Chapter 59 – Seas Turn to Mulberry Fields

Chapter 59 – Seas Turn to Mulberry Fields

The moment he saw that crimson figure, countless pieces of information surged into Li Fan’s mind.

A Spirit of Heaven and Earth was the tangible manifestation of a certain law governing heaven and earth.

When a specific condition was met, a Spirit of Heaven and Earth would come into being, appearing within a certain region.

If one were to say that heaven had issued its killing decree, setting in motion a plan to purge cultivators—

Then the Spirits of Heaven and Earth were the executors of that plan.

They possessed no thoughts of their own and acted solely on predetermined instinct.

They were the laws themselves, and slaughtering cultivators was no different to them than butchering chickens and sheep.

Their mission was to annihilate those cultivators who defied heaven and earth.

For cultivators, a Spirit of Heaven and Earth was supremely dangerous.

Once targeted by one, it essentially meant certain death.

But at the same time…

As an incarnation of the Great Dao’s laws, a Spirit of Heaven and Earth also represented an enormous opportunity for cultivators.

As the saying went: sacrifice a Spirit of Heaven and Earth to merge one’s body with the Dao.

Once a cultivator managed to refine a Spirit of Heaven and Earth, regardless of their prior cultivation level, they could immediately attain the Dao Merging realm.

It was a cultivator’s natural enemy, yet it also held an unparalleled allure for them.

At this very moment, having witnessed the Spirit of Heaven and Earth—Crimson Flame—an endless tide of greed surged from the depths of Li Fan’s heart.

“Devour it! Devour it and you can attain the Great Dao! Devour it and you can ascend to the heavens in broad daylight!”

It was as if a man on the verge of starvation had stumbled upon a lavish feast, as if a traveler who had wandered the desert for days and nights had come upon a crystal-clear lake.

This greed whispered like a demon’s murmur, ceaselessly speaking into Li Fan’s ears.

It drove and tempted him to rush toward the crimson figure in the sky.

Li Fan worked to soothe the searing sensation emanating from the Azure Sea Pearl while frantically cycling the Xuanhuang Heart-refining Mantra, dissolving the surging greed within his heart.

He understood clearly that he could only observe the Spirit of Heaven and Earth, Crimson Flame, by borrowing the Azure Sea Pearl’s power.

In Crimson Flame’s eyes, Li Fan was nothing more than an unformed strand of the Azure Sea Pearl’s consciousness. So even after detecting Li Fan’s gaze, it merely glanced his way before losing interest.

But if Li Fan were to lose his reason and attack Crimson Flame, exposing his identity as a cultivator, he would undoubtedly be struck down without mercy.

Reason and desire tore at Li Fan’s soul.

The two diametrically opposed impulses nearly ripped his consciousness clean in half.

All Li Fan could do was painstakingly maintain the cycling of the Xuanhuang Heart-refining Mantra, preserving his Dao heart.

He didn’t know how long it took before the storm of greed finally subsided.

Li Fan’s heart still pounded with lingering fear, and he dared not peer again.

To have glimpsed a secret of heaven and still retained his lucidity—that alone was a stroke of great fortune.

Li Fan felt a faint sense of insight stirring within him. His consciousness prepared to leave the Azure Sea Pearl and return to his own body, only to discover something deeply troubling.

As it turned out, dissolving the greed brought on by the Spirit of Heaven and Earth had cost Li Fan nearly half a year!

He had been merged with the Azure Sea Pearl’s consciousness for far too long, well beyond the limits a Qi Refining stage cultivator could endure.

While his consciousness remained connected to the Azure Sea Pearl, things were still manageable. But if he returned to his physical body, he would likely wither and die of old age before long.

A single distant glance, and the consequences were already this dire.

It seemed his cultivation in this lifetime would have to end here.

Though Li Fan felt some regret, he harbored no remorse.

He had learned the truth behind the Layered Cloud Sea’s cataclysm, witnessed the Spirit of Heaven and Earth—Crimson Flame—and gained firsthand insight into the workings of heaven and earth.

Li Fan’s gains could hardly be called small.

Even if this life ended now, he could accept it.

Moreover, he didn’t intend to activate Return to Truth just yet and end this lifetime.

