This time, there was no grand spectacle. Sovereign Primus simply pointed gently between Xu Ke's eyebrows, then did nothing more.
Xu Ke touched his own forehead but felt nothing at all.
"When the time comes, you will understand its purpose," Sovereign Primus said.
"What's with all the riddles? How annoying," Xu Ke muttered under his breath. He shot a glance at Sovereign Primus but ultimately lacked the courage to make a scene, and so he swallowed his frustration.
"This matter is concluded. The Southern Abyss is no place for humans to linger. I shall escort you out."
Below, the Myriad Demonic Beasts Assembly had also reached its final resolution.
"We swear to uphold and support the decision of His Majesty Sovereign Primus!"
"Under the leadership of His Majesty Sovereign Primus, our demonic beast race shall surely welcome a brighter future!"
"This insignificant Xuanhuang World is not worth staying in!"
The roars of the demonic beasts rose like crashing waves, unanimous in their fervor.
As for how much of this was genuine, a hint might be glimpsed from the faint, mocking smile that appeared on the face of the child Sovereign Primus as he looked down upon them from above.
He led Xu Ke through winding, deserted passages until they stood before the great gate through which they had first entered.
"You may go now," Sovereign Primus said.
Xu Ke opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"Do not worry. You and I shall meet again one day." There was a pointed meaning in Sovereign Primus’s words.
His voice still hung in the air when his figure vanished without a trace.
Xu Ke couldn't help but feel a pang of loss.
Clutching the spherical object that seemed to hold a beating heart within it, Xu Ke summoned Little Qing and departed from that place alongside Li Fan.
Perhaps owing to Sovereign Primus's influence, they encountered no other demonic beasts on their journey back across the Southern Abyss ocean. The return trip passed without incident, and the Beast Taming Sect drew steadily closer.
As they traveled, Li Fan stood atop the sphere Sovereign Primus had given Xu Ke, staring at it with a look that made plain he wanted to devour the whole thing.
"Little Hei, what are you doing?"
Xu Ke clutched the sphere to his chest, eyes sharp with suspicion.
"I have to hand this over to Senior Brother Lu Ya when we get back. You can't just sneak a bite out of hunger!"
Li Fan shot Xu Ke a disdainful glance, swatted him with a claw, and said nothing.
The reason he had been fixated on the sphere was simple: it carried a faintly familiar aura. After careful consideration, he had concluded that it resembled the Realm-Splitting Whale pods that would one day roam the Immortal-Severing Grand Array in the future era.
Xu Ke and I found Realm-Splitting Whales before, but they were clearly very different from the ones I saw in the future. And not just in size. According to the Empire's records, the later Realm-Splitting Whales could reproduce by consuming void energy alone. That was precisely what allowed them to proliferate so abundantly across the vast emptiness and build populations large enough to carry out the plan of severing minor worlds from the main Xuanhuang World. The ones Xu Ke and I encountered earlier had no such trait.
But this little fellow...
Li Fan considered it. The Beast Taming Sect must have crossbred the Realm-Splitting Whale with that spherical creature to cultivate a new, compliant subspecies. So after all this effort, it still comes back to Mister Bai's task?
A flicker of doubt rose in him.
This Fallen Immortal Realm episode had dragged on far too long. Even now, he hadn't determined what obsession was sustaining this stretch of spacetime, nor how to break it. Even so, he had a premonition: once he returned to the Beast Taming Sect, the answer would reveal itself.
The journey from the Southern Abyss back to the sect was long, and he hadn't even covered half the distance before his allotted time in the Fallen Immortal Realm ran out.
His vision swam, and Li Fan returned to the real world.
Sovereign Primus...
He reviewed his experiences in the Fallen Immortal Realm, and a question naturally came to mind: Had the demonic beasts actually managed to carry out their migration plan? If they had, an undertaking of that scale couldn't have been hidden from the cultivators of that era. And if a successful escape had been achieved, the cultivators would surely have followed, trying every method at their disposal to shatter spacetime and break free from the Xuanhuang World's shackles.
The Great Dao Sect alone once housed three Eternal Life powerhouses in seclusion. And that was only one sect; the total number of Eternal Life realm cultivators across the entire Xuanhuang World was far from small. Yet now, none remain to be seen. Perhaps some had left back then.
Li Fan recalled Sovereign Primus's words.
Even among the demonic beast race, the question of leaving the Xuanhuang World entirely was deeply divisive, let alone among human cultivators.
Some wished to go. Others wished to stay.
Faced with an unprecedented, world-ending calamity, different people had simply made different choices.
He sat with that thought for a moment.
Back in the real world, the inauguration ceremony of Congyun Immortal City was nearly at hand. Zhou Kebao, true to his word, delivered the immortal city cave dwelling.
"Fellow Daoist, behold!"
He extended his right hand, and a miniature city materialized in his palm, radiating five-colored light, its appearance identical to the immortal cities found in every province of the Myriad Immortals Alliance.
"There isn't enough space here. Please follow me, Fellow Daoist Li."
Zhou Kebao smiled and pressed a white jade statue shaped like a delicate pagoda into Li Fan's hand.
"This is..." Li Fan studied the small object, finding it vaguely familiar.
"The key to the vanguard realm. Simply use it as a medium when activating the ritual array, and you will be transported to the designated vanguard realm," Zhou Kebao explained.
"I see." Li Fan had once rented the Bone Vanguard Realm to deceive the people of the Li World, so the concept was not new to him. After a moment's consideration, he gripped the pagoda statue and activated the ritual.
A brief dizziness swept over him, and when his sight cleared, he stood within a palace adrift among boundless white clouds.
Besides Zhou Kebao, a bunch of other cultivators had already been waiting there for some time.
"We have long heard of your esteemed name, Fellow Daoist Li. It is truly our honor to meet you today!"
"Haha, Fellow Daoist Li Fan, nothing like a good fight to start a friendship, am I right?"
They stepped forward warmly to greet him, and Li Fan returned each greeting with a smile.
"Very well. Let Fellow Daoist Li Fan inspect the goods," said one of them in a low steady voice once the pleasantries had run their course. He had a square-jawed face that looked stern even at rest.
Zhou Kebao nodded and immediately manipulated the immortal city cave dwelling in his hand, expanding it to its full size. In an instant, a vast floating city materialized above the cloud-wreathed palace.
"Fellow Daoist Li, after you!"
With that, Zhou Kebao took the lead and soared up into the suspended city.