169: The Mystery of Heaven: Strange Forbidden Zones and Mysterious Changes

After forming a Dao Companion alliance with Li Hanyue, Lin Fan did not stay long in Hanyue City.

The sense of urgency in his heart was driven to its peak by the restless immortal realm fragment in his Sea of Consciousness.

He stood on the city wall, the cold wind of the northern lands blowing through his black long hair.

Li Hanyue stood quietly by his side, half a step closer than before.

This half-step distance was the silent understanding of their Divine Souls being connected after the Dao Companion alliance.

Lin Fan took out a communication jade talisman and immersed his Divine Thought into it.

A moment later, Zhao Linger, far away in Qingyun Sect, spoke in Lin Fan's mind, her voice tinged with worry.

"Lin Fan, are you alright over there?"

"I'm fine, everything's resolved."

Lin Fan's answer was simple and direct.

"I need to go to a place, the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Zone."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the jade talisman.

Zhao Linger's voice came again, without any hesitation, only her usual gentle and firm resolve.

"I'll go with you."

Lin Fan's heart warmed; he could even imagine the seriousness in Zhao Linger's gentle eyes when she said those words.

He then contacted Su Meier.

The Heavenly Fox Maiden's reaction was even more direct.

"Hmph, it's about time we went, this maiden is practically molding."

"How can you go brave a Dragon's Den without me?"

"Wait for me, I'll be there soon."

Lin Fan put away the jade talisman and turned to look at Li Hanyue.

Her clear, cold eyes now reflected his figure, containing no questions, only complete trust.

"Let's go."

Lin Fan said.

"Mm."

Li Hanyue nodded gently.

Lin Fan said no more; with a thought, he activated the network of resurrection anchor points he had already laid across the continent.

The Void Realm rippled like water before him.

He took Li Hanyue's hand and stepped into it.

The next moment, in the back mountains of Qingyun Sect, two figures were simultaneously enveloped by an invisible spatial force, disappearing from their original spots.

At the edge of the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Zone.

Space twisted, and four figures appeared out of thin air, stumbling to the ground.

This was the most desolate corner of the continent, rarely visited, a cursed land rumored to be abandoned by the Heavenly Dao.

Lin Fan steadied himself and immediately looked around.

Zhao Linger and Su Meier also quickly adapted to the dizziness caused by spatial teleportation, curiously and warily surveying this strange land.

"Is this the Heavenly Dao Forbidden Zone?"

Zhao Linger asked softly, her brows slightly furrowed.

Everything before them exuded a sense of desolation and eeriness.

There was no sky, or rather, the sky was an oppressive, eternally gray color.

Dense gray mist, like a living entity, slowly rolled across the ground, swallowing light and sound.

Within the gray mist, visible spatial ripples, like stones dropped into a lake, silently spread out from time to time.

Occasionally, a small black crack would appear out of nowhere, like an ugly scar, briefly tearing space before rapidly healing.

An indescribable sense of oppression, like heavy shackles, weighed heavily upon everyone's Divine Soul.

It was terrifyingly silent here.

No sounds of birds, beasts, or insects could be heard.

Only the omnipresent wind, sweeping across the barren land, sounded less like a whisper and more like countless wronged souls murmuring in their ears, cold and despairing.

"So uncomfortable."

Su Meier, as a Heavenly Fox, was most sensitive to the environment; she instinctively hugged her arms, her small nostrils twitching slightly, as if discerning the ominous aura in the air.

Li Hanyue silently moved a little closer to Lin Fan, a faint chill emanating from her body, resisting the invisible erosion.

Lin Fan's expression also grew solemn.

The immortal realm fragment in his Sea of Consciousness had begun to vibrate violently from the moment they entered this area.

It emitted circles of shimmering Immortal light, like a heart, resonating intensely and painfully with something deep within the forbidden zone.

"Be careful."

Lin Fan reminded in a low voice.

The four formed a defensive formation and cautiously began to delve deeper in the direction from which the resonance came.

The further they went, the more chilling the surroundings became.

