Chapter 1415: The Heavenly Doctor's Enlightenment and Death
Chapter 1415: The Heavenly Doctor's Enlightenment and Death
"The existence of Evil Su Bai beyond the High Wall is utterly staggering."
"It's not merely his power that's so shocking; it touches upon the very truth of the mortal realm."
"Infinite possibilities, rising in parallel..."
"No, it's far more complex than that!"
Li Fan watched as countless memories belonging to the late Su Bai of the Xuanhuang Realm streaked past like meteors.
He couldn't help but glance again at the countdown on his [Truth] panel: seven million, three hundred and sixty thousand years.
"Within Evil Su Bai's memories, there was more than just rampant slaughter. There were also images of a truly terrifying calamity."
"Even someone with Evil Su Bai's unfathomable power could only flee in disarray before that world-ending cataclysm!"
"The true Dao Annihilation Calamity!"
Harnessing the power of the Xuanhuang Su Bai's eternal remnant will, Li Fan experienced the true horror of the Dao Annihilation Calamity firsthand, through the eyes of Evil Su Bai.
From the Xuanhuang Realm and the Darkest Star Sea, to the great void beyond and the countless cultivation worlds—even the Immortal Realm floating above the Infinite Sea.
This entire, unimaginably vast and magnificent existence collapsed in a single instant.
Without warning, without a sound, it was simply annihilated.
Even the very concept of nothingness was erased.
The only chance of survival was to leap into another possibility before the wave of the Dao Annihilation Calamity struck.
...
"So, this countdown of seven million, three hundred sixty thousand years... is this the time calculated by [Truth] until *all* possibilities are completely extinguished?"
Li Fan's thoughts churned, his mind unable to find peace for a long time.
"Evil Su Bai frantically hunts and kills his other selves across different possibilities. After sensing Su Bai's presence within the High Wall, he exhausted every means to make him leap back over and willingly submit..."
"It seems that for him, the existence of his other selves in alternate possibilities is of paramount importance."
"In Evil Su Bai's memories, every act of killing his other self was accompanied by a wave of slaughter a hundred times more brutal than what he had unleashed upon the Tianfa Realm. It was an annihilation that left no corpses, no blood, not even memories—only a void that consumed the world."
Compared to what Evil Su Bai had done, Li Fan's own acts of world destruction seemed utterly insignificant.
"Is this Evil Su Bai's own nature, or is this the way all powerful beings of his caliber act beyond the High Wall?"
Li Fan took a deep breath.
"Regardless, for the Xuanhuang Realm, the existence of Evil Su Bai is a threat even more terrifying than the Dao Annihilation Calamity itself."
"At the very least, there are no signs of the Dao Annihilation Calamity's imminent arrival. But if Evil Su Bai were lured from beyond the High Wall, everything within it would be reduced to nothingness in an instant."
"That's why Su Bai chose to die, to temporarily sever his connection to Evil Su Bai. He even altered the memories of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao that accompanied him, and modified every part of the inheritance trial in the Fallen Immortal Realm that had any link to his malevolent counterpart."
"He left the crucial information only within his own eternal remnant will."
The myriad complex memories slowly faded.
Li Fan returned to the present. The skull in his hand dissolved into specks of starlight, vanishing into the world.
"During the period he was tainted by Evil Su Bai, the Xuanhuang Su Bai's perspective managed to transcend a single possibility."
"Though I don't know what he saw, it's almost certain that this information was his legacy for whoever came after."
"No matter the method, only someone who could pass the trial—someone who could, in theory, defeat Evil Su Bai—was worthy of being entrusted with this knowledge."
"The secret to how Evil Su Bai not only survived the Dao Annihilation Calamity time and again, but grew stronger through it all!" A sharp glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.
"[Truth] awakened the [Incarnation] function after absorbing Tianyang's eternal will. That was because Tianyang had cultivated the Body Transformation Dao to its very pinnacle."
"And now, the awakening of the [Dao Origin] function is similarly due to Evil Su Bai's cultivation method."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes.
"Dao Annihilation... Dao Origin."
...
Deep within the Museum of Divine Treasures, in the ruins of the Nanming Sacred Mountain.
The conversation between Li Fan's spiritual avatar and Emperor Sanmo continued.
"Our people are not always so fortunate. It's rare that the Nanming Sacred Mountain in the worlds we travel to is perfectly preserved."
"If, by some ill fortune, the energy sealed within that world's Sacred Mountain has already been depleted, then it would truly be a dead end for us," he said with a chuckle.
