Chapter 1496: The Limits of Truth
The resolution proposed by Chaos, the Nameless, drew a round of laughter from the immortals of Shuo Xinghai. However, Chaos had always been meticulously cautious in his actions, a trait the other immortals had long grown accustomed to.
A man in white robes gently stroked the black cat on his shoulder and teased, "Rest easy, Brother Chaos. Once we've taken down that charlatan of a Hidden Emperor, a palace in the sky of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm will surely be yours. After all, even if you haven't earned any glory, you've certainly put in the effort."
The other immortals chimed in with agreement.
Chaos, however, remained unperturbed.
Though the words of Shanhua were harsh, now that he had spoken them publicly, he would never go back on them. This was, in every way, beneficial to Chaos and carried no downside.
If he had truly misjudged, and this so-called Hidden Emperor was nothing more than a paper tiger, his past merits would still guarantee him a place in the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm.
But if they were the ones who were disastrously wrong...
Chaos, the Nameless, was already running calculations in his mind.
...
Li Fan was currently unaware of the events unfolding in Shuo Xinghai.
Ever since the day he had enfeoffed the five Heavenly Emperors of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm, a completely new and unprecedented understanding had surged within his heart.
Treating it as a long-term investment, he decided to let Chaos and the others wait, completely ignoring them to focus his full attention on studying this newfound change.
The source of this epiphany was none other than the Sitting Heaven Technique.
After ascending to the realm of a demigod, Li Fan had assumed this method of profiting from the efforts of others would become ineffective. The facts seemed to support his theory; no matter how many cultivators he helped—directly or indirectly—to advance their cultivation, he received not a single iota of feedback.
Until this recent enfeoffment.
Only after the five Heavenly Emperors were established did the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm truly stabilize from its nascent state. It was no longer a mere continent forged in imitation of the Immortal Realm, but a genuine immortal domain.
It stood firm upon the Upper Mountain.
And Li Fan, the architect of it all, felt a sudden, profound clarity at the moment of its completion. It was as if a stepping stone had materialized beneath his feet, allowing him to ascend just a little higher. The world he saw was instantly transformed, a million new vistas opening before him.
"So it wasn't that the Sitting Heaven Technique had failed," Li Fan realized. "It's that after I set foot on the path of an immortal, ordinary feedback was no longer potent enough to advance my progress. Only the creation of an entire immortal domain, from nothingness to existence, proved barely sufficient."
Although his strength had not changed in any tangible way, that minuscule bit of "elevation" had completely altered his perception of Shou Qiu's phantom within the high wall, of the Hunger Immortal, and of the Wuji Heavenly Pillars. Compared to before, he saw them in an entirely new light.
"A commanding perspective, an effortless mastery." These eight words surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan understood the source of this feeling.
He had already spent over a century in seclusion, studying Shou Qiu's phantom and the Heavenly Pillars. While he hadn't mastered them completely, he was deeply familiar with them.
The feedback from the Sitting Heaven Technique was built upon this foundation of familiarity. The creation of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm had effectively doubled his fundamental understanding in an instant.
It had saved him a hundred years of effort.
Li Fan's eyes narrowed.
In an instant, he scanned his entire being and discovered that it wasn't just his comprehension of Shou Qiu's phantom and the Heavenly Pillars. Every skill he had learned, everything he knew, had nearly doubled in depth with that slight upward "climb."
It even included the Ink Death Myriad Forms Dao Net.
The terrifying rate of this progress was something Li Fan himself found hard to believe. Only after confirming it repeatedly did he have no choice but to accept this reality.
"An inch higher on the Upper Mountain brings a world-shaking change!"
"The increase in strength isn't linear as one ascends; the higher one stands, the more one's cultivation multiplies, by thousands, even tens of thousands of times!"
"No wonder the gap between True Immortals, even Nameless True Immortals, and beings at the apex like Shou Qiu Gong and the Four Sage Lords is so colossal."
"It's even greater than the difference between cultivators in the lower realms."
"Give me a hundred million Dao Integration cultivators, and I could overwhelm a Longevity expert, perhaps even a transcendent being like the Heavenly Doctor, through sheer numbers. But..."
"A hundred million True Immortals, all combined, might not be a match for any single one of the Four Sage Lords."
Li Fan looked back at the version of himself from before this epiphany.
Excluding external aid and relying solely on his own power, the current Li Fan could effortlessly suppress the self that existed before the creation of the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm.
"The unique nature of the Upper Mountain means that even within the same major realm, the disparity between one True Immortal and another, or one Nameless and another, can be unimaginable."
"After all, theoretically speaking, even transcendent experts fall under the category of Nameless True Immortals."
