Chapter 1670: The Saints Display Their Powers
Chapter 1670: The Saints Display Their Powers
The Great Dao of the Mountain and Sea moved to its own rhythm, a mystery so profound and multifaceted that not even a Saint could fathom it in a single glance.
With the [Xuanpin Dao] as his shield, Li Fan successfully blocked the prying gaze of the Saint of the Mountain Sea's End.
Yet, a quiet intuition warned Li Fan that this 'cloak' he used for concealment would not hold forever.
"If she keeps staring," he thought, "it won't be long before the existence of [Truth] is exposed."
Fortunately, Qiu Xinhui did not press her investigation.
The sensation of being scrutinized slowly faded, replaced by Qiu Xinhui's voice, heavy with emotion. "To traverse the expanse of the Mountain and Sea, to come all this way despite the immense hardship..."
"You have endured much, fellow Daoist."
"The circumstances at the End of the Mountain and Sea are... unique. It may be quite different from the era you hail from. I invite you to observe for yourself."
As she spoke, countless yellow gemstones erupted from her hands, falling like a shower of stars into the Life and Death Realm.
The starlight was dazzling, bathing everyone in its glow.
The mark of a yellow crystalline gem appeared on every being's forehead. Nourished by its radiance, the people, whose very foundations of existence had been slowly crumbling from their perilous journey, felt themselves being made whole again. The immediate crisis was not only averted, but many were restored to their original state in an instant.
And it was not just the living beings.
Within the Life and Death Realm, the thousands of torrents of empty thought, which had been on the verge of collapse, solidified in an instant upon receiving this aid.
They became virtually indistinguishable from the true possibilities within the Mountain and Sea.
Even with his current level of mastery, Li Fan found it difficult to discern, just for a moment, whether they were real or illusory.
With a single gesture, the Saint of the Mountain Sea's End revealed a transcendent power that was difficult to fathom.
Li Fan gazed at the Venerables of the Life and Death Realm, who, under her care, had become vibrant and full of life again in the blink of an eye.
"It wasn't that the True Spirits they lost in the Eternal Silent Void Realm had been replenished," Li Fan realized. "Instead, Qiu Xinhui used a supreme application of the Empty Thought method to fill the parts of them that had been pared away."
"Their cultivation talent is surely not what it once was, but at least their lives are saved, and they can still wield most of their power."
"This Saint of the Mountain Sea's End is truly extraordinary!"
Li Fan was inwardly astonished.
Having once delved deep into the Dao of Empty Thought, Li Fan understood just how incredible a feat it was to so effortlessly restore what they had lost. It meant Qiu Xinhui's understanding of each person's unique Dao was so profound that she could replicate it at will, creating a fabrication indistinguishable from the genuine article.
And the fact that the thousands of possibility-torrents were restored and stabilized proved that her understanding of the Mountain and Sea itself had reached an unimaginable height.
What puzzled Li Fan, however, was that Qiu Xinhui resided at the End of the Mountain and Sea. Even if her talent was monstrous enough to comprehend every Dao in existence, how could she possibly know the details of the Mountain and Sea's distant past so clearly?
As if sensing the question in his heart, the Saint of the Mountain Sea's End calmly repeated, "Fellow Daoist, I invite you to observe the Mountain and Sea."
"All your questions will be answered."
Only then did Li Fan pull his focus away from Qiu Xinhui and turn his attention to this so-called End of the Mountain and Sea.
Their location was enveloped in a thick, yellow light that felt like layers of solid earth, shielding Li Fan from the oppressive pressure of the Eternal Silent Void Realm outside.
Everything seemed normal.
But when Li Fan's gaze tried to pierce this protective barrier and look out into the void beyond...
...a boundless, glacial loneliness assaulted him from all directions.
It was vastly different from what he had felt while crossing the Eternal Silent Void Realm.
During the crossing, there had only been a pure, oppressive pressure.
But here at the End of the Mountain and Sea, the seemingly omnipresent darkness was filled with intense aggression.
Sensing his gaze, the darkness surged forward violently, like furious waves crashing against a cliff.
Li Fan could clearly feel the entire End of the Mountain and Sea, enveloped in its yellow light, begin to shake violently from the impact.
And once the assault began, it did not easily relent.
The impacts from the Eternal Silent Void Realm came one after another, in relentless waves.
They were like a small boat in a raging tempest, in constant danger of being swallowed by the colossal waves.
Li Fan's expression soured, and he instinctively retracted his gaze from the outside.
The Saint of the Mountain Sea's End, however, was long accustomed to all of this.
She said nothing, merely intensifying the yellow light of empty thought to stabilize their position.
Like an experienced captain, she calmly guided her crew through the sudden storm.
Yet the storm was interminable, showing no signs of abating.
"The Eternal Silent Void Realm is this violent?" Li Fan asked in surprise.
