My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2317 - 1733: Faan Is Truly the Perfect Man
Previously on My Simulated Road to Immortality...
"It's more likely that these come from my own experiences."
"I've simply forgotten my previous memories, so they only surface as what feels like vivid instincts."
Right then, Li Fan found himself wondering if he truly remained inside the [Real] simulation.
Yet, now in the Saint Realm, Li Fan's outlook had shifted dramatically long before.
After a short shake, his mind settled swiftly.
"Such uncertainties hold no value."
"Blending truth and illusion, illusion into truth. That so-called Mountain Sea reality is merely another outcome from the utter emptiness consumed by the Star. What matters most is my history."
"Should my theory hold, the life I thought was my first might not actually be the original one."
"My [Real]. Just what does [Real] truly mean?"
Li Fan had witnessed the All Saints Divine Technique at the Mountain Sea's conclusion.
Illusion and reality intertwined, futures unclear; the Deduction Art reversing time's flow, passed down by heaven's choice.
Li Fan had harbored suspicions already.
With this sudden memory recovery, he uttered, "If I've never witnessed it, then where does my [Real] originate?"
The solution appeared ready to unfold.
Yet because of that very reason, Li Fan felt an even deeper sense of wonder.
"Is [Real] perhaps the fusion of truth and falsehood, falsehood and truth, embodying the Tao that Saints grasp?"
"Then... whose awareness lurks at [Real]'s core?"
[Real] possesses its own distinct consciousness.
This fact stands unquestioned.
From the constant hunger and absorption whenever it encounters something beneficial, to the rare but vital hints it provides Li Fan.
All these elements solidly prove it.
Thus, a question emerges: if [Real] were merely a gathering of the Tao, a neutral instrument, it wouldn't hold its own awareness.
Does the Tao that [Real] assembles give rise to a separate will?
Or maybe...
Thinking back to that alternate self who emerged right before the Mountain Sea's impending doom.
A revolutionary notion burst forth in Li Fan's mind.
Once it surfaced, it flooded in like a bursting dam, impossible to hold back.
It overwhelmed Li Fan's thoughts, driving him to confirm this hypothesis right away.
"[Real] is me?"
"I am [Real]?"
With that realization, the Mountain Sea transformed, and everything faded away.
The three saints who served Mo Yongge for ages vanished completely.
Guardian Hill, embodying morality, along with those seated on the Xuanji Ring, suddenly disappeared.
In fact, the All Saints on the Other Shore, the whole Mountain Sea.
All seemed to dissolve abruptly into nothingness.
As though some inexpressible, bottomless power had cut Li Fan off from the entire universe.
Besides Li Fan, the world appeared utterly empty.
Then, a form emerged from the emptiness.
Its shape and features matched Li Fan precisely.
However, its bearing and presence differed enormously!
Li Fan's pulse raced upon spotting this other version of himself.
It felt both deeply known and utterly alien.
In a single look, he pinpointed the source of that unfamiliarity.
The facing "Li Fan" stood silently, radiating a deep tranquility without a word.
As if one could safely leave everything in his hands.
And he would never let anyone down.
Completely genuine, completely untainted, completely exalted.
Compassionate like Su Bai, righteous like Lord Guardian Hill.
Once the rescuer of the Mountain Sea, akin to the ideal figure for the world.
...
"You... are me?" Li Fan stood utterly stunned.
The opposite "Li Fan" gave no words of reply.
As Li Fan questioned, it was like frost yielding to warmth.
Innumerable inconceivable recollections burst from the shadows, twinkling like stars across the night, surging inward.
Not long prior, Li Fan had viewed through the Three Saints' eyes a brief span of the Mountain Sea's journey from start to finish over one hundred billion years.
Though a millennium in the Mountain Sea stretched on, Li Fan's present strength could scarcely handle it.
But now, his own history threatened to overwhelm and shatter him.
Like tiny insects adrift in an endless sea, blind to its full scope.
Only amid the myriad blending waves nearby could he faintly sense the history.
One hundred billion years, covering most of the Mountain Sea's span, truly marks an immense duration.
Yet in Li Fan's current memory ocean, it amounts to just a single droplet from one Reincarnation.
How could the ocean's droplets number fewer than trillions?
That traces the journey the former "Li Fan" traveled.
Endless Reincarnations, infinite trials.
All aimed at rescuing the Mountain Sea from the Stars.
But as "Li Fan" declared.
"One can halt the Stars briefly, yet not forever."
In every past Reincarnation's end, the Lone Star falls and consumes everything.
The Mountain Sea meets its inevitable doom.
...
Next to his counterpart concealed in [Real], this Li Fan seemed frail and helpless indeed.
Able to take in one or ten Reincarnation recollections.
But as they mounted to hundreds or thousands, endurance failed him.
As if plunging into a deep oceanic chasm, the crushing weight from every side grew beyond imagination, almost pulverizing Li Fan's Divine Soul.
"The moment hasn't arrived yet."
"Go back for now."
Right when Li Fan neared total engulfment by the encircling gloom, a voice rang out, pulling him back at the last second.
The gloom withdrew, and the enormous sea of history dissolved like bubbles in his sight.
The pair shared a look.
Combined with the fragments caught from those recollections before, Li Fan at last assembled the full picture.
The earlier Li Fan had strived endlessly to free the Mountain Sea from the Star.
But much like the myriad beings toiling in the Mountain Sea, every effort proved futile.
Through countless endeavors, he never once halted the Star's arrival for good.
Defeat followed defeat, with no glimpse of triumph ahead.
Still, he refused to yield.
In the end, he chose to alter his approach.
That alteration gave birth to the present Li Fan.
Li Fan now grasped why [Real] had always resisted any direct link with him from start to finish.
Beyond the vast gap in their magnitudes, where even a stray notion from the other might devour him.
More crucially, it aimed to preserve this Li Fan's autonomy.
Unswayed by history, guided solely by his innate drives.
After all, from the same origin, a close meeting between them would lead to what Li Fan had just endured.
In a flash, sunk into the sea's depths, devoured by his historical recollections.
Divine Soul in pieces.
"Save the world..."
"First, save yourself."
Only that last echo lingered in Li Fan's mind.
The veil blocking the outer realm lifted abruptly.
Like bursting up from underwater, Li Fan gasped for air on reflex.
Though he had uncovered the truth he sought, Li Fan felt no sudden clarity.
Instead, a storm of irrepressible feelings churned inside him.
"The sole relief is..."
"That past self has probably truly perished."