The surrounding seawater continuously poured into the black hole, only to evaporate into mist upon reaching its edge. The air above the black hole twisted due to the extreme heat, creating a peculiar black-and-white spectacle amidst the rising mist.
Li Fan piloted the Taiyan Boat, observing this scene in mid-air, suddenly overwhelmed by an endless terror. Ten Thousand Immortals Island... was gone just like that? Scenes from the past on Ten Thousand Immortals Island flashed rapidly through his mind. The Teaching Square, where tens of thousands of statues stood, countless cultivators coming and going, and even those grand and magnificent buildings said to house the great powers of the Nascent Soul stage in the center of the island... all gone, not even leaving a trace of dust behind.
What kind of power could achieve such a feat? The malice of the Heavenly Dao? Li Fan did not know. Faced with this shocking scene, his mind was in chaos. Cultivation, seeking immortality. Li Fan's long-standing goal now seemed laughable. In the face of this sudden catastrophe, even immortal cultivators were reduced to mere mortals, no different from ants. Once fear took root in his heart, it was impossible to suppress.
"Run! Escape this cursed place!" Li Fan's eyes turned bloodshot as he frantically piloted the Taiyan Boat, fleeing westward toward the Congyun Sea. He wanted to reach land, far away from this hellish sea region. In a state of mental chaos, Li Fan flew for an unknown duration.
"Boom!" The Taiyan Boat seemed to collide with something, forcing it to stop. Fortunately, the protective formation prevented a total disaster. Despite sustaining minor injuries from the violent impact, Li Fan gradually calmed down. He looked outside the Taiyan Boat. There was nothing. In the distance was an endless coastline, indicating that the mainland was not far away. Li Fan attempted to maneuver the Taiyan Boat forward.
"Boom!" Something blocked Li Fan's path. He collided repeatedly but could not advance an inch. Trying other directions yielded the same result. An invisible barrier separated the Congyun Sea from the nearby mainland, allowing entry but not exit. Li Fan was stunned. He suddenly thought of a phrase: a turtle in a jar.
After a long while, Li Fan laughed. He looked up at the sky. So ruthless. Then he became somewhat bewildered, contemplating whether to summon [Return to Origin] and return to the initial anchor point. Or maybe he should explore further. Li Fan felt helpless and lost his sense of direction. He drifted across the Congyun Sea on the Taiyan Boat.
He passed by Night Orchid Island, which, like the other islands, was a scene of apocalypse with no survivors. He passed by Glass Island. The Island Protection Array was shattered, and He Zhenghao was nowhere to be found. The island was littered with corpses, showing no signs of life. Liuyun Island, Zhongqiu Island... all had become desolate lands. Occasionally, he encountered other surviving cultivators like himself, all of whom had gone mad. Upon seeing Li Fan, they screamed as if encountering a ghost and fled.
...
Eventually, Li Fan somehow returned to Tai'an Island. Here, he finally sensed a long-lost vitality. Perhaps, in the entire Congyun Sea, only this place still had living people. Li Fan walked the streets, observing the mortals on Tai'an Island. They were unaware of the calamity outside Tai'an Island, their faces still showing smiles of survival after a disaster. Little did they know, what awaited them was inescapable doom. Yet, perhaps ignorance was a form of bliss. Witnessing such an apocalyptic scene would surely lead to nightmares every night in the future.
Li Fan couldn't help but mock himself. As he continued walking, he suddenly heard devout prayers in his ears. "May the Immortal Master who saves the suffering and rescues the distressed bless us with favorable weather and plenty to eat every year." "May the Immortal Master who saves the suffering and rescues the distressed protect my daughter Yu'er to grow up safe and sound."
Li Fan was taken aback and turned to look. It turned out that a temple had been built on Tai'an Island at some point. Inside the temple stood a statue, with a plaque in front of it inscribed with the words "Immortal Master Who Saves the Suffering and Rescues the Distressed." The statue bore a faint resemblance to Li Fan, its eyes slightly lowered, compassionately gazing at the kneeling crowd in front.
"Immortal Master Who Saves the Suffering and Rescues the Distressed..." Li Fan fell silent. After a long while, he sighed deeply. "Fine, as long as I can protect you for a while, so be it."
...
However, protecting mortals from the killing intent of heaven and earth was evidently no easy task. Initially, Li Fan thought the disaster had passed. What he didn't expect was that the real catastrophe was just beginning. One year, two years, three years... still no sign of rain. The sea level began to drop, and the seawater continued to recede from the islands. Even with the seawater desalination formation, it became increasingly difficult for the mortals of Tai'an Island to fetch water. They had to travel longer and longer distances to find it.
They didn't understand why heaven had brought such calamity, but they feared that the Congyun Sea would eventually dry up completely. As a result, every household began to worship wooden statues of Li Fan, praying day and night without cease. Li Fan was helpless.
The great changes of heaven and earth were beyond his ability to resist. The only good news was that, perhaps because most of the cultivators in the Congyun Sea had perished, the killing intent targeting immortal cultivators gradually dissipated over the three years. Li Fan took this opportunity to cultivate back to the mid-stage of Qi Refinement.
"When you all stop worshiping me, I'll return to the anchor point." Being prayed to day and night by mortals was indeed a peculiar experience. He activated the "Discernment" divine ability, observing the increasingly dense aura of death above the mortals' heads, and made a silent decision.
"Wait, why is there a faint trace of white within this black aura of death?" Li Fan was taken aback. Since recovering his cultivation, Li Fan had been checking the qi of Tai'an Island daily. This time, for some reason, he discovered a thread of vitality he hadn't noticed before. Where did this vitality come from? Li Fan pushed the "Thousand Mysteries Jade Golden Seal" to its limit and found that the vitality of the people on Tai'an Island was linked to himself!
He was even more puzzled. After repeatedly confirming, Li Fan discovered that the vitality indeed originated from him. But it wasn't from Li Fan himself; it was from an item he possessed. An item he had nearly forgotten. A miraculous object of heaven and earth: Canghai Pearl. Since it hadn't yet taken shape, the Canghai Pearl had been placed in a corner of the Taiyan Boat. Until today, under the reflection of qi, Li Fan remembered it.
Unlike when he first encountered it over a decade ago, it now appeared a deep blue, brimming with dense moisture. It seemed as if a vast sea was truly nurtured within. "Where the sea perishes, the sea is born anew." Li Fan stared blankly at the Canghai Pearl in his hand, suddenly realizing something. He piloted the Taiyan Boat upward, flying to an altitude of ten thousand meters, and looked down.
Below, the Congyun Sea, after prolonged drought, revealed vast expanses of exposed seabed. One by one, the undersea mountain ranges gradually revealed their true form. The islands of the Congyun Sea were, in fact, the peaks of these mountain ranges. Li Fan's mind flashed with the enthusiastic face of Kou Hong. He had once said to Li Fan, "No worries. If you ever leave, come find me in Lingtian City within the Linked Mountains."
Li Fan laughed. Congyun Sea. Congyun Mountains. They were one and the same place.
(End of Chapter)