As if encountering a terrifying natural predator, the Mo Sha dark cloud shuddered violently without end, struggling to flee from the countless overlapping shadows of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm in Li Fan's hands.
Yet Li Fan held it in a death grip, leaving it unable to advance or retreat.
What Li Fan held was by no means simple illusions. It was the genuine power of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm formed from the feedback of the Sitting upon Heaven Art. Though it currently appeared ephemeral, with a single thought, it could transform from illusion into reality.
With countless restrictive powers layered upon it, no matter how extraordinary the Mo Sha dark cloud was, it was thoroughly subdued.
As the dark cloud roiled and churned, it truly "spat" out the broken fusion pillar it had previously devoured!
Li Fan carefully sensed the Dao principles contained within it; they were no different from how they had been before being swallowed.
"Though the original Mo Sha possessed destructive power capable of obliterating nearly everything, the process of destruction was irreversible. It could never achieve a free conversion like this."
"Mo Sha influenced by the power of the Great Dao of Longevity is far more suitable for forging the Myriad Manifestations Dao Net."
With a flick of his finger, Li Fan restored the Four Great Heavenly Pillars. Rather than directly devouring the source of Mo Sha within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, he placed it back.
Using the connection provided by the Xuanhuang Realm, he began to closely contemplate the transformed Mo Sha dark cloud.
At the same time, within the countless overlapping shadows of Xuanhuang inside Li Fan's body, specks of ink-black began to emerge simultaneously.
This was Li Fan employing his divine ability of false becoming true to directly alter the countless shadowy Xuanhuang Realms, constantly sculpting them so they approached the real Xuanhuang Immortal Realm infinitely. In this way, he bred the endless Mo Sha dark clouds he needed.
As one of the ultimate answers to salvation produced by the Immortal Realm's testing grounds, Mo Sha naturally possessed profound and wondrous characteristics. In a sense, it was an artificial creation through which mortal beings sought to use worldly elements to simulate the fusion of Mountains and Seas.
If the Great Tribulation of Dao Annihilation was a surging tide that engulfed all things, then Mo Sha was a man-made, controllable wave.
Whether used to resist the surge of Dao Annihilation or to blend into it at an opportune moment, it could serve as a sanctuary from disaster.
Judged solely by hierarchy, Mo Sha, representing the power of the fusion of Mountains and Seas, stood even above the Nameless True Immortals of the mortal realm. And atop the foundation of Mountains and Seas, the Great Dao of Longevity had now been added...
"Perhaps due to the blessing of the special property of fusing two Daos, each time the Mo Sha dark cloud completes a cycle of devouring and transforming, it equates to an epiphany for a cultivator."
"Though it has not yet reached the point of complete analysis, if repeated enough times..."
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, watching the expanding dark cloud in his palm as he savored the detailed insights into the Dao principles of the Four Great Heavenly Pillars that it had just swallowed and regurgitated.
"In my previous life, in order to decipher the divine ability contained within the Epoch Projection Pearl, Chengdao and I joined forces, using all living beings across the Great Wall and the Shuo Star Sea as a foundation to execute the Dao Return Plan. We had the myriad talents and beings of that star sea comprehend the Dao on our behalf."
"Compared to racking my brains alone, the efficiency was more than ten thousand times greater. But now..."
"If I master this new power of Mo Sha, there will be no need for the aid of all those living beings. Wherever the Mo Sha dark cloud passes, the Three Thousand Great Daos will manifest of their own accord!" Li Fan's eyes flickered as more thoughts crossed his mind.
"And this is only the fusion of two Daos. What if a third Dao were added..."
It was merely a fleeting thought. The moment the idea sprouted, Li Fan actively extinguished it. He had yet to fully master the Mo Sha born from the fusion of two Daos. Introducing yet another Dao would only invite unnecessary risk of losing control.
"Although I voluntarily extricated myself from the state of the three Daos' fusion, that does not mean I intend to give up."
"Furthermore, I have merely suppressed the hidden peril for now. In the near future, I will ultimately have to face this matter again."
"Using Mo Sha to scout the path is an excellent way to probe ahead."
As the overlapping images of Xuanhuang in his hands slowly vanished, the myriad thoughts in Li Fan's mind did not cease. "The fundamental difference between stepping onto the stage myself and conducting experiments through Mo Sha is that Mo Sha never truly participated in the fusion of the Great Daos of Mountains and Seas. It merely used its own nature to 'imitate' it."
"Although I do not yet know how the immortals of the ancient Immortal Realm found such a peculiar Mo Sha prototype, that does not prevent me from making use of it."
In truth, regarding the origin of the Mo Sha prototype, Li Fan already had a faint guess in his heart.
"It is either an existence on the same level as Mountains and Seas, Trueness, and the Great Dao of Longevity, or the remnant of a peerless powerhouse capable of comprehending the Great Dao of Mountains and Seas. Based on the various traits Mo Sha has shown all along, I lean more toward the latter."
