“Everlasting Silence Void Realm?” This was the second time Li Fan had heard the term from the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s mouth.
Though he had lost most of his memories, Li Fan still remembered the Mound-Guarding Lord as one of those rare experts the world seldom produces. And even a figure like that had sunk into a situation where every step was a struggle?
“What place is this so-called Everlasting Silence Void Realm, exactly?” Li Fan could not help asking aloud.
“What place?” The Heavenly Emperor Tai’s expression turned rather strange.
He raised a hand and gestured around them. “Here, there, any place you have ever seen—all of them can be called the Everlasting Silence Void Realm. Even if they are not so now, in time they are all destined to fall into it. Such is the fate of all living beings in the Mountains and Seas.”
The more the Heavenly Emperor Tai said, the more confused Li Fan became.
Yet this former Immortal Emperor—long fallen, with only a single remnant shadow left—seemed bent on speaking to Li Fan in riddles, and went on with words that appeared to have no connection at all: “In those days, I turned my body into the Retrograde Boat and sailed upstream against the current of the River of Time, again and again. At the very beginning, with strength that nearly reached Transcendence, I could only barely return to three thousand years ago…”
“Three thousand years seems a long span, but in truth it is no more than a snap of the fingers. Forewarned as I was, I did indeed make a great many preparations in advance for the coming of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation. But in the end it was all in vain.”
“I could save a few more True Immortals, but I could not save the Immortal Realm.”
“So I tried again and again, seeking to return to ever more distant pasts, hoping to gain more time to prepare. As my understanding of the Retrograde Dao deepened, the upper limit of how far back I could travel kept increasing. From three thousand years, to five thousand, then ten thousand, fifty thousand!”
Though the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s tone was calm, the content of his words already revealed the bearing that belonged to an unrivaled expert alone.
“Even though the Retrograde Boat was covered in cracks, I still held hope in my heart. Until…”
“That day, I finally saw the end of the River of Time.”
Endless remembrance welled up in the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s eyes.
“The end of the River of Time? How could that be?” Li Fan’s body trembled at these words. His eyes were full of disbelief. Suddenly, fragments of images flashed through his mind, bringing with them faint stabs of pain. A moment later, Li Fan finally began to understand.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai continued: “Like a vast river that had come into being out of nothing, I who sailed upstream—no matter how hard I struggled against the current—could not advance a single step further!”
“The Dao Annihilation Tribulation?” Li Fan slowly enunciated the words.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai nodded. “Correct! The Dao Annihilation Tribulation—that terrifying calamity—is not merely devouring our world at the present point in time. It will also erase all traces of our existence in history, wiping them all away. Leaving everything in the Mortal World to return utterly to nothingness!”
“Seventy-four thousand eight hundred and seventy-six years. That was the limit of the River of Time’s upper reaches that I glimpsed when I sailed upstream back then. Only, I have not set out again for a very long time. In the years I have spent here in the painting, I fear that number must have shrunk by a great deal more…” The Heavenly Emperor Tai sighed.
Merely hearing of it, Li Fan still felt that irresistible sense of oppression for himself. What could be more despairing than a fate that even turning back time could not change? It was as though he had followed the Heavenly Emperor Tai of those days all the way, personally witnessing the dreadful scene of the Dao Annihilation Tribulation at the upper reaches of the River of Time, pressing down and pouring forth step by step.
Suddenly a flash of insight struck him, and Li Fan seemed to grasp something. “So the Everlasting Silence Void Realm you spoke of, Senior, refers to…”
The Heavenly Emperor Tai nodded. “Correct. The Everlasting Silence Void Realm refers to those places already swallowed by the Dao Annihilation Tribulation.”
Though he had received the other’s explanation, an even greater doubt rose in his heart instead.
“Since you say, Senior, that the Dao Annihilation Tribulation has already devoured everything that once was, then how did my master, the Mound-Guarding Lord, go to a place that ought not to exist? To travel through the void of time—even my master would surely face a crisis of life and death. To take such a risk with his own body—what exactly was it for?”
Faced with Li Fan’s many questions, the Heavenly Emperor Tai did not choose to conceal anything, but answered them all.
With a sweep of his wide sleeve, a surging, glimmering river wreathed in drifting light and shadow began to flow between the two of them.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai used his finger as a sword and made a light cut. The brilliant image of the long river had its front section simply erased. Only the latter half remained, continuing to surge and flow through time and space—a bizarre sight.
“Have you ever wondered why, when the River of Time has already been wholly swallowed, we who stand downstream still exist?”
“Without the past as our foundation, can we truly exist independently? It is as if I were to return to the time when you were a mortal and simply kill you. Would you still appear before me now?”
