My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2281 - 1712: The Truth of Hai Zhen
Previously on My Simulated Road to Immortality...
The Void Net expanded in a flash, blanketing the entire battlefield situated beyond the Void of the Mountain and Sea.
At the core of this web, a black thread surged with the agility of a dragon, tracing a perfect circle in the air.
Li Fan... was trapped right in the middle of it!
The moment Lord Guardian Hill perished and the hidden backstage of the Void Realm manifested, Li Fan had already begun silently invoking Hai Zhen within his mind.
A boundless white mist billowed forward, attempting to shroud everything in its path.
However, this action seemed to hasten the discovery of Li Fan’s position. The Void Net shifted instantly, locking him within its grasp!
What followed was a scene entirely different from any previous activation of Hai Zhen.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It felt as though a massive, invisible sledgehammer was relentlessly battering the surrounding white mist. Li Fan’s vision shook violently under the constant assault.
The rhythm of the strikes was accelerating.
Every blow seemed to target a vital node with surgical precision, momentarily stalling the white mist as it tried to engulf the area.
Strands of black lines slithered toward him like venomous vipers. Although the white mist held them back, the heavy pounding caused tiny fissures to appear in the vast expanse of white.
This opening provided the backstage of the Void Realm with a golden opportunity!
It appeared as though the enemy had successfully halted the activation of Hai Zhen!
Confronted by such a dire situation, Li Fan felt surprise but remained far from panic.
Due to the unity of hearts and minds, he was still bathed in the transcendental state born from Lord Guardian Hill’s resolute sacrifice.
Having looked death in the eye without fear, he naturally remained unfazed by this sudden crisis.
Even as this state began to wither following Guardian Hill's departure, it did not prevent Li Fan from maintaining a sharp, unparalleled focus at this critical juncture.
He had witnessed the power of Hai Zhen firsthand—how a single thought could bring back a star.
The backstage of the Void Realm was clearly no match for such a star.
Therefore, it was impossible for the opponent to actually overpower the True and False Changes of Hai Zhen.
“Those rhythmic strikes are merely disrupting my spellcasting process.”
“Even though Hai Zhen should activate in a single thought, the methods used by the Void Realm’s backstage are forcibly stretching the duration of that thought.”
“As for those countless black threads trying to penetrate the white mist...”
Long ago, the Primordial White Bone had managed to infiltrate the space of Hai Zhen by following Li Fan. Currently, the backstage of the Void Realm was attempting a nearly identical maneuver.
“The backstage of the Void Realm knows it cannot stop Hai Zhen, so it is trying to seize my position instead.”
“It wants to dictate how Guardian Hill’s enlightenment should be manifested.”
“Hai Zhen is truly a burden that ordinary people cannot endure!”
With a cold internal snort, Li Fan acted as if the thousands of encroaching black threads were non-existent. He held his breath, settling into a serene, meditative state to slowly filter out the interference from the Void Realm’s backstage.
Unknowingly, the rhythmic pounding against the white mist began to fade into a quiet hum.
Simultaneously, he used his hand as a makeshift brush, writing rapidly in the void.
As his fingers danced like dragons and snakes, the trails they left behind perfectly mirrored the movements of the invading black threads.
“When turning the true to false, the true itself becomes false!”
With every stroke Li Fan made, one of the invasion methods from the Void Realm’s backstage was forcibly wiped out!
Through the unity of hearts and minds, Guardian Hill’s profound enlightenment became Li Fan’s own!
Just as Guardian Hill could erase the myriad incarnations of the Three Saints and neutralize a full-scale strike from the Void Realm with a thought, Li Fan could do the same.
Furthermore, unlike Guardian Hill who would suffer the backlash of True Yet False, Li Fan had been tempered by the baptism of Hai Zhen hundreds of times. He could entirely disregard the negative consequences of using True Yet False.
At first, Li Fan’s movements were somewhat clumsy—the natural gap between theoretical “comprehension” and actual “practice.”
However, the profound effect of the unity of hearts and minds soon took over.
It felt as though he had performed these actions a thousand times before, and was now simply operating within a superior vessel. After a brief period of adjustment, his fingers moved with the fluid speed of shadows.
One by one, the thousands of black lines woven by the Void Realm’s backstage were systematically eradicated by Li Fan.
What did it matter how many divine techniques the enemy possessed?
In the face of the True and False Dao, everything was merely an illusion.
The raw power of the Void Realm’s backstage was undoubtedly far beyond Li Fan’s level.
Yet, standing against Li Fan as he wielded the Divine Technique “True Yet False,” that power was rendered useless. It was a force that simply could not find its mark.
Every threat was resolved with a gentle touch.
“This is the True and False Dao—a power that transcends all others.”
“Even a high star would have to retreat from its edge! Much less a minor existence like your Void Realm!”
Having erased the last of the black lines, Li Fan’s eyes snapped open. His spirit was ablaze and his voice boomed like thunder as he challenged the unknown entity lurking beyond the mist.
Regrettably, he was not destined to receive an answer from the backstage of the Void Realm.
Once the external influence was purged, Li Fan’s consciousness returned to its natural state.
The white mist, which had seemed frozen in time, began to surge forward once more.
This time, there were no further interruptions.
It swallowed all light, and the familiar, deep darkness returned.
However, on this occasion, Li Fan’s consciousness did not immediately drift into sleep.
Instead, he forced his eyes to stay open, struggling to remain awake.
He had erased the shadows of the myriad saints and repelled the invaders of the Void Realm.
As the chaos died down, a heavy silence settled over his surroundings.
It felt as though the entire world had been emptied of everything except for Li Fan himself.
Yet, in the gloom, he could catch glimpses of countless shadows flickering past at high speeds.
These were the experiences that Mountain and Sea should have endured.
“Right now, I am traversing the Mountain and Sea under the guidance of Hai Zhen, moving toward its very edge. I am waiting for the [Star] to appear.”
“To be honest, nothing within the Mountain and Sea or the Void Realm is worthy of Hai Zhen’s intervention. Even the backstage of the Void Realm is insignificant. With my current, albeit surface-level, grasp of the True and False Dao, I can repel it with ease...”
“Only the Star matters! Once it devours the Mountain and Sea, the Void Realm will vanish entirely. Only when the Star manifests in this world will Hai Zhen truly exert its power.”
“That is the only conclusion that truly matters.”
During this journey, Li Fan managed to cling to his consciousness at first.
But gradually, an overwhelming exhaustion began to wash over him, as if he had been toiling for millions of years without a single moment of rest.
Like a mountain crumbling, Li Fan felt his eyelids grow heavy, making it nearly impossible to fight off the encroaching sleep.
“This isn't just simple tiredness. It is...”
“An exhaustion born from being drained.”
“Am I... being consumed?”
In his state of extreme fatigue, Li Fan finally realized that as he crossed the Mountain and Sea, something deep within him was being used up in synchronization with the journey.
This forced him to stop looking at the flickering shadows of the Mountain and Sea and instead focus what remained of his attention on his own physical state.
The sensation of being hollowed out grew more intense by the second.
It even birthed the terrifying illusion that he was on the verge of death, filling Li Fan with a sense of dread he had never felt before.
The transcendental mindset he had inherited from Lord Guardian Hill had vanished the moment Hai Zhen was activated.
Now, Li Fan was back to his true self.
“What exactly is Hai Zhen?”
“Why is my infinite spirituality being drained so rapidly?”
“What is it fueling? Where is it all going?”
His mounting fear and confusion briefly managed to override the crushing drowsiness, allowing Li Fan to retain a final, flickering spark of clarity.