Chapter 668: A Cord Kills Crimson Nine-Heads

With the disciples of the Medicine King Sect joining in to help manage things, Li Fan naturally had no need to worry further.

After spending a month absorbing the scattered heavenly providence of the Beastkin World, he finally saw a qualitative change.

Within the Xuan Bird Feather, one could dimly make out the phantom outline of a hatchling, its feathers not yet grown.

It bore some resemblance to Little Hei in its youth, yet there were also differences.

Li Fan closed his eyes. The next moment, the entire Beastkin World unfolded in his mind like a cluster of luminous mist.

Every scene within, every detail great or small, could be discerned instantly.

But Li Fan noticed something else. The images around the two Dao Unity realm cultivators, Fang Zaiji and Liu San, warped within a certain radius of their position, making their forms blurred and indistinct. This was true even though both men knew they were being observed and had chosen not to conceal themselves.

In the Xuanhuang World, a Dao Unity cultivator’s power can just about influence a province-sized region. But within this minor world, a cultivator at the Dao Unity realm can already contend with the world itself. This is an inherent gap in hierarchy. Li Fan felt he understood it now, if only faintly.

With a single thought, he stepped forward, crossed ten thousand li in an instant, and appeared beside a clear pool atop a mountain peak.

Before, when he had swept through the Beastkin World with Fang Zaiji, they had passed by this very mountain, yet he had somehow failed to notice the pool at its summit.

Only now, having fully grasped the world's heavenly providence, did he detect the anomaly here.

Beside the pool stood a wooden hut. Li Fan pushed open the door and walked inside.

Within the room, a Xuan Bird stood with its head held high, its feathers entirely bereft of luster.

It still looked majestic and spirited, but every trace of life had already left it.

Little Hei... Li Fan recognized the Xuan Bird's identity at a glance.

This is... death from reaching end of one's lifespan?

Its lifespan was far longer than that of any cultivator, stretching back to the ancient era. But now, at long last, this Heaven's Will Xuan Bird had reached the end of its life.

But soon, Li Fan sensed something amiss.

Logically, Little Qing was an exotic beast from the same era as Little Hei, and the Azure Luan Bird's strength was far inferior to the Heaven's Will Xuan Bird's.

Not to mention that Little Hei had integrated with this world's will.

There was no reason Little Qing should still be alive and well while Little Hei had already fallen.

Could it be that, for some reason, Little Hei massively depleted its own lifespan?

Li Fan narrowed his eyes.

He activated the divine ability Heaven's Will is With Me. As the Heaven's Will Domain settled over him to guard his body, he gently touched the Xuan Bird's corpse.

Whoosh!

Like a breeze passing by, Little Hei's corpse instantly dissolved into countless tiny particles and scattered into nothingness.

At the same time, countless blurry images flashed through Li Fan's mind.

At first, they were largely the same as the events Li Fan had already witnessed in the Fallen Immortal Realm.

Growing up joyfully with Xu Ke in the Beast Taming Sect. Encountering Mister Bai, who stormed the mountain gate. Being dispatched to the Sacred Beast Mountain in the Southern Abyss...

And in the end, failing the Ring of Loyalty trial and being banished here by Sovereign Tapir Tertius.

The difference was that, in the actual history, Little Hei had failed to seize the opportunity to meet Mister Bai.

Without the True Creation Forge Technique, it had been forced to rely solely on the divine abilities recorded in its own bloodline memories to cultivate upon arriving in this minor world.

After a long time, it finally acquired the Heaven's Will is With Me divine ability, but in the process it had become inextricably bound to the fate of this world.

Leaving the world was still possible, but at an extremely steep cost.

As long as it didn't leave its home world too often, and returned each time to replenish itself with heavenly providence, the backlash was unlikely to prove fatal.

But Little Hei had done exactly the opposite.

As for why...

Li Fan sorted through Little Hei's memories from the time of its arrival in the Beastkin World.

At first, to keep Little Hei from growing lonely, Xu Ke had often sent messages recounting his own experiences.

"Little Hei, you have no idea how thrilling and dangerous the journey was! Not only did we encounter all sorts of bizarre minor worlds, we were hunted by demonic beasts too!

"At first we thought someone had leaked our location. Turned out we were just unlucky. We’d run headlong into a pack of demonic beasts that had shown up in the same minor world out of nowhere. We struck first, but one of the beasts got away, and it compromised our retreat route.

"Still, we're almost at the destination!"

...

"Little Hei, Little Hei! Do you remember Mister Bai? I thought he was already powerful, but he's even stronger than I imagined! A group of us fellow disciples were sent to explore a minor world, and we never expected to run into a monster of terrifying proportions!

"It had nine heads! And a body so huge it looked like it was lying across the sky itself! Every time one of those mouths opened, it seemed to tear off and swallow a piece of the world!

"I thought I was done for. I thought I'd never see you again, Little Hei!

"But before I left the Xuanhuang World, Senior Brother Lu Ya gave me a red cord woven by Mister Bai. The moment that nine-headed bird turned its gaze on me, a thin thread shot out from that cord!

"Before I could even react, that red thread flew through the air like a sword and severed six of the bird's heads in an instant!

"And the cord didn't dissipate afterward. It just dragged the monster straight down from the sky!

"I was stunned. Mister Bai is truly too strong!"

...

"Little Hei, I've been given an extremely important mission. I might not be able to reach you for a very long time.

"I'm sorry about that. But don't worry, I'll come back once it's done."

...

"Little Hei, tell me. Why is it that cultivators were once human, and yet the moment they set foot on the path of immortality, they turn so cruel toward their own kind?"

...

Scenes flashed rapidly before Li Fan's eyes.

And so Li Fan understood: Xu Ke had once come to the Beastkin World to meet Little Hei.

By then, Xu Ke had grown into a graceful young man, valiant and extraordinary.

During that reunion of master and companion beast, the two had talked for a long time beside this very pool atop the mountain.

After that, Xu Ke always came in haste and left in haste.

Little Hei had wanted to follow him, but the restrictions Sovereign Tapir Tertius had set were still in place. Besides, Xu Ke had said the world outside was in the midst of great upheaval, and it would be dangerous for Little Hei to leave.

Xu Ke told Little Hei to stay put and promised that when the time was right, he would come back for it.

After that parting, the two still communicated a few more times.

But each interval grew longer. From the tone of each message and the imagery, Li Fan could trace Xu Ke's growth.

Until one day, Little Hei suddenly lost all perception of him.

The bond of master and servant had long since broken, but as Little Hei was his companion beast, there still existed a mysterious connection between them, thread of awareness that persisted across countless li. Even worlds apart, Little Hei could always faintly sense Xu Ke's presence.

Now that even that had vanished, only one possibility remained.

Xu Ke was dead.

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