Chapter 1757: Unraveling the Mystery of the Mountain and Sea
The starlight diffused.
An aura of proud dominion over the world began to manifest as the True God Finger shifted from illusion to reality, reappearing in the mortal realm!
To the starlight, it seemed the allure of the severed finger far surpassed that of Li Fan.
As far as the eye could see, every glimmer of light converged upon the True God Finger.
Even the motes of light that had taken over most of his body abandoned him without a hint of reluctance.
As he gradually regained control of his body, Li Fan felt as if he hadn't fully adapted. He felt utterly disconnected from his physical shell, every part of him stiff and unyielding.
"To be steeped in starlight for a mere moment," he thought, "feels like an eternity away from the mortal world."
The profound physical discomfort seemed to have corroded his thoughts, making them feel slow and rusted.
Yet, spurred by his survival instinct, he had not forgotten the peril of his current situation.
It was like being caught in a tempest, only to have a raincoat suddenly draped over his shoulders. His body and mind settled into a state of profound tranquility and stability.
The corrosive sensation vanished, and Li Fan's thoughts and abilities returned to their normal state.
He observed the strange transformation ahead.
There should only be one True God Finger in existence.
Thus, when the starlight illuminated the world and the True God Finger manifested, the Mountain Sea No-Boundary Stele, which had served as the foundation of the Mountain and Sea, plunged into turmoil. With its cornerstone gone, only the Dao imprints left by the Saints remained. It could no longer sustain the destiny of a "Mountain and Sea Without Boundary."
The imprints of the Great Dao snapped like fragile twigs, breaking inch by inch.
In that instant, the fused Mountain and Sea began to show signs of separating!
Within the Armillary Ring, reeling from the severe side effects of using the [As One Wishes], the Three Saints kept their eyes shut, focusing their efforts on suppressing the artifact once more.
"Hmm?"
Just then, the Connecting Mountains Saint was the first to perceive the disturbance in the Mountain and Sea.
Lian Shan, the Connecting Mountains Saint, embodied all civilizations and beings that had ever attempted to bridge mountains and traverse seas. The very foundation of his power and Dao was built upon the fusion of the Mountain and Sea.
Thus, as the Mountain and Sea began to separate, He was naturally the one most affected.
The Upper Mountain, once within reach, seemed to ascend without reason, distancing itself from the mortal world and all its inhabitants.
Even as the bridge He embodied stretched with all its might, trying to mend the growing fissure, the rate at which the Mountain and Sea pulled apart far outpaced his ability to repair it.
Thrum... thrum... thrum...
Once the chasm surpassed a certain threshold, a faint sound of shattering echoed from between the Mountain and the Sea.
It resonated and echoed.
Mortal beings remained oblivious.
But every being who had achieved the rank of True Immortal felt it in their very soul—a premonition of imminent catastrophe that etched terror onto their faces.
Immortals stood upon the Upper Mountain, their existence a bridge to the Infinite Sea.
From this elevated vantage point, they wielded boundless divine powers.
But now, the very bridge connecting them to the Upper Mountain had collapsed with a thunderous roar.
The multitudes of immortals upon that bridge could not escape their fate and plunged down with its ruins.
Their auras, the very markers of their cultivation realms, plummeted at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Saints, Transcendent cultivators, Nameless Immortals, True Immortals.
Regardless of their realm, their power, or the desperation of their struggles, none could escape.
They all fell, reduced to the state of mortals.
And as mere mortals, how could they possibly wield the infinite?
Those caught within the zones of Dao Annihilation, unable to protect themselves, perished in an instant.
Those who had taken refuge within the Mountain and Sea suffered a backlash from the magnificent power of the Infinite Sea, their forms dissolving to become part of the boundless ocean.
With the disappearance of the Mountain Sea No-Boundary Stele, ninety-nine percent of all cultivators at or above the True Immortal realm were annihilated in a single moment. The few lucky survivors still struggled, but their doom was sealed.
Because...
The Mountain and Sea had awakened!
