Chapter 56 – Compassion Shelters the Mortals

The surrounding seawater poured ceaselessly toward the black hole, only to be vaporized into steam the moment it touched the hole’s edge.

Above the black hole, the extreme temperatures twisted the air beyond recognition.

Shrouded in the rising mist all around, a surreal spectacle of intertwining black and white took shape.

Li Fan piloted the Taiyan Vessel, hovering in midair as he gazed upon this scene, when suddenly an endless terror engulfed him.

Ten Thousand Immortals Island… was just gone?

Scenes from his time on Ten Thousand Immortals Island flashed rapidly through his mind.

The Dao Transmission Plaza with its ten thousand statues standing tall, the endless stream of cultivators coming and going, and even those magnificent, awe-inspiring buildings at the island’s center where Spirit Transformation powerhouses were said to be stationed…

Just gone?

Not even a layer of ash remained.

What kind of power could accomplish all of this?

The malice of the Heavenly Dao?

Li Fan didn’t know.

Before this overwhelmingly shocking scene, Li Fan’s mind was nothing but chaos.

Cultivate immortality, attain eternal life.

Li Fan’s longstanding goal now seemed laughably absurd.

In the face of this sudden catastrophe, cultivators had become no different from mortals—no better than ants.

Once the fear in his heart took root, it could no longer be suppressed.

“Run! Get away from this cursed place!”

Li Fan’s eyes turned bloodshot as he piloted the Taiyan Vessel, fleeing desperately toward the west of the Layered Cloud Sea.

He wanted to escape to the mainland, far away from this hellish stretch of ocean.

And so, with his mind in utter disarray, Li Fan flew for who knew how long.

“Boom!”

The Taiyan Vessel seemed to crash into something and was forced to a halt.

Fortunately, the protective formation array kept it from being destroyed outright, sparing him from death.

Though the violent impact left Li Fan with minor injuries, it also gradually brought him back to his senses.

He looked outward from the Taiyan Vessel.

There was nothing there.

In the distance stretched a continuous coastline—the mainland was not far away.

Li Fan maneuvered the Taiyan Vessel, attempting to fly forward.

“Boom!”

Something was blocking his path.

Li Fan rammed into it again and again.

Yet he could not advance a single inch.

He tried other directions. It was the same everywhere.

An invisible barrier separated the Layered Cloud Sea from the nearby mainland.

Entry was permitted. Exit was not.

Li Fan stood frozen.

A phrase suddenly came to mind.

A turtle trapped in a jar.

After a long while, Li Fan laughed aloud.

He raised his head and gazed at the sky.

How ruthless.

Then he grew somewhat dazed. Should he summon Return to Truth and go back to his initial anchor point?

No—he’d look around a bit more first.

Li Fan felt somewhat helpless, having lost any sense of direction.

He piloted the Taiyan Vessel, drifting aimlessly across the Layered Cloud Sea.

He passed by Nightfall Island. Like every other island, it was a scene of apocalypse—no survivors.

He passed by Glazed Glass Island.

The island protection formation had shattered, and He Zhenghao was nowhere to be found. Corpses littered the island, devoid of any sign of life.

Flowing Cloud Island, Zhongqiu Island…

All had become wastelands of death.

Occasionally he encountered a cultivator who, like Li Fan, had somehow survived—but every one of them had gone completely mad.

The moment they saw Li Fan, they screamed as if they’d seen a ghost and fled.

…

In the end, Li Fan somehow found his way back to Tai’an Island.

Here, at last, he felt a long-absent spark of life.

Perhaps these were the only living people left in the entire Layered Cloud Sea.

Li Fan walked through the streets, observing the mortals of Tai’an Island.

They still didn’t know what had happened beyond Tai’an Island. Their faces still bore the relieved smiles of those who had survived a calamity.

Little did they know that what awaited them was inescapable doom.

Still, perhaps ignorance was a kind of blessing.

Having witnessed that scene of near-annihilation, one would probably have nightmares every night for the rest of their life.

Li Fan couldn’t help but mock himself.