"If Trueness were still functional, perhaps when activating Trueness, I could peer into its true nature while in the Dao Concealment state."
"What a pity," Li Fan sighed inwardly.
The Dao Concealment state referred to the black-and-white realm surrounding Li Fan upon activating Trueness. Except for Li Fan himself, everything else existed in a superposition of being "both true and false."
Within that limited time, Li Fan could comprehend to his heart's content.
Once, within the core of a Soul of Heaven and Earth, Li Fan had seen the figure of the Nameless True Immortal to whom it had belonged.
Though Mo Sha was extraordinarily mysterious, Li Fan was confident that it remained subordinate to Trueness. If he still wielded Trueness, deciphering it would yield twice the results with half the effort.
*Trueness, oh Trueness, I wonder when you will finally recover,* Li Fan could not help thinking.
During the days since arriving at this point in time over eight thousand years prior to his initial anchor, Li Fan had occasionally fancied that this might be a trial arranged by Trueness to resolve his reliance upon it, or perhaps to compel him to forge his own path across the sea.
Yet each time after indulging in such musings, Li Fan could only smile wryly.
How could there be so many fortunate coincidences in this world?
Trueness had most likely truly been damaged in the fusion of the three Daos and fallen into slumber.
"I just wonder if, aside from waiting for it to slowly awaken, there exists any way to hasten its revival."
The only things that had ever stirred Trueness's desire to devour, aside from Eternal Lingering Thoughts, were the peculiar relics left behind by Sun Piaomiao. And Trueness's craving for Eternal Lingering Thoughts was far greater than for Sun Piaomiao's relics.
"Within the Pitch-Black Star Sea, Trueness has already swallowed every existing Eternal Lingering Thought and even its seeds. Breeding and cultivating an Eternal Lingering Thought is not the work of a single moment or a single lifetime, nor can it be forced."
"In fact, beyond the Pitch-Black Star Sea, there is a feast readily available right now."
Thinking this, Li Fan's gaze crossed the Great Wall and pierced through the Shuo Star Sea, looking toward the depths of the astral sea, where the Guangwu Star Sea lay.
"In the Guangwu Star Sea, there lies the remnant shell of a detached powerhouse."
"That remnant shell still preserves the path of detachment walked during life: Solitary Sail upon Mountains and Seas..."
An Eternal Lingering Thought was, in reality, the embryonic form of a path of detachment.
In his previous life, with the assistance of Ziyi and Chengdao, when Li Fan had the fortune to clearly view that Solitary Sail upon Mountains and Seas, he had faintly sensed a tremor of excitement within Trueness.
It was only that Ziyi was present at the time, so Trueness had maintained considerable restraint.
"Once matters in the Shuo Star Sea are settled, perhaps I can conveniently retrieve that detached powerhouse's remnant shell. However, in the previous life, Ziyi's Heaven-Reaching Great Dao cleared the way; relying solely on myself in this life might prove somewhat difficult."
The strength of the Guangwu Star Sea was by no means to be underestimated.
Setting aside the hundreds of True Immortals, the Epoch Projection Pearl alone was far beyond what current Li Fan could withstand.
"However, once the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm gathers its full momentum, I may not lack the strength to put up a fight."
Li Fan temporarily suppressed these thoughts, redirecting his attention to forging the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
The new Mo Sha dark clouds also required a substantial amount of time to slowly nurture.
Nor did Li Fan remain idle. His divine sense swept across the entire Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, instantly locating his intended targets.
At this juncture more than eight thousand years ago, besides the Xuanhuang Realm, other cultivation realms still survived within the Pitch-Black Star Sea. Yet with the sublimation and expansion of the Xuanhuang Realm, these realms were all devoured and merged into the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm.
Li Fan did not particularly care about the living beings fortunate enough to join this newly formed world.
However, certain discoveries within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm resolved several questions that had long puzzled him.
With a flicker of his figure, Li Fan appeared within a deep, gloomy canyon.
The canyon was bottomless, shrouded in swirling mist, with eerie sounds echoing from time to time.
Beneath the canyon, Li Fan saw Qin Tang, Taiyi, Hanhai, and other cultivators from the Tianfa Realm.
Having been swallowed along with the Tianfa Realm, they had ended up in this newly formed canyon.
Their plight was even more miserable than that of the Xuanhuang cultivators.
The Tianfa Venerables who had once carried out the Dao on Heaven's behalf, such as Tianyin, Tianjue, and Tianyu, had completely lost all authority, rendered no different from mortals.
Like cultivators of any other realm, they could only start anew from scratch.
Yet they were already deeply intertwined with the Tianfa Dao path; shedding their original shackles to forge a new path now was far easier said than done.
Their rate of progress was far inferior even to ordinary people.
"However, if they can comprehend the corresponding Dao paths within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm..."
"They could ascend to heaven in a single bound."
Li Fan felt no pity and offered no special care to these old acquaintances.
