Chapter 1399: Truth Turns the Tide
Chapter 1399: Truth Turns the Tide
In an instant, the very fabric of the Xuanhuang Realm bled, giving birth to countless streams of a viscous, seven-colored liquid that materialized from thin air. Like gentle rivulets, they flowed into the gaping wound, mending the tear in reality.
As if touched by a miraculous panacea, the gash torn across the Xuanhuang Realm's sky and land sealed itself shut in a heartbeat.
More of the rainbow-hued ichor scattered through the air, its streams trickling across the vast landscapes below.
Wherever this iridescent light touched down, the land shimmered and became encircled by a seven-colored halo. A sacred aura emanated from within these zones, setting them apart, making them feel like separate, holy grounds utterly distinct from the ordinary world around them.
Li Fan's hands blurred through a series of intricate seals, his focus unwavering as he sustained the Xuanhuang Realm's momentous ascent. His eyes narrowed, his gaze sweeping across the world to inspect the halos that had suddenly materialized.
To focus every ounce of power on propelling the Xuanhuang Realm's sublimation, Li Fan had already dealt with the vast majority of its grotto-heavens and small worlds. He had considered them burdens, and so had either destroyed them or forcibly merged them back into the main realm.
Yet now, just as the Xuanhuang Realm stood on the precipice of its grand transformation, new grotto-heavens and blessed lands were spontaneously forming, their emergence acting as a slight drag on its upward momentum.
These nascent grotto-heavens were unlike those of past eras. They were not independent realms that blossomed and then split away from the whole. Instead, they felt more like new "organs" being grown by the world itself!
One grotto-heaven, for instance, was a crucible of laws related to "sight." Li Fan deduced that any creature born within it, or any cultivator who spent years training there, would almost certainly awaken powerful ocular abilities under the influence of its unique principles.
A rare few of these nascent realms, after a brief materialization, dissolved into streaks of rainbow light. Each one selected a target below and plunged into a living soul. The chosen were not the cultivators sleeping within his grand illusion, but new life that had been born since the world's metamorphosis began. In this way, these grotto-heavens descended from the sky to walk the earth, embodied within a mortal vessel.
These new domains were not isolated. Faint connections linked them all; some shared a natural affinity, while others harbored an innate animosity toward one another.
By sensing the fundamental connections between them, however, Li Fan perceived their ultimate fate: they were destined to devour one another until only one remained, a final convergence into a single, supreme whole.
The last domain standing, having absorbed the strengths of all the others, would cultivate its power to the absolute peak. Then, it would break away from the Xuanhuang Realm entirely.
Under normal circumstances, this evolutionary process would take tens, perhaps even hundreds of millions of years to unfold. It was an inevitability, something that would occur even against the will of the Xuanhuang Realm itself.
"Is this a mandatory step on the path to becoming an Immortal Realm?" Li Fan mused, observing the sudden arrival of all the strange and wondrous domains. "An imperative etched into the very core logic of the Xuanhuang Realm's existence?" A sudden clarity washed over him.
This was a change that could only manifest once the Xuanhuang Realm was pushed to the critical threshold of sublimation, on the very cusp of becoming a true Immortal Realm.
It had been written into the world's foundation at the dawn of its creation. For ages, the Xuanhuang Realm had existed as just another ordinary cultivation world in the lower star sea. But now, on the verge of its return to the Immortal Realm, this long-dormant "innate characteristic" finally surfaced.
"The Xuanhuang Realm... it was created using the techniques for forging an Immortal Realm, but with the mundane materials of the lower worlds. It's essentially a... downgraded version," Li Fan reflected, his mind flashing to his own methods of using source power essence to fuel immortal arrays. His gaze flickered with contemplation.
"Though it possesses the innate characteristics of an 'Immortal' world, it is constrained by a mundane form. On the surface, it behaves no differently than any other cultivation world. Only a True Immortal could perceive the truth hidden within."
"No wonder its Heavenly Dao has such a despised personality," he mused. "It's a fallen princess in exile. No matter how kind you are to it, the moment you cross its will, it throws a tantrum and might turn on you at any moment. And no matter how close you become, the instant a new, powerful suitor comes along whispering sweet nothings, it's likely to abandon you without a second thought..."
