"To be frank with you, Senior Brother, I possess a rare treasure named the Myriad Beasts Revolving Wheel that can restrain the alien Nameless. However, its power is limited, and it can at most bind eight of them. As for the rest, I will have to trouble you, Senior Brother," Li Fan said with remarkable candor.
At the same time, he displayed the treasure gifted by Di Sanmo.
Chengdao looked at the strange images of life forms manifesting within the wheel and nodded slightly. "It is indeed the aura of Great Daos beyond the heavens. Heh, put your mind at ease, Junior Brother. With me here, these aliens won't be able to stir up any trouble."
Chengdao Nameless's confidence did not appear feigned, which instead piqued Li Fan's curiosity.
"Though you are powerful, Senior Brother, I fear you alone might not be a match for the combined might of those alien Nameless. Could it be..." Li Fan pointed toward the sky, hinting at the Mound-Guarding Lord who had already drifted away into the distance.
Chengdao smiled unconcernedly. "Why would such a trivial matter require troubling Master? Dealing with fellow disciples may warrant showing some restraint. But dealing with these aliens..."
"One may use any means necessary."
Li Fan's eyes brightened, and he cupped his hands. "Please enlighten me, Senior Brother."
Chengdao did not answer directly, instead asking a seemingly unprompted question: "The one beside my true body—is that an avatar of yours?"
"Your vision is indeed extraordinary, Senior Brother. This avatar of mine is not linked through essence blood, but solely through an unseen soul connection. It is virtually undetectable to others."
"Then watch closely."
The scene shifted back to the depths of the Shuoxing Sea Dao Net.
Li Buren was locked in a stalemate with Chengdao's true body.
Chaos and Shanhua intended to step forward and assist, but were blocked by thousands of Dao strings swarming forth. It was as if another Dao Net were hidden within that emaciated frame!
Even with the power of Wuji, dissolving these Dao strings would take time. Chaos and Shanhua could naturally do nothing but parry.
"Just who is this person? How bizarre!"
"These Dao strings appear to be rubbings of the heaven-and-earth Great Dao, but in truth they are mostly his own insights. I can even see my Dao of Benevolent Transformation within them! How is this possible!" In an instant, the two Nameless discerned the anomaly in Chengdao, and terror gripped their hearts all the more.
Little did they know that Li Buren and Chengdao, who had been locked in a death struggle moments earlier, had already turned hostility into friendship. Chengdao had even begun taking the initiative to explain and demonstrate for Li Buren.
"Junior Brother, watch closely."
Chengdao did not release his grip on the Wuji Heavenly Pillar; if anything, his hold tightened.
Li Buren sensed that the Wuji aura churning like boiling water around Chengdao grew increasingly intense.
In a flash, over a hundred Dao strings shot toward Li Buren in unison as if endowed with sentience.
"This is..."
"Wuji?!"
These hundred-plus Dao strings bypassed the protection of the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net, and even the Wuji Heavenly Pillar failed to hinder them. Had Li Buren not reacted in time by parrying them with his Dao sword and Dao saber, he would likely have been pierced through from head to toe.
"'Chengdao'—bearing the Dao—is by no means empty talk. It must be practiced through body and will." Myriad Dao strings enveloped him and Li Buren, shutting out the prying eyes of Shanhua and Chaos.
"While constructing the Shuoxing Sea Dao Net externally, I bear the Dao Net within my body. Even if the Great Daos are annihilated one day and the Dao Net is no more, I can become the Dao Net, become the Great Dao!" Chengdao's voice boomed like thunder.
In Li Buren's eyes, this emaciated elder truly seemed like the incarnation of the Shuoxing Sea Dao Net itself—seated before him, bearing the weight of heaven and earth!
"Your endeavor to bear the Dao is truly admirable, Senior Brother. But if this is all, I fear it will not suffice. After all, with the immortals departed, the Great Daos of this world are already incomplete, and the Daos you bear have suffered further diminution... Meanwhile, each of the alien thirteen Primordial Dao Manifestations represents the complete evolution of a single Great Dao. A child with all four limbs intact is not necessarily stronger than a single, powerful arm," Li Buren said, shaking his head.
Chengdao did not directly dispute Li Buren's words. Instead, he smiled and asked, "What if what I bear is the complete Great Dao?"
"Behold!"
The Dao strings gushing from Chengdao seemed endless, blotting out the firmament entirely.
The original Dao Net of the Shuoxing Sea turned out to be merely an insignificant fraction of it. Chengdao's body vanished completely, and Li Buren felt as though he had plunged into an infinity of stars. All around him, radiant Great Daos shone brilliantly!
Although far more indistinct than directly observing the true Great Daos themselves, contemplating them closely would still yield tremendous benefits.
