Chapter 229: Eternal Remembrance (Combined Chapter) (2.5k words)

The Nascent Soul cultivators didn't hold back, and their actions were enough to cause massive destruction to a whole region.

As the Tianyang puppet emerged, it inevitably attracted Wanxian Island's Hongxi Immortal Lord.

The earth-shattering battle between the two Nascent Soul experts captured the attention of countless cultivators in the vicinity.

Xiao Heng and Ye Feipeng, who had finally escaped to a safe location, now watched this scene from afar, their faces turning pale.

Even at this distance, the shockwaves of the battle made it difficult for the two Foundation Establishment cultivators to stabilize their figures.

It was easy to imagine how terrifying the power of Nascent Soul cultivation was, displayed in every move.

Thinking about how he had foolishly tested himself against this puppet not long ago, Xiao Heng struggled to swallow his saliva.

"Fatty, for matters like this, don't drag me into them next time. I still want to live a few more years," Xiao Heng said languidly, looking at Ye Feipeng.

Ye Feipeng also appeared disheartened and deeply affected.

"I finally mustered the courage to charge in with my head held high, and yet, I found nothing at all. You, being a big shot in Nascent Soul stage, is it really necessary to be so disappointing?" The chubby guy sighed while looking at the towering Tianyang puppet in the distance.

"You really found nothing?" Xiao Heng was somewhat skeptical.

Ye Feipeng immediately became agitated, "When did you become so suspicious? You don't even believe what I say now."

"Moreover, why would I lie to you? I threw away everything in my storage ring. We're both broke; there's no other place to hide things."

Complaining, he continued, "Inside that cave, it was like a rock hanging in the air. Other than the remains of a child, there was nothing. I searched several times, and the result was the same every time."

"While you were yelling outside, combined with the fact that the Tianyang puppet was about to appear, in line with the principle of never leaving things empty-handed, I hastily grabbed the bones and escaped."

"Sigh, I went through all that trouble and only got a skeleton. So damn unlucky!"

Xiao Heng scanned the contents of the storage ring and also looked disgusted, "Couldn't find any treasures, and you brought out this skeleton. I wonder how many years it's been dead. And who knows if it has any connection with that Nascent Soul puppet."

Saying this, Xiao Heng returned the storage ring to Ye Feipeng.

Ye Feipeng suddenly had a whimsical idea, "Maybe we can use that skeleton to patch up the old skull."

"Since they are both skeletons, eating it might really accelerate the recovery of his injuries."

Xiao Heng's expression turned serious, "Don't make jokes about the senior!"

Seeing Xiao Heng taking it seriously, Ye Feipeng pursed his lips but didn't argue further.

After pondering for a moment, he suggested, "The commotion we caused this time is not small. Let's retreat to the deserted island for a while until the dust settles."

Xiao Heng nodded, "Yes, not long after we escaped from that cave, it seems the second exploration team from the Wanxian Alliance you mentioned went in."

"One Yuanying and more than ten Golden Core cultivators. Just like that, they're gone."

"If it weren't for the celestial phenomenon revealing everything, I doubt anyone would know how they died. Tsk tsk."

Ye Feipeng sighed, seemingly lost in thought, "Really? I was so busy escaping that I didn't pay attention to what was happening above."

"But, it seems that team really couldn't escape death. I tried to get ahead as much as possible, but we still ran into them."

The chubby guy seemed to have a realization, lowering his head into contemplation.

With the intervention of Zi Yun Immortal Lord, Tianyang and Hongxi were relocated, and the sea of clouds returned to calm.

The two quietly returned to the deserted island.

However, Ye Feipeng seemed absent-minded throughout the journey.

"By the way, Fatty, give me the remains you found," Xiao Heng suddenly said.

"Yeah." Ye Feipeng, absent-minded, subconsciously took the bones out from his storage ring and handed them to Xiao Heng.

After handing them over, he snapped back to reality and felt puzzled, "What do you want to do with this thing? I was planning to check its hardness later and see if it can be polished into a magical weapon."

Xiao Heng replied earnestly, "I thought about it and found your words made some sense."

"Hehe, my words have always been..."

"Wait, you're not really planning to feed this remains to that skull, are you?" Ye Feipeng realized and immediately looked at Xiao Heng as if he were an idiot.

"Maybe," Xiao Heng said nonchalantly, urging, "Fatty, hurry up, don't be sentimental."

Ye Feipeng felt a bit reluctant, showing a hesitant expression.

