Li Fan's prediction proved true. In the black light domain that bore a striking resemblance to Mo Sha, nothing should have remained save absolute, dead silence. Yet just as the Giant Rat Immortal was basking in smug satisfaction, the clanging resonance of crashing waves battering mountains and peaks striking seas abruptly pierced the black domain.
It echoed throughout the Primordial Immortal Realm.
From every corner of this Immortal Realm continent, different answers rang out in response.
The rustling of wind sweeping through mountain forests, the trickling murmurs of flowing brooks, the chill whistle of converging wind and clouds, the clear, bright wails of newborn life, the thunderous roaring of shattering mountain ranges...
These notes—representing life, movement, and change—resonated in harmony with the sounds of mountain and sea in the sky. Like surging waves, they tore brutally through the black domain.
"Petty tricks! How dare you flaunt your meager craft before an expert!"
With a furious roar, Chengdao burst forth from the black light. The instant he broke free, his silhouette blended into the surrounding heaven and earth and vanished without a trace.
Sensing that things were turning sour, the Giant Rat Immortal let out an eerie cackle, though he showed no sign of panic. Shaking his bloated body, thousands of fine, multicolored hairs immediately shed from his splendid pelt.
After falling, these hairs actually transformed into upright human silhouettes.
In an instant, thousands of True Immortals stood in ranks, shielding the giant rat at their center.
"Those silhouettes are..."
"Nameless True Immortals?"
Li Fan saw it with absolute clarity: every single hair that fell from the Giant Rat Immortal represented a Great Dao. At this moment, these Dao-manifested figures were fundamentally identical to the Nameless True Immortals who had transformed their bodies into Daos!
The Nameless True Immortal who had mutated from greedily devouring Great Daos was now spitting back out the Daos he had swallowed into his belly.
Yet after parting with some of these Daos, the giant rat did not weaken. Instead, the aura enveloping him grew increasingly elusive and terrifying. Li Fan also noticed that the giant rat's appearance was undergoing subtle changes.
His claws flattened into palms, his hunched frame straightened, and the expression on his face grew ever more human!
Between the mountains and the sea, a great gale arose.
It whipped and roared with ferocious intensity.
It blew away all the Dao silhouettes guarding the giant rat.
Witnessing this, Li Fan felt as though he were watching countless possibilities, countless worlds, and countless living beings sink into oblivion between the mountains and the sea.
Even though Chengdao had confined his divine ability to a specific area, a stray wisp of wind slipped from its original bounds amid the ferocious clash.
Like an invisible blade, it slashed through the Primordial Immortal Realm.
Wherever the wind blade passed, all things perished. A massive void trench tore open in its wake.
Even with an endless replenishment of immortal power, this scar could hardly be mended in the short term.
From this alone, one could tell how devastating the destructive power at the epicenter of the battle had become.
Amidst the howling winds, silhouettes danced gracefully like willow branches. Though scattered, they were not extinguished, stubbornly holding their ground against the wind of mountain and sea.
Right at this moment, bizarre, unbroken noises came from the Giant Rat Immortal's mouth once more. They sounded like the shrill, heart-rending shrieks of a rat, yet also like the impassioned, resonant chanting of a poet.
Even more hairs shed from the Giant Rat Immortal.
True Immortals drifted forth in droves, thick as hemp.
Having shed all his fur, the Giant Rat Immortal looked increasingly human, save for the rat pelt that still draped over him.
The hurried chanting ceased abruptly, as though a blade had suddenly dropped and sliced the pelt away.
The giant rat transformed into a man.
Unlike the surrounding Dao silhouettes of True Immortals, which were mere blurred contours lacking distinct features, the Giant Rat Immortal at this moment was stark naked, yet indistinguishable from an ordinary human.
"Fellow Daoists..."
"This humble rat offers his greetings~"
A blended voice—neither male nor female, yet resembling both—drifted from the humanoid rat's mouth.
