“Comprehending the three thousand Great Daos through the power of a single person. What the Archmage envisioned actually coincides with my own thoughts to some degree.”
Looking around, Li Buren felt somewhat surprised, yet also puzzled.
Within the Archmage's core lay the myriad forms and states of all living beings, as well as the manifestations of countless Great Daos throughout heaven and earth. The living beings replicated by the Archmage one after another had become vessels for these manifestations.
Looking at the countless faces arranged across the surrounding expanse, Li Buren briefly had the illusion of standing inside the Dao Net. In fact, conceptually speaking, the Archmage alone was indeed equivalent to a “Dao Net.”
However, whether in the precision of the living beings' comprehension here or in the sheer quantity of Dao principles, there was still an enormous gulf between this and the Dao Net Li Fan had witnessed in the Shuo Star Sea.
“These various Dao paths manifest through different beings. But...”
Li Buren shifted his gaze from Blue Feather and casually looked at another figure—a mortal from Daoyuan Province.
Coalesced upon this mortal was the aura of a Great Dao related to “painting.”
The aura fluctuated with such intensity that it could not possibly belong to a mere mortal!
“The shadow traced by the Archmage has a comprehension of the Dao far exceeding that of its original self...”
Li Buren looked toward the focal point of all these shadows' gazes.
There, in the unseen void, stood the Shadow of Illusory Life.
Li Buren understood in an instant. “I see. The Shadow of Illusory Life is the extremity of change. Not only does it adapt to celestial seasons, but it also produces various reactions based on the different living beings of heaven and earth it encounters.”
Back when the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao entered Tiandu and saw the Shadow of Illusory Life, different cultivation methods had appeared before everyone's eyes and ears. Yet without exception, every method seemed deeply tied to what they had previously learned, as though tailored precisely for them. Because of this, the people of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao concluded that the Archmage had to have hailed from the Immortal Realm, and that the methods passed down to them were surely legacy arts of the Immortal Realm.
“The Immortal Realm... how could it harbor mortal techniques? Compared to true immortal arts, the true legacies of the Ten Sects of the Immortal Dao were far inferior!”
“Never could they have imagined that their so-called inheritances were merely the natural derivations that arose when the Shadow of Illusory Life made contact with them—much like reflections in a mirror!”
“The Archmage let them inside to face the Shadow of Illusory Life, and later periodically froze the living beings of Daoyuan Province, presumably all for the Dao forms reflected in that mirror.”
Thinking up to this point, Li Buren could not help looking at Archmage Tiandu with newfound respect.
Having obtained a supreme treasure offering a direct path to the Nameless realm, the Archmage had not directly comprehended the treasure's Dao like the Hunger Immortal had. Instead, he had used it as a tool, attempting to take every Great Dao under heaven into his own grasp...
And the Archmage was, in truth, merely a half-immortal.
Such conduct could only be described as arrogant and delusional beyond his station.
Yet Li Buren knew well that someone who could suppress his inner greed before a Nameless supreme treasure and guard it for tens of thousands of years without straying from his original intention was certainly no fool.
“He must have his own reasons for doing this.”
Li Buren did not interrogate him for now. Instead, he looked upon the diverse Dao paths the Archmage had accumulated over tens of thousands of years—paths born from the transformations wrought by the Shadow of Illusory Life upon myriad living beings. He let out a rare smile.
“Without sufficient strength, all this is merely making wedding clothes for someone else.”
“Such a generous gift, I shall accept.”
With this thought, a deluge of inky blackness erupted from Li Buren.
Like writhing tentacles, it successively tainted the countless Dao forms within the Archmage.
Just as Li Buren had deduced, within every silhouette lay insights into a different Dao path.
They were like fruits crystallized over tens of thousands of years, intensely fragrant and enticing to any cultivator.
Li Buren showed no mercy, seizing them all for himself.
As the thousands of Dao forms were engulfed by Li Buren, different droplets gradually began to appear within the endless inky ocean of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha inside Li Fan's true body.
It was identical to how Mo Sha had previously manifested when it tainted the Xuanhuang heaven and earth.
The Dao accumulated by the Archmage over tens of thousands of years, combined with Li Fan's own realizations across his cycles of reincarnation...
Countless droplets representing different Dao paths differentiated from the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha.
The myriad forms of living beings continually surged forth.
While breathing life into the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, they also provided it with pathways to transform into different Great Daos.
Sensing the dramatic changes occurring within his body, Li Fan's mind stirred, and a flickering flame—red at its core with black edges—appeared in the palm of his hand.
“Mo Sha as the substance, Crimson Flame as the manifestation.”
“This flame...”
Li Fan flicked his finger. The black-edged flame instantly became a thread, flying out of the Xuanhuang Realm and crashing violently against the heavenly pillar formed by the Hunger Immortal in the Pitch-Black Star Sea.
