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Chapter 1602: The One of the Same Rank as the Mountain and Sea

"Transcend the Mountain and Sea? Devour the Mountain and Sea, become the Mountain and Sea!"

"Devour! Devour! Devour..."

In Li Fan's eyes, the Mountain and Sea were no longer a continuous, ethereal vista, but a delicacy exuding a fatal attraction.

The plumes of black qi rising to the heavens were the seductive aroma wafting from the Mountain and Sea.

It was the primordial scent of the Mountain and Sea itself!

Just as when he was a mortal cultivator seeing Ink Death for the first time, an extreme craving birthed itself from the depths of his soul, threatening to completely overwhelm his consciousness.

It was a desire that transcended cultivation realms and strength, one that disregarded aptitude and temperament. As long as "desire" itself existed within a being, the black fragment would ignite it, magnify it countless times over, and channel it into a ravenous greed for the Mountain and Sea.

Cultivators of the Mountain and Sea already harbored a certain yearning for it. After being tempted like this, the latent desires in their hearts were almost certain to be unleashed. The higher their cultivation, the more likely they were to pose a tangible threat to the Mountain and Sea, and the stronger the effect!

Just as Li Fan was thinking now: "All that is slaughtered and butchered can become my sustenance. The seeds of my True Spirit have already spread across nearly all of the Mountain and Sea. All it takes is a single great fire to set the whole world ablaze in crimson flames!"

The more he thought about it, the more Li Fan felt his plan could succeed, and the more impulsive he became.

"Should I... really give it a try?" A dangerous glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes.

This single one of his countless fragmented consciousnesses, having been thoroughly persuaded, actually attempted to send a signal of insurrection to his true self.

"Calm down."

However, at that very moment, another icy voice surfaced in Li Fan's mind.

It stood in stark opposition to the seductive voice, completely unaffected by its influence.

This voice originated from Li Fan himself!

This Li Fan, who still maintained his clarity, was formed from a dense swarm of Dao One Worms.

Sensing that something was wrong, his true self had commanded the Dao One Worms to intervene.

Though it was only a split consciousness, under the current circumstances, it was somehow even more lucid than Li Fan's other fragmented minds.

This was the effect of the Dao One Worm swarms constantly adapting to the frenzied temptations of the black fragments!

With the reminder from the Dao One Worm consciousness, this version of Li Fan instantly awoke from his dazed state.

Strictly speaking, he hadn't been completely seduced just now.

After all, the idea of igniting the Mountain and Sea was something he had rehearsed in his mind several times before, but he had rejected it every time in the end.

Even without the Dao One Worms' intervention this time, he likely wouldn't have truly attempted to "devour the Mountain and Sea."

But it was undeniable that Li Fan had indeed been influenced by the black fragment.

It had caused him to temporarily lose sight of the future and the bigger picture, focusing only on the immediate gains and losses, as if his eyes had been veiled.

With the help of the Dao One Worms' consciousness for calibration, Li Fan became completely calm, no longer moved by the seductive whispers that echoed in his ears.

Once the worm-formed consciousness had completely devoured the source of the temptation, the Mountain and Sea in Li Fan's vision finally returned to normal.

But the faint "aroma" emanating from the Mountain and Sea did not vanish completely.

It still lingered.

Li Fan looked down at his hand, at the black fragment that had been digested by the Dao One Worms.

Its physical form no longer existed in the mortal world, yet the fragment's outline still traced its original shape.

He clenched his right hand but grasped only air. All five fingers passed straight through the fragment, as if its existence was merely Li Fan's hallucination.

"In the eyes of the Dao One Worms, they have fulfilled their purpose. The black fragment is gone. But..."

Li Fan pondered this, then summoned a True Immortal emissary from the Xuanhuang Immortal Boat moored in the Annihilation Zone. In the end, he confirmed that, aside from himself, no one else could see the "invisible" fragment.

Moreover, this invisible fragment seemed to exist only in relation to Li Fan.

No matter where Li Fan went, it would always follow.

"Is it a threat?"

Li Fan gently stroked the invisible fragment in his hand.

He was currently just one of thousands of split consciousnesses. If he encountered an uncontrollable situation, this consciousness could dissipate itself in an instant, severing any possible influence on his true self.

This was a contingency he had planned for from the very beginning, when he first sent out countless Xuanhuang Immortal Boats to the various corners of the Mountain and Sea. Thus, he wasn't worried about the safety of his true self.

And the instructions from his main body were to research it boldly.

With that, he cast aside his remaining inhibitions.

