When the Abyss Runs Deep, Fish Leap

When the Abyss Runs Deep, Fish Leap

Li Fan no longer cared what reaction Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi would have when they returned to the Cultivation World and discovered that the two of them cultivated the very same technique.

At this moment, he had already settled everything and piloted the Taiyan Boat to the Void Abyss.

Ordinarily, one should have waited for the day when the white mist dispersed, an event that occurred once every fifteen years, before exploring the Void Abyss.

But Li Fan was already seventy-one years old. Fourteen more years remained until the next dispersal of the white mist.

By then, he would be eighty-five, nearing the end of his lifespan. Even walking would be difficult for him, let alone piloting the Taiyan Boat.

So he might as well probe the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation sooner.

In any case, there was nothing left in this life for him to cling to. He could begin the next life at any time.

Controlling the Taiyan Boat, Li Fan slowly descended toward the bottom of the Void Abyss.

Without Divine Sense to scout the way, he could only rely on his eyes to distinguish direction.

Thick fog shrouded everything, leaving the surroundings a vast expanse of white and giving Li Fan an intensely unreal feeling.

The surroundings were also deathly silent. He could hear only his own breathing.

With his attention taut, he continued flying downward.

Suddenly, as if it had struck something, the Taiyan Boat began to shake violently.

Li Fan immediately tensed.

It seemed to be squeezed by some invisible, tremendous force. Bursts of sounds like metal grinding came from outside the Taiyan Boat.

Fortunately, the defensive formation activated in time. A faint golden curtain of light enveloped the Taiyan Boat.

The vessel gradually steadied, and those somewhat spine-chilling noises vanished as well.

Only the protective light screen, endlessly twisting and shifting, told of the terrifying pressure outside.

"After passing through the Gale Wind Layer, the Illusion Light Layer lies below." Li Fan recalled Kou Hong's earlier introduction to the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation.

The Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation had primarily been established to prevent the exiled mortals from returning to the Cultivation World.

The Gale Wind Layer was filled with fierce winds.

Wind Blades could easily tear apart a mortal body. Even Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators had to protect themselves with Spiritual Power and proceed with caution.

Below the Gale Wind Layer was the Illusion Light Layer.

Silken streams of seven-colored radiance flowed everywhere through this layer of the abyss.

The moment mortals saw them, they would fall into endless illusions.

Below the Illusion Light Layer was the Inverted Layer.

Upon entering this layer, one would feel heaven and earth turn over, unable to tell up from down or left from right.

With nothing but boundless white fog all around, and no Divine Sense to discern direction, one was bound to lose one's way within it.

After the Inverted Layer came the Falling Fire Layer.

Tens of thousands of shooting stars and falling flames streaked through this layer at high speed without any pattern, smashing everything in their path to pieces.

The dense white fog concealed them further, making them difficult to guard against.

Below the Falling Fire Layer was the Profound Ice Layer.

From this layer onward, the fog gradually grew thinner.

There was nothing else in the Profound Ice Layer, only unimaginably low temperatures.

Without suitable protective measures, one would likely be frozen into an ice block the instant one entered.

Below the Profound Ice Layer was the Thunderstorm Layer.

Countless bolts of lightning carrying an aura of destruction roared without rest through this layer of the abyss.

Finally came an empty space several times broader than all the previous six layers combined.

According to Kou Hong, this layer held no particular danger. It was merely darkness, yet it made one's heart tremble.

After passing through the Darkness Layer, one could leave the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation and reach the Cultivation World.

Li Fan carefully controlled the Taiyan Boat. After half an hour, he finally passed through the Gale Wind Layer.

The instant he entered the Illusion Light Layer, the flowing radiance filling his vision cast him into layer upon layer of illusions.

Within the illusion, he successfully escaped the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation. After arriving in the Cultivation World, he chanced upon a rare cultivation manual. In less than a hundred years, he formed a Golden Core.

Afterward, his cultivation journey was nothing but smooth roads. A thousand years later, he attained the Dao and ascended.

Upon reaching the Immortal Realm, Li Fan began again as a lowly immortal clerk, cultivating step by step until he ultimately became an Immortal Emperor who looked down upon the entire Immortal Realm.

Then Li Fan shattered the spatial barrier of the Immortal Realm and ascended to the God Realm.

Starting as a miner in the God Realm, after ten thousand years, Li Fan cultivated to the God King Realm and became the most powerful being in the God Realm.

Afterward, Li Fan endured innumerable hardships to ascend to the Primordial God Realm, where he became a lowly gatekeeper.

Then he painstakingly started all over again.

Layer upon layer of nested dolls, for who knew how many levels...

At last, the illusion collapsed.

Li Fan awakened. The experiences he had undergone in the illusion ebbed away from his mind like a receding tide, leaving behind only faint traces.

Speechless at what he had experienced in the illusion, Li Fan steadied himself and continued downward.

His mind spun, and he immediately lost his sense of direction. Li Fan knew he had reached the Inverted Layer.

Surrounded by endless white fog, the Taiyan Boat was like a drop of water in a vast sea. He did not know where was up or where was down, nor where he should go.

Just as he thought his exploration of the formation in this life would end here, Li Fan was delighted to discover that an indistinct intuition came from the Taiyan Boat, telling him which way to travel.

Following the Taiyan Boat's guidance, Li Fan left the Inverted Layer before long.

Having tasted the benefit, Li Fan no longer deliberately controlled it. He merely supplied power and allowed the Taiyan Boat to fly through the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation on its own.

Falling fire, profound ice, thunderstorms...

Though these places appeared incomparably perilous, the Taiyan Boat flew unhurriedly, always brushing past one destructive danger after another.

With danger but no disaster all the way, Li Fan smoothly reached the final layer, the Darkness Layer.

"Of course. This Taiyan Boat was specially used to transport mortals a thousand years ago. The Great Migration Era lasted several centuries, so this Flying Boat could not possibly have made only one round trip. Judging from how damaged it is, perhaps the migration work never stopped for even a hundred years. The cultivators responsible for this must have found personally controlling it every time too taxing, so they left a hidden mechanism within this Taiyan Boat, allowing it to pass through the Immortal Forsaken Grand Formation automatically..." Amid his delight, Li Fan suddenly understood why this journey had gone so unexpectedly smoothly.

The Taiyan Boat moved quietly through the darkness.

Thinking of how the Cultivation World he had longed for over a hundred years lay not far ahead, even Li Fan, with all his composure, could not help growing excited.

Suddenly, from within the utterly silent darkness came an inexplicable cry—vast, ancient, distant, and profound.

In an instant, the strange sound spread throughout the entire Darkness Layer, echoing endlessly within it.

Li Fan's heart seemed to stop at once. As though he had encountered some natural predator, the blood throughout his body turned icy in an instant.

The cry drew closer and closer. In the blink of an eye, it seemed to surround the tiny Taiyan Boat, coming from every direction.

Then, suddenly, the sound vanished.

Silence returned.

The surroundings remained pitch-black, yet this darkness seemed somehow different from before.

Li Fan's scalp went numb.

He knew that the Taiyan Boat had been swallowed by some kind of existence.

Bang!

The Taiyan Boat's protective light barrier shattered in an instant, and the vessel itself began to come apart.

The charging progress plummeted at that moment.

Taking one final, deep look at the darkness outside, Li Fan silently recited.

"Return to Truth!"