Chapter 1718: All Unrestricted Players Emerge

Angry Squid: Just like Mountains and Seas.

Though they barely survived Dao-Yan's first wave of attack, the Dao-Yi worms were now extremely weak and could not withstand any further erosion. Fortunately, Li Fan was the master of Dao-Yan; with a slight shift of his will, he restrained the surging Dao-Yan tides. This gave the dying Dao-Yi worms a chance to recover. With Li Fan's nurturing, the Dao-Yi worms quickly flourished again. Then Dao-Yan came again. The Dao-Yi swarm, having undergone a round of metamorphosis, indeed had a slightly stronger survival capability against a Dao-Yan invasion of the same scale.

"But with this rate of increase..." Li Fan frowned slightly. "Moreover, it's not certain whether this slight improvement is due to the Dao-Yi worms themselves becoming stronger or merely a random factor." So, Li Fan conducted the experiment again. In the Void Realm, Dao-Yan surged. He divided the worm swarm into a million equally sized portions. He then simultaneously launched an attack on these million worm swarms. Under Li Fan's precise control, the Dao-Yan's invasive power was calibrated so that each attack would almost annihilate the worm swarm without completely destroying them. Like waves crashing, the once flourishing worm swarm was instantly reduced to mere scattered remnants. "Compared to before, there were increases and decreases. As expected, it was due to random factors, not because the Dao-Yi worms truly grew stronger within just a few attempts," Li Fan shook his head slightly. This was reasonable. Even the Dao-Yi worms that had merged with Mo Sha's power had not reached the Transcendence Realm. How could they withstand Dao-Yan, which could destroy Saints?

"However..." "Through my hands, perhaps decay can be turned into wonder." "In Mountains and Seas, I can turn mortals into Saints. In the Void Realm, I can also transform worms into dragons!" Li Fan picked up a tiny Dao-Yi worm, and with his will like a knife, he began carving and transforming it. As the patterns on its back were perfected, this Dao-Yi worm gradually revealed a unique aura. It seemed to exude a different kind of allure, even tempting the surrounding Dao-Yan to become restless again. Fortunately, Li Fan forcibly suppressed the restless Dao-Yan. He gazed at his masterpiece. On the Dao-Yi worm's back, numerous lines undulated. They contained infinite Dao charm, resembling a replica of Mountains and Seas. Or rather, these lines were originally drawn by Li Fan, imitating the petrified Mountains and Seas he had observed in his previous life!

"Compared to the real Mountain-Sea stone tablets, it's still slightly inferior." Li Fan was somewhat dissatisfied and crushed the creation directly. He began carving anew. "What I saw in my previous life was ultimately only a fragment of Mountains and Seas. The true manifestation of the entire Mountains and Seas is within this Outline of Mountain-Sea Transformations. With it as the guiding principle..." Previously, Li Fan had directly achieved Mountain-Sea Saint status using the shadow of Mountains and Seas. Theoretically, if the entire Mountain-Sea landscape were carved onto a single Dao-Yi worm, it might give birth to the first Saint-level Dao-Yi worm in Mountains and Seas. However, after several attempts, Li Fan decisively gave up. "A single Dao-Yi worm is simply too weak. It cannot bear the boundless Mountains and Seas. Even a swarm of millions or tens of millions of worms would be useless. More are needed."

As his thoughts shifted, the Dao-Yi swarm began to multiply wildly again. Li Fan even ordered his subordinate Dao-Yan to plunder Mountains and Seas as nourishment. After devouring several Mountain-Sea possibilities, the scale of the Dao-Yi swarm finally reached a barely usable level. "Tens of billions is already the limit." This refers not to the limit of the worm swarm's reproduction. Rather, it refers to the number of Mountain-Sea stone tablets Li Fan could meticulously carve simultaneously. Li Fan's divine consciousness simultaneously covered tens of billions of Dao-Yi worms, as if manifesting an equal number of arms, each carving on the back of these worms. The patterns on the back of each Dao-Yi worm were not identical; each represented a fragment of Mountains and Seas. But when combined, they formed a nearly complete and magnificent Mountain-Sea map!

Even with the Outline of Mountain-Sea Transformations as a guiding principle, copying the entire Mountain-Sea landscape was essentially a matter of simply following a pattern for Li Fan. Nevertheless, it was an extremely mentally taxing task. With each passing period, a few strands of Li Fan's dark hair would turn white. Until his hair was completely white, signs of aging gradually began to appear on Li Fan's skin. As he continued carving, Li Fan's appearance grew increasingly frail. "Without reaching sainthood, the resistance to external erosion is ultimately weaker." But Li Fan didn't pay much attention, continuing to focus on carving the Mountain-Sea landscape.

