Chapter 1712: The Three Unite Again
Chapter 1712: The Three Unite Again
Before the Tai Wei Saint Emperor departed, he suddenly remarked, "When you achieved sainthood and preached the Dao to the Mountain and Sea, it caused quite a stir in the Sacred Dynasty. It took considerable effort to quell the unrest."
Li Fan instantly understood the reason behind his words.
The people of the Sacred Dynasty live forever under the protection of the Tai Wei Saint Emperor, sheltered from disaster and misfortune. While one might call this happiness, they remain completely ignorant of the world beyond their borders.
Concepts like True Immortals, the Nameless, Transcendence, and even the Mountain and Sea itself were entirely unheard of to them.
When Li Fan attained the Dao, he revealed the secrets of the Saints of the Mountain and Sea.
This allowed countless citizens of the Sacred Dynasty to catch a glimpse of a world they were never meant to see.
They realized for the first time that the Saint Emperor was not the most powerful being in all the Mountain and Sea—and that they, too, could become just as strong.
Perhaps even surpass him.
Although the Tai Wei Saint Emperor decisively suppressed the unrest, it still resulted in significant losses. While not a crippling blow, it was certainly a grievous injury to the dynasty.
Such an event was unprecedented in the history of the Sacred Dynasty, which was why the Tai Wei Saint Emperor had brought it up.
"What is bound to happen will happen," Li Fan said, his tone laden with meaning. "I merely set it off a little early. Who knows? It might even prove beneficial for you in the long run."
As he spoke, he made a subtle gesture toward the void, drawing forth a mass of stagnant True Spirit and infusing it into a Great Luck Saint Medicine he held in his palm.
"Take this pill as compensation for your losses. And one more thing... among the countless citizens of your Sacred Dynasty, if some truly prove to be exceptional, what's the harm in letting them forge their own path?"
The Tai Wei Saint Emperor knew Li Fan's vision could pierce the veil of the void, granting him unparalleled foresight.
"Has he seen something in the future?"
"My demise, for instance?"
Li Fan's attitude made the Tai Wei Saint Emperor ponder inwardly. He accepted the Great Luck Saint Medicine, now infused with True Spirit, and mulled over Li Fan's words.
"Perhaps he is right. If someone truly has the makings of a Saint, what harm is there in letting them attain the Dao? Anyone who rises from the Sacred Dynasty would be a natural ally. They might even be able to help me refine the Great Luck Saint Medicine, easing my burden in the future..."
A thought stirred in the Tai Wei Saint Emperor's mind, and without realizing it, his perspective began to shift.
The Saint Emperor took his leave and departed.
It was now time for Li Fan, Shou Qiu, and Moral to set out into the void.
"We await your good news."
Under the watchful eyes of the other Saints, the three vanished into the void one after another.
At first, a faint trace of their auras could still be sensed. But soon, the vast, boundless void swallowed everything.
"Let's hope it is good news."
"This Saint of the Mountain and Sea... his thoughts are difficult to fathom."
"It matters not. The outcome... should be in our favor." Countless flashes of light seemed to flicker in the Connecting Mountains Saint's eyes for an instant as he delivered his verdict.
After a brief pause, the Returning to Sea Saint also nodded in agreement.
"A temporary advantage is not necessarily an eternal one. A pity we are trapped here, unable to see the full picture." Saint Tai Yi sighed softly, his profound gaze lost in the depths of the void.
...
The journey was extraordinarily long, spanning a chasm of nearly a hundred thousand years.
Even with the assistance of the three Saints at the outset, their power was completely exhausted by the halfway point.
Li Fan and Shou Qiu were faring better. One was a Saint of the Mountain and Sea who commanded the True False Transformation, his power reserves unfathomable. The other possessed the Great Dao of Longevity, for whom the state of Sit Mountain View Sea was a simple matter.
Moral, however, was only a newly ascended Saint. His strength ranked merely in the middle tier among his peers, and he was now beginning to show signs of exhaustion.
"Let's rest for a while."
Resting in the void was typically an impossibility, a fantasy. But with Li Fan's ability to infuse True Spirit, it became achievable.
Moral and Shou Qiu felt the foundations of their existence, which had been slowly eroding in the void, being replenished and even strengthened. They both marveled, "Your ability is truly beyond comprehension, Fellow Daoist Fan! It is a great blessing for the Mountain and Sea!"
"To command the countless stagnant True Spirits of the void... this will be of immense significance for our mission to reconnect the Mountain and Sea," Shou Qiu declared, his voice filled with excitement from personally experiencing the benefits of the infusion.
As the two were expressing their awe, they suddenly noticed a figure materializing in the void.
It emanated from Li Fan himself.
This spectral figure possessed an inscrutable aura. Even amidst the emptiness of the void, its appearance instantly captivated the attention of Shou Qiu and Moral.
"Fellow Daoist Fan... what is this?" Moral asked, stunned.
Within this blurry, distorted phantom, he could see the entirety of the Mountain and Sea.
It was not merely a superficial image, but an embodiment of every possible principle the Mountain and Sea contained!
