Li Fan recalled the various tales of Lost Domains that Huangfu Songhad once recounted.
.....
"Some are purely vast, boundless spaces with nothing existing within. While others, like the Roaring Abyss, conceal numerous strange and deadly perils.
"Yet everything is hidden within the endless White Mist. Cultivators who stumble into them are like the blind trying to see; they fundamentally cannot perceive the full picture.”
.....
The supplies I brought can last about fifteen more days. Whether I manage to traverse this Lost Domain depends entirely on my fortune in this lifetime.
Steeling his resolve, Li Fan did not continue advancing toward the direction of the Eternal Immortal Fortress.
Instead, he marked that as "forward" and began flying downward in the relative “downward” direction.
Within the ordinary White Mist Barriers, land did exist. It was a flat, deathly silent expanse of earth, devoid of any trace of other life or structures. Even normal undulations were rare.
It was said that walking upon it suppressed one's instinctive yearning for life, inducing various impulses toward self-annihilation.
A Lost Domain, however, was an independent, entirely new space. Whether it had a "bottom" depended on the specific nature of the Lost Domain.
The Roaring Abyss was bottomless.
As for this Lost Domain, Li Fan would have to explore to find out.
As for why he headed "down" instead of attempting to fly "up" directly out of the Lost Domain's range—that was because Huangfu Song had previously mentioned to Li Fan that stumbling into a Lost Domain was equivalent to entering a boundless grotto-heaven world.
Trapped within a Lost Domain, escape was virtually impossible by relying on flight alone. Only by finding the junction point between the Lost Domain and normal space, the so-called "exit," could one leave.
Take the Roaring Abyss as an example.
The severed bluestone hand stood guard on the exterior of the Roaring Abyss. If a soldier of the Qingxuan Garrison accidentally entered the Abyss's domain, they could never return.
Even if they seemed to be right at its border, separated from the Eternal Immortal Fortress by a single step, that tiny distance, because it was not within the same space, meant one could fly until death and never cross it.
Since the founding of the Severed Hand Immortal City, no cultivator who had accidentally fallen into the Roaring Abyss had ever returned alive.
The exit of a Lost Domain connected two different spaces. Therefore, it generally differed from the scenery of the Lost Domain itself. Even obscured by the White Mist, one could detect it upon approach.
That was Li Fan's hope for escape.
Operating the Purple Firmament’s escape technique at full power, Li Fan continued descending.
Roughly another half-day passed.
Suddenly, Li Fan's expression changed mid-flight.
His divine sense detected something blocking his path not far ahead.
However, within the Lifespan-Devouring White Mist, the range of his divine sense was greatly reduced.
By the time he reacted, it was too late to dodge. He was about to collide head-on.
Two beams of pitch-black light shot from Li Fan's eyes, moving at a speed several times faster than the purple streak of his body. In an instant, they annihilated the shadow hidden in the white mist ahead.
All obstacles in the path of the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword were turned to nothingness. It also spared Li Fan the fate of being knocked senseless.
Only then did Li Fan manage to slow his speed, raise his guard, and cautiously approach.
When he saw what had blocked him, Li Fan couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.
It wasn't some strange creature, but a section of collapsed, slanting architecture.
The structure had a massive hole punched through its center by the Annihilation Sword, but its original form was still faintly discernible. It was a single, towering edifice hollowed from a solid block of stone, its carvings and doorways still clearly visible.
Li Fan didn’t rashly enter the fallen building. Instead, he continued flying downward. Soon, he landed on the ground.
Crunch.
It felt as though he had stepped on something. When his divine sense swept over it, his heart clenched instantly.
It was unmistakably a living person.
Eyes blazing with fury, face contorted into a horrifying, ferocious expression, the figure stared straight at Li Fan.
How can there be a living person in this Lost Domain? The thought flashed through his mind in an instant, and his body reacted on instinct. He shot backward, and the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword cleared its sheath once more.
Yet, just as he braced himself to face an enemy, something happened that left Li Fan utterly stunned.
The “living person” he had just made contact with didn’t move at all under Li Fan’s gaze. Their body simply transformed into gray particles in the blink of an eye, scattering across the ground. In the span of a single breath, a full-grown person had turned to dust.
Hmm? Not alive... long dead?
Li Fan frowned slightly. With his extensive experience in tomb raiding, this scene wasn’t unfamiliar to him. Ancient artifacts sealed for millennia could appear vividly lifelike one moment, only to lose their original appearance and decay utterly the moment they made contact with the outside world.
The situation here in this Lost Domain was even more extreme. They turned directly to smoke and dust, vanishing completely.
What in the world is this place...
Not letting his guard down, Li Fan carefully searched the surrounding area. Even though he was no stranger to bloodshed, the scene he witnessed made his scalp crawl.
Within a radius of several hundred zhangs, the ground was littered with the ruins of toppled, shattered buildings. And in every corner of these ruins, corpses lay strewn about haphazardly.
They still retained the clothing and expressions they had in life. Their faces were filled with despair and venomous hatred, as if they had witnessed something they greatly loathed and feared.
Time seemed frozen at the precise moment of their deaths. It was as if a calamity had suddenly descended, snuffing out the lives of everyone within the ruins simultaneously.
No wounds. No bloodstains.
Yet they had died just the same.
Just like the corpse Li Fan had accidentally stepped on earlier, the moment they made contact with him, an outsider, they would instantly turn to dust and dissipate completely.
What filled Li Fan with dread was that these people were clearly not mortals. The storage rings they wore, the various artifacts they had just drawn but hadn’t had time to use—all of it pointed to their identities as cultivators. Yet, before that unknown existence, they could only wait for death as helplessly as common folk.
Li Fan approached one of the corpses, attempting to remove the storage ring from its hand, hoping to find some clue about these mysteriously deceased cultivators.
Unfortunately, just like the corpses themselves, the slightest touch from Li Fan caused the rings to vanish into smoke. After trying several times with the same result, Li Fan had no choice but to give up.
Suppressing the chill in his heart, he continued exploring.
The scenery did not change.
The continuous stretch of ruins had already become a colossal graveyard, entombing countless corpses who had perished in some unfathomably distant past.
Eventually, even Li Fan grew numb to the sight.
He accelerated, streaking out of the ruins.
This place seems to have been some kind of gathering point. Some of the robes on these cultivators are identical, others different.
Different sects, gathered here for some reason.