Without the True God Finger, the Mountain and Sea separated, reverting to its primordial, god-devouring form. The countless cultivators who had fallen were absorbed as nutrients, flowing back into the world's essence. The once-dying Mountain and Sea, as if having swallowed a potent restorative elixir, instantly regained a measure of its lifeblood.
While not restored to its peak, it had at least regained the strength for one final, desperate struggle.
More critically, the will of the Mountain and Sea, which had been distorted and rewritten by the True God Finger, had now returned to its natural state.
The mountains stretched endlessly, standing majestic and proud.
The boundless ocean mirrored the cosmos.
Two wills, the true representations of the Mountain and the Sea, descended upon the world.
When fused, their wills were intertwined, a chaotic and indistinct consciousness driven only by a vague instinct.
But now, separated, the Mountain was purely Mountain, and the Sea was purely Sea.
Freed from each other, each individual will flourished with incomparable vigor.
At this point, the fates of the Three Saints diverged.
Although the Three Saints had also been affected, their realms falling to that of mortals, they had survived for various reasons.
As if sensing what was to come, the Connecting Mountains Saint looked at the other two and sighed deeply. "All good things must come to an end..."
Before the words had faded, the Connecting Mountains Saint—not just one of his avatars, but every single one of his manifestations across the world—dissolved into streams of light and returned to the Upper Mountain.
The Returning to Sea Saint responded with a soft sigh of his own.
Countless points of blue light floated up, merging into the endless possibilities of the Infinite Sea.
Finally, there was Saint Tai Yi.
His countless manifestations vanished as if evaporated. Saint Tai Yi, along with the Dao of infinite evolution that he embodied, returned to the Mountain and Sea!
The Mountain and Sea had once given birth to countless Daos and endless life.
But now, all were being reclaimed.
Everything was returning to its most primordial state!
Just as it was in the beginning, when they first devoured the True God.
...
The cataclysm unfolding within the Mountain and Sea was already world-shaking.
Yet it paled in comparison to the transformation taking place in the void, where the starlight clashed with the True God Finger.
It was as if a key had been found to unlock a long-sealed prison.
With the True God Finger as its epicenter, an endless expanse of starlight instantly unfurled.
Compared to the solitary Star Li Fan had once witnessed descending upon the world, this star-filled radiance seemed somewhat gentler.
At the very least, the void was able to endure its illumination.
At the very least, Li Fan could still just barely maintain his state of True False Transformation and continue to observe.
As the endless starlight first bloomed, for a fleeting instant, he thought he could faintly discern a blurry figure hidden behind the light.
But in the next moment, the radiance swelled by a millionfold, completely obscuring his vision.
"Was that just an illusion?"
Li Fan wondered, filled with doubt.
Soon enough, however, he had no time to dwell on the question.
The starlight continued its endless spread from the depths of the void.
As the central node for the Star's descent, the True God Finger seemed to sense the ever-increasing brilliance surrounding it and began to transform once more.
The change was not in the finger itself, but in its "posture."
It was a profound mystery: though merely a severed digit, it was capable of forming various gestures.
Each gesture represented a different divine ability, a different effect.
The one Li Fan had witnessed previously, the gesture for [Mountain and Sea Without Boundary], had twisted the will of the Mountain and Sea, forcing them to fuse.
But now, the finger shifted, its gesture aimed at the sea of stars.
In a single instant, the brilliant starlight seemed to lose all color, fading from dazzling radiance to a dim monochrome.
The entire void dimmed as a result.
No longer brilliant, the starlight was like a weapon that had lost its edge, its threat diminished by more than half.
Gazing up, Li Fan had the distinct feeling that he could now withstand its influence even without the protection of the True False Transformation.
He did not, however, rashly test this theory. The unfolding events were far too unexpected.
"What is happening? Why is the True God Finger turning against the starlight?"
"The Star, the True God Finger... aren't they both contingencies left behind by the True God? Didn't the Star descend to force the fusion of the Mountain and Sea?"
The events unfolding before him completely contradicted his assumptions.
And as doubt bloomed in his mind, he felt he was on the verge of touching the truth about the True God, the Mountain and Sea, and the Star.