"If you view the struggle between the Mountain and Sea and the Dao Annihilation as a long war, then we are now approaching its final act. The killing intent of the soldiers is at its most ferocious, as they seek to end everything in one decisive battle—to utterly destroy the Mountain and Sea."
"The Eternal Silent Void Realm you witnessed, fellow Daoist, was likely from the nascent stages of this war. Its aggression would not have been nearly so intense." To Qiu Xinhui, the assault from the outer darkness was a mundane, daily affair.
Even as she aided the newcomers and countered the erosion of the Eternal Silent Void Realm, she had enough spare capacity to explain the situation at the End of the Mountain and Sea to Li Fan.
"However, what I wish for you to observe is not the void itself, but these..."
Following Qiu Xinhui's guidance, Li Fan noticed that within the surging tides of darkness outside, tiny, extremely faint points of light would occasionally flash by.
They were dimmer than fireflies, hidden within the darkness and nearly impossible to discern.
One could easily overlook them.
From these points of light, Li Fan could faintly perceive images of the Mountain and Sea's past.
"These... are fragments of the Mountain and Sea?"
Qiu Xinhui nodded. "Precisely. They are the remnants of the Mountain and Sea, torn to pieces by the Dao Annihilation."
"They are the last proof that the Mountain and Sea once existed."
"Like grains of sand and dust, they drift through the darkness. Perhaps the Eternal Silent Void Realm leaves them intentionally, as monuments to its own victory. Or perhaps..."
"...as a threat to those of us who still resist."
Qiu Xinhui offered a faint smile.
"Like dead coral on the seabed, they are churned by the rolling tides and washed ashore."
"From these fragments that surface from time to time, though I am at the End of the Mountain and Sea, I have been able to witness the glorious vistas of its past."
"And in addition..."
"...there are the memories of all of you who journey here from the distant past."
A dim understanding dawned on Li Fan.
This Saint before him had managed to weave together her entire understanding of the Mountain and Sea from nothing but the scattered fragments drifting from the past.
It was truly hard to imagine what heights she might have reached had she lived in a more ordinary era of the Mountain and Sea.
"And yet, it seems you did not achieve Sainthood through the Dao of Empty Thought?"
During their earlier exchange of gazes, it was not just Li Fan who had been scrutinized.
Li Fan, too, had perceived some of the mysteries surrounding Qiu Xinhui.
Here at the End of the Mountain and Sea, the Dao of Empty Thought was omnipresent, but it was not the foundation of her cultivation.
Qiu Xinhui did not deny it. "The methods of Empty Thought are indeed mysterious and extraordinary. But in this final age, with the Mountain and Sea weakened to its absolute limit, they are not enough to support this last sanctuary."
"Had I achieved Sainthood through that path, my own existence might have been preserved, but this place would have long since vanished, swallowed by the Dao Annihilation."
Qiu Xinhui did not specify which path she had taken.
But Li Fan had a feeling that this Saint of the Mountain Sea's End was somehow different from a Saint like himself, who had achieved his status through the Great Dao of the Mountain and Sea.
"The fate of the Mountain and Sea's End rests entirely upon her shoulders."
"She studies the fragments of ages past and, from despair, grasps the power to save the world."
"If not for her, pushing the travelers of the Mountain and Sea to journey against the current and walk through all of history, the great powers from every era would likely still be fighting their own lonely wars."
Li Fan remained silent, observing the so-called End of the Mountain and Sea, shrouded in darkness.
Unlike the Mountain and Sea he knew, there was no longer a river of time here.
Only a single, final "point" remained.
There was no past, no future.
Everything was happening simultaneously within this one point.
As Li Fan slowly adapted, numerous scenes naturally materialized before his eyes.
They were images of others who, like him, had come from various eras of the past to offer their aid.
Compared to Li Fan, their circumstances were far more tragic.
The vast majority had become cripples with no cultivation talent left by the time they arrived.
Although Qiu Xinhui used the Dao of Empty Thought to make them whole, their state was forever fixed at the moment of their arrival.
The number of Saints who had successfully reached the End of the Mountain and Sea was also pitifully small.
Including Li Fan, there were only five.
Together, they guarded the last hope of all.
Before Li Fan, a star-dusted vista of the Mountain and Sea floated in the void.
This was the collective manifestation of empty thought, brought here from the distant past.
"What are our chances now?"
One of the figures pointed toward the illusory image of the Mountain and Sea.
In an instant, the outer darkness seemed to surge. The vista flickered for a moment, then dimmed and went out.
This sequence repeated itself millions of times in a single moment.
Yet not once was the light of the Mountain and Sea re-ignited.
"We are still lacking," the figure sighed.
