Chapter 560: Seeking To Join The Immortal Alliance Once More
After watching Han Yi depart, Li Fan turned his gaze toward the southwest. His vision seemed to stretch across thousands of li, reaching a deep trench on the ocean floor—the very spot where Han Yi had fled from that minor world in a panic.
A minor world with no ordinary humans. Only beastkin. Li Fan frowned slightly.
Drawing on the memories he had taken from Han Yi, Li Fan believed the creatures of that minor world resembled beastkin he had encountered before—beings that were half-human, half-beast. Yet there were subtle differences.
Both were amalgamations of human and demonic beast, but ordinary beastkin retained more of the human aspect. The creatures Han Yi had encountered leaned further toward demonic beast. This distinction was visible in the simplest way: whether the head was human or bestial in shape.
More interesting still were the legends Han Yi had heard in that world. According to the oldest records, the vast majority of inhabitants in the wilderness had originally took on this half-beast, half-human form. Some had even been fully human.
Over time, variants began appearing among their descendants, individuals with a higher degree of bestialization. At first, these variants were treated as heretics, abandoned or hunted.
But some of them survived. And when they demonstrated formidable power, everything changed.
They slaughtered the original villages, withdrew deep into the wilderness, and established a new order. In that order, the greater the degree of bestialization, the higher one's standing.
Such opposing ideologies inevitably led to war. In the wilderness, strength ruled. These primal, atavistic variants were clearly stronger than ordinary beastkin as individuals, and though they were outnumbered at first, leading to a long back-and-forth struggle, their numbers grew with time. Eventually they achieved overwhelming, crushing dominance.
After a bloody purge, the opposition vanished. The wilderness became what Han Yi had witnessed: a place where the beast was supreme and the human was heresy.
Perhaps this is related to some escape route Sovereign Primus prepared for the demonic beast race. Though it seems their plan failed.
Once the bloodline of a demonic beast is awakened, it far surpasses that of an ordinary human in strength. That much is clear.
Li Fan then considered the deity of that world, the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird. The Xuan Bird clan was made up of numerous individuals, but when Li Fan had seen the deity's statue, an inexplicable feeling had risen in him:
This Heaven's Will Xuan Bird was Little Hei. The same Little Hei that Li Fan had once possessed in the Fallen Immortal Realm, the one who had followed Xu Ke all those years ago.
There was no concrete evidence. Perhaps it was nothing more than an ineffable resonance born from that prior possession.
Already fallen? How strange. Even a mere Azure Luan Bird is living on perfectly well. There's no reason a Xuan Bird fused with a minor world's heavenly providence would perish first.
Li Fan's brow remained furrowed in contemplation for a moment before relaxing. Among humans, power often equated to longevity. Among demonic beasts, that principle did not necessarily hold.
He was genuinely curious about that minor world, but now was not the time.
Just because Han Yi had been only at the final-stage Qi Refinement realm, unable to even use spiritual power, and had still managed to stir up trouble there, one shouldn't simplistically conclude the place held no danger.
Han Yi, capable of drawing on stray heavenly providence through the Heavenly Providence Scripture, was essentially half a heaven's chosen. He would naturally turn misfortune into fortune, calamity into opportunity.
If Li Fan barged in without any means to utilize heavenly providence, there was no telling what manner of bad luck might befall him. He might step through the entrance and run straight into a thousand-year-old great demonic beast from the depths of the wilderness.
The sudden premonition of crisis that had struck him when he tried to follow Han Yi into that deep undersea cavern that day had been no illusion.
Until he learned how to manipulate heavenly providence, he would not enter that place.
No matter. I'll learn soon enough what truly happened back then through the Fallen Immortal Realm.
Li Fan withdrew his gaze and made his way toward the nearest guarded island.
Before long, he arrived at Chongwu Island.
The island's guardian was named Huang Ranqi, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. As his nominal subordinate, Li Fan knew a little about the man.
Petty over trivial matters, utterly lost when faced with important ones. Prone to constant minor errors, and insatiably greedy.
A perfect candidate.
Li Fan concealed his true cultivation and approached with the aura of a final-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
"What should I call you, Fellow Daoist?" Huang Ranqi asked with a genial smile, offering a cup of tea.
Li Fan was in his original appearance, not his “ancient cultivator of the Heavenly Mechanisms Sect” guise, so Huang Ranqi naturally didn't recognize him.
Li Fan clasped his hands. "I am Li Fan."
Huang Ranqi had been leisurely sipping his tea. At the name, he nearly spat it out. He coughed violently for a moment, composing himself.
"You're also called Li Fan?" he blurted out at last.
Li Fan's expression shifted with curiosity. "What do you mean by 'also,' Fellow Daoist Huang? Do you know another cultivator by that name?" He let the realization cross his face slowly, as though he were only just catching on, and widened his eyes in feigned surprise.
"Heh. Fellow Daoist, have you been in secluded cultivation for many years, cut off from the world? You don't even know the name of the Secretary-Envoy?" Huang Ranqi narrowed his eyes and studied Li Fan carefully.
"You've guessed it exactly." Li Fan shook his head with a look of hard-won emotion. "I was a rogue cultivator from the Congyun Sea. A few years ago, I ventured out looking for a chance to break through my bottleneck. I mistakenly entered a dangerous minor world and ended up trapped. Only recently did I manage to escape by sheer luck."
As he spoke, he painted the minor world in vivid detail for Huang Ranqi.
"No spiritual qi, and demonic beasts everywhere?" Huang Ranqi was captivated by the strange scene Li Fan painted with his words.
"To survive and return from a place like that, Fellow Daoist, your fortune must be quite remarkable," he said, sighing with genuine admiration.
Li Fan nodded. "You speak truly. Nothing stimulates one like standing at the edge of death. Not long after my return, I broke through my bottleneck and reached the final-stage Foundation Establishment realm.
"As I said, I was only a rogue cultivator before. For the sake of so-called freedom, I had always refused to join the Myriad Immortals Alliance and toil like a beast of burden. But surviving that ordeal changed my thinking. As long as one can stay alive, how much is freedom worth?"
He met Huang Ranqi's eyes with open sincerity. "I'm hoping you might provide me with a referral, Fellow Daoist."
Huang Ranqi was quiet for a moment, his gaze moving over Li Fan from head to toe. He did not agree at once.
"I've heard tensions between the Five Elders Council and our Myriad Immortals Alliance have been running high lately," he said. "Frequent skirmishes. You wouldn't happen to be a spy sent by the Five Elders Council, would you, Fellow Daoist?"