This time, there was no grand commotion. Emperor One merely pointed lightly at Xu Ke’s brow, making no further movement.
Xu Ke touched his forehead, but it felt like nothing had changed.
“When the time is right, you’ll understand its purpose,” Emperor One said.
“Mysteries again, always speaking in riddles… It’s driving me crazy,” Xu Ke muttered under his breath. He glanced at Emperor One but ultimately lacked the courage to speak up.
He had no choice but to bear it.
“With things here resolved, it’s clear that Nanming is no place for humans to linger long. Let me take you out of here.”
Meanwhile, in the space below, the Assembly of Ten Thousand Beasts had come to a final decision.
“We firmly support and uphold His Majesty Emperor One’s great decision!”
“Under His Majesty’s leadership, our Beast Clan will usher in a brighter future!”
The beast tribes roared in unison, their voices like crashing waves, already in unanimous agreement.
As for how genuine this enthusiasm was, one might catch a hint from the faint, mocking smile that appeared on Emperor One’s young face as he looked down upon them.
Leading Xu Ke, Emperor One took him through a winding, deserted passage, arriving back at the door they had first entered through.
“You may leave now.”
Emperor One halted and instructed.
Xu Ke hesitated, as if he wanted to say something.
“Rest assured, we’ll meet again someday,” Emperor One added, with a knowing look.
As his voice echoed, Emperor One’s figure disappeared.
Xu Ke felt a pang of emptiness.
Holding onto the sphere with a pulsating core, Xu Ke summoned Xiao Qing and left with Li Fan.
On the journey back across the Nanming Sea, possibly due to Emperor One’s influence, they encountered no other beasts.
Their journey was peaceful, and they drew ever closer to the Beast-Taming Sect.
Li Fan, standing on the sphere Emperor One had given Xu Ke, seemed deeply interested in it, his gaze revealing a glint of greed as if he wanted to devour it.
“Hey, Xiao Hei, what are you doing?”
Seeing Li Fan’s predatory look, Xu Ke clutched the sphere tightly, eyes full of caution.
“This is something I need to bring back to Senior Brother Lu Ya. Don’t even think about eating it out of curiosity.”
Li Fan rolled his eyes at Xu Ke and swiped at him with a claw, offering no explanation.
He had been staring at the sphere because he sensed a faint, familiar aura from it.
After carefully discerning it, he realized this familiar sensation originated from the Rift-World Whales that roamed outside the Immortal-Severing Formation in the future.
“The Rift-World Whales that Xu Ke and I found before were clearly different from those I encountered later.”
“Not only in size, but more importantly, according to Empire records, the later Rift-World Whales could reproduce simply by absorbing void energy.”
“Only this trait could allow them to thrive in the vast void, multiplying to an extent that they could separate small worlds from the Xuanhuang Realm.”
“The ones we found before obviously lacked this ability.”
“But this little guy…”
Li Fan pondered.
It seemed the Beast-Taming Sect had crossbred the Rift-World Whales with this spherical creature to cultivate a new subspecies that met the desired criteria.
“So all this work has still been because of Mr. Bai’s mission?”
Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a bit confused.
This adventure in the Immortal-Fallen Realm was dragging on.
Even now, he hadn’t figured out the attachment sustaining this time-space segment.
Nor had he found a way to break it.
However, Li Fan had a feeling. Maybe returning to the Beast-Taming Sect would reveal the answer.
The journey back from Nanming to the Beast-Taming Sect was long.
About halfway there, the time in the Immortal-Fallen Realm ran out.
With a dizzying flash, Li Fan returned to reality.
“The Emperor One Beast…”
Recalling the Immortal-Fallen Realm events, a question crept into Li Fan’s mind.
Did the beast tribe later succeed in relocating completely?
If they had, such a massive undertaking couldn’t have escaped the notice of cultivators at the time.
And if there were a precedent for escaping, the cultivators would surely have tried to emulate it.
They would have attempted various methods to shatter time and space, to break free of the Xuanhuang Realm.
“The Grand Dao Sect once had three Longevity-stage cultivators hidden away. Not to mention the other sects; the Xuanhuang Realm was not lacking in Longevity-level cultivators.”
“Yet they’ve all disappeared now. Maybe, some of them left back then.”
Li Fan suddenly remembered Emperor One’s words.
“Within the beast tribes, there were many divisions on whether to leave the Xuanhuang Realm altogether.”
“And even more so among us human cultivators.”
“For each who wanted to leave, there were others who wished to stay.”
It was simply a matter of personal choice when faced with the unprecedented catastrophe of heaven and earth.
Li Fan pondered.
—
Back in the real world from the Immortal-Fallen Realm, the foundation ceremony for Congyun Immortal City was about to begin.
As agreed, Zhou Kebao brought over the Immortal City abode.
“Fellow Daoist, behold!”
He extended his right hand, revealing a miniature city radiating five-colored light.
Its appearance was identical to the Immortal Cities in each state of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
“There’s no room to display it here. Please, follow me,” Zhou Kebao said with a smile, handing over a white jade statue in the form of a exquisite pagoda.
“This is…” Li Fan examined the small object, finding it somewhat familiar.
“This is the key to the Advance Realm. Simply use it as the core of the formation, and you’ll be able to enter the Advance Realm as planned,” Zhou Kebao explained.
“I see.” Li Fan, who had once rented the White Bone Advance Realm and deceived many from outer realm, was naturally familiar with this.
After a brief pause, he activated the ritual with the Exquisite Pagoda statue in hand.
Following a faint dizziness, Li Fan opened his eyes again, finding himself in a heavenly palace amidst clouds.
In addition to Zhou Kebao, a group of cultivators had been waiting for some time.
“An honor to finally meet you, Daoist Li. A true privilege for us all!”
“Haha, Daoist Li, I guess we can say we’ve become acquaintances in a unique way!”
Seeing Li Fan, they warmly came forward to greet him.
Li Fan responded with a smile.
“All right, let’s allow Daoist Li to inspect the goods,” one of them, a square-faced cultivator with a naturally authoritative presence, said.
Zhou Kebao nodded, then controlled the Immortal City abode, expanding it to its full size.
In an instant, an immense floating city appeared above the palace.
“Daoist Li, please!”
With that, Zhou Kebao led the way into the suspended city.