Chapter 1682: The Saints Take Their Places
Chapter 1682: The Saints Take Their Places
"To traverse against the current, one must not only hold fast to the original heart of their Dao and preserve the very foundation of their existence, but most importantly, one must be able to [Distinguish Past from Present]."
The one instructing the newly ascended Saints was a phantom of the Connecting Mountains Saint, Lian Shan.
"Preserving the foundation of our existence is to combat the Dao Annihilation of the Void Realm, I understand that. But what does it mean to distinguish past from present?" inquired the new Saint, Square Inch, his confusion evident.
"The Eternal Silent Void Realm is a boundless, murky expanse. There are not just two directions, past and present. The 'present' is the direction from which we came, our origin. The 'past' is our destination, our goal. As for everywhere else..."
"It is ceaseless, infinite. If you set off in the wrong direction from the very beginning, even with divine power enough to withstand the Void Realm's erosion for millennia, you will see nothing but an endless void." With a gentle wave of his hand, the Connecting Mountains Saint, in concert with the Returning to Sea Saint, unveiled a patch of profound darkness for all the Saints to behold.
A blackness like a shroud of storm clouds descended. Li Fan felt his senses being stripped away, one by one, as the figures of the other Saints vanished around him. It was as if he had truly plunged into an infinite abyss.
A sense of utter nullity and deathly silence began to slowly eat away at the very foundation of his being.
Vast, hazy, magnificent, and boundless.
Let alone anything else!
Where was the past? And where did the present lie?
Traversing the void to reach a more distant past was out of the question.
Even returning to the Mountain and Sea they had just left seemed an impossible task!
"And this is merely a scene simulated by the two Saints, Lian Shan and Gui Hai..."
"The true Eternal Silent Void Realm... is this terrifying." Li Fan's heart grew heavy.
He had traversed the void before, but that was by flowing with the current toward the End of Mountain and Sea. Critically, he had relied on the connection between Qiu Xinhui's imagined duplicate and her true self to pinpoint the correct direction. There had been no fear of becoming lost.
But now, without a beacon to guide his path forward, the difficulty was on an entirely different level.
Before long, the two Saints dispersed the simulated darkness of the void. As their forms rematerialized, the new Saints all wore expressions as grim as Li Fan's.
"There is no need for excessive worry," the phantom of Saint Tai Yi reassured them. "In the void there are no roads, so the strong become the waymarks. Our true selves have long existed within the Eternal Silent Void Realm. Think of us as knots on a rope; you need only use the nearest fellow Saint as your anchor."
"According to our past calculations, reconnecting with the previous segment of the Mountain and Sea—bridging the vast expanse of the void—requires the combined effort of at least thirteen Saints. However, that is the absolute minimum, a scenario that allows for no errors whatsoever. The slightest mishap would not only nullify all our efforts but would also put the thirteen Saints in danger of complete annihilation."
"Thus, we have been making preparations all this time without truly taking action. But now, with the great fortune brought to us by our fellow Daoist, the Mysterious Progenitor..."
"With the addition of six new Saints, while success is still not guaranteed, the risks have been greatly diminished," Shou Qiu remarked, turning his gaze slowly toward Li Fan.
"On this path across the void, the most accomplished must lead the way. Before you truly enter the Eternal Silent Void Realm, you must first agree upon your marching order. Each must follow the one before them without the slightest deviation. Otherwise, a single misstep will lead to utter ruin." The phantom of the Karma Judge spoke with grave seriousness.
"The nine of us have already established our sequence in the void. The most ancient, and therefore the furthest ahead, is the Connecting Mountains Saint. He is followed in order by the Returning to Sea Saint, Saint Tai Yi, Stealing Opportunity, Sundial Fate, Broken Prophecy, and the Mound Keeper..."
"...myself, and the Star Raft."
"As for how the rest of you should be ordered... perhaps a small contest is in order."
The six new Saints exchanged glances. In the eyes of most, a flicker of eagerness appeared—they were ready for the challenge.
"A true battle of blades and spears would inevitably risk disharmony. Let us instead follow our old custom. Each of you will project a phantom into this Armillary Ring." Before the Connecting Mountains Saint had even finished speaking, the white circle of the Other Shore was already blazing with a brilliant light.
Bathed in that brilliant radiance, the six new Saints found themselves under the watchful eyes of the nine elder Saints.
"Heh, I've been waiting for this!" The first to accept the challenge was Ash Return.
As his phantom shot into the ring, the remaining Saints found it difficult to refuse.
