Chapter 1413: Instant Kill on Evil Su Bai
In an instant, Evil Su Bai shockingly mimicked Li Fan, unleashing his own Nine Heavens Descending Dust Finger. Yet, its power was a thousand times greater.
An indescribable force crashed down. Unlike the last time, Li Fan didn't simply "die" without sensation. Instead, he could vividly feel the agonizing process of his body and soul being repeatedly ground to dust, inch by inch.
Considering Evil Su Bai had already demonstrated the power to kill him in an instant, it was clear he was torturing Li Fan on purpose.
Li Fan could even faintly make out a look of cruel enjoyment on his adversary's face.
"You—"
The world before him blurred and shifted once more.
Li Fan found himself back at the point just before he encountered Evil Su Bai.
Dying twice in a row left a bitter taste of frustration in Li Fan's mouth. However, years of experience with reincarnation had forged an extraordinary mental fortitude. Within moments, he had calmed down.
But now, Li Fan was certain. Evil Su Bai’s power was far beyond the simple confines of the Longevity stage.
In the world of cultivation, the strong reigned supreme and the weak were merely prey. There was no point in getting angry about it.
"This isn't the real world," he reasoned. "It's an illusory landscape constructed by an eternal remnant will."
"That Evil Su Bai appears here and attacks without warning. Yet, he still leaves the person being tested some time to prepare."
"And even if I fail the test and die, I'm instantly resurrected..."
As Li Fan pieced it together, the nature of the test left by Su Bai's eternal will became clear.
Defeat Evil Su Bai.
"In the real world, I doubt anyone in the entire Xuanhuang Realm, or even the Darkest Star Sea, could accomplish such a feat."
"But this is an illusion generated by the eternal will. It's like a thought experiment. Any method I can conceive of is possible..."
"In a way, this is just an advanced version of the Tianxuan Mirror's 'Sitting and Discussing Dao' combat feature."
Realization dawned on Li Fan.
"Immortal Array, Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit!"
His thoughts spun rapidly, and within his mind, the Dissociation Disc erupted in a blaze of endless light.
It was as if, in that instant, the incomplete Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array was made whole.
Black and white light swirled around Li Fan, carving earth, fire, water, and wind from the void and giving birth to a new world.
Li Fan stood at its center, like a creator god from ancient myths, a master of genesis.
He had the distinct feeling that as long as he remained within the array, he could control and diminish anything within its reach, bending all to his will.
Of course, the Dissociation Disc did not yet possess the complete schematics for the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array.
But having already mastered three-ninths of it, Li Fan had both a quantitative and qualitative understanding of the complete array's true power.
Therefore, aided by the space of Su Bai's eternal will, he could skip the intermediate process and directly "manifest" the final result.
In the void, Li Fan sat enthroned at the heart of the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array.
The world he had created expanded rapidly in all directions.
It quickly engulfed the motionless form of Evil Su Bai.
"I am the master of this Immortal Realm!" Li Fan declared, channeling the immense power of the array. He transformed the countless laws of his new world into chains, seeking to bind Evil Su Bai.
The Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit, a fusion of nine arrays, indeed revealed its terrifying might.
Motes of shimmering light began to drain from Evil Su Bai’s body, flowing into the world Li Fan had forged.
Simultaneously, countless phantoms of Su Bai materialized between heaven and earth.
Every single one of them seemed to possess the power of the Longevity stage.
Like a tide of countless ants, they swarmed toward Evil Su Bai.
Entangled by an ever-increasing number of chains, Evil Su Bai seemed to abandon the struggle, standing perfectly still.
He simply allowed the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array to whittle away at his strength.
But the wicked, knowing smile on his face filled Li Fan with a deep sense of unease.
Soon enough, Li Fan understood the source of his disquiet.
It seemed the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array couldn't even begin to touch the upper limits of Evil Su Bai’s power.
Even though it was draining him at the maximum theoretical limit permitted by the array's principles with every passing instant, this endless deduction...
...seemed to be utterly inconsequential to Evil Su Bai.
"How is this possible?!" The shock in Li Fan's heart was so great that he began to wonder if this whole test was just a cruel joke Mr. Bai had left for his successors before his death.
Theoretically, a complete Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array could reduce an immortal to a mortal, or elevate a mortal to an immortal, in the span of a single breath.
It was akin to having the cultivation base of a True Immortal perpetually stripped away, yet Evil Su Bai stood as firm as a mountain, as deep as an abyss, utterly unmoved.
"The realm of a Nameless True Immortal?" Li Fan's suspicion grew deeper.
Meanwhile, Evil Su Bai seemed to have had enough of this tedious game.
