Chapter 1469: Borrowing the Tiger's Might
The power of Shou Qiu was truly something to aspire to.
But Li Fan wasn't particularly concerned about the limitations Qing Yin had mentioned—the ones that would naturally arise from receiving Shou Qiu's legacy.
For one, while Shou Qiu seemed to be the most powerful being known to exist, Li Fan still didn't believe he could surpass the [Truth].
And for another, it was Li Buren who had received and was cultivating the [Shou Qiu Prose]. If worst came to worst, he could simply use him to settle the debt. It had nothing to do with Li Fan himself.
"There are still a few lingering questions about the recording Qing Yin left behind."
"For instance, why did Qing Yin specifically leave this recording in the experimental site? That final glance he gave toward the viewer was clearly deliberate and meaningful."
"And the connection between Sun Piao Miao, that True Immortal who had once descended to guard the Xuanhuang Realm, and this so-called [Rotten Axe Dojo] is still unclear..."
Too many secrets had been lost with the descent of the Dao Annihilation and the destruction of the Immortal World, leaving no chance for verification. Li Fan had no intention of digging into every last one.
"Although I can't uncover all the secrets of the high wall, having received Shou Qiu's legacy and Qing Yin's approval has granted me a much higher 'access level' at this experimental site than a mere visitor."
The many objects that had previously been completely unresponsive to him now seemed, to some extent, tangible and controllable.
Besides the humanoid statue that had summoned the historical recordings from the experimental site, Li Buren found that the object resonating most strongly with him was a dark red, solid wood armchair.
Li Buren gently caressed its surface, feeling the faint aura of Shou Qiu's phantom projection emanating from within.
"This chair... Shou Qiu seemed to have sat in it before."
Li Buren tried sitting in it himself.
Boom!
His vision abruptly transformed. In a daze, he found himself leaving the core circular hall of the experimental site, soaring past the star sea of countless monitored cubes.
With a single leap, he was outside the experimental site!
Li Buren saw a familiar starry sky.
It was the long, narrow Annihilation Zone just outside the Shuo Xinghai. He could even glimpse the brilliant, flourishing starlight within the Shuo Xinghai from a great distance!
Zooming in, his vision could focus on a single point, allowing for an incredibly detailed observation of the Transcendent World Coffin, which still floated silently in the starry expanse, and the group of new Immortal Hunt members trapped in their Land of Carefree Joy dream!
Having carefully examined the Transcendent World Coffin from his own perspective before, Li Buren instantly noticed the differences when viewing it from this new vantage point.
The first sensation was one of awkwardness and regret, as if looking at a creation that should have been flawless but was marred by a single defect.
"This... this is the scar I created on the Transcendent World Coffin with my 'Truth as Falsehood' ability. I couldn't even see it clearly myself, yet from this perspective, the imperfection was rendered in minute detail..."
Suppressing the discomfort in his heart, Li Buren continued to scrutinize the coffin.
The surrounding starry sky, the very Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, seemed to transform into undulating waves. And in this vast, boundless ocean, the Transcendent World Coffin was like a lone skiff.
Though it couldn't avoid being carried by the currents, it could still steadily weather the endless storms and waves.
If it weren't for that flaw.
"With this flaw I created, it's like a crack has appeared in the hull."
"Water is slowly seeping in through the crack. If one still tried to cross the sea with it, the inevitable end would be sinking to the ocean floor."
His gaze seemed to leap across the river of time, seeing into the future. This wasn't based on deduction; it was a scene appearing directly before his eyes.
"This feeling..."
"Is this what the truly powerful see every day?"
At this moment, Li Buren finally understood.
What he was seeing right now was likely the perspective of the "high wall" itself.
Even though there were restrictions and formations left by other True Immortals, the core foundation of the high wall was still the five Dao-bearing phantom projections left by Shou Qiu.
Through the chair Shou Qiu had once sat in, and the mysterious connection it had with the phantoms, he could, to a certain extent, borrow a portion of the power of these five projections.
Power that could resist the Dao Annihilation Calamity and shield one from the gaze of the Nameless.
The value of the phantoms left by Shou Qiu needed no further explanation.
Borrowing their might, Li Buren not only saw the coffin's imperfection at a glance but also vaguely discerned the principle by which it could transcend worlds.
Just as Li Fan had previously guessed.
The materials of this skiff, which seemed capable of crossing an endless ocean, were not actually that remarkable. Instead, it appeared to be a composite of countless overlapping shadows.
