For Li Buren, a pure creation of destruction, the emotion of "fear" was virtually nonexistent.
The reason he possessed infinite power yet dared not wield it
lay in "instinct."
The moment the thought of utilizing infinite immortal spiritual power arose in his mind, the boundless expanse of the Sea of Infinity seemed to reappear before Li Buren's eyes.
Towering waves, where each droplet bore the crushing weight of trillions of years of history, would pour down through the conduit formed by his connection to the Sea of Infinity. It would submerge all creation in the world, even the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth. Nothing in the mortal world would survive.
This unspeakable pressure made it difficult for Li Buren to press that invisible "button," even though it was right within reach.
Beyond the pressure brought by the magnificent Sea of Infinity itself, what concerned Li Buren even more were the unseen, terrifying entities lurking beneath it. Merely the ripples stirred in their thoughts upon sensing Revert to the True were enough to raise tempestuous waves across the Sea of Infinity.
Ever since returning to reality, Li Fan had continually attempted to communicate with Revert to the True to pry into more information regarding the Sea of Infinity. Yet he had received no response whatsoever.
Fortunately, what gave Li Fan a measure of peace was that the power of "Revert to the True" did not seem to suffer any tangible disruption; he could still activate it with a single thought. Revert to the True was likely just in a foul mood and simply disinclined to reply.
Yet the glimpses caught during this brief journey to the Sea of Infinity forced Li Fan to consider many things.
For instance, the fact that the Sea of Infinity seemed closely tied to the Dao Annihilation Tribulation.
And furthermore, Revert to the True must share an immense origin with the Sea of Infinity, and should even be an old acquaintance of the terrifying, unknown entities lurking beneath it.
"Simulate everything as virtual, returning to the original anchor."
"Has the Sea of Infinity, situated above endless worlds, ever been rewound...?"
An immensely heavy truth that he had no choice but to face abruptly confronted Li Fan.
All along, as Li Fan's cultivation realm advanced, his understanding of Revert to the True's abilities had also deepened. From seeming somewhat inadequate when facing True Immortals, to creating an independent timeline segment known as Boundless Samsara out of nothing, it had seemed as though one would never see the end of Revert to the True's capabilities.
Yet today, after using the methods left behind by the ancient Immortal Realm to leap upward and connect to the Sea of Infinity, Li Fan seemed to have finally glimpsed where Revert to the True's limits lay.
"The terrifying entities lurking beneath the Sea of Infinity appear to be old acquaintances of Revert to the True. If they are entities of equal standing, I fear Revert to the True's rewinding power might not necessarily affect them."
"Yet to verify this would require entering the Sea of Infinity once more in the next life. However..."
A trace of gloom flashed across Li Fan's eyes.
This was the first time since embarking on the path of reincarnation cultivation that he had to face enemies like himself who could stand outside reincarnation. In particular, the experience of nearly "drowning" in the Sea of Infinity abruptly weighed heavily upon Li Fan's heart.
Moreover, Revert to the True's display above the Sea of Infinity, along with those several forces that transcended everything in the mortal realm, caused Li Fan to recall the legend of the Creation God he had once heard from Liu Ruchen.
"The mighty Creation God defeated its kin, extracting their power to evolve the myriad beings of the world..."
Liu Ruchen had stated that he saw this legend in an ancient text.
Previously, Li Fan had soul-searched Liu Ruchen and indeed seen that ancient text in his memories. It was just that when the Medicine King Sect fled the Xuanhuang Realm back then, they had departed in haste. The ancient text had not originally been anything important, so they had not taken it along. Since then, its whereabouts had been unknown.
"This legend of the Creation God is not circulated or recorded anywhere else in the Xuanhuang Realm."
"There is reason to suspect that this so-called ancient text might very well be Sun Piaomiao's informal notes..."
"Liu Ruchen had only flipped through the book casually back then. Beyond the legend of the Creation God, he had only read another allegorical dialogue between a mountain and an ocean."
Li Fan recalled what Liu Ruchen had seen back then.
At the dawn of antiquity, only mountain and sea existed in the world. Mountain and sea encircled one another, nestling close and leaning upon each other. Originally, harmony reigned between mountain and sea, until one day, life suddenly began to germinate within the sea.
These were existences completely distinct from mountain and sea. While infusing the sea with boundless vitality, they naturally drew the sea's attention.
At first, the mountain paid it no heed.
The creatures within the sea had finite lifespans, whereas mountain and sea endured, imperishable through all eternity. Compared to the nearly boundless epochs of mountain and sea, the sea's creatures were destined to be mere fleeting passersby.
