Chapter 1404: The Pause of Dao Concealment
Chapter 1404: The Pause of Dao Concealment
In the past, whenever Li Fan activated [Truth], a layer of illusory mist would envelop his surroundings.
Everything in the world would lose its reality.
When his consciousness reawakened, he would find himself back at the established anchor point.
But now...
When Li Fan silently invoked [Truth] in his mind, it wasn't a thick curtain of water that appeared to veil his surroundings.
At his mere thought, the entire world fell still, its vibrant colors draining away into a stark, monotonous black and white.
Li Fan had never observed the world from such a perspective. He stared, transfixed, at the shattered remains of the All Things Return to Void Array. The residual force of the wind seemed frozen in mid-air.
Countless Immortal Heavenly Spirits, each with a unique form, surrounded him.
...
Everything before him seemed no different from the moment before he activated [Truth]. The only change was that it was all now trapped in a static, black-and-white world.
Li Fan observed cautiously for a long while. Then, with a flicker of thought, his form shimmered and he began to move, gliding through the frozen world!
It was an utterly novel experience. Li Fan narrowed his eyes and reached out to touch a nearby Immortal Heavenly Spirit.
Even in its monochromatic form, Li Fan recognized it at once: an old acquaintance, Crimson Flame.
Compared to its time as a Heavenly Spirit, the expression on Crimson Flame's face was far more vivid, almost indistinguishable from a living person's. Yet its eyes remained tightly shut, and the illusory clothes on its body were tattered, making it stand out from the other Immortal Heavenly Spirits.
The instant Li Fan's hand made contact with Crimson Flame, its body shimmered and dissolved into countless motes of light that drifted away.
Moreover, Li Fan sensed that the boundary of this static world had shrunk significantly.
Ignoring the distant scene for a moment, Li Fan narrowed his eyes, replaying the images that had just flashed through his mind.
Along with a few fragments of the purest laws of fire, there were scattered scenes from a memory.
They were the memories of a blind cultivator who had mastered the Dao of fire.
The power this blind cultivator displayed in the memory sent a shudder of astonishment through Li Fan.
In a cold, desolate star domain that stretched to infinity, the blind cultivator sat in meditation. Countless eons passed, and slowly, specks of fiery light began to gather around him.
The frigid domain gradually grew warm, then intensely hot. In the end, the entire star domain was incinerated by an invisible flame, becoming an absolute void where not even the memory of cold remained.
At the end of the vision, the blind cultivator himself seemed to vanish from existence.
Li Fan had now reached the Dao Integration stage by merging with the Immortal Heavenly Spirits. Though technically only at the Dao Integration realm, his actual power was that of a demi-immortal.
As such, he could truly appreciate the staggering power displayed by the blind cultivator in the memory.
"Just the phenomena caused by his meditation were this terrifying," he murmured.
"A True Immortal... That had to be a True Immortal!"
Li Fan's heart pounded in his chest.
But soon, an even more incredible realization dawned on him.
"Wait, what I just saw..."
"A True Immortal achieving enlightenment and vanishing from the world."
"Was that a vision of him achieving the state of a Nameless True Immortal?"
A fresh wave of shock coursed through Li Fan, so powerful his body began to tremble uncontrollably.
His thoughts raced, and after a few moments, he began to form a hypothesis.
"The Heavenly Spirits are born from the laws of the Xuanhuang Realm, using the imprints left behind by cultivators throughout history."
"When the Xuanhuang Realm ascended to become the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, this trait was preserved. The Immortal Heavenly Spirits are also manifestations of the Immortal Realm's laws, but they draw upon even deeper imprints left upon the world."
"They are one with the Dao, perhaps even merged with it. And who resonates more deeply with the fundamental laws than the Nameless True Immortals, who once used the Dao itself to achieve their final transcendence?"
"Once they enter that nameless state, they vanish from the world. All the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm can perceive of them is the final vision of their existence right before that ultimate transformation..."
Li Fan's expression grew grim.
He knew that if his guess was correct, then what he had just absorbed was nothing less than the enlightenment of a Nameless True Immortal at the very moment of their transcendence!
Even if he had only captured the faintest sliver from those scattered motes of light.
For Li Fan, who had only just set foot into the realm of immortals, the benefit was immeasurable.
He carefully savored the insights swirling in his mind.
But after the initial wave of excitement, a sense of unease settled over him.
