Faced with Li Buren's sudden, violent assault, a flash of earthen-yellow light flared in the eyes of Nameless Firm Rock. Though imprisoned beneath the Dao Net for tens of thousands of years, he showed neither panic nor confusion at this moment.
Stamping his feet down hard, his form instantly transformed into an imposing mountain range standing towering between heaven and earth.
The Myriad Manifestations Dao Net Li Buren used to envelop him felt as if someone had suddenly seized it with immense force, grinding into a deadlocked standstill.
The mountains Firm Rock embodied were vast and continuous. Even with the surge of Wuji power within the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net, it was difficult to dissolve Firm Rock's mountains in short order.
Slightly thwarted, Li Buren did not hesitate in the least. He brought down a staff blow squarely toward the aged Firm Rock.
This exact situation was something Li Fan had anticipated beforehand. Though he had comprehended the Dao for a century and assimilated the power of Wuji for his own use, he had not yet reached the stage of physically embodying Wuji. Faced with true powerhouses among Nameless True Immortals, achieving an instantaneous crush was perhaps not so simple.
This was precisely why Li Fan had sent the Wuji Heavenly Pillar along with him.
Firm Rock grew tougher with age, yet before the true Great Dao of Wuji, he still fell short. The Wuji Heavenly Pillar drove straight into the heart of the mountain. The hard rock across the soaring ridges crumbled like tofu upon contact.
The earthen-yellow light in Firm Rock's eyes vanished in an instant, snuffed out like a candle in the wind, leaving only a gaze filled with astonishment.
*The mountain range this Firm Rock formed from his Dao Path seems to be imitating Mount Shangfang.*
Suppressing this Nameless as well, Li Buren sent him inside the Great Wall.
Savoring the Dao Path he had just gleaned from his opponent, Li Buren rushed toward the third Heavenly Pillar.
With two supreme treasures in hand, Li Buren met with no resistance worthy of the name and once more successfully seized Buyan, the third Nameless True Immortal sealed within the Dao Net.
Of the four great pillars, three were now lost.
The Shuo Star Sea Dao Net had lost the vast majority of its supporting anchors. Its suppressive power dropped precipitously, allowing Chaos and Shanhua to move freely within it without suffering much hindrance.
As the Dao Net lost its hold, subtle changes rippled across the starry sky of the Shuo Star Sea.
Against the backdrop of encroaching Dao Annihilation, the Dao Net had served like unified pillars propping up a collapsing sky. Now that Li Fan had abruptly extracted three of those pillars, the Star Sea within the Great Wall grew far sturdier, yet the Shuo Star Sea here was undeniably perched on the brink of disaster.
Though life temporarily endured within the Star Sea, a dark shadow seemed to fall over the realm beyond its sky. Muffled, rumbling booms like surging tsunamis echoed from time to time.
The two Nameless, Shanhua and Chaos, were clearly no strangers to these signs.
The memory ran deep, sparking an instinctive surge of extreme unease and dread.
Li Buren ignored their emotional state and loyally carried out Li Fan's orders.
He headed toward the location of the final captive Nameless.
Shanhua and Chaos had no choice but to follow behind him, unable to resist speaking up in warning: "Something feels wrong. This operation has gone far too smoothly."
"The Dao Net is on the verge of ruin, yet the Great Net has still not appeared. Where on earth did he go?"
"He certainly didn't just flee at the first sign of trouble. The Dao Net is the culmination of his painstaking efforts over countless years; he would never abandon it so easily. Unless... the importance of his current target surpasses even that of the Dao Net?"
A thought could not help but surface in the minds of the two Nameless.
Li Buren seemed to guess their thoughts as well, but his body merely paused for a brief instant before pressing onward.
At the location of the final Dao Net pillar, no resisting members of Immortal Hunt remained.
All was deathly still. The sole surviving Nameless pillar barely held up the collapsing Dao strings in the vicinity.
So long as this final pillar was taken, the Shuo Star Sea Dao Net would cease to exist after today.
Li Buren repeated his earlier tactic, using the Wuji Heavenly Pillar to lead the way and dissolve the Dao Net's remaining defenses.
A gaunt, emaciated figure entered his view.
He seemed to have endured unimaginable torment, or perhaps he had been imprisoned the longest.
This final Nameless sat cross-legged with his head drooping and his clothes in tatters.
Compared to the previous three, he appeared utterly wretched.
Li Buren even sensed that the Great Dao the Shuo Star Sea Dao Net extracted from him surpassed that of the other three Nameless combined!
Alone, he seemed to bear the cumulative pressure of all the other Dao Net pillars!
His body was densely impaled with Dao strings, presenting a truly chilling sight.
"Do you recognize him?" Li Buren suddenly spoke, inquiring of the two Nameless behind him.
Chaos and Shanhua examined the figure closely, then both shook their heads slightly.
