Chapter 1646: The Void Realm Obstructs the Return
Between the two phantoms, a vortex seemed to swirl.
A blurry Taiji diagram materialized, with the two divided forms of the Moral True Immortal serving as the yin and yang eyes. It seemed to move yet be still, to spin yet be motionless, to divide yet be one!
"The Moral Separation..."
Li Fan's eyes were fixed on the wondrous phenomenon of one becoming two.
When the black-and-white Taiji symbol spun to a certain velocity, it vanished from his sight in an instant.
At the same moment, the Moral True Immortal was no longer present in the world.
In his place stood two Transcendent beings, one of Dao and one of Virtue!
At this moment, they had not yet awakened, still sitting cross-legged with their eyes tightly shut.
But after the separation, the conditions of the two True Immortals were vastly different!
The aura of the What Matter Immortal was stable, showing no major fluctuations in power. In fact, his strength seemed to have subtly improved.
The realm of the Faceless Immortal, however, seemed to have plummeted. That once-featureless face of his was slowly turning transparent.
And yet, the feeling they gave Li Fan...
Was that the Faceless Immortal remained the greater threat!
"The Moral Separation ultimately seeks to completely discard one aspect, either Dao or Virtue, leaving only the other in its purest form."
"Dao and Virtue are inherently difficult to separate. This continuous process of division..."
"Also represents a kind of convergence!"
Before Li Fan's eyes, the vanished Taiji diagram seemed to reappear.
As it spun with increasing speed, the black and white colors began to peel away from their fusion. But beyond the original Taiji, a larger, newer diagram was taking shape.
Or perhaps, that magnificent Taiji diagram had already transcended the concept of "Taiji" and was more like a brand-new world, exactly mirroring the scene of the myriad Daos being re-derived that Li Fan and the What Matter Immortal had previously glimpsed!
"Once the separation and recombination are complete, it will be a case of severing the old to embrace the new, where the Supreme Ultimate gives birth to the myriad phenomena. The Moral Separation is, in essence, a way to escape the shackles of one's own Dao's nature! No wonder it can lead to instant Sainthood!"
Li Fan vaguely understood the mechanism by which the Moral True Immortal had achieved Sainthood in the previous life.
In short, it was by using a grand divine art like the Moral Separation to break free from the inherent nature of the Great Dao of [Morality].
Because it is nothing, it can therefore be everything, encompassing all.
It was like being in a feudal dynasty with a rigid, hierarchical bureaucracy. No matter how diligent or meritorious you were, when it came to rewards, titles like Prime Minister, Grand Preceptor, or even Prince Regent were the absolute ceiling. You had reached the pinnacle of what a subject could achieve.
To advance any further...
You either had to usurp the throne from below.
Or you had to overthrow the old order entirely, building a new world from the ashes of the old.
Or you could carve out a new kingdom for yourself overseas, starting from scratch.
If the normal methods of achieving Sainthood were the first two, then the Moral True Immortal's path to enlightenment was the third.
He had blazed a new trail!
"A small kingdom with a sparse population. No wonder the [Morality] I witnessed in the last life was far from being as powerful as the other Saints on the Other Shore."
"I had thought the power gap between Saints could be that vast."
Observing the secret of Moral Sainthood up close, Li Fan finally understood why he had been able to escape from a Saint so easily in the previous timeline.
"However, strength has never been a fixed constant. Though he may be weak at the moment of enlightenment, it doesn't mean he will be weak forever. As long as one first becomes a Saint, there will be plenty of opportunities to grow stronger later." Having seen too many examples of tiny nations rising from obscurity, Li Fan was very confident in the potential of this method of attaining Sainthood.
"A pity it only seems applicable to the path of [Morality] and lacks universal utility. Or perhaps, my own comprehension is insufficient..."
While Li Fan was pondering, the new What Matter Immortal and Faceless Immortal finally awoke from their meditative state.
They looked at Li Fan in unison. Although both bowed in acknowledgment, one's eyes showed gratitude, while the other's held a cautious vigilance.
Li Fan laughed heartily and waved his hand, dismissing the True Spirit flame and the Fantasy Becomes Truth divine art. "The Moral Separation is truly profound and mysterious."
"Far less so than your own divine arts!" the Faceless Immortal retorted with a grim smile.
"This self is not the same self as before. The memories and emotions from before the split are identical to mine. As for what comes after... we can now be considered two different people," the What Matter Immortal explained from the side.
"With Morality newly divided, we must re-accumulate our foundations. Perhaps we will have a chance to attain Sainthood on our own."
"But if not, I'm afraid we will still need to borrow your strength, fellow Daoist."
The What Matter Immortal and the Faceless Immortal spoke one after another, as if still of one mind.
Li Fan readily agreed. "Of course. I, too, would be delighted to see another Saint emerge within this segment of the Mountain and Sea."