"If their identities and motives deviate from their actual actions, then I must re-evaluate everything."
"Among the three, the Mountain and Sea are the perpetrators who devoured the God, but they are also victims."
"The True God Finger..."
"It carries a faint, ancient aura. With a single gesture, it rewrote the will of the Mountain and Sea, forcing their fusion. With another, it dispersed the boundless starlight and re-imprisoned the solitary Star. Such power, such a divine ability... only the True God could possess it."
Li Fan confirmed this point first.
"And finally, the Star."
What, exactly, *is* the Star?
At the end of every cycle, the solitary Star descends and swallows everything.
It seemed obvious that the Star was the True God's contingency, a way to bring about annihilation and achieve rebirth after being devoured.
When the solitary Star descended, the Mountain and Sea would be annihilated, and the void would cease to be.
And a new God would be reborn.
This was what Li Fan had always believed.
But was that truly the case?
The scene before him—the True God Finger turning to seal the starlight—shattered that assumption.
"The Star is not the True God?"
"Then the Star..."
There were no other known options for what it could be.
If the Star was not the God, then...
The Star was the Mountain and Sea.
"The Star is the Mountain and Sea? The Star *is* the Mountain and Sea!"
The moment this thought erupted in his mind, Li Fan's entire being shuddered violently. The shock of this revelation was so great that he nearly lost his grip on the True False Transformation protecting him, almost revealing his presence in the midst of the contest between the True God Finger and the starlight.
"How could this be? How is this possible?"
Li Fan forced himself to remain calm.
But a premonition had already taken root in his heart, allowing him to know the conclusion of his deduction before he had even consciously worked through it.
In his mind, the boundless memories of his past self could no longer be contained, bursting forth like a collapsing dam.
They surged out with explosive force.
Countless figures and past scenes flickered before him, all of them fuel for a fiercely burning pyre.
Finally, they converged into a single, overwhelming wave of irrepressible bitterness.
And endless rage born from despair.
These were the final emotions of the past Li Fan, just before he made his decision.
They were the very reason the current Li Fan existed.
"So that's how it was." Li Fan's expression grew incredibly strange.
As he watched the contest unfold, his cold, detached nature acted like an anchor, allowing him to methodically sort through the torrent of bitterness and rage.
What his past self had been utterly unable to accept, the current Li Fan now saw...
...as nothing more than that.
"It's just," he mused, "that I feel it wasn't worth it for you."
Li Fan scoffed lightly.
Empowered by the memories of his past, everything fell into place.
All doubt vanished from his mind.
"If the Star is not the Star, then the Star is the Mountain and Sea."
"The Mountain and Sea devouring itself seems absurd. But when you consider the fixed destiny of their fusion, and the predetermined function and actions of the True God Finger..."
"...then it all makes sense."
"Let's go back to the time when the True God fell, and the Mountain and Sea devoured it."
A strange vision flooded Li Fan's mind.
In the darkness, two formless, monstrous beings were silently gnawing on something.
Greedily, joyfully.
The True God vanished, and two new gods were on the verge of being born.
But...
Suddenly, a feeling of dread began to spread through the hearts of the Mountain and Sea.
After consuming a portion of the True God's body, They gradually inherited some of Its abilities.
As a result, They could, to some extent, foresee the future.
They saw that the True God, even in death, had not completely vanished.
It was as if Its single eye was still watching Them with cold indifference.
As long as the Mountain and Sea existed, the True God Finger would manifest.
The Mountain and Sea would be forced to fuse, and ultimately, everything would return to nothingness.
Leaving behind only pure energy.
Upon this boundless cradle, upon the corpses of the Mountain and the Sea...
...the True God would be reborn.
The True God would return.
Suddenly, the remnants of the True God's corpse no longer seemed so appetizing.
As newly born gods, the Mountain and Sea had no desire to share the fate of the meal They had just consumed.
Having foreseen Their own destruction, the Mountain and Sea deduced countless possible futures.
But in every single one, there was no scenario where They survived.
The True God's final act before Its fall had annihilated any possibility of Them turning the tables.
