The Orthodoxy of Revert to the True

Having no time to consider anything else, the Hunger Immortal immediately immersed herself in his guidance. According to her experiences over all these years of secluded cultivation, flashes of Dao enlightenment were like sparks that vanished in an instant. If she did not comprehend it quickly, it would soon fade back into the vast sea of thoughts. Not expecting the other party to kindly offer guidance a second time, the Hunger Immortal seized the present opportunity and devoted herself wholeheartedly to comprehending the Dao. It had to be said that having sat in withered seclusion for ten thousand years, the Hunger Immortal's comprehension of the path of [Hunger] was truly extraordinary. Shortly after she sat cross-legged once more, wisps of profound, mysterious aura began radiating from her body. It was identical to the nameless marks beneath her! "It seems nudging her to attest to Nameless is even easier than I thought," Li Fan thought to himself. Although Li Fan had long since glimpsed that character for "Hunger" on the earth of the Immortal Ruins, with his aptitude—even with the insights gained across multiple cycles of reincarnation—his comprehension of the Dao of Hunger could never surpass the Hunger Immortal at this moment. The reason he could trigger her sudden enlightenment with just a few words was that Li Buren, drawing upon the colossal Mound-Guarding power, observed the nameless Dao traces beneath her on-site and explained what he gleaned in real time. A vantage point from the heights that struck straight at the core was naturally far superior to her working in isolation behind closed doors. Li Buren's pointers were equivalent to giving her a forceful shove from behind. For the Hunger Immortal, who had already been a single step away, she actually did not need anyone's help to attest to True Immortal on her own; it was merely a matter of squandering time. Perhaps later the Hunger Immortal would slowly realize this. But right now, caught in the midst of it, she had not yet had the time to grasp the truth. She was solely immersed in her Dao comprehension with complete focus. Li Buren stepped aside and observed in secret. Her body, which had plumped up after being infused, dried out once more as she entered enlightenment. Reduced to ghastly, emaciated bones, it was clear she had entered the state of comprehending the Dao of [Hunger]. Immersed in the Dao of Hunger, she instinctively desired to devour everything around her. The massive suction that had temporarily vanished with Li Buren's arrival abruptly reemerged from the Hunger Immortal's body—even more ferocious than before! In the entire starry sky, only the Immortal Ruins' land and Li Buren standing atop it remained unmoved. Everything else began sliding uncontrollably toward the Immortal Ruins, which had now turned into a central vortex. In the Xuanhuang Realm, the vitality that had just revived was suddenly teetering like a candle in the wind due to this immense suction, on the verge of destruction. Fortunately, Li Fan manifested a projection of the Dao Net, shielding the entire world. He pulled the Xuanhuang Realm toward the edge of the star sea once more, attempting to move it farther away from the Immortal Ruins. "Compared to before, this sudden eruption of suction is far stronger." "So originally, the Hunger Immortal was deliberately holding back...?" Li Fan gazed into the distance toward the Immortal Ruins, frowning slightly. As if confirming his suspicion, Clang, rattle... Crisp metallic clanks abruptly echoed through the silent starry sky. It turned out to be the golden chains binding the Hunger Immortal tightening further. Even as they clamped down on her, they also seemed to be reining in her ravenous desire to swallow everything in the world. "Only by dwelling in the most extreme hunger can one truly comprehend the Dao of Hunger." "An ascetic, self-tormenting method of cultivation..." The golden chains bound her tightly, cutting deep into her shriveled flesh and grinding against her bones, producing an eerie creaking sound. Yet from beginning to end, the Hunger Immortal did not shudder in the slightest. She merely endured her own cravings and agony in silence. The path of Hunger was like a vicious beast trapped in a cage. Though it roared to break free, it remained firmly bound within this physical body. This method of restrained longing actually caused the Hunger Immortal's comprehension efficiency to steadily climb! Taking in every shift occurring within the Hunger Immortal, Li Buren tried putting himself in her shoes, gradually savoring its nuances. "The more one is tormented by the Dao path and sinks into it, the more one can grasp its principles." "This method of enlightenment..." "It bears some resemblance to reverse-cultivating the Dao heart in the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Incantation. Could it be a legacy technique passed down from the Immortal Realm?" When Li Buren first observed and pondered this, he noticed the difference in the flow of time between inside and outside caused by the reemerging suction of the Immortal Ruins. Before he could even react, three months had shockingly elapsed within the Xuanhuang Realm. Outside the Great Wall, thirty years had already flown by in the blink of an eye! What was more, this speed disparity was continuing to grow! Fortunately, during these thirty years, nothing had occurred that required tapping into the power of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom to resolve. Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu of the Shuo Star Sea visited several times to report on the progress of their cooperation. Li Fan simply played dumb, offering a detached "Understood" without saying anything more. Not daring to disturb him, Qian Ruochang and Immortal Wu tactfully withdrew. ... One moment he was thirty years in the past, and in the next, he had arrived thirty years later. Countless scenes experienced by his true body surfaced sequentially in his mind like a delayed feed. Even Li Buren felt slightly disoriented by the immense perceptual disparity in time, experiencing a faint dizzy spell. His Dao Net body even showed a slight distortion discernible only to himself, warped like an image viewed through a bubble. Li Buren first attempted to curb the temporal shifts caused by the colossal suction. However, this was not an attribute of the Dao of [Hunger]. It was an axiomatic phenomenon inherently existing in the mortal realm. Even by mobilizing the power of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom, it could not be made to disappear completely. He could only minimize the external impact of the Immortal Ruins' suction as much as possible. In Li Buren's eyes, the massive vortex formed by the Immortal Ruins was devouring everything in the world. And what he needed to do was build a dam outside the vortex to prevent anything from entering it. Just like the Great Wall that separated the inside and outside of the testing ground! "Settle!" Li Buren chanted silently in his heart. His Dao Net body, like a field of stars, shone brilliantly once more. Like a colossal boulder, he stood before the monstrous surging waves. Yet defying common sense, not a single drop of spray splashed. Instead, just like what had occurred in the Pitch-Black Star Sea, all the blocked suction converged at the base of the wall. With Li Buren's utterance, the True Immortal suction that had ravaged the Pitch-Black Star Sea for ten thousand years was easily restrained to within ninety-nine zhang of the Hunger Immortal. Li Buren had a premonition that he could continue compressing and pushing the "Second Great Wall" inward. However, that might interfere with the Hunger Immortal's ultimate Dao comprehension. Therefore, he stopped while ahead. The suction was like surging billows, condensed without dispersing, gathering and swirling beneath the wall. In a trance, Li Buren felt as if he caught a glimpse of the mountains and seas upon which the Mound-Guarding Lord had gazed. He could not help but freeze slightly. The reason behind this strange phenomenon—of the suction from the Immortal Ruins being blocked and accumulated by the wall—was something Li Buren finally began to understand today. "The power of Immortals originates from the Infinite Sea." "And the Great Wall—that is, the power of the Mound-Guarding Lord's phantom—derives in part from the 'Mountain' that accompanies the Infinite Sea." "The Mountain and the Sea share the same origin. They are not entirely opposed, and thus they can attract each other to a certain degree." "Therefore, in a sense, the phenomenon occurring at the border of the Pitch-Black Star Sea is a projection of what the Mound-Guarding Lord once beheld." Standing at the edge of the Second Great Wall, myriad insights sprouted in Li Buren's heart. Without the suction of the Immortal Ruins wreaking havoc, the flow of time within the Pitch-Black Star Sea finally returned to normal. Yet the living beings within the star sea had no way of perceiving this drastic change. Only Li Fan raised his head slightly and looked toward the center of the Pitch-Black Star Sea. Having once connected with the star sea's source intent, he could faintly sense its jubilation. It stemmed not only from the disappearance of the Immortal Ruins' threat, but also seemed to come from synchronizing with the external star sea. Li Fan did not pay it any heed for the moment, instead looking at his Revert to the True panel. The instant the flow of time between the starry skies inside and outside the Great Wall aligned once more, the numbers representing the upper limit of the mortal realm's lifespan quietly shifted in a flash. Yet the margin of change was not large. It had merely dropped from 7,360,000 years to 7,230,000 years. "This isn't an effect brought by my erection of the Second Great Wall. Rather, it must be that the temporal flow of my surrounding environment changed." "In other words, the time disparity between the inside and outside of the Great Wall is completely negligible to the lifespan of the entire mortal realm." "Still, how exactly does Revert to the True calculate this displayed lifespan?" Li Fan was somewhat perplexed. Ruminating over such a question on his own was doomed to bear no fruit. Thus, Li Fan decisively chose to inquire directly of Revert to the True. And with the precedent of its previous instruction, Revert to the True did not respond with silence this time either. A colossal stream of light, shadow, and data flooded into Li Fan's mind in an instant. His glabella stung, and Li Fan instinctively began selective viewing. As if aware that Li Fan's current capabilities were insufficient to take in this casually transmitted imagery in its entirety, the sequence of light and shadow had itself been abridged. Unable to discern specifics clearly, he could only see the vague trajectory. "This is..." "Using my current strength as a fixed template, on the premise of my immortality, a simulation of the maximum possible value." Though