Chapter 1516: Dao Chronicle Projection Pearl
The passage materialized from nothing, born from annihilation.
It didn't seem to be a physical entity, but rather a unique form of energy, forcibly carving a path through the void.
Ziyi took a single step, and his figure vanished in an instant. The next moment, he had already appeared at the other end of the passage.
Li Fan and Cheng Dao exchanged a glance and followed close behind.
If it were just the two of them, entering a foreign star sea teeming with True Immortals for the first time, they might have been more cautious. But now, with such a powerful expert clearing the way, what was there to fear?
Stepping onto this celestial path, a peculiar sensation they had never experienced before washed over them. It was almost impossible to describe in words, but if they had to, it would be "safety."
Born into the mortal world, living under the constant threat of the Dao Annihilation Calamity, Li Fan himself might not have been overly concerned. But undeniably, this reality had ingrained a primal sense of crisis in both body and soul. Forged over years, it had made them like startled birds, perpetually anxious. Even though the calamity had not yet arrived, and even with the support of the pillars of Nameless True Immortals, the feeling of dread lingered in their hearts.
After all, it wasn't just a few pillars; even the Immortal World had been destroyed by the Dao Annihilation. Who could guarantee how long these pillars would last?
But now, within the passage Ziyi had created, this long-standing sense of dread finally vanished.
This thought arose in Li Fan's mind without any basis.
It was a blind confidence, but it wasn't just Li Fan who felt it.
Looking at Cheng Dao, he was the same.
The unavoidable sense of crisis that came with existing in the mortal world was gently soothed. Li Fan felt his mind become unprecedentedly calm.
Countless stray thoughts slowly settled to the bottom of his heart, leaving only the purest, clearest intent.
"What a remarkable divine ability!" Li Fan marveled inwardly.
"It's a pity this passage isn't permanent; Ziyi created it just to clear a path. With his departure, it's destined to disappear quickly. Such formidable power, capable of repelling the Dao Annihilation..."
"Setting aside the great fortune of observing such divine power up close, the environment created by this passage alone is something countless beings in the mortal world could seek their entire lives and never find."
"If I could stay here forever, my understanding of the True False Transformation would surely reach a new level in no time."
The end of the passage was near, and as he was about to leave, Li Fan felt a hint of reluctance.
A thought even surfaced: in his next life, with [Truth], he could repeat all his actions from this one, just to experience this brief moment again.
Li Fan actually considered it seriously.
"From my current understanding, even a dozen consecutive uses of [Truth] wouldn't grant me as much insight into the True False Transformation as I've gained in just a few moments within this passage."
"By that logic, it's definitely worth it..."
Li Fan was lost in the peace and beauty the passage provided.
Cheng Dao was the same.
When facing the Mountain Sea alone, perhaps his will could remain firm.
But after finding a safe house that could shelter him from the wind and rain, even a short stay inside was enough to slowly dull the edge of his spirit.
Even Cheng Dao's weathered and resolute face softened slightly.
Perhaps sensing the thoughts of the two juniors, Ziyi's voice drifted over, interrupting their train of thought.
"You can observe it, but you cannot learn it."
"This is my Dao, not yours. In the end, you must walk your own unique paths to be worthy of crossing the Mountain Sea."
Hearing this, Li Fan and Cheng Dao were shaken. The flicker of greed in their hearts vanished instantly.
"Thank you for your guidance, Senior." Having come to their senses, the two hurriedly thanked Ziyi. They had realized that the absolute sense of security within the passage had, in a short time, bred dependence in their hearts. It had even naturally given rise to desires like greed and possessiveness.
It was only because of their profound mental tranquility that these stray thoughts had merely accumulated at the bottom of their hearts without surfacing. Now that Ziyi had pointed it out, they burst forth like punctured bubbles.
"The Mountain Sea is boundless; only I can be my own vessel."
"To traverse the Mountain Sea, one must have an unwavering Dao heart."
"You two, your strength and temperament are both superior in the mortal world. However..."
"You're still lacking."
"What a hassle..."
Ziyi shook his head and muttered this last part, then his figure vanished from their sight.
Li Fan and Cheng Dao looked at each other, and after stepping out of the passage, they glanced back.
Both broke out in a cold sweat.
Cheng Dao remarked with emotion, "Junior Brother, I finally understand why Master chose to have as little contact with us as possible."
"This kind of protection is truly not a good thing."
Li Fan also nodded slightly. "If we had stayed any longer, I'm afraid I wouldn't have wanted to leave."
