Chapter 581: Probing The Five Elements Grotto-Heaven
Chapter 581: Probing The Five Elements Grotto-Heaven
Damn it all.
In the span of a few breaths, Han Yi had gone from elation to terror to despair, escaping with his life by the thinnest of margins.
Right now, all he wanted to do was curse his own wretched luck.
Was winning a million contribution points really worth a backlash of providence this vicious?
Only after passing a deserted island did he finally crash to the ground, gasping, his heart still hammering.
Fortune and misfortune truly are unpredictable!
His expression cycled between gloom and agitation.
His premonition had been right. That place truly held a great opportunity.
A Soul Arbiter of heaven and earth capable of elevating someone to the Dao Unity realm, and a strange sword fragment that could contend with that very Soul Arbiter.
If his strength had been sufficient, he could have slain Azure Wind and subdued that sword fragment on the spot.
He would have ascended to Dao Unity in a single step, and gained a divine weapon to match his own combat power in the bargain.
The mere thought of it made Han Yi's breath come faster.
He even entertained a fleeting impulse to go back and try again.
Fortunately, a shred of reason remained. He shook his head and let the thought go.
I don't have the strength. To slay Azure Wind, I'd need Spirit Transformation cultivation at minimum. Even with the Heavenly Providence Scripture, that's over a hundred years away. What if someone else discovers that place in the meantime?
I should never have been so greedy for those petty gains. I should have spent that million contribution points on advancing my own cultivation as quickly as possible. What good is a steady, solid foundation? Nothing compares to reaching Dao Unity in a single day.
Distracting thoughts swarmed over him, and Han Yi fell into a spiral of anxiety over potential gains and losses.
Even as Han Yi, nudged along by the subtle suggestion Li Fan had planted with the Cloudwater Dream Illusion Art, had "coincidentally" stumbled upon the scene of Azure Wind trapped with the sword fragment...
The instigator himself, Li Fan, had already quietly set out, leaving the Congyun Sea behind.
He arrived at Tianling Province.
The ceasefire was now settled fact. Many of the cultivators conscripted to the front lines had already made their way home, and the former battlefield had regained a semblance of peace.
Yet the air still hung heavy with the thick, cloying scent of blood that refused to clear.
Looking out across the horizon, the earth was scarred with deep, jagged fissures running in every direction. The sky above was a bizarre tapestry of interwoven red and green.
Teams of cultivators in blue-green robes fanned out across Tianling Province, performing arcane arts to purge the lingering malevolent energy from the air and mend the cracked and shattered earth.
In the distance came the faint, low rumble of thunder, and every so often the very fabric of the sky seemed to warp and distort, as though some colossal presence were shifting between heaven and earth.
"Bah! That Five Elements Grotto-Heavens belongs to us, to Tianling Province! What right do they have to just cart it off?"
"Perhaps it's for the best that it's moved. A land of great riches, yes, but hardly an auspicious one. Too many cultivators fell in this battle."
"True enough. Our Tianling Province suffered grievous losses. So many old friends can no longer be reached..."
Li Fan caught snippets of conversation like these as he moved through the area.
The cause of the war in Tianling Province and the existence of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens were no longer secrets, and the cultivators here held complicated feelings toward that extraordinarily rich land.
Therefore, as the official Myriad Immortals Alliance forces oversaw its relocation deep into the Alliance's heartland, a considerable crowd of cultivators had gathered to watch.
Li Fan observed from within the crowd for a moment, then slipped away against the flow of people, heading in the opposite direction toward the original site of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.
He arrived in less than half a day.
Where two mountain peaks had converged within the range, it was as if a chunk of the world had been violently torn away. A dark, gaping hole now yawned between heaven and earth, transforming what had once been a beautiful landscape into something eerie and unsettling.
With the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens gone, the site held no further value. The heavy garrison of cultivators had largely withdrawn, leaving only a handful of Golden Core cultivators behind for routine oversight.
They clearly did not take their post seriously. The war was over, the Grotto-Heavens relocated. Who would bother coming here for no reason?
So they had grown lax, gathered together in idle conversation with little vigilance to speak of.
Li Fan concealed his presence, bypassed their defenses without difficulty, and ventured up into the void-like black cavity above.
He paused before the dark opening and studied it carefully. Unlike the abyssal nothingness he had witnessed after Ink Death had made Its move, this void carried faint traces of various strange auras. There was even spiritual qi present.
Not a dead land...
His spiritual sense offered no warning. After a brief pause, Li Fan stepped into the void.
Light vanished instantly.
In that moment, he became effectively blind. His divine sense extended outward like tentacles, probing ceaselessly in every direction, yet the only thing it returned to him was nothingness, uniform and absolute.
When he looked back the way he had come, the scenery of Tianling Province was gone entirely. It was as though he had plunged into the depths of an endless ocean. All sense of direction abandoned him at once. No matter which way he flew—up, down, left, right—he could not perceive any change in his position. He felt completely stationary, frozen in place despite all movement.
The profound dissonance between motion and stillness induced a faint vertigo in him.
For most cultivators, finding themselves in such a situation would have provoked at least some panic. For Li Fan, it warranted none. A void space that simply trapped one without posing any other lethal threat was no cause for concern.
With Return to Truth at his disposal, even the most perilous death trap could never hold him. A single thought could extricate him from this predicament. There was nothing to be anxious about.
He stilled his mind, in no hurry to push forward. Instead, he focused his mind, seeking to perceive his surroundings.
This was a void, yes, but something clearly lurked within the darkness. At irregular intervals, Li Fan felt inexplicable ripples of fluctuation pass through his body. Yet whenever he tried to trace them back to their source, they vanished abruptly, as though the whole thing had been an illusion.
He remained immersed in the darkness. He did not know how much time passed. Nothing changed.
The Myriad Immortals Alliance must have sent investigators here after relocating the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens. Their failure to find anything suggests the secrets hidden within this void are profoundly deep.
He had plenty of time and opportunities.
Li Fan set aside all worldly concerns and focused his spirit entirely. He gave up any intention of chasing the ripples, and instead made a conscious effort to stop controlling his body, allowing it to drift along with them, moving in the same direction they moved.
In a vague, half-present state, he felt as though he were floating downstream in a river.
Gradually, he became aware that his physical form had begun to actually move within the space.
The sensation did not last. Before long, it was as if he had drifted into an invisible wall directly ahead. His body shuddered faintly and came to a stop.