"An immortal from the Other Shore?" Li Fan's pupils constricted, and he could not help but lean in closer.
"Is it that Other Shore?" he asked in a low voice.
"Yes, and no." Chengdao seemed lost in reminiscence, looking somewhat dazed.
Only after a long while did he come around. He gently tapped the wisp of blue smoke curling before Li Fan.
Within the swirling blue smoke, numerous images emerged.
These were all memories from when Chengdao was a spirit stone by the edge of the Mountain and Sea.
"The Other Shore of legend is indeed the destination yearned for by all living beings of the Immortal Realm. Even Master journeyed there after attaining transcendence. However, the words 'Other Shore' do not exclusively refer to that sacred domain.
"Anything lying beyond the possibilities of the unknown may be called the Other Shore.
"In the ancient Immortal Realm, Immortal Coffins would occasionally drift across the Mountain and Sea amidst the Dao Annihilation Tribulation. The Nameless sleeping within those coffins mostly had their home worlds shattered upon suffering Dao Annihilation, yet were unable to find a way to escape their possibility. To seek a slim chance of survival, they sealed themselves inside coffins and drifted along the currents between Mountain and Sea, hoping to find another place to settle..."
Listening to this, Li Fan could not help thinking of the previous Hunger Immortal, and that Great Dao aura distinctly hailing from beyond the "Primordial" possibility.
It seems she may very well have been one of these Coffin Immortals.
Unable to cross possibilities by her own might, she had no choice but to drift within an Immortal Coffin. Her cultivation fell short of transcendence, yet for her coffin to ripple through the Great Tide of Dao Annihilation and endure until reaching another possibility—such strength must still rank among the pinnacle of the Nameless, Li Fan pondered rapidly.
Yet doubt arose in his mind.
"What... what exactly are these so-called Immortal Coffins, to be able to shield those Nameless from the ravages of Dao Annihilation? If one gathered enough Immortal Coffins, couldn't one build an unsinkable vessel that floats upon the Great Tide of Dao Annihilation forever?" Li Fan asked aloud.
Chengdao scoffed softly with a smile. "Nothing lasts forever. It is merely boiling water stirred to stop it seething—a temporary stall. Those Immortal Coffins are actually the condensed essence of the last remaining Great Daos of a possibility.
"They still cannot stop the erosion of Dao Annihilation; it is merely that through a specialized technique of compression and condensation, they can delay the rate of Dao Annihilation's erosion as much as possible. No one knows who originally created this method, but remarkably, it is universally shared across the heavens. That said, its effects are indeed outstanding, granting the Coffin Immortals ample time to drift.
"I remember that once, Master personally witnessed and salvaged an Immortal Coffin. What a pity, though, that the Nameless within had long since decayed and perished. Pitiful of their fate, Master smelted their remains and the Immortal Coffin into a stubborn stone akin to myself, then cast it beyond the Mountain and Sea in the hope that one day it might regain life..."
Li Fan stared at the stubborn stone in Chengdao's memory. For some reason, an inexplicable sense of familiarity welled up in his heart.
Yet, searching through his memories, he could not find the source of this familiarity.
Not until Chengdao waved his hand, disrupting the imagery. As the stubborn stone dissolved into tens of thousands of motes of light, Li Fan was suddenly jolted awake.
Every single speck derived from that stubborn stone was remarkably like an elixir pill!
"The Medicine King Sect? The square stone?"
The Medicine King Scripture of Dao Refining had been passed down by Sun Piaomiao. It came from a massive square boulder upon which he had regularly sat to refine pills.
Judged by any other method, that massive square stone was an ordinary, pure rock. Only when one firmly believed in one's heart that it was a pill and swallowed it would the faint voice of inheritance echo in one's ears.
This pattern—indistinguishable when united, revealing the Dao when separated—was something Li Fan had only ever seen in Sun Piaomiao's inheritance. And now, he had glimpsed it once more within Chengdao's memories.
Could Sun Piaomiao be the incarnation of that stubborn stone?
