Chapter 1470: Origin of Ink Killing

Chapter 1473

To be precise, it was the smaller figure, attempting to carry the constantly chanting illusory figure of the Way of Thought, and escape from Li Buren's presence.

"A thousand souls shift, a hundred spirits turn.""Infinite, boundless, blameless."

As profound sounds resonated around him, Li Buren surprisingly found that the two figures were indeed slowly fading, attempting to evade his immense tribulation.

Li Buren felt a strange sensation; even though the two were now within arm's reach, his desire to pursue them was far less intense than before. He even developed a feeling of indifference towards the pursuit targets. Clearly, this was the influence of the chanting illusion, which even Li Buren's Dao Net body could not resist.

Unfortunately, although these profound sounds had a miraculous effect of averting disaster, they were not an omnipotent wish-granting machine. By slightly channeling the power of the Guardian Mound illusion, Li Buren instantly transcended the encirclement of the chanting sounds. They were no longer faint whispers from afar, piercing deep into his soul. Instead, they were merely like buzzing mosquitoes, easily ignored at any time.

Li Buren reached out and made a grasping motion. The illusory child figure, who was the so-called Grand Master Tiandu, instantly lost his voice as if a rooster had its neck choked.

However, to Li Buren's surprise, the chanting illusion beside the Grand Master was almost unaffected. It merely rippled like water, swayed for a moment, and continued its chanting.

Under the influence of the surrounding profound sounds, Li Buren acutely noticed that the Grand Master, whom he held tightly in his grasp, was slowly slipping away through his fingers. This escape was not about the magnitude of power, but represented a fundamental trend. It was like conceptual laws: averting disaster, blamelessness.

Li Buren had a feeling that even with the power of the several nameless True Immortals he controlled, he couldn't entirely ignore such conceptual trends. Perhaps, if the power of all five Guardian Mound illusions burst forth, he might be able to contend with it. If Li Buren had used all his power from the start, it's possible the Grand Master would truly have slowly escaped from his grasp.

Fortunately, in his perception, the Grand Master was only at the Half-Immortal realm, so Li Buren initially only used a small fraction of his power. When he realized he couldn't change the trend of his prey gradually slipping away, he slowly increased the strength of his grip. It wasn't direct suppression by force, but rather using one trend to counteract another!

There was an upper limit to the power Li Buren could exert. One day, the Grand Master would eventually escape with the help of the chanting illusion. But until then, he was rooted to the spot, unable to move, as if under a petrification spell!

Li Buren slowly approached. After blocking the influence of the profound chanting sounds, he finally clearly saw the Grand Master Tiandu, renowned throughout Xuanhuang Realm history. He truly resembled a Daoist child attendant of a sage, dressed simply, with a youthful, childlike face. But his eyes were pitch-black and profound, as if they had witnessed all the principles, rise and fall, and success and failure of the world. An air of detachment surrounded him; even as Li Buren approached, his expression remained unchanged, as if he didn't see Li Buren at all.

Li Buren temporarily ignored him and first turned his gaze to the chanting profound sound beside the Grand Master. After having seen the Dao Net, Guardian Mound, Primordial, and others, his perspective was already vastly different. With such close observation, he naturally understood what this illusion was.

"The remnants after transcendence and departure...""However, these remnants were not used as pillars to support the Dao Annihilation, but continued their original path.""No wonder the Grand Master always turned a deaf ear to everything that happened and refused to leave with this illusion."

A strange glint flashed in Li Buren's eyes."After a nameless minor transcendence, the Dao it merged with should have vanished from the world. But if remnants remained, then after a number of years, a new evolution of this Dao might appear in the world.""This is equivalent to restarting growth from infancy, countless times faster than evolving from nothing!"

Li Buren stared intently at the illusion, trying to penetrate the profound chanting sounds and discern its true essence."If there's misfortune, avoid it.""If someone seeks a master, transmit scriptures."

Connecting this to the various legends about Grand Master Tiandu in the Xuanhuang Realm, a thought slowly emerged in Li Buren's mind."It's not about granting every wish, but evolving itself based on external changes.""Guiding with the flow, exhausting all changes.""This is...""The Way of Illusory Birth!"