Recalling his experiences with Mr. Bai, the Saint Teacher, and the Heavenly Dao itself, Li Fan began to see the pattern.
The root of it all was the arrogance ingrained in its very being. To it, even the kindest ant was still just an ant. Circumstances might force it to change its attitude for a time, but its fundamental perspective would never waver.
Only an Immortal—or perhaps even a demi-immortal—could earn its genuine respect.
These innate qualities were now causing unexpected complications at the most critical moment of the world's ascension.
Li Fan simply snorted, observing with detached amusement. "It doesn't have a princess's fate, but it certainly has a princess's attitude."
All manner of strange phenomena continued to unfold across the world.
Li Fan committed the dreamlike spectacle to memory, then found his gaze drawn to the one place in the world that remained untouched by the transformation—an isolated, blank void.
Source Dao Province!
While his grand illusion array did not cover Source Dao Province, its power still enveloped the region, isolating it from the outside world. Li Fan had later reinforced this, building a high wall along its borders and sealing the province completely.
This was, of course, to prevent the Tiandu Grandmaster from suddenly appearing to cause mischief at the final, critical moment of the world's sublimation.
In fact, in addition to the immortal array and the high wall, Li Fan had prepared another, more personal surprise for the Grandmaster.
At the border of Source Dao Province, eighteen bronze colossi stood hidden within the illusion array. Only Li Fan, their creator, could perceive the two terrifying killing intents lurking within them.
The Wind of Annihilation and the Corrupting Verdure.
The Wind of Annihilation was something Li Fan had harvested from broken immortal artifacts throughout the Xuanhuang Realm. Any surviving immortal artifact, much like the Immeasurable Mirror, contained traces of it.
As for the Corrupting Verdure, he had first discovered it on the Thousand-Eyed Desolate God. It incinerated the very foundation of a being's life force, its destructive power no less terrifying than the Wind of Annihilation.
The Wind of Annihilation was a manifestation of the Dao Annihilation Calamity specifically tailored to destroy immortal artifacts. The Corrupting Verdure, on the other hand, was a specialized weapon against immortal servants.
Two years prior, the relentless infighting aboard the Mysterious Immortal Boat had driven its factions to madness. The Immortal Pivot Academy, backed into a corner and facing utter defeat, made a final, desperate gamble: they unleashed the Thousand-Eyed Desolate God. As the beast rampaged, Li Fan sensed the strange aura of this Immortal Realm creation and dispatched Taiyang to battle it, hoping he would gain some insight.
Taiyang had indeed gained enlightenment from the battle. Furthermore, sustained by the vast quantities of True Immortal flesh Li Fan provided, he had successfully endured the corrosive touch of the Corrupting Verdure and brought a sample of it back.
Using the True Immortal's flesh as a culture medium, Li Fan had since cultivated vast quantities of the Corrupting Verdure.
While both the Wind of Annihilation and the Corrupting Verdure were terrifying calamities for mortals, they were exponentially more lethal to beings who had reached the "Immortal" realm.
Two lives ago, when faced with the Wind of Annihilation, both the Saint Emperor and the Heavenly Doctor had been terrified, but they had still fought to stop it. The Grandmaster, however, had simply fled in a blind panic. His reaction spoke volumes about his fear of this particular calamity.
And with the Corrupting Verdure added to the mix...
"Let me see what this Grandmaster is really made of."
The world's transformation gradually stabilized.
In addition to the grotto-heavens, four colossal mountains now rose from the four corners of the world.
The highest peak of each range towered majestically, like a celestial pillar thrusting into the heavens.
These four magnificent mountain ranges stood guard over the Xuanhuang Realm. Once they had fully formed, the world, which had been trembling violently on the verge of its ascension, suddenly felt anchored. The tremors ceased, and a newfound stability settled over the land.
"Celestial pillars, mirroring those of the Immortal Realm?" Li Fan mused, his gaze fixed on the four new peaks.
