But for the same reason, they could no longer leave the Xuanhuang World.
Before reaching the Eternal Life realm, cultivators were like bandits breaking into a house, plundering whatever they pleased. The furniture and treasures inside were seized and carried away.
But some among them grew greedier still.
They did not just want the treasures—they wanted the house itself.
They sought to seize the magpie’s nest and claim ownership.
And they succeeded.
Yet the moment they did, the house activated its final countermeasure.
The great doors slammed shut.
They became the masters of the house, and at the same time, were forever sealed within it.
Is this heaven and earth’s way of fighting back?
Understanding dawned on Li Fan.
He had already realized that heaven and earth were not entirely helpless before the cultivators who plundered them.
There were spontaneous laws, such as the Exclusivity of Immortal Techniques.
There were enforcement mechanisms, like the descent of Soul Arbiters who executed the will of heaven.
But when faced with Eternal Heavenly Venerables, existences powerful enough to threaten the very foundation of the world, heaven and earth had chosen a far more extreme measure.
If you cannot defeat them, make them join you.
One had to admit, it was devastatingly effective.
Because upon reaching the Eternal Life realm, their identity subtly shifted.
They were no longer cultivators standing against heaven and earth; they had become part of heaven and earth itself.
If unchecked plunder by cultivators would ultimately exhaust and ruin the world, then the Eternal Heavenly Venerables, whose existence was now bound to the world’s lifespan, would be compelled to intervene for their own survival.
Thus arose the necessity of regulating the number of cultivators.
This was the reason why there could not be too many cultivators.
Li Fan recalled when the Ten Immortal Dao Sects had offered a bounty for the Xuantian Treasure Mirror.
They declared that anyone could exchange this mirror for a Fruit of Eternal Life.
It seems that in ancient times, the Eternal Life realm was also likely achieved by usurping the original principles of eternal life from heaven and earth through some method. Li Fan mused.
Working through this line of reasoning left Li Fan feeling slightly disappointed.
The Eternal Heavenly Venerables of the Xuanhuang World seemed to fall somewhat short of his ideal of "eternal life."
They had simply borrowed the power of heaven and earth to obtain a lifespan that did not truly belong to them.
A false eternal life... but strictly speaking, it's not an entirely unacceptable situation.
After all, this world's Eternal Life realm is just an attempt by cultivators to prolong their lives after the immortal path in the Xuanhuang World was severed.
And it's not necessarily impossible to advance further.
Li Fan thought of the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher who had vanished in his previous life.
This pioneer of the new methodology might have taken the lead once more, breaking free from the world's constraints.
No wonder, in my previous life, the Heavenly Venerable Dao Teacher did not appear for thousands of years. And despite the intermittent wars between the two sides, the Heavenly Venerables of the Five Elders Council never intervened.
Because in the view of the Five Elders Council's Heavenly Venerables, since those at the Eternal Life realm cannot leave the Xuanhuang World, the Dao Teacher must also still be somewhere within it.
An agreement on a sheet of paper was enough to restrain them.
That was, until later, when they finally realized something was wrong. Only then did they grow impatient and personally take action to probe the Alliance...
The effects of the Dao Comprehension Pill had not yet fully faded.
In a sudden flash of insight, sparked by the truth inadvertently revealed by the woman in green, Li Fan deduced a possible, logically consistent truth about the Xuanhuang World.