Seeing this, Xiao Heng became a bit unhappy, "Look at your lack of backbone. What useful magical weapon can you forge from bones? Forget it, consider it a debt I owe you. When there's a chance in the future, I'll specially give you a good one!"

Ye Feipeng, spurred on by this, couldn't keep a straight face.

"Just kidding. I just said it casually. It's just a useless skeleton. Do you think I, Ye Feipeng, would care about it? Joke! I'm giving it to you!"

Xiao Heng smilingly accepted the bones, performed a ritual, and went to the realm of Bone Forging.

Although Ye Feipeng felt a bit lost, being young, he didn't think too much about it. Turning his head, he immersed himself in the enlightenment he gained about "inevitable death."

In the realm of Bone Forging, Xiao Heng carefully placed the bones down and called out to the senior.

Unfortunately, there was no response.

Although Xiao Heng felt a bit regretful, he didn't retract the remains. Instead, he left them in the place where he had found the senior's skull, hoping it would be helpful.

Then he quietly left.

Not long after Xiao Heng left, Li Fan's clone revealed its figure.

Looking at the skeleton lying quietly on the ground, Li Fan couldn't help but feel a sense of irony.

"This kid, he doesn't really think this thing is useful, does he?"

Li Fan had been observing Ye Feipeng with the intent to kill throughout.

He could see everything clearly. From the perspective of the heavens and earth, it was indeed just an ordinary human skeleton.

"But, his sincerity is real. This kid has always been pure-hearted, unlike that fatty Ye Feipeng, who is much worse."

With the idea of not letting the child down, Li Fan still intended to put away this skeleton and deal with it later.

However, as soon as the clone touched the bones, Li Fan's expression changed slightly.

"This feeling is..."

With a serious expression, he carefully examined it.

But after scrutinizing it for a long time, he still couldn't find anything unusual.

"Weird..."

"Where does this strange feeling come from?"

Li Fan frowned, murmuring to himself.

Unwilling to give up, he repeatedly studied it for a long time but still gained nothing.

"A pure cultivator's skeleton, this is absolutely certain. It's not disguised as any rare treasure."

"But the unusual feeling in my heart wouldn't arise without reason."

"So, where is the problem?"

Putting down the skull, Li Fan gently placed his hand on it, closed his eyes, and carefully felt the sensations in his heart.

After a long time, he slowly discerned a bit of a taste.

"This feeling is somewhat similar to when I first saw the Spirit of Heaven and Earth."

"It's..."

"Hungry?"

"No, it's not that I'm hungry. It's..."

Li Fan figured out something, and a strange light flashed in his eyes.

"I'm really hungry."

In the Tianxuan Mirror, Li Fan's main body, who was in closed-door cultivation, suddenly stood up.

With a momentary ritual, in an instant, he arrived in the realm of Bone Forging.

When he touched the remains of this young cultivator, a clear notification sound from [Still True] resonated in his mind.

"Discovered absorbable item: [Eternal Remembrance]."

"Do you want to absorb it?"

A tremendous sense of joy surged into Li Fan's heart.

Since more than six hundred years ago, when he discovered that rare objects in the world could charge up [Still True], Li Fan finally found the second type of item useful for [Still True].

"Rare objects in the world can increase the charging progress of Still True's anchoring and unlock additional anchor points."

"I wonder what use this Eternal Remembrance has."

Taking a deep breath, Li Fan forcefully suppressed the immediate thought of absorption.

He put away the bones, returned to the Tianxuan Mirror, made some preparations, and then quietly left Wanxian Island.

In the previous life, the action of the Heavenly Physician forcefully breaking open the Tianxuan Mirror left Li Fan with a considerable psychological shadow.

However, it also made Li Fan understand that the Tianxuan Mirror was not absolutely safe.

If any anomalies occurred during [Still True] absorbing the Eternal Remembrance, it would be more dangerous in the Tianxuan Mirror, filled with cultivators.

It would be safer to randomly find a remote and uninhabited place outside to go into seclusion.

While normal cultivation was fine, involving [Still True], Li Fan decided to be more cautious.

Choosing a random teleportation array, he left Wanxian Island.

After leaving the island guarding the archipelago and flying for a long time, he arrived at a rarely visited sea area. Li Fan plunged into the sea, activating the Vanishing Seal while transforming [Still True] into the [Seven Aperture Exquisite Heart] and operating the secret technique [Appearance Changes According to the Heart].

