Chapter 1749: All Measures Exhausted
It was just like the Mountain and Sea.
Though it had barely survived the first wave of the Dao Annihilation, the Dao One Worm was now utterly enfeebled, unable to withstand any further erosion.
Fortunately, Li Fan was the master of the Dao Annihilation. With a flicker of his will, he reined in the seething tide, granting the near-dead worm a moment to breathe.
Nourished by Li Fan’s power, the Dao One Worm soon began to multiply and flourish once more.
And so, the Dao Annihilation came again.
After a round of evolution, the swarm of Dao One Worms did indeed show a sliver more resilience against an assault of the same magnitude.
“But at this rate of growth...”
Li Fan’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Besides, I can’t be certain if this slight increase is due to the worms themselves growing stronger or simply a random fluke.”
Within the void realm, the Dao Annihilation tide churned and surged, splitting the swarm into a million identical segments.
Then, it launched a simultaneous assault on all million swarms.
Under Li Fan’s meticulous control, the power of each assault was calibrated perfectly—just enough to nearly wipe out the swarm in a single wave, but not so much as to annihilate it completely.
Like a wave crashing over the shore, the once-thriving swarms were reduced to scattered, lonely specks in an instant.
“Some survived better than before, others worse. It was indeed a matter of chance, not a sign that the Dao One Worms had genuinely grown stronger in just a few cycles,” Li Fan noted with a slight shake of his head.
This was only to be expected.
The Dao One Worm, even after fusing with Ink Death, had not reached a level of transcendent power. How could it possibly resist the Dao Annihilation, a force capable of extinguishing Saints?
“However...”
“In my hands, even decay can be turned into divinity.”
“Here in the Mountain and Sea, I can elevate mortals to Sainthood. In this void, I can just as easily transform a mere worm into a dragon!”
Li Fan plucked a tiny Dao One Worm from the void. His will became a blade, carving and reshaping its body.
As the patterns on its back grew more intricate and complete, the worm began to exude a peculiar aura.
It was as if it emanated a strange, irresistible allure, causing the nearby Dao Annihilation tide to stir, eager to pounce once more.
Li Fan forcibly suppressed the restless tide.
He gazed upon his masterpiece.
On the worm's back, a multitude of lines rose and fell.
They pulsed with an infinite Dao rhythm, like a miniature rendering of the Mountain and Sea.
Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to say that these lines were copied directly from the petrified Mountain and Sea he had witnessed in his previous life.
“Compared to the true stone slab of the Mountain and Sea, it’s still somewhat lacking.”
Unsatisfied, Li Fan simply crushed the creation between his fingers.
He began to carve anew.
“What I saw in my last life was but a fragment of the Mountain and Sea. The true, complete form is all recorded within the `Mountain and Sea Variation Outline`. With that as my guide...”
In the past, Li Fan had become a Mountain and Sea Saint using nothing more than its shadow.
Theoretically, if he could inscribe the entire panorama of the Mountain and Sea onto a single Dao One Worm, he might create the first Saint-level Dao One Worm in existence.
But after several attempts, he decisively abandoned the idea.
“A single Dao One Worm is far too weak. It cannot bear the boundless weight of the Mountain and Sea. Even a swarm of millions, or tens of millions, is not enough. I need more.”
As the thought crossed his mind, the Dao One swarms began to multiply with frenzied speed.
Li Fan even commanded his subordinate Dao Annihilation to plunder the Mountain and Sea, feeding the possibilities to the worms as nourishment.
After devouring several timelines of the Mountain and Sea, the scale of the Dao One swarm finally reached a barely usable size.
“Billions upon billions... this is the limit.”
He was not referring to the limit of the swarm’s reproduction.
Rather, it was the maximum number of carvings he could simultaneously perform with exquisite detail, creating his Mountain and Sea masterpiece.
Li Fan’s divine sense enveloped the billions of Dao One Worms. It was as if he had grown an equal number of arms, each one meticulously carving a unique pattern upon a worm’s back.
The design on each worm was different, each a distinct corner of the Mountain and Sea.
But when they assembled...
They formed a magnificent and nearly complete map of the Mountain and Sea.
Reproducing the entire landscape, even with the `Mountain and Sea Variation Outline` as a comprehensive guide—a task that was essentially just tracing—was still an incredibly draining endeavor for the mind and spirit.
With each passing moment, a few more strands of Li Fan’s dark hair turned to silver.
Once his head was entirely white, the marks of age began their relentless assault on his skin.
The carving continued without pause, and Li Fan’s physical form grew ever more decrepit.
“Without having achieved Sainthood, my resistance to external decay is ultimately weaker.”
But Li Fan paid it little mind, remaining wholly focused on the engraving of the Mountain and Sea panorama.
An unknown amount of time passed.
Suddenly, the Mountain and Sea before him blazed with a brilliant light.
It sent ripples through the void, causing the Dao Annihilation protecting Li Fan to shudder violently, threatening to disperse.
“Hmm? They managed to reconnect the Mountain and Sea without me?”
Li Fan was somewhat surprised.
But then he glanced at the nearly completed `Dao One Mountain Sea Map` in his hands and felt a sense of clarity.
