Chapter 1746: The Prize that Steals the Soul
Chapter 1746: The Prize that Steals the Soul
Though he was at the very edge of the vortex, just a step away from where the new god resided, its true form remained veiled.
All he could perceive was a colossal dark silhouette standing within the maelstrom, silently absorbing the billions of radiant lights.
It seemed to be in a deep slumber, betraying no fluctuation of aura whatsoever.
If one did not look directly at it, one would be entirely unaware of its existence.
This was a stark contrast to the overwhelming power that had stunned Li Fan unconscious the moment the god's shadow had flickered across his mind.
"Daoist Shou Qiu, what in the world has happened?" Li Fan asked, his voice laced with bewildered uncertainty. "I feel like..."
"It seems it wasn't just my imagination. The new god... is truly dead," Shou Qiu replied, his breaths coming in ragged, difficult gasps, as if he were severely weakened.
"The new god... is dead."
His perception of the scene shifted instantly.
The divine silhouette stood tall, still exuding a sacred, unassailable majesty, yet it was devoid of the living consciousness that should have been within.
It was like an empty shell, mechanically carrying out the new god's mission to devour everything.
Li Fan stared intently for a few moments before he was alarmed to feel the colossal figure beginning to solidify from an illusion into reality within his mind. He quickly squeezed his eyes shut, forcing himself to look away.
Only when the image of the divine shadow had completely vanished from his thoughts did he manage a shaky sigh of relief.
"Even as a corpse, this god is not something we can covet in our grievously wounded state."
"Even if we were at our full strength, I fear we could, at most, only protect ourselves." Though the effect of Same Heart Same Virtue was gone, Shou Qiu had still captured Li Fan's thoughts in an instant and offered his counsel.
Though reluctant, Li Fan made another attempt, only to be forced to admit that Shou Qiu was right.
The Return of the Mountain and Sea to the God was a complete reshuffling of all power in existence.
All things lost, and the sole victor was the newly born god before them.
In the face of this cataclysmic torrent, even the Saints were like ants, swept away by the current.
That Li Fan and Shou Qiu had managed to hold on until now was entirely due to the protection of the True False Transformation.
Looking around, everything that had once constituted the Mountain and Sea had already been annihilated, ground into nothingness.
All that remained was the pure radiance of energy, spiraling silently within the vortex.
It all cascaded toward the divine silhouette at the center.
The moment the vortex was fully absorbed would be the moment the new god truly descended.
But for reasons unknown, some great change had occurred.
Before it could be established, the new god had already fallen!
"The Saints at the beginning of the Mountain and Sea, who gave their lives to vie for a piece of divinity... they could never have imagined that godhood, achieved for but a moment, would end like this." Drifting slowly with the vortex, Li Fan still couldn't resist opening his eyes from time to time.
He studied the form of the god's corpse.
He had also tried to comprehend and absorb the surrounding radiance.
But it was not the Great Dao, nor was it the Mountain and Sea.
It was unlike anything Li Fan had ever encountered in his past cycles.
It seemed to be nourishment exclusively for forging the new god.
He tried every method he could think of, even using the [Great Dao's Return to Truth], but he couldn't harness even a sliver of it.
He could only focus his full attention on the god's corpse.
Li Fan suddenly recalled the figure he had glimpsed in the torrent of the god's return.
A thought stirred in his heart. "Could it be that what it was waiting for... was the fall of the new god? Did it foresee this long ago? If so, that means..."
As the idea took shape, his will followed.
The True False Transformation once again enveloped him tightly.
He vanished completely into the endless radiance of the vortex, leaving not a single trace exposed.
"I hope that one arrives in time," Li Fan silently calculated the time remaining before he would fall into the divine shadow, and waited.
An unknown amount of time passed.
By the time Li Fan had already sunk halfway into the vortex's depths, the influence of the divine shadow was able to pierce through the True False Transformation and take shape in his perception, even when he wasn't looking at it.
Then, it began to take over.
An overwhelming sense of crisis rose within him. Li Fan forcefully suppressed the urge to use Return to Truth, wanting to see what would happen next.
"It should be here soon."
At this point, no more specks of light flew in from outside the vortex.
The divine shadow seemed to have completed its absorption of the entire Mountain and Sea.
The Mountain and Sea were no more.
Within the outermost ring of light of the vortex lay all that was left of existence.
The god's nourishment.
"Why hasn't the void world made a move? Or perhaps, being inside the vortex, I can't perceive anything beyond that ring of light?"
"Besides me, are there other beings hiding in this place?"
The image of the god already occupied a vast portion of his thoughts.