"In the future, should you need me, you can contact me with these."
With that, Li Fan flicked two streams of light toward the two immortals.
After catching them, they found they each held a chess piece, one black and one white.
The aura of these tokens was surprisingly similar to their own respective Daos of Morality.
Even the Faceless Immortal accepted his with solemnity.
After all, it represented the hope of Sainthood!
As for whether it would be Dao or Virtue that ultimately triumphed, that would depend on their own abilities!
"You two may go! There is still a landscape ahead that I wish to see."
Before the two immortals could respond, Li Fan's figure drifted away, continuing his journey toward the Eternal Silent Void Realm and disappearing into the river of time.
Although they too wished to follow and see what this so-called "landscape" was, a primal fear of the Eternal Silent Void Realm made it impossible for them to keep up.
They could only sigh and give up.
The What Matter Immortal and the Faceless Immortal glanced at each other, then each let out a soft huff before parting ways and heading in different directions.
This was truly a case of...
As their paths had diverged, they could no longer walk together!
What they didn't know was that Li Fan had only taken a few more steps before he could no longer hold on.
Without giving his promise to the two immortals a second thought, Li Fan simply did his best to gaze at the void of darkness ahead.
Then, he silently chanted in his mind, Return to True!
In this life, his aunt had long since perished. The only reason he had stayed was to pry into the secrets of Moral Sainthood. Now that his objective was achieved, what reason was there to linger?
Was he really going to wait for hundreds of thousands of years and be a good Samaritan, helping the Moral True Immortal achieve Sainthood?
Li Fan wasn't that kind.
So when he activated Return to True, there was not a shred of hesitation.
And the reason he had taken the great risk of continuing toward the Eternal Silent Void Realm...
Was because Li Fan wanted to see clearly whether the activation of Return to True would affect anything beyond the current segment of the Mountain and Sea!
"If it can, then even the Eternal Silent Void Realm should show a corresponding change."
"If it cannot..."
A familiar, hazy mist enveloped everything around him.
Li Fan's gaze strained to pierce through the white fog, to see what lay beyond.
The very beginning of time seemed to be marked by a distinct dividing line.
The pitch-black Eternal Silent Void Realm remained untainted by the white.
Even as his side became like the moon in the mirror or a flower on the water's surface, the Eternal Silent Void Realm remained eternally, unchangingly silent and desolate.
"Could it be, as I suspected, that Return to True only covers the current segment of the Mountain and Sea?"
"The Eternal Silent Void Realm and the Saints in other Mountain and Sea segments are outside its range?"
Seeing this clear-cut separation, Li Fan's heart skipped a beat.
Memories of his past encounters with Shou Qiu in previous cycles surfaced in his mind.
"Doesn't that mean that if I ever meet Shou Qiu, the fact that I possess Return to True will be inevitably exposed?"
The disorienting mist was about to completely obscure the scene before him.
Just as he was about to be plunged into darkness, Li Fan suddenly looked up again.
Within the Eternal Silent Void Realm, something seemed to have locked its gaze on him.
Or more accurately, it had locked onto Return to True.
It was as if something was about to surge up from the depths of the water.
The darkness seemed to be fading.
Even within the process of Return to True, that single instant felt agonizingly long.
Cold sweat dripped uncontrollably from Li Fan's brow.
As if he had been completely plunged into the Eternal Silent Void Realm, his entire body trembled violently from extreme dread.
It felt as if, in the next second, he would fall into the grasp of that unknown existence.
Fortunately, the white mist of Return to True shielded his vision in time.
As if struck by a violent impact, the white mist buckled and trembled ceaselessly!
"Return to True, Return to True, Return to True!"
Still not having returned to his designated anchor point, Li Fan was trapped within the white mist, as helpless as a swaddled infant, unable to respond in any way.
He could only call out instinctively, over and over again.
Trying to escape from this terrifying predicament.
This was the first time Li Fan had ever encountered a situation where Return to True had almost failed!
This was enough to demonstrate the terrifying nature of the unknown entity in the Eternal Silent Void Realm.
It might even surpass the Saints of the Mountain and Sea.
Most critically...
Neither Return to True nor Li Fan's intuition had given any warning of its approach.
This seemed to imply that its existence was beyond the scope of the current cognitive framework.
All of Li Fan's life-saving measures were rendered little more than a joke!
His heart stopped. Li Fan watched the twisting, distorting white mist in horror, a sliver of regret for his reckless action creeping into his mind.
The distorted part of the white mist drew closer and closer to him.
Yet Li Fan could only watch, powerless.
The transcendent cultivation he had painstakingly acquired over a hundred lifetimes of reincarnation was a laughingstock in the face of this level of terror!
"Return to True!"
Li Fan roared again in his mind.
Finally, as if it had heard his call.
The white mist calmed in an instant.
The collision and distortion vanished.
