Chapter 1548: The Gaze of the Mountain and Sea
"...Empty words, ceaseless life. Mind, spirit, body, soul—born from chaos, returning to chaos."
"To exist once is to exist forever. Both lost and present."
"No before, no after; no ancient, no modern. Mortal yet not ordinary, sacred yet not born..."
...
Through the painting before him, the profound Daoic hymns Li Fan heard were even more detailed and clear than those he had acquired from the memories of the Heavenly Doctor and the Dharma Spreader.
The profound sound passed down by Xuanyuan Hong held endless wonders. It could influence the past from the present, changing reality through illusion. In the past, Li Fan had learned this divine art of sound, but he had never understood exactly how it worked.
It wasn't until Li Fan traveled against the current on the River of Time with the Reverse Flow Boat that he began to grasp its secrets.
"This profound sound is a fusion of the Dao of Reverse Flow. However, instead of the physical body traversing the river, it is the sound of the Dao itself. It's like a shout from the river's lower reaches, echoing all the way upstream."
His thoughts flashed back to the moment he had first fallen into this time period.
Because he came from the future, his upper limit in this timeline was that very moment.
"You brat, you're finally awake."
"Quick, tell us what happened at the Medicine King Sect. If you confess honestly, we might spare your life. Otherwise..."
"Enough talk, let's just search his soul!"
It was the very moment the disciples of the Verdant Valley Sect had surrounded him.
Li Fan, in the present, silently chanted the divine art of sound.
The ethereal, profound sound crossed through the surging waves of the great River of Time, traversing several years. It flowed upstream for a short distance, reaching the ears of those Verdant Valley disciples.
Their expressions immediately grew hazy. After studying Li Fan for a moment, a look of realization dawned on them. "So it's you, kid. Why did you run over here all by yourself?"
Li Fan had used the profound sound to twist and rewrite their perception.
Thus, a crisis that would have originally required him to use Fantasy Becomes Truth was dissolved without a trace.
The Li Fan of the "past," witnessing the inexplicable change in the people before him, seemed to realize something. His gaze pierced through the River of Time, meeting the eyes of the "future," or rather, the "present" Li Fan.
Buzz, buzz, buzz...
A tremendous roar faintly echoed in the ears of the present Li Fan, like a river surging or thunder rolling. It did not originate from the Xuanhuang Realm, but from this timeline itself.
Without that slap to Li Fan's head, these Verdant Valley disciples would not die.
Although it was merely the lives of a few insignificant Foundation Establishment cultivators, and wouldn't cause a major deviation in the River of Time, it still created some ripples.
Of course, with Li Fan's current mastery of anchoring himself, such a minor tremor could no longer affect him. He let the river roar, his own being as steadfast as a mountain.
After completing this divine art that traversed time, Li Fan was quite pleased, savoring the feeling for a long time.
In the past, he had also successfully used the profound sound to influence the minds of He Zhenghao and others. But at that time, he had only mastered the technique itself, completely oblivious to the principles that made it possible.
Now, however, it was as if Li Fan had personally witnessed the entire process of the profound sound flowing backward through time.
He had even achieved a momentary contact with his past self.
Although this contact lasted only for an instant before being obscured again by the River of Time, Li Fan still felt a certain change within himself.
Looking out upon the River of Time, he found he could see just a little farther.
Not just into the past.
But also the future.
For the fixed past, the future was actually in a constant state of flux, holding countless possibilities. What Li Fan saw was not a single future, but a collection of infinite possibilities.
After just a few more glances, he began to feel dizzy and had to withdraw from that mystical state.
But it couldn't suppress the delight in his heart.
"It seems that those who master the Dao of Reverse Flow, while having the ability to alter any point in time they occupy, must also face the backlash of the river. It's like killing a thousand enemies at the cost of eight hundred of your own. Of course, if one is extremely stable within the river, this backlash can be ignored."
"As for why I didn't suffer any backlash when I used the profound sound before... firstly, I was still under the protection of [Truth], so I could naturally ignore such disturbances. Secondly..."
"At that time, I had not yet leaped out of the river. I was still considered a part of it. Even if the river changed its course, the impact on me was minimal."
"But once you leap out of the river, the meaning changes entirely. No longer belonging to the river, you must face the storms alone," Li Fan recalled the situation, a sense of understanding dawning in his heart.
"If I was just a droplet that had leaped out of the river before, then now, I could barely be considered a short stream formed from that droplet," Li Fan thought with a hint of satisfaction.
