My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2359 - 1759: The One and Only Faan

"As he actually started savoring the taste, Li Fan realized that the myriad versions of himself within his spirit consciousness weren't mere illusions. They weren't simply look-alike faces meant to frighten others.

Every single one was truly and undeniably the mortal Li Fan.

With every face he devoured, Li Fan could clearly sense the shock, resentment, and despair from another version of himself.

Each even carried their own distinct life stories.

All of them mirrored Li Fan, beginning from the lowly Xuan Huang, pushing forward in cultivation, and arriving at the early divine split stage in the mountain sea.

Although Li Fan understood perfectly that none of this had ever happened in the actual mountain sea, after devouring himself bit by bit, recollections from his "prey" began to emerge unbidden in his spirit consciousness.

It was as though these were trials he had faced in previous reincarnations!

"The power to blur the line between lies and reality..."

"Yet, even if they really were my former selves, what difference does it make?"

"I'll swallow them all the same!"

"Regardless of where you come from or your history, you'll all become fuel for my enlightenment."

Li Fan kept his feelings steady, his face impassive, while he methodically absorbed and processed the endless selves.

The rush of innumerable memories didn't cause him any mental chaos.

He simply regarded them as stories from the many past lives of the old Li Fan.

"His past, his burdens—what do they have to do with me?"

"I'll take only what he offers. The rest I can disregard."

Li Fan sensed it was entirely right, as if the ways of the world were meant to unfold just like this.

Even amid the curses from his countless other versions, he stayed completely unmoved.

Devouring his own divine sense left his spirit entirely unaffected.

The whirlpool in his spirit consciousness swirled fiercely, slowly engulfing every face until nothing remained.

Then, he lifted his gaze once more, staring at the divine corpse overhead.

"Those stray thoughts were truly the backlash from devouring the god."

"Still, the clouds I've taken in are but a tiny fraction of the endless sea..."

"Let them get eaten, let them get broken down."

Once Li Fan wrapped up processing that initial morsel, the clamor from the mountain sea faded entirely from his awareness.

The entire world now consisted solely of him and the collapsed form.

In isolation and resolve, Li Fan continued his feast.

Each bite seemed to reveal deeper truths to him. At first, Li Fan relished every nuance of the flavors carefully.

But as the thrill faded over time, Li Fan simply tuned them out.

He gulped them down entirely, focusing solely on the essence of "devouring."

To any cultivator, the power of a god represents an irresistibly tempting delicacy. Even saints of the mountain sea would battle fiercely for a single taste.

But what happens with the next bite, or the one after, or endless more?

The fallen divine corpse stretched out immeasurably.

Completing it would turn into an overwhelming load.

Li Fan sensed a agonizing fullness, yet the divine corpse had barely thinned by a thousandth.

His spirit consciousness swelled with even more recollections from prior reincarnations, now and then leaving Li Fan momentarily lost.

He even lost track of his own identity and reason for this endeavor.

Only an unyielding urge in his spirit compelled him to keep devouring.

After Li Fan had taken in a third of the divine corpse, it seemed like he had vanished.

No longer the individual Li Fan, he merged into the immense cloud.

He became a piece of the once-fallen true god, now reborn via this fresh organ.

Vaguely, he perceived something off.

Still, propelled by the habit built over endless years, Li Fan persisted in his rote devouring.

The death silence cloud appeared to shift subtly.

A primordial awareness was beginning to stir inside it.

But Li Fan remained unaware.

Gazing at the divine corpse, with fewer and fewer untouched sections left, pure instinct pushed him to proceed.

As he fulfilled the mission, he also yearned to escape this ceaseless agony soon.

Mortal consumes god.

This path stretched on in excruciating length.

So prolonged that Li Fan had long since forgotten the spark that ignited it.

Countless years slipped by unnoticed.

From such infrequent reflection, Li Fan appeared to have utterly abandoned his initial purpose.

And the enormous divine body cloud now held only a minor portion yet to change.

With Li Fan's present strength, a single final swallow would end the arduous god-devouring saga.

The vortex rotated softly, drawing the cloud inward bit by bit.

Yet right at that crucial instant, Li Fan abruptly halted.

"This sensation..."

"Restlessness?"

Li Fan pondered intensely, at last remembering the feelings resonating deep in his core.

"Fear, fury."

After ingesting most of the divine corpse, he transcended the status of a mere "mortal."

Li Fan only found those inner emotions profoundly strange.

"Why would I feel this way?"

"How did I end up like this?"

His thoughts, frozen like ice for so long, now thawed and started circulating freely.

Just one last remnant stood between him and total metamorphosis.

But Li Fan decided to hold back.

Like a mighty river surging east, suddenly dammed up.

Certain feelings began to build up gradually, simmering beneath the surface.

When they hit a breaking point, an innate force surged to life. In the normal course, the fallen body wouldn't experience such shifts.

However, in this instant, only that final remnant barred the god's rebirth.

The vast awareness hidden in the cloud teetered on the edge of revival.

As though in a trance, it reached out on reflex.

"Hmm?"

Sensing the nudges from "external" sources, Li Fan's forehead creased.

Through the endless solitary years of consuming the divine body, he had become wholly used to the notion of "just me."