Only by personally ascending could one truly know the height of the mountain.
This was Li Fan's first true advancement in personal strength since becoming a demigod, and it had already allowed him to glimpse a corner of the magnificent and unfathomable Upper Mountain.
"It's truly hard to imagine just how powerful the Sage Lords who stand above all other immortals really are."
"And the Infinite Sea and the Upper Mountain themselves..." Li Fan's mind couldn't help but drift, filled with a sense of wonder and longing.
After a moment of contemplation, his thoughts returned to the present.
Li Fan looked down at the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm he had forged with his own hands. He could faintly sense that, with his ceaseless irrigation using the infinite power of the Immortal, it had already become a part of the Mountain and Sea.
Even if he were to sever the connection between the Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm and the Infinite Sea, he could not change this fact.
"So this is the price."
"Everything in the mortal dust is not of the same order of existence as the Infinite Sea and the Upper Mountain. While one can cleverly borrow their power, the result is being eroded by the power of the Mountain and Sea, becoming a part of them."
"The Immortal Realm was like this. And so are the True Immortals."
"The day the Mountain and Sea fully merge will be the day the debt of the Dao Annihilation is paid."
The scenes he had witnessed in past cycles now replayed before Li Fan's eyes, one by one. The so-called Dao Annihilation, the so-called calamity—none of it could escape this law.
"This is the understanding that surged within me the moment I truly created an immortal domain."
"Although I consider my comprehension to be quite decent, the talent of the past Immortal Emperors of the Immortal Realm, not to mention the Four Sage Lords, was certainly not inferior to mine."
"If I can understand these things, how could they not have figured it out?"
"They stood higher, so they naturally saw farther."
...
Li Fan couldn't help but raise his head slightly, looking "upward."
"So, they knew this day would come all along. That's why they had to climb higher, and higher still, before the Mountain and Sea merged."
"The lifespan shown on the [Truth] panel is the lifespan of the entire 'mortal dust.' It might not fully reflect the longevity of the Infinite Sea and the Upper Mountain."
"The merging of the Mountain and Sea is the trend. However, every trend must eventually come to a stop."
A bolt of lightning split the fog in Li Fan's mind.
In that instant, it was as if he had leaped out of the mortal world, with only the endless Mountain and Sea before his eyes.
As the Mountain and Sea merged, the myriad beings of the mortal dust below the mountain would vanish with the convergence, scattered like smoke and dust.
The great tide of Dao Annihilation would continue its advance up the mountain.
The peerless experts on the mountainside would all scramble to climb higher.
"As long as one climbs high enough, perhaps one can escape the calamity of the Mountain and Sea's fusion!"
It was as if Li Fan had already reached the summit of the Upper Mountain, looking down upon the roiling, murky waves below. His heart trembled, and this thought emerged, impossible to suppress.
But then, he couldn't help but wonder: "Just how high must one stand to avoid the fate of being consumed by the merging of Mountain and Sea?"
"Shou Qiu Gong? The Four Sage Lords?"
"Or perhaps..."
"[Truth]?!"
In a stroke of inspiration, Li Fan's thoughts suddenly turned to the strange treasure that had accompanied him for so long.
This time, however, the response from [Truth] was exceptionally strange.
It neither confirmed nor denied his thought.
Its emotion was simply... dejected.
And the mere hint of a negative emotion leaking from [Truth] had a tremendous impact on Li Fan.
"Perhaps no matter how high one climbs, it's impossible to escape the fate of destruction."
"Ascending the Upper Mountain, every single step is an arduous struggle. Having missed the initial opportunity when the mountain was first formed, trying to catch up now..."
"In the past, when I was cultivating in the Xuanhuang Realm, I always had absolute confidence thanks to the advantage of [Truth]. As long as I had enough cycles, I could grow stronger step by step. From Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, then to Golden Core and Nascent Soul. Eventually, I would trample even Longevity experts under my feet. But now..."
"The Upper Mountain has stood for millennia; where does one even begin to cross it now?"
"The phantom left behind by Shou Qiu Gong is already so powerful. What would Shou Qiu Gong's true strength be like? And if he is already at that level, what about the Four Sages of the Immortal Realm?"
"On what grounds can I possibly hope to surpass them?"
Li Fan's gaze gradually grew vacant, and his mind started to wander.
Just as Li Fan was on the verge of being lost, [Truth] thankfully sensed that something was wrong and completely retracted its emotional fluctuations.
Without the influence of [Truth], Li Fan slowly began to pull himself out of this "heart-demon."
Even for someone who had experienced a hundred reincarnations, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.
Li Fan was by no means a pessimistic person.
He had always firmly believed that as long as he had [Truth], he would one day achieve complete transcendence and freedom.