The two finally shook off the allure of the celestial path and hurried after Ziyi.
Ziyi's speed was immense, and he was already out of sight.
But they didn't need to worry about losing him.
After all, the colossal, tsunami-like shockwaves he left in his wake were far too conspicuous.
A passage appearing from thin air within the void consumed by Dao Annihilation—how could the Guangwu Xinghai not have noticed such a phenomenon?
Their reaction was swift. Judging by the profound and imposing auras in the distance, it seemed that all the top experts of the Guangwu Xinghai had gathered.
But before Ziyi, they were nothing.
An expert capable of traversing possibilities was absolutely not someone the True Immortals of the current Guangwu Xinghai could resist.
Li Fan and Cheng Dao followed the path Ziyi had blazed, finally understanding the meaning of absolute, effortless destruction.
The numerous purple paper talismans drifting in the surroundings were, in fact, True Immortals who had been suppressed and flattened.
Li Fan secretly tried to collect these talismans, only to discover that Ziyi hadn't dealt a fatal blow; he had merely trapped them for the time being. Li Fan could faintly sense the terrified thoughts of the True Immortals within the paper.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan and Cheng Dao decided not to act rashly. They continued to speed toward Ziyi's location.
The closer they got, the more sealed True Immortals they saw.
It seemed there was something of vital importance there that they had to protect, something they would block the intruder from reaching even at the cost of their lives.
But in the end, their resistance was futile.
The gap in power between the two sides was simply too vast.
Even fighting to the death, they couldn't even manage to "resist."
However, this was, after all, a civilization that had survived the great calamity and thrived to this day, one that could even fish in the Dao Annihilation. It certainly had its own deep foundations.
"Senior, don't push us too far!"
A furious roar erupted from ahead, followed by a violent fluctuation of power that, for a moment, was no less intense than the disturbance Ziyi had caused.
By the time Li Fan and Cheng Dao arrived on the scene, they found that the surrounding space had become a massive, absolute vacuum.
What should have been a dense cluster of important structures had been completely vaporized.
Ziyi was looking with great interest at a sphere of light in his hand.
Within the sphere, images shifted constantly, filled with what seemed to be countless flickering figures.
And before Ziyi stood a middle-aged man in tattered clothes, his face a mask of despair.
"A Dao Chronicle Projection. This is not something you could have created. Did you fish this up as well?"
Ziyi asked coolly. With a gentle squeeze, the sphere of light was infinitely compressed at his fingertips, finally becoming a single, brilliant point.
Then, Ziyi tossed this point of light to Cheng Dao.
Seemingly worried that Cheng Dao couldn't withstand the pressure of the light point, he had coated it with a protective power similar to that of the celestial path. This allowed Cheng Dao to observe the contents of the light point without being affected by it.
Cheng Dao first thanked Ziyi again before looking down at the point of light in his hand.
A moment later...
Li Fan noticed his senior brother's body begin to tremble uncontrollably.
Cold sweat streamed down his forehead, as if he were under an immense burden.
After a few breaths, Cheng Dao forced himself to look away. He still looked utterly drained, his face deathly pale.
Li Fan was immediately astounded.
One had to remember that Cheng Dao's true form was a spirit stone from the shore of the Mountain Sea. He had accompanied Shou Qiu Gong, keeping watch over the mountain and gazing at the sea.
He could calmly accept even the full vista of the Mountain Sea. What on earth was inside this sphere of light to make Cheng Dao lose his composure so completely?
Li Fan's face showed concerned inquiry, but Cheng Dao seemed not to have recovered from the side effects of viewing the sphere. He simply handed the sphere, called the Dao Chronicle Projection, to Li Fan, gesturing for him to see for himself. Then he closed his eyes to rest, saying no more.
Seeing this, Li Fan's curiosity grew even stronger.
On guard, he peered into the sphere of light.
The point in his hand instantly exploded, overwhelming not only his surroundings but his entire consciousness.
Endless images of light and shadow evolved one after another like a flowing river.
From the absolute nothingness where no Dao existed, to the chaotic void where the Dao was born and grew, to the initial birth of worlds and the manifestation of life. Then, to living beings comprehending the Dao and the Immortal World coming into being.
Countless years flashed by in an instant.
Until the very end, when all things and all Daos withered, welcoming the final hour.
From the beginning to the end, every event that occurred, every being that was born, was all condensed into this single point of light.
And it wasn't just a simple projected record.