Drifting between Mountain and Sea for who knows how many eons, his immortal body already decayed... He indeed possessed the prerequisites to pry into the secrets of the Mountain and Sea.
Furthermore...
Li Fan recalled the words Sun Piaomiao had once spoken in Liu Ruchen's memory:
"Birth, aging, sickness, and death—these are the eternal principles of the Great Dao. Even this starry sky cannot evade them. So how could you?"
Li Fan's thoughts crystallized. Those indeed sound like words spoken only by someone who has truly witnessed the birth and death of the Dao. Moreover, the technique of compressing and folding True Immortal seal characters into chess pieces to create immortal domains bears a striking resemblance to the Immortal Coffins.
If he truly is the reincarnation of a Coffin Immortal...
Chengdao seemed not to notice the turmoil in Li Fan's mind. Having dispersed the image of the stubborn stone, he continued to speak of the Coffin Immortals.
"You mentioned earlier that the Dao Saber and Dao Sword used by that Guangwu Star Sea came from another possibility. That shows they possess the capability to connect with other possibilities. Even if they might not be able to cross over, at the very least salvaging and capturing should be no problem."
Chengdao smiled. "Junior Brother, it seems you've met a formidable adversary this time. Are you afraid?"
Li Fan matched his tone, smiling freely. "With Senior Brother by my side, what is a mere Coffin Immortal? Even against a transcendent powerhouse, I would dare to put up a fight!"
Greatly pleased with Li Fan's boldness, Chengdao nonetheless pulled back his smile. "Confidence is good, but you must not be careless, Junior Brother. After all, for these Coffin Immortals to survive the Dao Annihilation Tribulation when their possibilities collapsed, their strength must be formidable.
"Moreover, the Guangwu Star Sea released this Immortal Coffin specifically targeted at the method you used to subdue the Dao Sword and Dao Saber. I'm afraid it wasn't just a randomly chosen coffin...
"Speaking of which, Junior Brother, how exactly did you subdue that pair of weapons? Even if I were to step in, it might have strained my abilities," Chengdao asked suddenly with a chuckle, fixing his eyes on Li Fan.
Li Fan was naturally prepared for this question long ago.
Without the slightest hesitation, he brought out the Dao Sword and Dao Saber, then cast the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net right before Chengdao's eyes.
Chengdao was no stranger to this divine ability, having faced it when sparring with Li Fan. But the next instant, the purplish-black aura welling from the Dao Net caused his expression to shift drastically.
"These Dao Sword and Dao Saber indeed come from another possibility. Even the Great Dao of Wuji could not shake them in the slightest. However, they remain within the Mountain and Sea after all, having failed to transcend the mortal realm. The core of my Myriad Manifestations Dao Net, the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, is a power approaching Dao Annihilation. Naturally, it can suppress them!" Li Fan declared proudly.
As he spoke, the phantom of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, wreathed in purplish-black mist, floated out from the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net, looming before Chengdao.
Born as a spirit stone by the edge of the Mountain and Sea, Chengdao was naturally familiar with the aura of the Mountain and Sea blending.
Now, upon seeing the phantom of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, he instinctively stood up, a look of tension flashing across his face.
"Senior Brother, there is no need to worry. This power is entirely within my control," Li Fan said calmly as he retrieved the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha.
"Where... where did this come from?" A hint of confusion and uncertainty flickered in Chengdao's eyes.
Li Fan saw it clearly and thus refrained from outright falsehood: "Senior Brother, you and I both hail from the Lanke Dao Sanctuary, so you must know of the many wondrous oddities in this experimental domain."
Seeing Chengdao nod slightly, Li Fan continued, "In the world I reside in, there exist entities known as the spirits of Heaven and Earth, which are essentially concrete manifestations of the worldly laws.
"Mo Sha is one of them. By chance, I discovered its wonders, and through every means possible, I managed to tame it..."
Li Fan wove truth and fabrication together into a smooth tale.
The Immortal Soul of Mo Sha was one of Li Fan's most vital secrets. Revealing it so abruptly could not help but shake even Chengdao.