Not a single ripple appeared; the heavenly pillar stood completely unmoved.
After all, it was formed from a Nameless True Immortal and capable of resisting the Dao Annihilation Tribulation. Li Fan's true body was still merely at the half-immortal realm; though Mo Sha was wondrous, it was fundamentally incapable of damaging the Hunger Immortal's heavenly pillar.
Li Fan was not surprised. Raising an eyebrow, he sensed an inconspicuous, charred black mark upon the pillar.
“Integrating with a single Dao through a Nameless immortal body creates such powerful rejection against other paths, yet even that cannot completely purge Mo Sha.”
“Moreover, alongside that black mark, Mo Sha's corrosion continues. Though slow, it is persistent.”
“If time is stretched indefinitely, the towering pillar might well be pierced through one day.”
“And this is only the beginning...”
Li Fan had a premonition that as he tainted more and more Dao paths, Mo Sha's corrosive ability would grow progressively stronger.
“It is as if different Dao paths faintly share certain commonalities. The more paths I taint, the more common points I grasp.”
“Using this as a key, I will eventually be invincible.”
Li Fan's notion of tainting the three thousand Great Daos with Mo Sha had just sprouted, yet it had already taken deep root.
Aside from his own accumulation, he relied even more on what the Archmage had gathered over tens of thousands of years.
As the overwhelming blackness completely engulfed the Archmage's interior, Li Fan also noticed certain characteristics of the Archmage's comprehension of the Dao.
Unlike the Dao Net's structure of countless juxtaposed nodes, the Archmage ultimately placed himself at the core.
The thousands of Dao forms flanked and guarded him in the center, like an emperor receiving homage from the Great Daos of all the heavens!
Only now, with Li Fan's intervention, this majestic emperor had been reduced to a solitary figure stripped of all subjects.
Li Buren stood facing the true Archmage.
Surrounded by countless former copies of himself and trapped in a hopeless situation, Archmage Tiandu unexpectedly displayed no despair, terror, or rage.
Appearing as an innocent, tender Daoist youth, his face remained serene. He merely pinched his fingers continually, divining and calculating something.
In the end, finding no answer, he shook his head and gave up.
He asked faintly, “Whence have you come, Fellow Daoist?”
“From where I came, of course,” Li Buren said coldly.
Seeing that Li Buren refused to disclose anything, the Archmage pressed no further.
Instead, he bargained, “If I offer the Shadow of Taiyi with both hands, will you let me leave?”
“Taiyi?” Li Buren pondered for a moment.
Then he said indifferently, “If I kill you, this Shadow of Illusory Life will still be mine.”
The Archmage looked somewhat melancholy upon hearing this, not because of Li Buren's resolute murderous intent, but due to the differing name for that phantom. “So to your eyes, it is Illusory Life.”
“There is no difference.”
The Archmage shook his head. “Before heaven and earth came into being, chaos was boundless, and Taiyi first emerged.”
“Thereafter, all things were born.”
“Taiyi is the ultimate power of change in this world. If Taiyi were still Taiyi, the world would never have become what it is today.”
“The Great Dao itself is decaying. Taiyi has degraded into Illusory Life... Heh, in the past, I was truly deluded.”
Li Buren narrowed his eyes, listening to this rather esoteric speech.
“Even if the Great Dao were not decaying, and the true Dao of Taiyi were placed right before you, with your mere half-immortal cultivation, what could you have done with it?”
Seeing that Li Buren was in no rush to strike, the Archmage was glad to prolong his life a bit longer.
“Fellow Daoist, there is much you do not know. The Dao of Taiyi already has its master—my honored teacher.”
“Though Master has departed, leaving only a remnant shadow in this world, it is not something I could covet. I merely borrowed Master's divine might to comprehend the world's Dao paths,” the Archmage said leisurely, looking not in the least like someone hanging by a thread.
“Do you think inventing an imaginary master will keep me from refining you?” Li Buren scoffed.
The Archmage smiled faintly and pointed at the Daoist robes on his body. “This Daoist youth attire has been mine for hundreds of millions of years, the very appearance I wore while attending at Master's side. It has remained unchanged for so long, so how could it be an invention?”
“Believe it or not as you wish, Fellow Daoist. But you need not worry; even if you kill me, Master will not stand up for me. In bygone days, Master left this phantom originally to hold up the collapsing sky of the Immortal Realm. Regrettably, before I could deliver the phantom, entire immortal domains were completely swallowed by Dao Annihilation. Looking upon Master's phantom, greed overtook me...”
“Could one who achieved transcendence fail to control even his own remnant shadow? Your lie is far too crude,” Li Buren remarked.