Li Fan narrowed his eyes slightly. He had indeed pondered this question, and by instinct had felt it impossible. But the fact that the entire Mortal World still existed was laid out before him, leaving Li Fan no choice but to believe the inference.
The disappearance of the River of Time’s upper reaches did not seem to directly affect the lower reaches. Only when the Dao Annihilation Tribulation truly reached the “present” would the whole of time and space vanish entirely.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai looked deeply at Li Fan. “I once thought so—as did the many experts of the Immortal Realm, and even the three Sagely Lords. Until later…”
“We realized we were utterly mistaken!”
The Heavenly Emperor Tai did not explain in detail how the Immortal Realm’s executors of immortals had discovered the error in their own understanding. Instead, with absolute certainty, he gave a conclusion that admitted no doubt.
He waved his hand again, and the image of the River of Time, previously laid horizontally, instantly stood upright.
The image abruptly shrank countless times over, so that the vanished upper portion of the river could be revealed.
“The River of Time—its foundation still remains. That we still live soundly in this world is the best evidence. Its being swallowed by the Dao Annihilation Tribulation is merely an illusion.”
Li Fan looked at the wondrous sight the Heavenly Emperor Tai displayed before him.
A continuous river reaching to the heavens, flowing from below to above and glowing with a faint blue light, had been contaminated by an unknown darkness.
It had become broken and intermittent.
“The Dao Annihilation Tribulation’s invasion does not proceed in order from ancient times to the present. Rather, it plays out simultaneously at every point along the river. Some historical intervals are caught unprepared and vanish utterly then and there. Others temporarily survive.”
“We—we stand within just such a node that still exists!”
The Heavenly Emperor Tai’s gaze turned toward the immeasurably distant past of the River of Time. “The same question again. The reason we are able to exist is precisely that within that expanse of darkness that appears wholly swallowed, there are still people bitterly holding on!”
“If one day they all truly fall…”
“We too shall cease to exist.”
“And we will not even be aware of how we vanished. As though we had never been meant to exist in this world at all. When that time comes, no expert of any strength will be able to escape the fate of destruction. Not even the Mound-Guarding Lord, who wields the Great Dao of Longevity.” The Heavenly Emperor Tai gave a long sigh.
“!” Li Fan’s mind was violently shaken.
In a rush of thought, he still understood the reason the Mound-Guarding Lord had gone to the Everlasting Silence Void Realm.
It was a rescue.
And also self-preservation.
“Once this was understood, the goal of every expert in the Mortal World became unified. On the premise of maintaining one’s own existence, cross the annihilated void of time and space to reach the previous surviving node and lend aid. Thus, back and forth, in the end…”
“Return to the distant past where the Dao Annihilation Tribulation can be resolved once and for all.”
“It is only a pity that my time has run out. The spirit is willing, but the strength is gone. Sailing upstream was already my limit. Crossing the annihilated void of time and space is far beyond what I could do.” The Heavenly Emperor Tai sighed again, his expression somewhat desolate.
The truth revealed by the Heavenly Emperor Tai far exceeded Li Fan’s estimations.
It even seemed that in his memories of the past, no such understanding had existed either.
His mind, in extreme shock, could not for a time accept or react to it.
After a long silence, Li Fan suddenly realized something and asked hurriedly: “Could it be that our sudden awakening back then—knowing the correct understanding of the River of Time’s current state—was because…”
Li Fan pointed at the space above his own position within the intermittent River of Time ahead.
“A guest came from the future, crossing the annihilated void of time and space to aid us?” Li Fan’s voice trembled slightly.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai nodded gravely.
Li Fan gazed at the scene before him, as though seeing the grand undertaking of all the experts, of one heart, striving to save the swallowed River of Time.
His emotions surged, and for a long time he could not settle them.
Only after a good while did he slowly calm down.
Once the brief fever of excitement had passed, he stared at the sight before him, and many questions rose in his heart once more.
Just how could one cross the annihilated void of time and space?
And how could one be certain that returning to the most ancient moment would reveal a way to resolve the Dao Annihilation Tribulation? If countless people joined forces and endured every hardship, only to find in the end that all was already beyond saving…
What then?
…
After pondering for a long while, Li Fan in the end could not hold back, and voiced the many doubts in his heart.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai’s expression turned solemn. “If we do not try, then all that awaits us is the final end of extinction. Only by trying might we win that one thread of survival.”
“We can only hope that those experts of the ancient, distant past can hold on until the day reinforcements arrive.”
The Heavenly Emperor Tai raised his hand and pointed beyond the heavens.
