Chapter 9

Looking at the confession on the table, Li Fan felt a deep sense of despair.

Kou Hong had not lied to him; he truly did not know the way for mortals to leave this Immortal Cut-off Land.

"Immortal Cut-off Land..." Five lifetimes, three hundred years of anticipation, all turned into unattainable dreams at this moment.

The dream of immortality shattered, Li Fan seemed to age drastically overnight.

Not only physically, but also mentally.

"Immortal Cut-off Land..." He repeated this name in his heart, feeling an endless sense of frustration.

"How could I be reborn in such a place? If I had been reborn in the outside immortal world, with the infinite simulation capabilities of [Reincarnation], I would surely have a chance at immortality. How hateful, it just had to be this Immortal Cut-off Land!"

The information in Kou Hong's confession once again flashed through Li Fan's mind.

The so-called Immortal Cut-off Land, as the name suggests, is a place where immortals have vanished. Thousands of years ago, the ancient immortal world encountered a great change.

At first, it was just a plague that swept through the mortal world, and no cultivators paid attention to it.

But later, when a cultivator accidentally contracted this mysterious plague, the situation completely spiraled out of control.

After this cultivator was infected, the plague seemed to gain an unknown enhancement, becoming capable of spreading among cultivators.

The transmission route was none other than the spiritual energy that cultivators relied on for survival.

The plague spread rapidly through the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, infecting the entire immortal world. Cultivators who were infected either regressed in cultivation, fell from their realms, or lost all their cultivation overnight, becoming no different from mortals, and would die within a few days, returning to the heavens.

With the large-scale death of cultivators, a sense of despair began to spread among the cultivator community.

In their despair, some cultivators vented their anger on the source of all this, the mortals.

Thus, large-scale massacres began.

Faced with the high and mighty immortal masters, the mortals had almost no resistance and could only be slaughtered.

But not long after, these massacres were forcibly halted.

Not because of a change of heart, but because the cultivators were horrified to discover that with the large-scale death of mortals, the plague within the mortals did not disappear with their deaths but instead spread freely through the spiritual energy that permeated the world.

The concentration of the plague in the immortal world skyrocketed.

This led to even more cultivators falling.

With no other choice, the cultivators abandoned the massacres of mortals.

But sitting and waiting for death was not the way of the cultivators. On one hand, a group of cultivators began to develop methods to treat and resist the plague. On the other hand, the cultivators proposed the notorious [Great Migration Plan].

Although this plan was opposed by a considerable number of cultivators when it was first proposed, most cultivators voted in favor of it for their own survival.

The so-called [Great Migration Plan] was based on the following considerations:

Mortals could not be killed, and finding a way to completely solve the plague was a distant goal. If mortals were allowed to reproduce freely, the plague would only increase, making life harder for the cultivators.

Since the strange plague spread through spiritual energy, a logical solution was proposed.

All the mortals in the immortal world were to be exiled to small worlds and broken realms without spiritual energy, and then permanently isolated with formations to prevent them from returning.

This would solve the mortal problem once and for all, allowing the cultivators to focus on researching ways to combat the plague.

Since undeveloped small worlds were virtually endless, there was no worry about not having enough space for the mortals.

Thus, under the unified will of the entire immortal world, all the mortals in the immortal world began a migration that lasted for hundreds of years.

The number of mortals who would die during the migration over these hundreds of years was not a concern for the cultivators. After all, mortals had no means to resist the power of the cultivators.

After hundreds of years of migration, all the mortals in the immortal world were scattered to the surrounding small worlds. After nearly a thousand years, the concentration of the plague in the immortal world finally decreased to a lower level.

Over a thousand years, the cultivators, through continuous research, finally found a way to purify the plague.

It took another few thousand years for the cultivators to completely eliminate the threat of the plague.

However, what embarrassed the cultivators was that the plague had not completely disappeared; it was hidden in the blood of the mortals.

Originally, the world had no mortals, but not every descendant of the cultivators had the potential to cultivate.

Thus, over time, many mortals were born again. These mortals carried the shadow of the plague within them.

Since the plague had a special lethal effect on cultivators, the descendants of mortals had to clear the plague from their bodies to cultivate.

Over time, the plague became a symbol of the difference between immortals and mortals, and it was named the Immortal-Mortal Plague.

The rampant spread of the Immortal-Mortal Plague left a deep psychological shadow on all the cultivators. To prevent its return, the cultivators agreed to avoid the places where the mortals were exiled.

Over time, these places became known as the Immortal Cut-off Lands.

There were countless Immortal Cut-off Lands of various sizes, and the number of cultivators willing to risk entering these places was very few.

For Li Fan to encounter two was already a stroke of luck.

Now, since these two cultivators had no way to help mortals leave, how could Li Fan expect another, more powerful cultivator to come in?

Moreover, as a mortal, his lifespan was limited. Even if he could continuously simulate reincarnation, it would only repeat within the limits of his lifespan.

He was already seventy years old, and his physiological lifespan limit was eighty-six years.

In these sixteen years, the possibility of encountering another cultivator was virtually zero.

Given this, how could Li Fan not feel despair?

He had seen the hope of immortality, but it turned out to be just a false joy.

Could he really only repeat the life of a mortal for eternity?

Li Fan was truly unwilling to accept this.

The path to immortality was right before him, within reach, yet it was as distant as the heavens, out of reach.

How could Li Fan be content with this?

Thinking about everything he had experienced through his reincarnations and the nearly three hundred years of waiting, Li Fan was unwilling to give up on the path to immortality.

Was there really no way?

Suddenly, as if a bolt of lightning had cut through the fog, Li Fan thought of something he had previously overlooked.

Thousands of years ago, how did the large number of mortals migrate here?

Although the small worlds were adjacent to the immortal world, they were not the same world.

Surely the mortals did not walk here?

There must have been some means of transportation to bring them here.

Do these tools still exist?

If he found these tools, could he go to the immortal world?

Even if it was just a tiny, insignificant possibility, it gave Li Fan hope for immortality.

His mood became excited, and he immediately went to the prison where Kou Hong was held.

He wanted to verify the feasibility of his idea with Kou Hong.