NOVPUBLi Fan fell into deep contemplation for a moment before layering a seal of Seven-color Divine Light outside the Storage Ring.
With triple restrictions in place, the faint sense of crisis that always lingered in his mind finally began to slowly recede.
"..."
"It seems that perhaps it’s not just the Profound Yellow World that has experienced a Tribulation."
"After the path to immortality was severed, the Great Calamity became universal."
He casually placed the dangerous sealed object into his Cave Heaven to suppress it.
Li Fan then turned and asked Tianyang, "How do you feel now?"
Tianyang flew to Li Fan’s side, sensed for a moment, and nodded his head, "That ant-bite sensation has indeed weakened. But it seems it hasn’t completely disappeared."
Li Fan bent down and touched the grey soil on the ground with his hand again.
Intense, burning pain still transmitted, but within moments, his palm turned charred black.
Before the black spots spread, Li Fan skillfully amputated his palm.
It fell to the ground and turned into ashes.
Even though the chief culprit had already been suppressed by Li Fan, the strange state of the Yin Soul Realm remained unchanged.
"Could it be..."
"The world’s fundamental laws have been completely altered?"
After pondering for a moment, Li Fan was startled with fear.
"If the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma is directed solely at Cultivators, then this Grey Mold Spot appears to be specially designed to infect the world."
"The current state of the Yin Soul Realm is like the corpse of a world."
"What kind of person would be so insane as to specifically develop such a thing?"
A hint of interest flickered in Li Fan’s eyes.
"In the 115th era, from this point in time to when the Immortal Alliance expedition team arrived, there were just over twenty years. What exactly happened in this period, that resulted in the emergence of soul bodies that appeared like ghosts in this desolate land?"
"No, that’s wrong."
Li Fan suddenly froze.
The previous investigation team had concluded that the nourishment from countless soul bodies in the Yin Soul Realm was what led to the creation of the vast Rift Realm Whale Swarm in the Outer World.
But now, without any soul bodies appearing, where did all those Rift Realm Whales previously seen come from?
Figuring out this problem wasn’t difficult at all.
Li Fan and Tianyang spent another three months in the Yin Soul Realm.
They concealed their own auras and waited in secret all this time.
They did it to find out if the Rift Realm Whale Swarm had a habit of coming to the "hunt" in the Yin Soul Realm.
Persistence pays off.
One day, just as Li Fan was becoming somewhat impatient, with several distant cries echoing, approximately more than ten Rift Realm Whales broke through the sky and arrived above the Yin Soul Realm.
Compared to ordinary Rift Realm Whales, these were generally bulkier.
Seeming to sense the crisis here, the Rift Realm Whales did not act as recklessly as in the Outer Space, but cautiously followed some pattern as they swam through the air.
They moved in the direction of a certain place within the Yin Soul Realm.
Li Fan and Tianyang quietly followed behind.
At the edge of the Yin Soul Realm, a place that the two had previously explored and detected nothing unusual, the Rift Realm Whales stopped.
One whale, seemingly experienced, took the lead and aimed for a certain spot on the grey soil below, crashing headlong into it.
The leading Rift Realm Whale suddenly vanished, and the others followed suit in a similar fashion.
However, the area available for passage seemed not to be particularly broad, as a full three out of the ten, failing to grasp the precise location, collided directly with the grey soil.
There was no loud sound of impact.
Instead, black spots quickly consumed them, turning them into grey dust, which scattered upon the earth.
Li Fan approached the spot where the Rift Realm Whales disappeared, hesitating some.
"Senior Brother, I’ll go first."
Tianyang volunteered eagerly.
Li Fan nodded, and without any hesitation, Tianyang flew and teleported into it.
Li Fan, however, didn’t act rashly and patiently waited outside the entrance.
Before long, Tianyang returned.
Even his usually expressionless face revealed a rare look of shock.
As the images transmitted by Tianyang reached him, Li Fan finally understood what was hidden within.
It was a massive Yellow River, meandering and looping to form a circle.
Countless soul bodies were floating on the waters of the Yellow Stream, old and young alike.
They were still dressed in various garments, but all had their eyes tightly closed as if in deep slumber.
It was unclear how long they had been soaked in the Yellow River, but their soul bodies had undergone bizarre transformations.
The lower halves of their forms were no longer human-like, devoid of legs; instead, numerous root tendrils had differentiated.
Sinking deep into the Yellow Stream.
It seemed that in doing so, they could avoid being eroded and swept away by the flowing river.
For the few Rift Realm Whales that had sneaked into this place, it was as if they had come upon a feast in a pool of wine and a forest of meat.
They were exhilarated, gorging themselves with gusto.
With a long inhalation, they swallowed tens of thousands of soul bodies.
After devouring these soul bodies soaked by the Yellow Stream, the form of the Rift Realm Whales underwent significant changes.
They almost instantly swelled, as if something was gestating within their bellies.
In the Yellow River, it was unknown how many billions of soul bodies densely floated.
The seven Rift Realm Whales were all bloated from their feast, and the soul bodies they had consumed were but an insignificant fraction of the total.
After they left, satiated, Li Fan entered the Yellow Stream with the Seven-color Divine Light protecting him.
Even though he had previously seen countless ice-sealed corpses floating in the Reverse Life and Death Array,
Li Fan still felt somewhat creeped out facing the seemingly inhuman billions of soul bodies in the river.
Especially the "root tendrils" of the lower halves of these soul bodies, some of which were tangled and intertwined in layers.
Causing a mass of closed-eyed faces to be twisted and compressed together.
Like a sphere composed of countless contorted faces, ghastly and terrifying.
"Senior Brother, this place..."
Tianyang’s telepathic message was somewhat uneasy.
Li Fan drifted in the Yellow Stream, brushing past innumerable soul bodies. Under the protection of the Seven-color Divine Light, he felt nothing discomforting aside from a bit of nausea.
This Yellow River was much larger than the entire Yin Soul Realm.
Having searched it thoroughly, Li Fan faintly understood the cause of the strange phenomena here.
"The Heavenly Dao of the Yin Soul Realm has undergone mutation due to the erosion of the grey mold spot."
"Fire like ice, life as dead ashes."
"Yet here, there is a sudden burst of vitality. Simply because this place was originally the domain of ’death’ within the Yin Soul Realm."
Li Fan observed as the Yellow Stream flowed in a full circle.
Gradually, mysterious factors were washed together by the water, slowly forming vague human shapes.
As the torrent continued without end, the soul bodies became clearer and clearer.
Until they were fully formed into complete human figures.
"If it were the normal operation of the world’s laws, these newly formed soul bodies might enter the human world."
"But since the Yin Soul Realm itself is dead, the cycle of life and death no longer exists."
"Over the years, these newly born souls have been continuously produced and accumulated here."
Having once witnessed the full scope of the Reverse Life and Death Array and having gained some insight into the Principle of Life and Death, Li Fan discerned the cause of the strange phenomena that had formed here.