He merely offered the greeting on his own, expecting no reply from Li Fan or Chengdao. Before his words even faded, his ten fingers splayed in empty space, remotely manipulating the True Immortal silhouettes that had completely detached around him.
He was like a puppeteer pulling strings behind the scenes.
Empowered by the Giant Rat Immortal, the faces of countless True Immortal silhouettes subtly took on human likenesses.
No longer attacking out of pure instinct, they seemed truly like the Nameless reborn, unleashing their divine abilities and magical arts to the utmost.
Among them were not only the Dao principles of the Five Elements, Solitude, and Silence found in the "Primordial" possibility, but also Great Daos entirely unfamiliar to Li Fan.
Before the giant rat took human form, the Dao silhouettes of the True Immortals had been like dragons without a leader, fighting disjointed battles. But under the humanoid rat's command, their true strength was finally unleashed.
The pressure weighing on Chengdao instantly multiplied more than a hundredfold.
Li Fan felt as though he were watching a supreme, aloof figure dispatching troops and commanding generals, turning formidable enemies to ash with casual laughter.
*These Nameless obeyed his orders and answered his summons in life.*
*So the Giant Rat Immortal's true identity is...*
*A being akin to a Ruling Immortal Emperor?*
Li Fan's thoughts spun rapidly. Having noticed the telltale signs, he suddenly called out in a testing probe, "Your Majesty! Your subject died such an unjust death!"
This ghostly, chilling cry penetrated the howling winds of mountain and sea, pierced through the army formation woven by myriad Nameless, and reached the Giant Rat Immortal's ear.
Relishing his command of the True Immortal silhouettes, the Giant Rat Immortal abruptly went rigid without warning.
Though he recovered almost immediately, this subtle shift did not escape Li Fan's sharp gaze.
"Senior Brother, do not panic!"
"I'm here to assist you!"
With his suspicion confirmed, Li Fan sneered. With the Wuji Heavenly Staff clearing the way ahead, he followed closely behind, hurtling straight toward the Giant Rat Immortal.
Noticing Li Fan's charge, thousands of True Immortal silhouettes surged forward to block him.
The vast majority were fended off by the Wuji Heavenly Staff.
Even the small fraction beyond the reach of the Primordial Wuji Dao could hardly breach the dual protection of Li Fan's Myriad Manifestations Dao Net and the Immovable Body of Mountain and Sea.
Enduring the onslaught of the True Immortal silhouettes head-on, Li Fan dashed directly for the Giant Rat Immortal.
He intended to claim the Immortal Emperor's head from the midst of ten thousand troops!
Chengdao understood Li Fan's intention and coordinated with him. Not only did the howling winds of mountain and sea grow fiercer, but above the military formation of True Immortal silhouettes, an enormous, leaning figure faintly materialized, gazing down.
The mere watchful gaze over the mountain and sea annihilated countless True Immortal silhouettes.
Though the Giant Rat Immortal's combat strength had vastly increased after spitting out all the Great Daos he had swallowed, his true body was undoubtedly at its most fragile.
Li Fan moved with lightning speed, arriving within thirty feet of the giant rat in the blink of an eye.
The ambush came so swiftly that the giant rat could not even reclaim the swallowed Daos.
He had only managed to regrow a sparse coat of fur when Li Fan's assault arrived.
The Wuji Heavenly Staff struck first, followed immediately by saber and sword in unison!
With nowhere to dodge, a savage glint flared in the Giant Rat Immortal's eyes. Faced with the simultaneous attack of the three supreme treasures—staff, saber, and sword—he showed no fear whatsoever.
Baring cruel fangs, he snapped viciously toward the Wuji Heavenly Staff, Dao Sword, and Dao Saber.
He actually sought to swallow whole the three lethal weapons that aimed for his life!
Truly worthy of an insatiably greedy giant rat!
Yet the giant rat's reaction had long been within Li Fan's calculations.
With a hearty laugh, the Wuji Heavenly Staff, Dao Sword, and Dao Saber vanished into thin air. In their place appeared several pills shrouded in dense purple mist.
