And beyond the mortal realm, something also seemed to meet Ziyi's gaze.
After a brief silence, tremendous waves suddenly surged!
It looked strikingly similar to the majestic billows of the Mountains and Seas that had previously triggered the collapse of the Shuoxing Sea, yet the commotion was dozens of times greater!
It was as if Ziyi's utterly indifferent expression had enraged the unknown existence within Dao Annihilation. It vowed to churn up tempestuous waves and swallow the mortal realm where Ziyi stood.
The Guangwu Star Sea teetered on the verge of collapse.
Even the purple qi Heavenly Pillar formed by uniting the myriad immortals could barely hold out in this catastrophe. Li Fan suspected that were it not for Ziyi standing firm at this moment, the Guangwu Star Sea—and perhaps whatever remained lingering of the Primordial Possibility—would have directly collapsed under this sheer might.
"Over there... what on earth is that? Could it be the so-called powerhouse's corpse that the Guangwu Star Sea fished out of Dao Annihilation?" Li Fan exchanged a glance with Chengdao, both seeing the shock and uncertainty in each other's eyes.
Yet before this earth-shattering spectacle, Ziyi treated it as nothing out of the ordinary. As if having noticed something, a pleased smile even tugged at the corner of his lips.
"You two juniors, watch closely."
After tossing this line to Li Fan and Chengdao, Ziyi's figure vanished in an instant.
The very next moment, the turbulence in the starry sea abruptly ceased!
It was not that the culprit behind the turmoil had been subdued; rather, at that exact instant, an even vaster storm surged forth. Like an absolute sovereign, it drew away every ripple within the starry sea.
Li Fan looked all around. The starry sky was deathly silent, with no sign of Ziyi. The point where the storms collided was strikingly outside the Primordial Possibility!
A thin thread, resembling the Heaven-Spanning Path, suddenly appeared overhead.
Through this rift, Li Fan, in a daze, seemed to behold a magnificent vista of boundless mountains and seas merging together.
Gazing from afar like this was entirely different from the experience of sneaking into the Sea of Infinity via the Heaven Ascending Terrace of the Immortal Realm.
While inside the Sea of Infinity, the immense pressure exerted by every drop of seawater—condensed from countless epochs of time—had made it impossible for Li Fan to truly and closely experience the scene within the Sea of Infinity. Later, even with the protection of [Illusion is Real], as he roamed freely, he caught sight of only endless fragments within the sea, rather than the Mountains and Seas themselves.
Yet at this moment, through this thread created by Ziyi, Li Fan could finally glimpse the panorama of the Mountains and Seas through the eyes of a transcendent powerhouse.
Even if it was merely a single corner, it still left Li Fan stunned and spellbound.
Even after reincarnating for over a hundred lives, even possessing the supreme treasure Revert to the True, even having personally visited the Sea of Infinity, facing this continuous panorama of mountains and seas now, Li Fan still could not suppress an overwhelming sense of his own insignificance.
"Is this... the Sea of Infinity and Mount Shangfang that transcend the mortal realm?" Li Fan murmured under his breath.
He could not even begin to speak of comprehending anything. His mind and spirit were entirely overwhelmed by this indescribably magnificent vista, leaving no room to think of anything else.
In contrast to Li Fan, an anomaly manifested upon Chengdao. His entire body radiated a crystalline white light, and behind him, the faint phantom of an unyielding stone subtly emerged. Chengdao raised his head toward the sky, as if he had returned to the days when he guarded the mound and watched the sea.
From this spirit stone from the shores of the Mountains and Seas surged ripples of profound mystery, seemingly echoing the Mountains and Seas beyond the firmament from afar.
Thus, Li Fan was jolted from his shock by these ripples.
Savoring them closely, he felt a twinge of discomfort in his heart: "We both behold a corner of the Mountains and Seas, yet I can comprehend nothing, while Chengdao experiences breakthrough after breakthrough. The gap between us..."
By now, Li Fan had regained full clarity, yet after peering at the Mountains and Seas, his mind remained completely blank. The disparity between him and the Mountains and Seas was simply far too great. With the stature of an ant, even gazing upon the Mountains and Seas was no different from being blind to them.
Had it been the mortal Grand Dao of a lower tier, he certainly would not have been like this.
"It seems that with my current attainment, traversing the mortal realm presents no great problem. But if I wish to cross the Mountains and Seas, I still have a very long way to go.
"Fortunately, this Senior Brother of mine isn't stingy. He has no intention of hoarding his insights," Li Fan pondered privately, observing the ripples of enlightenment radiating from Chengdao.
This spirit stone from the shores of the Mountains and Seas acted like a mirror at this moment, reflecting the panorama of the Mountains and Seas that Li Fan could not otherwise perceive, allowing Li Fan to borrow it for his own comprehension.
After the thin thread tore through the firmament and revealed the true form of the Mountains and Seas, the colossal disturbance from Dao Annihilation vanished instead.
While Li Fan comprehended the Dao, he tried to search among the Mountains and Seas for Ziyi and his opponent.
Yet given the boundless expanse of the Mountains and Seas, even a powerhouse like Ziyi, once submerged within, was no different from an ant. His trace was impossible to find.
