Revert to the True Stands upon the Sea of Infinity

In Li Buren's mind, the projection of the Dao Net seemed to grow ever clearer. Gulping it down in such a short time had not caused any indigestion. The insights from a fallen True Immortal, coupled with the immense endurance of Li Buren's unique physique, allowed him to absorb the True Immortal's comprehension found here almost entirely without harm. "Only these transparent sculptures stand in this space. Moreover, at its boundaries, the concept of 'forward' no longer exists. There is no path ahead, just like the Great Wall of the Star Sea." Li Buren followed the same method, blasting the remaining transparent statues to pieces one by one, swallowing them completely into his belly. Only then did he prepare to break out of the constraints of this space. Before crossing over and departing, Li Buren noticed that the eighteen statues had not truly vanished. Even though they appeared to have been completely eaten by him, the source of the True Immortal comprehension that generated them still lingered. "Given enough time, they should restore themselves to their original state. "Though that would take at least tens of thousands of years." The light vanished, and darkness once more shrouded his vision. When Li Buren could see again, he found himself inside a cubic space. Looking around—forward, backward, left, right, above, and below—all around were similar, small cubic spaces. They seemed within arm's reach, yet felt as distant as the ends of heaven. The vast majority of these cubic spaces were utterly silent and dead. The rest flickered erratically between light and dark, appearing exceedingly bizarre. Only a tiny few maintained a steady, faint glow. Gazing at everything before him, Li Buren fell into contemplation. "These cubic spaces share several similarities with the cages used to imprison True Immortals deep within the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net. "The reason they appear completely pitch-black when viewed from the outside..." Li Buren turned his gaze toward the areas with flickering light to compare. After a moment, he gave a slight nod. "All life has been extinguished; they are dead domains. There is no need for observation. "As for those regions fluctuating between light and dark..." He reached out, attempting to touch and feel them. After a long while, even with his self-awareness suppressed to an extreme minimum, Li Buren still frowned slightly. "The original observation system has been destroyed. It is displaying an erroneous state. And the culprit responsible for the observation failure..." "The Dao Annihilation Tribulation!" Li Buren withdrew his hand. Even though he had merely reached out across the boundary of the cubic space and touched it from afar, his finger appeared as if scorched by soot, taking on a grotesque, charred appearance. Where the blackness reigned, Dao principles were annihilated, and the Dao ceased to be the Dao. With a slight exertion of force, the blackened fingertip disintegrated into inch after inch of ash, drifting upward and vanishing into this space. "Merely drawing close to the Dao Annihilation Tribulation causes this Immortal Domain body to uncontrollably turn to flying ash. "..." "Yet that square boundary can act like an embankment, temporarily holding back the erosion of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation." Amidst his contemplation, his lopped-off finger regrew. Li Buren stared intently at the boundary of the cubic space, attempting to peer into its mysteries. However, he achieved little. He then turned his attention to the dozen or so areas in this space where faint light still shone. After observing for a while, Li Buren concluded, "Star seas with sparse vitality. Their circumstances are largely identical to the Pitch-Black Star Sea... "Some are even still ravaged by True Immortal seal characters left behind by He Ganxian." Li Buren carefully examined every single point of light. "None of them are the Pitch-Black Star Sea where the Xuanhuang Realm is located. They are all unfamiliar star seas..." Li Buren could not help but look down at his feet, at his own location. Or rather, at the small square compartment that was virtually identical to the thousands of spaces surrounding it. "I broke out of the Great Wall and shattered the eighteen True Immortal statues. Only then did I pierce through the Veil of the Dao and arrive here. "Yet what lies before my eyes is not seen from the perspective of a so-called 'observer.' I am still trapped inside a cage. "So the star sea where the Xuanhuang Realm resides is merely one among these thousands of cubic cages..." Looking at the countless squares around him that should have once shone with the light of vitality at the same time, Li Buren had a momentary lapse of focus. Yet his self-awareness was faint, after all. He quickly recovered from the mental shock and resumed his thoughts. "In other words, the Great Wall seals off more than just one starry sky. "Rather, all these star seas exist in parallel, side by side. Unable to see one another... Before Li Buren's eyes, a scene suddenly flashed: Qian Ruochang discovering another Immortal Ascension Platform among the ruins not far outside the Great Wall. "No wonder two sets of Immortal Ascension Platform ruins exist so close to each other. "It is because this starry sky has already been segmented and overlapped, entirely bound within the Great Wall! "Indeed, this is a method beyond mortal imagination. Even for