Chapter 19 – The Void Abyss Hungers for Prey
by spirapiraChapter 19 – The Void Abyss Hungers for Prey
【This simulation has ended.】
……
Li Fan regained consciousness.
He stared fixedly at the scene on the light screen showing the Taiyan Vessel shattering. A thick dread lingered in his heart, refusing to dissipate for a long time.
“What on earth was that thing?” Li Fan wondered, a hint of confusion in his mind.
When Kou Hong and Daoxuanzi had crossed the immortal-barren grand formation before, they hadn’t encountered anything like that in the darkness layer. Why was it different for him? Could it simply be bad luck?
Li Fan didn’t think so.
The darkness layer within the immortal-barren formation was incomprehensibly vast. The tiny Taiyan Vessel within it was nothing more than a single grain of sand in the ocean.
Yet that unknown existence had found him with such precision…
“Nine times out of ten, it’s a method specifically targeting mortals.”
“It seems the safest approach is still to wait until the fog clears and light emerges from the bottom of the Ruins Abyss before exploring.”
“Although I fell short at the very last step, the gains from that life truly exceeded all expectations…”
Li Fan calculated silently in his mind, then chose to retain the “Taiyan Vessel.”
Name: Li Fan
Realm: Mortal
Physiological Age: 20/86
Psychological Age: 333/1113↑
Turn Reality into Illusion charging progress: 0%
Anchor charging progress: 1%
Current number of anchors: 1
Bound items: 《 The Jade Realm Thousand-arts Golden Canon 》, Taiyan Vessel
……
Looking at the ever-shrinking increase to his psychological age upper limit, Li Fan vaguely felt a growing pressure.
Fortunately, the cultivation world was within arm’s reach. As long as he could leave this immortal-barren land, the sky would be the limit!
It was amid such anticipation that Li Fan’s seventh life began.
Before Return to Truth had finished charging, Li Fan was absolutely determined not to take any reckless risks.
So he still planned to follow the script he had already lived through several times to get through the first twenty years.
Anchor Year 3, Li Fan once again arrived at Wen County in Jiangnan to lie low.
Anchor Year 4, he led his trusted subordinates to secretly visit Qian Hong’s tomb.
This time, he used a spray infused with Mortal Taint to slowly erode the tomb’s defenses until the power of the Halt Stele Fragment had weakened to the point where it could no longer pierce through steel armor.
Li Fan donned steel armor and entered the tomb, placing his hand upon the stone stele.
“Chargeable item detected: Halt Stele Fragment (damaged).”
“Proceed with charging?”
The prompt from Return to Truth appeared right on cue.
“A pity it’s still somewhat damaged.” Li Fan silently lamented, but selected yes.
The Halt Stele Fragment gradually dissolved into nothingness and vanished.
And Return to Truth’s anchor charging progress, after absorbing the Halt Stele Fragment, jumped directly by 25%.
“Just three more times and I can unlock the second anchor?” Li Fan was overjoyed, though he had a nagging feeling it wouldn’t be that simple.
“Excessive speculation is pointless. I’ll know once I make another trip next life.”
Everything else in Qian Hong’s tomb held no further value for Li Fan. After ordering his men to seal the tomb back up, Li Fan departed.
Anchor Year 5, Li Fan finally couldn’t resist and made his way to the eastern Ruins Abyss.
“Just one look. I won’t go down,” Li Fan told himself.
Gazing out over the endless sea of fog, his vision seemed to pierce through infinite spatial barriers, reaching all the way to the bottom of the Ruins Abyss.
He stood there for a long time. As fierce winds howled, the dense fog gradually parted, and the once perilous immortal-barren grand formation seemed to lose its menace.
“Right now, if I piloted the Taiyan Vessel, I could sail straight down to the cultivation world without a hitch, couldn’t I?” A thought suddenly sprouted in Li Fan’s mind, and once it took root, it swelled uncontrollably, rapidly consuming his every thought.
“Yes, I’ve already waited so long. Do I really have to wait another fifteen years?”
“So what if Return to Truth hasn’t finished charging? With such timidity and hesitation, how could I ever achieve the great Dao?”
“I already made a trial run in my last life. As long as I carefully avoid that unknown monster in the darkness layer, I can leave this godforsaken place!”
……
A cacophony of voices kept ringing in Li Fan’s ears. His eyes gradually lost focus, turning completely bloodshot, as though he had been bewitched by these voices.
Li Fan walked forward step by step, drawing closer and closer to the Endless Ruins Abyss.
Just as he was about to be drawn in by the abyss and plunge to his death—
From the bottom of the Ruins Abyss, a brilliant light suddenly erupted, piercing through the immortal-barren grand formation and flooding into Li Fan’s eyes.
The irrational crimson was temporarily suppressed, and four large characters burst into Li Fan’s vision: “The Immortal Dao Is Dead.”
“Boom!”
All those feverish, reckless thoughts urging him to pursue the path of cultivation—even to leap into the abyss—scattered and vanished completely.
“What just happened?” Li Fan snapped back to his senses, breaking into a cold sweat.
In his eyes, the tranquil Ruins Abyss had suddenly transformed into a lurking predator that had already opened its enormous maw, ready to swallow him whole.
Li Fan immediately turned around and fled without looking back.
After a long while, the thick fog reconverged.
From the depths of the Ruins Abyss, there faintly came an enraged shriek.
……
Fifteen years later. Anchor Year 20.
Return to Truth had finally finished charging.
With confidence restored, Li Fan returned once more to the Ruins Abyss.
Recalling the scene from years ago, even though so much time had passed, Li Fan still felt lingering fear.
“It seems my suspicion was correct. The monster in the darkness layer indeed harbors immense malice toward mortals. Perhaps its very purpose is to devour any mortal who draws near.”
Dangerous as it was, Li Fan would never abandon the path to immortality.
Without further hesitation, Li Fan piloted the Taiyan Vessel and made it to the thunderstorm layer without serious incident.
He did not continue downward. Instead, Li Fan stopped just above the darkness layer and waited patiently.
“Wooo…”
The wind gradually picked up.
The raging thunderstorm, buffeted by this mysterious wind, began to subside and weaken.
Pinpricks of light emerged from the darkness, then merged together, forming a vast and unbroken panorama stretching endlessly across his view.
Li Fan paid no attention to this inverted spectacle. Instead, he used this precious and fleeting illumination to search for the monster lurking within the darkness.
Unfortunately, he found nothing!
Seeing that the light was about to fade, Li Fan gritted his teeth, hesitated no more, and pushed the Taiyan Vessel to full power, plunging at top speed toward the bottom of the Ruins Abyss.
That eerie cry rang out again, arriving beside him in an instant.
At that moment, Li Fan suddenly reversed the Taiyan Vessel’s trajectory entirely.
Tracing a beautiful arc, the Taiyan Vessel—which had been diving straight down—was now climbing upward at several times its previous speed!
Up, and further up!
With its engines at full power, the Taiyan Vessel, amid a furious roar of rage, surged back into the thunderstorm layer!
Using the last fading glimmers of light before they vanished, Li Fan looked down from his vantage point and finally saw the true form of the monster hidden in the darkness.
It was a whale of such staggering size that no words could do it justice. Even from this great distance, Li Fan could not take in its full form.
Its gaping maw alone filled Li Fan’s entire field of vision.
Seeing its prey escape back into the thunderstorm layer, the giant whale thrashed in fury, yet could only drift in place, unable to follow.
After letting out several roars to vent its frustration, it reluctantly closed its mouth and vanished into the darkness.