He even began to actively channel his power, letting the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Grand Array drain its fill all at once.
A seemingly infinite torrent of a True Immortal's cultivation base flooded into the world Li Fan had created.
The world expanded infinitely through the endless void, stretching for countless miles in a single instant.
Even the immortal-grade Dissociation Disc was gradually pushed to its absolute limit.
Cracks spiderwebbed across its surface until, finally, it could bear no more and disintegrated inch by inch.
And with the collapse of the Mysterious Origin Primal Spirit Array, the 'Immortal Realm' Li Fan had created met its apocalypse.
This time, Li Fan perished amidst the great calamity of his own realm's destruction.
...
"The realm of a Nameless True Immortal."
A short while later, resurrected once more, Li Fan floated in the void, contemplating the methods he knew that could, in theory, stand against the realm of a Nameless True Immortal.
"To merge with the Dao, to become one with it..."
When Evil Su Bai lunged at him again, a seven-colored paintbrush materialized in Li Fan's hand.
"Bind!" With a single thought, a True Immortal Seal Character materialized in the void before him.
It acted like an invisible golden lock, imprisoning Evil Su Bai.
"Chaos!"
"Hunger!"
"Trap!"
"Ancient!"
...
One after another, True Immortal Seal Characters, each representing a fundamental law of the universe, flew from Li Fan's brush toward Evil Su Bai. At that moment, Li Fan seemed to have become the legendary Inscription Immortal himself.
Wielding the very principles of heaven and earth, he fought his enemy with the Dao itself.
Countless characters devolved from their seal script form, unraveling back into raw lines of power.
They wove together into a mesmerizing, fantastical dreamscape that began to drag Evil Su Bai into its depths.
Li Fan's own body was enveloped by the infinite Dao, becoming indistinct, as if he had merged with the Dao itself.
It seemed, for a moment, that victory was within his grasp.
But then, an accidental glance revealed the same hint of mockery on Evil Su Bai's face.
Li Fan's heart leaped into his throat.
What he saw next sent a chill of horror down his spine.
Evil Su Bai, trapped in the center of the vortex of Dao, slowly extended his right hand.
The endless lines of power, as if drawn by an irresistible force, all changed course and converged upon his outstretched hand.
Within the span of three breaths, the infinite Dao that Li Fan had written into existence vanished completely.
It had been compressed into a single, crystal-clear piece of candy.
Evil Su Bai tossed it into his mouth and, with a sickening crunch, chewed it to pieces.
This time, Li Fan experienced the sensation of being refined into candy and swallowed alive.
...
"Not even the power of the Inscription Immortal works?"
By now, all shock and anger had drained from Li Fan's heart. He felt numb. He pushed aside the question of whether Evil Su Bai's power was even logical or possible.
His mind was focused on a single goal: how to kill, or at the very least, defeat him.
"Conventional methods are useless. So, I'll use what I'm best at."
He stood once more in the arena of this challenge.
"Ascend!"
Li Fan roared.
The phantom energies stored within him, born from the feedback of the Xuanhuang Realm's ascension, manifested one by one into reality.
Here, in this conceptual space, their numbers were amplified tens of millions of times over.
In an instant, countless Xuanhuang Realms blazed into existence, shining like a galaxy of stars.
All ascending to immortality in unison!
The bizarre spectacle was so overwhelming that even Evil Su Bai, who had been rushing to kill him, was momentarily distracted.
Just as billions of Xuanhuang Realms reached the critical point of their transformation...
...with a single thought from Li Fan, the driving force behind their sublimation vanished.
Instantly, they plummeted from the apex of their power.
It was like countless giant stones plunging into a deep ocean, instantly churning up a terrifying, monstrous tsunami.
Countless tendrils of black energy seeped out from every crack in space.
Gathering like dust motes into a storm, they coalesced into the forms of ferocious, terrifying beasts.
Where the black energy was most concentrated, it even formed humanoid figures.
They bore a striking, eighty to ninety percent resemblance to the Xuanhuang Realm's world spirit, Ink Killer!
Even Li Fan, the one who had unleashed this, hadn't anticipated such an outcome. His pupils contracted as he stared at the pandemonium of rampaging fiends.
The Dao Annihilation Calamity... the black energy given form.
It surged toward the only two living beings left in this pocket of spacetime.
And the vast majority of them targeted Evil Su Bai.
Relying on the imagined cultivation of a Nameless True Immortal, Li Fan could just barely manage to stay alive.
He watched Evil Su Bai, observing how he handled the unending assault of the black energy beasts.
Evil Su Bai was no longer as composed as before, his playful attitude gone.