"Watch closely, you two juniors..."
"Watch what?"
"Just these Mountains and Seas?"
Li Fan had a hunch that it was definitely more than just this.
Yet his strength fell short, preventing him from seeing what Ziyi was pointing toward.
Meanwhile, Chengdao seemed to have discovered something; the ripples of enlightenment upon his body grew increasingly intense.
"Junior Brother, focus your will here!"
All this time, the deep bond Li Fan had painstakingly cultivated with Chengdao proved its worth at this crucial moment.
Ultimately unable to bear seeing his junior brother miss out on this fortuitous opportunity, Chengdao still called out to alert him even while immersed in enlightenment.
Li Fan was overjoyed and looked toward where Chengdao guided him.
In an instant, his gaze seemed to pierce through the thin thread in the firmament, leaping out of the mortal realm and arriving amidst the Mountains and Seas.
Faintly, Ziyi's hazy figure could be seen standing tall.
Before Ziyi was an oblate spheroid, with countless thin threads diverging from both front and rear ends while converging in the center.
A power identical to the Heaven-Spanning Path enveloped Ziyi and the oblate spheroid. The thin threads struggled to scatter and flee from the spheroid, only to be firmly locked down by Ziyi.
One could vaguely make out the oblate spheroid's former humanoid shape, but now it had decayed and decomposed into threads of Dao.
"The corpse of a powerhouse who crossed the Mountains and Seas..."
What Li Fan cared about was not the battle between the two, but rather the things gradually revealed from within as the powerhouse's corpse was suppressed and decomposed.
At roughly the position of the original head, numerous fleeting lights and shadows slowly exposed themselves.
To Li Fan's astonishment, the light and shadow hidden within the powerhouse's brain was none other than the vision of the Mountains and Seas!
Even with the body decayed and the divine soul dispersed, this vision of the Mountains and Seas still did not dissipate.
"Perhaps this is the fundamental reason why the corpse could drift through the Mountains and Seas," Li Fan thought, a glimmer of realization dawning on him.
Yet right after, a scene he glimpsed within this miniature vision of the Mountains and Seas shook Li Fan's soul once more.
The Mountains and Seas within the powerhouse's brain seemed no different from the Mountains and Seas Li Fan currently beheld.
Yet upon closer inspection, a lone sail could be seen suspended, crossing between the Mountains and Seas!
Even the endless vicissitudes and vastness of the Mountains and Seas merely caused the lone sail to fade slightly; it did not engulf it entirely.
In an instant, Li Fan understood: "It wasn't the vision of the Mountains and Seas that created the corpse's immortality. It was this lone sail upon the Mountains and Seas!"
"Could this be..."
"The transcendent Dao of the powerhouse when they were alive?!"
Li Fan stared intently at the lone sail in the Mountains and Seas. For some reason, a trace of familiarity welled up within him.
At the same time, Revert to the True, which had slept for so long, finally sent out faint ripples of thought once more, further convincing Li Fan of his judgment.
"An Eternal Lingering Thought?!"
Li Fan's heart pounded violently.
To be more precise, that lone sail crossing the Mountains and Seas might share the exact same fundamental nature as the various forms of eternity Li Fan had encountered before.
Undoubtedly, however, it was far more powerful than anything Li Fan had absorbed previously. Even though it had ultimately failed to cross the Mountains and Seas, the fact that it had protected the corpse to endure safely for tens of millions of years in the surging tide where the Mountains and Seas merged was more than enough to prove its extraordinary nature.
By comparison, the lingering thoughts of Tianyang, Su Bai, and the others seemed rather negligible.
"Yet their essence is identical.
"It is not merely a simple projection of the Grand Dao, but the resonance of one's own will. This is the ultimate reliance for crossing the Mountains and Seas...
"The Mountains and Seas are boundless; I alone serve as the boat!"
Ziyi's earlier words resurfaced in Li Fan's mind at the perfect moment, like a bolt of lightning cleaving through the fog to illuminate the answer.
"If Tianyang had been fortunate enough to reach the realm of transcendence, his method of crossing would have been to take 'Inferior to None' as his boat. If it were Su Bai, it would have been an arduous crossing via the Dao of 'Compassion and True Love.'
"In short, those cultivators capable of condensing into an [Eternal Lingering Thought] after death have practically set one foot onto a Dao of their own. They are already seeds of transcendent powerhouses! This Dao is unrelated to cultivation realm; it seems tied solely to one's disposition and will.
"Yet to transcend, both one's own path and one's cultivation realm are indispensable!
"With sufficient cultivation but unable to make a boat, one can only sigh helplessly at the vast ocean. And even if a crossing boat is formed, if one's own strength is inadequate, rashly entering the Mountains and Seas leads only to death."
Li Fan's heart shook.
Truly, this was a tremendous opportunity.
Through the powerhouse's corpse, Ziyi had virtually pointed out the path to transcendence for Chengdao and Li Fan.
Perhaps relying on Li Fan alone, through constant attempts across repeated cycles of Revert to the True, he might have eventually deciphered this mystery. But Ziyi's guidance had undoubtedly saved him the time of several cycles!