He didn't know how much time had passed. Until the Mountain-Sea before him suddenly radiated a brilliant light. It stirred up waves, causing the Daoist companions protecting Li Fan to waver, almost on the verge of scattering. "Huh? Even without me, the Mountain-Sea restoration succeeded?" Li Fan was a little surprised. However, looking at the almost complete Dao-Yi Mountain-Sea map in his hands, Li Fan felt relieved. "It took so long just to restore a section of the Mountain-Sea. To truly save Mountains and Seas from Dao-Yan, who knows when it will happen." Ignoring the Mountain-Sea Saints who were invigorated by the successful restoration, Li Fan coughed weakly and focused his attention on his work once more.

After the Mountain-Sea glowed again and the Shou Qiu Saints completed another restoration, Li Fan was finally just one stroke away from completely finishing the Dao-Yi Mountain-Sea map. Yet, it was precisely this last stroke that Li Fan found himself unable to execute, no matter what. And at this moment, Li Fan also reached the end of his life. "A lifetime of painstaking effort, yet I could not achieve complete success." He looked at the newborn swarm of worms, heavily encircled by Dao-Yan. Tens of billions of Dao-Yi worms gathered, bearing the continuous Mountains and Seas on their backs. Though called a worm swarm, they were in fact already a shadow of Mountains and Seas. The aura they emitted was already extremely similar to Mountains and Seas itself, causing the surrounding Dao-Yan to repeatedly lose control, disobey Li Fan's commands, and invade them from time to time. But compared to their initial weak state, they were now vastly different. Their grand momentum had been established; minor disturbances could no longer harm them. However, they were still a bit short of the ideal state Li Fan desired. Before he could complete the final touch, Li Fan reached the end of his lifespan in this life. Without forcing it, he silently chanted, "Return to Truth!" Another anchoring to Year 1. This time, Li Fan directly chose to inherit the unfinished Dao-Yi Mountain-Sea map from his previous life. With a slight shift of his thoughts, a meticulously carved masterpiece appeared before Li Fan.

"One who walks a hundred miles is halfway at ninety. This last step is still difficult to execute," Li Fan murmured, observing it, having sat for a century, repeatedly comparing it with the Outline of Mountain-Sea Transformations. Ultimately, he still hadn't found the best moment to make the final stroke. "I still need to learn from Mountains and Seas!" Li Fan put away the Dao-Yi Mountain-Sea map and rose to cultivate. After more than two hundred years, he returned to the Reversal Saint Realm. "Even without the Star's Favor, my cultivation is still relatively fast," Li Fan thought to himself.

A new Saint appeared, and the Mountain-Sea Saints cast their gazes upon him. Li Fan, however, ignored them and leaped directly into the Void Realm. This caused widespread astonishment. Li Fan's movements were so swift that even the Three Saints couldn't intervene to stop him. They could only watch as Li Fan vanished into the Void Realm, disappearing without a trace. "That was... the Reversal Dao. Although this path is extraordinary, venturing alone into the vast Void Realm is likely to end badly," "What is the meaning of this? It's as if he couldn't wait to avoid us." "What a pity, truly a pity. If another Saint had joined us, our hope for restoring Mountains and Seas would be greater." The Saints discussed amongst themselves. Finally, the Three Saints concluded: "Everyone has their own ambitions; there's no need to force him. Let him go."

What the Saints didn't know was that Li Fan traversing Dao-Yan, while not effortless, was not as risky as they imagined. Compared to being surrounded and swallowed by Dao-Yan, the greater obstacle was the unclear direction and the difficulty in distinguishing between past and present. In the past, the Three Saints served as guiding lights. He merely needed to travel towards a predetermined destination. Now, traveling alone with no one to guide him, Li Fan had to find his own way. The Three Saints existed alongside Mountains and Seas, always. Therefore, in the Void Realm, they could always discern the correct direction. Li Fan, however, was just Li Fan. His journey across was not so smooth. Fortunately, he had the experience of restoration and repair from his previous lives. After all, he had personally traversed this dark path step by step. In a mysterious way, it felt somewhat familiar. With some alarms but no real danger, he finally reached his destination. Right before Suo's siege of Mountains and Seas!

"When truth acts as falsehood, falsehood is also truth!" With a thought, the Great Dao of Truth and Falsehood enveloped him, and his form dissolved into nothingness. In an instant, he bypassed Suo's meticulously woven net of engulfment and entered Mountains and Seas. The scene inside was different from ordinary Mountains and Seas. It resembled the scene in the Xuanhuang Realm when the mysterious net spanned the sky. Above, faint horizontal and vertical lines could be vaguely seen intertwining. There were also many gaps, as if parts had been directly devoured, revealing an eerie, churning blackness. The entire Mountains and Seas was filled with Suo's devouring desire; the creatures' natures were distorted, and so was the world itself. "All things contended, heaven and man contended. Yet, it ultimately benefited Suo's gluttonous maw." "That is, if no external force intervened." Li Fan snorted coldly. "Dao-Yan..." "Return!"