He was extremely cautious, not allowing a single one of the energy beasts to touch his body.
With a mere wave of his hand, vast swarms of the beasts were annihilated into nothingness.
But the tide of beasts was overwhelming, and for the moment, he was trapped within it.
Evil Su Bai’s brow furrowed, a flicker of annoyance crossing his features.
Li Fan saw his opponent's body begin to ripple like the surface of water.
With each ripple, a new figure of Su Bai appeared in perfect sync within the space.
Their faces weren't as distinct as Evil Su Bai's.
But Li Fan could still faintly make out their expressions.
There was one like the Mr. Bai of the Xuanhuang Realm, filled with compassion for all living things. There was another like a wandering rogue, wild and unrestrained.
There was one like a timid, useless scholar. And another like a butcher, radiating an overwhelming aura of slaughter.
The cultivation base of every single one of these Su Bais was identical to that of the original.
And just like the black energy beasts...
...they were endless!
Under the combined assault of this legion of Su Bais, the world-ending black tide was suppressed.
Yet, throughout the entire process, they deliberately left Li Fan untouched.
It was as if they were saving Li Fan's life for the original Evil Su Bai to take.
Staring into those countless pairs of eyes fixed upon him—some playful, some mocking, some filled with pity...
...Li Fan decisively chose to end his own life.
...
Another rebirth.
"Even the black energy of the Dao Annihilation Calamity is useless?"
This time, Li Fan didn't resist. He simply floated in the void, thinking.
"Perhaps only the true Dao Annihilation Calamity can destroy him."
Unfortunately, Li Fan had no idea what the true Dao Annihilation Calamity looked like.
A fantasy with no basis in reality would not manifest in this space of eternal will.
Before his thoughts could stray any further, he was once again instantly killed by Evil Su Bai.
For a long time after that...
...Li Fan tried every trick he knew, doing everything in his power to resist Evil Su Bai.
All the while, he searched for a way to break the stalemate.
Even though the damage to his soul from each death within the eternal will was negligible...
...once the number of deaths reached a certain threshold...
...changes inevitably began to occur in Li Fan's real body.
"I can withdraw from this test whenever I wish."
When the upper limit of his soul had been reduced by a third...
...the newly reborn Li Fan sensed a subtle shift.
But he didn't choose to flee just yet.
Instead, he was carefully considering his decision.
"In fact, I've known how to deal with this Evil Su Bai all along."
"Even if I go through countless more rebirths, I suspect this will remain the only possible path to victory."
Li Fan hesitated, undecided.
"Although I can easily obliterate this phantom of Evil Su Bai..."
"....doing so would risk exposing the [Truth].'
"Is it worth the risk?"
After an unknown amount of time had passed, he died at the hands of Evil Su Bai yet again.
In his final moments, he stared at that loathsome smile on his opponent's face.
The reborn Li Fan's eyes suddenly hardened with resolve.
"First, I trust in the character of the Xuanhuang Realm's Mr. Bai."
"A man willing to sacrifice his own body to the Dao for the sake of the world's mortals would not set a trap in his own remains."
"Furthermore..."
An unprecedented light blazed in Li Fan's eyes.
"I have ascended to immortality. I am no longer a mere mortal."
"[Truth] has been my companion for so long. How could it be stolen by a mere bone relic?"
In the real world, Li Fan's true body was ready to activate [Truth] at a moment's notice.
Back in the illusion of the eternal will, he watched the sneering form of Evil Su Bai fly toward him.
Li Fan's expression was proud as he softly chanted.
"Truth to lies, reality to dream."
The advancing Evil Su Bai froze in mid-air.
A look of utter disbelief spread across his face.
Then, his body began to fade, disappearing from before Li Fan's eyes.
Evil Su Bai—the supreme powerhouse who had seemed invincible, who could crush Nameless True Immortals and remain unscathed even amidst the tide of the Dao Annihilation Calamity.
Was killed so easily, by a single thought from Li Fan.
"So this is..."
"The Dao of Truth and Illusion."
"Not a baseless fantasy."
"But a supreme Great Dao, truly within reach."
"It's just that I am still a long way from mastering it."
Having tasted the supreme authority he could wield within the illusion, a faint sense of loss and melancholy welled up within Li Fan.
He had, in theory, successfully slain Evil Su Bai.
The space of the eternal will began to disintegrate.
In a daze, he found himself back in reality.
Li Fan felt a surge of excitement from [Truth], as if it had just feasted on a sumptuous meal.
"The Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate truly loves the people of this world."
"Seeking life in death, returning the world to truth."
A moment later, a message from [Truth] echoed in his mind.
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