Zhao'er shuddered, and an instinctive urge to fight back rose within him. But after considering the other's unfathomable strength, it faded.
Feeling that icy gaze roving over him, Zhao'er said with a miserable expression, "Yes, Senior!"
He then formed a hand seal, and a stone pillar rumbled as it rose from the seabed.
Zhao'er hung his head dejectedly. "Senior, this way please!"
With that, he entered via the staircase in the center of the pillar.
Li Fan swept his divine sense around the area.
After studying the jade slip for over a year, he was no longer completely ignorant about arrays. There were only a few simple arrays for water manipulation and dust purification inside the stone pillar, with no traces of any offensive arrays.
Still, Li Fan didn't lower his guard. He activated a protective talisman before following Zhao'er inside.
Once he entered, Li Fan realized he had been unnecessarily worried. The interior of the stone pillar was remarkably crude. Most of it served as storage rooms for displaying collected items.
Zhao'er led Li Fan to a relatively spacious room. In the center stood a large table holding what appeared to be a miniature model of the Congyun Sea.
"Senior, please sit," Zhao'er mumbled, forcing the words out with difficulty.
Li Fan sat down leisurely, observing Zhao'er's ashen face. "Do I have to question you, or will you confess everything honestly by yourself?"
Zhao'er opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but only managed a smile uglier than crying. "Senior, I don't know what I should confess?"
Li Fan snorted coldly and reactivated his Insect Binding divine ability. Zhao'er was immediately restrained again.
Controlling the Blue Flame phantom spirit, Li Fan sent a visible wave of cold air across the floor like an icy blue serpent. As it crawled onto Zhao'er's body, Zhao'er's lower limbs were frozen solid by blue ice crystals.
"I wonder if someone of your cultivation level can recover after their body shatters into frozen fragments," Li Fan said with apparent curiosity.
A flicker of fear flashed through Zhao’er’s eyes, but it was quickly suppressed. He showed no hint of begging for mercy; instead, he looked ready to remain unyielding even in the face of death.
Li Fan could tell that Zhao'er didn't seem to be pretending.
"Interesting," Li Fan smiled. Grabbing Zhao'er, he brought him to the adjacent storage room.
Zhao'er's eyes suddenly filled with terror.
"My, these items here seem truly remarkable. You must have spent considerable effort collecting them," Li Fan said, lightly tracing his hand over the objects.
Crash!
While touching a ceramic bowl, he deliberately knocked it to the ground.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. How careless of me. I accidentally broke it," Li Fan said with feigned regret.
Crash!
Another piece of porcelain shattered.
Furious flames ignited in Zhao'er's eyes as he glared at Li Fan, as if wishing to slice him into a thousand pieces.
However, as the fragile antiquities in the room were destroyed one after another before his eyes, the expression in Zhao'er's eyes gradually shifted from fury to heartache, from heartache to panic, and from panic to pleading.
Yet Li Fan showed no intention of stopping.
He took Zhao'er through every room in the stone pillar, systematically destroying the items he spent years collecting right before his eyes.
Looking at the fragments covering the floor, despair flooded Zhao'er’s eyes.
As the control over his body abruptly lifted, he lunged forward and collapsed into wracking sobs. His cries echoed to the heavens, his grief so raw it was painful to witness.
But as he wept, Zhao'er suddenly realized—the shattered fragments in his hands were gone. He was still restrained, standing in the very same room. Everything that just happened had all been an illusion!
The emotional whiplash, the plunge from despair to relief, was so violent it nearly stole his breath.
When the physical restraints vanished, he crumpled to the floor. Weakness seeped through his limbs, yet he scrambled up and rushed frantically into the neighboring storage chamber. There, his beloved collection remained perfectly intact.
Overwhelmed, he wept again, this time with joy—yet his crying grew even more pitiful. To Zhao'er, that illusion had been ten thousand times more terrifying than the worst nightmare. He never wanted to experience it again!
“Do you understand now what you ought to confess?” A ghostly voice whispered beside his ear.
Zhao'er shuddered, chilled to the bone by Li Fan’s terrifying skill in manipulating his psychology.
“I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!” he stammered, trembling uncontrollably, terrified that Li Fan might truly destroy his entire collection.
The two returned to the main room, one after the other. Li Fan took a seat, while Zhao'er stood obediently to the side.
Zhao'er opened his mouth, hesitated, and closed it again. After a long pause, he finally spoke, voice quivering with fear: “I am Junior Zhao'er Bao, a local cultivator of the Congyun Sea. This year, I turned sixty-eight years old...”
Li Fan’s face darkened, and he cut him off immediately. “Who asked for that? I want to know what’s the use of all these things you’ve gathered?
“And where is that place you mentioned? Why do you transport them personally by flying boat instead of using a storage ring?”
With each question, Zhao'er Bao flinched as if struck. When Li Fan finished, Zhao'er Bao grimaced and said, “Your powers are truly great, Senior. Nothing escapes your notice.”
He paused, as if gathering his thoughts. After a moment, he stammered, “The reason I have spent a lifetime collecting these ancient artifacts... is because of a secret I discovered back when I was still just a mortal.”
“A secret?” Li Fan watched Zhao'er Bao with keen interest, waiting for him to continue.
Zhao'er Bao nodded. “My family has been in the antique trade for generations. Growing up surrounded by it, I developed a deep fascination for ancient relics salvaged from the deep sea.
“Perhaps due to some innate talent, I could always easily distinguish genuine antiquities from forgeries. So, my family gradually entrusted me with all authentication work. I handled countless artifacts every day. And that’s how I began to uncover a secret buried within the dust of history—it appears that the Congyun Sea was once home to a lost civilization.”
Zhao'er Bao’s expression grew solemn, his eyes narrowing slightly as if recalling something in the distant past.
“The artifacts from this civilization have a highly distinct style, sharply different from those of any other period in the Congyun Sea. Every ancient piece stored in this base of mine belongs to that civilization.”
Li Fan nodded slowly. “What’s special about this civilization? These items look old, but they all appear to be mundane objects. They should hold little value for a Qi Refinement cultivator like yourself."
"The objects themselves indeed hold minimal worth. What's truly valuable is the residual power lingering on them," Zhao'er Bao replied.
"Senior, are you aware that the depths of the Congyun Sea are littered with architectural ruins?" he asked, shifting the conversation entirely.