Chapter 1384: Bone of the Nameless Immortal
Chapter 1384: Bone of the Nameless Immortal
"Truth Realization!"
As Li Fan recited the words in his mind, a watery mist instantly enveloped everything around him.
However, Li Fan was stunned to discover that the "color" of the wordless stele in the distance—the Southern Immortal Pillar—could faintly pierce through the mist of [Truth]!
It remained as radiant as ever.
Along with it, the figure of the Immortal Ruins' True Immortal beside the stele was also faintly visible.
The combined assault of Tianyang and Qiushui didn't seem to hold her back for long. Within the mist, this wisp of color drew ever closer to Li Fan.
But just as her approach to the wordless stele in the Immortal Realm had slowed, her speed in closing in on Li Fan also diminished.
It continued to slow until it came to a complete stop.
"That is..."
Li Fan couldn't help but fix his gaze upon the wordless stele.
Faintly, he could see that besides the two True Immortal Scripts formed earlier by the Immortal Ruins' True Immortal and the white ring, Falling into the Mortal Dust, a third character was beginning to manifest on the stele's surface.
Or rather, countless characters surged forth at the same instant, densely packed across the wordless stele!
An indescribably terrifying shockwave erupted from the Southern Immortal Pillar. Even though the scene in the Star Sea was now impossible to discern, the power of this impact was evident from the white mist of [Truth], which rippled outward ceaselessly.
Despite the protection of the white mist, the instant the countless characters flooded into Li Fan's eyes, his mind felt as if it had been hammered hundreds of times in succession.
His divine soul trembled and seethed, his consciousness nearly torn to shreds.
Fortunately, at that very moment, the Southern Immortal Pillar itself could not withstand such immense pressure.
With a thunderous boom, it exploded into countless fragments!
Perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps other factors were at play. In any case, the largest piece shot straight toward Li Fan.
It was hundreds, even thousands of times faster than the True Immortal's pursuit.
In an instant, it pierced through ordinary space and time, arriving within the white mist of [Truth]!
At the same time, the white mist of [Truth] completely engulfed the world.
The moment the fragment entered the white mist, it lost all its velocity and luster, simply floating silently at the edge of the fog.
Shaken and disoriented, Li Fan barely managed to regain his senses. Gazing at the mist-shrouded surroundings and facing the fact that he had not yet returned to his designated anchor point, he fell into deep thought.
After carefully sensing the fluctuations emanating from [Truth], Li Fan cautiously beckoned, bringing the stone fragment to his side.
A familiar screen of light exploded into view. The interrupted process of [Truth] resumed.
Scene after scene from his previous life emerged in sequence.
Before his consciousness faded to black, Li Fan realized that at some point, the fragment of the wordless stele in his hand had vanished.
...
Year 1 of the Anchor, the summit of Jieli Mountain!
A twenty-year-old Li Fan opened his eyes once more.
"Hah..."
The end of this simulation and the start of a new life didn't bring the usual sense of dissociation. The series of thrilling, bizarre events he had experienced at the end of his last life were still vivid in his memory.
It felt as if they had just happened in this life as well.
Li Fan instinctively glanced at the [Truth] panel.
The charge progress remained at 31%.
Considering that the charge had been at a maximum of 400% when [Truth] was activated, it was clear just how perilous the end of his previous life had been.
Although he had successfully returned to the designated anchor point, a persistent unease lingered in Li Fan's mind.
He stepped out of his thatched hut and walked to the edge of the mountain peak's cliff, facing the vast sea of clouds.
His eyes were fixed on the [Truth] panel, on a new item that had suddenly appeared among his retained possessions.
[...Leg Bone]
Before the words "Leg Bone" was a string of distorted, blurry symbols. Li Fan couldn't decipher their meaning.
But Li Fan knew exactly where this bone had come from.
"The wordless stele... the Southern Immortal Pillar?"
"This Immortal Pillar was actually forged from the leg bone of some entity?"
Li Fan was profoundly shaken.
The sight of the indecipherable, distorted symbols immediately made him think of the legendary Nameless True Immortals.
This bold conjecture sparked a cascade of countless thoughts in his mind.
"But right now, the most important thing is..."
"...to ensure my own safety."
He casually picked up a stone from the ground, clasped it in his hand, and focused his thoughts.
A prompt from [Truth] followed.
"Consume one available anchor point to replace the bound item... Leg Bone?"
The moment the prompt appeared, Li Fan let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding.
[Truth] had not gone out of control. He still possessed the highest authority over it.
The appearance of the leg bone simply meant that a stowaway had hitched a ride during his last activation of [Truth].
"Even so, this leg bone of a Nameless True Immortal is truly extraordinary."
