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Chapter 1466: Shouldering the Dao Annihilation Calamity

"Even after a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation, my spirituality remains undiminished. I doubt even a Nameless True Immortal could compare to me." A wave of joy washed over Li Fan as he grasped the uniqueness of his own nature.

He tried to communicate with [Truth] again, but it was like a stone dropped into the ocean—there was no response.

A long while passed before Li Fan managed to quell the storm of emotions within him.

And naturally, a greater question began to surface in his mind.

"My spirituality is so profound... it might be exceedingly rare, perhaps even unique, in all the mortal realms. What could be the cause of such a trait...?"

Li Fan immediately thought of his identity as a transmigrator.

But was that truly the reason? And why would a transmigrator's spirituality be so distinct? If there were others like him, would they share this quality?

And then there was an even deeper question.

What was the ultimate purpose of [Truth] attaching itself to him?

Suppressing the swirling vortex of thoughts, Li Fan told himself, "At the very least, my connection with [Truth] seems closer now. It's become more... active since its return from the Infinite Sea, which is a good thing. If it guided me once, it can do so again. And guidance from [Truth]..."

"...is worth more than comprehending the Great Dao face-to-face!"

While the original body had made a profound breakthrough, the puppet clone, Li Bu Ren, remained unmoved by the discovery.

His mission was to investigate the secrets of the High Wall, and with the path still shrouded in mist, there was no room for complacency.

"Based on the clues so far, I can conclude that this place was originally part of an Immortal Realm experimental facility," the clone mused. "The goal was to find a way to combat the Dao Annihilation. Naturally, the site itself would have certain defenses against it."

"Though abandoned for some unknown reason, it still transformed into the High Wall when the Dao Annihilation Calamity erupted, protecting the countless star seas within from complete destruction."

"Similarly, the nature of its mission dictated that it must be exceptionally well-hidden. The internal defenses needed only to contain the beings within its experimental star seas; a True Immortal-level restriction would suffice."

"But externally, it had to account for the prying eyes of powers beyond the True Immortal realm—the Nameless. No wonder Qian Ruochang of Shuo Xinghai and that 'Non-Immortal' came so close to the High Wall yet seemed oblivious to it. It wasn't that they wouldn't look, but that they *couldn't* see. It can even partially block gazes from other possibilities..."

The meaning of the message left by Sun Piao Miao remained obscure for now. The clone decided to set it aside.

"The reason I discovered the anomaly of the High Wall was because the immortal domain chess piece was captured and vanished into thin air. In that case, I should return to the root of the matter and track the current location of that piece..."

The immortal domain pieces left by Sun Piao Miao could sense each other, but the High Wall severed that connection.

Even the clone, whose body was fashioned from one of the pieces, couldn't sense his 'kin' from within the laboratory.

After a moment of thought, the clone returned to the Dark Star Sea. He left only the Medicine King Cauldron piece in the Xuanhuang Realm, a safeguard against the fragments reassembling and the immortal domain reappearing.

Then, using the projective power of the Dao Net, he summoned what looked like a web of faint, silvery limbs from his body and crudely wrapped and bound all the remaining pieces to himself.

With his new payload, he charged violently toward the High Wall once more.

The moment he entered the High Wall, the clone felt an immense suction force from the outside. The immortal domain pieces on his body began to pull away uncontrollably, flying towards the source of the attraction.

The clone didn't resist this force. Instead, he reverted to his original chess piece form and flew alongside his 'brothers' toward an unknown destination.

"Just as I thought," the clone observed. "This is completely different from entering as an intruder. This time, I'm traveling on a different path."

He seemed to speed past countless cubic star seas within the experimental site before traversing the great void that served as their boundary.

He arrived in a space that was both familiar and strange.

It resembled the cylindrical hall he had visited before, but this was the very top, a section invisible from the bottom.

Here, the suction force on the immortal domain pieces finally vanished.

Still in his chess piece form, the clone surveyed his surroundings.

He saw the piece that had vanished earlier, along with the ones he had carried. All eleven were floating quietly in formation.