Yet as time flowed on, the mountain discovered in surprise that the number of creatures within the sea, far from diminishing, grew ever more flourishing. Upon investigating, the mountain was shocked to find that the sea, unable to bear watching the living beings die off one after another, had bestowed portions of its own endless lifespan upon them.
The mountain grew greatly enraged. "O Sea! Why have you done this! Why should these little creatures be worthy of enjoying the same infinite lifespan as us?"
Yet the sea gently countered, "O Mountain, why shouldn't I? You and I can exist in this world forever. Even if I share my lifespan with them, it will not weaken us in the slightest. Isn't it better for it to become livelier between mountain and sea?"
The mountain was struck speechless for a moment.
Observing the creatures evolving in the sea, it sighed, "O Sea, it is not that I am stingy. It is just that once these tiny things grasp what was never originally theirs, they will instinctively thirst for more."
The sea countered again, "What does 'originally belongs' mean? Did our infinite lifespan come to us by birth?"
In the end, the mountain fell silent.
...
"It seems like a simple fable. But combined with the piece about the Creation God, and what I saw on the Sea of Infinity, I fear there is a deeper mystery at play. Sun Piaomiao..."
Li Fan pondered for a moment and decided to find that lost ancient book.
However, when the entire Medicine King Sect fled back then, it was deemed an act of realm betrayal by the Ten Sects. The sect grounds were swiftly ransacked and plundered clean. In the chaos of that time, no one knew where that ancient book had ended up. It might even have been burned directly.
Li Fan first summoned the Genesis Stone Slab.
Although the slab claimed to record everything that occurred in the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan knew this was limited only to the primordial Xuanhuang Realm. Moreover, the slab could not record transcendent powers such as the fishing pond.
Thus, he did not hold high hopes.
Sure enough, he did not find the ancient text from Liu Ruchen's memories.
However, with Li Fan's current grip over the Xuanhuang Realm, so long as the book still existed within the realm, it would surely be found.
There was no need for Li Fan to attend to it in person. With just a single command issued, cultivators across the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals and the Five Elders Association awakened from their dreams. They began rummaging through their own storehouses and vaults, scouring for it.
Li Fan's attention temporarily returned to his puppet avatar, Li Buren.
Although he did not channel immortal spiritual power, Li Buren, having returned from the Sea of Infinity, already possessed the property of "infinity."
Coupled with the remaining wisp of immortal spiritual energy transmitted over by the immortal skin,
it seemed to pass some form of verification.
What had originally been a tiny corner, an invisible boundary resembling a high wall, manifested physical form in an instant and folded backward.
This was a rather bizarre yet indescribable visual distortion.
Li Buren only felt this narrow space rapidly expanding in all directions.
Moreover, as the spatial volume grew, an ascending flight of stairs gradually appeared in a location where nothing had previously existed.
The expansion of the space seemed endless, and the stairs appearing before Li Buren likewise seemed to stretch endlessly upward.
No end was in sight.
Li Buren did not rashly step onto the stairs, but first surveyed his surroundings.
This space did not extend infinitely like the stairs; rather, after expanding to a certain limit, it gradually exhibited a peculiar curvature. Though still in an expanding state, the rate at which its spatial volume grew slowed down considerably.
The space gradually filled out, yet aside from the sky-ascending stairs glowing with a faint silver sheen before him, there was nothing else.
To uncover the true secret of the High Wall, Li Buren ultimately set foot upon the stairs.
In the next second, Li Buren actually felt as though he had returned to the Sea of Infinity.
All around him surged lines traveling forward at high speed. The lines moved either singly or clustered in swarms. Some were merely a simple monochrome of gray and white, while others shone with brilliant, multicolored hues.
Li Buren tried to make contact with these lines and discovered that, just like the waters of the Sea of Infinity, they stored and recorded vast amounts of history and information on living beings.
However, the sheer volume of data was not on the same order of magnitude as the true Sea of Infinity; Li Buren could bear it without any pressure.
Moreover, the information within the lines had undergone some form of encryption, and Li Buren could only glimpse vague shadows within them.
Borne amidst this torrent of lines, he rushed forward through the surge.
Before long, Li Buren broke free from it,
arriving before the doorway of a dim passage emanating a faint aura of death.
The door sealing the passage had been blasted with a large hole for reasons unknown. Beside the doorway lay four broken puppets.
Components and parts from the puppets were scattered across the ground.