The changes sweeping across the world seemed to awaken ancient memories within its Heavenly Dao. Without even trying to probe its consciousness, Li Fan could feel its intense, surging excitement.
At its urging, the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable, who had already expended all the immortal spiritual energy, stirred once more.
The Nameless One extended his left hand, and a small, dazzling golden bell materialized above his palm. A powerful wind swept across the world, lifting the bell gently, carrying it higher and higher until it soared into the highest heavens.
As it ascended, the bell's radiance intensified. By the time it reached the heavens, level with the great sun, its brilliant light had become so overwhelming that it completely engulfed the star.
Hummmm...
A crisp, clear chime echoed across the world. The light imploded, plunging the Xuanhuang Realm into a moment of absolute darkness. When light returned, a single sun hung in the sky, but...
It was not the one from before.
"The Great Sun Golden Bell!" Li Fan's eyes narrowed, instantly recognizing the immortal artifact that had just replaced the world's sun.
With the golden bell now serving as the sun, a profound sense of unease settled over every living creature in the Xuanhuang Realm. It felt as though a sword now hung suspended above their heads, ready to fall at any moment.
At the same time, the "weight" on Li Fan's own shoulders—the pressure from the true Great Heavenly Venerable's presence—intensified.
Li Fan's expression grew solemn as he watched the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable complete the sun's transformation, only to see him begin yet another action.
The second immortal artifact produced by the Nameless One was a simple, unremarkable disc.
The moment it left his hand, it dissolved into five streams of colored light—white, green, black, red, and yellow—that surged through the world like currents of immortal energy.
The colors of the Xuanhuang Realm instantly grew more vibrant, and a strange new vitality began to stir throughout the land.
Beyond these five colors, Li Fan sensed another, formless power radiating from the disc, an intangible force that spread to every corner of the Xuanhuang Realm.
The grand illusion array he had laid down, which shackled the Xuanhuang Realm, actually loosened slightly under the pressure of this mysterious force.
In response, the weight on Li Fan's shoulders grew heavier still.
"The Primordial Five Elements Wheel!" Li Fan's eyes narrowed, yet he still made no move to intervene.
As the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable produced a third immortal artifact, the sharp, urgent cry of a baby suddenly echoed in Li Fan's ears.
Li Fan recognized the source of the cry instantly.
Wuyou Immortal Venerable.
He let out a cold sneer and ignored it, dispelling the sound with a wave of his hand.
Li Fan knew exactly why Wuyou, who had been hiding from the world like a coward, had chosen this moment to make his presence known.
The power of the Xuanhuang Realm and its cultivators existed in a delicate balance; as one grew stronger, the other grew weaker.
Previously, the collective power of the world's cultivators had far surpassed that of the realm itself, so even the arrival of the true Great Heavenly Venerable had a negligible impact on them.
But now, as the Nameless One continued to integrate immortal artifacts into the world, constantly tipping the scales, the cultivators were gradually losing their advantage.
Truly, the weight of a single immortal artifact outweighed that of a billion souls!
And this held true even for these artifacts, used countless times, their immortal energy all but spent!
Nevertheless, the integration of these artifacts was undeniably beneficial for the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension. There was no downside. And so, Li Fan allowed the Nameless One to continue.
The third artifact now dissolving into the world was the Void Azure Lamp.
An ethereal flame flickered erratically, its pulse quickening until it appeared to freeze in place. In that exact instant, Li Fan saw the entire Xuanhuang Realm flicker once in sync. Then, the flame died out, and the Void Azure Lamp crumbled into embers that scattered on the wind.
"This is..."
Another layer of an immortal artifact's power was added to the world.
The moment this new restriction took hold, Li Fan's figure, which had been suspended in the void, dipped slightly, beyond his control.
Li Fan paid it no mind. He relaxed his body and raised his head, looking out beyond the world's borders.
The instant the Void Azure Lamp's flame vanished—or rather, the moment it merged with the Xuanhuang Realm—Li Fan clearly sensed that the gravitational pull from the Immortal Ruins had weakened.
