My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2347 - 1753: Star Falls Into the Mortal Dust
Previously on My Simulated Road to Immortality...
While Li Fan pieced together the bulk of his earlier recollections, several enduring mysteries at last found clarity.
From the instant he discovered the presence of his "former self," Li Fan remained baffled by the way his authentic self from the initial life achieved success in cultivation amid the hazardous conditions of the Xuanhuang World.
Having traversed that path firsthand, Li Fan fully grasped its dangers.
For an ordinary person, survival alone bordered on impossibility, not to mention the pursuit of cultivation.
Li Fan's current achievements stemmed entirely from [Real], the myriad reincarnations he endured before, and the True and False Dao.
How had his original counterpart in that first life advanced so remarkably?
Dismissing it simply as "prodigious talent" felt utterly unconvincing.
Da Xuan, Xuanhuang, Abyss Star Ocean, High Wall.
Myriad lethal mechanisms, perils lurking in every shadow.
Lacking the gift of foresight, even a naturally talented cultivator would struggle to overcome such odds.
Had he perished in that first life, how then would he have encountered the Mountain and Sea Last Saint and grasped the True and False Changes?
"Yet if I'm an intruder seized by a fallen True God to shatter the plot, it all falls into place."
"A detached finger from the True God possesses the power to warp and obscure the intent of the Mountain Sea, eclipsing a Lone Star's glow. Safeguarding a mortal's rise to the Saint Realm would prove effortless."
Gazing upon the [Divine Protection] prior to Heart Transformation and Illusion as Reality in the Hai Zhen display, enlightenment struck Li Fan abruptly.
In truth, none of it had been overstated.
Divine Protection truly embodied Divine Protection.
"Shielded by the True God alongside my innate exceptional gifts from before, I not only shattered the narrative crafted by Mountain Sea but also devised a method to endlessly delay the moment Mountain Sea attains divinity."
"However, as I once declared, one might halt a star momentarily but never eternally."
"Mountain Sea withdraws, Lone Star claims godhood. Unless this tale shifts, the ultimate conclusion stays unaltered."
"Damn it!"
Li Fan's fury didn't arise from the loss of his previous kin or offspring.
As the former Grand Preceptor of the Xuanhuang World, he had once relished those bonds of family with his spouses and many descendants.
Yet nowadays, wielding the True and False Changes, he could erase and revive innumerable existences with a mere whim. To him, his old parents, spouse, and heirs blended seamlessly with all other forms of life.
Whenever desired, he could summon kin anew from his recollections.
When Truth becomes False, illusion manifests as reality.
Authentic or fabricated, distinctions fade away.
The source of Li Fan's wrath lay squarely with himself.
It had to stem from himself alone.
After all, the earlier "Li Fan" remained an extension of Li Fan.
Being unwittingly drafted by a fallen True God for toil.
Starting as an outsider, he unwittingly delved too deeply into the role.
Enduring grueling trials across endless rebirths, only to realize at the close that every effort amounted to mere farce.
The prior Li Fan had sunk into utter despair.
But this Li Fan now brimmed with an irrepressible wave of defiance surging within.
A True God? So what?
Did you seek my consent before seizing me?
"What you couldn't accomplish, I'll achieve. The vengeance you couldn't exact, I'll deliver."
"Mountain Sea, star, god..."
"None shall evade justice!"
A savage gleam ignited in Li Fan's gaze, unleashing an endless tide of killing intent.
This intent burned so fiercely that even the True and False Changes failed to contain it for the moment.
The True God Finger, the subdued starlight, and the unfolding separation of Mountain Sea all appeared to faintly perceive it in that instant.
Li Fan felt as if myriad eyes fixed upon him from everywhere.
Calm washed over him in a flash.
The True and False Changes swiftly veiled him once more.
Ferocity defined his nature, yet caution did as well.
Though a surge of passion led him to voice a daring vow of slaughter.
Deep down, Li Fan recognized that his present strength sufficed for defense alone. To fell a god...
He fell woefully short.
Previously, he assumed that mastering the True and False Changes to a sufficient degree would resolve all issues effortlessly. But his newfound insights suggested otherwise.
"My past self disrupted the True God’s scheme, having refined the True and False Changes to its pinnacle. Yet when the new god's arrival loomed at the end, no countermeasure emerged."
"The True and False Changes merely bends its being back to a time prior to its birth. It fails to utterly eliminate the chance of the new god's advent."
"To slay a god..."
That nagging question resurfaced in Li Fan's mind unbidden.
Why had that True God met its downfall?
Capable of glimpsing the future, even devising a fix for Mountain Sea’s peril by summoning an outsider to foil it.
Still, it couldn't evade its own demise?
"If slaying the ancient god proves possible, so too the emerging one. Should I uncover the cause of the True God’s end..."
Li Fan turned his gaze once more to the True God Finger poised within the Void Realm.
The suppression of the starlight appeared as an innate reaction to provocation.
With the starlight now fading and vanishing, the True God Finger resumed its core duty.
Mountain and Sea Without Boundary!
Like a shooting star, the True God Finger plunged toward the rift dividing the Mountain Sea.
The freshly parted Mountain Sea seemed poised to relive its prior doom.
In that very moment, two silhouettes burst forth from Upper Mountain and Infinite Sea alike, intercepting the True God Finger.
Li Fan identified them immediately from afar.
"Mountain Lian, Gui Hai?" Li Fan's eyes narrowed slightly as he watched from a distance.
These two Saints had undergone a profound transformation since last seen.
The form of Saint Lianshan was gone entirely. It clung to a vague humanoid shape, yet its face bore billions of inscriptions, each chronicling a civilization that once thrived in the Mountain Sea.
Saint Gui Hai, anchored amid the boundless potentials of the Infinite Sea, extended billions of tendrils for leverage to propel Gui Hai beyond the Mountain Sea.