Chapter 567: The Xuan Net Descends Once More
"I only feared that my constant drinking with you might hinder your cultivation, Fellow Daoist. That's why I intended to offer some advice earlier.
"But I could see you're a man who understands himself. So I held my tongue."
Sima Changkong rested a moment, recovering some energy before continuing.
Li Fan's eyes flickered slightly, but he said nothing. He simply arranged his features into an expression of chagrin. "Brother Sima, your sincere words from the heart shame me deeply!"
"Hah! If you keep up such posturing, Fellow Daoist, you're truly treating me as a stranger!" Sima Changkong feigned outrage.
Li Fan could only sigh and fall silent.
After this heart-to-heart exchange, the bond between the two men deepened considerably.
After another half-cup of tea's time had passed, Li Fan steered the conversation back to the Tianling Province war.
"What exactly did you see on that battlefield, Brother Sima?" He frowned. "You've surveyed the history of the Xuanhuang World in its entirety. For something to strike you as formidable, it must be a truly terrifying existence."
Sima Changkong sighed. "You flatter me, Fellow Daoist. But the latter part of what you said is not wrong.
"What the Myriad Immortals Alliance deployed was a weapon of mass destruction."
As he spoke, he stirred a drop of blood within his body, intending to conjure a blood-screen like before.
A recording did appear on the screen.
But immediately after, Sima Changkong's expression changed.
"How can this be?!" he exclaimed, his face a mask of bewilderment.
Li Fan stared at the scene on the blood-screen.
He saw Five Elders Council cultivators filling the sky and earth in a dense mass, activating arrays and surrounding a group of Myriad Immortals Alliance cultivators at the center.
Though encircled and numbering only about a hundred, the Alliance cultivators showed not a trace of fear. Each one was extraordinarily fierce. Bolstered by some unseen power, they charged headlong into enemies who outnumbered them a hundredfold.
Then, in this war where the outcome seemed a foregone conclusion, a drastic change suddenly occurred.
From amidst the Myriad Immortals Alliance cultivators, one figure suddenly raised something overhead.
Without the slightest warning, Five Elders Council cultivators began to plummet from the sky in great swathes. They crashed to the ground mangled and bloody, wailing, unable to move.
The Myriad Immortals Alliance cultivators appeared to have anticipated this. They moved swiftly and mercilessly, reaping the lives of their fallen enemies.
For a long moment, the spectacle of plummeting cultivators filled the sky, merging into one bizarre and grotesque tableau.
"How is this possible?" Sima Changkong stared at the blood-screen, disbelief plain on his face, his spirit dazed.
Noting his strange reaction, Li Fan asked, "Does the scene recorded differ from what you witnessed with your own eyes, Brother?"
"Exactly so!" Sima Changkong nodded at once.
"What I saw was this cultivator clearly holding a small square mirror aloft.
"And from the sky, countless green threads descended in response.
"It was precisely because of these inexplicable green threads that the Five Elders Council cultivators instantly lost all ability to resist.
"But why..."
Even after explaining it aloud, Sima Changkong seemed unable to accept what he'd seen.
For a man whose life's purpose was the faithful recording of historical events, encountering something that defied documentation was a profound blow.
Unrecordable. Green energy. Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly.
So it is the Xuan Net. I had suspected before that the Xuan Net had already descended upon the world. And indeed, once the war reached its most fevered pitch, the Myriad Immortals Alliance couldn't resist deploying it.
Yet the Xuan Net of this lifetime differs from the Tianxuan Soul-Locking Array I witnessed in my previous life. To think it could be summoned through a single portable square mirror. Is this a half-finished product, or...
Li Fan fell into deep contemplation.
"No. I must find a way to record it," Sima Changkong muttered to himself, still reeling, his manner bordering on obsessive.
"Brother Sima, you're overthinking it," Li Fan said, breaking the silence. "Even if it cannot be captured directly through images or words, one can use indirect description to document its existence."
Sima Changkong froze.
Then his face lit up. "I've been a fool!"
He smacked his own forehead, then forced out several more drops of blood, merging them into the blood-screen. Twisted lines of text took shape, fusing with the screen.
"The Myriad Immortals Alliance battled the Five Elders Council northeast of Tianling...
"Green threads of light descended suddenly from the heavens...
"Those struck lost all immortal power and fell to the earth..."
Just as the characters were stabilizing, on the verge of bonding with the blood-screen, a single green thread welled up from within the distorted, bloody script.
"Not good!"
Sima Changkong's face turned deathly pale.
Before his warning could fully leave his lips, the green thread transformed into a raging torrent of green light. It churned and twisted the scene recorded on the blood-screen beyond all recognition, then abruptly contracted, condensing into a single point of light.
A moment of utter silence.
Then the green point exploded.
"Retur—"
The instant the green thread appeared, before Sima Changkong's shout had fully formed, Li Fan had already pushed the Purple Firmament Divine Lightning Evasion technique to its absolute limit. Simultaneously, two skeletal wings manifested on his back, and he activated Peng Soars.
He fled into the distance at the fastest speed he had ever reached across all his simulation cycles.
But the Xuan Net's reaction was far more ferocious than he had anticipated, even more violent than what had erupted from the Martial Hall on Myriad Immortals Island before.
The green point detonated. A wave of light swept outward in the blink of an eye.
In the split second before the green radiance reached him, a wave of bitter reluctance washing over him, Li Fan began to speak the words "Return to Truth."
But he swallowed the final word before it left his mouth.
Return to Truth's charge hadn't decreased in the slightest. Its protective mechanism hadn't activated.
A false alarm after all?
Li Fan halted his frantic flight and came to a stop mid-air. He waited, but nothing happened. The surroundings were serene, with light clouds drifting on a gentle breeze.
After a moment, he turned back to investigate.
Inside the crystal palace, everything appeared as before. Only terrifyingly quiet.
Sima Changkong remained in his original spot, an expression of horror frozen on his face, his body utterly motionless.
"Brother Sima?"
Li Fan called out from a distance.
No response.
He paused, then cautiously approached. "Brother Sima?"
He could still faintly sense the aura of life emanating from the man, yet Sima Changkong remained utterly unresponsive. Moreover, that very vitality seemed unnaturally still.
A sense of foreboding crept over Li Fan, and he began to retreat slowly.
Splurch!
Sima Changkong's entire body exploded from within.
What sprayed outward in all directions was not crimson flesh and blood, but splatter after splatter of thick, viscous green fluid. It splashed across the floor of the crystal palace.
Li Fan barely managed to dodge the assault of the green liquid. He stared at the spot where Sima Changkong had stood, now devoid of even bones, and his face twitched.