His gaze pierced through Mountains and Seas, through the layers of Suo's net, reaching deep into the Void Realm. Leveraging the familiarity gained from immersing himself in starlight in his previous life, Li Fan now used himself as bait, drawing a massive amount of Dao-Yan from the Void Realm to this location! It should be known that at this time, Mountains and Seas was already a place valued by the Void Realm, where Dao-Yan's concentrated power was exceptionally dense. Upon suddenly discovering a vulnerable loophole, they naturally swarmed in immediately. Dao-Yan, in massive quantities, suddenly appeared in Mountains and Seas! Suo was utterly stunned, completely failing to understand how the Void Realm had broken through its blockade and snatched food from its jaws. But Li Fan's goal was not merely this. "Having traversed mountains and rivers to come from afar, how could I be satisfied with such a small disturbance?" "Lifeblood network." Li Fan narrowed his eyes and directly snatched tens of thousands of living beings from Mountains and Seas. These were not naturally born from Mountains and Seas but were created through Qiu Tianhui's Great Dao of Life. With a gentle squeeze, the living beings in his hand shattered, turning into scattered specks of light. They were infused by Li Fan into the hidden lifeblood network of Mountains and Seas. Half went to the past, half to the future. In the life before last, the Mountain-Sea Saints only aimed to stimulate the Mountain-Sea's instinctive resistance. Therefore, the designated scale of Dao-Yan invasion was limited. But in this life, Li Fan acted without restraint. Guided by the light transformed from tens of thousands of living beings, the network became clearly visible. The Dao-Yan army then charged straight in!

Mountains and Seas grew dim, instantly plunging into a state of precariousness. Even Suo was shaken by this. With Suo's strength, it could certainly survive amidst Dao-Yan. However, it couldn't protect Mountains and Seas. Moreover, this time, it had risked traversing the void precisely for the Great Dao of Life within Mountains and Seas. Now, the lifeblood network of Mountains and Seas, for some unknown reason, had been detected by the Void Realm and was being used as an invasion pathway... Suo was utterly frustrated. However, the situation in Mountains and Seas was already extremely chaotic, and despite its search, it couldn't find the root cause. It could only flee helplessly. All that effort was in vain, not to mention the considerable energy expenditure of traversing the void. It truly was a case of trying to steal a chicken and losing the rice instead. Li Fan, hidden in the shadows, watched Suo gradually vanish, his gaze chilling as he made a grasping motion in the air. "Who?" Detecting a chilling aura moving over its body and taking away some essence, Suo was both startled and enraged. But after only a moment's hesitation, Suo decided to accelerate its escape. "This anomaly is clearly aimed at me." "My concealment was so meticulous, yet I was still detected?" "Which old friend could it be?" Suo felt a piece of itself missing, its heart heavy with vexation. But the situation was unclear, and a trap clearly aimed at it had been set. If it stayed any longer, it might truly perish there. Despite its myriad reluctances, Suo returned to the origin of Mountains and Seas.

"What a pity." Li Fan secretly savored the taste of Suo's Great Dao of Devouring Mountains and Seas, looking at the increasingly clear line of characters in the Great Dao of Returning to Truth. He felt somewhat unsatisfied. With his current strength, he was not yet capable of directly confronting Suo; he could only gain something from it through this method. "If I gain enough from it, it might even become the orthodox way!"

As Suo's net receded, what remained was the confrontation between the Void Realm and Mountains and Seas. And with Li Fan acting as an inside guide, Mountains and Seas' external defenses, and even the radiant Xuanji Rings set up by the Saints, became utterly useless! The vast torrent of Dao-Yan poured in unhindered along the lifeblood network of Mountains and Seas. What was originally the source of life for Mountains and Seas now became a connecting conduit for deadly poison. Compared to slow external erosion, the efficiency was hundreds of times greater! A moment later, although the current Mountains and Seas remained unharmed, the three isolated sections of Mountains and Seas, both before and after it, had fallen into the Dao-Yan frenzy. It was foreseeable that if this trend continued, Mountains and Seas faced the danger of instant collapse. The Saints' expressions changed, but with the situation having deteriorated to this extent, they were powerless. The Three Saints exchanged glances, seemingly on the verge of making a crucial decision. At this very moment, the Mountain-Sea itself, in crisis, suddenly roared. A mighty force erupted from within Mountains and Seas. In a short time, it managed to force back the pouring torrent of Dao-Yan slightly. But it was far from as easy as in the previous life. Dao-Yan had already gained a preliminary advantage; although it was resisted by the vast power of Mountains and Seas, it remained deeply entrenched within the holy spirit network. Like a strategically vital military point, neither side gave way. For a time, they fell into a stalemate. The Saints exerted themselves, trying to prevent the situation from worsening. Li Fan remained hidden in the shadows: "It was just as I expected. Until that very moment, even with the danger of a major collapse, Mountains and Seas would not choose to petrify to delay." "I hope my luck in this life is good enough to witness the birth of a new god again." Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Li Fan waited in vain for a long time, but the variable still did not appear. This time, the struggle of divine fragmentation at the origin of Mountains and Seas did not quickly yield a result. "Could it be that I didn't push hard enough?" Li Fan couldn't help but rub his chin.