They saw a withered giant tree, its trunk twisted into a spiral, and on its black bark, strange tree knots resembling human faces had grown.

The expressions on those faces were painful and distorted, as if they had been sealed alive within the tree trunk.

They passed a dry riverbed, where the stones were no longer smooth or angular.

Instead, each one was deformed, some like a beating heart, others like a twisted skeleton, exuding a nauseatingly ominous aura.

"The Laws here... are polluted."

Zhao Linger's voice trembled slightly; she took out a Spiritual Plant full of Spiritual Qi from her Storage Pouch, and the moment the Spiritual Plant touched the air here, it withered, turned black, and finally turned into a handful of ash at a visible speed.

Everything was mutating in a bizarre way.

This was not a dead land.

Instead, it was a demonic land being actively twisted and transformed by some terrifying force.

Unease and doubt spread through the group.

As they reached a valley shrouded in even denser gray mist, a sudden change occurred.

Without any warning.

Lin Fan only felt his vision blur, and his teammates instantly vanished.

He found himself back in the small courtyard of the Qingyun Sect Outer Sect Disciple from the beginning of his Transmigration.

The sky was blood-red.

Countless powerful auras locked onto him from all directions.

Sect Elders, hostile Prodigies, and even opponents he had once killed, now surrounded him with ferocious expressions.

"An anomaly, you finally have nowhere to run."

"Your resurrection is a sin unforgivable by heaven and earth."

"Today is your day of death."

Icy voices, like sharp needles, pierced his Divine Soul.

His resurrection anchor points shattered one by one in his perception.

His System's light dimmed, emitting a warning of imminent collapse.

A truly inescapable, un-resurrectable, ultimate fear of death, like an icy tide, instantly engulfed him.

It was a Heart Demon illusion.

Lin Fan's consciousness, in the abyss of fear, suddenly became clear.

He knew clearly that this was fake.

Yet, the fear was so real that it made him cold all over, his Divine Soul trembling.

This was his deepest fear.

Fear that the System would one day fail.

Fear that he would face that one true death, from which there was no return.

"Break for me!"

Lin Fan's eyes sharpened, and deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the Dao rhyme symbolizing ending and destruction erupted with a roar.

Black destructive Qi, like the sharpest blade, fiercely slashed towards the blood-red sky.

"Crack!"

The illusion before him, like a shattered mirror, cracked inch by inch, then collapsed and dissipated.

Lin Fan gasped for breath, fine cold sweat already beading on his forehead.

He looked around and found that all three women had their eyes tightly closed, their pretty faces pale, clearly trapped in their own Heart Demon illusions, unable to extricate themselves.

This forbidden zone was far more dangerous than he had imagined.

This invisible attack could strike directly at the most vulnerable parts of one's heart, making it impossible to guard against.

Lin Fan immediately went to Li Hanyue's side.

Her brows were tightly furrowed, her beautiful face filled with pain and struggle, her body trembling slightly.

Lin Fan reached out his hand, wanting to wake her, but then paused.

He remembered the Divine Soul bond brought by the Dao Companion alliance.

He closed his eyes and cautiously extended his Divine Soul power along the invisible link, into Li Hanyue's Sea of Consciousness.

Instantly.

Lin Fan's consciousness entered a world of ice and snow.

Li Hanyue stood alone on the crumbling Hanyue City wall.

Before her were endless blood-colored demonic shadows, a hundred times stronger than Blood Slaughter True Person.

Behind her was her homeland, now in ruins, and the corpses of countless clan members.

The sword in her hand was broken.

Her Spiritual Qi had long since dried up.

Despair, coldness, helplessness.

This was her Heart Demon.

Fear of being unable to protect everything, fear of watching cherished things be destroyed before her eyes again.

Just as she was about to be swallowed by the demonic shadows.

A figure appeared before her.

Lin Fan said nothing, just stood there quietly, shielding her from all the wind, snow, and demonic shadows.

He reached out and held her cold hand.

A warm and firm power passed through their palms, reaching deep into her Divine Soul.

In the illusion, Li Hanyue suddenly looked up and saw Lin Fan's face with a gentle smile.