Li Buren looked back toward where he had come from and found that this spot was already the dead end of this passage's entrance.
"No boundary lies ahead."
"To leave, I will need to traverse that stream of lines again."
Li Buren looked at the fallen puppets nearby.
Though damaged for an unknown number of years, Li Buren could still sense a faint threat from them.
Reaching out to draw a fragment from the ground, Li Buren pressed down with full force, yet could not completely crush it into powder; he could only inflict further damage.
"The materials forged into these puppets are no ordinary substance."
Choosing not to linger over these gatekeeper puppets, Li Buren's figure flickered as he slipped through the passage's doorway.
"Hmm?"
As he flew, Li Buren keenly noticed how this place differed from the star sea outside.
In the mortal star sea, when he merged into the Dao Net and rode along its paths, traversing the Pitch-Black Star Sea took a mere three breaths.
Yet this place seemed to be a dead land where the Great Dao did not manifest.
His connection to the Dao Net seemed shielded by an invisible barrier, growing far more strained.
In his divine sense, the brilliant Dao Net projection instantly dimmed somewhat. Only certain specific Dao paths remained unaffected, as though the complete Dao Net had been burned to ashes by a fire, leaving behind only faint remnants.
Consequently, Li Buren's flight speed was drastically curtailed, and even the combat prowess he could unleash was greatly reduced.
Yet he was in no hurry.
Instead, he studied this dim passage with keen interest. For him, merely laying eyes on this place made the trip worthwhile.
"Before the Protector Hall of the Alliance of Ten Thousand Immortals, there is a long avenue paved with Spirit-Dissolving Stone. Within the avenue's bounds lies a forbidden zone for spiritual energy; cultivators cannot fly and can only walk obediently on foot."
"This passage has a similar effect, except the target of its restriction is not ordinary cultivators, but Dao-Enlightened True Immortals!"
"Perhaps not just this passage, but all the structures here."
The carved-out passage Li Buren walked through likewise possessed no physical boundaries, only conceptual constraints akin to the High Wall,
forcing entrants to advance solely in a specific direction.
"Originally, there should have been images on the four walls of this passage, but they seem damaged and failed to manifest."
The passage was not long. Upon reaching the exit, Li Buren suddenly looked back, struck by an intuition.
After that, there were no further twists. Stepping out of the darkness through the solitary, circular lit exit,
an extraordinarily disheveled, hollow cylindrical hall appeared before Li Buren's eyes.
The cylindrical hall soared so high that its ceiling could not be seen.
It appeared somewhat barren, as if it had suffered some manner of plundering.
Following the faint aura of death he had sensed earlier, Li Buren found a trace on the floor that had been scrubbed clean.
"This is..."
He rubbed his fingertips against the ground and raised them before his eyes. Incredibly, an illusory, contorted face manifested,
screaming in a shriek: "Save me!"
It was merely a remnant imprint re-energized by Li Buren with immortal power. One could not communicate with it; it could only mechanically repeat words like "Save me" and "Run."
Li Buren shook his head slightly. Once he withdrew his immortal power, the twisted face dissipated on its own.
Upon careful inspection, there were thirty-seven residual intent imprints within this cylindrical hall—and those were merely the ones that still left traces.
As for those scrubbed entirely clean, there was no telling.
"Judging by the intensity of these residual thoughts, they were all likely left behind by fallen True Immortals."
"The reason they fall far short of the will to survive in the Sea of Endless Gloom is partly the disparity in strength while alive, and partly the thorough scouring this place endured."
"True Immortals slaughtered like ants... Just what did this place go through?"
Aside from the thirty-seven traces, nothing more was found in the cylindrical space.
And other than the passage from which Li Buren had arrived, there appeared to be no other exits or connections in this cylindrical hall.
The investigation suddenly ground to a standstill.
Pondering for a moment, Li Buren suddenly looked toward the few Great Daos in his divine sense where the miniature Dao Net still shone brightly.
An idea gradually formed in his mind. The body formed from the unfurled Immortal Domain fragment folded back up completely,
turning into a chess piece concealed within the other Dao paths suppressed by this place.
Only the portions that remained illuminated were left to harmonize with the Dao principles still lingering here.
The cylindrical hall, originally of infinite height, abruptly contracted to a height of nine zhang and nine chi.
Item after item appeared one after another, filling the barren hall.
And upon the cylindrical walls of the hall, Li Buren was startled to see countless cubic spaces arrayed, displaying moving scenes.
Chapter 1462