Even though the giant rat clearly saw this split-second switch, the instinct of sheer greed prevented him from pulling back his fangs.
He had swallowed the gathered immortals of the imperial court; he had swallowed an entire world.
What was there that he dared not devour!
As the myriad True Immortal silhouettes he had released were rapidly recalled, the Giant Rat Immortal ultimately shifted back from human form into that of a vicious beast.
Gulping down the pills Li Fan had offered, he sought to locate Li Fan once more.
Yet Li Fan had already retreated a thousand li into a safe position, merely waiting for the medicine to take effect.
"Swallowing so many poison pills at once—let's see if you don't burst!"
However, the time it took for the poison to take effect in the Giant Rat Immortal was far longer than Li Fan had anticipated.
It seemed that, as a ruthless character who had crossed the Mountain and Sea inside a coffin, he possessed a degree of resistance even against power approaching Dao Annihilation.
Only after Chengdao and the Giant Rat Immortal remained locked in a stalemate for a full half-day did abnormalities finally begin to surface on the rat.
His originally multicolored fur began turning purple.
Moreover, it began shedding from his body uncontrollably.
This was precisely the sign of Dao transformation induced by the poison pills Li Fan had refined.
At first, the Giant Rat Immortal had not noticed. Only when fine purple hairs drifted through the sky did he wake to panic.
He let out a shrill shriek that pierced the clouds.
Paying no further heed to battling Chengdao, the Giant Rat Immortal frantically scrambled to gather the hairs falling from his body.
From the Giant Rat Immortal's cries, Li Fan heard not only terror, but also intense anxiety and deep reluctance to let go.
This was somewhat unexpected.
Yet no matter what past lay between the Giant Rat Immortal and his former subjects, it would not stop Li Fan from striking him while he was down to claim his life.
With a sweep of his wide sleeve, Li Fan competed with the Giant Rat Immortal for the Dao-transformed hairs while simultaneously resonating with the medicinal potency of the poison pills within the creature's body, preparing to tighten the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net at any moment.
The more hair he lost, the faster his strength plummeted. The weaker he grew, the harder it became to suppress the erupting poison pills.
Once his decline began, the Giant Rat Immortal's defeat was sealed.
The harvest had finally arrived, and Li Fan had no intention of deferring to Chengdao.
"Life and death are one and the same; unite in truth with the Dao. Carefree beyond external things, my pill is accomplished."
Li Fan chanted softly in his heart, using the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net as the furnace and the power of the Immortal Soul of Mo Sha as the pill fire.
He began slowly refining this drifting immortal from the Other Shore of another possibility into a Dao Pill.
The giant rat struggled with all his might, but the net drew tighter and tighter. In the end, all his efforts were in vain.
At this moment, Chengdao also revealed his figure. He looked at Li Fan's pill-refining process, and after a moment of quiet contemplation, did not intervene.
Having shed all his fur, the Giant Rat Immortal reverted once more to the appearance of a man.
He struggled no longer.
He merely watched Li Fan and Chengdao in the distance in silence.
"He who devours others shall ultimately be devoured."
"Those words truly hold true!"
"Fellow Daoists, do not follow in my footsteps!"
"Hahaha..."
Amidst wild laughter, the Giant Rat Immortal was thoroughly refined.
He turned into a translucent, lustrous, rounded pill shimmering with multicolored purple qi in Li Fan's palm.
Without question, this was the most exquisite and most precious Dao Pill Li Fan had refined since mastering the Medicine King Scripture of Dao Refining.
*A pity that I cannot ingest it directly.*
Li Fan glanced at the solemn Chengdao beside him, a thought stirring in his mind.
"Senior Brother, for you."
He spoke with utmost gravity, extending the Dao Pill.
"Eh? That won't be necessary." Chengdao was certainly caught off guard by Li Fan's gesture, but he immediately shook his head in refusal.
It was not that he saw through the subtleties of the Dao Pill.