Within the light and shadow, every Dao, divine ability, and magical fluctuation that had ever appeared in this possibility, from its birth to its destruction, had been perfectly replicated and fused into the sphere.
For the sphere to explode and seek an enemy meant facing the combined, cumulative strike of countless heroes across countless years in the river of time, all from a single possibility!
This terrifying scene nearly made Li Fan drop the sphere in his hand. The words "[Truth]" were almost on the tip of his tongue.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down his forehead as Li Fan pulled his mind back from the Dao Chronicle Projection.
The sphere in his palm felt infinitely heavy.
For a moment, Li Fan had the illusion that he could not even hold it steady.
"Thank goodness Ziyi cleared the path for us. Otherwise, if it were just Cheng Dao and me facing this Dao Chronicle Projection, I'm afraid we would have been instantly killed."
Li Fan and Cheng Dao, who had opened his eyes again, exchanged a look. Both saw the shock in the other's heart.
They never would have imagined that the Guangwu Xinghai held such a treasure.
Compared to it, the Dao Sword and Dao Saber from before were like the light of a firefly next to the bright moon.
"Fishing in the Dao Annihilation is indeed a viable means of survival. Among those who can survive in the Mountain Sea, besides the True Immortals who made desperate gambles during the apocalypse, there are also those powerful beings who failed to transcend, attempted to cross the Mountain Sea, and were submerged by it."
"Their consciousness might have been erased by the Mountain Sea, but there's a small chance their bodies—and the treasures they carried—survived. This Dao Chronicle Projection must have come from one of them, right?"
Ziyi first uprooted the dam formed by the pillars, one by one, gathering the terrified True Immortals from within. Then, he pressed his hands together with great force.
A new pillar, wreathed in purple qi, was thus born.
Ziyi erected the pillar in this space, and the roaring of the Dao Annihilation, caused by the missing pillars, finally subsided.
Li Fan noticed that in the brief moment when the pillars were being transformed, even though the phenomenon of the Dao Annihilation's approach appeared, the disturbance wasn't even as great as the one triggered inside the high wall of the Shuo Xinghai.
Ziyi was clearly the reason.
Merely by standing there, he acted like countless pillars, resisting the Dao Annihilation to a certain degree.
In the Guangwu Xinghai, the tattered middle-aged man stared blankly at the pillar made from all the Immortals.
More than a hundred thousand years of records, overturned in a single day. It had nearly crushed his will.
He didn't answer Ziyi's question.
But after a moment of silence, the middle-aged man slowly came to his senses.
His voice hoarse, he said, "Senior is correct. It was by a stroke of luck that we obtained a physical remnant."
"This was supposed to be our great fortune, but who would have thought..."
Ziyi interrupted him. "This *is* your great fortune. That Dao Chronicle Projection might not be worth mentioning, but the expert's remains could have nurtured a new transcendent expert. It's a pity you all went astray."
"Using the body as your teacher, you could have comprehended the Dao of that past expert. But what did you do instead?"
The middle-aged man's expression was dazed. After a long while, he murmured, "We sent it back into the Dao Annihilation, using it as a vessel. First, to search for another safe haven. Second, to collect other treasures drifting in the tide..."
Ziyi snorted and berated him mercilessly, "Fools!"
But the middle-aged man sighed. "It's not that we were unwilling to comprehend it. We truly could not."
"The remains were like a mountain before our eyes. But we were like people within the mountain, unable to see its true face."
"We tried for many years, but it remained the same. Left with no other choice, we finally gave up and sought a new use for it."
The middle-aged man had thought this explanation would earn Ziyi's sympathy.
But instead, Ziyi nodded and said coldly, "Then that's even more foolish. You're beyond saving."
Ziyi lightly pointed at the man from Guangwu Xinghai. The man opened his mouth, wanting to say something more.
A moment later, he burst like a bubble, dissolving into thousands of purple specks of light.
They were swallowed by the surrounding starry sky.
An expert who was at least at the level of a Nameless True Immortal was thus casually erased by Ziyi.
Seeing this, Li Fan and Cheng Dao couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.
"If it weren't for Shou Qiu Gong's sake, this Ziyi definitely wouldn't have been so accommodating."
Ziyi acted as if he had done something trivial and quickly put the middle-aged man out of his mind.
He strode to the center of where the pillar-dam had once been and stared ahead.
His gaze seemed to pierce through the Mountain Sea and the mortal world.
(End of this chapter)
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