This was a path that had long disappeared from the primal possibilities, leaving only this newly emergent remnant within the illusion. The Way of Illusory Birth was clearly not inferior to Primordial, Non-Action, and others. Li Buren gained significant insight just by a few glances. It was then that he realized that a completely new path represented far more than just a single way. It could also subtly reveal a series of related paths! Even if most of these paths no longer existed in this world, since they were all part of the Three Thousand Great Daos, by comprehending the Dao, one could "mentally reconstruct" these "lost paths" to a certain extent!

"The Grand Master truly is fortunate. Even in the Immortal Realm, this Illusory Birth Dao illusion would be a treasure coveted by all Immortals. Yet, he, with his mere Half-Immortal body, has possessed it for ten thousand years," Li Buren couldn't help but sigh.

The fundamental reason why the Grand Master had been hiding above the Dao Source, refusing to leave or emerge, was because he could not control the movements of the Illusory Birth Dao illusion. Until he completely refined and mastered it, he could only follow its lead.

"So I was mistaken before. Knowing that these profound chanting sounds were exceedingly mystical, I subconsciously spent too much effort on them. I shouldn't target the Illusory Birth Dao illusion; I just need to capture the Grand Master himself.""If it doesn't perceive threat or disaster, it naturally won't evolve means to avert misfortune."

With a thought, Li Buren adjusted the distribution of his binding power. All the binding force was shifted to the Grand Master, who resembled a Daoist child. The Grand Master's always unruffled expression finally showed a change.

"After all, sitting before the Illusory Birth Dao illusion for so many years wasn't entirely useless," Li Buren realized that there indeed existed a subtle, tenuous connection between the Grand Master and the Illusory Birth Dao illusion. The methods applied to the Grand Master still inevitably affected the Dao illusion. However, the power of averting disaster manifested by this was much weaker than before. This meant Li Buren had more time to slowly deal with Grand Master Tiandu.

However, whatever secrets the Grand Master harbored, they ultimately couldn't compare to this Illusory Birth Dao illusion. Therefore, Li Buren was in no hurry to question him, keeping his attention solely on the Dao illusion.

A long while later...

"The Way of Illusory Birth, in simple terms, is the extreme evolution of 'survival of the fittest'.""It transforms everything unfavorable into something beneficial for oneself. Theoretically, it might even be able to derive countermeasures for the tribulation of Dao Annihilation.""But that's only theoretical. The premise is that it hasn't been swallowed by Dao Annihilation before it can evolve its properties."

As Li Buren pondered this, he suddenly thought of Mo Sha in the Xuanhuang Realm."There are intricate connections between Mo Sha and Dao Annihilation.""Perhaps it was an attempt by the experimental ground to completely resolve Dao Annihilation. However, Dao Annihilation subsumes all things; there is inherently nothing related to it in the world..."

Then, he considered why this Illusory Birth Dao illusion had specifically come to the Xuanhuang Realm. Li Buren shifted his gaze, looking down at Yuandao Continent."The successful creation of Mo Sha, the Soul of Heaven and Earth, likely involved a slight injection of Illusory Birth power.""This trace of power didn't even disappear with the transcendence and departure of the nameless Illusory Birth. It remained in the Xuanhuang Realm.""It thus became the only Illusory Birth power in the primal possibilities, apart from the Illusory Birth Dao illusion itself. It was precisely because of this connection that the Dao illusion came here."

Li Buren's thoughts raced. His Dao Net divine sense swept across the land of Yuandao Continent and its deep underground. Since being inexplicably swallowed by ten years of time, Li Fan had never set foot in Yuandao Continent again. Even after reaching the Half-Immortal realm and mastering the Carefree Dream, he had avoided this continent out of deference to the Grand Master's presence. Therefore, this place was a complete blind spot for him. Now, empowered by the Guardian Mound illusion, the shadows of the blind spot were finally swept away.

Thirty-three thousand zhang beneath Yuandao Continent, lay a mysterious space, seemingly independent of the Xuanhuang Realm. A heart-like ink-like shadow pulsed continuously. Each of its pulsations was extremely strange. It wasn't a continuous, fluid motion, but rather like a series of intermittent frames, forming fragmented images.

The closer Li Buren's divine sense approached, the more familiar it felt. This familiarity stemmed from his main body merging with Mo Sha, the Immortal Soul of Heaven and Earth. Li Buren proceeded carefully, continuing to approach without causing disturbance. He already knew what the object before him was.

"Although Mo Sha is the Soul of Heaven and Earth, it is not an inherent or original entity of the Xuanhuang Realm.""Instead, it was modified and artificially created.""Unlike other Heaven and Earth Souls, Mo Sha's laws were not integrated into the Xuanhuang Realm's heavens and earth.""This area beneath Yuandao Continent is the sole origin of Mo Sha's creation."