In an instant, they each projected a phantom of themselves, casting it into the Armillary Ring.
"Within the Armillary Ring, even the smallest detail reveals the whole truth."
"It sees one part and knows the whole. If any of you intend to hold back, I'm afraid that simply won't be possible," Shou Qiu, the Mound Keeper, added cheerfully once all the Saints were present.
Hearing this, the expressions of the six new Saints remained unchanged as they nodded in acknowledgment.
The brilliant light of the white circle transformed, becoming their battlefield.
Each phantom the Saints cast inside appeared as a mere speck of light.
Within the Armillary Ring, time itself seemed to accelerate by a countless factor.
With every passing moment, the luminous specks representing the Saints collided with ferocious intensity.
Even for a mere phantom of a Saint, determining a victor would normally require a long and arduous battle.
The Armillary Ring, however, accelerated that process immensely.
Before long, under the watchful gaze of the elder Saints, the first speck of light dimmed completely, defeated.
A closer look revealed it to be the Mysterious Progenitor.
Li Fan's expression was one of resignation as he shook his head slightly. "Still recovering from grievous injuries," he lamented. "A true pity."
The Mysterious Progenitor's Dao governed the very genesis of the Mountain and Sea. Furthermore, having just traversed from the end of all things and only recently recovered his Saintly power, it was expected that he would be the weakest among them.
As long as he possessed the divine ability to infuse others with a True Spirit, the Saints wouldn't have cared if he were a mere mortal.
The next to be eliminated, in succession, were Square Inch and Primal Qi.
As for the final three, they were locked in a fierce, indistinguishable stalemate.
Within the ring, black and white energies swirled, sometimes drawing close, sometimes pulling apart. When separate, they were a razor's edge, their assault fearsome. When joined, they were a seamless whole, utterly invincible.
Opposing them was a single spark of fire that multiplied into billions, forming a sky-devouring, eerie grey conflagration. In that grey sea of fire, every single wisp of flame seemed to possess its own consciousness. Even when destroyed, it would swiftly be reborn from the void. It was inextinguishable; the more one tried to quell it, the stronger it grew.
Black-and-white against grey, a clash of titans. Neither gave an inch.
And beyond them lurked a shadow. At times, it would mimic the black and white energies to ambush the grey flames. At others, it would take the form of Ash Return's fire to strike at the flowing taiji.
And when Moral and Ash Return attacked it together, the shadow would turn their own methods against them. An endless expanse of shadow, it held its own against the two of them, remaining undefeated.
The three-way struggle continued, and even with the Armillary Ring's constant acceleration, a victor was nowhere in sight.
"To be so evenly matched... this result is fascinating indeed," the Karma Judge's phantom mused, shaking his head with a faint smile.
"Their fates each have their own cause," the Sundial Fate Saint remarked suddenly.
The smile on the Karma Judge's face froze. A thoughtful expression replaced it.
"I was about to call it here," the Karma Judge said. "But since you've put it that way, let's wait. We will see this through until a true victor emerges."
Hearing the exchange between Sundial Fate and the Karma Judge, Li Fan fell into his own silent contemplation.
An uncanny silence fell over the gathering, broken only by the ceaseless flickering of light within the Armillary Ring.
An unknown amount of time passed before the three-way balance was finally broken.
It was the phantom of the All Knowing Saint who broke it, shouting, "This is pointless!"
With that, he voluntarily leaped from the Armillary Ring, and his phantom dissipated into nothingness.
The true All Knowing Saint saw nothing strange in this. In fact, he wore a look of self-admiration, as if to say, *That's my phantom, alright.*
Of the remaining two, Moral and Ash Return, it was ultimately the perfected Dao of Moral that proved superior.
And so, the hierarchy of strength among the six new Saints was established.
Li Fan suddenly spoke up. "Shall we six have a bout with our seniors as well?"
"That won't be necessary."
The one who replied was the Star Raft Saint.
With his words, a small wooden boat, laden with starlight, gently sailed into the Armillary Ring.
The starlight erupted with blinding force, like a billion stars igniting all at once.
It instantly consumed everything.
The black and white energies of the Moral Saint formed a taiji symbol, spinning relentlessly.
It attempted to resist the crushing starlight.
But it was a futile effort.
In the end, it was utterly annihilated by the light of the stars.
Just like that, the strongest of the new Saints had been effortlessly defeated by the Star Raft.
Witnessing this, the six new Saints fell into a stunned silence.
Comments