The Sea-Gazing Mound-Guarding Immortal

Accompanying the sudden appearance of the five phantoms' faces came words spoken in utter tranquility. They did not seem directed at Li Buren, who had barged in unbidden, but were rather a voice recorded long ago. "Shengde, the Mound-Guarding Immortal, respectfully greets the worthy successors of later days. "Having attained the Nameless, one ought by right to be detached and transcendent. Yet Dao Annihilation lurks in secret, and we cannot cast off the weight resting upon our shoulders. "By chance, I came upon this fine art—substituting the body with phantoms to withstand the surging tribulations. "I share it with you..." The five phantoms spoke in unison. What followed was no ordinary sound. Like an engraving chisel, it branded the art directly into Li Buren's body, encircled as he was by the phantoms. He felt no pain whatsoever, nor even the slightest irregularity. It was as though a dust-laden, forgotten memory that had always belonged to him was surfacing once more. Rather than being taught, it was as if he were "remembering" it anew. It completely skipped the entire process of pondering, studying, and mastering. To know it was already to possess the Great Perfection! Yet to Li Buren's slight regret, the five phantoms had initiated this transmission only because the equivalent of all the chess pieces of an entire Immortal Domain had gathered here. In terms of status and standing, this was virtually equivalent to a Nameless True Immortal. Thus, the Mound-Guarding Immortal regarded all the chess pieces as a single whole. The carving and branding had been performed upon this whole. What Li Buren obtained was merely a fraction of it. Even so, this secret art—which could only be cultivated at the realm of a Nameless True Immortal—was enough to broaden his horizons tremendously! "This art is named *Mound-Guarding Jottings*. "By the edge of the great ocean lies a tiny, unnamed mound. "I, Shengde, have guarded this mound for a total of one hundred and twenty-three epochs. I have watched the tides rise and fall, the waters surge and recede. Whenever a realization stirred within my heart, I jotted it down as notes. As time slipped away, these jottings were completed..." Li Buren sorted through the "memories" in his mind. The plain words seemed to depict a solitary figure who had stood guard beside the vast, boundless ocean for one hundred and twenty-three epochs. Standing atop the nameless mound, he gazed out across the endless sea, keeping company with the tides. *This Mound-Guarding Immortal could shoulder the tribulation of Dao Annihilation with five phantoms. His strength and cultivation realm are definitely not as modest as described in these jottings.* Li Buren exhaled a long breath, as if trying to wrench himself free from the vicissitudes of ages carried by those few lines of text. *Sun Piaomiao's earlier divine sense transmission mentioned the Tianluo Epoch. An 'epoch' is likely the calendar unit used in the Immortal Realm. I wonder how many years in the Xuanhuang Realm correspond to one Immortal Realm epoch.* *Regardless, one hundred and twenty-three epochs must be an unimaginably vast span of time.* *And the sea and mound that required so much time to continuously guard must definitely be no ordinary sea and mound.* Li Buren suddenly remembered the parable of the mountain and the sea from the book suspected to have been left by Sun Piaomiao. *If the sea represents the Infinite Sea, then what does the mountain represent...?* The jottings left behind by this Mound-Guarding Immortal Shengde did not merely impart the technique of leaving phantoms behind. Rather, they meticulously recorded the entire train of thought and experience through which the immortal had conceived and comprehended this method. This art was not born of a sudden epiphany in a single day. It had been accumulated over time, refined from endless reverie. Receiving this art felt as though Li Buren had "transmigrated" into the body of the Mound-Guarding Immortal of the past, re-experiencing those one hundred and twenty-three epochs of vicissitudes with his body, divine soul, and thoughts. Even though he faced only the mountain and the sea day in and day out, the seemingly infinite volume of data nearly submerged Li Buren completely. Fortunately, he was bearing it alongside the other Immortal Domain chess pieces. Only thanks to his superlative constitution—his divine sense projected through the Dao Net and his body forged from Immortal Domain law fragments—could he barely hold out. *No wonder the phantoms of the Mound-Guarding Immortal only appear before a Nameless True Immortal. It's not that he was stingy or unwilling to pass this art down to other immortals, but that anyone below the Nameless realm simply cannot bear it!* Swept along by the rolling torrent of the Mound-Guarding Immortal's thoughts, Li Buren felt as if he had returned to the Infinite Sea. Every droplet of water around him encompassed hundreds of millions of years of time. *According to the Mound-Guarding Immortal, the sea's erosion of the mountain has existed since the dawn of antiquity. But just like tides in the mortal world, it is unpredictable and shifting, waxing and waning.* *Ever since he began guarding the mound and gazing out at the sea, its momentum has risen and fallen, yet overall it has been in a phase of expansion. In fact... it is still far from reaching the estimated 'peak.'* *The Mound-Guarding Immortal noticed this clue as early as the twentieth epoch. The subsequent hundred epochs proved his deduction.* *He issued warnings to the world long ago, but his words carried little weight because his status was low?* *How could this be...?