With each additional overlapping shadow, its stability increased.
Layered one upon another, it became increasingly able to ignore the storms.
"This... should be the same principle as the Black Heaven Physician and Evil Su Bai hunting their other possible selves."
Li Buren stared, somewhat mesmerized, at the numerous overlapping shadows on the coffin, his gaze seeming to follow them into other possibilities.
But at the same time, because of the flaw he had created, this particular coffin was beginning to deviate from the other overlapping shadows.
At first, the deviation was almost negligible.
But Li Buren could see that, as if swayed by the external storms, the difference was constantly growing with the passage of time!
His prying gaze was also distorted and obstructed because of it.
He couldn't truly see into the other possibilities.
Not even the faintest glimmer of light or shadow.
Li Buren thought it was a shame.
"If the Transcendent World Coffin were undamaged, perhaps I could have truly seen the path to other possibilities?"
Compared to the coffin itself, the method used to seal it seemed rather crude.
It was like a few rough ropes had been haphazardly tied around a flawless white jade wall.
It was certainly secure.
But with the help of the high wall—or rather, the gaze of Shou Qiu's Dao-bearing phantoms—Li Buren easily saw the key to undoing the knot.
"So, at Shou Qiu's level, all techniques become transparent. No matter the ability, art, or method, from this high vantage point, I can see through it all with a single glance."
Li Buren reveled in the feeling for a moment before an idea suddenly surfaced in his mind.
"I wonder if, besides just 'looking,' I can call upon more of the power from Shou Qiu's phantoms?"
Once the thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed.
He focused his mind, recalling the contents of the [Shou Qiu Prose] and sensing the lingering aura of Shou Qiu on the armchair beneath him.
It was as if he could once again see that solitary figure, gazing out at the sea, guarding the mound, standing alone through the ages.
In that instant, Li Buren seemed to have returned to the core of the high wall, where the five phantoms resided!
He was in the center of the phantoms, their collective gaze fixed upon him.
Li Buren felt an immense pressure.
This time was different from receiving the legacy; the phantoms offered no active protection. It was like directly facing the mountain and the sea, and Shou Qiu himself upon them.
Li Buren felt as if his entire body was about to be pressed into the armchair beneath him.
This wasn't just on a physical level, but a mental one as well.
Keenly sensing that the five encircling phantoms of Shou Qiu seemed to have drawn closer, Li Buren decisively sprang up from the armchair.
It was like falling from the clouds back to the mortal world. His boundless vision was once again compressed into a finite space.
Li Buren felt disoriented for a moment.
Fortunately, his own will was not overwhelming, and he quickly adjusted.
"I can indeed borrow the phantoms' power."
"However, the phantoms are mainly used to endure the Dao Annihilation, so I can't borrow too much of their power. Besides, it's a double-edged sword."
"The gap between myself and Shou Qiu's phantoms is simply too vast. Even if Shou Qiu himself bears no malice, using this power rashly will inevitably lead to being assimilated."
This was the conclusion Li Buren reached from his analysis.
Meanwhile, Li Fan's true self was far more overjoyed than Li Buren.
"After leaving the Darkest Star Sea and encountering beings like the Dao Net, the Immortal Hunt, and the Nameless True Immortals, I have been constantly walking on thin ice. I've had to act with extreme caution, always on guard that these powerful entities might follow some connection back to the Xuanhuang Realm."
"But now..."
Li Fan's true self shot to his feet, looking in the direction of the high wall, unable to contain his delight.
Just now, his true self hadn't detected the assimilation tendency that Li Buren had sensed.
In other words, whatever repercussions came from using Shou Qiu's phantoms, they would not affect him.
"Shou Qiu was able to single-handedly resist the cataclysmic Dao Annihilation. Even the ruling Immortal Emperors of the Immortal World had to greet him with the respect due to a senior..."
"The phantoms he left behind must be far beyond what any ordinary True Immortal could contend with."
"The more of the phantoms' power I can call upon, the stronger I become."
"In other words, in the vicinity of this high wall, I wouldn't even fear the Nameless if they came in person!"
It had been a long time since Li Fan had felt this excited.
With the [Truth] in his possession, all the treasures in the world seemed to hold little value for him.
Theoretically, no matter how precious or rare something was, he could make it infinite if he wished.
But the value of Shou Qiu's phantoms wasn't a matter of quantity.
Rather, much like the [Truth], their very existence was their greatest value!
It was like finding a game-breaking item in a video game. Li Fan was eager to put it to the test.