Since he was already here, he might as well make the best of it. His consciousness was trapped within the Azure Sea Pearl anyway, so he might as well seize this opportunity to contemplate the flow of heaven and earth’s vital energy once more.

As long as he didn’t court death by peeking at the Spirit of Heaven and Earth again, simply meditating on the vital energy should pose no danger.

By now, his physical body’s lifespan was exhausted. Without a body to nourish it, his consciousness was like water without a source, a tree without roots—it would be gradually consumed within the Azure Sea Pearl.

By Li Fan’s estimation, he could hold on for a dozen years at most.

If he made good use of this time, there might yet be further gains to reap.

Li Fan drew upon a wisp of the Azure Sea Pearl’s pure energy to protect his physical body, keeping it from decay.

Then his consciousness once again immersed itself in the Azure Sea Pearl’s perspective.

He observed the flow and circulation of heaven and earth’s vital energy. He watched the sun, moon, and stars rise and fall.

He watched as the remaining life in the Layered Cloud Sea perished one after another.

He felt the cold indifference of heaven and earth—that eternal, unchanging killing intent.

Just like that, in the blink of an eye, five years passed.

By anchored year forty, the Layered Cloud Sea had long since dried up completely, becoming a dead wasteland in the truest sense.

Only Tai’an Island, sheltered under Li Fan’s protection, still harbored a small number of ordinary people.

One day, Li Fan suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and looked toward the sky.

The crimson figure that had stood in the sky for over a decade was finally gone.

Its task complete, it had naturally dissipated.

No one could predict where in the cultivation world it might appear again someday.

Li Fan gazed in the direction where Crimson Flame had vanished, then let his mind sink back into the Azure Sea Pearl once more.

As time passed, Li Fan’s consciousness grew ever weaker.

His thoughts became increasingly sluggish.

As though he had lost the ability to think for himself, he could only silently observe this stretch of heaven and earth through the Azure Sea Pearl’s perspective.

In the second year after Crimson Flame’s disappearance, several cultivators clad in azure Daoist robes arrived at the Layered Cloud Sea.

As they cast spell after spell, rain finally fell from the sky for the first time in ages.

Then more cultivators arrived.

Azure light bloomed across the desiccated seabed.

Vegetation, brimming with the breath of life, sprouted from the earth.

A gentle breeze swept through, and trees rose from the ground one after another.

In barely a year, those swathes of scorched earth had become vibrant with life once more.

The scene of Crimson Flame boiling the sea not long ago seemed like nothing more than a nightmare, gently blown away by the wind.

The Layered Cloud Sea had completed its transformation into the Congyun Mountain Range.

A city suspended in midair began to be constructed above the Congyun Mountain Range.

Once completed, it drew ever more cultivators from all corners of the world.

The Congyun Mountain Range grew more and more bustling.

Occasionally, cultivators would come to visit the only island that had survived the flame disaster, hoping to find opportunities.

But under Li Fan’s instinctive concealment, they found nothing.

Anchored year forty-eight. A Foundation Establishment stage cultivator returned to the Layered Cloud Sea.

He came to what had once been Glazed Glass Island—now the Glazed Glass Mountain Range—his expression filled with sorrow.

Li Fan’s spiritual sense swept over the scene from nearby, and he too felt a pang of emotion.

He recognized this person.

It was none other than Zhang Haobo, who had once decided to migrate out of the Layered Cloud Sea because of the unease in his heart.

More than twenty years had passed, and through unknown fortunes, this man had become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Scenes from this lifetime flashed rapidly through Li Fan’s mind. His consciousness was on the verge of dissipating.

Before it vanished entirely, Li Fan’s consciousness returned to his own body.

Over a decade of contemplating heaven and earth’s vital energy caused the bottleneck that had been blocking Li Fan’s breakthrough to shatter in an instant.

Spiritual energy of heaven and earth rushed in like a flood, and Li Fan’s cultivation immediately broke through to the late Qi Refining stage.

A faint smile appeared on Li Fan’s face, then froze.

His body rapidly aged. A gust of wind swept past, and he crumbled to dust, scattering between heaven and earth.

All that remained was a skeleton, lying there in silence.

“Return to Truth!”

Before dissipating, Li Fan called out in his heart.