"There is no need for despair, everyone. The end of the Mountain and Sea was already foreordained. For us to attempt to defy heaven and change fate is naturally no easy task. I have intercepted the river of time, freezing it at the instant before destruction. As long as my power does not dissipate, we will have ample time to accumulate more strength."
The speaker was a white-haired Master.
It was he who had created the strange phenomenon of frozen time at the End of the Mountain and Sea.
"We actually have enough material for the empty thought. But at the moment the Mountain and Sea is fully restored, the devouring suction from the Eternal Silent Void Realm will be so great that even our combined strength will not be enough to escape it," the figure who had been running the deduction spoke again.
The form of this Saint was difficult to perceive, as if it existed in a state of infinite transformation, with no fixed shape.
"If only we had more helpers."
A silence fell over the group.
Qiu Xinhui offered some comfort, "To have the aid of all of you is already a great fortune. This plan for the End of the Mountain and Sea is, after all, not as secure as traveling to the Beginning of the Mountain and Sea. For most, the future is unknowable, but what has happened in the past is fixed and certain."
The white-haired Master stroked his beard and sighed. "That is only human nature; we cannot force the issue. Even if our plan succeeds, where we will end up is an unknown. It is not like the other plan, which even offers the hope of stealing the power of the Mountain and Sea to achieve an even higher state of transcendence."
At these words, the other Saints present all snorted in derision.
Li Fan, of course, understood what the white-haired Master was referring to.
If they truly managed to prevent the Mountain and Sea from devouring the True God at the dawn of time, then it was indeed possible to claim the power of the [God] for themselves.
Just as the Mountain and Sea itself had once done.
For the Saints of the Mountain and Sea, the temptation was undeniably immense.
"A pity that as I watch the river of time surge and change, I see no signs of that matter succeeding."
The white-haired Master's gaze seemed capable of piercing the barrier of the Eternal Silent Void Realm, looking back into the more ancient Mountain and Sea.
He spoke with a tone of mockery.
"Fellow Daoist, what are your thoughts?"
After the Saints had each shared their views, Qiu Xinhui looked toward Li Fan, who had remained silent all this time.
The cloak woven from the Xuanpin Dao did its best to block the Saints' gazes.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Fan spoke. "The Dao I cultivate is that of [Xuanpin]."
"I can infuse the empty-thought Mountain and Sea, allowing it to spontaneously generate life force."
As he spoke, Li Fan's hand moved like a paintbrush, painting threads of life force into the illusory vista of the Mountain and Sea before them.
Infused with this vitality, the image of the Mountain and Sea began to generate countless changes on its own.
If it was once a free-form landscape painting, it was now transforming into a photorealistic oil painting.
"This will only help the empty-thought Mountain and Sea endure a while longer. The key to the plan still depends on all of you," Li Fan said apologetically.
"With your aid, fellow Daoist, our chances have increased," the ever-changing Saint said after another round of deductions.
Though he still did not see the starlight of the Mountain and Sea re-ignite, he spoke with conviction.
"However, I have an idea, though I am unsure if it is feasible."
After another long silence, Li Fan suddenly spoke again.
"Please, speak freely, fellow Daoist," Qiu Xinhui said with a nod.
"The dormant True Spirits in the Eternal Silent Void Realm... I wonder if they could be used as reinforcements?"
"Since we lack sufficient aid from the past, then let us create our own."
"While crossing the void, I discovered that the accumulated True Spirits within it are more than enough... to forge a new Saint."
Hearing Li Fan's words, all the Saints stared at him, their expressions filled with astonishment.
"Forge a Saint?"
They did not immediately reject his plan, but instead asked with great caution, "We can certainly absorb a minuscule portion of the accumulated True Spirit for our own use. However, the True Spirit originates from the void and will assault the mind. More critically, it takes ten parts of our own power to control one part of the True Spirit's power, which is not sustainable. Could it be... that you are different, fellow Daoist?"
Li Fan did not deny it, nodding his head resolutely.
"Everyone, watch!"
With those words, Li Fan made a beckoning gesture toward the dark void at the End of the Mountain and Sea.
Something far more dramatic than what had occurred during his crossing now took place.
The End of the Mountain and Sea was like a basin at the bottom of an endless darkness.
All the accumulated True Spirits from every devoured part of the Mountain and Sea's past were piled up here.
Li Fan's gentle stir was enough to cause the heavens to collapse.
The already violent storm was now joined by the furious ramming of some unknown, monstrous beast.
The faces of the Saints changed as they joined forces to stabilize their position.
When the storm finally subsided, they all stared, horrified, at Li Fan's hands.
There, though they could see nothing, they could feel it.
The unmistakable aura of accumulated True Spirit.
"How can this be?!"
The white-haired Master's hair and beard bristled as he stared at Li Fan in utter disbelief.
Within his ancient eyes, the river of time seemed to flow backward as he tried to see through Li Fan's origins.
Comments