It wasn't just the pull of the Immortal Ruins; the effectiveness of his own grand illusion array, which constrained the world, was also diminished.
The ascending Xuanhuang Realm was like a great beast, slowly but surely writhing free from his grasp.
When the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable brought out the final immortal artifact, the Purple Qi Dream Weaving Shuttle, the cry of Wuyou Immortal Venerable echoed in Li Fan's ears once more. This time, however, the sound was much fainter. It seemed the cultivators who achieved longevity by reversing heaven's logic were being affected far more severely than he was.
The cry wasn't just heard in the real world. Within the Land of Carefree Joy, all the cultivators Li Fan had secretly dispatched to probe the dreamscape heard it as well. The only exception was Hou Mingwu, who had already delved deep into the eighth level of the dream.
Li Fan's expression shifted. After a moment of contemplation, he slowly began to communicate with the Heavenly Dao.
"Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing," he conveyed to it. "The nourishment from three immortal artifacts is more than enough."
"The last one should be left with the Great Heavenly Venerable for protection."
"The ascension is imminent. There is no time to digest any more."
...
Li Fan appealed to both its reason and its ambition.
Having already consumed three immortal artifacts, the world's consciousness was gripped by an intense craving for more. Faced with Li Fan's counsel, it hesitated.
But the path to immortality is like a boat sailing against the current: to not advance is to be swept back. In the brief moment of its hesitation, the world's soaring momentum faltered, showing signs of decline.
The sudden threat snapped the Heavenly Dao out of its greed-fueled daze.
It commanded the Nameless Great Heavenly Venerable to halt the sacrifice of the final artifact.
And just like that, the wailing infant's cry in Li Fan's ears vanished.
The Nameless One's task was complete. Now, it was Li Fan's turn.
He and the Heavenly Dao had already rehearsed this moment. Li Fan bowed slightly to the heavens.
An imperial jade tablet, a symbol of command, materialized in his hand.
This command tablet represented the very will of the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao.
With this tablet in hand, he could command all the power of the world as freely as the Heavenly Dao itself.
He no longer needed to act under the pretense of a borrowed mandate.
Li Fan took a single step forward, his body expanding with the wind until, in a few breaths, he became a titan who touched the sky and stood upon the earth.
A mysterious robe of black and gold draped over him, and a star-studded crown appeared on his head, its brilliant light obscuring his expression.
Li Fan gripped the command tablet with both hands and drew a line across the vast lands of the Xuanhuang Realm below.
The earth's veins roared and mountains trembled.
In the region he had marked, all spiritual energy instantly boiled away, evaporating completely and creating a massive vacuum of power.
Then, with the cooperation of the Heavenly Dao, the last vestiges of immortal spiritual energy in the world were swept up by the surrounding spiritual power and poured into this vacuum.
With his cosmic form, Li Fan used the command tablet as a brush to inscribe a single character upon the Xuanhuang Realm:[CREATION]!
Although his current cultivation realm was insufficient to command immortal spiritual energy directly, he could use this method to artificially create a special zone that would draw the immortal energy in on its own.
This was the largest True Immortal script he had ever written.
It was a feat only possible by borrowing the power of the Super Xuanhuang Realm, pushed to its absolute limit.
If he had relied on his own power alone, even with the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven and the Xuanhuang World-Ending Transformation as his foundation, he would have been drained dry in an instant.
But now, the life force from the star sea rift was being drawn out in a ceaseless torrent.
The Supreme Autumn Water became a blue sword shadow, zipping across the Xuanhuang Realm, evenly infusing it with the infinite power of the star sea.
All this, combined with the power from the realm fragments and other resources the Xuanhuang Realm had absorbed but not yet fully digested...
All of it came together now, like fuel, and the character for[CREATION]ignited with a roar.
Creation unfolded within the Xuanhuang Realm.
The four celestial pillars ascended once more, reaching for the heavens. The grotto-heavens and blessed lands pulsed with light, their intrinsic laws growing ever more sacred. The creatures of the earth reaped the benefits without effort; their souls and bodies strengthened at a pace that defied logic...
