Chapter 1543: The Final Chapter of the Fable
Chapter 1543: The Final Chapter of the Fable
Every True Immortal, every immortal artifact and array... even the humblest immortal servant, possessed a unique imprint that connected them to the Infinite Sea.
It was, in all likelihood, a method employed by successive Immortal Emperors to maintain control over the inhabitants of the Immortal Realm.
Save for an anomaly like Li Fan, who could surreptitiously access the Infinite Sea, the vast majority of beings in the Immortal Realm were bound by this rule. Carrying [Truth] and having already endured the fusion of the three Daos, Li Fan had no intention of courting death by rashly connecting to the Infinite Sea before recovering his protective divine ability, [Fantasy Becomes Truth]. He would have to rely on other methods.
As Li Fan finished his modifications to the ancient Taiyuan immortal array, threads of silvery-white light began to surge from the shifting ring.
"Immortal spiritual energy... such a familiar, wonderful feeling."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, taking a deep breath.
His body was still mortal, after all. He cautiously channeled all the immortal spiritual energy drawn in by the array into a specialized "reservoir formation" he had constructed.
This pool of immortal energy, while not truly his own, could be drawn upon freely through the formation. It was just as in his past life, when he had borrowed the immortal power from the enchanted skin gifted to him by the lord of the City of Extreme Bliss.
The difference, however, was negligible.
In less than half a day, Li Fan had already, with practiced ease, completed the process of accumulating and circulating the immortal energy within his body.
Simultaneously, something entirely unexpected occurred.
It was an entirely welcome development, not a setback.
Perhaps his experience with the fusion of the three Daos had instinctively bound the immortal energy of the Mountain and Sea to the concepts of [Truth]'s infinity and the Great Dao of Longevity.
As he once again savored the sensation of immortal spiritual energy, it was as if his mind naturally brushed against the other two.
Yet, Li Fan refused to be swept away by a momentary impulse. After careful consideration, he decided to temporarily set aside the Great Dao of Longevity.
He would focus only on the transformation between truth and falsehood, the domain represented by [Truth].
As immortal energy slowly returned to him, his insights into the transformation between truth and falsehood—insights that had been scoured away by the fusion of Mountain and Sea—began to reawaken.
But Li Fan felt little joy, his expression only growing more solemn.
"It seems the effects of the three-Dao fusion have not yet faded completely."
"They are three entirely distinct Great Daos, yet within me, they seem to be inextricably linked, bound together..."
Even though Li Fan had deliberately set aside the Great Dao of Longevity, as his mastery of the other two rose like a swelling tide, he keenly sensed the lifespan of his mortal body extending uncontrollably.
He was not a True Immortal, yet his lifespan already rivaled one.
It was like a calm, slowly rising flood, the water already creeping past his knees. The feeling was genuinely terrifying.
Faced with this, Li Fan had no choice but to halt his progress in comprehending the other two Daos for the time being.
Feeling a sense of helplessness, he could only console himself. "At the very least," he thought, "compared to my last life, where I was fused without a struggle, this time I have something I can vaguely grasp, a tangible sign."
"As long as I control the pace of my enlightenment in the three Daos, I should be safe for now."
Li Fan knew he had to completely resolve the latent danger of this three-Dao fusion, but for now, he was utterly without a clue.
He couldn't even seek guidance from others.
Of the great Daos of the Mountain and Sea, to obtain even one was a stroke of heavenly fortune.
To obtain two was to be a figure on par with Shou Qiu himself.
And to master all three...
It was unheard of in all of history.
Even [Truth] itself had suffered grievous damage in the fusion.
Li Fan would have to find his own path to salvation.
"Perhaps the answer lies at the source of this river of time," he mused, "in the primordial Mountain and Sea, before the Immortal Realm was even born."
"Or maybe it's at the river's end, in the final age where all things converge, that a solution will be easier to find."
Li Fan stood at a crossroads in the surging river of time, looking back at the past and gazing toward the future. For a moment, he was lost, uncertain of which path to take.
He remained lost in this state for several days, adrift in a sea of phantoms and profound thoughts, before finally breaking free.
"Further contemplation is pointless," he decided. "First, I'll deal with the matters at hand in this timeline."
Now that he had recovered a significant portion of his abilities, Li Fan found he cared little for the affairs of the current Xuanhuang Realm.
"One thing at a time."
He took a single step, and in the next instant, followed the Golden Lock Across the Sky back from the Taiyuan Realm to the Xuanhuang Realm.