The brilliant part of this lie was that the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net's suppression of the Dao Sword and Saber had only been conceived after subduing them.
Yet, unless one was the master of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, there was no way to know the truth. What Chengdao saw with his own eyes was that the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net, augmented by the power of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha, had effortlessly suppressed the pair.
Chengdao marvelled in astonishment. "Junior Brother, your fortune is truly extraordinary. If I am not mistaken, this must have been one of the experimental objectives the Immortal Realm sought to accomplish back then.
"The power of Mountain and Sea blending.
"In the starry sky where I gained sentience, there was a similar creation—the springhead whose rushing waters washed the creek...
"It is just that compared to your Mo Sha, it falls short by more than a little." Though Chengdao felt a twinge of envy, it was nothing more than that. Having received the enlightenment of the Duke of Shouqiu, he harbored no thought of coveting his junior brother's treasure.
"By the way, Senior Brother. Do you know why the Immortal Realm suddenly abandoned this experimental sanctuary back then? They didn't even care to preserve Master's legacy. According to my observations, they were perhaps not far from truly finding a solution to Dao Annihilation." Li Fan looked puzzled.
Li Fan's words did not reveal that he knew the initial purpose of creating the sanctuary was to capture the so-called "world-saving supreme treasure."
He merely steered the conversation toward resisting the Dao Annihilation Tribulation.
Chengdao fell silent for a moment.
Suddenly, he looked at Li Fan with a rather peculiar expression: "How do you know they didn't?"
"Hmm?" Li Fan was somewhat mystified.
"This sanctuary was built by the Immortal Realm at tremendous cost and effort. There is no possibility of it being abandoned on a whim.
"The fact that it is now empty may simply be because they achieved the goal they set out to accomplish."
"Yet the Immortal Realm still collapsed in the end, and the Dao Annihilation Tribulation still descended, didn't it?" Li Fan was stunned.
Chengdao sighed. "Junior Brother, you are somewhat too naive. Even someone of Master's magnanimity had no intention of standing firm against Dao Annihilation to save a realm. Otherwise, he would not have drifted away precisely when the Dao Annihilation Tribulation was at high tide. What more can be said of the others?
"From beginning to end, what the immortals of the Immortal Realm—including the reigning Immortal Emperor—pursued was merely a way for the majority of the True Immortals to survive.
"If the Immortal Realm is gone, they can simply recreate it upon Mount Shangfang.
"In the end, the Other Shore is the place everyone truly acknowledged as capable of resolving the catastrophe of the Mountain and Sea blending.
"Everything else...
"Does not affect the broader picture."
Listening to these words, Li Fan was struck dumb.
"Then the destruction of the Immortal Realm, and the True Immortals falling like ants across the heavens..."
Chengdao smiled. "Those who died in the cataclysm of ruin were never within the definition of 'the majority.' Those who left are the true representatives of the 'Immortal Realm.'
"The so-called Three World-Evading Treasures were merely the pitiful struggles of the abandoned trying to save themselves."
...
Li Fan faintly felt that there was something wrong with this claim.
"Then what about the Four Sacred Lords of the Immortal Realm? Three of the four perished. Could it be that even they weren't considered part of the true Immortal Realm?"
Chengdao let out a faint sigh. "Lianshan, Guihai, and Taiyi—those three Sacred Lords simply did not wish to live on. Look at Great Sage Jingfen; isn't he still alive and well? Could it be that Great Sage Jingfen's strength surpasses the other three?
"Besides, the so-called demise of those three Sacred Lords might not even be a true demise.
"It was merely a selective letting go."
Perhaps because Li Fan had bared his secret regarding the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha earlier and won his complete trust, Chengdao explained with extraordinary detail this time.
Li Fan gradually recovered from his shock, mulling over the meaning behind Chengdao's words.
"Senior Brother, are you saying that across the Mountain and Sea, the three Sacred Lords—Lianshan, Guihai, and Taiyi—are actually just one person?"
"Perhaps they weren't in the past. But ever since they opened Mount Shangfang and breached the Infinite Spring, it has been so."
Chapter 1508