In his eyes, whether from the Xuanhuang Realm, the Tianfa Realm, or any other cultivation world, all living beings held no fundamental difference.
If one insisted there was any difference...
Undetected by anyone, Li Fan arrived within an altar belonging to the Tianfa Realm.
Li Fan could faintly sense the aura of the various Venerables of the Tianfa Realm that had once gathered here.
As well as a body still slumbering beneath this altar.
It was none other than Tianyi!
He possessed the exact same compassionate appearance with white hair that Li Fan had seen in the past.
Li Fan inspected him carefully. "His consciousness has completely fallen silent, like an empty shell."
"Yet his life aura remains. He enacted the Heavenly Soul Reincarnation Technique, projecting his consciousness to lie dormant within Xuanyuan Tuo in the Xuanhuang Realm."
"The vitality of this body was maintained jointly by the Venerables of the Tianfa Realm. Only under certain extreme circumstances would it be forced to awaken."
"For instance, when all the Venerables perish and the Tianfa Realm falls!"
"So the Tianyi I saw in the illusion of the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace was this very shell. No wonder Tianyi's consciousness, anchored within Xuanyuan Tuo, was able to perceive the tragedy in the distant Tianfa Realm." Li Fan nodded slightly, all his doubts dispelled.
Once, within Hanhai's memories at the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace, Li Fan had witnessed the scene of the palace being slaughtered by "Tianyi," followed by another Tianyi rushing over in haste.
Later, Li Fan learned that the "Tianyi" who slaughtered the Tianfa Realm was actually Su Bai manipulated by foreign consciousnesses from other possibilities. Yet he had never understood why the subsequent Tianyi had appeared in the Tianfa Realm.
For chronologically, Tianyi should still have been trapped within the body of Chuanfa in the Xuanhuang Realm, and should not have been present in the Tianfa Realm.
"This makes sense now."
"What reincarnated was only Tianyi's split soul; Tianyi's body remained in the Tianfa Realm. When the Venerables of the Tianfa Realm were slaughtered to the last by Evil Su Bai, the body was forced to awaken, and thus witnessed the realm's calamity."
"It was precisely because of this that Tianyi's consciousness in the Xuanhuang Realm learned of the tragedy that had occurred in the Tianfa Realm. Regardless of consequences, he forcibly seized control of Chuanfa's body just to return to the Tianfa Realm."
"After returning to the Tianfa Realm, Tianyi's consciousness returned to his own body, reverting to the familiar guise I knew. Though his homeland was ruined, Tianyi did not give up; instead, he devised the method of salvation by borrowing the Xuanhuang Realm to revive souls."
"Xuanyuan Tuo, the Heavenly Venerable Chuanfa, naturally became an exceptionally crucial link in this plan."
"Yet on his own, he could not completely control Chuanfa. Thus, he ultimately found a way aboard the Xuan Celestial Vessel to enlist the help of the Heavenly Demon."
Events that had unfolded in the river of past time were deduced and reconstructed one by one by Li Fan.
Although for the current Li Fan, none of this held any practical significance anymore.
It did, at least, resolve the lingering doubts of his past.
Feeling his thoughts unburdened, Li Fan returned the consciousness of Tianyi that he had previously suppressed back into its original body.
And then...
"When the true is taken as false, the false also becomes true."
A blade of True Also False struck straight down upon Tianyi's body!
Having gone to the trouble of coming all this way, how could Li Fan merely be doing a good deed by restoring Tianyi?
"The strength of that Black Heavenly Physician beyond the Great Wall is unfathomable."
"This serves as the perfect opportunity to verify my earlier hypothesis."
With a calm expression and not a shred of pity in his heart, Li Fan swung the blade that sheared away spirituality again and again without pause.
Although Tianyi still bore the visage of white hair and a youthful complexion, in his slumber, he mysteriously lost an inexplicable divine charm.
By the time Li Fan finally stayed his hand, Tianyi no longer appeared so enigmatic and unfathomable.
Instead, he looked merely like a kindly old neighbor!
"Tianyi and Su Bai both hunt down themselves from other possibilities for the sake of uniting all aspects of the self."
"Originally, in every possibility, there was no fundamental difference between them. But now..."
Li Fan smiled faintly.
"Among numerous miraculous immortal pills, a poisoned pill has been mixed in. I wonder if you will still be able to attain the Dao?"
This was an idea Li Fan had harbored for a long time, but had lacked the conditions to implement.
Now that the climate of the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm had matured, Li Fan conveniently carried it out.
Naturally, Li Fan would not cast Tianyi beyond the Great Wall right now.
Only when he possessed the strength to battle Evil Tianyi would he cast Tianyi out beyond the Great Wall to lure Evil Tianyi over.
"At that time, perhaps I can learn more information regarding the Other Shore."
Just the thought of it filled Li Fan with eager anticipation for the expression that Evil Tianyi would wear upon seeing this other self within the Xuanhuang Immortal Realm, whittled down to the absolute minimum.
Chapter 1559