That frozen world began to melt.

Outside.

Li Hanyue's long eyelashes trembled, and she slowly opened her eyes.

Her gaze was still a little confused, but when she saw Lin Fan, so close, his eyes full of concern, that confusion quickly faded, replaced by a complex and touching tenderness.

She felt it.

In that desperate illusion, it was he who pulled her back.

"I'm fine," she said softly, her voice carrying a hint of imperceptible reliance.

Lin Fan nodded, then used the same method to help Zhao Linger and Su Meier escape the illusion.

When the two women woke up, they both looked terrified and palpitated.

"The illusion here is too terrifying," Zhao Linger said with lingering fear.

"It can actually stir up my deepest fears."

The atmosphere of the team became even more oppressive.

They continued forward, but not long after, a spine-chilling "creak, creak" sound came from the gray mist ahead.

Several twisted dark figures slowly emerged from the mist.

These were strange creatures they had never seen before.

They had the outlines of Yao Beasts, some like wolves, others like bears.

But their bodies had undergone extremely terrifying mutations.

The wolf-like creature had one side of its body covered in rotting flesh, while the other half was covered in pale white bone spurs.

The bear-like creature had a huge hollow ripped open in its chest, with no internal organs, only a constantly wriggling, tumor-like gray substance.

Their bodies exuded savagery, chaos, and a dense, inseparable aura of pollution, originating from the same source as this Forbidden Zone.

"Roar!" The wolf-like creature let out a non-living shriek, transforming into a fishy wind and pouncing fiercely.

Li Hanyue's eyes turned cold, and her ice-blue longsword was unsheathed, bringing with it a flurry of frost and precisely striking the wolf-like creature's neck.

"Pfft!" The sword light flashed, and the ugly head flew off.

However, a strange scene occurred.

Not only did the headless corpse not fall, but a large amount of gray viscous liquid gushed from its severed neck.

The severed head also rapidly melted into a puddle of the same viscous liquid.

The two puddles of viscous liquid merged in the air, wriggled, and reorganized.

In just a few breaths, a brand new, even more ferocious head grew back.

Moreover, its aura was even stronger than before.

"How can this be?" Li Hanyue's face showed an expression of astonishment for the first time.

"These things can't be killed."

Lin Fan's gaze also became extremely solemn.

He could tell that these creatures possessed a special "immortality" characteristic.

As long as the core polluting energy was not extinguished, they could endlessly reassemble.

"Let me do it!" Lin Fan shouted in a low voice, taking the initiative to meet it.

He didn't use any Spell, but instead allowed the bear-like creature to fiercely strike his chest with its huge claws.

"Bang!" Lin Fan's body instantly exploded into a cloud of blood mist.

The next moment, he revived at a nearby anchor point, and brilliant golden light erupted from his body.

"Revival Counterattack!" Lin Fan condensed that power, which surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm, into a single punch and fiercely slammed it into the gray tumor on the bear-like creature's chest.

"Boom!" The terrifying power instantly vaporized the tumor completely.

The bear-like creature's massive body also collapsed inch by inch, turning into dust.

However, Lin Fan's brows furrowed even deeper.

He could feel that his attack, which was powerful enough to severely damage a Soul Transformation expert's Lifebound Treasure, had annihilated the opponent's physical form.

But the core polluting energy had not been completely eradicated.

It had merely been dispersed into smaller particles and dissipated into the surrounding gray mist.

It wouldn't be long before it would recondense and form a new monster again.

His "Revival Counterattack" had little effect against this kind of "infinite Rebirth" enemy.

This Forbidden Zone was simply the natural bane of his "Revival Stream."

A sense of horror and challenge emerged in Lin Fan's Heart-Nature with unprecedented clarity for the first time.

There was no time to think; more strange creatures surged out from the gray mist on all sides, surrounding them completely.

A difficult and arduous battle thus began.

They couldn't completely kill these monsters; they could only shatter them again and again, then, taking advantage of the brief moments while they reassembled, desperately break through forward.