Six of them had already merged into one, glowing with a rainbow hue, just as Li Fan had once seen. The other five were clustered tightly together, as if waiting for him, the final piece, to join them.

From the nearby pieces, the clone felt an urge, a call to return and merge. But perhaps because the most crucial piece—the Medicine King True Cauldron—was missing, or perhaps due to some unknown restriction in this core area of the experimental site, the pull wasn't yet irresistible.

Maintaining his stability, he scanned his surroundings.

And it was then that he abruptly noticed five blurry figures standing silently around him.

The clone's senses instantly went on high alert. He shot backward, assuming a combat stance.

But he quickly discovered that no matter how fast he moved, the five figures remained in a circle around him, trapping him in the center.

He could neither approach them nor distance himself from them. The five phantoms were to him as the sky is to the creatures living on the earth—their distance remained eternally fixed.

Fortunately, these phantoms seemed to have no hostile intent. They were like lifeless objects, showing no reaction to his intrusion.

The clone first gathered all the immortal domain pieces, then turned his attention back to the five phantoms, confirming for the moment that there was no danger.

"They faintly exceed the limits of my perception, which is why I didn't notice them at first."

"Only by truly observing, by focusing my gaze, can their existence be perceived."

"..."

The words "Nameless True Immortal" immediately sprang into the clone's mind. The scene was eerily similar to what Li Fan had spied on in Shuo Xinghai, where Nameless True Immortals were used as living pillars to construct the Dao Net!

And the Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar of the Immortal Realm was crafted from the leg bone of a Nameless True Immortal, which also granted it some resistance to the Dao Annihilation. Therefore, it didn't seem too incredible that Nameless True Immortals were also used as construction material within the High Wall.

And yet, the clone instinctively felt that this place was different from both the Dao Net and the Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar.

"Using their Dao as a pillar—that's the ability these five phantoms are displaying, I'm sure of it."

"The crucial point is..."

"They all represent the same Great Dao?"

When a True Immortal ascends to the Nameless realm, they must merge their body with a Dao.

And among the three thousand Great Daos of heaven and earth, each is unique. There are no duplicates.

Therefore, it is absolutely impossible for two Nameless True Immortals to exist who achieved their state through the same path.

Two is impossible, let alone five at once!

"Are they from different possibilities?" The clone was startled by the thought, but he quickly dismissed it.

He had personally witnessed the aura of an expert who could traverse possibilities.

While these five phantoms were strong, they were nowhere near that level.

"Then, there is only one answer."

"These five phantoms were all manifested by a single Nameless True Immortal."

"They are not flesh and blood, like the leg bone in the Southern Immortal Heavenly Pillar, but merely phantoms of their true self."

The clone was profoundly shaken.

"To create a wall with just five phantoms and shoulder the full force of the Dao Annihilation Calamity?"

"What level of existence is this?"

The five phantoms revolved around the clone like stars. He couldn't make out their features, couldn't even tell if they were male or female. Yet, like gods from a myth, their presence inspired a deep sense of solemnity and reverence.

It was an emotion that a lower-order being would instinctively feel when encountering a superior existence.

"I once speculated that a nameless martyr lay buried beneath the lands of the Immortal Ruins, using their own body as a pillar to block the Dao Annihilation Calamity flowing from the Immortal Realm."

"But now, the nameless being before me needs no self-sacrifice. They can achieve the same feat by merely projecting five phantoms..."

The clone's shock was beyond words.

It was obvious that whoever left these five phantoms was among the strongest of all Nameless True Immortals.

This form of strength was different from the ability to traverse possibilities, and the clone couldn't determine which was superior.

But he knew that both displays were equally breathtaking.

"In Su Bai's memories, even Evil Su Bai could only flee in disarray from the overwhelming Dao Annihilation Calamity."

"But in my own Primal Possibility, there exists a peerless expert who can withstand it with their own phantoms."

"Perhaps... they simply chose different paths?"

"Where is this expert now? Were they the one originally in charge of this experimental facility?"

A series of questions rose in the clone's mind.

"If there were just a few more experts like this," he couldn't help but think, "perhaps the Dao Annihilation Calamity wouldn't be so difficult to deal with after all."

