My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2358 - 1758: Mountain Sea Divine Split – Part 1
Previously on My Simulated Road to Immortality...
Though the Saints remained concealed, the Mountain Sea had already encircled them entirely.
Unlike the Mountain Sea familiar to future eras.
During the Divine Split, the Mountain Sea raged with savagery, ferocity, and ruthlessness.
Butchery and consumption served as their sole methods for handling intruders.
Waves of disturbances rippled outward from the clash of Mountain Sea visions.
The Saints were certain that without the shield of the True and False Dao, their presence would have been detected right away.
"Grab the last chance and comprehend swiftly."
"The Mountain Sea stirs uneasily; our time to hold on is running out."
Li Fan's spectral voice echoed, tightening the Saints' resolve.
They pushed to steady themselves, striving to probe deeper into the secrets of the True God hidden under the layered shades of the Mountain Sea.
It appeared the intruders had fully provoked the Mountain Sea. Right then, the Mountain Sea halted the Divine Split and hunted with utmost intensity for the concealed pests.
Roars appeared to thunder through the peaks, echoing endlessly across the ocean's expanse.
Torrents rose ever higher; amid the Mountain Sea's turmoil, even the core of this temporal realm—the True God's leftovers—shook faintly.
In the face of mortal peril, the Saints' insights outpaced their previous efforts.
Despite the enveloping gloom, they began to make out the hazy shape of the toppled True God inside it.
Every Saint shared this progress.
Not to mention Li Fan, who drew upon the sight of twenty-eight Saints.
The "remnants of the True God," once vague and undefined, suddenly took solid form in a flash.
Abruptly, an immense burden seemed to settle on Li Fan's frame.
His form and Divine Soul quivered from the strain.
"The moment arrives."
Li Fan's gaze shimmered subtly as he clenched the vast web holding the twenty-eight Saints.
With a soft pull and release, he cast it aside.
Simultaneously, he retracted the True and False Changes, causing all Saints to blaze like stars, radiant and intense.
This immediately drew the Mountain Sea's attention.
Though they had foreseen their end, the Saints never imagined Li Fan would discard them so abruptly.
"Everyone!"
Setting aside all distractions, the Saints merged their strengths in a heartbeat, facing down the Mountain Sea's fury together.
Brilliant glow pierced the shadowy time-space.
In a blink, the Mountain Sea burst into a spectrum of vivid hues.
All twenty-eight Saints wielded powers matching the Mountain Sea's might.
The Mountain Sea seethed with anger, yet for the moment, it couldn't overpower them.
The faint quivering hum of the Mountain Sea sounded once more.
From the emptiness, some unfathomable entity appeared to descend.
Pfft...
As if smashing vermin, the twenty-eight lights winked out in an instant.
"What in the world was that...?"
The Saints felt bewildered, but Li Fan, concealed in the obscurity, witnessed it plainly.
"This is the genuine might of the Gods."
"Similar to the True God Finger."
"The Mountain Sea's God-Devouring truly yields results."
Via the Mountain Sea's strike, the True God's silhouette sharpened further in Li Fan's view.
The nearer to divinity, the more it distanced itself from the mortal realm's concerns.
Li Fan felt as though he vaulted onto the waves, steadily scaling the heights.
The clamor below the slopes and on the waters faded into the background.
Just the True God looming above and sporadic brushes with the Mountain Sea remained with him.
Li Fan paid no heed to the rapidly fading sparks afar; his pace seemed unhurried yet covered ground quickly as he ascended.
The views encircling him, the sensations underfoot.
From time to time, they sparked an odd sense of recognition within.
"Every law, every entity, springs from the divine."
"The Mountain Sea is no exception; neither is the True and False Dao."
"Through True and False Changes, upending heaven and earth—fundamentally, it's the divine reshaping itself..."
As the twenty-eight star-glows fully vanished, the Mountain Sea at last noticed Li Fan's approach.
The peaks below quaked without cease.
Gale winds whipped fiercely, aiming to hurl Li Fan away.
"When truth turns false, the false becomes true!"
Clad in a simple straw cape, Li Fan disregarded the storm lashing between the Mountain Sea.
He sauntered calmly, mounting the path upward.
The higher he rose, the more the mountains and boundless sea drifted far below.
His vision held only isolated summits and, far off, hints of the watery edge.
Yet in the end, none of it could sway Li Fan anymore.