* Li Buren was utterly baffled upon hearing this. However, Shengde's subsequent narrative provided the answer. It turned out that at that time, the Mound-Guarding Immortal was merely an "ordinary" True Immortal who had not yet attained the Nameless realm. Naturally, his words were ignored. By the eighty-eighth epoch, through thick accumulation, the Mound-Guarding Immortal finally broke through to the Nameless realm. Yet he made no announcement, continuing to silently guard the mound and gaze at the sea. At that point, the Immortal Realm seemed to have suffered an upheaval, leaving all the immortals of the Immortal Realm with no time to concern themselves with an official guarding a mound by a distant sea. The entire Immortal Realm seemed to have forgotten him. Until one day, towering waves surged up, cresting over the mound. ... Breaking away from the Mound-Guarding Immortal's seemingly tranquil yet magnificent life, Li Buren began to focus on the art of Bearing the Dao with Phantoms. *According to what the Mound-Guarding Immortal said, sitting upon the mound and looking at the sea, the rising and falling waves were like facing the myriad Daos of the world directly.* *The sprays of foam and the rhythms of the Great Dao were actually two sides of the same coin.* *A person standing atop the summit is like a boulder. Battered daily by the crashing waves, they are worn down by them. Yet at the same time, between the mountain and the sea, they leave behind an indelible trace belonging entirely to themselves.* *...* The Mound-Guarding Immortal's jottings were exceedingly profound and obscure. Even though Li Fan had lived through a hundred cycles of reincarnation and experienced countless things, he found it difficult to understand right away. *If not for the fact that I possess Revert to the True and have personally entered the Infinite Sea, even if I obtained this method, I would probably be completely lost in the fog, unable to make head or tail of it. I might even dismiss it as an absurd joke!* *This is because this art is drastically different from the worldly cultivation systems,* Li Fan realized inwardly. Yet this was precisely where the wonder of the Mound-Guarding Immortal's jottings lay. Even if the recipient could not fathom its profound mysteries, the deliberate branding by the five phantoms allowed the recipient to wield this miraculous art of Bearing the Dao with Phantoms as effortlessly as directing their own arm, without the slightest impediment. *It requires no depletion of oneself at all. It merely extracts the traces left behind in history and the Great Dao in the past, transforming them into phantoms to bear the weight of Dao Annihilation...* *This divine ability truly surpasses the imagination!* Moreover, Li Fan sensed that Bearing the Dao with Phantoms was not limited to resisting the tribulation of Dao Annihilation. Or rather, bearing the Dao was merely one of the many effects of this divine ability. *Invulnerable to all tribulations, warding off all techniques, immortal and undying...* *Beyond all these, the most crucial aspect is 'transcendence'!* *It is a fundamental method for leaping out from the Great Dao of this world.* While extracting all the traces left between the mountain and sea in the past, one was also severing all connections with the world. When that time came, standing solitary and unencumbered, one would no longer be bound by the net of the Great Dao... Li Fan's heart trembled, and a yearning welled up within him. Just then, the transmission from the Mound-Guarding Immortal drew to a close. The entirety of the *Mound-Guarding Jottings* had been completely branded. The five phantoms left behind by Shengde, the Mound-Guarding Immortal, actually bowed slightly toward Li Buren in the center, offering him a salute. Then, their bodies rippled and slowly dissolved, returning to their previous state of silently bearing the Dao. Li Buren wore a solemn expression as he gravely returned the salute. He understood that this was the Mound-Guarding Immortal's hope that later sages would likewise leave behind phantoms to bear the Dao. Hence the salute. *The phantoms left by the Mound-Guarding Immortal might not be confined to just this one spot within the Great Wall.* *After leaving these Dao-bearing phantoms behind, where is he now? Has he already departed this current possibility?* Thinking of the lower-realm star sea, which remained full of life despite suffering the ravages of Dao Annihilation, Li Buren had a sudden flash of insight. He had no doubt that this Sea-Gazing Mound-Guarding Immortal possessed the strength to traverse possibilities. *Regardless, to leave behind Dao-bearing phantoms and bequeath an extraordinary, world-saving art to future generations means the Mound-Guarding Immortal has unquestionably lived up to his duty.* *He truly lives up to the name 'Shengde.'* After lingering in his thoughts for a long while, Li Buren finally returned to his senses and looked at the surrounding Immortal Domain chess pieces. After being inscribed by the Mound-Guarding Immortal, these chess pieces seemed somewhat different from before. Originally, merely floating quietly, these Immortal Domain fragments had exuded a heart-stopping aura. But now, as though returning to simplicity, they appeared utterly unremarkable. Anyone not paying close attention would overlook them entirely. *Or rather, it would be more fitting to describe them as 'gradually detaching from this world.'* A sudden pang of vigilance arose in Li Buren's heart. He had not forgotten that during his previous Revert to the True, the Nameless True Immortal thigh bone in the Immortal Domain had seemed to sense something and flew toward him. *The Nameless realm can no longer be judged simply by life and death.* *Even though it is merely a thigh bone in a severed state, who knows what changes might occur after being imparted the Mound-Guarding Jottings?* Li Buren tentatively drew one of the white chess pieces toward himself. Then, paying no heed to anything else, he manifested his original body out of his Dao Net chess-piece state. A repulsive force struck, and Li Buren tumbled down from the apex space of the circular hall, bringing the Medicine King Cauldron along with him.