Sensing their "master's" departure, the Taiyuan Observer and the Repair Officer slowly rose.
They paid no mind to the Taiyuan cultivators still wailing in agony below. Instead, they joined forces to erect a statue of Li Fan, a monument to serve as an eternal reminder.
This was not at Li Fan's command, but an act driven by their own "servant" instincts.
Upon his return to the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan did not immediately seek out the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate.
Instead, he first made his way back to the Verdant Valley.
As compensation for killing Bai Lishan, Jiang Yingshan, in her capacity as chief disciple of the Supreme Oneness Sect, had provided material aid to the Verdant Valley. Although Zou Yunhao, the sect master, was heartbroken by the death of the disciple he had practically raised with his own hands...
...he could not risk the lives of everyone else in the valley by directly confronting the Supreme Oneness Sect. And so, he could only endure the loss in silence.
Though they had lost a peerless genius, with the backing of the Supreme Oneness Sect, the Verdant Valley's fortunes had actually taken a turn for the better. It was now a scene of thriving prosperity, showing every sign of becoming a first-rate sect.
"Fortune and misfortune are two sides of the same coin," he reflected. "One never knows which will come."
"But it is weakness that forces one to drift with the tide, to be at the mercy of both."
"If the sect master of the Verdant Valley possessed my strength, he would be the one to decide what is a blessing and what is a curse."
"The same principle applies to me. The fusion of the three Daos is a terrible calamity, yet it is also a supreme opportunity. Everything depends on my own strength."
Having witnessed the Verdant Valley's transformation firsthand, Li Fan felt a wave of understanding wash over him.
Sensing the thirst for revenge hidden deep within Zou Yunhao's heart, Li Fan smiled faintly and sent an object on its way.
Then, he slipped unnoticed into the Verdant Valley's treasury.
Zou Yunhao was gazing at Bai Lishan's belongings, lost in sorrowful memory, when he felt a sudden sting in his hand. He looked down to see a thin, wafer-like object he had never seen before, radiating a mysterious aura.
"Su... preme... Dao..." Zou Yunhao managed to decipher the characters, and his expression changed dramatically.
He instinctively snatched the plate back, his eyes darting around warily.
Beads of cold sweat trickled down his forehead.
Inside the Verdant Valley's treasury, Li Fan swept the room with his divine sense and, just as he'd expected, found his target.
"I almost forgot about this."
With a flick of his wrist, he summoned a yellowed book into his hand.
Flipping through the first few pages, he saw they were identical to the version he had read ten thousand years in the future.
It was the Fable of Mountain and Sea, left behind by Sun Piao Miao of the Medicine King Sect!
Previously, at the Ten Sects' migration site known as the Qian Du Dojo beyond the High Wall, Li Fan had found the copy of this fable that had been confiscated by the Supreme Oneness Sect. That version, however, was missing several key pages.
He wanted to see if, at this point in time, the Fable of Mountain and Sea was still incomplete.
"Hmm... this one is complete."
"Interesting. I wonder who tore out those pages."
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind as several potential culprits flashed through his thoughts.
He set the thought aside for now and began to carefully read the missing chapters.
They consisted of several short allegories.
The first story resolved a question that had long puzzled him.
Once, new life was born within the Sea. The Sea even shared its infinite lifespan with these fragile creatures and argued with the Mountain over them.
But in later chapters, these beings were never mentioned again. There was only the Mountain and the Sea.
With great interest, Li Fan began to read about the fate of these creatures.
After life was born in the Sea, the Mountain and the Sea did not speak for many years.
Yet they remained nestled together, never straying even a single step apart.
Then one day, a creature rode the great waves, crossed the boundary, and arrived upon the Mountain.
The Sea, fearing the Mountain's wrath, broke the long silence. "Mountain," it said, "do not be angry. What harm could these little ones possibly mean?"
"Sea, is that truly how you see me?" the Mountain replied. "If they can live in you, they can exist on me. Let them be!"
The Sea was overjoyed, believing the Mountain had finally accepted the creatures.
So it raised its waves and carried more of them onto the Mountain's slopes.
The Mountain watched in silence, offering no comment.
Life spread between the Mountain and the Sea.
Like a living bond, they covered the mountainside and filled the waters.
And so the years passed.
Then one day, the calm sea surged, its tides rising without warning.
Caught unawares, countless creatures were swallowed by the rising waters.
The Sea was stunned. The Mountain was not.
"Mountain," the Sea cried, "they were born of me. Why would I drown them?"
