My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2313 - 1731: Secret Guidance Through Borrowed Momentum

The inhabitants of the Mountain Sea functioned much like catalysts, hastening the fusion process of the Mountain and Sea Meld even further.

Glory rises to its highest point before inevitably falling, and in the end, the Tribulation descends upon them.

The very first Dao Yan—where exactly did it come from? Not even the Three Saints, who have already attained the Tao, can trace its source.

It appears to spring into existence from nowhere, bursting forth without warning.

Yet while the various Mountain Seas remained at their peak, the vanishing of certain possibilities felt as routine as hair falling out on a person. It hardly meant anything serious at all.

That was until the surges of Dao Yan, carried along by the flow of time, began to hover endlessly near the Mountain Sea.

Then, one fateful day, it finally took solid form.

Before anyone realized, it had expanded to a scale where it could challenge the Mountain Sea directly. Like a spectral shadow, it darted forward in an instant, positioning itself in opposition to the Mountain Sea.

Every path it crossed saw possibilities shatter, and the Tao itself faded away.

Because of it, the Mountain Sea got torn apart.

The previously unified and unbroken whole was violently split into innumerable fragments.

The Mountain Sea could still draw on its inner connections to stay linked across the void.

However, the Living Beings inside the Mountain Sea ended up scattered into shattered, incomplete versions of themselves across different timelines.

Not only did their power suffer a massive drop!

Some memories even got warped, turning fuzzy and full of gaps.

From the viewpoint of the Three Saints, reflecting on the trillion-year history of the Mountain Sea, the All Saints frequently run into memory pieces that appear covered by a pale, misty shroud.

Those sections went missing because of the Mountain Sea's division and were later filled in by the Three Saints through their own Visualization.

In the memory view of the Three Saints, from Dao Yan's very first emergence up to now, a staggering fifty billion years have elapsed.

That's an incredibly vast stretch of time.

What's more, the Three Saints' minds aren't just basic entities. They split into billions of incarnations, nearly touching every single possibility.

This covers the overwhelming bulk of civilizations, Holy Spirits, and Dao Paths inside the Mountain Sea.

The sheer volume of information defies imagination. Without the Three Saints intentionally softening it, the torrent of memories from fifty billion years could easily overwhelm, twist, and reshape the minds of all watching Saints to a noticeable degree.

Even if it's only an illusory traversal, it still lets the All Saints truly feel the journeys the Three Saints once walked.

It's not packed with minute details on the countless possibilities in the Mountain Sea, but instead centers on the broad sweep of time the Mountain Sea has endured.

The All Saints witness that Dao Yan's opening disaster was truly minor in scale.

The possibilities wiped out by the creeping corrosion of Dao Yan barely compare to the natural extinctions that arise as the Mountain Sea evolves on its own.

Still, in the clash of the Tao, what one side loses becomes another's advantage.

Once the pattern of breakdown emerges, unless it's stopped, it's bound to keep expanding without limit.

Regardless of how tiny the factor starts, over hundreds of billions of years, it swells into something colossal.

Now, the Void Realm born from Dao Yan's corrosion has grown strong enough to match the Mountain Sea.

To the point that, far in the distant future, the Mountain Sea's downfall looks like a foregone conclusion.

…

A lengthy voyage draws slowly to its close.

After pulling back from the Three Saints' recollections, it took quite a while for the All Saints to clear the haze from their sight.

"Even though it's a path we've walked before, the mere idea of facing it again someday sends chills down the spine, making the scalp go numb."

"This road is really too drawn-out, too grueling." Bai Xiao let out a heavy sigh, his voice thick with feeling.

"Looking at it from outside, the rise of Dao Yan feels completely without reason. Beyond the Mountain Sea, there was no Void Realm to begin with. Just that watchful eye, and nothing more. But as the Mountain Sea advances, Dao Yan suddenly appears out of nowhere, gnawing away at the Mountain Sea..."

"Is it possible that the Void Realm comes from the Mountain Sea's own gaze?"

Once the first waves of surprise passed, the All Saints turned their attention to the odd details in the Three Saints' memories.

"Based on what I've seen, I doubt it. Even now, with the Mountain Sea crumbling, the Void Realm only equals it in strength. It's solely the slow grind of time and constant buildup that pushes the Mountain Sea toward its rotten conclusion. As for that gaze..." Theft Spirit remarked, shooting a look at Saint Lianshan.

"If Saint Lianshan's feeling back then was spot on... the weight of that gaze has to surpass the Mountain Sea itself!"

After pondering this briefly, the other All Saints nodded in strong agreement.

"Lianshan's Tao proof matches the Mountain Sea's level, but before that gaze, he couldn't hold out for a single instant. The Mountain Sea shifting because of this feels entirely natural."

Talking about the gaze outside the Mountain Sea naturally brings up where it came from.

The response seems obvious.

But it's so hard to grasp that the All Saints pause, none eager to speak it aloud first.

Li Fan, unbound by any such worries, directly shattered the quiet with his words.

"I can tell the questions in your minds mirror my own."

"Power like that, reshaping the Mountain Sea with just a look. Might this gaze belong to [God]?"

This appears to be the sole logical explanation.

The All Saints struggled to reply to Li Fan, all turning their eyes to Saint Lianshan, the sole one who'd actually faced that gaze.

"I'm not sure myself..." After a short pause, Saint Lianshan gave a rare, wry smile.

"No one has laid eyes on God's true form except through the Divine Split of the Mountain Sea. I haven't seen God, so I can't say what it resembles. Even if I did catch a glimpse, how would I know for certain?"

"That said, going by normal reasoning... your guesses are likely correct." Lianshan went on.

Taiyi shook his head: "God goes beyond the Mountain Sea, so it's hard to judge by ordinary logic. Our guesses and reasoning probably won't hit the mark."

"But we can say for sure: whether that gaze is from God or not, it comes from something greater than the Mountain Sea. Like a Star in scale."

"Or perhaps it's tied to the Mountain Sea's Divine Split, the undigested remnants. Or from some mysterious, bottomless source on par with God. Every shift after the Mountain Sea's Eternal phase stems from it." Gui Hai summed up.

A sense of warmth spread through the All Saints' hearts at Gui Hai's words.

It softened the weariness from viewing trillions of years in memories and slowly swept aside the subtle impact of that gaze.

Lianshan turned to Li Fan: "Friend Zhouhui, what are your thoughts? Any lingering questions in your mind?"

Li Fan nodded at first, then shook his head: "Even after living through it once and following its trail again, it's still a huge ordeal. I don't have the insight, bravery, or endurance of the Three Saints. But..."

"Even ants fight to stay alive. As Saints, besides teaming up to rescue the Mountain Sea, I see no superior path to endurance. We have to give it a shot, no matter the difficulty, just to live on."

Li Fan's honest words caught the present saints off guard a bit.

But it rang true, so the All Saints all gave slight nods.

"A journey of a thousand years starts with one step. Let's tackle this towering obstacle in front of us first." Li Fan said with a light laugh.

Li Fan was clearly pointing to the Mountain Sea ahead, surrounded tightly by the Void Realm.

With their resolve renewed, the All Saints shifted their focus back to the split incarnations of the Mountain Sea up front.

The Three Saints from the earlier era and space started explaining the circumstances.

"This siege by the Void Realm's incarnations doesn't have to be any harsher than the last catastrophe."

"The crisis worsening to this level stems from Dao Yan's relentless assault. Despite our safeguards, even the Mountain Sea can't avoid fading bit by bit." Saint Lianshan explained, pointing to the surges rolling in from outside the Mountain Sea.