An image surfaced in Li Fan's mind: what he had witnessed back in the World-Cracking Great Vortex. Emperor Yi, using a majestic, divine mask, had drawn a massive, bronze-hued key from the body of a white serpent to unleash the immense energy within the Nanming Sacred Mountain.
"So, it's a one-time use resource," Li Fan mused.
Emperor Sanmo nodded. "This is also why I and some of the other beasts did not follow him, and why Emperor Yi tacitly allowed it. We are all gambling. After all, given the nature of our people, if Emperor Yi's group were to meet with disaster and be completely wiped out, it wouldn't be long before another Emperor Yi emerged from the survivors."
"So far, that hasn't happened. It seems Emperor Yi has won his gamble yet again," Emperor Sanmo added with another smile.
"But who can guarantee they'll keep winning forever?" Li Fan countered.
Emperor Sanmo met this with silence.
"To think that even leaping to another possibility offers no escape... I truly don't know the origin of such a terrifying calamity." After a moment of silence, Li Fan lamented in a low, somber voice.
"Immortal, perhaps you would listen to a story," Emperor Sanmo said suddenly.
"Not long ago... a wisp of a soul escaped from the device known as the 'Era'. It had endured hundreds of billions of cycles of reincarnation within the device, yet its consciousness remained lucid. Such a quality in a soul is unheard of, a true rarity in all of history."
Having experienced the 'Era' himself, Li Fan's interest was piqued.
*"Sounds like excellent material for forging an eternal remnant will,"* he thought.
"What is its condition now?" Li Fan asked, knowing Emperor Sanmo wouldn't bring it up without reason.
"It has already completely dissipated from the world," Emperor Sanmo replied, shaking his head gently.
"It chose to hide here, in these ruins. The residual energy was enough to shelter its fragile soul, but it was far too little to sustain it for long. And it would rather perish than be thrown back into the 'Era'..."
"By the time I discovered it, it had grown far too weak."
"I was only able to sustain its life force for a short time. Ultimately, it was beyond saving."
"However, in its final days, we discussed many things. Based on my memories and the collective narrative of my entire race, it proposed a theory for the cause of this terrifying, world-ending cataclysm."
"Oh?" Li Fan was instantly alert.
"But it is merely speculation, Immortal. You should take it with a grain of salt," Emperor Sanmo cautioned before slowly beginning.
"Everyone knows that above True Immortals are the Nameless True Immortals. A Nameless True Immortal merges with the Dao itself. From that point on, all records of them vanish from the world, leaving no trace. No one knows how many have achieved this state since the dawn of time. But..."
With a wave of his hand, Emperor Sanmo conjured an illusory image in the air before them.
It was a web of countless fine threads, crisscrossing to support the structure of an entire world.
"Though attaining the state of a Nameless True Immortal is difficult and the probability is minuscule, on an infinite timescale, it is not an impossibility."
"And each time a Nameless True Immortal is born..."
Emperor Sanmo tapped his finger in the air repeatedly.
With each tap, one of the vertical threads in the illusory web vanished.
This continued again and again, for an indiscernible amount of time.
The cosmic web, with these constant losses, grew incomplete.
It began to bend slowly.
Li Fan's eyes narrowed.
Finally, the cosmic web could no longer maintain its form.
It collapsed catastrophically!
And with it, heaven and earth came crashing down!
Emperor Sanmo waved his hand, and the illusion dissipated.
"This is merely our most superficial understanding, not the absolute truth of the matter."
"Perhaps every Great Dao in existence is more crucial than we can imagine. The loss of even a few might be enough to cause the collapse of an entire possibility."
"Or perhaps, aside from Nameless True Immortals merging with their Daos, some other unknown factor is causing the Great Daos to vanish, leading to this unstoppable, world-ending cataclysm..."
Emperor Sanmo's voice was low and somber.
But an image flashed in Li Fan's mind—the leg bone of a Nameless True Immortal, the very one used to construct the Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar.
*"Perhaps this theory is very close to the truth,"* he thought.
Emperor Sanmo continued, "It is precisely because of this chain reaction, this collapse of countless possibilities, that our journey from one to the next has become so much easier."
"Originally, it would have been impossible, even if we had burned all the energy in the Nanming Sacred Mountain."
"To use a simple analogy, you could say that as countless possibilities continuously collapse, they are all drawing closer to one another..."
Li Fan listened, completely engrossed.
A vision formed in his mind's eye.
In the darkness, countless lines of light appeared simultaneously, arrayed side-by-side, stretching into infinity.