The Archmage glanced at Li Buren, his tone strange. “When I said Master departed, I meant he passed away as an immortal, not that he achieved transcendence. Though Master possessed heaven-defying divine abilities, since he chose death, naturally not a shred of spiritual consciousness remained.”
Hearing this, Li Buren was struck dumb.
What the Archmage said was indeed beyond his expectations.
“He integrated with the Dao of Taiyi, yet died so easily?” Doubt filled his words.
“Easily... hehehe.”
The Archmage laughed without answering, turning instead to another topic. “True, if my venerable master had wished to go on living, he would likely have had ways to prolong his life. But he simply had no desire to do so!”
“Who in this world wanted Master to pass away less than I did? After all, as long as he lived, even the ruling Immortal Emperor of the Immortal Realm at the time had to treat me with utmost deference and courtesy whenever we met.”
“And once he died...”
“Hehehe.”
The smile on the Archmage's face turned somewhat sinister and twisted.
“In that case, your master was a top-tier powerhouse in the Immortal Realm. How did he compare to the Duke of Shouqiu?” Ignoring the strange expression on his face, Li Buren asked directly.
“The Duke of Shouqiu.” That name pulled the Archmage out of his resentful mood, leaving him momentarily dazed.
Only then did he say slowly, “Master and the Duke of Shouqiu never met.”
“Master was a renowned powerhouse known to everyone in the Immortal Realm, while the Duke of Shouqiu lived secluded in the wilderness, rising abruptly and suddenly gaining tremendous fame.”
“I once asked Master about the Duke of Shouqiu, but he said...”
The Archmage stopped abruptly, intending to keep him in suspense.
Li Buren managed to refrain from asking, merely watching the Archmage coldly, waiting for what he would say next.
After a brief standoff, the Archmage found it dull and said, “Master only said five words faintly: ‘Free of duty, naturally strong.’ ”
“What that specifically meant was beyond my knowing.”
“In any case, until his passing, he never mentioned the Duke of Shouqiu again.”
Li Buren carefully savored those five words: “Free of duty, naturally strong.”
After a long while, he suddenly asked again, “How many powerhouses like your master were there in the Immortal Realm back then?”
The Archmage's expression drifted into reminiscence. “Those who could sit and discuss the Dao as equals with Master numbered only three in the entire Immortal Realm.”
“Of course, that did not include the Duke of Shouqiu.”
“Whenever Master traveled, he sometimes took me along, and sometimes wandered in spirit alone.”
“I remember once asking Master which of the Four Sacred Sovereigns was the strongest. Master did not answer, merely rapping me on the forehead with a smile. He said...”
“‘Who is strongest, I do not know. But if you ask who toils the hardest, it is certainly the two Sacred Sovereigns, Lianshan and Guihai.’ ”
“Having said that, Master burst into hearty laughter, as if recalling something amusing.”
The instant he heard the two names “Lianshan” and “Guihai,” Li Buren instinctively thought of the mountain and sea that the Duke of Shouqiu had seen.
He could not help asking, “These two, Lianshan and Guihai...”
Snapping out of his memories, the Archmage stared at Li Buren.
Pondering something in silence for quite a while, he ultimately answered Li Buren's question.
“Lianshan, the first immortal under heaven.”
“Guihai, who opened the Infinite Spring.”
“One could say that these two Sacred Sovereigns created the former eternal golden age of the Immortal Realm from nothing,” the Archmage said solemnly, emphasizing each word.
Judging from his demeanor, his reverence for these two Sacred Sovereigns was evident.
Those brief words struck Li Buren's ears like claps of thunder.
The Archmage's words were not hard to understand.
Lianshan was the first immortal in the world.
Guihai was the True Immortal who found the method to connect to the Sea of Infinity, rendering immortal power inexhaustible from that point onward.
Having personally witnessed the vast boundlessness of the Sea of Infinity, Li Buren knew that anyone capable of harnessing its power for their own use must have reached an unfathomable realm.
And the name “Lianshan”—connecting mountains—when linked to the mountain that stood opposite the Sea of Infinity, was deeply thought-provoking.
“Perhaps mountains were, in the beginning, the foundation of a True Immortal's power.”
Thoughts raced through Li Buren's mind.
The Archmage's origins were far greater than he had imagined.
“Besides the three Sacred Sovereigns—Taiyi, Lianshan, and Guihai—what about the remaining one?” Since the Archmage answered whatever was asked, Li Buren continued prying for information regarding the ancient Immortal Realm.
“The remaining one...” The Archmage pondered for a while, showing rare hesitation.
“Unspeakable.”
After a long pause, he shook his head.
“Master, Lianshan, and Guihai have all passed away. Only this Sacred Sovereign still exists in the world.”
“To speak of him is to be perceived.”
Chapter 1480