He continued walking just like that, when suddenly, the sound of devout prayers reached his ears.

“Merciful Immortal Master who saves the suffering, please bless us with fair weather and rain, and food to eat every year.”

“Merciful Immortal Master who saves the suffering, please protect my little Yu’er and let her grow up safe and sound.”

…

Li Fan was startled. He turned to look.

At some point, a temple had been built on Tai’an Island.

Inside the temple stood a statue, and on the tablet before it were written the words: “Merciful Immortal Master Who Saves the Suffering.”

The statue bore a faint resemblance to Li Fan, its eyes slightly downcast, gazing with compassion at the people kneeling before it.

“Merciful Immortal Master Who Saves the Suffering…” Li Fan fell silent for a long moment.

After a long while, he let out a deep sigh.

“So be it. However long I can shelter you, that’s how long it shall be.”

…

However, trying to shelter mortals from the killing intent of heaven and earth was clearly no easy task.

Li Fan had originally thought the disaster had already passed.

What he hadn’t expected was that the true disaster had only just begun.

One year, two years, three years…

The sky still showed no sign of rain.

Sea levels began to drop, and the water steadily receded from the islands.

Even with the seawater desalination formation array, the mortals of Tai’an Island found it increasingly difficult to obtain fresh water.

Each time, they had to walk for a very, very long time before they could find water.

They did not understand why the heavens had brought such a calamity upon them, but they feared that the Layered Cloud Sea would eventually dry up completely.

And so, every household enshrined a wooden figure of Li Fan, praying to it ceaselessly day and night.

Li Fan too was at a loss.

A cataclysmic shift of heaven and earth—how could he possibly stand against it?

The only good news was that over these three years, perhaps because the vast majority of cultivators in the Layered Cloud Sea had perished, the heaven-and-earth killing intent targeting cultivators had gradually dissipated.

Li Fan seized this opportunity to cultivate back to the mid Qi Refining stage.

“The day you all stop worshipping me, that’s when I’ll return to my anchor point.” Being prayed to day and night by a host of mortals was certainly a peculiar experience.

He activated his Qi Discernment ability and observed the increasingly dense death aura above the mortals’ heads, making a silent resolution.

“Wait—why is there a faint thread of white hidden within this black death aura?”

Li Fan was startled.

Since recovering his cultivation, Li Fan had been examining Tai’an Island’s vital energy every day.

This time, for some reason, he discovered a sliver of vitality that he had never noticed before.

Where did this vitality come from?

Li Fan pushed 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-Arts Golden Canon 》 to its absolute limit and discovered that the vitality of Tai’an Island’s people was tied to himself!

This only deepened his confusion.

After triple-checking, Li Fan finally realized that the vitality did indeed originate from himself.

But not from Li Fan the person—rather, from an object on his person.

Something he had nearly forgotten about.

Heavenly-Earthly Wonder: Azure Sea.

Since it had not yet fully formed, he had left the Azure Sea Pearl sitting in some corner of the Taiyan Vessel this entire time.

Only today, with the revelation of vital energy, did Li Fan remember it.

Unlike when he had first seen it over a decade ago, the pearl had now turned a deep azure blue, suffused with dense moisture.

As if an entire ocean truly lay gestating within.

“When one ocean perishes, a new ocean is born.”

Li Fan stared blankly at the Azure Sea Pearl in his hand, then suddenly struck by a thought, he launched the Taiyan Vessel straight upward, climbing to an altitude of ten thousand meters, and looked down.

Below, the Layered Cloud Sea—after its prolonged drought—had vast expanses of seabed laid bare.

Underwater mountain ranges were gradually revealing their true forms.

And the islands that had once dotted the Layered Cloud Sea were unmistakably the peaks of these very mountain ranges.

Before Li Fan’s eyes suddenly flashed the enthusiastic face of Kou Hong.

He had once said to Li Fan: “No matter. If you ever make it out, come find me in Lingtian City in the Congyun Mountain Range.”

Li Fan began to laugh.

The Layered Cloud Sea.

The Congyun Mountains.

They had been the same place all along.