“You must know that those able to reach the Great World on the Other Shore are without exception figures whose deeds shake the ancient and dazzle the present. And those qualified to cross the annihilated void of time and space to reach the Everlasting Silence Void Realm are one in a billion. Such figures, even with not a shred of hope, can still fight with all their strength for survival. How could they let the possibility of such peril shake their resolve?” The Heavenly Emperor Tai’s expression and tone were more solemn than ever before.
“Though you have obtained the Mound-Guarding Lord’s inheritance, and Transcendence is all but certain for you, if you keep your present mindset, then after going to a greater stage, you may not be qualified to advance further.”
“The Great Dao of Longevity can only protect you in living long and free within this place.”
Li Fan looked at the small stretch of the River of Time the Heavenly Emperor Tai pointed to, and put on the expression of one who had received a lesson.
“Among cultivators like us, who upon hearing of this plan would not be filled with fervor and be willing to offer up their strength? Owing to my own fate and fortune, I cannot take part in it. It is a matter of the deepest regret.”
“Yet you still have a great opportunity!”
“Straying into this place may also have been destined.” As the Heavenly Emperor Tai spoke, he gradually began to mutter to himself. His expression turned somewhat feverish, as though he had thought of some notion that stirred him beyond measure, and from that shadow-body, still cloaked in the aura of death, a peculiar aura slowly rose.
“Lingering alive here has little meaning now. I might as well pass on to you today all that I have comprehended—the Retrograde Dao!”
“If one day you can go to the Everlasting Silence Void Realm on my behalf to lend aid, then this day’s sacrifice of mine will not have been in vain!”
The Heavenly Emperor Tai seemed to have suddenly attained enlightenment.
Great radiance blazed from his body.
His figure gradually drifted into the Retrograde Boat, slowly merging with the hull.
The Retrograde Boat abruptly floated up, and in a flash it hurtled toward Li Fan.
Li Fan had been deeply moved by the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s stirring words, stirred to the depths of his heart.
But now, as the Retrograde Boat flew at him beyond his control, he instinctively wanted to dodge.
But Li Fan was no match for the Heavenly Emperor Tai.
Even with only a remnant shadow left of him.
So he could only watch helplessly as the Retrograde Boat flew into his own body.
Boom!
The River of Time the Heavenly Emperor Tai had displayed before him seemed to crash into Li Fan’s mind as well.
Everything the Heavenly Emperor Tai had experienced in the River of Time as he sailed upstream time and again now played out in unison within Li Fan’s mind.
Exactly the same as when he had been engulfed by his lost memories.
But the Heavenly Emperor Tai had clearly taken Li Fan’s “frail” capacity to endure into account.
Under the relentless wash of drifting light and shadow, those many insignificant scenes slowly faded away.
Only certain key matters, along with the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s comprehension of the Retrograde Dao, remained behind as though settled out.
The Heavenly Emperor Tai’s inheritance seemed to resonate with Li Fan’s lost memories.
The scenes he had once lived through, thus stimulated, could no longer be suppressed and gushed forth in unison from the depths of his mind.
“Revert to the True?!”
Amid the many visions, Li Fan seized upon the most crucial matter.
He finally remembered the name he had given the supreme treasure he held.
And the many wondrous uses of [Revert to the True].
“What’s going on—how did Revert to the True become like this?”
“Not only have many functions like Boundless Samsara disappeared, even the anchors I set back then are all gone?”
Though part of his lost memories had been stirred awake, Li Fan’s state of mind did not settle because of it.
Instead it grew all the more turbulent.
And with the Heavenly Emperor Tai’s inheritance added on top, the situation worsened further.
In the Xuanhuang Realm, within the secret chamber of the Grand Preceptor’s Estate, Li Fan’s true body—under this immense pressure—had its entire upper half burst into a mash of blood and flesh. Longevity aura poured ceaselessly from the ruined body, trying to repair the injuries.
But the upheaval Li Fan had suddenly triggered in his mind this time had already far exceeded what he could bear.
Even the Great Dao of Longevity he upheld seemed unable to save him now.
“Revert to the True! Revert to the True! Revert to the True!”
Seeing that nothing could be done, Li Fan in his helplessness could only call out rapidly in his heart.
But that familiar scene happened once again.
Revert to the True seemed not to have heard at all, and gave no response whatsoever.
Unwilling to give up, Li Fan called out several more times in succession.
The result was the same.
In shock and fury, watching his body gradually being devoured, Li Fan could not help but feel despair.
But in his daze, he recalled what the Heavenly Emperor Tai had just said.
“Such figures, even with not a shred of hope, can still fight with all their strength for survival!”
His panic slowly receded, leaving only incomparable resolve in Li Fan’s eyes.
In an instant, he had found his own path to survival.
Retrograde… Boat!
Chapter 1528