Chapter 695: Seeking Death

Fan Mowen’s voice was very low, and he intentionally used his true qi, whether consciously or unconsciously, to completely seal off the sound of his words within the area between these two tea tables.

Other than Chen Yan, no one could hear what he had just said.

As for Fan Mowen’s words, Chen Yan did not offer any response.

“I once summoned Gu Jiancheng, the Supreme Pivot Elder of the Star Heaven Sect, hoping to learn your whereabouts, but in the end, I still found nothing. Elder Fan, you truly are a mysterious person.”

Chen Yan changed the subject and spoke to Fan Mowen without hurry.

“Chenping Continent stretches for tens of millions of li in every direction, and the world is so vast. Even you, True Person Chen, the Steward of Chenping Continent, cannot completely hold everything in the palm of your hand, can you?”

Fan Mowen smiled as he countered.

“But I will control everything that I can control to the greatest extent possible.”

Chen Yan answered.

“If that is the case, then why did True Person Chen go to such lengths? You drew the spiritual energy of heaven and earth together to form a spiritual vein, and you even forged an ancient-era ruin. Eleven years should have been more than enough for you to find the Sage’s Cause and Effect hidden in those two places.”

Fan Mowen continued.

“Now that I know where those two fragments of a Sage’s Cause and Effect are located, they are already in the palm of my hand.”

Chen Yan spoke indifferently.

“In that case, why do I need to seek them out immediately?”

“So, you took control of the Martial Immortal Mountain Range and the Extreme Abyss in order to find me?”

Fan Mowen asked.

“If not, then what?”

Chen Yan countered.

“Then I truly am flattered.”

Fan Mowen replied with a smile.

“After all, you know far too much. That makes it impossible not to take an interest in you, Elder Fan.”

Chen Yan said.

“I merely learned many truths about the world through a fortunate coincidence.”

Fan Mowen said.

“Then what was this fortunate coincidence?”

Chen Yan asked.

“I have secrets of my own as well. I cannot answer every question, so I ask True Person Chen for your understanding.”

Although his words appeared to be an apology, Fan Mowen’s tone and expression were both completely relaxed.

With cultivation at the Myriad Transformations Realm, he actually dared to speak with Chen Yan, an Immortal Ascension cultivator, in such a manner. Even so, Chen Yan felt no anger whatsoever.

That was because, despite possessing the Emptiness Annihilation Art and being a mid-stage Immortal Ascension cultivator, he was unexpectedly unable to see any of the threads of cause and effect behind Fan Mowen, a Myriad Transformations cultivator.

No, perhaps it was more accurate to say that what Fan Mowen carried was not threads of cause and effect.

It was something even vaguer and more chaotic.

Chen Yan had experienced countless storms and upheavals, and as a mid-stage Immortal Ascension cultivator, this was the first time he had encountered something like this.

It was simply too strange.

It was precisely because of Fan Mowen’s unusual nature and the information he possessed that this Offering Elder of the Star Heaven Sect, or whatever other existence he might be, possessed the qualifications to speak with the current Ascended Steward of Chenping Continent as an equal.

“Then, Elder Fan, what can you tell me?”

“What I can tell True Person Chen, Supreme Elder Qin must already have relayed to you on my behalf eleven years ago.”

Fan Mowen said:

“As for anything else, I have nothing to disclose.”

......

Du Cang Mountain, Northern Court.

It was a clear night, with no clouds stretching across ten thousand li. This was the normal state of Du Cang Mountain, which stood over eight thousand zhang tall.

Although tonight was the night of the full moon, the moonlight spilling into the courtyard was still extremely dim.

That was because the enormous pitch-black rifts above Du Cang Mountain had already spread until they covered nearly half the sky above the mountain.

In a courtyard in the Northern Court, the leaves on the trees swayed gently.

A middle-aged man with a pale complexion, dressed in the pure white daoist robes of the Kongshan Sect, sat beneath a tree in the courtyard and gazed up at the enormous pitch-black rifts in the sky.

Then, he slowly lowered his head and looked at his fingernails.

They had not grown.

Neither had his hair.

During these eleven years, his body seemed to have been frozen in the past, without undergoing any changes whatsoever.

In fact, it was not merely his body that had been frozen in the past. His cultivation was the same.

Throughout these eleven years, it had not improved in the slightest.

Li Haowen knew why this was.

Because he should have already been a dead man, one who had died in the cave beneath the lake on the day he encountered the Sage.

The only reason he was still “alive” was because of the three words the Sage had spoken that day:

Death Not Permitted.

The true authority of a Sage had forced Li Haowen to linger on in this world like a walking corpse, barely surviving.

Li Haowen slowly raised his hand from beneath the tree and pulled open the daoist robes over his chest, revealing the horrifying, pitch-black hole in his chest, which looked as though it had been blasted apart.

Moonlight shone through the hole in his chest, allowing Li Haowen to see the other organs within his rib cage.

They were not fresh and living. They were withered and decayed.

Death Not Permitted.

During the past eleven years, these three words had circled through Li Haowen’s mind like a nightmare.

He had endured this feeling of being worse than dead for a full eleven years.

His eyes drooped slightly. After thinking for a brief moment, Li Haowen extended his right hand and reached toward one of the two long swords resting beside him.

He drew the Yuanji Sword, and the instant it left its sheath, the temperature in the courtyard immediately became bitterly cold.

Immediately afterward, Li Haowen lowered his head, infused the Yuanji Sword in his hand with true qi, placed the blade against the back of his neck, and then swung it down violently.

Reflected on the ground nearby, Li Haowen’s shadow showed his head falling together with the leaves from the treetop, both crashing onto the ground.

Li Haowen looked at his own headless corpse sitting before the tree, then raised his head once more and gazed toward the pitch-black rifts in the sky.

It was said that once the pitch-black rifts in the sky expanded to a certain extent, Chenping Continent would be destroyed as a result.

If Chenping Continent were destroyed, would he finally truly die as well?

As Li Haowen thought this, a hint of anticipation unexpectedly arose in his heart.

Footsteps slowly approached. Then, Li Haowen’s vision was blocked by a figure.

The young woman stopped in front of Li Haowen’s head, which had rolled onto the ground, and simply lowered her head to stare silently at the head bearing the face of a middle-aged man.

“Trying to die again?”

He Qingling’s voice was extremely calm, as though she had long since grown accustomed to this.

“I have been dead for a long time.”

Li Haowen spoke indifferently. His headless body sitting beneath the tree immediately stood up, took several steps forward, and picked up his head. He pressed it against the severed surface of his neck, and in only two breaths, under the effect of his innate true energy, Li Haowen’s head regrew onto his neck.

“What have you come to find me for?”

Li Haowen asked.

“It is an oral command from Realman Lingxuan.”

He Qingling answered:

“Immediately, all Guardians of the Dao on Du Cang Mountain who have cultivation above the Spirit Connection Realm are to proceed to the Southern Court of Du Cang Mountain.”

“Why are we going to the Southern Court?”

Li Haowen continued asking.

“To congratulate Realman Yuexu on entering the Immortal Ascension Realm.”

He Qingling said.