The moment Li Fan saw that crimson figure, a flood of information surged into his mind.
Soul Arbiters of heaven and earth were the physical manifestations of the world's fundamental laws.
When specific conditions were met, a Soul Arbiter would emerge, appearing somewhere in the world.
Once heaven activated its killing mechanisms, devising a plan to eradicate cultivators, the Soul Arbiters would execute its plan.
They possessed no will of their own, acting only on fixed instincts. They were the laws themselves, slaughtering cultivators like cattle. Their purpose was to exterminate those cultivators who defied the natural order.
To cultivators, Soul Arbiters were harbringers of extreme danger. To be marked by one almost certainly meant death.
And yet, as incarnations of the Great Dao’s laws, Soul Arbiters also represented unparalleled opportunity.
As the saying goes: Sacrifice the soul of heaven and earth to unify one's body with the Dao.
If a cultivator could successfully kill and refine a Soul Arbiter, they would immediately ascend to the Dao Unity realm regardless of their previous cultivation level.
They were both the natural enemy of cultivators and an irresistible temptation.
Having laid eyes on the Soul Arbiter, Crimson Flame, Li Fan felt uncontrollable greed erupt from the depths of his heart.
Devour It! Devour It and attain the Great Dao! Devour It and ascend to immortality in full glory!
It was like a starving man stumbling upon a feast, or a traveler dying of thirst in the desert finding a clear spring.
This covetous desire whispered in his ear like a demon, urging and tempting him to charge toward that crimson figure in the sky.
Li Fan desperately operated the Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Sutra, fighting to calm the scorching sensation transmitted from the Deepsea Pearl and quell the raging avarice in his heart.
He knew perfectly well that he could only observe Crimson Flame through the borrowed perception of the Deepsea Pearl.
To Crimson Flame, Li Fan was merely an unformed consciousness of the deep sea. Even after sensing his gaze, it had only glanced his way once before losing interest.
But if Li Fan lost control, attacked Crimson Flame, and revealed his identity as a cultivator, he would be mercilessly obliterated.
Reason and desire tore at Li Fan’s soul. Two diametrically opposed impulses threatened to rip his consciousness in two.
He could only grimly maintain the operation of the Xuanhuang Heart Refinement Sutra, trying his best to hold onto his Dao Heart.
He didn’t know how much time passed before the storm of greed finally began to subside.
Shaken by the experience, Li Fan didn’t dare observe any further.
Surviving this glimpse of heaven’s mechanisms with his mind intact was already a great fortune.
As his consciousness prepared to withdraw from the Deepsea Pearl and return to his body, Li Fan made an embarrassing discovery: it had taken him nearly half a year to resist the greed induced by the Soul Arbiter!
His consciousness had been merged with the Deepsea Pearl for far too long, exceeding the limits of what a Qi Refinement cultivator could endure.
For now, while his consciousness remained connected to the Pearl, he was safe. But if he returned to his body, he would likely age and die before long.
The consequences of a single distant glance were already this severe.
It seemed his cultivation journey in this life was about to end here.
Though he felt some regret, there was no true bitterness in Li Fan’s heart.
He had learned the truth behind the great upheaval in the Congyun Sea and witnessed the Soul Arbiter, Crimson Flame, with his own eyes. He had also personally contemplated the mechanisms of heaven and earth.
Li Fan’s gains were undeniably immense. Even if this life were to end now, he could accept it.
However, he had no intention of activating Return to Truth and concluding this lifetime just yet.
Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Now that his consciousness was trapped within the Deepsea Pearl, he decided to seize this opportunity to contemplate the energy mechanisms of heaven and earth once more.
As long as he didn’t foolishly attempt to spy on the Soul Arbiter of heaven and earth again, it should pose no danger.
The lifespan of his physical body was exhausted. Without a body to nourish it, his consciousness was like water without a source or a tree without roots, slowly withering within the Deepsea Pearl.
By Li Fan’s estimate, it could last a dozen more years or so. If he made good use of this time, he could still manage to gain something significant.
Li Fan drew a trace of pure energy from the Deepsea Pearl to protect his body, preventing it from decaying.
Then, his consciousness immersed itself in the perspective of the Deepsea Pearl once again.
He observed the flow of heaven and earth’s energy mechanisms, the rise and fall of the sun, moon, and stars.
He watched as the remaining life in the Congyun Sea gradually perished, one after another.
He felt the cold, indifferent, and unchanging killing mechanisms that permeated the world.
Just like that, five years passed in the blink of an eye.
By Anchor Year 40, the Congyun Sea had long since completely dried up, becoming a true barren wasteland.
Only Tai’an Island, under Li Fan’s protection, still sheltered a small number of surviving mortals.
One day, Li Fan suddenly felt a stirring in his heart and looked up at the sky.
That crimson figure that had stood there for over a decade had finally vanished.
Having completed its task, it had naturally dissipated.
No one could say for certain where it might reappear in the cultivation world one day.
Li Fan gazed in the direction where Crimson Flame had disappeared, then immersed his mind once more into the Deepsea Pearl.
As time passed, Li Fan’s consciousness grew increasingly faint. His thoughts became slower and more sluggish.
He lost the ability to think for himself, silently observing the world through the lens of the Deepsea Pearl alone.
In the second year after Crimson Flame’s disappearance, several cultivators dressed in blue robes arrived at the Congyun Sea.
As they cast spell after spell, rain finally fell from the sky. It was a long-awaited downpour.
Soon, more cultivators arrived.
Azure light bloomed across the dried-up seabed.
Vegetation began to emerge from the earth, brimming with vitality.
A gentle breeze swept through, and trees sprouted from the ground.
In less than a year, the scorched land regained its vibrancy.
The recent catastrophe of Crimson Flame evaporating the sea seemed like nothing more than a nightmare, gently brushed away.
The Congyun Sea had completed its transformation into the Congyun Mountain Range.
A city began to take shape in the air above the mountains.
Once constructed, it attracted more and more cultivators from all corners of the world.
The Congyun Mountain Range grew increasingly lively.
Occasionally, cultivators would visit Tai’an Island, drawn by its fame as the only island to survive the drought, and hoping to find some opportunity there.
But with Li Fan instinctively concealing himself, they discovered nothing.
In Anchor Year 48, a Foundation Establishment cultivator returned to the Congyun Sea.
He arrived at what was once Liuli Island, now Liuli Mountain. His expression was sorrowful.
Nearby, Li Fan’s divine sense swept over the scene. A wave of melancholy washed over him as well.
Li Fan recognized this man.
It was Zhang Haobo, who had once decided to migrate from the Congyun Sea due to a sense of foreboding.
Some twenty years had passed, and through unknown fortunes, this man had actually become a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
The scenes of this lifetime flashed through Li Fan's mind in rapid succession. His consciousness was on the verge of dissipating.
Just before vanishing completely, Li Fan's consciousness returned to his physical body.
Over a decade of insights into the energy mechanisms of heaven and earth finally shattered the bottleneck that had hindered Li Fan's breakthrough.
Spiritual qi surged inward, and Li Fan's cultivation instantly broke through to the late-stage Qi Refinement realm.
A faint smile appeared on Li Fan's face, then froze.
His body aged rapidly, and as a gust of wind blew past, it crumbled into dust, scattering into the world.
Only a skeleton remained, lying silently where he had been.
Just before dissipating, Li Fan cried out in his mind:
Return to Truth!