Chapter 1511: The Fated Number of Immortals
The initial fusion of two Daos was always the most arduous part.
The Great Rat Immortal had originally cultivated the Great Dao of Imperial Rule. The more subjects who submitted to him, and the more loyal they were, the more powerful the feedback he received became.
Two hundred million years of accumulation had brought his Dao of Imperial Rule to its theoretical zenith. Under all of heaven, none dared to disobey.
It was by relying on this supreme Dao of Imperial Rule that the Great Rat Immortal was able to absorb his second Great Dao with absolute, crushing force, as if it were a mere vassal.
But what can be done once can be done again. And what can be done again can be done a third time.
In the name of the Immortal Emperor, he would secretly summon the host of immortals, only to devour them one by one in the shadows.
At first, the cautious Great Rat Immortal would choose to prey on True Immortals of average strength and little renown. But later, as he merged with ten thousand Daos, he began to grow reckless and unbridled.
However, one had to admit, the Great Rat Immortal truly lived up to his title of "Eternal Immortal Emperor."
Even as his greed for the Dao gradually consumed his mind, he never forgot his original purpose: to embody the power of the three Sages and save a collapsing world.
But all stories must eventually come to an end.
After being held at bay for a hundred million years, the Dao Annihilation Calamity seemed to have lost all patience for a stalemate. It marshaled its forces and concentrated its assault.
Then one day, the Great Rat Immortal discovered to his horror that the pressure of the Dao Annihilation Calamity assailing the Immortal Realm had suddenly, inexplicably, doubled.
A hundred million years of peace and stability had dulled the immortals' sharp sense of crisis. By the time they reacted, wanting to use their own power to mend the heavens, it was already too late.
The Great Rat Immortal could only watch, helpless, as the terrifying tide of Dao Annihilation, with unstoppable momentum, engulfed more than half of the Immortal Realm in an instant.
The number of fallen True Immortals was incalculable. The survivors had their courage utterly shattered, no longer daring to even think of resisting the calamity.
As the de facto ruler of the Immortal Realm, watching his domain crumble in such a short time brought an overwhelming sense of defeat. But by then, such things as "emotions" were no longer important.
To survive—that was the only thing that truly mattered.
But the Great Rat Immortal, the Eternal Immortal Emperor, discovered to his despair that with the calamity upon them, there was no escape.
The immortals gathered around him, begging for a way to live.
But looking at the tattered remains of the Immortal Realm, the Great Rat Immortal himself had already sunk into despair.
Still, he had been the master of the Immortal Realm for a full three hundred million years. The Great Rat Immortal was not one to give up so easily.
In this desperate situation, a wild idea sparked in his mind.
He would gather the power of all immortals and break through to the Other Shore.
In the possibility the Great Rat Immortal inhabited, legends of the Other Shore and other possibilities also circulated, but they were known to very few, a secret among secrets. Even the Great Rat Immortal himself had only heard of it by chance from the three Sages in his youth. The birth of a truly Transcendent expert was unheard of.
With no one to learn from, the Great Rat Immortal could only rely on his own explorations.
But most critically, the time left to him was frighteningly short.
Searching through what remained of the Immortal Realm, the Great Rat Immortal finally found a method that could just barely traverse the possibilities.
The Transcendent World Coffin!
Unfortunately, among the surviving immortals, it seemed only he possessed sufficient strength to survive as the world transformed into an immortal coffin and floated on the tide of Dao Annihilation.
The others, even if they managed to enter the coffin, would likely not last long before being utterly annihilated, let alone reach the Other Shore.
The Great Rat Immortal could, of course, flee alone. But as the magnificent Eternal Immortal Emperor, could he simply watch his subjects die a miserable death?
The Great Rat Immortal was clearly not such a selfish man.
Drawing upon his years of rich experience from secretly devouring immortals and merging their Daos, he devised a brilliant method at the final hour. He would use the Dao of Imperial Rule to govern all other Daos, maintaining their delicate balance.
As long as they remained in a state of semi-devourment, the immortals would not be truly absorbed by him. They would still possess their own independent paths, cultivation, memories, emotions, and everything else.
Once hidden within the Transcendent World Coffin, they could successfully drift to the Other Shore. He could then release the immortals, and they would have safely weathered this cataclysm.
After a trial run in which he absorbed more than a dozen True Immortals, the Great Rat Immortal confirmed the method was viable. The only drawback was that he himself would have to both initiate the devouring of the Daos and simultaneously strive to maintain their distinct separation.
This extremely contradictory act would subject him to the ultimate torment.
And this agony would increase proportionally with the number of Dao paths he absorbed and the length of time he maintained their balance.
