Mournful, intermittent wails rang unceasingly in Li Fan’s ears.
From the moment he became aware of them, it was as though the sounds had locked onto him. One after another they rushed in, crowding around him and refusing to let him be.
For an instant, he felt as if he’d been thrown into a hell crawling with evil spirits, the ghastly noise closing in from every direction.
He couldn’t tell whether it was real or imagined.
Yet within those unfathomable whispers, Li Fan kept thinking he could make out two words: “Heavenly” and “Physician.”
And the more he fixated on it, the clearer and louder “Heavenly Physician” seemed to become.
Like an incoming tide, wave upon wave battered him, as if intent on swallowing him whole.
Then, inside the Dust-Crossing Boat, a flare of blazing crimson light flashed.
Above the cabin, a calm, elegant twelve-petaled red lotus manifested.
As the lotus petals unfurled one by one, the sounds in Li Fan’s ears vanished in an instant.
Only then did Huangfu Song’s delayed voice reach him: “...Mm, it should just be a stray burst of sound spilling out of the Roaring Abyss.
“This Dust-Crossing Boat is protected by the World-Cleansing Red Lotus Array. It will keep us safe.”
Back to himself, Li Fan nodded, though his mind kept replaying what he’d heard.
“Senior Huangfu, do the noises from the Roaring Abyss sound the same to everyone, or do they differ from person to person?” Li Fan asked.
The question mattered. He watched Huangfu Song closely, waiting for a reply.
Huangfu Song looked mildly taken aback, but after thinking it over, he said, “The demonic sounds of the Abyss can’t really be put into words. Their nature doesn’t change once they leave the Roaring Abyss. But every cultivator’s ability to endure them is different, so what they perceive naturally varies a great deal.
“It’s even said that the great being who guards the Roaring Abyss year-round can glean profound Dao arts from those demonic sounds.”
Li Fan felt a weight lift off his chest.
So the cries of “Heavenly Physician” he’d heard earlier were probably just a hallucination, stirred up by the deep psychological shadow that figure had left on him.
Dragging up the fears hidden in the heart... Li Fan thought. If just a burst of sound that reached the upper layers of the abyss was already this dreadful, he couldn’t imagine how terrifying it must be at the very bottom.
No wonder the Myriad Immortals Alliance treated it with such gravity.
This assignment won’t be simple. Li Fan mused to himself, glancing at the flickering red lotus sigil above.
While he was still thinking, the Dust-Crossing Boat jerked hard, as if it had pushed through some unseen boundary.
Li Fan looked out the window. The white mist was no longer as thick as before.
“We’re nearly at the Eternal Immortal Fortress. Get ready to disembark.”
Huangfu Song stood from his seat and headed out. Li Fan and Xue Mu followed at once.
At the foredeck, their view suddenly opened up.
Lifespan-Devouring White Mist pressed in on all sides, thick and unbroken. The Dust-Crossing Boat cut through it at full speed, yet the scenery remained unchanged no matter how far they went.
But when Li Fan looked back along their route, he could clearly see the mist thinning.
From the outer edge inward, the shades paled, forming several clear concentric bands.
And around the Dust-Crossing Boat, a shimmering, throbbing layer of black light separated them from the White Mist’s corrosive encroachment.
The Dust-Crossing Boat shot straight ahead. As the White Mist thinned enough to see through, a gigantic hand of bluestone suddenly appeared above Li Fan.
Its five fingers stood like pillars supporting the sky, with the creases in its palm sharply defined.
It seemed to eclipse the sky itself, swallowing Li Fan’s entire view. Next to it, the Dust-Crossing Boat looked laughably small.
The sense that it might slam down at any moment made Li Fan’s heart jolt.
Xue Mu went deathly pale and reflexively lifted his arms to protect himself.
Huangfu Song appeared quite pleased by Xue Mu’s response.
Only then did he speak, calm and unhurried. “Ah yes, I forgot to mention. That severed hand ahead is the Eternal Immortal Fortress that guards the Roaring Abyss.”
At those words, Xue Mu stiffly lowered his arms, yet he kept staring up at the enormous palm, too awestruck to speak.
Li Fan, on the other hand, narrowed his eyes and examined the hand’s surface.
The bluestone hand was so immense that the intersecting grooves across it looked like twisting, rolling mountain ranges. They formed an astonishingly intricate lattice that didn’t resemble anything crafted by human hands.
Interesting...
As Li Fan continued to study it, the flying boat drifted closer.
At last, it entered the structure through the ragged break at the wrist. The crushing pressure disappeared, and Xue Mu released a long breath.
“Senior Huangfu, why was the Eternal Immortal Fortress made to look like this? It’s terrifying,” Xue Mu asked, having regained some composure.
Before Huangfu Song could reply, Shangguan Shi, who was guiding another group ahead, interrupted.
“Boy, the Eternal Immortal Fortress wasn’t built to resemble a severed hand. The whole fortress is this severed hand, modified for use.
“How do you not know something so basic when you’ve already arrived?
“Brother Huangfu, it seems your instruction has been rather insufficient.”
His words carried a faint edge of sarcasm.
Huangfu Song didn’t bristle, only smiling as he answered, “Then I’ll have to trouble Brother Shangguan to explain it again to these two youngsters. I’d gladly take a break.”
“You...” Irritation flickered in Shangguan Shi’s eyes.
But then, as though recalling something, he swallowed his anger.
With a cold snort, he briefly explained the origins of the severed hand to Li Fan and Xue Mu.
Within the endless Lifespan-Devouring White Mist, Lost Domains lay scattered everywhere.
And aside from the Roaring Abyss they were in now, there were many other strange and uncanny places.
The Myriad Immortals Alliance had found this severed hand in the outer region of one such Lost Domain. It appeared to have drifted all the way there, passing through innumerable layers of the White Mist.
After investigating, the Alliance determined that the hand was, in fact, part of the corpse of a fallen supreme powerhouse.
The unknown figure’s cultivation method was extraordinarily peculiar. Even in death, his body did not rot—instead, it turned into something like bluestone.
It was unbelievably tough, completely immune to every kind of arcane art or physical assault, and it also naturally withstood the corrosive effects of the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist.
True to their practice of wasting nothing, the Myriad Immortals Alliance spent decades modifying it and ultimately transformed into a fortress that could move freely through the White Mist.
“There’s no need to be so surprised. It’s only the remains of an ancient Heavenly Venerable. No matter how mighty he once was, now he’s nothing more than a tool for us.”
Ji Hongdao’s voice rang out just as Xue Mu was about to be shaken again.
“Ancient Heavenly Venerable?”
“Eternal... Heavenly Venerable?”
Ji Hongdao’s offhand remark didn’t lessen Xue Mu’s shock; it made it worse. The words slipped out as an incredulous cry.
And he wasn’t the only one. The cultivators who had gradually assembled on the deck, all hearing this for the first time, were equally stunned.
“An Eternal Heavenly Venerable can die?” one of them asked, his voice thick with confusion.