These phantoms, capable of forming an immortal pillar to resist the Dao Annihilation, should be infinitely close to the Dao itself.

Yet, though they were right before him, the clone could neither perceive nor comprehend the Great Dao they represented.

It was as if this Dao did not exist within the framework of heaven and earth that he knew! Seeing, yet not perceiving. Hearing, yet not registering. Knowing, yet not understanding!

"Either this expert is from another possibility, and the Dao they merged with does not exist in the Primal Possibility, making it completely alien and thus imperceptible to me."

"Or..."

"This being's realm has already reached a state of supreme perfection. They have taken the Dao they merged with and leaped beyond the constraints of this heaven and earth, walking a path entirely their own!"

Li Fan had previously speculated that the Dao Annihilation Calamity was caused by Nameless True Immortals who, after merging with a Dao, departed, effectively pulling out the 'load-bearing walls' of the universe.

He began to doubt this theory after seeing the Infinite Sea and realizing its connection to the calamity. But now, face-to-face with this transcendent Nameless True Immortal, one who had truly 'leaped beyond the Three Realms and was no longer within the Five Elements,' his original theory resurfaced with renewed plausibility.

"It's unlikely that an expert from another possibility would go to such lengths to help defend against the Dao Annihilation Calamity. They could have simply escaped on their own."

"This person must be a native of the Primal Possibility."

As he observed, the clone attempted to use his divine sense to reflect the Great Dao represented by the five phantoms.

But the spiritual mirror of his mind, which could reflect all the Great Daos of heaven and earth, remained utterly blank when facing them.

"I wonder if this individual is still within the current possibility?"

"If they have already left, and these phantoms they left behind are still this effective..."

"That would be truly terrifying."

So far, among all the things Li Fan had witnessed, only the Dao Annihilation and the Infinite Sea inspired such genuine dread.

And the only beings capable of contending with them were, until now, [Truth] alone.

Now, there was this unknown expert.

Although they were still somewhat weaker than [Truth], their existence nevertheless showed Li Fan the true upper limit of what a 'cultivator' could achieve.

After numerous failed attempts to reflect their Dao, the clone abandoned the fruitless effort.

"These five phantoms must be the core of the High Wall," he concluded.

"There has to be a reason the immortal domain pieces were drawn to such a critical area. I just haven't found the trigger yet."

While in this space, he could only manifest in the form of an immortal domain piece; otherwise, he would be quickly expelled.

"Could it be that nothing is happening because the set of immortal domain pieces is still incomplete?" A thought soon surfaced in the clone's mind. He relayed this idea to his main body.

In the Xuanhuang Realm, after a moment of careful consideration, Li Fan finally decided to hand the Medicine King Cauldron over to his puppet clone.

He had already retrieved the Medicine King True Cauldron early in this lifetime without alerting the Hunger Immortal. The members of the Medicine King Sect within it had, of course, all been sent to the Land of Carefree Joy to contribute to the construction of his dream world.

The Medicine King True Cauldron reverted to its original form—a simple, unadorned white chess piece.

The clone brought it back into the heart of the High Wall, to the space where the five phantoms stood.

Li Fan's main body was on maximum alert, ready to activate [Truth] at a moment's notice.

The clone was also prepared for his body to reassemble and transform into an entire immortal domain.

But the situation developed in a way that defied Li Fan's expectations.

Even with all the pieces present, the immortal domain did not unfold within the space of the five phantoms.

It seemed a mysterious power in the surroundings was suppressing its formation.

However, just as the clone had predicted, a strange change began to occur now that all the immortal domain pieces were gathered together.

It was like a foreign object dropping into still water, sending ripples spreading through the space.

The faces of the five phantoms, which had been blurry, began to distort with the ripples, becoming slightly clearer.

Their gazes all focused intently on the chess pieces at the center.

An immense pressure, as if the weight of heaven and earth itself, pressed down on him.

The clone's body, formed from one of the immortal domain pieces, felt as if it could barely withstand the force.

"This is..."

"With all the pieces gathered, they have finally gained the attention of the Nameless True Immortal. They have, at last, entered the notice of these five phantoms!"