me, destroying all these starry skies would take immense effort. Much less assembling them so exquisitely like blocks." Li Buren was not cowed by this scene worthy of a divine miracle; instead, he analyzed it with cold detachment. "Such a massive scale, using starry skies as a testing ground. "...Just what are they testing? "And how does one reach the true core area? "I am not the first to leap across the Great Wall. Before me, the Xuan Celestial Vessel, the Heavenly Sword Sect, and others have all successfully fled beyond the wall. How did they escape from this cage? "No traces left by them have been found. "Or did they never arrive in this space at all?" Li Buren looked down at his Immortal Domain body. "Perhaps it is precisely because of this unique body that I stepped into this area. Different people using different methods of crossing would arrive at different outcomes..." Even the Dao Annihilation Tribulation could be temporarily held at bay by them. The square boundaries of this testing ground were by no means something the current Li Buren could break. He did not stubbornly persist, choosing instead to turn back toward his point of origin. Back in the narrow space where the eighteen statues had stood. He began searching meticulously once more. "In the Xuanhuang Realm, when mortals contracted the immortal-mortal miasma, cultivators relocated them into pocket worlds and grotto-heavens, sealing them with the Immortal Severing Formation. The trials within the formation were impossible for mortals to overcome. And to ensure the subjects of this testing ground remain locked within, it must likewise demand feats they could never achieve. That guarantees only the directors of this experiment—or rather, the immortals—can reach the true core." Though his search yielded no direct results, Li Buren vaguely formed a conjecture. "What distinguishes immortals from mortals is, first, Momentum. Second, infinity. "With an Immortal Domain body, my Momentum inherently satisfies the requirement. That is why I could easily shatter the Veil of the Dao and behold the reality of the experiment. But lacking the property of infinity, I ultimately cannot enter the core area..." "The Sea of Infinity." Having grasped the crux of the matter, Li Buren wasted no time. He temporarily charged back out of the Great Wall. Arriving in the Xuanhuang Realm, he retrieved the Stone Slab of the Key of Dao left behind by King Xuantian, which had been replicated from the Immortal Realm's Immortal Ascension Platform. Then, in an instant, he returned. "A single stone slab alone is not enough. "Connecting to the Sea of Infinity requires meeting three conditions. "Immortal spiritual energy unique to a True Immortal. The Immortal Ascension Platform, the access route originating from the Immortal Realm. And the classified seal characters mastered by the immortal officer on duty. "The stone slab was replicated by King Xuantian from the Immortal Ascension Platform. "In the Shuo Star Sea, Qian Ruochang disguised himself as an immortal officer on duty to lure Immortal Wu. I have already mastered that True Immortal seal character. "Now, the only thing lacking is immortal spiritual energy. Ownerless immortal spiritual energy." ... As Li Buren's thoughts churned, Li Fan's true self in the Xuanhuang Realm was already prepared. "If Scholar Zhu had not been so generous before, this matter would likely have brought considerable trouble." Not far outside the Great Wall, where the World-Crossing Mysterious Coffin and the members of Immortal Hunt lay slumbering. Over the fingertip of Ma Tiande, who was likewise sound asleep, a patch of skin that did not belong to him suddenly overlaid his own. It lasted for only a brief instant before quickly vanishing without a trace. Yet a wisp of immortal spiritual energy traveled across space via the invisible Dao Net, arriving upon Li Buren. At the same time, the two immortals trapped within the mysterious coffin seemed to sense something. The long-dormant coffin emitted faint, obscure ripples. In the end, however, they faded away, and the two immortals made no further sound. Within the Great Wall, at the spot where the eighteen statues had originally stood. The emergence of immortal spiritual energy seemed to trigger something. The surrounding wall-like boundaries rippled like water. Whatever lay hidden behind them was about to reveal its true form. Yet perhaps because there was only a wisp of immortal spiritual energy rather than the personal presence of a True Immortal, the continuous string of ripples failed to pull it open completely. Li Buren knew he had to step forward himself. Without hesitation, he seized the fleeting moment while the immortal spiritual energy remained, writing swiftly on the Key of Dao stone slab. It was as though he were possessed by Qian Ruochang. Even the execution and duration of every single stroke were identical. Soon, using the immortal spiritual energy as ink, that mysterious symbol shone brightly upon the Key of Dao stone slab. Though there were no myriad rays of radiant light or appearances of auspicious beasts, an inexplicable force erupted violently from the stone slab. To say this force originated from the stone slab itself might be inaccurate, for the slab had merely opened a channel. A pathway leading to the Sea of Infinity. Caught completely off guard, his soul seemed sucked into a massive, raging vortex. Every droplet of spray around him appeared to hold an endless, dazzling starry sky. Countless scenes flashed