"If I'm not mistaken, even after years of evolution, the Dao One Worms only managed to consume the outer shell of this black fragment. Its true inner core is on a completely different level from the current Dao One Worms, which is why they cannot perceive it."

"And the reason I can see it..."

A conjecture had already begun to form in Li Fan's mind.

"I possess [Truth], have fortuitously attained the Great Dao of Longevity, and even personally experienced the tribulation of three Daos merging. These are all things on par with the Mountain and Sea. Therefore..."

"Could the master of this black fragment be a being of the same rank as the Mountain and Sea?"

Li Fan's eyes narrowed. After careful consideration, he still found it difficult to reach a definite conclusion.

The Mountain and Sea was vast and boundless. How could it be that so quickly, so coincidentally, he had encountered a being that could rival it?

With Li Fan's disposition, a thread of suspicion was unavoidable.

But upon further reflection, many years had passed since the Primal possibility was shattered and he began his journey across the Mountain and Sea.

In those years, his thousands of Xuanhuang Immortal Boats had journeyed to nearly every corner of the world. He had accumulated a vast expanse of both time and space. Finding a fragment left by a being on par with the Mountain and Sea no longer seemed like a coincidence, but an inevitability.

"Under an exploration of this scale, if there are any fragments left by a being on par with the Mountain and Sea in this world, it's almost certain that I would find them."

Li Fan suppressed the doubt in his heart.

He began to carefully study the invisible fragment beside him.

Since only he could observe its existence, he couldn't rely on anyone else for his research. Fortunately, he was just a disposable split consciousness, so he had no lingering concerns.

"First step: I need to find a way to make substantive contact with this fragment."

Although the invisible fragment hovered around Li Fan, he couldn't actually touch it, whether physically or with his spiritual sense. Even when he used the methods of the Dao-Refining Medicine King Scripture to place it within a grand furnace, he still couldn't perceive its existence.

"A being on par with the Mountain and Sea... Only by becoming one with the Mountain and Sea can one see it, touch it, and comprehend it."

Li Fan suddenly recalled his experience from a past life when he comprehended the Great Dao of Longevity.

Cheng Dao, Shou Qiu's true disciple, had cultivated bitterly for hundreds of millions of years, yet his understanding of "Longevity" couldn't compare to what Li Fan had achieved in a mere moment of sitting. This was because he possessed [Truth] and was, to a certain extent, on par with the Mountain and Sea.

"Although [Truth] is currently dormant, I can still wield a sliver of the True-False Transformation to barely achieve a state on par with the Mountain and Sea."

"But, the nature of this fragment is unknown. If I act so rashly, I might repeat my past mistake and trigger another calamity like the tribulation of the three Daos..."

After some thought, Li Fan had an idea.

"I might as well borrow Shou Qiu's Great Dao of Longevity again."

During his years of discussing the Dao with Cheng Dao, Li Fan had indirectly confirmed that Shou Qiu was indeed within the Eternal Silent Void Realm. Even if he activated the residual power of Longevity within him and Shou Qiu sensed it, it would take him a long time to return.

"Besides, according to Cheng Dao, the Mountain and Sea is boundless. There may be quite a few who have received Shou Qiu's seeds of Longevity. Perhaps Shou Qiu is even desperate for someone to truly inherit his legacy here, in this Mountain and Sea. That way, he could travel to an even more ancient Mountain and Sea without any regrets."

After weighing the pros and cons, Li Fan's heart was free of hesitation.

Following a brief communion with his true self, a surge of life force inexplicably welled up from within him. His body, which had become incredibly solid from consuming the trash heap of possibilities, became completely indistinguishable from a real body due to the emergence of this Longevity power.

Even Li Fan himself found it difficult to tell the difference between his current self and his true body.

Adjusting his posture to bring the orbiting invisible fragment before him, Li Fan spat out a mouthful of blood. The boundless life force contained within it surged like a mighty river, engulfing the fragment.

As expected, the invisible fragment, which had been unresponsive to everything else, finally changed upon contact with the power of Longevity.

Countless lines instantly appeared within the fragment, like myriad mirrors.

Each mirror reflected the same continuous landscape of the Mountain and Sea.

But what truly shook Li Fan's soul was that the Mountain and Sea in the mirrors were not yet one!

In other words, the fusion of the Mountain and Sea was far from its current state.

The present Mountain and Sea were intertwined, you within me and I within you, inseparable.

But the Mountain and Sea shown in the fragment's mirrors were merely nestled against each other!

The boundary between the Mountain and the Sea was still very distinct.

Li Fan could even clearly see countless possibilities rising and falling at the edge of the Infinite Sea, crashing against the Upper Mountain and shattering into foam!

