Chapter 1708: The Return After Facing God
Chapter 1708: The Return After Facing God
The raging fire blanketing the mountains faltered the very instant the divine shadow appeared.
Under an invisible pressure, the roaring blaze, once at its zenith, began to wane.
It started to extinguish rapidly, with the divine shadow at its epicenter.
It wasn't just the fire of the True Spirit that vanished, but the Mountain Sea, the void realm, and everything within the scope of perception.
The space occupied by the divine shadow became an absolute nadir, a vortex siphoning everything around it.
Perhaps because the consumed Mountain Sea was utterly insignificant in magnitude compared to a god, the deep, dark shadow remained completely unchanged by its voracious consumption.
It simply stood there, silent and still.
Beyond the shattered Mountain Sea, the colossal roar that had been rapidly approaching fell silent after the divine shadow truly manifested.
Only Li Fan, his True Spirit dissipating, retained a sliver of consciousness.
He was powerless to act, able only to drift like flotsam, plummeting toward the abyss where the divine shadow resided.
"This..."
"Is this... a god?"
Li Fan's mind was preternaturally calm.
On the verge of plunging into the abyss, his heart felt no panic.
It was as if the divine shadow before him was his homeland, and returning to it was simply his destiny.
In this state of serene acceptance, Li Fan could therefore observe the manifested divine shadow with all his focus, taking in every detail.
A multitude of insights flooded his mind.
"Even face-to-face with the divine, it is not something an ordinary being can comprehend."
"A god is like a being enthroned in the highest heavens, too distant for mortals to see clearly."
"But I, who walk the Great Dao of Truth and Illusion, am as if I already dwell in the sky."
"I am so close to the divine, I can almost reach out and touch it. Thus, I am able to perceive something of its nature."
For Li Fan, time itself seemed to stand still.
Without fear, without trepidation; without joy, without greed; without sorrow, without anger.
There was no sense of ultimate fulfillment, no reverence for the profound, unfathomable divine.
There was only the instinct to see.
And from that sight, thoughts were born.
"Neither spirit nor substance, neither living nor dead, neither sullied nor pure, a calamity beyond all calamities."
"Reflecting all phenomena, yet itself without form; giving birth to all laws, yet itself without thought."
"All living beings are its children, yet all are its abyss."
"To know it as a boat is to drown in it; to see it as the Dao is to lose the way."
"It cannot be fathomed, cannot be measured, cannot be seen, cannot be heard..."
These whispered insights burst forth from Li Fan's mind, one after another.
In this moment, it seemed nothing else existed but the divine shadow and Li Fan.
And as Li Fan perceived the divine shadow, the divine shadow, in turn, perceived him.
The two stood in opposition, locked in a silent, metaphysical confrontation.
The plunge into the abyss suddenly accelerated.
Amidst the silent descent, a low whisper began to rise.
Listening closely, he realized it was the echo of his own insights upon seeing the divine!
It was as if countless other versions of himself awaited him within the shadow's abyss, calling for him to join them.
"Return, return..."
On the brink of being consumed by the shadow, Li Fan seemed to accept his fate, meeting it with tranquility.
`Return to True`, for reasons unknown, remained silent, allowing events to unfold.
As he metaphorically stepped one foot into the abyss, the shadow Li Fan perceived grew ever larger.
Yet, the instinctive insights that had flooded his mind began to diminish.
His being was stretched to infinity, the leading edge ceaselessly plunging toward the divine shadow.
The trailing part, meanwhile, was still in the process of falling.
Li Fan waited patiently for his entire being to be subsumed by the divine shadow.
He waited... and waited...
An unknown eternity passed. The surrounding Mountain Sea and void realm had been completely devoured.
But...
Li Fan's fall was still not complete!
"What's happening?"
"Isn't this taking a little too long?"
His inner peace did not signify a total loss of thought. Instinctively, a question surfaced in his mind.
And so, he began to think once more.
The answer came to him with surprising ease.
"Oh... It's because my True Spirit is infinite."
Like a stone cast into a placid lake, that thought shattered the profound calm that had settled over him after witnessing the divine.
"It seems..."
"...this god isn't so remarkable after all."
The moment this thought arose, it was as if heaven and earth were upended!
"The ocean can swallow all the rivers of the world, but what if a river with no source flows down from the heavens?"
"Even the ocean's full might would struggle to contain it."
"Heh! In the end..."
"...it's only the shadow of a god."
Li Fan sighed.
The portion of his infinite True Spirit that remained outside the abyss coalesced into a great hand, pushing back with a slight effort.
It forcefully extracted the part of his True Spirit that had been swallowed by the divine shadow!