Li Fan was inwardly astonished.
Since he couldn't yet determine the true origin of the leg bone, he could only tentatively refer to it by his guess: a bone of a Nameless True Immortal.
First, he selected "No," choosing to keep the Nameless True Immortal's leg bone.
Gazing at the item displayed on the [Truth] panel, Li Fan's expression grew serious.
He recalled the events that had transpired at the end of his previous life.
"That wordless stele, also known as the Southern Immortal Pillar, can resist the Dao Annihilation Calamity to a certain degree."
"Since it bears the name 'Southern Immortal,' it implies that the Immortal Realm of old had more than one such pillar."
"A leg bone... Could it be that the other pillars were also crafted from other bones of a Nameless True Immortal? Or perhaps from different Nameless True Immortals?" A chill crept into Li Fan's heart.
"At first, the Southern Immortal Pillar was largely inert against the Dao Annihilation Calamity. It was the Hunger Immortal who infused it with his comprehension of the [Hunger] character, forming a pillar of light that supported the heavens. Only then could it successfully resist the calamity. The wordless stele seems to possess a supreme divine ability to manifest all things back into their original Great Dao laws, displaying them on its surface as True Immortal Scripts."
"I saw this and, on a flash of inspiration, I threw out the white ring, Falling into the Mortal Dust. Of course, it wasn't to save the Hunger Immortal's life—I was already preparing to activate [Truth]. I just wanted to see what Falling into the Mortal Dust was truly made of."
"As expected, Falling into the Mortal Dust represents some incredibly powerful law of the mortal world..."
Li Fan carefully recalled the character that had appeared on the wordless stele in his last life.
"[Primal]."
"It's on nearly the same level as [Creation]."
"In the past, the Inscription Immortal could reveal the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth through True Immortal Scripts. But now, something from beyond the High Wall can actually solidify the power of law and forge it into an object?"
The shock Li Fan felt was even more intense than when he had first learned about the Nameless True Immortal's leg bone.
"But I can't be certain yet if Falling into the Mortal Dust is a product from beyond the High Wall..." Li Fan pressed his throbbing temples and took a deep breath.
He brought his thoughts back on track.
"When the wordless stele appeared, it absorbed every person and object in the Star Sea outside the Immortal Realm. It seemed to be trying to re-manifest the myriad laws of heaven and earth on its surface and restore the true form of the Southern Immortal Pillar."
"Everything I saw in the Star Sea, every person and object, transformed into threads of Dao that added shadows to the stele. That confirmed it."
"And then..."
As his thoughts reached this point, a peculiar light erupted in Li Fan's eyes.
"[Truth] activated, and the wordless stele responded, revealing thousands upon thousands of characters upon its surface!"
In that instant, the characters that appeared on the stele were simply too numerous and too complex.
Even with the aid of the Dao Transformation Stone, Li Fan couldn't possibly memorize them all.
He couldn't even retain a basic impression.
He only vaguely remembered seeing dozens of True Immortal Scripts that he recognized, but in a more complete and pure form.
But Li Fan felt no regret or sorrow. He had a premonition that if he had been greedy and recklessly tried to memorize the entire stele of True Immortal Scripts...
...his fate would have been the same as the wordless stele's in the previous life.
Blown to smithereens in an instant!
"Even though it was forged from the leg bone of a Nameless True Immortal and called the Southern Immortal Pillar, it couldn't withstand the myriad characters manifested by [Truth]..."
"It survived the calamity that destroyed the Immortal Realm, only to be buried by its own nature."
As Li Fan shook his head, taking this as a warning, new thoughts about [Truth] began to form.
"Since the wordless stele was called an Immortal Pillar, it was likely once inscribed with many True Immortal Scripts to help the Immortal Realm fend off the Dao Annihilation Calamity."
"That's why countless insights flooded my mind the moment I saw it. Although the True Immortal Scripts on its surface vanished for some unknown reason, faint, traceless imprints remained..."
"All things in the world are derivations of the Dao. If one could master all paths of the Dao, one could manifest everything in the world with a single thought. This is the so-called True False Transformation!"
At this moment, Li Fan had not yet chosen his inheritance option from [Truth]; he was still, through and through, a mortal.
But he stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes narrowed slightly.
A powerful pressure instantly surged from his body.
In that instant, Li Fan's cultivation returned to the peak of the Soul Transformation stage, founded upon the myriad transformations of the Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformation.
With a flick of his finger, a shooting star launched from the mountain peak, flying upward against gravity.
It tore through the sky of the Great Xuan's small world, revealing the faint, dark void beyond.
After doing all this, the profound aura around Li Fan slowly faded.
"My understanding of the True False Transformation has reached a new level."