before his eyes, as though billions upon trillions of years had elapsed in a single instant. Such a staggering volume of information, even when merely skimmed involuntarily, was still a catastrophic disaster for any living being immersed within it. Fortunately, what connected to the Sea of Infinity this time was an avatar puppet whose fluctuations of self-awareness were completely suppressed. Had Li Fan's true self fallen in recklessly and undergone the baptism of these droplets from the Sea of Infinity, the immense trauma inflicted upon his soul would have been difficult to mend in the short term, even with the advantage of Revert to the True. Qiao Sidao had been trapped in the Era device, undergoing hundreds of thousands of cycles of reincarnation. Yet everything he had experienced combined was not enough to form a single droplet in this Sea of Infinity. "My mind anchors to the Dao Net, so I can barely hold on. But I cannot last for long. "This is completely different from when I entered the Sea of Infinity draped in a True Immortal skin! "After all, this is only a single slab from an Immortal Ascension Platform, not the complete structure. Such turbulent waves are by no means something a newly ascended immortal could withstand. There must be missing protective components..." Scenes of Qian Ruochang previously using the Immortal Ascension Platform to confer immortality flashed before Li Buren's eyes. Tainted by the light, shadows, and data of the Sea of Infinity, the miniature Dao Net upon which Li Buren's spiritual sense relied was also stretched near its breaking point. As if struck by the Dao Annihilation Tribulation, the outer reaches of the Dao Net were submerged by the endless waves, ceasing to exist. The Dao Net gradually collapsed. The Sea of Infinity was about to engulf him. Yet Li Buren harbored no intention of retreating. He had been created for the sole purpose of uncovering the secrets within the Great Wall. And to probe those secrets, he had to first connect to the Sea of Infinity and achieve the body of a True Immortal. To attain this goal, life and death were completely beside the point. "This scene of the Sea of Infinity swallowing the Dao Net..." "How can it be so similar to the sudden arrival of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation, swallowing everything?" As Li Buren's consciousness grew increasingly blurred, a question abruptly arose in his mind. In a flash of inspiration, the power of the Mo Sha Immortal Soul from his true self belatedly arrived through the Dao Net, which had been reduced to a single faint point of light. Once the last remaining light of the Dao Net was enveloped by the power of the Mo Sha Immortal Soul, the towering waves of the Sea of Infinity abruptly subsided. It was as if they had lost their target. The vortex smoothed out, transforming into a boundless, endless ocean. Once again, Li Fan beheld the legendary Sea of Infinity. Only this time, he had not relied on a True Immortal skin. Using his avatar puppet, he had crossed the vortex in person to descend here! Across the boundless Sea of Infinity, it seemed that no new True Immortal had visited for a very long time. It was terrifyingly calm. Only occasionally would whirlpools form on the sea surface without cause, stirring up faint sprays of water. Li Buren—or rather, Li Fan—vaguely saw countless lights and shadows in the droplets thrown up by those splashes. That was an accumulation of years far more vast than the billions upon trillions of years he had just experienced in the vortex. And those were merely a few insignificant droplets from the ocean. Li Fan looked out in all directions. The Sea of Infinity stretched without end. He truly could not imagine how much history and how many living beings were gathered here. Words could not capture even a ten-thousandth of its magnificence. Drifting within it, Li Fan was lost in a daze. Individuals, True Immortals, the Nameless, and even powerhouses who crossed possibilities... Before such a creation, they all seemed to lose the very meaning of their existence. Time appeared to freeze, and thought seemed entirely locked in ice. An unknown amount of time passed. Within Li Fan's true self, a ripple from Revert to the True jolted him awake. It was an exceedingly strange emotion. It felt like pleasant surprise. Like reminiscence. There was also sorrow. And indignation. Myriad emotions intertwined, making it impossible for Li Fan to discern whether Revert to the True felt joy, anger, grief, or fear. Meanwhile, the calm of the Sea of Infinity was quietly shattered. Beneath the water, a terrifying deep-sea behemoth seemed to be slowly awakening. The entire surface of the sea was churned. As if coming to a boil, waves began to surge one after another. The terrifying force generated by the collision of droplets even caused the concealment of the Mo Sha Immortal Soul to gradually fail. Like a flimsy life jacket in the midst of a violent tempest and monstrous waves, it offered no salvation whatsoever. The Dao Net upon which his spiritual sense rested hung by a thread. It was on the verge of completely dissipating. In the next instant... Li Buren was inexplicably cast out from the Sea of Infinity. Everything he had witnessed before seemed like an illusion. Except... Li Buren extended his right hand. Though he did not summon immortal spiritual energy, Li Buren knew that whenever he wished, he could commune with the Sea of Infinity at any time and call upon boundless power. Yet he did not dare.