My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2378: 1768: Cicada Veil_2
As though it had never been there at all.
The original declared in a frosty tone: “Is this what you're counting on? Do you really dare to subvert the True and False Dao and claim my position…”
His words trailed off as the original's face abruptly shifted.
For hazy silhouettes began to materialize next to Zhang Fan.
Zhen Shi Yin, Fake Yu Cun, the old fisherman, Xuan Yuanhong, Master of Slaying Destiny, Po Zhenzi…
These forms looked like separate beings, but they also seemed born from within Zhang Fan himself.
“Haven't you always demanded my submission?”
“Across this lifetime, I've grasped countless Mountain Sea Paths and delved into the core essences of various God creation Guests. Right now, my insight into the True and False Dao eclipses yours!”
“Still, I'm ready to surrender it all to you, so we can unite as one!”
A hint of frenzy gleamed in Zhang Fan's gaze, and with the true and false flames fading away, his body slammed into the original's.
Just like two water drops blending together, they fused in an instant.
However…
The silhouettes of the God creation Guests lingered like persistent specters, manifesting inside.
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
The starlight pouring from overhead grew fiercer by the second.
The vessel of the True and False Dao floated aimlessly toward that lone eye suspended on high.
A chilling cry echoed, calling out Hai Zhen over and over.
Yet the phantom shapes made it impossible to trigger the True and False Changes.
Each time Hai Zhen neared activation, a subtle whisper would disrupt it.
“Hai Zhen!”
“No return.”
“Hai Zhen!”
“No return.”
…
These God creation Guest phantoms weren't the actual fallen God creation Guests.
Instead, they served as Zhang Fan's anchors to set himself apart from the original.
Only Mountain Sea's God creation Guests could hold onto faint recollections amid the endless Mountain Sea resets.
During this life, Zhang Fan's encounters with the God creation Guests revealed that the original had never crossed paths with them in previous cycles.
The original might have traversed every possibility in Mountain Sea, every trail blazed, every past ordeal endured.
But the affairs of the God creation Guests stood as the sole exceptions.
Therefore, they offered a way to distinguish Zhang Fan from the original.
A careful look revealed that even after the two water drops united,
the one that merged second carried distinct traits, letting it persist on its own briefly.
Without question, the original's command over its avatar meant this anomaly wouldn't endure.
An avatar remains merely an avatar, after all.
From its very birth, it carried the inevitable doom of revolt.
In normal times, these God creation Guest phantoms might extend Zhang Fan's survival by just a heartbeat.
They offered no real shift in the core situation.
But at this juncture…
As the Returning to God reached its close, this brief window proved sufficient to flip the entire script.
The plunge toward the True God loomed nearer and nearer, but Zhang Fan showed no sign of yielding.
His intent burned to pull the original into mutual destruction.
The original's calm finally shattered.
“You want to perish?!”
“If death is your choice, don't pull me down too!”
“Once Hai Zhen returns, endless chances await. But if you tumble into the True God, there's no way back, no escape!”
Rage mixed with dread.
Zhang Fan witnessed every ugly breakdown from the original.
He simply observed with icy detachment: “It's exactly because I refuse to die that I'm staking everything on this gamble!”
Starlight flooded across the void.
As if hurling fully into that realm.
The elevated star now blazed like a mighty sun, standing supreme in isolation.
Zhang Fan and the original both sensed clearly how the True and False Changes wrapped around them thinned out.
Poised to slip away entirely at any instant.
“Insane fool! Insane fool! Keep this up, and we'll both perish!” The original bellowed, his barriers crumbling.
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
Zhang Fan's stare blazed with intensity, his mind settling into profound tranquility amid the peril of oblivion.
Grasping the moment he'd anticipated, Zhang Fan at last released the God creation Guests' anchor points.
Ceasing all opposition to their total merger.
Joy surged through the original.
He eagerly sought to consume Zhang Fan whole, then reclaim the primary anchor.
Yet…
In the instant that followed, it felt like gulping down a rock—the original couldn't absorb Zhang Fan and instead choked up a gush of blood.
“Impossible! How could you…”
Zhang Fan smirked coldly: “Stripped of the True and False Changes' boost, how much greater is the so-called original compared to me, really?”
“Let's settle this on equal terms.”
“We'll clash to determine who's superior, who lives or dies!”
With those words, Zhang Fan lunged at the original.
No spells of the Dao, no sacred arts.
Just the brutal collision of raw willpower.
Two souls so alike, or maybe one and the same, clashed in a desperate brawl for existence.
Without pause or mercy.
Right then, they seemed to ignore the outer world's Returning to God finale, the looming doom of no return.
Focused solely on one another, vowing to crown a champion.
No matter the price.
Its savagery defied description for onlookers.
To outsiders, the clash ended in a mere blink.
But to the combatants inside, it dragged on like endless ages.
“Cursed be it, cursed be it, you wretched…”
The original clung to survival by a thread, spewing curses without end.
His only reply came as Zhang Fan's bold, unrestrained laughter.
The water drops churned again.
The pair fused utterly into one.
“Ultimately, victory is mine.”
As the triumphant one, Zhang Fan felt utterly drained, yet his elation fell short of what one might imagine.
Through the avatar, he'd engulfed the original, claiming all its legacies.
But reflection would have to wait.
The lingering True and False Changes within him had dwindled to a mere filament.
With the True God's return hovering on the brink.
“Thank the heavens for not abandoning me!”
“Even if the True and False Changes cling by a hair's breadth, activation remains possible.”
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
Zhang Fan at last uttered the pair of words the original had wailed endlessly before.
Free now from any intrusive doubts to hinder.
After a short hesitation, the True and False Dao poured down into this space.
The starlit sky overhead abruptly dulled.
Like some unseen colossal hand seized the blazing sun above.
Then, with irresistible force, it hauled the sun down inch by inch.
Before Zhang Fan's very eyes, a wondrous sight unfolded.
As though time reversed its flow, myriad sparkling starlights streamed back to their source.
Shadow and void crept in anew.
That icy, lifeless hush, set against the godlike splendor, brought far greater comfort.
This ordeal had pushed danger to its absolute limit.
The True God's ultimate descent had been mere moments from completion.
Dispelling the encroaching True God, this Hai Zhen reset demanded more time than all prior ones combined.
Yet in the end, triumph emerged.
In Zhang Fan's thoughts, the strained tension at last eased.
He drew in a long, steadying breath.
For one final time, he eyed the True God's dissolving form and proclaimed with vigor: “I defy destiny, I claim the original. From here on, I'll shatter stars and fell divinities!”
“Mark my words!”
As if catching Zhang Fan's intent, in its dying gasp, the waning starlight flared once more.
Then it dissolved into nothingness.
Swirling blackness surged in, engulfing Zhang Fan's awareness.