"Finding them is purely a matter of luck. We'll have to fly into the cloud layers one by one and search ourselves."
Xu Ke sighed, rubbing the multicolored brocade pouch hanging at his waist. "Just finding them isn't enough either. You still have to figure out how to catch them.
"Don't let their huge size fool you. These guys are more slippery than loaches.
"The slightest disturbance and they'll tear through the sky and vanish. There were several times I nearly had one in my hands, and they still got away.
"Ah, who knows when I'll finish the task Senior Brother Lu Ya entrusted to me. This is the first time he's ever been so serious. I absolutely cannot mess it up..."
As Xu Ke rambled on, Li Fan listened in silence, sinking into thought.
From what Xu Ke had described, the Realm-Splitting Whales of this era were quite different from the ones Li Fan had encountered thousands of years later. Not only were they several times larger, but their temperament had changed as well. Gone was the timidity around strangers; in its place was a pronounced aggression. They seemed almost like a subspecies with different characteristics and a distinct nature.
With Xu Ke's providence, capturing a herd of Realm-Splitting Whales shouldn't pose much difficulty. After catching enough of them, then applying the Beast Taming Sect's methods for targeted breeding...
Li Fan grew pensive, connecting this to the conversation between Lu Ya and Sovereign Tapir Tertius he had overheard in his previous life.
Was capturing the Realm-Splitting Whales actually Mister Bai's request?
If so, then those pods swimming outside the minor worlds... was that his doing as well?
He gave Xu Ke's hair a sharp tug, his mind unsettled.
When he had first seen the pod of Realm-Splitting Whales attempting to peel the minor world away from the cultivation world, Li Fan had lamented how deeply the cultivators of that era must have resented mortals.
Back then, his singular focus had been seeking immortality. From that vantage, completely separating mortals from the cultivation world and severing their path to immortality had seemed, naturally enough, like a form of punishment.
But now, having truly lived in the cultivation world and witnessed how cultivators treated mortals, he saw it differently.
Cultivators regarded mortals as ants, to be exploited or discarded at will. They kept them like livestock, running arrays to extract their essential qi. And this was the present era, when mortal bodies carried the Immortal-Mortal Miasma—a condition that at least forced cultivators toward a measure of restraint.
In the ancient cultivation world, the plight of mortals had been even worse. They were used as materials for refinement. Cultivators battled one another with no regard for mortal lives whatsoever.
Breaking free from the control of immortals might not truly be a bad thing for mortals.
Could it be... as the orphans in Ningyuan City said, that Mister Bai is a great philanthropist who cares for the world?
This thought involuntarily surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
I can't make a judgment yet. I need to gather more information.
Li Fan gave Xu Ke another sharp scratch with his claw, urging him to get on with the search. Then he nestled back into Xu Ke's hair, cultivating and contemplating the Creation Forge Technique while simultaneously running a secret art to help replenish Xu Ke's providence.
After so many failures, even the usually carefree Xu Ke had grown anxious.
"...Realm-Splitting Whales, Realm-Splitting Whales, where are you?"
He kept muttering it over and over, his eyes hollow with longing.
Li Fan glanced up sharply.
The purple radiance of providence above Xu Ke's head had thinned with each repetition, drifting away to parts unknown.
The effect was immediate. Traces of a Realm-Splitting Whale, which had previously surfaced once every ten days on average, began appearing with increasing frequency.
Through relentless trial and error, Xu Ke gradually worked out a way to approach the creatures without startling them. But capturing an exotic beast alive was no simple matter, and Xu Ke was no seasoned hunter. After a tense standoff, the creature broke free and fled.
Drenched in sweat and nearly spent, Xu Ke slumped to the ground, his frustration plain. Yet he rallied himself before long and set out again after the next one.
With each attempt, the pillar of purple-gold providence diminished further. It was being consumed far faster than Li Fan's secret art could replenish it, and in time, it sat noticeably dimmer than before.
But the effort was not wasted.
Four months later, after immense hardship, Xu Ke finally captured a Realm-Splitting Whale. The Myriad Beasts Pouch floated quietly in the void, no longer convulsing. Xu Ke clutched it in both hands and let out a shout of triumph.
"The mission is finally complete! Now I can go back and report to Senior Brother Lu Ya!"
"Little Qing! Let's go home!" He called out to the Azure Luan Bird and scrambled eagerly onto her back.
Li Fan fixed his gaze on the Azure Luan Bird, studying her closely.
She paid him no attention at all, simply nuzzling Xu Ke affectionately with her neck before spreading her wings and carrying him skyward.
To think that millennia from now, she would become part of the Empire. The faintly familiar aura from Little Qing had confirmed what he'd suspected.
He was genuinely astonished. After more than three years apart, the Azure Luan Bird appeared far more majestic and powerful than when Li Fan had last seen her in the Fallen Immortal Realm. Her flight speed had increased severalfold, and throughout the journey, a soft azure light radiated from her body, wrapping around both Xu Ke and Li Fan to shield them from the wind. The ride was considerably more comfortable for it.
Xu Ke, who hadn't rested in some time, fell into a deep sleep on her back. Little Qing flew on, steady and unhurried.
Li Fan watched for a long while before slowly withdrawing his gaze.
As the Azure Luan Bird climbed higher, Li Fan stood atop Xu Ke's head and looked down. Only then did he see clearly what he had missed before: this dent in the minor world was not so much a narrow gorge as a scar, as though someone had cleaved it open with a single blade stroke.
Yet the scar had brought life with it. Beyond this long fissure, the rest of the world was scorched earth. Crimson flames devoured the land and lava coursed freely across it.
All of that destruction, however, stopped dead at the fissure's edge. Whatever power had carved the gorge still lingered there, holding the flames at bay. And so within this minor world that could fairly be called a living hell, there existed this one vibrant oasis.
The same thing, seen from different angles, yields entirely different answers.
Li Fan's thoughts returned to the question of mortals leaving the Xuanhuang World. A quiet clarity settled over him.
Their group passed back through an invisible passageway in the sky and returned to the Xuanhuang World. The faint, ghostly white light slowly faded.
When Li Fan's vision cleared and he saw what lay before him, he felt a jolt of surprise.
They had just, unmistakably, flown out from inside a painting.