Within the hazy fog, everything fell silent.
Just like in the past, Li Fan slowly drifted into a deep slumber.
Anchor Point: Year 1!
As his consciousness returned, Li Fan seemed not to have fully recovered from the horrifying scene of his previous life.
He was still drenched in sweat, a lingering fear coiled in his heart.
He looked up at the sky suspiciously, peering beyond the Mountain and Sea, afraid that the unknown existence from the Eternal Silent Void Realm had tracked him here.
But after waiting for half a day, the small world of Great Xuan remained perfectly quiet.
It was no different from the Year 1 anchor points of the past.
Only then did Li Fan let out a long sigh of relief.
"I'm alive."
His face regained the masterful composure of a transcendent expert as he began to contemplate the bizarre events that had occurred during his Return to True.
"The Eternal Silent Void Realm is a place of absolute nothingness where even the concept of existence has faded. What, then, was it that I just perceived...?"
"Even before it revealed itself, the threat it posed was far greater than that of the Saints on the Other Shore."
Considering that the Dao Annihilation was fundamentally the Mountain and Sea returning to the [Star], Li Fan almost instinctively thought of the "Creator God" mentioned in the Mountain and Sea prophecy.
In the past, he had only glimpsed its existence through the simple words left by Sun Piao Miao, with no concrete understanding of the "Creator God's" power.
After this incident, Li Fan had his first taste.
The pressure it exuded surpassed anything Li Fan had ever experienced in all his reincarnations.
So much so that for the next year, whenever he was alone, Li Fan would still find himself abruptly looking up at the sky, terrified that disaster would suddenly strike.
And Li Fan's aunt, Rinsing Moon Bai, was not faring much better.
Everyone, at every stage of their life, has their own fears.
Li Fan was terrified of the [Star]. Rinsing Moon Bai, on the other hand, still saw the apocalyptic scene of the Dao Annihilation from the end of her previous life flashing before her eyes.
Rinsing Moon Bai didn't excessively blame the Immeasurable Wall for inexplicably attracting disaster.
She was simply horrified by this legendary calamity that had destroyed the Immortal World.
"What level of cultivation would one need to survive such a catastrophe? Transcendent?" Rinsing Moon Bai's heart was filled with trepidation.
Knowing she couldn't let the experience of her past life become a mental demon, Rinsing Moon Bai, who had already stacked her own spirituality nearly thirty times, did not choose to run from it.
Instead, she closed her eyes, focused her mind, and continuously replayed the sensation of being swallowed by the Dao Annihilation.
Once she chose to confront her inner fear head-on, the dread in her heart began to slowly dissipate.
In just over a month, Rinsing Moon Bai's expression became completely tranquil.
"The Dao Annihilation..."
"Is nothing more than this."
"In this life, even if I find myself trapped within it again, I will certainly not be so terrified."
Rinsing Moon Bai was certain.
Having cast off her inner demon, she restarted her path of cultivation.
Almost subconsciously, she wanted to cultivate using the methods of her previous life.
But when she thought about it, she couldn't help but pause.
"Without [Wuji], it really feels a bit strange."
"The rules and restrictions weighing me down are far too numerous, and far too heavy."
With no other choice, Rinsing Moon Bai could only seek out the Immeasurable Wall again to plot against Wuji once more.
After a period of preparation and planning, she ultimately suppressed Wuji again, albeit not without some risk.
The Immeasurable Wall praised, "Truly worthy of someone with the bearing of a Transcendent! I was worried you might slip up at the critical moment, but who would have thought you would be so composed!"
Rinsing Moon Bai merely smiled and didn't answer.
Familiarity is the best way to demystify something. When she had grown accustomed to using Wuji as a convenient tool for cultivation, how could she possibly fear it?
It was just a matter of one good whack.
All in all, it took her a year to finally recover her peak cultivation from her previous life.
At this point, for the sake of ascending to immortality, the Immeasurable Wall once again proposed a plan to continuously find and suppress True Immortals to pave her path.
It also suggested they start by practicing on the remnant immortal artifacts within the Xuanhuang Realm.
"I see no need for that."
"We can go straight to choosing an immortal as our enemy," Rinsing Moon Bai declared with an air of dominance.
"If there are no suitable opponents in this realm, then we will go beyond the Star Sea."
"There's no need to waste any more time here."
Rinsing Moon Bai was resolute, and the Immeasurable Wall found it hard to object.
"True Immortals also vary in strength. Let's take it one step at a time."
Passing through the high wall, Rinsing Moon Bai and the Immeasurable Wall arrived outside the Shuo Xinghai, then suddenly stopped.
"I remember, in one lifetime, as soon as I entered this starry sky, I was captured and suppressed by a giant hand."
"Let's see just how capable he is now."
With this thought, a cold glint flashed in Rinsing Moon Bai's eyes as she charged into the Dao Net.
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