Chapter 18 – The Deep Abyss Lets Fish Leap

What reactions Kou Hong and Daoxuanzi might have upon returning to the cultivation world and discovering they had been practicing the same technique—Li Fan no longer cared.

At this moment, he had already settled all his affairs. Piloting the Taiyan Vessel, he arrived above the Ruins Abyss.

By all reason, he should have waited for the white fog to clear—an event that occurred only once every fifteen years—before exploring the Ruins Abyss.

But Li Fan was already seventy-one years old. The next clearing of the white fog was still fourteen years away.

By then he would be eighty-five, approaching the end of his natural lifespan. Even walking would be a struggle, let alone piloting the Taiyan Vessel.

So it was better to probe the immortal-barren grand formation sooner rather than later.

Besides, he had nothing left to cling to in this lifetime. He could begin the next one at any time.

Controlling the Taiyan Vessel, Li Fan slowly descended toward the bottom of the Ruins Abyss.

Without divine sense to scout the way, he could only rely on his eyes to determine direction.

Thick fog shrouded everything. All around was an endless expanse of white, giving Li Fan a profoundly surreal feeling.

The surroundings were utterly silent. The only sound was his own breathing.

With his concentration at its peak, he continued flying downward.

Suddenly, as if it had struck something, the Taiyan Vessel began to shake violently.

Li Fan immediately tensed.

An invisible, enormous force seemed to be crushing the vessel. From outside came a series of sounds resembling metal grinding against metal.

Fortunately, the defensive formation activated in time, enveloping the Taiyan Vessel in a faint golden barrier of light.

The vessel gradually stabilized, and the hair-raising noises vanished.

Only the constantly warping and shifting protective barrier spoke to the terrifying pressure outside.

“Past the astral wind layer, next comes the illusory light layer.” Li Fan recalled Kou Hong’s earlier description of the immortal-barren grand formation.

The immortal-barren grand formation primarily existed to prevent exiled mortals from returning to the cultivation world.

The astral wind layer was filled with fierce winds.

Wind blades could easily tear apart a mortal’s body, and even Foundation Establishment cultivators had to shield themselves with spiritual energy and proceed with caution.

Below the astral wind layer was the illusory light layer.

Silken, iridescent lights flowed throughout this depth of the abyss like streams of rainbow silk.

Any mortal who gazed upon them would be plunged into endless illusions.

Below the illusory light layer was the inversion layer.

Upon entering this layer, one would feel heaven and earth shifting, unable to distinguish up from down, left from right.

Combined with the all-encompassing white fog and the absence of divine sense to determine direction, one would inevitably become lost.

After the inversion layer came the flowing fire layer.

Tens of thousands of shooting stars and streaks of fire hurtled through this space at high speed in no discernible pattern, smashing everything in their path to pieces.

Dense white fog provided cover, making them nearly impossible to defend against.

Below the flowing fire layer was the profound ice layer.

Starting from this layer, the fog gradually thinned.

The profound ice layer contained nothing else—only extreme cold.

Without the proper protective measures, one would freeze solid the instant they entered.

Below the profound ice layer was the thunderstorm layer.

Ten thousand bolts of lightning radiating an aura of annihilation roared ceaselessly through this depth of the abyss.

Finally, there was a vast, empty space several times more expansive than the six preceding layers combined.

According to Kou Hong, this layer held no particular danger—only darkness—yet it inexplicably filled one with dread.

Beyond the darkness layer, one could leave the immortal-barren grand formation and reach the cultivation world.

Li Fan carefully controlled the Taiyan Vessel, spending half a shichen before finally passing through the astral wind layer.

The moment he entered the illusory light layer, bathed in cascading streams of light, Li Fan was plunged into layer upon layer of illusions.

In the illusion, he successfully escaped the immortal-barren grand formation. After reaching the cultivation world, through a stroke of fortune, he obtained a rare and peerless cultivation technique. In barely a century, he achieved Golden Core.

From there, his cultivation path was smooth sailing. After a thousand years, he attained the Dao and ascended.

Upon reaching the Immortal Realm, Li Fan started from the lowest rank of immortal clerk and cultivated step by step, ultimately becoming the Immortal Emperor who looked down upon all of the Immortal Realm.

Li Fan then shattered the spatial barriers of the Immortal Realm and ascended to the Divine Realm.

Starting as a miner in the Divine Realm, over ten thousand years Li Fan cultivated to the Divine King realm, becoming the most powerful existence in the Divine Realm.

After that, Li Fan endured countless hardships to ascend to the Primordial Divine Realm, where he became the lowest-ranking gatekeeper.

And once again, he painstakingly started from scratch.

This nesting-doll pattern repeated for who knew how many layers…

Finally, the illusion collapsed.

Li Fan came to his senses. The myriad experiences receded from his mind like a retreating tide, leaving behind only faint traces.

Somewhat speechless about what he had just experienced in the illusion, Li Fan steadied his mind and continued downward.

A wave of dizziness washed over his brain, and he instantly lost all sense of direction. Li Fan knew he had entered the inversion layer.

Surrounded by the endless white fog, the Taiyan Vessel was like a single drop of water in a vast ocean—unable to tell which way was up, which way was down, or where to go.

He had assumed this lifetime’s expedition through the formation would end here, but to his pleasant surprise, Li Fan discovered that an instinctive sense was emanating from the Taiyan Vessel itself, telling him which direction to fly.

Following the Taiyan Vessel’s guidance, it didn’t take long for Li Fan to leave the inversion layer.

From that point on, having tasted success, Li Fan made no deliberate effort to steer at all. He simply provided power and let the Taiyan Vessel navigate the immortal-barren grand formation on its own.

Flowing fire, profound ice, thunderstorm…

These places seemed extraordinarily perilous, yet the Taiyan Vessel flew at an unhurried pace, somehow always narrowly avoiding one catastrophic danger after another.

The journey was fraught with close calls but free of actual harm. Just like that, Li Fan smoothly arrived at the final layer—the darkness layer.

“Of course. This Taiyan Vessel was specifically tasked with migrating mortals over a thousand years ago. The Great Migration era lasted several centuries, so this vessel certainly didn’t make only a single round trip. Judging by its degree of wear, it may not have stopped operating for a hundred years straight. The cultivator in charge must have found it tedious to personally pilot it every time, so they built a hidden autopilot into the Taiyan Vessel, allowing it to pass through the immortal-barren grand formation automatically…” Overjoyed, Li Fan suddenly understood why this journey had been unexpectedly smooth.

The Taiyan Vessel crept forward through total darkness.

Thinking that the cultivation world he had yearned for over a lifetime lay just ahead, even someone with Li Fan’s composure couldn’t help but feel a surge of excitement.

Suddenly, in the absolute silence of the darkness, a desolate, ancient, distant, and unfathomably deep cry rang out from nowhere.

This eerie sound instantly filled the entire darkness layer, echoing endlessly within it.

Li Fan’s heartbeat froze. As if he had encountered some kind of natural predator, the blood throughout his entire body turned ice-cold in an instant.

The cry drew closer and closer, and in the blink of an eye it seemed to have surrounded the tiny Taiyan Vessel, pressing in from all directions.

Suddenly, the sound vanished.

Silence returned.

The surroundings were still pitch-black, yet the darkness somehow felt different from before.

Li Fan was seized by a bone-deep horror.

He knew—the Taiyan Vessel had been swallowed by some kind of existence.

“Bang!”

The Taiyan Vessel’s protective barrier shattered in an instant, and the vessel itself began to disintegrate.

The charging progress began plummeting.

Taking one last, deep look at the darkness outside, Li Fan silently invoked:

“Return to Truth!”