"Without the aid of [Truth], I can briefly manifest the cultivation I once possessed. And in that instant, I can even unleash an attack with my full power."
"Although this transformation cannot last long, it's still incredibly significant for me."
Opening the [Truth] panel, Li Fan chose to inherit his cultivation.
In an instant, Li Fan went from being a mere mortal back to the pinnacle of the Darkest Star Sea.
It was as if he had experienced the vicissitudes of hundreds of lifetimes.
"True False Transformation..."
Li Fan didn't stop. He once again savored the entire process of [Truth]'s activation, realization, and cyclical simulation.
Suddenly, another wave of Li Fan's peak cultivation abruptly descended!
It was as if he had suddenly merged with another version of himself.
At this moment, the spiritual power in Li Fan's body churned and boiled.
The phantom of the Wooden Sword unsheathed, and in an instant, he appeared in the void of the Darkest Star Sea.
He unleashed his full power.
A thousand terrifying transformations descended and evolved within the dark expanse.
The display of power lasted for a long, long time.
The second layer of cultivation that had appeared on Li Fan quietly faded away.
He returned to his normal state.
"I had already touched the limits of the Star Sea, but with the True False Transformation, I can achieve a momentary burst of double my power..."
"And this burst has no side effects. I can even borrow the energy for all its consumption from thin air, achieving a form of perpetual motion in a sense."
Li Fan looked at his own hands, finding it all utterly incredible.
Even as the creator of this divine ability, he was shocked by its actual performance, which completely defied common sense.
"[Truth]... [Truth]..."
As he repeated the name in his mind, Li Fan's gaze slowly grew incredibly profound.
"What exactly is [Truth]?"
"The wordless stele, just by sensing it from the periphery, absorbed and manifested thousands of True Immortal Scripts—more than it could bear. Its fundamental nature..."
Even in his wildest imaginings, Li Fan could not conceive of [Truth]'s origin.
All Li Fan knew was that possessing [Truth] was undoubtedly his greatest fortune.
"In fact, I don't need to practice any New Method or New-New Method. As long as I continue to deepen my understanding of [Truth], I can achieve true Dao destruction and Dao creation with a flip of my hand."
"True Immortals, Nameless True Immortals... their lives and deaths would all be subject to my will." Li Fan's heart surged with emotion, lost in the reverie.
But fantasy must eventually yield to reality.
After a long while, the ever self-aware Li Fan shook his head slightly. "But this presents a paradox. Without first cultivating and improving my own strength and understanding, how could I ever truly comprehend [Truth]?"
"When my strength was low, even if I clung to [Truth] for a thousand or ten thousand lifetimes, I could never have achieved this brief transformation of true and false as I can now—even if it's only manifesting cultivation I once possessed."
"And as my understanding of True Immortal Scripts and the Great Dao deepens, my deconstruction of [Truth] also gradually increases."
[Truth] is too profound, mysterious, and complex. Even the laws of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth are merely crude tools for its interpretation.
"[Truth] is higher than the highest heavens. To touch [Truth], one must first ascend to the ninth heaven." Any restless thoughts in Li Fan's mind quieted the moment this idea appeared.
"I still need to cultivate step by step, with my feet planted firmly on the ground."
Li Fan pondered, recalling the reason he had decided to deploy the Immortal Realm prematurely in his last life.
"Looking back now, in the simulation where I died, my sudden death was likely the combined effect of Ink Death and the wordless stele."
"It's highly probable that after Ink Death was sublimated, it returned to the level of the Dao Annihilation Calamity—a weakened version, perhaps. When the Immortal Realm was deployed, the wordless stele also appeared in that instant..."
The scene replayed in his mind, and Li Fan's face couldn't help but twitch.
"I was a bit too complacent."
"For the ancient True Immortals to entrust it with their hopes of surviving the Dao Annihilation Calamity, I should have known that the Immortal Realm was anything but simple."
Li Fan sighed softly to himself.
However, Li Fan didn't give up on the idea of absorbing Ink Death's Heavenly Spirit.
On the contrary, the very fact that Ink Death posed such a great threat to Immortal-level beings only strengthened Li Fan's resolve to use it as a material for his Dao Integration.
After all, in the entire Darkest Star Sea, only Ink Death's Heavenly Spirit was tempting enough for Li Fan.
"Anchor, sublimate the Xuanhuang Realm..."
"The wordless stele is too terrifying; I can't consider it for now."
"But... a single fragment of the wordless stele might just be enough."
The phantom of the Wooden Sword was ready, and Li Fan had prepared ample protection.
He took out the bone of the Nameless True Immortal that had returned with him through [Truth].
(End of this chapter)
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