Crucially, Li Fan had never revealed the existence of this phantom before—not in the Mountain and Sea, not in the presence of the other Saints.
"This is the Shadow of God."
"It is an imitation, born from the mysteries of the Three Saints' Armillary Ring."
"Ahead, in that segment of the Mountain and Sea, we will face the void incarnations of the Three Saints. There is no room for error."
"I ask you both to join me and take your seats within the Armillary Ring!"
As he finished speaking, a brilliant and familiar white light erupted from the spectral figure.
The phantom vanished, replaced by a white circlet almost identical to the Armillary Ring on the Other Shore.
This circlet, however, flickered in and out of existence, its form unstable. It seemed poised to vanish into the void at any moment.
Li Fan was already seated within it, a faint smile on his face as he waited for Shou Qiu and Moral.
"This..."
Doubt instantly bloomed in the minds of Shou Qiu and Moral.
It wasn't that they doubted the authenticity of the Armillary Ring before them; after all, they had sat within the original for countless ages. They could clearly recognize its nearly identical aura.
But... when had Li Fan gained the ability to create an Armillary Ring, just like the Three Saints?
They knew that while the Three Saints had expressed their intent to entrust the ring's secrets to Li Fan, they themselves had needed the aid of three great treasures—the Connecting Mountains Staff, the Returning to Sea Shovel, and the All Living Beings Stick—to reforge it.
Yet here was Li Fan, having replicated the Armillary Ring without any of those treasures, relying solely on his own power!
"Could it be? In the short time he spent inside the ring, did he somehow decipher its deepest mysteries?"
"How is that possible?"
They both knew Li Fan's foresight was profound, but they could scarcely imagine it extended this far.
Seeing the subtle changes in Shou Qiu's and Moral's expressions, Li Fan smiled. "There is no need for hesitation. All your doubts will be answered once you take your seats within the ring."
"Don't you know? Only the first three to be seated can truly achieve Same Heart Same Virtue."
The light of the Armillary Ring flickered, and Li Fan's voice was like a phantom's whisper.
Shou Qiu and Moral exchanged a glance. In the end, Shou Qiu, fearless and composed, strode into the ring.
"I can see that Fellow Daoist Fan bears no ill will."
"This journey is perilous. Only by uniting with Same Heart Same Virtue can we better face the dangers ahead."
Seeing this, Moral could only grit his teeth and follow close behind.
With the three Saints seated, the flickering light of the Armillary Ring instantly stabilized.
Li Fan's insights into the Shadow of God flowed into their minds like a spring, clear and continuous.
Even for Saints, insights of this magnitude were an exceedingly precious treasure.
But they had no time to dwell on it now; their focus was entirely on forging and stabilizing the Armillary Ring.
All went smoothly.
An unknown amount of time passed before a new Armillary Ring, independent of the original Three Saints, was born in the void.
Throughout this process, the expressions on Shou Qiu's and Moral's faces shifted dramatically.
"So that's how it is... so that's how it truly is!"
"The fortune Fellow Daoist Fan obtained from this use of Truth Realization is far beyond my imagination."
"Indeed, only one who wields the True False Transformation can truly comprehend its creative power. Who could have imagined that a single regression could elevate an ordinary Saint to a level comparable to the Three Saints?" Shou Qiu sighed softly.
"The Three Saints cultivated for countless ages to attain their current power, yet you needed only a five-hundred-year cycle... The gap is simply staggering."
Li Fan smiled in response. "Shou Qiu's assistance was indispensable. Without it, how could I have grasped the Shadow of the Mountain and Sea so quickly?"
Compared to Shou Qiu, who had already cooperated with him once before, Moral was clearly a bit more disgruntled.
"Fellow Daoist Fan, you used the advantage of your cycles to make a fool of me several times."
"But it is also an undeniable fact that I helped you achieve sainthood," Li Fan replied nonchalantly.
"Ah..." Moral was actually speechless.
Shou Qiu chuckled and said, "If being made a fool of like that could lead to sainthood, I imagine countless beings in the Mountain and Sea would volunteer."
Moral couldn't help but admit that Shou Qiu was speaking the absolute truth.
The past grievances were all wiped away in a moment of lighthearted conversation.
What followed was Same Heart Same Virtue, three as one!
"So, your plan is truly to save the Three Saints?" Shou Qiu asked, somewhat surprised now that he was privy to Li Fan's true intentions.
Li Fan nodded slightly. "This time, after viewing the Mountain and Sea Variation Outline, I was able to perceive the grand sweep of the Mountain and Sea's changes. However, I still lack too much in the fine details. Thus, I could grasp the Shadow of the Mountain and Sea, but not its Spirit."
"Therefore, I intend to use the Three Saints as a variable to observe the changes in this segment of the Mountain and Sea in detail."
Li Fan pointed ahead and declared proudly.
"Grasp one part, and you can grasp the whole. If I can gain some enlightenment, I can extrapolate it back to the entire history of the Mountain and Sea. Besides..."
"We can hide in the shadows and observe all of their methods. Faced with a life-and-death crisis, they will surely hold nothing back. We might even learn what their trump cards are."
...
Li Fan finished explaining the reasoning behind his plan.