The Sea was filled with sorrow, but it could do nothing for the creatures that had sunk to its depths.
The Mountain sighed. "Our fusion requires a slow, careful blending. How could they possibly withstand such a force?"
"Had they remained within you, they might have lived forever."
"But alas, they ventured onto the Mountain."
The Sea's waves crashed restlessly. "It was I who harmed them."
"Without you, they would never have existed," the Mountain said. "How can you claim to have harmed them?"
The Sea did not reply.
And after that, there was no more life between the Mountain and the Sea.
...
Li Fan read this first story dozens of times.
Finally, with an unreadable expression, he murmured, "These creatures of the Sea... or of the Mountain and Sea... Do they represent all existence in the mortal world, everything apart from the Mountain and Sea themselves?"
"The fusion of the Mountain and Sea is an inexorable trend. It is the fundamental cause of the Dao Annihilation Calamity."
"Anything that cannot withstand this fusion will be utterly annihilated."
"Which means..."
Li Fan pondered, arriving at a rather startling conclusion.
It seemed this fable recorded events that took place mostly before the dawn of mortal civilization, and...
...after its destruction.
From Li Fan's perspective, the entire, immeasurably long history of civilization was but two insignificant chapters in this fable.
"Dao Annihilation is the end of the mortal world," he realized, "but not the end of the Mountain and Sea."
"When the Star appears, the Mountain and Sea are no more. That is the true end, the one not even recorded in this fable."
A sense of bewilderment washed over him. Li Fan carefully reread the fable.
Finally, he confirmed his suspicions.
But inevitably, more questions arose. "Who wrote this fable?"
"If my theory is correct, then to be able to record the phenomena of the Mountain and Sea from a perspective *after* the utter annihilation of the mortal world... That means..."
Li Fan suddenly recalled what the Mount Tai Emperor had mentioned: traveling upstream from the end of time, crossing the ages to join forces with cultivators of the past, all to save the mortal world.
"Could it have been left by some powerful being from the future? From the very end of time?"
"And what role did Sun Piao Miao play in this?"
There were too many unanswerable questions. Li Fan could only set them aside for now.
He turned his attention to the remaining chapters of the fable.
Most were obscure records of the interactions between the Mountain and the Sea, their meanings unclear.
One chapter, in particular, caught his attention.
One day, the Mountain was sullen and joyless. The Sea asked why, but it did not answer.
When asked again, the faint rumble of thunder echoed from within the Mountain.
The Sea was surprised and delighted. "Mountain, are you changing too? This is a wonderful thing! Why are you not happy?"
The Mountain sighed. "Sea, for beings like us, change is perhaps nothing to celebrate."
"Have you forgotten what our first change led to?"
The Sea retorted, "But did it not also create the you and I of today? Mountain, do not resist. Try to accept these changes."
The Mountain fell silent.
After that, the thunder within the Mountain grew ever louder.
Until one day, the Mountain and Sea trembled.
And the thunder fell silent.
...
"The Change of the Mountain and Sea." Li Fan sensed something profound in this fable, but he could not quite put it into words.
It was as if a white veil obscured the truth, always just beyond his grasp. The feeling was agonizing.
"These missing pages," he mused, "they must refer to major events that occurred between the Mountain and Sea."
"The demise of mortal civilization only accounts for a few small chapters. So what does this 'Change of the Mountain and Sea' refer to? Could it be that other civilizations, like our own, have risen and fallen between the Mountain and Sea before?"
"And they all simply perished?" Li Fan's imagination ran wild.
There was one more chapter that Li Fan found fascinating. And slightly terrifying. And...
...baffling.
If the entire fable was a record of the Mountain and Sea...
...then this last chapter felt strangely out of place.
As if it had been forced into the text.
It told the story of that first creature, the one who crossed from Sea to Mountain, and how it had discovered the Mountain's existence in the first place.
The Mountain and Sea were vast. To be within them was to be unable to see their true form.
Life within was carefree, free from disaster and misfortune. But one day, a creature came to the edge of the Sea and suddenly looked up.
And it seemed to glimpse the silhouette of the Mountain.
That form, as boundless as the Sea itself, filled its mind, making it tremble with an instinctual mix of fear, curiosity, and excitement.
From then on, it tried everything it could, and finally, riding the wind and waves, it crossed to the great Mountain.
Born of the Sea, it now stood upon the Mountain.
Its perspective suddenly became impossibly vast.
And so...
Its gaze stretched beyond the Mountain and Sea.
And looked upon what lay outside.
(End of this chapter)
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