For a fleeting moment, hesitation flickered in his heart, but in that brief pause, countless more True Immortals died horribly.
The Great Rat Immortal immediately steeled his resolve.
The Immortal Realm was already in a precarious state, with the final tide of Dao Annihilation threatening to erupt at any moment. There was simply no time to slowly explain the situation to the surviving True Immortals.
And even if he did explain, they would not necessarily believe him. Holding firm to this belief, the Great Rat Immortal began to resolutely devour the host of immortals.
Faced with the Eternal Immortal Emperor's sudden cannibalism, the immortals were horrified, terrified.
Yet they were utterly powerless to resist.
They could only curse and beg in their despair and panic.
"Great Rat! You are the biggest rat in the Immortal Realm!"
"Your Majesty, have mercy!"
"Even if you devour me, I will become a vengeful spirit and await the day of your fall!"
...
At first, he would listen to those voices in his heart.
But as the number of devoured immortals continued to grow, an instinctive indifference began to settle in his heart. Eventually, he simply ignored them altogether.
In the final moment before the Immortal Realm was completely destroyed, as the tide of Dao Annihilation consumed all things, the Great Dao twisted and materialized, and the Transcendent World Coffin descended upon the world.
The Great Rat Immortal, carrying the surviving True Immortals, hid inside.
What followed was an immensely long period of time, so long that the Great Rat Immortal's memories began to blur and fade.
Inside the coffin was absolute darkness. Outside was the world-ending tide of Dao Annihilation.
The Great Rat Emperor could clearly sense the process of Dao Annihilation constantly eroding the immortal coffin.
He could only pray that they would reach the Other Shore before the coffin was corroded away.
But perhaps presiding over an Immortal Realm for three hundred million years had exhausted all his luck. An unknown amount of time passed, and not only was there no sign of the Other Shore, he had not even encountered a safe place.
The immortal coffin drifted with the current, floating amidst the waves of Dao Annihilation.
It seemed as if hope would never appear.
And the Great Rat Immortal had underestimated the difficulty of maintaining the fusion of ten thousand Daos.
Perhaps in the environment of a normal Immortal Realm, he could have maintained it. But within the immortal coffin, surrounded by the tide of Dao Annihilation, maintaining the balance became increasingly difficult.
His heart had no desire to devour the host of immortals.
But he could only watch helplessly as his own body assimilated his former subjects.
He, it seemed, had truly become the "Great Rat" cursed by billions.
The last glimmer of light in his heart was extinguished. The Eternal Immortal Emperor fell into an endless darkness...
After another unknown number of years, the immortal coffin had completely decayed, no longer able to withstand the tide of Dao Annihilation.
Amidst a tremendous roar, the Great Rat Immortal, as if waking from another life, discovered that he had finally arrived in another starry sky.
This starry sky, though also filled with the broken aura left in the wake of Dao Annihilation's rampage, was, for the moment, safe.
...
Li Fan and Cheng Dao, the two martial brothers, stared at the scene before them, silent for a long time.
"If it were me, I could not have done better than this Eternal Immortal Emperor."
"He did everything he could, but alas, the great tide of fate was irreversible," Li Fan lamented.
Cheng Dao also commented, "His heart was pitiable, his actions forgivable. If he had not been so aggressive towards us, perhaps we would not have had to take his life."
Li Fan's face showed a hint of shame. "It was my recklessness. I never imagined that this terrifying Great Rat had such a history."
Cheng Dao waved his hand. "Junior Brother, you need not blame yourself. The vast majority of Great Rat Immortals are not benevolent creatures. You must not change your perception because of this one exception."
"You are right, Senior Brother."
Next, Cheng Dao recounted the Dao paths he had comprehended from the Great Rat Immortal's Dao Core, explaining them to Li Fan in their entirety. He even frequently added his own insights on the Great Daos.
The comprehension of this spiritual stone from the edge of the Mountain and Sea, this disciple of Shou Qiu, was truly extraordinary. Li Fan even suspected that if he had consumed the Dao Core himself, the results would not have been any better.
While listening to the profound Dao, Li Fan was also secretly observing Cheng Dao.
It seemed that after consuming one Dao Core, his senior brother showed no abnormalities.
"Still, I can't draw any firm conclusions just yet. I'll have to feed him a few more."
"Guangwu Xinghai, hmph..."
After ninety-nine days, Cheng Dao concluded his lecture.
"Senior Brother, do you have the feeling that the Dao paths in the Eternal Immortal Emperor's possibility seemed much weaker than the ones in ours?" Li Fan asked, closing his eyes to savor the insights, his brow furrowed in thought. There was a hint of uncertainty in his tone.
