let out a sigh of admiration, then flew to the edge of the island protection formation.

“As expected, this method works!”

Sensing that the killing intent of heaven and earth permeating the outside had sharply weakened, Li Fan felt a wave of joy.

“Unfortunately, the 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》 was still cultivated using the modern method of plundering heaven and earth. Perhaps due to the nature of the technique’s underlying philosophy, the malice of heaven and earth is considerably less than before, but it hasn’t completely dissipated.”

Realizing that venturing out now would still put his life at risk, Li Fan steeled his resolve and chose to continue dispersing his cultivation.

Soon, another stream of pure energy joined the first in his dantian.

The two streams of energy, originally born from different techniques, now merged together without the slightest conflict.

“According to the Supreme Primordial Scripture, the pure energy obtained from dispersing one’s cultivation can be sustained in the dantian for approximately a hundred years.” By now, Li Fan’s cultivation had reverted to that of a mortal.

But he wasn’t particularly worried.

“As long as I return to Ten Thousand Immortals Island, I’ll be able to cultivate back to my former level in no time.”

Without further hesitation, Li Fan piloted the Taiyan Vessel and slowly flew out of the island protection formation.

Violent, scorching spiritual energy raged all around, staining the distant sky in hues of orange and red.

But Li Fan was now a mere mortal. The rampaging spiritual energy howled past him without launching any attack.

Li Fan let out a breath of relief, set his course, pushed the Taiyan Vessel to maximum speed, and flew toward Ten Thousand Immortals Island.

Along the way, Li Fan passed numerous islands.

The mortals on these islands had all perished without exception, devoid of any trace of life.

Li Fan was secretly alarmed.

He pushed his speed even faster.

Three months later.

Li Fan arrived at the location where Ten Thousand Immortals Island had once stood.

He opened his map and cross-referenced it four or five times, yet still couldn’t believe his eyes.

The once-vast Ten Thousand Immortals Island had completely vanished.

All that remained was a colossal black void, yawning emptily across the surface of the ocean.