Li Fan did his best to ignore it, desperately using his thoughts to fight against the encroachment of the divine shadow.
Compared to these questions, the memories of his countless past cycles seemed to be a more suitable defense. As he began to try and recall his past, the image of the god unexpectedly dimmed.
As if grasping a life-saving straw, Li Fan plunged himself into the torrent of his past memories.
Though they remained indistinct, he could see more than he could under normal circumstances.
"I have indeed encountered the descent of a new god before. And I used Return to Truth to reset it."
"But a situation like this, where the new god falls so soon after its birth..."
"This has never happened before."
"Why did the new god fall?"
Under the dual protection of his memory torrent and the True False Transformation, Li Fan drew closer and closer to the divine shadow.
So close it felt as if he could peer into its secrets.
At that very moment, the figure Li Fan had been waiting for finally made its entrance.
A piercing white light shattered the outer ring of the vortex, plunging violently into the god's nourishment.
It seemed to have anticipated the scene within the vortex, showing no hesitation as it shot straight toward the divine shadow standing at the center.
The originally placid, radiant nourishment instantly erupted into a titanic storm, seeking to drown this audacious blasphemer.
The wrath of a god was truly more than a mortal could bear.
Even though that white light was one of the few survivors after the great calamity of the god's return, under the relentless consumption of the surrounding radiance, it dimmed by half in a very short time.
But its thunderous momentum never ceased.
In an instant, it tore open a corner of the vortex and reached the edge of the divine shadow.
It seemed as if, in the next moment, it would enter the god's corpse.
To seize the prize of a god's creation!
Observing from the shadows, Li Fan's heart stopped for a beat. He instinctively wanted to intervene, to contend for it. Fortunately, he was ultimately powerless to act, and with Shou Qiu's calm persuasion, he quashed the suicidal impulse.
However, the other hidden beings chose not to wait and watch any longer.
Within the turbulent vortex, just an instant before the white light was about to crash into the god's corpse, three other brilliant lights suddenly erupted.
One white, one purple, and one cyan.
This second white light was none other than the presence Li Fan had sensed deep within the Infinite Sea.
Now they met again, but the circumstances had changed entirely.
Li Fan was hidden in the shadows, while the other was exposed in the light.
The moment he saw it again, a series of images flashed through Li Fan's mind.
"Daoist Fan, have we perhaps met before?"
A slender figure in flowing white robes asked with impeccable courtesy.
Li Fan remained silent.
Beyond them, the roaring tide of the Dao Annihilation calamity was faintly visible.
Not dwelling on the question, the two joined hands, fighting the disaster together.
...
"This is the fourth time I've asked you this question. Do you still choose not to answer, Daoist Fan?" It was the slender figure's voice again.
But the surrounding environment of the Mountain and Sea had undergone a drastic change.
The once bright and vibrant background was now dark and deathly still.
And the two who had once been companions, fighting side by side, now stood facing each other, swords drawn.
Faced with the slender figure's question, Li Fan maintained his silence.
"Hmph."
"If you won't answer..."
"Then die."
Billions of dazzling white lights erupted at once, momentarily banishing the darkness.
Each ray of light was like a sharp sword, brimming with killing intent.
All aimed at Li Fan.
...
"Daoist Fan, have we perhaps..."
"Met before?"
It was another familiar scene.
This time, the slender figure asked again.
However, its expression, compared to the scene countless cycles ago, seemed to have undergone a subtle change.
Li Fan still chose to respond with silence.
But the slender figure did not grow angry this time.
Instead, a thoughtful look appeared on its face.
"When the true is made false..."
"The false becomes true."
Even across billions of cycles, Li Fan could grasp every minute change.
He keenly sensed the slender figure's strange movement and, without the slightest hesitation, activated the True False Transformation, resetting the Mountain and Sea.
"The heroes of the Mountain and Sea are countless. How could they all be deceived...?"
A long, drawn-out sigh echoed.
...
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The massive waves from the violent collisions jolted Li Fan from his memories of the past.
With no time to ponder their meaning, Li Fan focused on the changes in the field.
The white, purple, and cyan lights, arriving later, had managed to intercept the first light that came from outside the ring.
With the four points of light gathered, Li Fan could finally distinguish between the two white lights.
The one hidden within the vortex of divine nourishment, the slender figure who seemed to be Li Fan's old acquaintance, was a starlike silver-white.
The one that came from the outside, the light that had brushed past Li Fan earlier, was a deathly pale.
Though they appeared similar, the paths they represented were completely different.
As for the purple and cyan colors...
Before Li Fan could even think, the situation changed again.
The pale light, the instigator that had shattered the tranquility, was blocked by the other three.