Amidst a cascade of auspicious signs, the Xuanhuang Realm's ascent continued, surging ever upward.
Creation itself was happening before his very eyes.
Watching the dramatic transformation he had personally engineered, Li Fan recalled all the differences in the Xuanhuang Realm before and after this change.
He remembered every detail of his countless communications with the world's Heavenly Dao at each stage.
Li Fan's expression grew distant for a moment.
"Is it Heaven, or is it Man?"
"Heaven and Man are one."
"If Heaven can attain creation, so can Man."
"By sitting on the mountain, one can ascend to the heavens. By sitting on the heavens..."
"One can ascend to immortality!"
Countless streams of glowing characters arranged and rearranged themselves in his mind.
Finally, they combined into a single, dazzling cultivation technique.
The Sitting Heaven Technique!
Ever since he had deduced the Sitting Mountain Technique to the level of the Sitting Immortal Technique, Li Fan's primary cultivation method had become largely useless.
What constrained him was not the amount of cultivation, but the bottleneck between major realms.
No matter how much cultivation he amassed, if he couldn't cross that threshold, it was all for naught.
Thus, Li Fan had almost forgotten about his own primary technique, which was, in itself, a bizarre state of affairs for a cultivator.
But now, witnessing the Xuanhuang Realm ascend and transform under the power of creation, he felt a natural, intuitive understanding.
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he had deduced and perfected the Sitting Mountain Technique to its next stage.
The Sitting Heaven Technique had long been within Li Fan's theoretical grasp. Now, by witnessing this sacred spectacle and comprehending this divine art, he felt only a slight stir in his heart.
After all, for him, breakthroughs in his realm were far more important than increases in his cultivation base. Having witnessed the infinite power of the star sea and mastered the Jun Tian Divine Art, raising his cultivation would be trivially easy once his realm advanced.
Li Fan's heart was calm, without joy or sorrow.
The Sitting Heaven Technique was a method he himself had deduced; he knew it like the back of his hand. It shared the same root as the Sitting Mountain Technique, and with a single thought, he had already mastered it.
Now, as the Xuanhuang Realm surged forward on its path to the Immortal Realm, the feedback from the Sitting Heaven Technique was like a great river, roaring into existence.
He was already at the peak of Soul Transformation. With the bottleneck still unbroken, any excess cultivation could only be stored for now.
Phantoms of the[Calamity Bodies]from the Supreme Sect appeared within Li Fan.
But now, Li Fan could faintly sense a tenuous connection between these calamity bodies and a certain someone in the Land of Carefree Joy.
"Even if I wished to bring my chickens and dogs to heaven with me..."
"You are not among them."
Li Fan shook his head slightly, his expression indifferent.
The calamity bodies in his dantian shattered one by one. Then, under the downpour of what seemed like an endless feedback of power, they reformed—not as phantoms of Li Fan, but in the shape of the Xuanhuang Realm itself!
Across countless cycles, Li Fan had, if not flayed the Xuanhuang Realm alive, then certainly dug three feet into its every corner.
With every world-ending event, everything within the Xuanhuang Realm was laid bare before him.
In this world, no one understood the Xuanhuang Realm better than Li Fan.
Even the Heavenly Dao itself was unaware of the various measures Li Fan had deeply implanted within its body.
When understanding reaches a certain conceptual depth...
Under the replication of his will, the phantom of the Xuanhuang Realm that formed in his dantian was identical to the real Xuanhuang Realm in every way!
Aside from the absence of living beings, every single detail corresponded perfectly.
What shocked Li Fan even more was that the energy level of this phantom world formed by the feedback was almost identical to that of the Xuanhuang Realm at this very moment!
In other words, the world phantom formed in his dantian by the feedback from the Xuanhuang's ascension could be considered another Xuanhuang Realm.
Albeit, one that existed purely as a form of energy!
"This... how is this possible?"
"How can there be this much feedback power?"
Even as the creator of the technique, Li Fan was stunned by the scene before him.
But he was a man who had seen much.
He quickly composed himself, his expression not of joy, but of growing gravity.