somewhat convoluted, Li Fan quickly understood what Revert to the True meant to convey. He gazed intently at the light and shadow flashing past before his eyes. Over seven million years of time passed like revolving lantern slides, lasting only thirty-three breaths. In the end, all light was extinguished; even darkness failed to endure. It vanished directly from Li Fan's mind. When Li Fan tried to recall the specific details of the visions he had just glimpsed, he discovered not a trace of memory remained. He could only vaguely remember that Revert to the True had shown him a simulated sequence of images. "The annihilation of the mortal realm, is it?" "The so-called lifespan ceiling is measured and calculated from the perspective of me—the vessel of Revert to the True." "The future holds endless possibilities, but this current simulated deduction is a result obtained by using my present strength as the primary viewpoint." "In this deductive simulation, though I will not die, my cultivation and strength will not advance at all either. I can only watch the shifts of the mortal realm in silence like a bystander..." Li Fan narrowed his eyes. He could not help but recall the change in the mortal realm lifespan panel when the Black Heavenly Physician had breached the Great Wall. The numbers had skyrocketed from over seven million years until they seemed boundless. "In that simulation by Revert to the True, though I did not die, I still fell into the Black Heavenly Physician's clutches." "Even the bones of a Nameless True Immortal could stow away alongside Revert to the True. The Black Heavenly Physician could certainly do so as well. Therefore, my fate was undoubtedly not a pleasant one. Perhaps I became an existence like the Dharma Formulation Jade..." "Yet with the aid of Revert to the True, the Black Heavenly Physician could nearly save the mortal realm from calamity." Having figured out the underlying reason, Li Fan gave a cold snort in his heart. His perspective remained unchanged. Sacrificing himself alone to save the mortal realm was absolutely impossible. "The mortal realm holds meaning only because of my existence. If I am gone, what does it matter to me even if the mortal realm remains eternal through ten thousand tribulations?" "Besides, in Revert to the True's calculations, even if the Black Heavenly Physician obtained its power, the upper lifespan limit of the mortal realm still had a specific number." "It wasn't infinite!" "Even if that number was extraordinarily vast, unfathomably so, it would ultimately face the day of extinction." "Since the outcome remains the same, whether it is seven million years or seventy billion years..." "There is no difference." Perhaps influenced inexplicably by the scene Revert to the True had just demonstrated, Li Fan felt his ambition and inner fortitude elevate considerably in an intangible way. He could even calmly disregard that colossal string of numbers representing the potential lifespan of the mortal realm in his memory. It was as though he had truly lived through those distant, ancient aeons, yet ultimately met the ending of destruction. In fact, deep within his heart, an unshakeable thought surged uncontrollably. Revert to the True, only in his hands, could ultimately alter the doomed fate of the mortal realm. And completely break free from the destiny of Dao Annihilation. This confidence arose without any basis. As time flowed on, it also gradually subsided. By the time he had fully recovered, even Li Fan himself felt his previous thought had been somewhat too arrogant and conceited. Yet upon careful reflection, he vaguely deduced that he must have witnessed something in those simulated visions spanning seven million-plus years. That was why such a notion had welled up from the bottom of his heart. With that, Li Fan's mind settled completely. When he sought to verify his conjecture with Revert to the True, it fell silent once more. Yet Li Fan took no offense. "Silence, not denial." Having spent so much time with Revert to the True, Li Fan could roughly read the sentiments it occasionally expressed. Sometimes silence was an answer in itself. Having confirmed that he was the orthodox bearer of [Revert to the True], Li Fan was in high spirits. Snapping back to reality, he looked once more toward the Immortal Ruins. With his body serving as a wall, Li Buren blocked the suction of the Immortal Ruins while keenly sensing every minute shift in power generated by the Hunger Immortal's enlightenment. "Because of the temporal disparity induced by this power, the Hunger Immortal's previous enlightenment lasted ten thousand years of Xuanhuang Realm time." "This breakthrough will definitely not take that long." "Furthermore..." Li Buren observed that thanks to the existence of the "Second Great Wall" he had built with his own hands, the enlightenment suction accumulated beneath this wall offset to some extent the Hunger Immortal's impact on the outside world. It greatly reduced the time difference between the inside and outside of the Second Great Wall. While waiting for the Hunger Immortal to conclude her seclusion so he could reap the harvest, Li Buren first looked down at the earth of the Immortal Ruins beneath him. Aside from the widespread rubble and ruins, the massive character for [Hunger] was the most conspicuous. "The origin of the manifestation of this 'Hunger' character..." "Comes precisely from the remnants beneath the Hunger Immortal—the previous Nameless True Immortal who attested to the Dao through Hunger."