After a long and dusty journey back to the mountain gate, Li Fan and Senior Sister Zhao returned to a sight that stopped them both cold.
The sect was draped in mourning white. Every disciple wore an expression of profound grief.
They pressed for answers immediately, and what they learned shook them to the core.
Fang Dingge, sect leader of the Great Dao Sect and a powerhouse of the Eternal Life realm, had fallen.
The news left them reeling, followed by a flood of confusion.
An Eternal Heavenly Venerable stood at the absolute pinnacle of power in this world. As the leader of one of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects, Fang Dingge's cultivation had been profound and unfathomable, and even among Eternal Heavenly Venerables, he had been regarded as one of the very top.
How could such a figure simply perish?
The more they learned, the more absurd the situation seemed.
Not only was the cause of Fang Dingge's death a complete mystery, but his body was nowhere to be found. It seemed less like a death and more like a disappearance. Yet the shattered fragments of his life-lamp, preserved within the sect, were ironclad proof that this Eternal Life powerhouse had truly passed. No amount of doubt or denial could change that.
The decision to announce the sect leader's death publicly had only been made after several rounds of fierce debate among the elders. In the end, they had little choice.
Fang Dingge was not the only one.
Taishang, Heavenly Sword, Deliverance, Beast Taming...
It was said that Eternal Heavenly Venerables from these sects and others had perished as well.
The news was terrifying. Though the Ten Great Immortal Sects moved swiftly to suppress the information, they could not stop it from spreading.
So many Eternal Heavenly Venerables, all gone at once.
Who could have done this?
Li Fan and Senior Sister Zhao's thoughts turned immediately to one figure: the Dao Teacher.
These fallen Eternal Heavenly Venerables were precisely the ones who, over twenty years ago, had agreed to unite and assassinate him. That they had now met sudden ends made the Myriad Immortals Alliance's Immortal Venerable Dao Teacher the obvious suspect.
And yet the logic did not hold.
The Dao Teacher had not yet advanced to the Eternal Life realm. If his combat power truly shook the ages, if he could slay Eternal Life powerhouses while still at the Dao Unity realm, he should have long since capitalized on such a monumental victory. He would have rallied every cultivator in the world and called openly for the overthrow of the Ten Immortal Dao Sects.
Instead, the Dao Teacher had appeared only during his initial preaching and at a handful of other rare moments. Beyond that, his presence remained utterly silent, his whereabouts unknown, wrapped in impenetrable mystery.
Perhaps he had been gravely wounded in the process of slaying those Eternal Heavenly Venerables, forced into hiding. Even so, he could have announced his victory to the Myriad Immortals Alliance to rally their morale. Yet from what Li Fan could tell, the Alliance itself had been shaken by the news. They too seemed to have been left in the dark.
From beginning to end, the whole affair was steeped in mystery.
It took Li Fan and Senior Sister Zhao a long time to recover after learning what had happened.
The Eternal Life realm they so desperately sought—could it truly be so fragile? Even after reaching it, one could perish just like that?
Then what set them apart from ordinary cultivators?
Was there any meaning in cultivating at all?
Disoriented, the two of them retreated into dual cultivation for several days before they finally found their footing again.
"This is definitely not as simple as it appears," Senior Sister Zhao said at last, her expression steady and her voice measured. "Rather than saying they perished, I think it more likely that they severed their shackles and broke through the world's boundaries, departing from it entirely."
"Shackles?" It was the first time Li Fan had heard the term used this way. "What do you mean?"
"It was something Master mentioned to me once, long ago," Senior Sister Zhao replied, her brow furrowing slightly as she gathered the memory. "I had asked him what true freedom meant, whether attaining eternal life counted as freedom. He went quiet for a long while. Then he sighed and said, 'The heavens have locked all living beings in chains; none can escape. Even those at the Eternal Life realm remain trapped within a prison. Back then, the Ten Immortal Dao Sects overthrew the Xuantian Sect, yet they did not overthrow it completely.' When I tried to ask more, he refused to say another word."
Li Fan felt a tremor move through him. "Even those at the Eternal Life realm are not free?"
Seeing his expression, Senior Sister Zhao offered reassurance. "Their disappearance might even be a good thing. At the very least, it proves that those at the Eternal Life realm can sever those shackles and achieve true transcendence."
Li Fan sat with this for a long time before finally nodding. "Senior Sister, when the time comes, let us both attain the Dao together, break through the boundaries, and depart side by side. We’ll live free and unfettered, leaving behind a beautiful legend in the Xuanhuang World."
A blush spread across Senior Sister Zhao's cheeks.
Moved by the moment, the two of them began their dual cultivation once more.
***
The disappearance of the Heavenly Venerables sent profound tremors through the Xuanhuang World.
Once the funeral arrangements were completed, the Great Dao Sect was swallowed by a fierce struggle over the position of sect leader.
The incident had been sudden, perhaps even Fang Dingge himself had not foreseen his abrupt disappearance, and he had designated no successor. His direct disciple had reached only the Spirit Transformation realm, far too weak to bear the weight of leading the sect. The two remaining Eternal Life realm elders both declined to inherit the position, and so the various elders below began to eye the seat with open hunger.
Conflict was inevitable.
Senior Sister Zhao's master, Zhang Wangshuang, had broken through to the Dao Unity realm in recent years and naturally harbored ambitions of his own.
A year later, the dust settled.
Zhang Wangshuang, lacking the influence needed to carry the contest, was defeated. The position of Great Dao Sect leader passed to Ji Changxi of the Tianchen Branch.
The internal strife had not descended into a fight to the death, but the damage to the sect's vitality was real and significant. Upon assuming leadership, Ji Changxi did not embark on sweeping reforms. His focus was on recovery. To address the gradual dwindling of disciples, he relaxed the requirements for outer disciples to advance and established a grand competition held every three years, with the quality of a disciple's cultivation serving as a key measure of their standing.
Under these circumstances, Senior Sister Zhao, who repeatedly emerged victorious in the competitions, became the brightest pearl among the Great Dao Sect's younger generation.
Li Fan, who lost more often than he won, faded quietly into the crowd.
A peerless pearl was fit only for the worthiest hands. Li Fan's middling performance, paired with his constant presence at Senior Sister Zhao's side, bred open resentment among certain disciples. Outstanding talents began to openly dismiss him as though he were invisible, lavishing their attentions on Senior Sister Zhao instead. Even Zhang Wangshuang, who had once treated Li Fan with a measure of courtesy, grew visibly cooler toward him.
Sensing the threat closing in, Li Fan acted.
On a brilliantly sunny noon, he proposed to Senior Sister Zhao.
There were no rare spiritual treasures, no peerless artifacts. Only a gaze of complete sincerity, and words spoken without flourish: "Senior Sister, become my Dao Companion. From this day forward, let us join hands and seek eternal life together."
Without the slightest hesitation, Senior Sister Zhao agreed.