"It is not your imagination. That is indeed the case," Cheng Dao nodded.
"Why is that?"
Cheng Dao narrowed his eyes and remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly, "Perhaps it is because an unparalleled figure has already emerged in that possibility."
"Oh?"
"This is just my speculation, it has not been confirmed by Master."
Cheng Dao first made this clear before continuing, "Aside from the three Sages, it seems there is an upper limit to the number of powerhouses that can be born within a single possibility."
"It is not merely a simple number, but a comprehensive limit determined by a combination of factors, including quantity and cultivation realm."
"Of course, when I say powerhouses, I am referring to Transcendent experts capable of stepping out of their own possibility."
Using his finger as a brush, Cheng Dao drew a circle in the air before Li Fan.
"It's like a pool of a fixed size. Each time a powerhouse is born, they carve out a section from this pool. Once the pool is completely occupied, the rest, no matter how heaven-defying their aptitude, can no longer reach the Transcendent realm."
Li Fan stared intently at the circle being continuously divided before him, a thoughtful expression on his face. "Senior Brother, in the Eternal Immortal Emperor's world, the three Sages actually vanished. Could it be that the potential of that place was already exhausted, so no more Transcendent experts could be born?"
Cheng Dao looked at Li Fan with a faint, knowing smile, but did not answer.
Seeing this, Li Fan already knew the answer in his heart.
He continued to study the small circle before him, waving his hand to redraw the hundreds of subdivided regions.
"That world... forget about powerhouses like Master. Even those who reached the Transcendent realm were few and far between."
"If that's the case, just how powerful was that previously born expert?"
"To have nearly exhausted the potential of an entire possibility?"
For the time being, Li Fan used the word "potential" to refer to the small circle before him.
"Could it be that his strength surpassed even Master's?" Li Fan couldn't help but gasp.
Cheng Dao, however, was very calm. "In the past, when Master resolved the Dao Annihilation Calamity and saved the Immortal Realm from fire and water, he remained extremely humble in the face of the admiration from the Immortal Emperor and the host of immortals."
"The old master never considered himself some great powerhouse of the Mountain and Sea."
"In his own words, he was, in fact, merely a 'Mound Keeper who witnessed the zenith of immortal virtue'."
Hearing this, Li Fan immediately grew solemn. He nodded in agreement, "Master is a teacher not only because of his strength, but also because of his breadth of heart and his character. Even if, one day, your strength surpasses his, Senior Brother, I believe you will still revere him as your master."
"Naturally!" Cheng Dao did not deny it.
"The Mountain and Sea is truly teeming with powerhouses," Li Fan said, his gaze returning to the small circle before him. Looking at the circle-within-a-circle that occupied almost the entire area, he couldn't help but be lost in a daze.
"I truly wonder what the legendary Other Shore is like, where so many unimaginable powerhouses gather."
Cheng Dao smiled. "Junior Brother, do not worry. With our talent, it is a foregone conclusion that we will one day set foot on the Other Shore."
Li Fan laughed heartily. "Then I shall thank you in advance for your auspicious words, Senior Brother."
"Let's not speak of the Other Shore for now. If you wish to see visitors from other possibilities, we can do so right now," Cheng Dao said suddenly after a short silence.
"Senior Brother, are you referring to... Guangwu Xinghai?"
"Correct." Cheng Dao then presented a completely new image before Li Fan.
A total of nine heavenly pillars stood in a circular formation.
In the center, surrounded by the pillars, was absolute darkness. From it, Li Fan sensed the familiar aura of Dao Annihilation.
And outside the nine heavenly pillars, arranged from sparse to dense, were at least a hundred more pillars that supported the heavens!
While it was unlikely that every pillar sealed a Nameless one, one could still feel the grandeur of this celestial engineering.
Unlike Li Fan's method of simply using heavenly pillars to support a collapsing sky, these pillars were not of equal specification. Instead, they were arranged from the inside out, from weak to strong.
It was as if they formed a kind of staircase.
The central area with the nine heavenly pillars was the weakest point.
This was evidenced by its ability to attract the Dao Annihilation to this spot.
Meanwhile, the hundred pillars densely surrounding it formed a solid defense, preventing the attracted Dao Annihilation from spreading.
Li Fan looked at the area enclosed by the nine heavenly pillars, which resembled a sort of "reservoir."
A realization dawned on him. "Is that the method Guangwu Xinghai uses to salvage creations from other possibilities?"
"It should be. It is indeed quite ingenious."
"Beyond its cleverness, the ability to forge these hundred heavenly pillars means that the strength of Guangwu Xinghai should absolutely not be underestimated. I misjudged them before," Cheng Dao praised.
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