Looking at this true Dao Net concealed within Chengdao's body, two names suddenly surfaced in Li Buren's mind:
The Dao-Inscribing Immortal, and the Supreme Dao Scripture.
*What he does by bearing the Dao is, in essence, no different from inscribing the Dao or crafting Dao scriptures.*
*Except the Dao-Inscribing Immortal manifested formless Daos and translated them so the world could perceive, comprehend, and know them.*
*Whereas Chengdao, perhaps knowing his own limitations, did not attempt to replicate the Dao-Inscribing Immortal's feats. He was content simply to serve as a mirror reflecting the Great Daos of the myriad heavens.*
*Even so, serving as a 'Dao Mirror' is an extraordinary feat. Aside from requiring an immense degree of understanding regarding the myriad heavens' Daos, the most critical issue is...*
*The timeline. Setting aside the catastrophe that befell the Immortal Realm and submerged the Daos in Dao Annihilation, even in the pristine Immortal Realm of the past, many Nameless True Immortals had achieved transcendence and departed, rendering heaven and earth's Daos incomplete. Where did the myriad heavens' Daos he reflects come from?* Li Buren's thoughts raced.
As if discerning Li Buren's doubts, Chengdao Nameless's faint voice drifted in from all directions: "I was originally a spirit stone beside the mountains and seas. Born and nurtured in the Immortal Realm for hundreds of millions of years, I could not hatch. Even when Master was on the verge of transcending and departing, I had yet to gain sentience."
"Later, Master came to the lower realm proving ground and discovered a sea of stars that might lend me a helping hand. Thus, he left me here."
Before Li Buren's eyes appeared a dark, chaotic starry sky.
It was one of the countless cubic spaces within the Immortal Realm's proving ground. Li Fan had observed this region before and found nothing special about it.
The scene reversed, and myriad blue motes of light emerged from the darkness. That was the starry sky's original appearance from countless years ago: an azure, boundless ocean whose waters overflowed to fill the entire starry sky.
And its source was a mountain peak no larger than a palm.
Streams on the mountain trickled without end. These waters seemed detached from the world's cycle of reincarnation; once born, they ceased to participate in the reincarnation of heaven and earth and would never vanish.
Accumulating over countless days and months, the waters grew until they swallowed the starry sky.
Only that solitary mountain peak at the center of the sea of stars remained untouched.
The Mound-Guarding Lord placed the spirit stone at the mountain peak, right by the spring's source. Bathed day and night by the flowing stream, it eventually took human form!
...
Li Buren sighed. "To think you possessed such an extraordinary origin, Senior Brother!"
"When I was still a spirit stone, I mirrored the world's myriad sights. All that has passed and vanished resides within my memories of the past. Barring those who truly transcended mortality and achieved sagehood, I can re-reflect them all with my mind."
The myriad Dao nets displayed for Li Fan vanished, and Chengdao returned to the form of an emaciated elder.
"It merely requires time."
"Regrettably, time waits for no one." Chengdao let out a long sigh.
"As you have seen, constructing the Shuoxing Sea Dao Net alone took me tens of thousands of years. Reorganizing the myriad heavens would likely take tens of millions..."
Li Buren pondered for a moment and began to understand. "If not for the pressure of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation, you likely wouldn't need so long, Senior Brother?"
"Precisely. In the end, I merely bear the shadows of the Daos, not the true Daos themselves. Without True Immortals of Dao Transformation as pillars, even if I could reconstruct complete Daos, they would be castles in the air—fragile and collapsing at the slightest push!"
"No need to be so modest, Senior Brother. Reflecting complete Daos—such methods and attainment far surpass ordinary Nameless. I only wonder: what did you mean earlier when you said you would use any means necessary...?" Li Buren was deeply curious.
"Replace shadows with Daos; turn shadows into Daos." Seated cross-legged, the emaciated elder slowly uttered eight words.
Li Buren mulled over the phrase carefully.
"Across different possibilities, paths of the Dao may differ slightly. But ultimately, they remain within the mortal world, unable to transcend the mountains and seas. Born by the mountains and seas, I, as a spirit stone, can generally swallow and assimilate them, then convert them into the shadows of the Great Dao in my memory," Chengdao explained at an unhurried pace.
"Furthermore, perhaps due to the influence of the mountains and seas, this absorption is not particularly difficult for me. To a certain extent, I can even bypass their will."
As if to prove his words, Chengdao tightened his grip on the Wuji Heavenly Pillar once more. In an instant, the surging Wuji aura around him intensified fivefold.
Meanwhile, Li Buren noticed that the Wuji Heavenly Pillar itself was slightly diminished.
Though Wuji remained Wuji, its upper limit had weakened somewhat.
"The one sealed within this pillar must have been a follower of the Holy Sovereign of old. Venerable Wuji..."