"The Immortal Realm is boundless, and those who attained the Nameless realm are countless. It is only natural that we do not know everyone," Shanhua explained.
Hearing this, Li Buren pondered as he scrutinized the prisoner before him, in no hurry to make a move to rescue him.
With his current depth of comprehension of the Great Dao, he had seen through the origins of the previous three Nameless at a single glance.
Wealth and Honor, Firm Rock, Buyan...
Though these Great Daos had been embodied by the Nameless, the Nameless themselves had not transcended, naturally leaving behind some imprints in heaven and earth. It was through these imprints that Li Fan was able to pry into their Dao Paths.
Yet the person before him lay entirely within Li Buren's blind spot.
A completely unfamiliar, unknown Dao Path.
*Could he be from another possibility? Or perhaps...*
Though doubts lingered in his mind, Li Buren felt no excessive fear with two supreme treasures in hand.
Remaining vigilant, he swung the Wuji sky staff down once more.
The remaining Dao strings wrapped around this last prisoner dissolved away one after another.
Just as the prisoner broke free and the Dao Net was on the verge of complete collapse...
A pale, withered hand suddenly gripped the Wuji sky staff tightly.
The Dao strings that had just dispersed suddenly erupted anew from the person before him, surging out in all directions.
Though mentally prepared, Li Buren's heart still skipped a beat. He attempted to retract the Wuji Heavenly Pillar,
only to find the gray stone staff seemed firmly glued to the other's palm.
No matter how hard he tried to manipulate it, the Wuji Heavenly Pillar refused to budge!
Li Buren also sensed that during the brief moments this prisoner gripped the Wuji Heavenly Pillar, wisps of the aura of Wuji began emerging from his body.
An ominous premonition welled up in Li Buren's heart.
And at that moment, this final Nameless True Immortal abruptly opened his eyes.
"Little friend, why destroy my Dao Net?"
...
Not long before, within the Great Wall.
Watching Li Buren's movements, Li Fan suddenly felt an unprovoked wave of restlessness surge in his heart.
Startled, he immediately investigated the origin of this inexplicable emotion.
Ever since embarking on the cultivation of Samsara, his spiritual intuition had saved him countless times.
Although he still did not understand the source of this unerring intuition, Li Fan had temporarily come to accept it as a unique talent of his own, much like his innate spiritual nature that could be diminished indefinitely.
A warning from his intuition was never without cause.
Li Fan's thoughts spun rapidly, locking onto a target among thousands of possibilities.
*The Great Net?*
*With the Dao Net facing destruction, he remains indifferent. Is he planning to come directly for me?*
Li Fan could not help but feel a sense of absurdity.
Though Li Buren had taken the Wuji Heavenly Pillar, Dao Sword, and Dao Saber, within this Great Wall, Li Fan was virtually invincible.
He possessed not only the empowerment of the five Mound-Guarding phantoms, but also the living beings of an entire Primordial Immortal Realm serving as his soldiers.
Unless confronted by a transcendent powerhouse among the Nameless, Li Fan had nothing to fear.
*This intuitive warning differs from the past. It is not a fatal crisis, but it certainly carries a latent threat.*
*Which means this Great Net's strength is by no means to be underestimated.*
After thinking it through, Li Fan did not immediately use Revert to the True to flee.
He intended to meet this exceedingly mysterious Nameless first.
While he was pondering, Li Buren had already reached the side of the final prisoner.
And the moment the gaunt elder uttered the words, "Little friend, why destroy my Dao Net?"—
A blue figure appeared ghostly and without warning in the Primordial Immortal Realm,
locking directly onto Li Fan's true body.
The distance between them was a mere thousand zhang.
The Primordial Immortal Realm lay entirely under Li Fan's control. He naturally sensed this reckless intruder the instant he arrived.
Which was precisely why his shock deepened.
Without a doubt, the blue figure was that Great Net.
Yet Li Fan had no inkling of how he had managed to appear within the Great Wall.
By all rights, with the Great Wall acting as a barrier, any True Immortal attempting to cross it would produce ripples that would inevitably draw Li Fan's attention. After all, he was now half a Mound-Guarding successor, holding the authority over the vast majority of the proving ground.
Yet the blue Great Net had completely ignored this rule.
*Just how...*
Staring intently at the mysterious figure before him, Li Fan did not hesitate to unleash his full strength at once.
The Mound-Guarding phantoms, the sealed Heavenly Pillars,
even the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net Li Fan had woven himself.
He sought to suppress Nameless Great Net in an instant.
Enormous waves seemed to surge across the Pitch-Black Star Sea in an instant. Within the Primordial Immortal Realm, clouds churned, winds howled, and the sky tore open.
The Celestial Emperor and the Heavenly Scars were startled by the anomaly, only then noticing the two confronting figures in the realm.
