Chapter 656: Obtaining The Xuan Bird Relic

No matter how one looked at it, the red cord on Xu Ke's hand seemed utterly ordinary, nothing more than a common trinket.

But given that Mister Bai could casually conjure up the true Creation Forge Technique, how could he have given the children something mundane?

Li Fan's gaze swept over Xu Ke. Then, he relaxed his grip on the murderous intent within him, ever so slightly. In that instant, a fatal sense of crisis erupted without warning.

He understood at once: if he truly lost his reason and tried to kill Xu Ke, he would be the one to die first.

Xu Ke, however, had no idea how precious the red cord was. He was simply overjoyed that it was a gift from Mister Bai.

"Let's go. It's time." Lu Ya's gaze was deep as he took one last look at Xu Ke.

Then, silently, he left the Myriad Beasts Ark and formed a hand seal.

A dim, obscure light enveloped the flying boat without a sound. The Myriad Beasts Ark tore through the void, sailing for an unknown destination.

The moment the flying boat left the Xuanhuang World, Li Fan, standing atop Xu Ke's head, felt everything around him plunge into absolute stillness. Then, like a photograph weathered by time, the colors slowly faded away.

In the end, it all dissolved into specks of light, shattering with a roar.

Li Fan knew this was because he had resolved the obsession of the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird and completed the Beast Taming Sect Upheaval scenario.

But unlike before, Li Fan did not return directly to the real world.

Instead, he returned to that warped, transparent bubble where he first entered the Fallen Immortal Realm.

Li Fan stared ahead. A new cluster of light and shadow emerged.

Within the rapidly shifting images, he could vaguely make out a massive stone sword standing upright in a spiraling, descending chasm. Thousands of cultivators swarmed beside it like ants, laboring tirelessly, harnessing the raging power of the earthfire to smelt countless materials into the blade.

Looks like a new storyline has been unlocked. This seems to be... the Heaven Sword Sect’s World-Breaching Divine Armament?

Li Fan's eyes narrowed.

Unfortunately, perhaps because he had just left the Fallen Immortal Realm, he could not yet enter this new scenario.

I’ll have to wait until next time.

Within the fleeting images, countless cultivators came and went, tracing trails of light. But the World-Breaching Divine Armament stood unwavering, growing more imposing with the passage of time.

It held a strange magnetism. Li Fan stared at it for a long while before finally pulling his gaze away.

He looked toward the first two clusters of light. Although both belonged to the "cleared" category, the feeling each one gave him was subtly different.

The Ningyuan Longevity Fruits Retrieval incident was like a perfect sphere radiating light in all directions, pure and flawless.

The Beast Taming Sect Upheaval, however, had only a small portion illuminated, leaving the vast majority still hidden in shadow.

Perhaps Little Hei’s obsession, like Senior Brother Zhang’s, is just a surface layer. The true master maintaining the Beast Taming Sect’s time-space might be someone else entirely.

The experiences from his visits to the Fallen Immortal Realm were cut, spliced, and woven into a complete narrative. Li Fan savored them carefully.

He searched for clues until the surrounding warped space grew unstable, yet he still found no threads.

The bubble shattered, and Li Fan returned to the real world. At the same time, a single black feather appeared in his hand.

Xuan Bird Relic...

Along with the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird's feather came a blur of fragmented memories, flashing through his mind.

This was a real event from Little Hei's past.

Just like Li Fan had done, Little Hei had been filled with confidence. Ignoring Xu Ke's pleas to flee, it insisted on attempting the Ring of Loyalty test.

But it was, after all, a demonic beast. It did not share Li Fan's fortune of possessing the Immortal Heart Sutra.

No miracle occurred. In the end, it failed the Ring of Loyalty's test, the one that demanded it never harm its own master.

What awaited Little Hei, like so many other demonic beasts, was nothing less than a mass execution.

Yet, because Xu Ke begged with all his might, Lu Ya's heart was moved to pity. He made an exception and spared the creature's life.

But to prevent any leaks, Lu Ya asked Sovereign Tapir Tertius to take action personally, exiling Little Hei to a desolate minor world where it was forbidden from leaving for a thousand years.

"Little Hei, we will definitely meet again." At their reluctant farewell, Xu Ke spoke with tear-filled eyes.

The Heaven's Will Xuan Bird was also overcome with sorrow, letting out piercing cries. Yet it knew well that without the binding of the Beast Taming True Art, it could never suppress the violence brewing within its heart. If it stubbornly remained by Xu Ke's side, it might end up harming him instead.

Forcing itself to remain calm, it reached out with a wing and gently touched Xu Ke's head in a gesture of comfort.

"Little Hei," Xu Ke said, his worry creeping back into his voice. "Next time we meet, it will be a very long time from now. We'll both have grown up. Will you still recognize me then?"

Little Hei was about to mock this seemingly foolish worry when it suddenly saw Xu Ke slap his own forehead and draw a single drop of essence blood from within.

Sealing it in a brown jade bottle, Xu Ke solemnly handed the vessel to Little Hei. "Here, take this. Don't you dare forget me."

Xu Ke's small face had gone pale, but even so, he forced a brave smile.

The Heaven's Will Xuan Bird let out a mournful cry, then swallowed the brown bottle whole.

After parting from Xu Ke, Little Hei was taken away by Sovereign Tapir Tertius, exiled to a desolate minor world.

The image shattered. The memory ended there.

Li Fan recalled the final scene that had flashed through his mind: the bleak, ruined landscape as seen through the Xuan Bird's own eyes. A strange sense of familiarity struck him.

It was the very minor world Han Yi had stumbled into before, the one filled with all those human and beast hybrids.

So that fallen Heaven's Will Xuan Bird really was Little Hei.

Li Fan pondered for a moment, then a sudden flash of insight sparked in his mind.

I wonder if that drop of Xu Ke's essence blood is still there.

The imperial bloodline of the Empire. A method for controlling exotic beasts...

A hazy plan began to take shape in Li Fan's mind.

People from the Empire, like Little Qing and Li Chenfeng, were cautious to a fault.

Ever since Li Fan had stepped forward and declared that the Xuanhuang World was about to face a great war and that trade would be suspended for a time, they had all turtled up and vanished without a trace.

Based on the final surveillance images from the Formless Killing Mechanism, it seemed they had temporarily retreated back to the Empire.

I've never tried using a cultivator's essence blood to forge an avatar. If that drop of Xu Ke's blood is still there... perhaps I could give Little Qing and the others a little "surprise."

Li Fan's eyes flickered. After a moment, he set the thought aside for now and began to carefully examine the Xuan Bird Relic.

Aside from this single feather, he had also gained fragments of memory concerning Little Hei's innate divine ability, Heaven's Will is With Me.

Although he did not possess the bloodline of the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird, by borrowing this feather he could still manifest its effects to a certain degree.

He drew the Xuan Bird Relic into his body, and the familiar sensation of cultivating while possessing the Xuan Bird surged through him at once.

As his perspective rose sharply, Li Fan observed his own providence.

It was a pillar of white smoke, so faint it was nearly invisible, as though it might be scattered by the wind at any moment.

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