Moreover, as this portion of his True Spirit flowed back, it seemed to carry with it fragments of the shadow unique to the divine.
Gods had always been the ones to devour the world; today, a god itself was being plundered.
The inky abyss, silent for a moment, began to seethe.
Previously, it had maintained a divine composure, sitting impassively, waiting for all of creation to fall into its depths.
Now, it actively lashed out, determined to consume him!
Though he had escaped the initial fall thanks to his endless True Spirit...
...he could feel himself faltering under the shadow's active assault.
"Let's see how this so-called divine shadow fares against the True False Transformation."
Li Fan finally invoked the name `Return to True` in his mind.
The seething, shadowy abyss fell still once more.
The words "When truth becomes illusion, illusion becomes truth" materialized in his vision.
They then shattered, enveloping the entire cosmos.
Everything became indistinct, as if veiled in a thick mist.
Even the profound divine shadow was no exception.
But unlike the rest of the Mountain Sea, which had frozen in time, the divine shadow grew even more agitated as the mist enveloped it!
It lunged toward Li Fan at a speed visible to the naked eye!
This was the first time Li Fan had ever been so directly threatened by an external force after activating `Return to True`.
His heart skipped a beat.
Just as the divine shadow was about to touch him...
...a gleam of light erupted from within the white mist.
Like a sharp blade, it slashed at the lunging shadow.
The shadow was instantly cleaved in two before being swallowed by the mist, its form dissolving into obscurity.
The divine shadow's only chance of victory vanished.
And Li Fan, as always, was swept away by `Return to True` as the Mountain Sea rebooted.
...
This time, it seemed he had been unconscious for an exceptionally long time.
When Li Fan’s consciousness returned, his mind was a blank slate. For a moment, he couldn't recall the final events of his last life at all.
Only after sitting in a daze for what felt like half a day did everything come flooding back.
"Hiss..."
"My actions after seeing the divine shadow were... reckless. That's not like me. Was I influenced by something?"
Li Fan frowned, pondering the question for a long time, but no answer came.
Lines of small text flickered before his eyes, seemingly urging him to make a choice.
"Could `Return to True` have changed again?"
Li Fan suppressed his racing thoughts and focused on the screen before him.
Unfortunately, compared to his last life, there were no obvious changes.
[This simulation has concluded]
[You may choose one of the following to retain:
1. Your cultivation, any items you possessed, or the Daos you mastered in this simulation.
2. The simulation results of any close Daoist friend. This result can overwrite the current Mountain Sea.
3. The Mountain Sea Variation Outline from this simulation.
4. The Star Radiance Rhythm Summary from this simulation.
5. Forgo the above choices to accelerate the recharge progress.]
...
"Logically, the transformation between truth and illusion happens in a single thought."
"So why can I only choose one of these four? Why can't I have it all?"
Instead of choosing, Li Fan questioned `Return to True`.
But `Return to True`, predictably, would not answer him.
The lines of text on the glowing screen continued to flicker, as if in mockery.
Unbothered by the snub, Li Fan decided not to rush his choice. Instead, he carefully examined the changes to `Return to True`.
Although his own state had been reset to the anchor point...
...the same was not true for the system itself.
First was the section for the `Dao Return Hall`.
"The Dao of Unceasing has been absorbed."
"But the Great Dao of [Longevity]..."
"Shou Qiu's premonition was right. In some vast, unknown expanse, another form of Longevity truly exists. And the power of the one who wields it is unfathomable, capable of partially resisting the pull of the `Dao Return Hall`."
The Great Dao of Longevity had been absorbed, but not completely.
The characters for the other Great Daos all glowed with a seven-colored light, their principles clear and comprehensible to Li Fan at a glance.
But [Longevity]...
...was merely a transparent outline.
It had the shape of Longevity, but it was clearly incomplete.
Witnessing this, Li Fan frowned slightly. "It seems having Longevity in the `Dao Return Hall` might not be a good thing after all."
As if sensing his thoughts, the already transparent characters for [Longevity] suddenly faded away, vanishing completely.
When a thought stirred in Li Fan's mind and he actively focused on it, the characters reappeared.
"Able to exist between truth and illusion, reality and void. Marvelous!" Li Fan exclaimed in admiration.
"I wonder who the true master of Longevity really is."
In his previous life, having shared a mind with Shou Qiu, Li Fan had learned some of the old master's own speculations on the matter.
"It dates back to the extremely distant beginning of the Mountain Sea, a desolate age before even Shou Qiu was born. It might even have originated from the very moment the Mountain Sea separated from the divine."
"Perhaps it was grievously wounded in that primordial conflict."