The True God's features overhead sharpened into focus.
Each stride Li Fan made demanded increasing resolve.
"Mountain Sea, God..."
All his trials from prior cycles swirled into a maelstrom, resounding perpetually in his Spirit Consciousness.
As though every bit could reflect onto the holy figure.
Drawing on old recollections and trials as anchors to sketch the intangible, formless God bit by bit.
When Li Fan could advance no further.
The deity finally loomed directly above.
At that instant, Li Fan's body and divine soul appeared locked in place.
Devoid of any spark of cognition.
Fortune smiled that the true god had perished, leaving merely its husk in existence.
After an uncertain span, Li Fan's mind stirred back to life gradually.
"Is this... truly a god?"
Far removed from my anticipations.
Lacking the expected aura of godly supremacy and command.
Just a vast stretch of lifeless quietude hanging overhead.
The earlier stasis in Li Fan's mind stemmed not from divine oppression, but from the god's demise.
"Before glimpsing the god's complete form, its essence lingers subtly in all places."
"Yet now, beholding the sacred countenance..."
"The god loses its divinity. Emptiness, brimming with deathly hush."
Li Fan's brow furrowed lightly.
The true god's frame stretched infinitely wide, embracing all within.
Every bit of wisdom, every secret of reality, appeared resolvable amid this eternal mist above.
Still, one irrefutable truth persisted.
The true god had perished.
"What caused the true god's downfall?"
"Maybe only by ascending to godhood can the reason emerge."
Li Fan contemplated deeply in that moment.
Parting his lips slightly, the infinite vapors overhead started to churn and flow into him.
Within mere breaths, an influx of information rivaling Li Fan's entire history surged into his spirit consciousness.
Utterly overwhelming what he could process.
The standard approach would involve gradual absorption and breakdown, much like the mountain and sea's method.
But Li Fan chose a divergent route.
"And, true yet false..."
The divine harvest turned illusory in a heartbeat.
It shed its tangible heft for use, yet lingered intact. Whenever needed, it could be summoned forth.
Sensing the relief, Li Fan quickened his intake.
"Devouring the god alone grants inheritance of its full might."
"Yet my goal isn't to claim godhood, but to claim the god's sight..."
Having observed the doom awaiting a newborn god before, Li Fan felt no pull toward it.
His determination held steady as he engulfed the true god's remains entirely.
Not bothering to assimilate, just aiming to take it all in.
While Li Fan kept his poise, his adversary—the mountain and sea—erupted in wild fury.
The mountain and sea detected Li Fan's consumption rate, which outstripped their own by far.
Should this persist, Li Fan would undoubtedly rise as the new god.
So the mountain and sea staked everything.
The underlying ranges crumbled with a mighty crash.
The remote Vast Ocean vanished from view.
Beneath the true god's haze, twin akin mists abruptly materialized near Li Fan.
Though markedly diminutive next to the true god's bulk.
They surged and shoved toward Li Fan.
Deep inside, Li Fan stayed unmoved, viewing them as extensions of the true god's leavings.
And gulped them down completely.
To his surprise...
The outcome proved remarkably potent.
Evidently, the mountain and sea shared the same essence as the true god's form?
The sole variance lay in the two mountain and sea mists, seething with frenzied grudge.
Not just scars from their essence being seized, but profound, wordless animosities deeper still.
Appearing even older than the mountain and sea.
Relative to the corrosion from the mountain and sea's force, these vengeful sentiments posed greater threats.
Even with Li Fan's steady mindset, his features twisted now and then.
In the spirit consciousness, myriad fresh identities seemed to spawn.
Seeking to supplant Li Fan.
Li Fan's core, watching each alter ego arise, stirred with a strange sensation.
As if this mirrored the mountain and sea's primal genesis.
Gazing at the mountain and sea's vapors, echoing the slain god's substance.
Li Fan gained sudden clarity: "The mountain and sea split naturally from the god."
"Yet their awareness stems from those the god once devoured..."
"Other gods?"
Before Li Fan's sight, visions of countless deities clashed in epic strife, culminating in shared ruin.
On the brink of deeper insights, the horde of emerging selves in his spirit consciousness disrupted him.
Li Fan couldn't suppress a savage glint: "Excellent, let's sample their essence and see what they offer!"
The consciousness torrent cared nothing for warmth or chill.
Even if each mimicked his own likeness.
All were drawn in, consumed without remnant.