"The Dao of crossing the Mountains and Seas. No wonder even Revert to the True sends forth yearning desires whenever it encounters them.
"Does Revert to the True absorb these to simulate and deduce methods to contend with the Mountains and Seas?" A bold thought could not help but surface in Li Fan's mind.
As if sensing Ziyi's presence nearby, Revert to the True quickly fell silent again after sending out faint ripples, offering no response to Li Fan's speculation.
Beyond the mortal realm, Ziyi had already extracted all the threads outside the lone sail of the Mountains and Seas. Yet he did not absorb them himself; instead, he hurled them into the Mountains and Seas.
Without the support of the crossing lingering thought, these threads were like ice plunging into water—swallowed by the Mountains and Seas without even kicking up a splash.
And Ziyi, who had maintained the bearing of a transcendent powerhouse ever since his appearance, displayed a solemn expression before the lone sail of the Mountains and Seas—an exceedingly rare sight. Mingled within it was even a trace of heartfelt admiration.
That lone sail, already somewhat yellowed with age, seemed to sense Ziyi's will, emitting bursts of profound seven-colored light in response.
Amidst the Mountains and Seas, Ziyi once again displayed the methods of the Heaven-Spanning Grand Dao. A thin thread formed in an instant, spanning across the Mountains and Seas toward an unknowable other shore.
Shrouded in seven-colored light, the lone sail of the Mountains and Seas set sail along this pathway.
Ziyi watched the lone sail depart, and only when it had completely vanished from sight did he withdraw the Heaven-Spanning Grand Dao.
Maintaining the pathway's existence across the Mountains and Seas was evidently no small burden for Ziyi. His magnificent robes fluttered as if blown by the wind. Only when the blood-red mole like a pearl between his brows pulsed with red radiance did Ziyi settle back to calm.
After sending off the lone sail, Ziyi did not return from the Mountains and Seas.
Before the heaven-spanning thread closed, his voice transmitted from afar: "My business is concluded. I have extended the crossing path for three days for you; take good care of yourselves."
Then, just as abruptly as he had arrived, he vanished without a trace.
As for the countless True Immortal purple talismans still drifting across the Guangwu Star Sea, he couldn't care less about their fate.
Leaving only Li Fan and Chengdao, who had not yet recovered their senses, standing quietly in the starry sky.
A long time later.
Only when the thread beyond the firmament gradually faded and the vista of the Mountains and Seas disappeared with it did Chengdao reluctantly withdraw his gaze.
With the cessation of Chengdao's ripples of enlightenment, Li Fan's clever mirroring technique also lost its effect.
"Senior Brother, where do you think the lone sail of the Mountains and Seas was ultimately heading...
"Could it be the other shore?" Li Fan asked softly, reviewing what had just transpired.
Chengdao looked solemn and did not answer for a long time.
In the end, however, he nodded: "It likely is.
"That lone sail seemed to be the true intent of crossing the Mountains and Seas condensed by the corpse in life. One can only wonder why that Senior Purple Qi went to such great lengths to ferry this lone sail to the other shore."
Li Fan could only sigh with emotion: "To think that back then, I merely subdued the Dao Sword and Dao Saber on a whim, only for it to trigger such a cascading chain of events."
"Junior Brother, there is no need to blame yourself. This is fate itself. Had it not been for your casual act, how could the two of us have received such immense fortune?"
The good fortune Chengdao spoke of referred not only to the path of transcendence pointed out by Ziyi,
but also to the Guangwu Star Sea, which Ziyi had swept clean.
Chengdao looked around this vast expanse of ruins. "That purple Heavenly Pillar should not be disturbed rashly. As for the other True Immortal purple talismans, there is no harm in collecting them.
"We must act quickly, though. The three days mentioned by Senior Purple Qi might not mean the same thing as the three days we conceive of."
It had to be said that Chengdao's intuition was remarkably accurate.
After only a single day, the crossing path connecting the Shuoxing Sea and the Guangwu Star Sea had already faded and vanished.
Fortunately, seeing that they had scavenged almost everything, Li Fan and Chengdao did not linger and had returned to the Shuoxing Sea a step ahead.
Watching the pathway vanish and the dark starry sky of Dao Annihilation reappear, the two felt as if they had just awakened from a dream.
"Thanks to Master's protection; otherwise, the fate of the two of us would likely be no better than these character True Immortals," Chengdao remarked somberly.
Li Fan heartily agreed, nodding inwardly.
Next, the two laid out their spoils side by side in the starry sky.
The alien Thirteen Dao Forms fusion entity, plus the characters into which the True Immortals of the Guangwu Star Sea had been transformed—totaling 375 sheets.
The supreme treasure: one Dao Epoch Projection.
As for the other scattered immortal treasures, they were not worth mentioning.
"With so many materials in hand, our starry sky should be able to rest easy for a short while," Li Fan spoke first.
His gaze, however, remained fixed on the Dao Epoch Projection Orb.
Ever since Ziyi departed, this supreme treasure—originally compressed into an ultimate point of light—showed signs of expanding outward once more.
Chapter 1517