Looking at the confession of Kou Hong on the table, Li Fan felt somewhat disheartened.
Kou Hong did not deceive him; he truly did not know a way for mortals to leave this Immortal-Forsaken Land.
"Immortal-Forsaken Land..." Five cycles of reincarnation, three hundred years of anticipation, all now turned into an unattainable illusion.
The dream of cultivating for immortality was shattered, and Li Fan seemed to have aged overnight.
It wasn't just physically, but also mentally.
"Immortal-Forsaken Land..." He silently repeated the name in his heart, filled with endless resentment.
"How could I have been reborn in such a place? If I had been reborn in the outside cultivation world, with the infinite simulation and reincarnation ability of [Return to Origin], I would surely have hope for immortality. It's hateful, to be in this Immortal-Forsaken Land!"
The information from Kou Hong's confession once again flashed through Li Fan's mind.
The so-called Immortal-Forsaken Land, as the name suggests, is a place devoid of immortals. Thousands of years ago, the ancient cultivation world underwent a great upheaval.
Initially, it was just a plague sweeping through the mortal world, unnoticed by any immortal cultivators.
However, when an immortal cultivator accidentally contracted this mysterious plague, things spiraled completely out of control.
After infecting this cultivator, the plague seemed to inexplicably strengthen, becoming capable of spreading among cultivators.
The transmission method was none other than the spiritual qi that cultivators relied on for survival.
The plague spread rapidly throughout the cultivation world via the spiritual qi. Those infected, at best, saw their cultivation regress, falling in rank; at worst, they lost all their cultivation overnight, becoming no different from mortals, and within days, they would perish and return to the heavens.
As large numbers of cultivators perished, a wave of despair began to spread among the cultivator community.
Some cultivators, in their despair, vented their anger on the source of it all—the mortals.
Thus, large-scale massacres began.
Faced with the high and mighty immortal masters, mortals had almost no power to resist and could only be slaughtered.
But it wasn't long before these massacres were forcibly stopped.
It wasn't because of a sudden pang of conscience, but because the cultivators were horrified to discover that as they slaughtered, the plague within the mortals did not disappear with their deaths. Instead, it spread unchecked through the spiritual qi that permeated the world.
In an instant, the concentration of the plague within the cultivation world skyrocketed.
This, in turn, led to the demise of even more cultivators.
Helpless, the cultivators abandoned the slaughter of mortals.
But sitting idly by was clearly not the way of the cultivators. On one hand, they began developing methods to treat and resist the plague; on the other, they proposed the infamous [Great Migration Plan].
Although this plan faced considerable opposition from some cultivators at its inception, for the sake of their own survival, the majority voted in favor.
The so-called [Great Migration Plan] was based on the following considerations:
Mortals could neither be killed nor could a solution to the plague be found in the foreseeable future. If mortals were allowed to proliferate freely, the increasing plague would make life increasingly difficult for cultivators.
And since this strange plague spread through spiritual qi, a seemingly logical solution was proposed.
Exile all mortals from the cultivation world to nearby small worlds or fragmented paradises devoid of spiritual qi, and use formations to permanently isolate them, preventing their return.
In this way, the problem of mortals would be solved once and for all, allowing time to research ways to combat the plague.
After all, the undeveloped small worlds were virtually endless, with no concern about accommodating these mortals.
Thus, under the unified will of the cultivation world, all mortals began a migration that lasted several centuries.
As for how many mortals perished during these centuries of migration, it was not within the consideration of these cultivators. In the face of cultivator power, mortals had no room for resistance.
In this manner, after centuries of migration, all mortals were dispersed to various small worlds surrounding the cultivation world. Nearly a thousand years later, the concentration of the plague in the cultivation world finally decreased to a relatively low level.
Over the millennia, cultivators, through continuous research, finally found a way to purify the plague.
It took several more millennia for cultivators to completely eliminate the threat of this plague.
However, to the cultivators' embarrassment, the plague stubbornly lingered, hidden within the bloodlines of mortals.
Originally, there were no mortals left in the world, but not every offspring of cultivators had the aptitude for cultivation.
Over time, many mortals were born again. Within these mortals lay traces of the plague.
And because this plague had a unique lethality to cultivators, the descendants of mortals wishing to cultivate had to cleanse the plague from their bodies.
Over time, this plague became synonymous with the divide between immortals and mortals, and thus, it was named the immortal miasma.
The rampant spread of the immortal miasma left a significant psychological shadow on all cultivators. To prevent its resurgence, it became an unspoken rule among cultivators to avoid the places where mortals were once exiled.
Over time, these places became known as the Immortal-Forsaken Lands.
There are countless Immortal-Forsaken Lands, and few cultivators are willing to risk entering these places.
For Li Fan to encounter two was already a stroke of luck.
Now, since neither of these cultivators knew a way for mortals to leave, how could Li Fan hope for another, more powerful cultivator to venture in?
Moreover, as a mortal, his lifespan was limited. Even if he could continuously simulate reincarnation, it would only be within the bounds of his lifespan.
This year, he was already seventy years old, with a biological lifespan limit of eighty-six.
In these sixteen years, the possibility of encountering another cultivator was virtually zero.
Given this, how could Li Fan not feel despair?
Clearly seeing the hope of cultivating for immortality, only to find it was all in vain.
Could it be that he was destined to repeat the life of a mortal, one life after another?
Li Fan was truly unwilling.
The path to immortality was right before him, within reach, yet as distant as the horizon, seemingly unattainable.
How could Li Fan be content with this?
Reflecting on all he had experienced through several lifetimes and nearly three hundred years of waiting, Li Fan was unwilling to give up the path to immortality.
Was there really no way?
Suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning pierced through the fog, Li Fan thought of something he had previously overlooked.
Thousands of years ago, how did large numbers of mortals migrate here?
Though the small worlds and the cultivation world are adjacent, they are not the same world.
Surely these mortals didn't walk here?
There must have been some tools to transport them, right?
Are these tools still around?
If he could find these tools, could he not travel to the cultivation world?
Even the slightest possibility gave Li Fan hope for cultivation.
His spirits lifted, and he immediately headed to the prison where Kou Hong was held.
He needed to confirm the feasibility of his idea with Kou Hong.
(End of Chapter)