But he quickly caught on: "The skeletal hand! I have a skeletal hand that looks exactly like this place!"
"Senior, we are inside that skeletal hand, aren’t we?"
"Skeletal hand?" The skull appeared to understand. "So that's how it is."
"Kid, you're not from the Xuanhuang World, are you?" the skull asked.
"Xuanhuang World? What's that?" Xiao Heng looked confused.
"Heh, it's what is commonly called the cultivation world. Kid, in the world you come from, are there legends of cultivators?"
Xiao Heng’s expression turned peculiar. After thinking for a moment, he decided to be honest: "To be frank with you, Senior, I come from the Great Li Dynasty. But not long ago, a few people from my hometown and I were brought to the cultivation world by a senior cultivator."
"What?" The skull seemed shocked and urgently asked, "Your true body is currently in the cultivation world? Are there any cultivators from the Myriad Immortals Alliance around you?"
Xiao Heng shook his head: "The cultivator who took us away from Great Li seemed to have encountered a cultivator from the Myriad Immortals Alliance. They accused him of some crime of 'Treason Against the World', and then the two sides fought. We took the chance to escape to a deserted island.
"Although that senior cultivator later found us, he has unfortunately died."
“Hmph. The Myriad Immortals Alliance really is rotten to the core. All he did was help mortals return to the cultivation world, yet they branded it Treason Against the World. If they want someone condemned, they’ll always find a reason.” The skull spoke with extreme anger and disdain.
"Little one, you must remember: Never let any cultivator from the Myriad Immortals Alliance discover that jade-white skeletal hand on you. Otherwise, your life will be in grave danger!" The skull warned him sternly.
"How could that be?" Xiao Heng’s eyes widened in shock.
"This involves the grudge between a great existence and the Myriad Immortals Alliance," the skull sighed, then began to recount a story from the past to Xiao Heng:
A long, long time ago, a True Immortal descended to the Xuanhuang World.
He was compassionate, benevolent, and cared deeply for all living beings.
Knowing the hardships and suffering of cultivation, he tirelessly expounded the principles of cultivation to all the cultivators in the world.
Many cultivators benefited from his grace, and their strength advanced by leaps and bounds.
The cultivation world thus entered an era of unprecedented prosperity.
However, when the True Immortal’s time in the lower world reached its end, and he prepared to return to the immortal realm, he was ambushed by a group of cultivators.
These individuals possessed profound cultivation levels and seemed fearless of death. They shattered the very passage connecting the immortal realm and the Xuanhuang World, leaving the True Immortal with no escape.
Under their relentless assaults, the True Immortal's injuries grew increasingly severe.
In the end, he fell, perishing within the Xuanhuang World.
Though the True Immortal died, his will did not fade.
Before his demise, he cast one final gaze upon the Xuanhuang World.
He imprinted every sight and object within the world into his memory. His will lingered, unchanging for millennia, and through a long process of transformation, it eventually formed a vast realm of consciousness: the Fallen Immortal Realm.
And those cultivators who ambushed the True Immortal that day were the original Myriad Immortals Alliance.
The sheer volume of information in this story took Xiao Heng a long time to fully process.
"Senior, why did the Myriad Immortals Alliance attack the True Immortal?" Xiao Heng asked.
"Why? For the sake of profit, of course! The True Immortal descended from the higher realm, carrying with him countless immortal techniques and artifacts. Obtaining even one of them would mean making a tremendous fortune.
"Take, for instance, the very foundation of the current Myriad Immortals Alliance, the Tianxuan Mirror—it was one of the artifacts the True Immortal carried with him, with boundless miraculous uses."
The skull's tone was filled with resentment toward the Myriad Immortals Alliance as it explained.
It then began to describe the wondrous aspects of the Tianxuan Mirror to Xiao Heng.
Xiao Heng, who had never encountered such a treasure before, listened with wide, gleaming eyes.
He couldn't help but exclaim indignantly, "The Myriad Immortals Alliance is truly despicable!"
After a moment, Xiao Heng asked another question, "How about you, Senior? Who are you? How did you end up in this state?"
The skull fell silent for a long time, as if lost in memories.
Finally, it spoke slowly, "Not all cultivators were as deranged as the Myriad Immortals Alliance back then.
"There were many, many cultivators who, having received the True Immortal's grace, felt immense gratitude and reverence toward him.
"When they heard the news of the True Immortal getting ambushed by the Myriad Immortals Alliance, they were heartbroken and swore to avenge him.
"They voluntarily formed the Immortal Avengers, an organization to oppose the Myriad Immortals Alliance.
"Unfortunately, the Myriad Immortals Alliance was too powerful, far more so than the Immortal Avengers.
"After millennia of being hunted and eradicated, the number of Immortal Avengers dwindled. Now, only I remain, barely clinging to life in this world.”
The skull's words carried an endless, tragic weight.
Xiao Heng, with his strong sense of justice, was deeply moved, his eyes reddening.
"Senior..." He wanted to offer some words of comfort, but the skull interrupted him.
"Haha, this old man doesn't need the pity of a young whelp like you!
"Before, I was reduced to nothing more than my consciousness, barely surviving in the crevices of this Fallen Immortal Realm, with no successor to carry on the Immortal Avengers’ legacy.
"But it seems the heavens have not abandoned the Immortal Avengers, delivering you right to me!" A faint, ghostly light shot from the skull's eye sockets, enveloping Xiao Heng.
"You, boy, are a once-in-a-millennium cultivation prodigy. With you joining our Immortal Avengers and taking up the banner to fight the Myriad Immortals Alliance, there’s nothing better I can ask for!"