After some thought, however, Shou Qiu offered a different opinion.
"Why not try to kill the Three Saints instead?"
"If we could absorb the Daos of Lian Shan, Gui Hai, and Tai Yi into the Dao Return Hall, we might settle things in one fell swoop and save ourselves countless troubles."
Moral sensed for a moment, then narrowed his eyes slightly and spoke for Li Fan: "Fellow Daoist Fan is afraid."
"It's not just their unfathomable powers. It's also because..."
"Saint Tai Yi is one thing, but those two, Lian Shan and Gui Hai, are quite difficult to fathom."
Li Fan continued slowly, "This is something I only vaguely realized after viewing the Mountain and Sea Variation Outline. There are no such Dao paths as 'Connecting Mountains' or 'Returning to Sea' in the Mountain and Sea. The two became Saints *because* of Connecting Mountains and Returning to Sea; they did not prove their sainthood *with* the Dao of Connecting Mountains and Returning to Sea."
"What does it mean to connect the mountains? On what basis does one return to the sea?"
"We have never clearly seen the greatest trump cards of these two."
Shou Qiu nodded in agreement. "Indeed."
Li Fan said, "The Three Saints hail from the very beginning of the Mountain and Sea's fragmentation. They cannot be measured by common sense. It's possible they received the fortune of some primordial ancient relic. If I were to rashly expose Truth Realization..."
"It seems the attempt to seize Truth Realization, though it failed, left a rather deep shadow on you," Moral remarked with a cynical smile.
Shou Qiu came to Li Fan's defense. "That's only natural."
After pondering for a moment, Shou Qiu added, "Caution has its merits. Our wings are not yet fully fledged; it is indeed not the time for a direct confrontation with the Three Saints. Especially if, as you say, they may have obtained the fortune of primordial ancient relics..."
"I believe it is true!"
The three were of one mind, so Li Fan reacted quickly. "Mound Keeper, does your suspicion stem from the Shadow of God?"
Shou Qiu nodded. "In the previous life, when I saw the Shadow of God, I simply thought it was a testament to the Three Saints' profound power that they could glimpse the former existence of God. But after reading the [Mountain Sea Variation Outline] from Truth Realization, I have a new theory."
"It took the immense power of Truth Realization to create this record, which still only captures the Shadow, not the Spirit. So how did the Three Saints manage to grasp the Spirit of the Mountain and Sea? Was it really just through their peerless talent alone?"
At these words, both Li Fan and Moral fell silent.
"There are countless beings in the world, and some may indeed be extraordinary, but there is always a limit. Some things, however, clearly transcend such boundaries. The Three Saints created something from nothing, paving a new path—they are indeed geniuses of the highest order. But I believe..."
"...that a being of the Mountain and Sea is, after all, born *of* the Mountain and Sea. To see the True God, one must rely on an external object."
Shou Qiu gazed at the Shadow of God floating above Li Fan, a realization dawning in his heart, and sighed with deep emotion.
Li Fan could faintly empathize with Shou Qiu's thoughts.
Although Shou Qiu often humbly claimed his own cultivation attainments were mediocre, to have risen from a mere mound keeper gazing at the sea to the level of a Saint, he possessed a deep well of pride.
But all of that pride was instantly ground away after witnessing the true power of Truth Realization.
So-called talent and effort were rendered meaningless before it.
A vista that one could not hope to glimpse even after billions of years of diligent cultivation was laid bare and clear under the guidance of Truth Realization.
"This has nothing to do with so-called aptitude; it is a limitation of our origin."
"As creations of the Mountain and Sea, our perspective is inevitably confined within it. To dream of facing God, we can only do so through something from beyond the Mountain and Sea."
"Fellow Daoist Fan has had the treasure of Truth Realization with him since he was a mortal, so perhaps he doesn't feel this as deeply. Moral's understanding should be more profound," Shou Qiu stated slowly.
After a long silence, Li Fan inwardly agreed with Shou Qiu's speculation.
His estimation of the Three Saints' strength rose another level.
"This is the perfect opportunity. We may be able to use their void incarnations to finally glimpse all their secrets."
Their rest concluded, the trio set off toward their destination once more.
This time, however, Li Fan and Moral stood guard while Shou Qiu entered a state of secluded cultivation.
After obtaining the Mountain and Sea Variation Outline, Li Fan had comprehended the Shadow of God.
Naturally, Shou Qiu had also gained his own insights.
Moreover, over the years, he had personally witnessed all the changes of the Mountain and Sea.
The detailed entries in the outline were like a chronicle of everything he had experienced.
Vivid and clear.
As if reliving another cycle of the Mountain and Sea's transformations, Shou Qiu's aura grew increasingly ethereal and elusive.
"In the last life, after comprehending the True False Transformation, the Mound Keeper was able to instantly kill four Saints."
"In this life, armed with the Mountain and Sea Outline from Truth Realization, I wonder how much stronger he will become."
Watching the Mound Keeper sitting with closed eyes, Li Fan felt a surge of confidence.
Even with the six Saints locked in a fierce battle ahead, there was no longer any need to be so timid.
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