After changing his appearance, Li Fan found a deep-sea trench and dived into it.

Rather than going to the deepest part, he opened a large hole in the cliff of the trench.

After penetrating the rock for several kilometers, he finally stopped.

Deep within the earth, he created a space suitable for living. Then, turning around, he sealed the passage he had drilled.

At the same time, he used the secret technique from the [Stealing the Sky and Changing the Sun Technique] to conceal the traces.

Returning to the cave, he set up protective formations around.

After all these arrangements, Li Fan took out the bones again.

"Discovered absorbable item: [Eternal Remembrance]."

"Do you want to absorb it?"

[Still True]'s prompt sound rang out again.

This time, Li Fan chose yes.

The surrounding space instantly became illusionary.

The bones on the ground gradually decomposed into a crystal-clear white light, absorbed by Li Fan.

The moment the remains completely disappeared, Li Fan's mind shook violently.

"Sun of Heaven's life is not weaker than humans!"

The stubborn voice of a childish child echoed continuously in his ears.

Then, Li Fan's vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he slowly woke up.

His eyes were initially a bit confused, but he quickly regained clarity.

Just now, he seemed to have had an extremely realistic dream.

No, rather than calling it a dream, it was more like truly possessing another person.

From his perspective, he lived through a long life.

During this process, he could only watch and listen, unable to control his body to make any movements.

Moreover, his own mental activity was suppressed to the minimum.

From start to finish, Li Fan didn't even realize that something was amiss.

And when Li Fan woke up, everything he experienced seemed to retreat like a tide.

He couldn't remember exactly what he went through.

There were only some vague images, rapidly fading away in forgetfulness.

Li Fan didn't insist on recalling what happened during the contact with the Eternal Remembrance.

Because the prompt from Still True appeared once again.

"Though mortals die, their memories endure."

"Eternal Remembrance (Sun of Heaven) absorption complete."

"Current usable times: 3."

At the same time, many pieces of information naturally emerged in Li Fan's mind.

Li Fan squinted, carefully contemplating.

"Consuming usage times allows simulating the construction of memory scenes within Eternal Remembrance."

"Everything in the scene is no different from reality."

"But to bring back items and information from the scene to reality, it requires dissolving the attachment that sustains Eternal Remembrance."

"This behavior, why does it resemble the Fallen Immortal Realm so much?"

Li Fan was slightly stunned.

"Fallen Immortal, Remembrance..."

After pondering for a moment, Li Fan faintly had some reasonable speculation.

"Dissolving attachment, perhaps next time I enter the Fallen Immortal Realm, I can try starting from this aspect."

Temporarily suppressing these thoughts, Li Fan continued to feel the information feedback from Still True.

"In the simulated scene, one will completely replace the owner of the remembrance."

"At the same time, it will also synchronously receive the relevant memories and abilities of the owner of the remembrance."

"Hmm... it's consistent with the Fallen Immortal Realm."

"After the times are used up, Eternal Remembrance will completely disappear."

"Perhaps it can be understood in this way: Still True uses the energy contained in Eternal Remembrance to simulate the construction of a small Fallen Immortal Realm."

"Each simulation construction requires energy consumption."

"When the energy is depleted, Eternal Remembrance will dissipate."

"However..."

Li Fan's mind stirred.

According to Still True's prompt, Eternal Remembrance cannot be used as a bound item.

But every time he starts anew and finds the carrier of Eternal Remembrance, absorbing it again allows him to repeat the process.

"Perhaps cultivators from other realms can use this Eternal Remembrance through other methods."

"But for them, the usage times are limited. If they can't bring back the opportunities within the limited times to reality..."

"Eternal Remembrance would be wasted."

"But for me, its usage times..."

"Infinite."

Thinking to this point, Li Fan no longer hesitated and activated Still True's Mimicry function.

A familiar sensation came.

As if someone had put a sack over his head, Li Fan's vision went black, and he instantly lost consciousness.

...

"Sun of Heaven! Sun of Heaven!"

A somewhat aged voice softly called in Li Fan's ears.

"Sun of Heaven, it's time to take your medicine..."

A bowl of strangely smelling medicinal soup was poured into his mouth.

A flame seemed to ignite in his stomach, and intense pain instantly brought Li Fan back to full consciousness.

Weak.

Extremely weak.

As if he could die at any moment kind of weakness.

This was Li Fan's first sensation upon waking up.

(End of this chapter)