Chapter 1666: An Eternal Acquisition
"The End of Mountain and Sea?"
"If you were traveling against the current to the Beginning of Mountain and Sea, back to where it all started, I could understand. But the end of time, when the Mountain and Sea is about to be devoured and all returns to nothingness... why struggle to hold on until then?"
"What's the reason for this?" Li Fan asked, a look of confusion on his face.
It was the white-haired youth who answered him once more.
"To understand the answer to that question, you must first know what the true End of Mountain and Sea looks like."
A dim light erupted from the youth's eyes.
His snow-white hair and beard seemed to ignite, disintegrating into a billion fragments like ash.
They swirled around like a sudden blizzard, sweeping towards Li Fan.
In a daze, Li Fan saw a great fire, a conflagration that swept through the Mountain and Sea.
Myriad lights were plunged into darkness. The tide of Dao Annihilation surged, and the Mountain and Sea fell into decay, welcoming an unstoppable apocalypse.
The safe possibilities available for shelter dwindled until, in the end, only a single, isolated boat remained.
Outside was nothing but an endless, silent extinction!
Li Fan had once been in close proximity to the Eternal Silent Void Realm. He hadn't even truly entered it, still a considerable distance away, yet the very foundation of his existence had already begun to show signs of collapse.
It was like watching thousands of ink threads disperse in water, an irreversible fading.
As Li Fan gazed at the scene before him—the last surviving possibility of the Mountain and Sea—he had a premonition.
To be within it must truly be like a living hell.
Even if the pressure wasn't as intense as what he had sensed from the Void Realm, it wouldn't be much weaker.
"Living there would be an absolute torture, a cruel punishment."
"And yet, driven by the instinct to survive, one would have no choice but to struggle on..."
"But thinking about it from another angle, anyone who could live comfortably under such conditions..."
"Though not yet a Saint, they would have already gained the rudimentary ability to survive in the Eternal Silent Void Realm."
At this thought, Li Fan couldn't help but look at the white-haired youth.
"The original being who created this Empty Thought Construction is no ordinary figure."
The white-haired youth's voice echoed from within the vision of the End of Mountain and Sea. "Have you sensed anything?"
"An omnipresent aura of the Void Realm, chilling and unsettling," Li Fan answered honestly.
"And what else?"
"What else?" Li Fan paused, slightly taken aback.
He studied the vision again, carefully, and after a long silence, he could only shake his head.
The white-haired youth was momentarily speechless.
"Indeed, the allegiance of a Mountain and Sea Great Dao seems to have little to do with strength or aptitude."
"The fellow Calamity Venerables, and even Inscription Immortal and the others, all saw the unique nature of the End of Mountain and Sea at a glance. Yet you, the one favored by the Xuanpin Dao..." The white-haired youth felt a deep sense of dissatisfaction and shook his head repeatedly.
Li Fan's expression remained calm as he offered a faint smile.
He couldn't very well tell him that the only reason the Xuanpin Dao was drawn to him was because of the four words "Return to Truth," and that it had nothing to do with him personally, could he?
To be honest, the changes that had occurred with the Xuanpin Dao after he used `Return to Truth` had been rather surprising.
The moment he saw the Xuanpin Dao descend, Li Fan had assumed that, like everything else in the Mountain and Sea, it had been reset by the activation of `Return to Truth`.
But he quickly realized something was wrong.
As the words "Return to Truth: First Xuanpin" on his panel began to glow with a dreamlike, seven-colored light...
The Mountain and Sea Great Dao, which had once seemed so impossibly lofty, suddenly became familiar.
It was both the newly re-inscribed Mountain and Sea Great Dao of this world and the First Xuanpin that had been subdued and returned to truth!
What happened next was a foregone conclusion.
With almost instinctual ease, Li Fan, using his Transcendent cultivation, effortlessly drew the Xuanpin Dao to his side.
Li Fan didn't know whether the Xuanpin Dao had been altered *before* it descended...
Or if it had been influenced by `Return to Truth` *after* appearing in the Mountain and Sea, thereby being branded with the "Returned to Truth" label.
In reality, the difference between the two possibilities would have no practical effect on the outcome.
Li Fan was only concerned with whether this newly captured Mountain and Sea Great Dao could be used as an energy source for `[Truth]`'s simulations.
Unfortunately, the answer was no.
"When `Return to Truth` was activated and the Mountain and Sea was reset, a new Xuanpin Dao did indeed appear. I know this because I didn't feel any weakening of the First Xuanpin's power within `[Truth]`."
"But precisely because the Xuanpin has already returned to truth, all versions of 'Xuanpin'—past, future, present, or in any other time and space—now belong to `Return to Truth`."
"For `Return to Truth`, it's like having already eaten a meal; it has no appetite for it again. A Mountain and Sea Great Dao that has already been returned to truth will naturally not generate any new simulation energy."
"Even so, this 'one acquisition is an eternal acquisition' ability is utterly dominant."
From the perspective of this era's Xuanpin Dao, the terrifying nature of `Return to Truth` was starkly evident.
It was as if you had been living a perfectly good life, content and without a care in the world.
Then suddenly, someone jumps out and declares they are your master.
You must obey their commands unconditionally.
And you, with no power to resist, can only accept this fate that has suddenly descended upon you.
"For all eternity, without any hope of ever breaking free. Tsk, tsk..."
"But I like it."
"I just don't know what `Return to Truth` actually requires for its simulations. I previously thought that because it involved Saints, it needed a Mountain and Sea Great Dao of equal stature as an energy source. But now, it seems to be related to some kind of internal consumption within `Return to Truth` itself."
Numerous thoughts flashed through Li Fan's mind in an instant.
Meanwhile, after a series of sighs, the white-haired youth across from him stopped being coy.
He laid out the reasons for their plan to travel to the End of Mountain and Sea.
"We are all born of the Mountain and Sea. Without it, we cannot exist. Therefore, if the Mountain and Sea is devoured by Dao Annihilation, we too will return to nothingness."
"Even now, while the Mountain and Sea still exists, if we were to leave it, the very foundation of our being would dissipate."
Li Fan nodded slightly. "That does make sense."
"Only the Saints, whose very beings are comparable to the Mountain and Sea, can exist without relying on its power. However, when the river of time flows to the End of Mountain and Sea, this situation changes."
A bright light flashed in the white-haired youth's eyes. "At that time, the Mountain and Sea will be at its absolute weakest. The binding force it exerts on the creatures within it will also be at its lowest point since the dawn of its creation."
"Especially in that final moment before the Mountain and Sea perishes."
A thought stirred in Li Fan's mind. He connected this to the torrent of countless possibilities that had been constructed from thought within the Life and Death Realm, and a glimmer of understanding dawned on him.
"So, your plan is..."
"Exactly!" the Inscription Immortal declared, his voice firm and resolute. "In the instant the Mountain and Sea is destroyed by Dao Annihilation, we will use these countless constructed possibilities to leap out of the Mountain and Sea and achieve true independence."
"The Mountain and Sea will be too preoccupied to stop us, so we won't face much resistance from it."
"The only thing we will have to face is the threat of the Eternal Silent Void Realm."
"However, being inside the Mountain and Sea versus being outside it... the pressure one faces before the Dao Annihilation is completely different," the white-haired youth slowly added.
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