After a momentary pause, it reversed direction.
Its form retreated violently, a streak of white tearing through the vortex once more. It had come, and now it was leaving!
"Did it retreat knowing the difficulty, or is it...?"
What truly horrified Li Fan was that it wasn't just the pale light.
The other three lights, after a brief pause, also scattered in different directions as if by common accord.
They wanted to escape this massive vortex.
"Thump! Thump!"
Li Fan's heart began to pound violently for no reason.
The ring of light at the outermost edge of the vortex suddenly dimmed.
The turbulent vortex of nourishment, in that instant, fell into absolute stillness.
And then...
The one at the center, the god's corpse that Li Fan had thought dead, suddenly opened its eyes.
The four lights of brilliance entered the god's line of sight.
The towering divine body vanished from Li Fan's field of observation.
The next to disappear was the cyan point of light that had been closest to the divine shadow.
It vanished without a sound, without so much as a ripple.
Seeing this, the remaining two white lights and one purple light increased their speed severalfold.
The pale light had already collided with the outer edge of the vortex.
However...
Coming was easy, but leaving was hard.
That dim white circle was no longer as easily pierced as before.
Under the violent impact, the pale point of light shrank in an instant.
But it still managed to punch a crack in the barrier.
After flickering a few times, the pale point of light successfully escaped.
The other silver-white point, representing the slender figure, followed in the pale light's footsteps and managed to flee before the encirclement closed.
As for the purple light, it was not so lucky.
Like a mosquito, it was effortlessly crushed by an invisible hand.
The purple point of light was abruptly erased.
After easily dispatching the two hidden bugs, the god did not reveal itself.
Nor did it choose to pursue the two white points.
The vortex of nourishment remained in a state of stillness.
The ring of light at the outer edge flickered, now bright, now dim.
It was as if the god's gaze was sweeping ceaselessly through the vortex.
As if it was searching for something.
Li Fan didn't dare to breathe, desperately maintaining his Fantasy Becomes Truth state.
He now understood completely.
There was no dead god!
It had all been a trap laid by this newly ascended deity.
Crude, yet devastatingly effective.
After all, no one had ever seen what happened after successfully seizing the creation of a god.
When faced with a defenseless divine corpse and an endless supply of refined nourishment, even the surviving Saints could not resist such a temptation.
They had come to this place precisely to vie for a piece of divinity.
Even if some might have suspected it was a trap, the moment other Saints made their move, the rest were bound to be unable to hold back.
In the act of seizing a god, a single step of cowardice meant handing over creation to another!
Even knowing it was a trap, they had to fight with all their might.
It was a trap, but it was also a transparent ploy that worked regardless.
"It has already ascended to godhood, capable of crushing other Saints as easily as ants. Yet it still resorts to such insidious tricks."
"Who is it?"
The new god's scans grew more frequent.
It seemed certain that there were still bugs hiding within the vortex.
It persisted, repeating the search again and again.
Li Fan's sense of unease grew stronger and stronger, as if he would be discovered in the next moment.
But he didn't dare to rashly activate Return to Truth.
Under the new god's gaze, his thoughts would likely go blank in an instant, leaving him no time to even activate it.
"Daoist Fan, act as the situation demands."
"Let me... go and meet this so-called god."
Shou Qiu's voice echoed slowly.
Then, a towering figure leaped into the divine vortex.
Wherever he stepped, the radiance parted for him.
Shou Qiu parted the sea of light, revealing his original form.
His hair and beard floated about him as he stood in opposition to the new god.
"After attaining godhood, you've become completely unrecognizable?"
"There's a familiar aura about you. But I can no longer tell who you are."
Shou Qiu's voice thundered, seemingly spoken for Li Fan's benefit.
The new god remained unmoved.
The turbulent vortex dimmed once more.
It was as if, in the next moment, Shou Qiu would be crushed to death.
But...
"When the true is made false..."
"The false becomes true."
Shou Qiu chanted slowly, his long robes stirring without a wind.
His figure suddenly became ethereal and indistinct. Vaguely, a pair of giant hands flashed past where he stood, grasping at empty air.
"I once sat upon the mountain to watch the sea..."
"Now, the Mountain and Sea are no more."
"So I shall stand and extinguish this god!"
As if buffeted by a gale, Shou Qiu's clothes billowed endlessly.
He exhausted his understanding of the True False Transformation, facing the unseen new god beyond the void.
He pointed a single, gentle finger.
A ripple spread softly through the vortex of nourishment.
It felt as if something had changed.
And yet, it seemed as if nothing had changed at all.
"Return to Truth!" Seizing this perfect opportunity, Li Fan roared in his mind.
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