"Its main body never fell into the temporal evolution of the Mountain Sea, but a fragment of it did..."
Li Fan's thoughts drifted.
Though he had no proof, the fact that it could contend with the pull of the `Dao Return Hall` spoke volumes about the extraordinary nature of the true master of Longevity.
"Perhaps not even the Three Saints could claim superiority. It's best not to provoke such a being for the time being."
Having returned to the anchor point to start anew, Li Fan reverted to his characteristic caution.
"Besides the two Great Daos, there's the `Armillary Ring`."
"And the divine shadow."
In the final moments of his last life, Li Fan had confronted the divine shadow.
He had used the great fire of his True Spirit to burn away its veil, seeing its core for what it was.
Because of that, he now had a clear understanding of its essence.
"It isn't truly the shadow of that fallen creator god."
"Rather, it is a product of the Three Saints' unfathomable power, a materialization of the very concept of 'God'."
"Though not a physical entity, the Three Saints' abilities are so profound that this created shadow already possesses a portion of a god's true power."
"If... if the Three Saints' understanding of the Mountain Sea and the void realm were to advance further, or if they managed to claim the True False Transformation for themselves, they might have created not a divine shadow, but a divine body."
The divine shadow was the very core of the Three Saints' enlightenment.
That was why, upon sensing that someone else in the Mountain Sea was attempting to peer into it, they had rushed to stop it without a second thought.
But once they realized the core had been exposed and the situation was irreversible, while also being keenly aware of the destruction its manifestation would wreak upon the Mountain Sea, they had abandoned their attempts to intervene.
One had to admit, the divine shadow lived up to its name.
The moment it appeared, it drew the Mountain Sea, the void realm, and all of existence into its abyss.
It was as if that creator god sought to be reborn through its own shadow.
Only Li Fan, by virtue of his infinite True Spirit, not only managed to temporarily resist being consumed but even managed to take something back from the shadow.
"To obtain one part is to obtain the whole."
"This mottled point of light is the divine shadow itself."
"Like the mold formed by the Connecting Mountains Staff, the Returning to Sea Shovel, and the All Living Beings Stick, I can use this—with the help of the other two Saints—to recreate the `Armillary Ring`."
In the subsequent contest with `Return to True`, the divine shadow's utter defeat proved it was merely a phantom, no match for the system.
Naturally, it couldn't have remained within Li Fan's body after the reset.
But...
Li Fan closed his eyes.
The next moment, the infinite True Spirit within him seemed to boil.
It was as if he were reliving the trauma of being pulled into the abyss. Though his body and soul were mortal once more...
...his infinite True Spirit had silently separated.
In the void, an invisible mold seemed to take shape.
As Li Fan's True Spirit flowed through it, a shadow solidified and stood forth.
Compared to the one created by the Three Saints, this one was clearly far more ordinary.
"The divine shadow is the Three Saints' deconstruction of God."
"And this is my deconstruction of their shadow, based on the infusion of my True Spirit."
"Though it falls short in many respects, it is imbued with the True False Transformation..."
"...and possesses its own unique quality."
"It is enough to forge the `Armillary Ring`!" Li Fan declared, a sharp glint in his eyes.
This shadow was not aggressive like the one created by the Three Saints, which sought to devour all things in the Mountain Sea.
Instead, it seemed to exist between reality and illusion, ethereal and uncertain.
It floated like a phantom above Li Fan's head.
The Great Xuan, the Xuanhuang Realm, and even the primal possibility and its surrounding Mountain Sea were all reflected within it.
Like a series of carving knives, they etched their forms onto the shadow.
Leaving no trace, yet cutting deep.
As the shadow's creator, Li Fan could clearly observe the changes occurring within it from moment to moment.
"This divine shadow is the materialization of my own understanding. Yet, after its birth, it can in turn help me comprehend everything it comes into contact with."
"While it can't compare to the enlightenment from the `Dao Return Hall`..."
"...it isn't far behind."
The shadow was a mirror, and through it, Li Fan peered into the Mountain Sea.
His comprehension seemed to multiply tenfold in an instant!
"This change is the masterstroke of the True False Transformation."
"My comprehension of the True False Transformation is like comprehending all the principles of the world. In the past, I had to convert that understanding myself, but now, with the help of the divine shadow, I can skip that troublesome step."
"If I had obtained this at the beginning of my cultivation, I would have been ecstatic. Unfortunately..."
"After reaching the realm of the Saints, so-called aptitude and comprehension are no longer the deciding factors."
"While this can temporarily close the gap between myself and the Three Saints, if I truly want to contend with them..."
"...I still need the help of `Return to True`."
Li Fan was perfectly clear-headed.
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