"Beyond the True Immortal realm, one merges with a Dao to become nameless. Each path is unique. Since this Dao of Flame is already taken, what use is its enlightenment to me?"
"Unless..."
"That blind Nameless True Immortal... is dead."
The more he considered it, the more plausible it seemed.
He quickly scanned the surrounding Immortal Heavenly Spirits. Those that had taken on a near-human form like Crimson Flame were exceedingly rare; he could only see two others.
"If I absorb them," he thought, "I should be able to perceive the final moments of their corresponding Nameless True Immortals as well."
Just as he was about to act, his expression suddenly changed.
In the short time he had been lost in thought, the boundary of the static, black-and-white world had shrunk again, drastically.
Only a spherical region with a radius of about thirty-three meters remained around him.
Within this space, there were no other Immortal Heavenly Spirits.
A sense of helplessness washed over him. "So it's not just absorbing things that accelerates the collapse," he mused. "Just lingering too long has the same effect..."
"This preserved space created by [Truth] isn't permanent. From the looks of it, the duration is quite short for now."
Li Fan now understood the new change that had come over [Truth] since his ascension to Dao Integration—or more accurately, since he had become a demi-immortal.
Now, when he activated it, the world didn't immediately dissolve into illusion. Instead, a large area, with himself at the center, would be preserved in a state of black-and-white stillness.
He hadn't had a chance to verify the full extent of this region, but it must have been vast, as it had seemingly encompassed the entire Xuanhuang Immortal Realm within his sight.
He also suspected that the range and duration of this static region were likely tied directly to his own power.
Having only just stepped into the realm of immortals, the effect he could sustain was naturally quite limited.
"I'll call this black-and-white static region the 'Dao Concealment' zone for now."
"Within the Dao Concealment zone, everything but myself seems to exist in a superposition of 'both real and unreal.' Maintaining this zone must require some form of energy related to [Truth]."
"When I touch or perceive something within the zone, it's like I'm pulling it from that 'real and unreal' state into the same 'real' state that I'm in."
"This must consume a great deal of the energy maintaining the zone, which is why its boundary shrinks so drastically..."
Even as the space around him shrank to nothing, Li Fan didn't immediately leave the Dao Concealment zone.
He had already sensed that his comprehension of the [True False Transformation] was thousands, even millions of times easier within this zone than in the normal world. Every extra moment he lingered here offered boundless benefits.
"When the real is taken for the false, the false becomes real."
Li Fan contemplated, trying to grasp the true essence of [Truth].
At the same time, he watched the boundary of the Dao Concealment zone, now less than thirty-three meters away.
Just as it had been in the past, the boundary was shrouded in a thick, watery mist.
"Real is unreal. Unreal is real."
His brow furrowed in concentration as he strained to decipher this most ethereal and profound of worldly principles.
A short while later, the Dao Concealment zone shrank again.
The billowing mist submerged everything until only Li Fan remained.
His consciousness slowly sank into darkness.
This time, however, he did not fall completely unconscious.
He lingered in a state between waking and sleep, and in that trance, he seemed to see an endless light erupt from the darkness.
Within the blazing white light, countless events, people, and objects surged into being.
When Li Fan's consciousness fully returned...
Anchor Year 1. The summit of Jieli Mountain!
Li Fan felt a little dazed.
He held out his hands, studying them carefully.
Everything he had experienced since activating [Truth] felt deeply unreal.
His mind remained immersed in the insights he had gained on the True False Transformation.
A full day and night passed before the last ripples of inspiration faded, and he temporarily ceased his meditation.
Only then did Li Fan turn his attention to the prompt from [Truth].
[This simulation has ended.]
[You may choose one of the following to retain:
1. An item in your possession from this simulation.
2. Your cultivation realm from this simulation.
3. The simulation memory of a person close to you. This memory can be inherited by said person.
4. Forfeit the above options to accelerate the recharge progress.]
...
"Even after becoming a demi-immortal, there was no prompt about an 'additional interference variable' that would let me inherit an extra option."
"It seems [Truth] fully expected me to become a demi-immortal."
Li Fan remarked with a self-deprecating smile.
"Still, the birth of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm didn't count as an interference variable, but the being descending from beyond the High Wall did...?" Li Fan fell into a brief, thoughtful silence.
He shook his head, pushing the thought aside.
"There's no point in overthinking it. As a demi-immortal, I am now invincible within this Star Sea."