"It's just too short."
"However, as I follow the great River of Time, flowing ever onward, I will naturally grow longer. But correspondingly, the need for self-control will become stricter..."
Li Fan could sense that as time passed, the imprint he left in the river was also slowly growing.
"As long as I occasionally use this profound sound technique to train my ability to connect my beginning and end, I can maintain my current state."
"The longer I live, the stronger I become."
"A thousand years, ten thousand years, a hundred thousand years."
If Shou Qiu's Dao of longevity was about achieving longevity through strength, then this Dao of Reverse Flow was more about gaining strength through longevity.
"Ordinary longevity would certainly not allow one to become stronger the longer they lived. But forging one's body into a single line, roaming within the River of Time, is entirely different."
Li Fan looked beyond the heavens, as if he could perceive the River of Time in which he existed. All sorts of insights surged into his mind like crashing waves.
His aura fluctuated erratically.
By the time Li Fan came to his senses, he felt his adaptability to the river had improved even further.
This time, it wasn't through external objects like anchor points.
It was Li Fan himself who had become more suited to surviving in the River of Time.
It was like a fish finding water, or a bird taking to the sky.
After setting foot in a previously untouchable, forbidden zone, he had taken another step forward, merging with it.
"Now, even if all my anchor points were lost and the Reverse Flow Boat destroyed, I could likely struggle on my own in the river for a while, without being instantly annihilated by its turbulence."
This was undoubtedly a great reassurance for Li Fan.
The present Li Fan had a very low level of trust in any and all "external objects." He couldn't be blamed for being so suspicious.
After all, if even [Truth] could fail, what could be guaranteed to work forever?
He could only rely on himself.
Purely on himself.
Li Fan's thoughts returned to the divine art of sound.
"The profound sound is deeply hidden within the Xuanyuan clan's bloodline. It must be how Xuanyuan Hong achieved communication through the blood connection between himself and his descendants."
"Not only can it cross possibilities, but it can also traverse tens of thousands of years of time."
"But where, and when, does the source of this profound sound truly come from?"
Li Fan listened intently once more.
The sound, like a whisper from the distant heavens, grew clearer.
It was as if Li Fan's body was soaring, following the sound, drifting out of the Xuanhuang Realm.
Leaving the dark star sea, crossing the High Wall, leaping out of the Primal Possibility.
He arrived outside the mortal world, facing the Mountain and Sea directly.
The great River of Time, which could be observed from the mortal world, suddenly vanished without a trace.
Viewed from this perspective, the Mountain and Sea itself seemed to possess a quality of frozen time.
Whether it was ten thousand years ago or a hundred million years from now.
Everything was within the Mountain and Sea.
It was an indescribably wondrous experience. Though somewhat unbelievable, even contrary to common sense, Li Fan knew that everything he knew, everything he had experienced, and everything he had even heard of—the past, present, and future—all of it was frozen within the Mountain and Sea.
"The Dao Annihilation Calamity affected all periods of time."
"All existence at every point in time was doomed. So that's how it is."
As if in a state of absolute rationality, Li Fan thought calmly, even forgetting the reason he had come here in the first place.
After the question in his heart was answered, another naturally emerged.
"Then, what exactly does the 'outside' of the Mountain and Sea represent?"
"And what is the [Star] that suddenly appears at the end of the Mountain and Sea's time, as recorded in the prophecy?"
As if it had sensed the subject of Li Fan's thoughts, the originally calm and frozen Mountain and Sea suddenly seemed to come alive.
Li Fan could clearly feel a hair-raising gaze coming from all around him, from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Greatly alarmed, he decisively aborted his journey, which had been drifting towards some unknown point in the Mountain and Sea, following the sound.
In an instant, he returned to reality.
Li Fan looked up at the sky, observing for a long time with a lingering sense of dread.
It took a full half-day before the intense sense of crisis in his heart slowly faded.
"It's a good thing I'm used to reinforcing myself with Fantasy Becomes Truth. Even this simplified version was a lifesaver." He knew that [Truth] was currently in a dormant, inactive state.
This time, Li Fan had definitely escaped death by a hair's breadth.
Even after surviving the crisis of the three Daos merging, he had never imagined that the "senses" of the Mountain and Sea would be so acute.
"It shouldn't be like this, should it?"
Li Fan's brow furrowed tightly.
This was not his first time facing the Mountain and Sea directly.