His gaze turned to the coffin floating silently outside the high wall.
"You two have rested long enough."
"I'll have to trouble you to help me test the quality of Shou Qiu's phantoms!"
Calling upon Shou Qiu's phantoms did indeed have significant negative repercussions.
Drawing on too much power might even hasten the arrival of the Dao Annihilation Calamity.
But none of that was within Li Fan's scope of consideration!
Receiving Li Fan's command, Li Buren rested for a short while before sitting down in the armchair once more.
At the same time, out in the starry sky of the Annihilation Zone, "Ma Tiande," who had been dormant, suddenly opened his eyes.
The vision of Shou Qiu's phantoms slowly merged with what this body could see.
The Transcendent World Coffin, which had previously been seamless and impossible to open, now felt as if it could be breached in an instant.
Ma Tiande revealed a meaningful smile and made a light gesture toward the "knot" in his field of vision.
The knot, with its countless entanglements, was thus easily and directly undone.
With a dull rumble, the coffin lid slid open.
Qian Ruochang and Wuxian, who were inside the coffin, were clearly stunned by this sudden turn of events.
Then, without the slightest hesitation, they unleashed their full potential, attempting to escape from the coffin.
The moment they leaped out of the Transcendent World Coffin, Li Fan saw their true forms.
First, Qian Ruochang.
From a normal perspective, he was a muscular, burly man, wielding a giant pillar, looking sturdy and ferocious.
But in the vision of Shou Qiu's phantoms, Qian Ruochang couldn't be considered "human" at all.
He was a cloud of vapor.
Or rather, an aggregate of the Great Dao.
Just like the silver skeleton Li Fan had glimpsed before, which bore a striking resemblance to the Dao Net, Qian Ruochang's entire body was directly aggregated and manifested from threads of the Great Dao.
Only the core within, the part that controlled this body, was the spiritual soul of a normal human.
It was like a miniature Dao Net draped over a human soul.
"No wonder Qian Ruochang felt a bit strange to me."
"What is this? The Great Dao Befalling Body Art? Or a Dao Net mecha?"
Qian Ruochang's method could indeed allow a mortal body to wield the power of the Great Dao. Below the level of the Nameless, even True Immortals would find it hard to match him.
But the drawbacks were also extremely obvious.
It wasn't connected to the Infinite Sea, nor was it truly linked to the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Every bit of power consumed could not be replenished. Even if the miniature Dao Net's power was seemingly limitless, it couldn't last for long.
More critically, the soul bound by the miniature Dao Net was constantly being strangled by the Dao strings. The pain, like being sliced by a thousand cuts, was unimaginable.
This wasn't something that could be endured through sheer willpower. Under such pressure, it was inevitable that the soul would be sliced into countless fragments.
A strong soul and a firm will could only slow the process down.
"Even an ability similar to my Limitless Fullness and Emptiness would be useless."
"Based on the current strength of Qian Ruochang's soul, he can last for three hundred years at most."
"For a mortal, that's a long life. But for a True Immortal, it's far too short."
Li Fan turned his gaze to Wuxian.
He claimed to have severed all connections with the world.
But as Li Fan saw it now, that was far from the truth.
If every person in the world was a rich, three-dimensional projection of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth from a certain angle...
...then this Wuxian had done his best to whittle himself down into a "thin bamboo pole," reducing his intersection with the Great Dao.
Indeed, he seemed to have cut himself off from everything else between heaven and earth.
But in essence, it had nothing to do with "Nothingness."
It was closer to the Dao of "Solitude."
"When this immortal reaches the end of his cultivation path, it won't be the profound and mysterious Dao of Nothingness. Instead, he will transform himself into a law of the Dao, becoming a part of the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth while simultaneously existing independently of it."
"The moment of his great accomplishment will be a moment of minor transcendence."
"Worthy of a True Immortal who has survived to this day!"
Seeing through this "Wuxian's" nature with a single glance, Li Fan couldn't help but praise him.
The benefits of observing from a higher perspective, borrowing Shou Qiu's gaze, were self-evident.
All monsters and demons revealed their true forms at a single glance.
While Li Fan was observing, Qian Ruochang and Wuxian, as if by prior agreement, pushed their escape arts to the limit and fled in different directions.
Li Buren increased the power he was drawing from the phantoms and took another heavy look.
The ever-fluctuating Great Dao of Heaven and Earth in this region was instantly frozen.
Qian Ruochang and Wuxian were like insects caught in a web.
They were completely immobilized!
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