"The principle of the Sitting Heaven Technique is similar to the Sitting Mountain Technique. I reap what it sows. It advances, and I advance with it."
"I have used every trick up my sleeve, and the Xuanhuang Realm is just a hair's breadth from ascension. It has been sublimating for so long, yet it still hasn't achieved that qualitative leap..."
"Before, I couldn't quantify the energy level changes during the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension. But now, based on the world phantom forming in my dantian, I can roughly calculate the changes during its path to immortality."
Li Fan stared at his dantian.
Shortly after one world phantom was fully formed...
A second one appeared.
In the space of a few breaths, thirteen phantoms of the Xuanhuang Realm had manifested.
And, by the looks of it, there was no sign of it stopping.
"Thirteen times the total energy of the Xuanhuang Realm in its critical state of sublimation."
"That must be thousands, if not tens of thousands of times the energy of the original, ordinary Xuanhuang Realm."
"Such an unbelievably terrifying amount of energy, and yet it's still not enough to push the Xuanhuang Realm to complete its immortal transformation..."
"Could it be that I truly have to use all the chess pieces left behind by Sun Piao Miao, to rely on his backup plan, to recreate an Immortal Realm in the mortal world?"
"Is the gap between immortal methods truly that vast?"
A sense of foreboding suddenly welled up in Li Fan's heart.
And Li Fan's premonitions were usually right.
When the immortal spiritual energy from the Great Heavenly Venerable's legacy was exhausted...
When the character for 'Creation' faded away, its driving force gone...
The dramatic transformation occurring in the Xuanhuang Realm came to an abrupt halt.
For a moment, the world fell deathly silent.
Then, something terrifying happened.
As the saying goes, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. Now, Li Fan was watching the Xuanhuang Realm personally verify this point.
A frantic, angry, shocked, and terrified will from the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao assaulted Li Fan, begging him to save it.
But soon, the Heavenly Dao's will was drowned out by an unspeakably loud noise that echoed through the world.
The pseudo-celestial pillars at the four corners of the world collapsed like toys.
The sky was sliced open as if by a razor-sharp blade, and massive black fissures instantly webbed across it.
Mountains collapsed, and the earth split asunder.
Even under the protection of the grand immortal array, the living beings of the Xuanhuang Realm died silently, one after another, from the shockwave of this falling sound.
Countless contingency plans flashed through Li Fan's mind.
But none seemed capable of reversing this apocalyptic scene.
If it were just the world falling, Li Fan might have had a sliver of a chance.
But as the world disintegrated, the rolling black qi that swarmed out from the wounds in heaven and earth completely extinguished any hope of survival.
Like a tsunami, it arrived in an instant, surrounding the Xuanhuang Realm.
Li Fan vaguely saw, outside the Xuanhuang Realm, the Dao-comprehending True Immortal from the Immortal Ruins fleeing with a look of horror.
Within the Source Dao Province of the Xuanhuang Realm, the Grandmaster's phantom dissolved into a strange, blurry light, trying to escape. But it was easily swallowed by a single wave of the black qi tide, unable to struggle in the slightest.
The endless Land of Carefree Joy was also collapsing, layer by layer.
All the creatures who had been living a sheltered life in the dream were buried along with it.
...
The fall accelerated.
The momentum of the black tide grew ever more terrifying.
And beyond this roiling blackness, something even more indescribable seemed to be approaching.
Li Fan sighed softly, forced to admit that this attempt at ascension had failed.
"I still miscalculated."
That thought flashed through his mind, and then the Dao Annihilation black qi descended.
It completely submerged him.
...
...
...
The scene changed abruptly.
Li Fan reappeared, completely unscathed, but his expression was incredibly grave.
Current time: Twenty-four hours before Li Fan's Dao Integration and ascension to immortality.
"It actually failed?"
"All preparations were in place, yet it still ended in failure."
"It seems that accumulating quantity can only get you infinitely close to [Immortality]."
"To truly transform into an immortal, something else is needed, something crucial..."
"But what could it be?"
Having used his early simulation from [Truth], Li Fan didn't have much time left in this life.
(End of Chapter)
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