After all, even Li Fan himself could not be certain whether there was any hidden flaw in the Medicine King Scripture of Dao Refining left behind by Sun Piaomiao; Li Fan was merely cautious by nature.
The reason Chengdao refused Li Fan's kindness was purely because he adhered to the rules imparted by the Duke of Shouqiu: no matter how exceptional a treasure might be, one must never seize it from one's fellow disciples.
Wondrous as the Dao Pill before him was, it was not wondrous enough to make Chengdao break the Duke of Shouqiu's rules.
"Subduing this rat was entirely thanks to Senior Brother confronting him head-on."
"If not for you holding back the myriad True Immortal silhouettes he manifested, I would never have approached his true body so easily. You fully deserve to enjoy the Dao Pill refined from him."
"Furthermore, after Senior Brother ingests this pill, you can explain the Great Daos of other possibilities you comprehend to me. If I were to swallow it, I wouldn't have the skill to explain it all in detail to you!"
...
Li Fan's words were indeed reasonable.
Faced with such an earnest and sincere speech, Chengdao found it difficult to refuse the goodwill. Yielding to the offer, he swallowed the Giant Rat Dao Pill into his belly.
"Senior Brother, how do you feel?" Li Fan asked tentatively after a long while.
"Alas."
"That giant rat, as well as those thousands of True Immortal silhouettes, were actually nothing more than a group of pitiable souls." Chengdao shook his head with a deep sigh.
Li Fan asked, "What makes Senior Brother say that?"
"These are countless visions I perceived from ingesting the Dao Pill." As Chengdao spoke, he waved his hand gently, presenting the scenes before Li Fan.
In the beginning, it too had been a tranquil, peaceful, and prosperous magnificent Immortal Realm.
The Giant Rat Immortal had served as the Ruling Immortal Emperor for nearly two hundred million years. During his reign, all immortals in the Immortal Realm submitted to him, presenting a flourishing scene of thriving vitality.
In fact, after the Giant Rat Immortal took rule, even the Three Sages ceased intervening in the affairs of the Immortal Realm.
The gathered immortals knew only the Immortal Emperor, not the Three Sages.
The decline from prosperity began when the Dao Annihilation Tribulation suddenly descended.
Initially, the Giant Rat Immortal was brimming with lofty ambitions.
He firmly believed he could lead the gathered immortals to subdue this mere calamity of Dao Annihilation.
Yet the Dao Annihilation ceased only to return, repeating in an endless cycle.
Though it could be suppressed in the short term, there seemed to be no hope of ever resolving it completely.
Maintaining outward composure while growing increasingly panicked inside, the Giant Rat Immortal conceived the idea of secretly visiting the Three Sages to seek answers.
However, to his shock, he discovered...
The Three Sages were gone.
They had vanished from this world as if into thin air, impossible to contact.
Although most immortals of the Immortal Realm had largely forgotten the Three Sages, the Three Sages of the Immortal Realm still represented the holy ones in the hearts of all immortals.
Already facing the tribulation, panic hung thick in the air.
If they learned that the Sages had disappeared...
The Immortal Realm would likely collapse into internal chaos before they even perished beneath the Dao Annihilation Tribulation.
After much deliberation, the Giant Rat Immortal decided to conceal this news.
To prevent the Sages' absence from coming to light, he went so far as to disguise himself as the Three Sages entirely on his own.
As an Immortal Emperor of a hundred million years, the Giant Rat Immortal possessed peerless strength far surpassing the gathered immortals. Impersonating a single Sage might have posed no difficulty.
Yet having to impersonate all three Sages without revealing a single flaw...
Proved somewhat beyond his reach.
Thus, the Giant Rat Immortal sought every possible means to rapidly bolster his own strength.
Driven to desperation, he thought of directly devouring True Immortals to usurp the Great Daos they had comprehended.
The results were remarkable.
Relying on his peerless cultivation, the Giant Rat Immortal truly managed to fuse multiple distinct Dao paths into a single body.
Chapter 1510