Chapter 1738: A Truly Perfect Man
Chapter 1738: A Truly Perfect Man
"It's more likely that these were my own personal experiences."
"I've just lost my former memories, so they only manifest as vague, ambiguous intuitions."
In that instant, a suspicion bloomed in Li Fan's mind: was he still inside a [Truth] simulation?
But having attained the realm of a Saint, Li Fan's state of mind was no longer what it once was.
After a brief moment of shock, he quickly regained his composure.
"Such doubts are meaningless," he thought.
"Fantasy is truth, and truth is fantasy. The so-called 'real' Mountain and Sea was merely something re-derived by [Truth] from the absolute void after being devoured by the Star. What truly matters is my past."
"If my suspicions are correct, then what I thought was my first life... probably wasn't my *first* life at all."
At the End of Mountain and Sea, Li Fan had witnessed the divine abilities of the Saints.
Fantasy becomes truth, the deduction of uncertain futures, reversing the flow of the river of time, the celestial selection of an heir.
Even then, a faint doubt had taken root in his mind.
Now, coupled with the words that had just surfaced from his memory—"If I had never seen it, from where would my [Truth] have come?"
The answer seemed to be on the verge of revealing itself.
But precisely because of this, Li Fan found it all the more incredible.
"Could it be that the so-called [Truth] is a fusion of 'fantasy becomes truth,' 'truth becomes fantasy,' and the Daos wielded by the various Saints?"
"Then... who exactly is the consciousness hidden deep within [Truth]?"
[Truth] possessed its own independent consciousness.
Of this, there was no doubt.
Whether it was the ravenous hunger it displayed whenever it encountered something useful, or the occasional guidance it offered Li Fan at critical moments.
Both were undeniable proof.
That raised a question: if [Truth] was merely a collection of Daos, a pure tool, then it shouldn't have a consciousness of its own.
Could it be that the combined Daos within [Truth] had given birth to an independent will?
Or perhaps...
His mind flashed back to the other version of himself that had suddenly appeared at the End of Mountain and Sea, in the final moments of its annihilation.
An earth-shattering idea suddenly erupted in Li Fan's mind.
Once it appeared, it was like a bursting dam, a raging flood that could no longer be contained.
It consumed his thoughts, creating an instinctual, desperate urge to immediately verify if this guess was correct.
"[Truth]... is me?"
"And I... am [Truth]?"
With that single thought, the Mountain and Sea transformed, and all things dissolved.
Mo Yongge and the other two who had become Saints and followed him all these years vanished without a trace.
Shou Qiu Gong and Moral, who had sat with him on the Armillary Ring, sharing one heart and one mind, also faded away abruptly.
Even the Saints on the Other Shore, and the entire Mountain and Sea itself.
Everything seemed to disappear in an instant.
An indescribable, unfathomable power had descended, completely and utterly isolating Li Fan from the outside world.
It was as if nothing else existed in the universe but him.
Then, a figure drifted out from the void.
His form, his face—they were identical to Li Fan's in every way.
But his demeanor, his aura, were entirely different.
The moment Li Fan saw this other version of himself, his heart leaped violently.
He felt an overwhelming sense of familiarity, yet at the same time, an intense strangeness.
With a single glance, he understood the source of that strangeness.
The "Li Fan" across from him stood there silently, and yet, his presence inspired a profound, instinctual sense of peace.
It felt as though one could entrust everything to him.
And he would never betray that trust.
He was sincere to the extreme, pure to the extreme, noble to the extreme.
As benevolent as Su Bai, as virtuous as Shou Qiu.
He was the savior of the Mountain and Sea, a truly perfect man.
...
"You... are me?" Li Fan was utterly stunned.
The "Li Fan" across from him offered no explanation.
As Li Fan spoke, it was as if ice and snow were melting away.
An unimaginable flood of memories flashed out of the darkness, like a sky full of brilliant starlight, all rushing toward him.
Not long ago, Li Fan had experienced one hundred billion years of history through the eyes of the Three Saints, from the Beginning of Mountain and Sea to its present, near-end state.
The timeline of the Mountain and Sea was long, but with his current power, Li Fan could just about endure it.
But now, he was on the verge of being annihilated, destroyed by his own past memories.
He was like an ant cast into a vast ocean; the moment he fell in, he lost all sense of its full scale.
He could only glimpse fragments of the past from the countless, overlapping droplets of water all around him.
One hundred billion years—a great portion of the Mountain and Sea's lifespan—was an absolutely immense stretch of time.
But within this ocean of Li Fan's memories, it was but a single droplet of water, condensed from one reincarnation.
In this boundless ocean, the number of droplets was well beyond trillions.
That was the path the past "Li Fan" had walked.
Countless reincarnations, countless attempts.
All for one purpose: to save the Mountain and Sea from the Star.
But just as "Li Fan" had said.
"One can stop the Star for a moment, but one cannot stop it for an eternity."
The final memory of every single reincarnation ended the same way: the lone Star descended and devoured everything.
The Mountain and Sea, in the end, could not be saved.
...
Compared to the other self hidden within [Truth], the current Li Fan was pathetically weak.
He could observe and accept the memories of one, then ten reincarnations.
But slowly, as the count reached a hundred, then a thousand, he could no longer bear it.
It was like sinking into the deepest abyss, the surrounding pressure was unimaginably immense, threatening to grind his very soul to dust.
"It is not yet time."
"Go back for now."
Just as Li Fan was about to be completely engulfed by the surrounding darkness, a voice emerged, saving him just in time.
The darkness receded, and the vast, ocean-like memories of the past vanished before him like bubbles.
The two of them looked at each other.
Adding the clues he had just gleaned from the memories, Li Fan finally pieced together the truth.
The past Li Fan had tried countless times to save the Mountain and Sea from the clutches of the [Star].
But just like the countless struggling beings within the Mountain and Sea, it was all in vain.
He had tried an unknown number of times, yet not once had he been able to truly prevent the Star's arrival.
Failure after failure, with no successful future in sight.
Yet he never gave up.
At the very, very end, he decided to make a change.
That change was the origin of the current Li Fan.
Li Fan finally understood why, from the very beginning, "[Truth]" had been so resistant to making contact with him.
Besides the vast disparity in their substance—a single thought from the other could have devoured him—there was a more important reason.
It was to preserve the current Li Fan's independence.
To let him act on his own instincts, unaffected by the past.
After all, they were of the same origin. If they came into close contact, the result would be just as Li Fan had experienced.
In an instant, he would fall into the abyss of his past, swallowed by his own memories.
His soul would shatter.
"To save the world..."
"First save yourself."
A final voice echoed in Li Fan's heart.
The veil that had sealed off the outside world abruptly lifted.
Like someone breaking the surface after being held underwater, Li Fan instinctively gasped for air.
Even though he now knew the answer he had desperately sought, he felt no sense of clarity.
Instead, a myriad of indescribable emotions welled up within him.
"The only thing to be thankful for is..."
"That past me... is probably truly dead."
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