"This is the state described in the fable of the Mountain and Sea, when their fusion had just begun!"

Li Fan's heart stirred, and he tried to see more clearly.

However, as the power of Longevity he had spat out slowly dissipated, the fragment returned to its normal state.

"How is this possible? How could the power of the Great Dao of Longevity disappear so quickly?"

Li Fan was instantly on high alert.

He remembered the considerable effort it had taken him to expel the power of Longevity from his body back then. He had continuously sprayed blood, nurturing the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm for decades without rest, before finally seeing some results.

Theoretically, the power of Longevity contained in the mouthful of blood he had just spat out should have been able to last for a million years without dispersing.

And now...

"The fragment... is absorbing it."

Li Fan stared at the invisible fragment, which seemed no different from before, a cold glint in his eyes.

Perhaps sensing that Li Fan was one of its own kind, the fragment began to orbit him even more closely.

Without any deliberate guidance, the fragment would now actively "follow" Li Fan.

Li Fan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately decided to continue.

With another infusion of Longevity power, the fragment once again manifested the primordial scene of the Mountain and Sea's fusion.

Prepared this time, Li Fan saw with greater clarity.

"There are living beings in the Mountain and Sea!"

"Born of the sea, they aspire to climb the mountain..."

Although they were just fleeting fragments flashing by, Li Fan could still discern the events recorded in the fable left by Sun Piao Miao.

Waves crashed against the mountain, turning countless civilizations and living beings to dust.

But new civilizations were always being born in the Infinite Sea.

Endlessly exploring, conquering the Mountain and Sea.

It was like a cycle of reincarnation, or perhaps a predetermined fate.

Once again, after the Mountain and Sea trembled and civilizations were destroyed, a rare tranquility settled over them.

But then, something extraordinary happened.

The Infinite Sea seemed to boil. As countless possibilities evaporated, a terrifying roar emanated from its depths.

It echoed through the Upper Mountain, a constant resonance among the peaks.

It was like a symphony played by the Mountain and Sea together—magnificent, gorgeous, and soul-shaking.

It was a scene so wondrous that all the words in the world would fail to describe even a fraction of it.

Li Fan stared blankly at this scene. It was a long time after the vision in the fragment had disappeared before he came back to his senses.

"And this is just a recording within an invisible fragment."

"How utterly breathtaking must the actual event have been in the Mountain and Sea?"

Li Fan let out a long breath.

He already understood what he had just witnessed in the fragment.

The communion between the Infinite Sea and the Upper Mountain!

"If described in human language, it would be the 'Oh, Mountain...' and 'Oh, Sea...' dialogue I saw in the fable of the Mountain and Sea."

"And yet..."

"The communion of the Mountain and Sea was by no means limited to that."

"It was the convergence of the Upper Mountain and the Infinite Sea, but it also contained their resistance to their shared fate of fusion. And also..."

Even with Li Fan's current knowledge, he could hardly decipher a fraction of its meaning.

But just by distantly hearing the echoes from the Mountain and Sea, Li Fan could feel his level of comprehension of their essence continuously rising.

The efficiency of this enlightenment surpassed drifting in the Annihilation Zone by a thousand, even ten thousand times.

After all, one was a macroscopic overview, while the other was being lost in infinite microscopic details. The perspectives were simply incomparable.

"If I could fully grasp the principles within, transcendence through my own power..."

"Would be a certainty!"

Li Fan was immersed in the roar of the mountains and the cry of the sea, unable to extricate himself.

Unfortunately, the scene recorded in the invisible fragment seemed to be limited.

No matter how much Longevity power Li Fan continued to supply, the fragment only displayed the same repeating images.

This couldn't help but disappoint Li Fan a little.

"It's probably not deliberately deceiving me. It likely only recorded this one segment."

"From an external perspective, the entire recording plays out in a dozen breaths. But if measured by the timescale of worldly possibilities..."

"It must be billions of years long."

"That's a period of history far more ancient than the life of Shou Qiu."

Although Shou Qiu had obtained the Great Dao of Longevity, the time node he existed in was already the late stage of the Mountain and Sea's fusion.

Compared to the ancient lifespan of the Mountain and Sea, his existence occupied only an infinitesimally small part.

"This fragment has somehow survived since the very beginning of the Mountain and Sea's fusion."

"What on earth..."

Although no new images appeared, Li Fan still chose to continue supplying it with the power of Longevity.

He had discovered that as he continuously infused it, a low whisper slowly began to emanate from the fragment.

Unlike the seductive voice from before, this time, the fragment was attempting to communicate.