Seeing that someone dared challenge the majesty of the Primordial Father God, the beings of the Primordial Immortal Realm were collectively enraged.
Turning into streaks of flowing light, they descended in an instant, standing behind Li Fan like dark clouds and glaring at the blue figure ahead.
They only awaited Li Fan's command to swarm forward and tear this insubordinate intruder to shreds.
Yet Li Fan, wearing a grim expression, was already experiencing a tremendous shock in his heart.
Because he discovered that the power from the Mound-Guarding phantoms...
had actually failed!
It was not that the power of the five Mound-Guarding phantoms within the Great Wall had vanished,
but that Li Fan could no longer borrow power from them!
In a single instant, Li Fan's greatest reliance had inexplicably been neutralized.
*Could this so-called Great Net be the Duke of Shouqiu himself?*
The moment the thought crossed his mind, Li Fan's heart pounded wildly.
At present, he was completely incapable of contending with the Duke of Shouqiu.
*No. The Great Net's actual performance falls far short of the legendary Duke of Shouqiu.*
*He has been locked in a back-and-forth stalemate with a bunch of down-and-out Nameless for tens of thousands of years.*
*It cannot possibly be the Duke of Shouqiu himself.*
Li Fan quickly calmed down, rapidly deducing the reason behind such a bizarre phenomenon.
*He wrested away my control over the Mound-Guarding phantoms.*
*And he passes freely between the inside and outside of the Great Wall.*
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, already finding the answer in his heart.
*This Great Net, like me, originates from within the Great Wall? And he entered the proving ground's hidden space and obtained the Duke of Shouqiu's legacy...*
*However, he does not hail from our Pitch-Black Star Sea,*
*but from another partitioned space within the proving ground.*
...
And the words that followed from the blue figure seemed to confirm Li Fan's conjecture: "Having received the Duke of Shouqiu's legacy, yet you engage in such deeds?"
He pointed toward the sealed Heavenly Pillars here and spoke flatly.
Li Fan's thoughts spun through a hundred turns.
Since the other party had not acted immediately, there was room for maneuver.
Regardless, he had to extract some useful information first. In any case, with Illusion Is Reality protecting him, he had already secured an invincible footing.
With a wave of his hand, Li Fan dismissed the surrounding beings of the Primordial Immortal Realm.
Li Fan laughed aloud. "It turns out we are family after all!"
"Perhaps I should address you as Senior Brother?"
The blue figure coldly declined: "I would not dare accept such a title."
Li Fan did not press the matter, shifting the topic: "How do my actions differ from yours, Dao Brother? Both of us turn immortals into pillars."
"This practice has existed in the Immortal Realm since ancient times. Even if the successive Immortal Emperors were present, they could not fault me."
Li Fan chuckled coldly. "Propping up Dao Annihilation with immortal bodies can also be considered a great merit."
"Others may do so. But you may not, for you have received the Mound-Guarding legacy." The blue figure was not led astray by Li Fan's sophistry, directly defining Li Fan's transgression.
"I cannot... yet you can, Dao Brother? Heh, don't be too—"
"I naturally cannot violate it either," the blue figure cut Li Fan off.
"Yet the lower Star Sea was on the verge of ruin. Reasonably persuading the True Immortals would have taken too long. Therefore, I was the first to enter the net with my own body."
The blue glow surrounding the figure slowly dissipated alongside these words,
revealing his true appearance within.
He was identical to the elder sealed in the deepest part of the Dao Net!
Or rather, the two were fundamentally the same person!
"Without leading by example, how could the other Nameless have submitted willingly?" the elder said calmly.
"You!"
Only at this moment did Li Fan truly understand.
The mysterious Nameless who constructed the Dao Net was actually one of the four great pillars of the Dao Net!
The master of the Dao Net was also a prisoner of the Dao Net!
"Having acquired the Mound-Guarding Jottings, why did you still need to serve as a pillar yourself?"
"Dao-bearing phantoms could have taken your place!" After a brief moment of shock, Li Fan recovered his wits and questioned with narrowed eyes.
The elder sighed. "Short of the realm of transcendence, no matter how lifelike a phantom may be, how could it compare to a true Great Dao?"
"Of course, the most critical issue was that time ran short."
"Had I been given twice as much time, perhaps I could have slowly cultivated a sufficient number of Dao-bearing phantoms."
As the elder spoke, he looked around at the Primordial Immortal Realm. "Shanhua and the others indeed did not exaggerate. This place truly carries the lingering aura of the Immortal Realm."
He nodded in approval.
"May I ask Dao Brother's name?" Li Fan cupped his hands.
"Having learned my master's Dao, I continue it with my body and bear it with my will. My Dao Path is none other than Chengdao—Bearing the Dao," the elder said solemnly.
Chapter 1501