Upon sensing the approach of an external entity, the ink-like shadow seemed extremely vigilant. When it discovered Li Buren, it immediately became agitated. Within the intermittently shifting images, the ink shadow churned. Li Buren felt that if he approached any closer, he might be attacked. Though unafraid, it might affect the subsequent investigation into the mystery of Mo Sha's origin. Therefore, Li Buren decisively stopped.

"This matter requires my main body to handle."

Li Buren abruptly retreated, resuming his standoff with the Grand Master.

And Li Fan's main body, gathering the power of the Mo Sha Immortal Soul within him, manifested a separate figure. Descending directly, he plunged into the depths of Yuandao Continent. In an instant, he arrived at the spot Li Buren had previously discovered, and saw the ink-like shadow.

Compared to its wariness of Li Buren, the shadow clearly regarded Li Fan as "one of its own." It merely assumed Li Fan was a Mo Sha Heaven and Earth Soul on a mission for the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao. But Li Fan still perceived countless faint, yet somewhat curious, observational thoughts. They seemed to be questioning the "uniqueness" of Li Fan. Although he had ascended to an Immortal Soul, his essence was still the power of Mo Sha.

Li Fan ultimately managed to safely infiltrate the ink shadow. He observed it at an even closer range than the Illusory Birth illusion previously. Li Fan was completely surrounded by countless shades of ink, immersed in a sea of black. With a calm mind, he simply observed.

"Hmm... The Way of Annihilation, stemming from Dao Annihilation.""The power of change from the Illusory Birth Dao illusion.""Besides these two, there's also..."

Like sipping fine tea, Li Fan savored it with meticulous care. Clearly, it was yet another path that had vanished from the current possibilities. Despite Li Fan never having encountered or understood it before, because of its strong relevance to the Way of Illusory Birth, Li Fan had vaguely glimpsed traces of its path among the vanished Dao illusions he had just perceived.

"If the Way of Illusory Birth is the extreme evolution of change...""Then this path is its opposite.""Eternal order..."

Li Fan stared intently at the center of the churning ink sea. As a creation capable of destroying and devouring everything, what then sustained Mo Sha's own existence? Amidst the entanglement of destructive and changeable powers, it was precisely an unyielding, eternal force acting as a connecting bond that allowed Mo Sha to exist in the world.

"Change. And permanence.""Two diametrically opposed, conflicting forces came together.""Restraining the source of destruction originating from Dao Annihilation."

A glint of surprise flashed in Li Fan's eyes: "Illusory Birth, Eternity.""These two paths are not inferior to Primordial. They once jointly experimented..."

Eternity served as the foundation for existence, and Illusory Birth as the support for evolution. It was only after an unknown period of evolution within this ink-like shadow that today's Mo Sha came into being. If this experimental ground had remained in normal operation, perhaps Mo Sha could have become even more miraculous, approaching the goal intended by the experimental ground. However, the experimental ground had long been abandoned for unknown reasons. Furthermore, due to various factors, the Xuanhuang Realm, as the birthing ground for Mo Sha's evolution, had been in a state of self-preservation for many years. It simply could not support Mo Sha's next stage of evolution. Only after Li Fan, in his previous life, propelled Xuanhuang to ascend to the Immortal Domain, did new variables enter this long-stagnant experiment.

After a period of observation and hesitation, the surrounding ink seemed to acknowledge Li Fan's "advancement." It began to spontaneously imitate him, as if boiling. They wanted to become like Li Fan. But since this change was brought about by propelling an entire realm to ascend and transform, how could the surrounding ink easily achieve such imitation? Like a group of boisterous children, they churned endlessly but could never grasp the method.

Observing this scene, Li Fan suddenly had a realization."The accumulation is sufficient.""What's lacking is merely energy."

And Li Fan had no shortage of that. With a subtle thought, a vast amount of feedback power from his previous life's propulsion of Xuanhuang's ascension, channeled through his Mo Sha avatar, was infused into this mass of ink. Although from an external perspective, the ink mass's shape and size remained unchanged, only Li Fan, being within it, could clearly see the earth-shattering transformation. It directly bypassed the intermediate process of Xuanhuang ascending to the Immortal Domain. Knowing the result Li Fan presented to them, they could directly imitate it!