But Li Fan was almost certain that before, the Mountain and Sea had never been so sensitive to his existence, which was less than an ant in comparison.
"It seems my previous intuition was correct."
"After experiencing the fusion of the three Daos, even though [Truth] reversed it, I have become a different kind of existence within the Mountain and Sea."
"It's fine as long as I remain hidden in the mortal world. But if I rashly venture out into the Mountain and Sea, I'm afraid I'll constantly face its scrutiny. Just like what I experienced a moment ago." The thought weighed heavily on Li Fan's heart.
But faced with the might of the Mountain and Sea, he couldn't think of any good way to deal with it for the time being.
"Thankfully, I didn't recklessly ascend to the Immortal Realm myself, but used immortal puppets and arrays instead. Otherwise, my life would have truly been in danger," Li Fan's expression was grim.
Ever since regaining his memories, every step he took was fraught with difficulty.
He had to constantly worry about the backlash from the River of Time, while also being wary of the Gaze of the Mountain and Sea.
This made Li Fan, who had grown accustomed to the unrestrained freedom that [Truth] had provided, feel a strong sense of constraint.
But the circumstances were stronger than the man.
Neither the River of Time nor the Mountain and Sea were existences he could contend with.
He could only bow his head and act with caution for now.
"One step at a time," Li Fan sighed. "First, I need to completely stabilize my position within the River of Time."
His thoughts refocused on the profound sound.
He recalled what he had just seen in the Mountain and Sea.
"The source of the sound seems to be from a more distant past."
"But it should still be within our timeline, not outside the Eternal Silent Void Realm."
"Could it be that Xuanyuan Hong is also trying to cross the void realm to save the world in the past? Does he already possess such strength?"
"Also, rather than conveying a message, this profound sound feels more like a marker left behind to guide those who come after. Could it be..."
A thought suddenly flashed through Li Fan's mind: "Could he have already fallen? Otherwise, by common sense, he wouldn't so persistently and steadily send this profound sound across the River of Time to establish a connection."
Li Fan pondered for a long time, but eventually shook his head slightly, choosing to block out the profound sound.
Even if his guess was correct, he would absolutely not go out of curiosity. If even someone of Xuanyuan Hong's strength had perished there, Li Fan would fare no better.
Especially now, without the protection of [Truth], he would not risk his own life.
"Perhaps in the future, when I am strong enough to stroll freely within the Mountain and Sea, I will go and investigate," Li Fan thought to himself.
Slowly rolling up the scroll, Li Fan did not store it away casually.
Instead, he suppressed it in the space at the root of the Xuanhuang heaven and earth.
"The second matter is settled."
"Next..."
"The Black Heaven Physician, and Evil Su Bai."
When the objects of his attention shifted from a behemoth like the Mountain and Sea to transcendent experts like them, everything suddenly seemed much easier.
At the very least, the Mountain and Sea rendered the current Li Fan completely incapable of even conceiving of resistance or maneuvering.
His only thought was to flee in panic.
But against the Black Heaven Physician and Evil Su Bai, he could at least think of some countermeasures.
These two transcendent experts were, for the entire dark star sea, nothing less than ticking time bombs. The moment Su Bai and the Heavenly Doctor stepped outside the High Wall, the bombs would instantly detonate.
Li Fan, who considered the Xuanhuang Realm his foundational anchor, had to completely eliminate this risk as early as possible.
By searching the memories of the Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate, Li Fan had roughly pinpointed the current time node.
The Tianfa Realm had not yet been completely destroyed; it was in a period of recuperation after a great war.
"I don't know if the Heavenly Doctor has already activated the Heavenly Soul Reincarnation Technique. As for Su Bai, he hasn't been born yet."
"But it's all happening soon."
Li Fan deliberated for a long time and decided to first meet with the Dharma Spreader of the current time node.
Xuanyuan Hong's descendant, Xuanyuan Tuo.
The Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance, acting as a fresh force, had participated in the war in the Taiyuan Realm. The relationship between the New Law cultivators and the Ten Great Immortal Sects was much more relaxed compared to the original timeline.
In particular, the powerful combat strength displayed by the New Law cultivators in the heat of battle had directly attracted many old-law cultivators to switch their cultivation paths.
At this moment, the Ten Sects' attention was primarily focused on expanding into the Taiyuan Realm and the surrounding starry sky.
They had no time to spare for the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance.
Thus, the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance was growing ever more untamed.
(End of Chapter)
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