"In this lifetime, I must set my sights beyond the High Wall."
"Whatever mysteries lie there, I'll uncover them myself!"
After countless trials and tribulations, he had finally reached the Dao Integration realm, becoming a demi-immortal.
His path had been far from perfect, but he was now an immortal, transcendent above all mortal affairs.
Of the four choices offered by [Truth], inheriting his cultivation was the obvious one.
However...
He walked slowly to the edge of a cliff on Jieli Mountain and looked up at the fragile sky of the Great Xuan, and beyond it, the Xuanhuang Realm.
A sigh escaped his lips.
"If I inherit my cultivation here, the celestial phenomena of my ascension would likely tear this small world of the Great Xuan to pieces."
"Even the greater Xuanhuang Realm, stitched together from so many worlds, might shatter from the shockwaves and fall into the Immortal Ruins."
"So be it."
"I still have a use for these worlds."
His expression solemn, Li Fan softly chanted, "Falsehood becomes truth."
The next moment, through pure visualization, the sensation of his demi-immortal cultivation base from the previous life descended, suffusing his current body.
Thanks to his prolonged meditation within the Dao Concealment zone, Li Fan's understanding of the [True False Transformation] had ascended to a whole new level.
Previously, he could only sustain this visualized power for a fleeting instant. Now, he could hold it for three full breaths.
As he chanted, Li Fan's power surged, restoring him to the peak demi-immortal strength of his previous life.
Within the first breath, his Wooden Sword was unsheathed, and he had already teleported to the empty depths of the Star Sea.
During the second breath, he selected the option from [Truth] to inherit his cultivation realm.
Instantly, a tempest erupted in the Star Sea, churning with cosmic gales and tidal waves of power!
With the newly ascended Li Fan at its epicenter, the power of countless residual True Immortal Scripts coalesced into a terrifying storm that shook the entire Star Sea.
As if pulled by an unseen force, the dormant, residual power of the True Immortal Scripts scattered throughout the Star Sea surged toward the storm's center, like a thousand rivers flowing to the ocean.
The tempest showed every sign of escalating.
As the third breath passed, Li Fan fully inherited his cultivation, his Dao integrated with the Immortal Heavenly Spirit of Ink Death.
In this era, for the first time since the fall of the Xuantian King tens of thousands of years ago...
...a second demi-immortal had finally appeared!
"[Truth] is truly something else,"
Li Fan murmured in awe, feeling the deep, boundless power surging within him. Unlike the ephemeral strength he had visualized—a rootless thing that could vanish at any moment...
...what [Truth] had granted was real. The false had truly become truth.
The demi-immortal Li Fan watched the storm of residual power he had created, which was still growing in intensity, and slowly extended his left hand.
The surging, expanding tempest halted instantly. Then, it began to flow into his palm in a continuous stream.
In the span of a few breaths, the terrifying cataclysm—one that could have plunged the Star Sea into ruin once more—was effortlessly neutralized by Li Fan.
Li Fan pursed his lips, gazing at the mass of residual True Immortal power he now held in his palm. It was crumpled together like a ball of paper covered in countless different scripts.
Even without consciously protecting himself, this ancient, calamitous power—which he had once regarded as a ravenous tiger to be constantly on guard against—could not harm him in the slightest.
"It's not that this residual power has lost its potency."
"Rather, the laws they constitute simply cannot affect me now that I am an 'Immortal'."
"After all, this is merely the aftershock of the True Immortal Scripts."
Li Fan was quite satisfied with his newfound strength.
"In truth, aside from the lack of immortal spiritual energy within me, there's little difference between myself and the True Immortals of old. At the very least, our fundamental level of existence is the same."
"Immortal spiritual energy..."
Li Fan's attention turned to his bound item: the Dissociation Disk.
Normally, no matter what changes a bound item underwent during a simulation—whether it was damaged or enhanced—it would have no effect on the original stored within [Truth]'s binding space.
Upon his return, the item would revert to its original state.
But now...
With a thought, Li Fan summoned the Dissociation Disk.
Within his sea of consciousness, it was as if countless brilliant stars had risen, dazzling the mind's eye.
The [Dissociation Disk, Immortal Grade] had astonishingly returned to the present with him!
"Just like the Faceless Immortal's leg bone before."
Li Fan glanced at the [...Leg Bone] still in his binding space and mused, "It seems only items on the level of a True Immortal are qualified to pass through the True False Transformation with me."
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