But then, without reason, some of them began to vanish into the dark.
Gradually, more and more lines of light disappeared.
The remaining lines, influenced by this inexplicable crisis, began to drift closer together.
Inevitably, they began to twist and tangle.
*"Dao Annihilation."*
*"The Crushing of Daos."*
Li Fan recalled what he had seen in Evil Su Bai's memories, and a cold dread crept into his heart.
"What was the name of this soul? To have conceived such a theory, it could not have been an ordinary person," Li Fan wondered, his thoughts stirred.
Emperor Sanmo didn't conceal it, casually projecting another illusion.
"His name was Qiao Sidao."
"Half a year ago, he finally could not hold on any longer and perished completely."
Li Fan looked at the man's image, noting the resolute expression in his eyes, and nodded slightly.
*"Half a year ago..."*
...
The Darkest Star Sea. The High Wall.
The Heavenly Doctor seemed to have forgotten Li Fan's threat, completely engrossed in his study of the High Wall.
His progress was faster than he had anticipated.
Perhaps it was the result of countless attempts made over many years.
Or perhaps, after meeting a true immortal like Li Fan and witnessing the chasm between mortals and immortals firsthand, a new level of understanding had dawned upon him.
In any case, the Heavenly Doctor had a growing premonition.
He was close, perhaps very close, to completely unraveling the secrets of the High Wall.
As this realization settled in, a subtle change came over the Heavenly Doctor's expression.
He even began to doubt his own actions over the past years.
*"Perhaps that True Immortal was right,"* he mused.
*"If I had focused solely on cultivation, perhaps I would have found a way to save the Tianfa Realm long ago."*
The thought was fleeting.
The Heavenly Doctor cast aside all distracting thoughts and immersed himself once more in his study of the invisible High Wall.
With sufficient accumulation, a breakthrough can sometimes happen in a single instant.
An instant passed.
Or perhaps it was ten million years.
The Heavenly Doctor abruptly retracted all the golden threads he had been emitting.
In a daze, he felt as if he had finally unraveled the High Wall's mysteries.
But at the same time...
an extreme sense of unease washed over him.
He had only felt such unease once before: during the slaughter of the Tianfa Realm.
Not even when he had faced the True Immortal had he felt anything like this.
*"What is...?"* He abandoned his contemplation of the High Wall's secrets.
The Heavenly Doctor instinctively tried to pull away.
Suddenly...
he saw something, and his pupils contracted sharply.
There, in the space where the invisible High Wall stood, where nothing should have been...
reality itself began to warp inexplicably.
His heart hammered in his chest, the sense of dread reaching an unbearable crescendo.
A single black thread materialized from nowhere.
Silently, it pierced his chest.
One became a thousand, a thousand became a million, a million became billions.
In an instant, the threads riddled the Heavenly Doctor's body, turning him into a marionette.
The Heavenly Doctor's consciousness began to fade.
Yet, as he felt the countless threads piercing his being, a strange sense of familiarity washed over him.
Perhaps it was a trick of his fading mind, but a moment later, a figure appeared before him.
The Heavenly Doctor saw what looked like his younger self.
Except, this version of him wasn't wearing his customary white robes.
He was dressed in a long black robe.
His face was devoid of all emotion.
*Creeak...*
The Heavenly Doctor's head was twisted a hundred and eighty degrees with a sickening sound.
Forcing him to face backward.
Streams of light flowed from the Heavenly Doctor's body into the mysterious black-robed figure.
The Heavenly Doctor's body slowly grew transparent, fading into nothingness.
And the black-robed figure...
...the younger version of the Heavenly Doctor, frowned slightly.
"Do you understand what you're seeing?"
His gaze fell upon the not-so-distant location of Li Fan's true body!
...
At the same time.
Li Fan, still immersed in the secrets of Evil Su Bai, felt the same sudden, overwhelming sense of impending doom that had struck the Heavenly Doctor.
This time, however, it was more intense than anything he had ever felt before.
"Could it be? By triggering Su Bai's eternal remnant will... have I been detected by Evil Su Bai from beyond the wall?"
A profound terror seized Li Fan.
He hesitated for only a fraction of a second before silently calling upon [Truth].
In that same instant, Li Fan noticed something exceedingly strange.
On his [Truth] panel, his original lifespan limit of just over three million years had gone haywire, the numbers flickering wildly.
It wasn't decreasing.
It was increasing!
In the single moment he registered it, the number leaped from three million to several billion.
And it was still climbing at a terrifying rate!
(End of Chapter)
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