NOVPUB"The first cultivator to be afflicted by the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma, was indeed the creator of the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma."
...
Li Fan’s voice echoed faintly.
Yin Shangren didn’t argue, just clenched his own hair tightly as if he found the fact extremely painful.
"How could it be, how could it be..." He murmured repeatedly, his expression bewildered and sorrowful.
Li Fan, after a long silence, continued slowly, "The Immortal-Ordinary Miasma was formed contrary to the Principle of Heaven and Earth."
"Only the Immortal Sovereign can create the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma... This means that what we have before us are the remains of a cultivator who practiced the Tianzun New Method."
"The moment the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma was born within him, following the rules set by the Tianzun New Method, he attained the Realm of Longevity. But at the same time..."
"The power of the rule known as the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma began to wreak havoc and destruction within him."
"Although mortal, one could slay immortals. The power of the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma is known to everyone in the Xuanhuang World. But I believe that if the Immortal Sovereign wanted to save his own life, he completely could have. Yet, he chose not to."
"Because once he did, it would mean that he was destroying the very rules he had established. Though it wouldn’t necessarily lead to a failure of the defiance of logic..."
Li Fan paused, as if pondering and deducing.
After a moment, he said with conviction, "It could very well leave a loophole: the Immortal Sovereign could ignore the power of the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma."
"To avoid such an occurrence, he allowed the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma to devour himself. It was tantamount to burying himself by his own hands..."
"What was gained, was merely this result: Xuanhuang cultivators, regardless of their cultivation base—from Refining Energy to Immortal Sovereign—none can evade the effects of the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma."
Li Fan’s expression was solemn, "But..."
"What is the point of it all?"
"After just a few thousand years, the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma exists in name only. As long as one is cautious, can’t cultivators still slaughter mortals at will?"
"And what was the purpose of this Immortal Sovereign, who at the cost of his own life, went so far as to create the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma?"
A rich fog of doubt surfaced on Li Fan’s face.
This was not pretense, but genuine curiosity.
Yin Shangren remained silent.
He waved his hand lightly, and the transparent barrier before him disappeared. He picked up the white rib from the ground with care, as if it were a rare treasure, stroking it gently.
"The first time I saw this rib, it was as if the visage of its owner in life appeared before me."
"Such a perfect countenance! All the splendid words in the world combined could not describe a fraction of it."
"However, it was this very perfection that perished due to the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma. At that time, I silently vowed to find the culprit behind the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma that caused the fall of this perfect being, and then..."
Yin Shangren let out a bitter laugh, "I never imagined that after searching for so many years, the so-called murderer was before me all along."
"And yet I never knew, I never knew!"
His spirit greatly shaken, Yin Shangren violently coughed up a large amount of blood.
After wiping away the blood, Yin Shangren gripped the rib tight, the veins in his hand bulging.
Watching this scene, an image of the first time he saw Yin Shangren emerged in Li Fan’s spirit consciousness.
Exactly as now, with unkempt clothing.
Muttering under his breath non-stop, "I must find you, I must find you..."
And now, he finally found the so-called murderer.
But this result was not something he could easily accept.
After a long search, the supposed murderer was the victim himself.
What an irony.
"No wonder every time, shortly after finding the truth, he would self-immolate and die," thought Li Fan silently.
Li Fan suddenly remembered that once, Su Changyu had come to Yin Ying Island by a twist of fate and received the [Art of Self-Founded Cultivation].
The reason Yin Shangren had done this was because of Su Changyu’s attempt to save the mortal inhabitants of the island.
At the time, Yin Shangren had asked, "Why? Why would you, a cultivator, go to the trouble of saving these mortals?"
Now, it seemed that his question wasn’t solely out of curiosity about Su Changyu’s actions.
It was more an expression of his confusion about the actions of the Immortal Sovereign who had created the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma.
Not just Yin Shangren, Li Fan also struggled to understand this behavior.
Stepping back ten thousand paces, if there truly were such a noble person in the world, willing to sacrifice his own life to protect mortals...
Then at the very least the sacrifice would need to be effective and meaningful, right?
Looking at the current state of the Xuanhuang World, the plight of the mortals has slightly improved, but they are still at the mercy of cultivators, unable to protect themselves.
Like Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi back then.
A Foundation Establishment Stage Cultivator could easily lay waste to a city of mortals.
Compared to before the birth of the Immortal-Ordinary Miasma, it seemed as if nothing had changed.
If that was all he wanted...
Then it wouldn’t be called noble, but foolish.
Li Fan believed that a cultivator capable of going against the Principle of Heaven and Earth could not possibly be such a person.
So what was his real purpose?
As Li Fan pondered this, Yin Shangren staggered to his feet, placed the white rib over his heart and tucked it away carefully.
After some thought, Li Fan still decided to voice the doubts in his mind.
Yin Shangren laughed wretchedly, "Has the Daoist brother not understood yet? He did it not just for the mortals of the world but also for all cultivators."