“It took them this long just to reconnect one fragment. To truly save the Mountain and Sea from the Dao Annihilation... who knows how many ages that would take.”
Ignoring the Saints of the Mountain and Sea, who were invigorated by their success, Li Fan let out a weak cough and refocused his concentration on his own work.
By the time the Mountain and Sea flashed brightly once more, signaling that Shou Qiu and the other Saints had completed another reconnection, Li Fan was only a single stroke away from finishing his `Dao One Mountain Sea Map`.
Yet it was precisely this final stroke that he found himself utterly unable to make, no matter how he tried.
At that very moment, Li Fan had reached the end of his life.
“A lifetime of painstaking work, yet I couldn't see it to completion.”
He looked at the new swarm before him, heavily encircled by the Dao Annihilation.
Billions upon billions of Dao One Worms gathered, their backs bearing the sprawling landscape of the Mountain and Sea.
Though called a swarm, it was now, in essence, a shadow of the Mountain and Sea.
The aura it emanated was so akin to the Mountain and Sea itself that the surrounding Dao Annihilation frequently lost control, defying Li Fan’s command to launch sporadic attacks.
Compared to their initial feeble state, they were now a world apart.
Their majestic form had taken shape; minor squalls could no longer harm them.
But they were still a step away from the ideal state Li Fan envisioned.
Before he could apply that final, animating stroke, he reached the end of his lifespan in this world.
Without forcing the issue, he silently invoked, “Return to True!”
...
Another simulation anchored one year in.
This time, Li Fan chose to directly inherit the unfinished `Dao One Mountain Sea Map` from his previous life.
With a flicker of thought, the exquisitely carved masterpiece appeared before him.
“The last ten percent of a journey is as long as the first ninety. This final step is still not easy to take,” Li Fan mused, sitting in contemplation for a century, repeatedly comparing his work to the `Mountain and Sea Variation Outline`.
In the end, he still couldn't find the perfect moment to make the final stroke.
“I still need to learn from the Mountain and Sea itself!”
Li Fan put away the `Dao One Mountain Sea Map` and rose to begin his cultivation.
In just over two hundred years, he once again reached the realm of a Cycle Return Saint.
“Even without the Star’s blessing, my cultivation is still a bit too fast,” he thought to himself.
At the arrival of a new Saint, the other Saints of the Mountain and Sea cast their gazes toward him.
Li Fan, however, paid them no heed, leaping directly into the void realm.
His abrupt action left them in a state of bewilderment.
Li Fan moved so quickly that even the Three Saints couldn't intervene in time to stop him.
They could only watch as he vanished into the void, his destination unknown.
“That was... the Dao of Cycle Return. Though its path is extraordinary, venturing alone into the vast void is likely a death sentence.”
“What was the meaning of that? It was as if he couldn't get away from us fast enough.”
“A pity, truly a pity. With the aid of another Saint, our hopes of reconnecting the Mountain and Sea would have been much greater.”
The Saints murmured amongst themselves.
Finally, the Three Saints delivered their verdict: “Everyone has their own path. There is no need to force it. Let him go.”
The Saints were unaware that for Li Fan, traversing the Dao Annihilation was not so much a risk as it was... effortless.
Compared to being surrounded and devoured by the tide, the greater obstacle was the lack of direction, the inability to distinguish past from future.
In the past, the Three Saints had served as his guiding lights; he only needed to travel toward a set destination.
Now, traveling alone with no one to guide him, Li Fan had to find his own way.
The Three Saints existed alongside the Mountain and Sea through all its ages, which was why they could always navigate the void with clarity.
But Li Fan was just Li Fan.
His journey forward was not so smooth.
Fortunately, he had the experience of reconnecting and repairing the fragments from several previous lives.
This dark path was one he had, after all, walked step by step.
In the depths of his memory, there was a faint sense of familiarity.
After a perilous but ultimately successful journey, he finally arrived at his destination.
It was the section of the Mountain and Sea just before it was ensnared by Snare!
“When the true becomes false, the false becomes true!”
With a single thought, the Dao of Truth and Falsehood enveloped him, and his form dissolved into nothingness.
In an instant, he bypassed the intricate web of consumption woven by Snare and entered the Mountain and Sea within.
The scene inside was unlike any ordinary part of the Mountain and Sea.
It bore a striking resemblance to the time when the Xuanhuang Realm was covered by the Dao Net.
Across the sky, a faint lattice of intersecting lines was visible.
There were numerous gaps in the web, as if chunks of reality had been devoured whole, revealing a strange, churning blackness.
The entire world was saturated with Snare’s devouring thirst, twisting the nature of its creatures and the very fabric of heaven and earth.
“All things strive against each other, and heaven strives against man. In the end, it only serves to feed the insatiable appetite of Snare.”
“That is, if there is no outside intervention.”
Li Fan let out a cold snort.
“Dao Annihilation...”
“Return to me!”
His gaze pierced through the Mountain and Sea, past the dense layers of Snare's web, and reached deep into the void.
Drawing upon the profound familiarity gained from his immersion in the starlight of his previous life, Li Fan now used himself as a lure, drawing a massive tide of Dao Annihilation from the void to this very spot!