The Mountain and Sea had no chance of victory.
They had just been born, only to be set upon a path to certain destruction.
How could these two nascent deities possibly accept such a fate?
Even an ant clings to life.
Let alone a god.
After They had completely devoured the True God's body, an unknown amount of time passed.
After countless eons of joint effort, the Mountain and Sea finally deduced the only possible way to turn defeat into victory.
"Since the Mountain and Sea must perish, then..."
"...let the Mountain and Sea perish."
"'Bury ourselves completely, and then, before the True God can revive, be reborn.'"
"Is this your method of survival?"
Li Fan's gaze seemed to pierce through the dark void, reaching the wills that lay beyond.
Once again, the image of the solitary Star descending and swallowing everything replayed in his mind.
"The condition for the True God Finger's existence and activation is the existence of the Mountain and Sea."
"As the Dao Annihilation from the void encroaches, the Mountain and Sea will cease to be. Then the True God Finger will also return to nothingness, dissipating without a trace."
"Once their only feared opponent has vanished, the Star—the reborn Mountain and Sea—will eagerly descend."
"Tolerating no other existence, only I shall remain."
"I alone shall remain, I alone shall live, I alone shall be victorious."
"So the Dao Annihilation of the void was merely a tool for the Mountain and Sea to bring about their own demise."
"So all of this was nothing but a meticulously crafted play."
"All the beings of the Mountain and Sea—Lian Shan, Gui Hai, Tai Yi, Shou Qiu, the Moral True Immortal—they were all just actors in this drama."
"As long as they followed the script and completed their designated performance, it would be a happy ending for everyone."
"The True God would be utterly destroyed, and the new gods would be safe."
"The grand play would end, and the new gods would ascend."
"Perfect."
"But then..."
Li Fan sighed deeply.
Not for any other reason, but for the [Li Fan] of the past.
"Into this fine play, an uninvited guest appeared—someone who should never have existed."
"The self-destruction of the Mountain and Sea was, in his eyes, a terrifying catastrophe. He saw the suffering of all living things and sought to save them from their plight."
"If once was not enough, he would try a hundred times. If a hundred times failed, he would try a thousand, ten thousand times."
"Countless times."
"Finally, finally, finally..."
"...he turned the impossible into the possible. He shattered the script written by the [Mountain and Sea]."
"The 'Mountain and Sea' finally won. But..."
"How could the play continue?"
It was just as the [Mountain and Sea] had foreseen.
If the Mountain and Sea existed, the True God Finger would not perish.
There was no void, no Dao Annihilation.
The Mountain and Sea fused, but did not disappear.
And so, the [Mountain and Sea] were enraged.
Towards Li Fan, the meddler, They finally bared Their fangs.
For the [Mountain and Sea], countless cycles were but a fleeting moment. They did not care.
But Li Fan had shattered the script They had written.
And so, Li Fan had to die.
And so...
...the starlight flooded the world, the Saints turned their blades against him, and the entire Mountain and Sea saw him as an existential threat.
Only now did Li Fan truly understand the reason for that single teardrop he had shed.
It was not despair.
It was utter disillusionment.
He stopped resisting, allowing the very things he had once protected to pierce his body.
But fortunately, at the final moment, he changed his mind.
And thus, the Li Fan of today was born.
...
Having understood the past, Li Fan felt little anger.
The actions of the Mountain and Sea were understandable.
If he were in their position, he would have done the same.
However...
"What you can do, I can do as well."
Li Fan stared ahead with absolute calm.
At the Mountain and Sea, the void, and the Star.
Then another thought suddenly occurred to him.
Even the Mountain and Sea, after devouring the True God's corpse, could foresee their own demise.
So, when the fallen True God created the True God Finger, could It truly not have foreseen the Mountain and Sea's strategy of feigning death to escape?
"Unless..."
"...an outsider to the play arrived, to foil the plan of the Mountain and Sea."
"So that is the reason I am here."
A scene from long, long ago suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.
It was his life before he transmigrated.
Parents, a son, a daughter—a complete family.
"Fuck you!"
"All of you can just die!"
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