The immortal realm fragment within Lin Fan's body vibrated even more violently, like an anxious compass, guiding them in the only direction.

They followed that violent yet familiar aura of the same Origin, step by step, deeper into the core area of the Forbidden Zone.

The mutated creatures along the way became stronger and stronger, and the environment became increasingly harsh.

In the sky, the silently spreading spatial cracks grew larger and denser, like a spider web, covering the entire gray sky.

It was as if this world could completely collapse at any moment, like a fragile piece of porcelain.

During a brief moment of respite, Li Hanyue looked at the twisted rocks around them, which were completely unrecognizable, her expression extremely solemn.

She flipped through the scattered records about ancient Family texts in her Sea of Consciousness and softly speculated.

"According to ancient texts, during the ancient era, there was an 'Immortal-Mortal War' that swept across the entire Cultivation World."

"It is said that Immortals fell in this Realm, and the immense power contained within their Immortal bodies and Immortal Artifact fragments was too great for the mortal world to bear, thus forming various Jedi and Forbidden Zones."

Her gaze turned towards the deepest part of the gray mist, her voice trembling slightly.

"The mutations here are very likely related to the residual power of that war."

"And in the very core of this Forbidden Zone, perhaps... a completely out-of-control Immortal Realm Origin is sealed."

Li Hanyue's words made everyone's Heart-Nature sink a few more points.

Immortal Realm Origin.

That was already completely beyond the scope of their understanding.

Just then, Su Meier, who had been maintaining a vigilant posture, suddenly had all her white fur stand on end.

Her beautiful fox ears straightened abruptly, and her purple pupils contracted into two dots due to extreme fear.

"Danger!" She let out a hurried and sharp warning cry, her voice trembling.

She extended a finger, pointing towards the thick, impenetrable gray mist ahead.

"Something... something extremely, extremely terrifying is about to emerge."

She felt an unprecedented, terrifying energy fluctuation, powerful enough to freeze her Divine Soul, rapidly condensing ahead.

It was an existence beyond imagination, even surpassing the Soul Transformation level.

Almost at the same time Su Meier issued her warning, the System's cold, mechanical voice in Lin Fan's Sea of Consciousness also issued its most ear-piercing and urgent blood-red warning ever.

"Warning! Warning!"

"The host's sensed homologous aura's energy fluctuations have reached a critical point."

"The repulsive force within it, which does not belong to this world, is causing Law disorder."

"It could cause large-scale spatial collapse at any time, leading to... a Mahayana-level disaster."

Mahayana-level disaster.

These five words, like five ancient Divine Rank mountains, heavily slammed into Lin Fan's Heart-Nature.

He had no time to think, so he pulled the three women and rushed forward.

They wanted to see with their own eyes what secrets were hidden in the core of this Forbidden Zone.

The four of them combined their strength, unleashing all their Spiritual Qi, like a sharp sword, tearing open the last barrier of gray mist ahead.

The moment they rushed out of the gray mist, the sight before them left all four, including Lin Fan, who had the most stable Heart-Nature, completely stunned.

Their pupils suddenly contracted.

Their breathing stopped.

In front of them was an unimaginably huge, slowly rotating "black hole."

That black hole was not pure darkness.

Instead, it was a terrifying vortex composed of countless twisted, bizarre, constantly appearing and disappearing runes.

Pure and vast Immortal Qi, and chaotic, destructive polluting aura.

Two completely opposite forces fiercely intertwined and collided within the black hole, emitting a terrifying, terminal suction force capable of devouring all things in the world.

And right in the center of that terrifying black hole, a piece of... immortal realm fragment was suspended.

A piece of immortal realm fragment hundreds of times larger than the one in Lin Fan's hand, like a small mountain range.

It was the source of all these disasters.

However, this was not what shocked Lin Fan and the others the most.

What made their scalps tingle and their bodies turn cold was the blurry figure floating cross-legged beside that huge immortal realm fragment.

The figure was indistinct, as if it did not belong to this space.

He seemed... to be actively absorbing that terrifying power, which was violent enough to destroy the world and had completely gone out of control.