At this point in time, the Mountain and Sea was already a focal point for the void, a place where the power of Dao Annihilation was abnormally concentrated.
When it suddenly discovered a breach to exploit, it naturally swarmed forward.
A colossal tide of Dao Annihilation materialized abruptly within the Mountain and Sea!
Snare was utterly stunned, unable to comprehend how the void had broken through its blockade to steal the food from its mouth.
But Li Fan's goal was far from accomplished.
“To have come all this way, I can't be satisfied with such a minor disturbance.”
“The Veins of Life.”
Li Fan’s eyes narrowed. He reached out and snatched tens of thousands of living beings directly from the Mountain and Sea.
These were not creatures born of nature, but those created through Qiu Tianhui's Dao of Living Beings.
With a gentle squeeze, the creatures in his hand disintegrated into points of light.
Li Fan infused them into the hidden Veins of Life within the Mountain and Sea.
Half flowed toward the past, half toward the future.
In his last life, the Saints of the Mountain and Sea had only sought to stimulate the world's instinct for self-preservation, so the scale of the Dao Annihilation they guided was limited.
But in this life, Li Fan acted with reckless abandon.
Guided by the light of tens of thousands of beings, the veins became clearly visible.
The grand army of Dao Annihilation charged straight in!
The Mountain and Sea grew dim, instantly plunged into a precarious storm.
Even Snare was shaken by the development.
With its power, Snare could certainly survive within the Dao Annihilation, but it could not protect the Mountain and Sea.
Besides, it had risked the perilous journey here precisely for the Dao of Living Beings.
And now, the Veins of Life had somehow been detected by the void and were being used as a channel for invasion...
Snare was overcome with frustration.
The situation in the Mountain and Sea was already utterly chaotic. After a thorough search, it could not find the cause of the incursion.
It had no choice but to flee.
All its hard work had been for nothing. Worse, the journey across the void had taken a heavy toll.
It was a classic case of trying to steal a chicken only to lose the rice for bait.
Hiding in the shadows, Li Fan watched as Snare gradually faded away. His gaze turned cold as he made a grasping motion in the air.
“Who?!”
Feeling an icy presence moving over it and siphoning away a sliver of its essence, Snare was both shocked and enraged.
But after a moment's hesitation, it decided to accelerate its escape.
“This anomaly is clearly aimed at me.”
“I was so cautious in my concealment, how was I still detected?”
“Which old friend could it be?”
Snare felt the void where a piece of its being had been torn away, its heart seething with resentment.
But the situation was unclear, and a trap had clearly been sprung for it.
If it lingered any longer, it might truly perish here.
Though a thousand regrets churned within it, Snare retreated to the Beginning of the Mountain and Sea.
“What a pity.”
Li Fan secretly savored the taste of Snare’s Dao of devouring mountains and swallowing seas, watching as a line of characters in the `Return to True` interface grew clearer. He felt he hadn't had enough.
At his current level of strength, he was not yet able to confront Snare head-on. He could only use this method to shear off a bit of wool.
“If I shear enough times, I might just become the true master of its flock!”
With Snare’s net gone, all that remained was the confrontation between the void and the Mountain and Sea.
And with Li Fan acting as a guide from within, the external defenses of the Mountain and Sea, and even the brilliant Armillary Ring deployed by the Saints, were all rendered useless.
The flood of Dao Annihilation surged, pouring unimpeded through the Veins of Life.
What was once the wellspring of life for the Mountain and Sea had now become a conduit for a fatal poison.
This was hundreds of times more efficient than a slow erosion from the outside.
A moment later, while the present section of the Mountain and Sea remained intact, three isolated fragments before it and three behind it were already drowning in the furious tide of Dao Annihilation.
It was clear that if this onslaught continued, the Mountain and Sea faced the danger of instantaneous collapse.
The Saints’ faces paled. The situation had deteriorated so badly that it was beyond their power to control.
The Three Saints exchanged a glance, seemingly steeling themselves for a momentous decision.
Just then, the imperiled Mountain and Sea itself began to roar.
A vast and mighty power erupted from its very core.
For a brief moment, it managed to push back the encroaching flood of Dao Annihilation.
But it was nowhere near as easy as it had been in the previous life.
The Dao Annihilation had already gained an initial advantage. Though blocked by the great power of the Mountain and Sea, it remained deeply entrenched within the Veins of Life.
Like a strategic high ground in war, neither side would yield.
For a time, they were locked in a stalemate.
The Saints did everything in their power to prevent the situation from worsening.
Li Fan, meanwhile, remained hidden in the shadows. “Just as I expected. Until that final moment, even on the verge of total collapse, the Mountain and Sea will not choose to petrify itself as a last resort.”
“I hope my luck is good in this life, and I get to witness the birth of a new god.”
Unfortunately, things did not go as he wished.
Li Fan waited for a long time, but the expected variable never appeared.
This time, the struggle for a new consciousness at the Beginning of the Mountain and Sea was not quickly resolved.
“Could it be... that I didn’t shear hard enough?” Li Fan wondered, rubbing his chin.
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