Chengdao shook his head and channeled the seized Wuji power back into the pillar.
The lost portion was replenished, restoring it to its former state.
"The Daos stripped away by me can be transformed within my body. If those thirteen alien Dao manifestations dare to come..."
"Then none of them shall leave. All of them will remain behind as Heavenly Pillars." In just a few words, Chengdao had sealed the fate of those alien Nameless.
Meanwhile, Chengdao's act of reducing the upper limit of the Wuji Dao provoked deep thought in Li Fan.
In some respects, this method seemed similar to his own True Also False ability that shaved away upper limits of spirituality.
*Except True Also False affects existence itself, shaving it away from nothingness. Chengdao's innate divine ability merely transforms its nature rather than erasing it outright. Still, both might be connected to the mountains and seas...*
*It is fortunate that the Mound-Guarding Lord found and enlightened this spirit stone back then. With Chengdao's current moral compass, as long as one doesn't violate his sense of propriety to his face, he won't cause trouble. Otherwise, even without triggering the Mound-Guarding Lord's imprint, his innate divine ability alone would make him extraordinarily difficult to handle.* Li Fan was inwardly alarmed.
The power of the mountains and seas transcended the mortal realm. No power born of the mortal world could stand against it; only the Transformation of Real and Unreal could contend with it.
*Perhaps the Mound-Guarding Lord left that imprint partly as a safeguard to watch over him. Otherwise, were he ever to run amok and lose control, the havoc he could wreak upon the mortal world would be far too devastating.*
As Li Fan weighed this, he decided that Chengdao was a friend, not a foe.
"Rest assured, Senior Brother. Since you trust me so deeply, I will never disclose your origin to anyone," Li Fan vowed solemnly.
"With you possessing such prowess, Senior Brother, I truly have nothing to worry about. It's just that the True Immortals sealed inside the Heavenly Pillars cannot easily be released right away, lest our support prove insufficient and Dao Annihilation draws near..." Li Fan explained with an awkward look.
"I understand this well enough." Chengdao was by no means inflexible. "Once we have alien Heavenly Pillars to replace them, we can release them. When do those alien Nameless arrive?"
"Fifty years at the shortest, a century at the longest."
Chengdao nodded. "That is fine, then. It isn't too long. The grievance they must endure won't be too severe."
Li Fan chimed in, "Heh, you truly are compassionate, Senior Brother."
The myriad Dao strings covering the heavens were drawn back.
Still braced as if facing a mortal threat, Shanhua and Chaos looked at Li Buren and Chengdao standing together like close brothers, both thoroughly astonished.
"Senior, what is going on?" Chaos asked via divine sense transmission.
"Merely a misunderstanding. This is the 'Great Net,' and also my Senior Brother."
Li Buren's words left the two Nameless True Immortals stunned.
They stared intently at the gaunt elder before them, yet could not reconcile him with that colossal pair of blue hands.
Chengdao did not bother explaining to them either.
He merely said indifferently, "Although you two have repeatedly ruined my plans, for the sake of our common lineage, I won't hold it against you."
His words left Shanhua and Chaos utterly bewildered, having no inkling where this supposed "common lineage" came from.
Yet neither dared to ask.
With that, this storm—or rather, farce—finally reached its end.
Throughout the entire incident, though a few True Immortals had perished, there were no casualties among those of the Nameless realm.
They were merely sealed temporarily inside the Heavenly Pillars and could be released at any time.
As for the Immortal Hunt members and mortals in the Shuoxing Sea...
They were not within Chengdao's considerations in the slightest.
Li Fan had come to understand this senior brother of his. In Chengdao's eyes, fellow disciples were strictly stratified.
Those who received the Mound-Guarding Lord's true legacy were naturally the closest.
The immortals of the Immortal Realm were weighted by their cultivation.
As for the mortals of the lower realms, they were merely ants tasked with running errands.
*He truly lives up to being a spirit stone from beside the mountains and seas. Though enlightened by the Mound-Guarding Lord and endowed with sentience and morality, deep down he remains cold and callous,* Li Fan could not help but critique inwardly.
Yet he showed none of this on his face, calling him "Senior Brother" warmly at every turn.
Perhaps never having been addressed so genuinely since his birth, Chengdao felt immensely gratified, and his attitude toward Li Fan grew increasingly amiable.
During their idle chatter, Li Fan also learned why a powerful Nameless True Immortal like Chengdao had relied on mortal hands to maintain the Dao Net.
"Mere mortals could actually contest with you, Senior Brother?" Li Fan asked in disbelief, full of astonishment.
"Had I struck to kill, they naturally would have been no match for me. But even in defeat, the fact that they could harm me remains unchanged. That is why I gradually took an interest in them."
Chapter 1503