But the emotional trigger from [Truth] was only an incitement. The root cause was the awe, followed by a sliver of despair, that Li Fan felt upon finally witnessing the scenery upon the Upper Mountain.
The gap between him and the beings who stood at the apex of the Mountain and Sea was simply too vast. So vast that even with the power of infinite reincarnation, Li Fan lacked absolute confidence that he could bridge it.
Especially as his strength grew and he drew closer to these powerful figures, the risks he had to take were bound to become greater, and the external forces he could rely on would become increasingly scarce.
There were only so many powerful beings between the Mountain and Sea. All around were bare cliff faces, with no more handholds to leverage.
What could he possibly use to cross that chasm, to catch up to and even surpass them?
Previously, as long as he had his ultimate trump card—the "Truth to lies, reality to dream" ability—that sustained his confidence, he would never have been affected by such negative emotions.
But the current situation was highly unusual.
Because, for the first time, [Truth] itself was affected by this pessimistic emotion, which in turn ensnared Li Fan.
After suppressing its own emotions, [Truth] fell silent, as if the preceding events had been nothing but a fleeting illusion.
But Li Fan's faintly trembling body was proof that what had just happened was no figment of his imagination.
It took him a long time and an immense force of will to temporarily break free from that emotion. But Li Fan knew deep down that the shadow had not been completely erased.
It still lingered in a corner of his heart, ready to erupt at any moment.
Li Fan closed his eyes, wiping away the gloom within, before opening them again.
What truly concerned him was not his momentary loss of control—after all, this wasn't the first or second time. It was the emotional fluctuation from [Truth] that had been so far beyond his expectations.
"After seeing the full extent of the Mountain and Sea, have I finally glimpsed the limits of [Truth]?"
Li Fan was momentarily stunned, an infinite sense of feeling welling up in his heart.
Once upon a time, he had always believed [Truth] to be omnipotent. As long as he possessed this treasure, he could forge ahead fearlessly.
Now, it seemed the time was finally approaching when he would have to walk the path on his own.
Li Fan's expression was as deep and still as water.
He knew that this "approaching" moment was still a long time away. But it was, after all, now within his line of sight.
It was no longer a distant prospect.
In the face of Li Fan's turbulent thoughts, [Truth] seemed to have reverted to the state it was in when he first began his cultivation, showing no emotional fluctuations whatsoever.
Li Fan stood motionless, like a clay statue.
Until a faint ripple from beyond the high wall disturbed him.
The disturbance was immense, so powerful that it almost destabilized the path constructed by Li Buren.
Li Fan cast a cold glance over.
He saw that the arrivals were none other than the immortals of Shuo Xinghai.
With no particular leader, a host of True Immortals and Nameless True Immortals had arrived together outside the high wall.
"We have heard that Senior has re-established the Immortal Court with your great divine power. Witnessing this, our hearts yearn for it. Thus, we have come uninvited, hoping to behold its wonders," the white-robed figure announced in a resonant voice.
That voice seemed to possess an endless, enchanting power. As it fell upon Li Fan's ears, all the various emotions that had arisen from the incident with [Truth] instantly vanished without a trace.
For a moment, Li Fan even felt a strange sense of joy.
It was as if an old friend he hadn't seen in years had come to visit.
Greatly pleased, Li Fan was about to wave his hand and let the immortals of Shuo Xinghai in.
Suddenly, his heart jolted, and he snapped out of the illusion.
"Hm?"
"Just now, that was..."
"Shanhua?"
Li Fan's eyes narrowed, a dangerous glint flashing within them.
"As expected of a Nameless who has long held his Dao. Even I was nearly taken in by him."
"A pity for him that I have the power of Wuji. I can ignore any divine ability of the myriad Daos."
Though now clear-headed, Li Fan did not alter his actions.
As if still bewitched by Shanhua's power, he showed no anger at their uninvited arrival. Instead, he let out a hearty laugh and directly guided the host of Shuo Xinghai immortals inside.
Li Fan keenly noticed that there seemed to be a few new faces among this group of visitors.
Furthermore, that Nameless, Chaos, was not among them.
In an instant, Li Fan understood their scheme perfectly.
"It just so happens that my Primordial Desolation Immortal Realm has just been established and still appears rather empty."
Having just suffered a setback with [Truth], Li Fan's mood was far from pleasant.
And just then, the group from Shuo Xinghai had come knocking on his door.
In the unseen workings of fate, their tragic destiny was already sealed.
Of course, at this moment, this group of True Immortals was still blissfully unaware.
They were still lost in the shock of arriving in a newly-formed immortal domain.
(End of Chapter)
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