Chapter 1517: The Original Dao Boat of the Eternal Remnant Will

Beyond the mortal world, it seemed that something was also exchanging gazes with the figure in purple.

After a brief silence, violent upheaval suddenly erupted!

It was much like the magnificent, surging waves of the Mountains and Seas that had previously caused the collapse of the Shuo Star Sea, but this time, the commotion was dozens of times greater!

It seemed that the utterly indifferent expression on the Purple-Robed man's face had angered some unknown existence within the Dao Annihilation. It was determined to unleash a raging storm and engulf the mortal world in which the Purple-Robed man stood.

The Guangwu Star Sea trembled precariously.

Even the Purple Qi Celestial Pillar, formed through the convergence of all the immortals, could barely withstand this catastrophe. Li Fan suspected that if the Purple-Robed man were not standing there, the Guangwu Star Sea, and perhaps even all the remaining remnants of the Yuanchu Possibility, would have already collapsed beneath this overwhelming might.

"What... exactly is that thing over there? Could it be the so-called remains of a powerful expert that the Guangwu Star Sea fished out of the Dao Annihilation?"

Li Fan exchanged a glance with Inherit Dao. Both could see the uncertainty and apprehension in the other's eyes.

Yet the Purple-Robed man regarded this earth-shattering spectacle as nothing more than an ordinary occurrence. For some unknown reason, a faint, delighted smile even appeared at the corner of his mouth.

"You two juniors, watch carefully."

After saying this to Li Fan and Inherit Dao, the Purple-Robed man vanished in an instant.

In the next moment, the turbulence throughout the Star Sea abruptly subsided!

It was not that the culprit behind the upheaval had already been subdued. Rather, an even greater tempest had arisen at the same time, like an absolute sovereign drawing every minor disturbance in the Star Sea toward itself.

Li Fan looked around. The starry sky was completely silent, but he could not find the Purple-Robed man anywhere.

The point where those opposing waves converged was astonishingly beyond the Yuanchu Possibility!

A thin line, resembling a path reaching all the way to the heavens, suddenly appeared overhead.

Through this fissure, Li Fan seemed to glimpse a magnificent scene of boundless Mountains and Seas stretching endlessly into the distance.

This distant glimpse was entirely different from his previous experience of passing through the Ascension Platform of the Immortal Realm and secretly entering the Infinite Ocean.

When he had been inside the Infinite Ocean, every drop of seawater contained the accumulated passage of countless epochs, exerting an immense pressure upon him. This had made it impossible for Li Fan to properly experience the scenery within the Infinite Ocean. Even later, after obtaining the protection of [Illusion Is Also Truth], what he could glimpse while freely wandering through it was merely the endless fragments floating within the sea, rather than the Mountains and Seas themselves.

However, at this moment, through the thin thread created by the Purple-Robed man, Li Fan finally gained a glimpse of the Mountains and Seas as perceived by Transcendent experts.

It was merely a corner of the greater whole, yet it was enough to leave Li Fan completely entranced.

Even after more than a hundred reincarnations, even possessing a supreme treasure like [Truth], and even having personally ventured into the Infinite Ocean, when confronted with this endless expanse of Mountains and Seas, Li Fan still could not suppress the feeling of his own insignificance.

“So this is the Infinite Ocean and the Mountain Shangfang beyond the mortal world?"

Li Fan murmured softly to himself.

There was no question of comprehending anything. His entire mind and consciousness had been thoroughly overwhelmed by this indescribably magnificent sight. He simply had no room left to contemplate anything else.

Unlike Li Fan, however, strange phenomena began appearing around Inherit Dao.

His entire body emitted a crystalline white radiance, while the faint phantom image of a stubborn stone gradually emerged behind him. Inherit Dao raised his head toward the heavens, seemingly returning to the days when he had once guarded the hill and gazed toward the sea.

Various incomparably profound fluctuations emerged from this spirit stone born beside the Mountains and Seas. They seemed to resonate with the Mountains and Seas beyond the heavenly firmament.

These fluctuations finally awakened Li Fan from his stupor.

After carefully sensing them, he could not help feeling somewhat bitter.

"We both witnessed a corner of the Mountains and Seas, yet I failed to comprehend anything. Meanwhile, Senior Brother Inherit Dao is continuously gaining insights into the Dao. The difference between us..."

By now, Li Fan had already regained his senses. Yet even after witnessing the Mountains and Seas, his mind remained completely blank. The disparity between him and the Mountains and Seas was simply too vast. Even if an ant were to witness the Mountains and Seas with its own eyes, it would be no different from having seen nothing at all.

If it had merely been a Great Dao belonging to a lower-level mortal world, Li Fan would never have found himself in such a predicament.

"It seems that with my current level of cultivation, traversing the mortal world poses little difficulty. However, if I wish to cross the Mountains and Seas, I still have a very long road ahead of me."

"Fortunately, my senior brother is not particularly stingy. He has no intention of keeping his insights to himself."

Li Fan thought to himself as he observed the fluctuations of Dao comprehension emanating from Inherit Dao.

At this moment, the spirit stone born beside the Mountains and Seas seemed to have become a mirror, reflecting the scenery of the Mountains and Seas that Li Fan himself was incapable of perceiving. Through it, Li Fan could also gain insights into the Dao.

After the thin line tore open the heavenly firmament and revealed the true appearance of the Mountains and Seas, the tremendous commotion originating from the Dao Annihilation unexpectedly disappeared.

While comprehending the Dao, Li Fan also attempted to search for the figures of the unknown existence and the Purple-Robed man within the Mountains and Seas.

However, the Mountains and Seas were boundless and immeasurable. Even an expert as powerful as the Purple-Robed man would be no different from an ant after falling into their vast expanse. Finding any trace of him was exceedingly difficult.

"You two juniors, watch carefully..."

"What exactly are we supposed to watch?"

"Is it merely these Mountains and Seas?"

Li Fan had a premonition that there had to be more to it than that.

Unfortunately, his abilities were insufficient, and he could not see what the Purple-Robed man was trying to show them.

Inherit Dao, on the other hand, seemed to have discovered something. The fluctuations of Dao comprehension emanating from his body were growing increasingly intense.

"Junior Brother, concentrate on your will and look over here!"

The deep relationship Li Fan had painstakingly cultivated with Inherit Dao over this period finally proved useful at this crucial moment.

Ultimately, unable to bear the thought of his junior brother missing out on such an opportunity, Inherit Dao, despite being immersed in Dao comprehension himself, still managed to speak up and remind him.

Li Fan was overjoyed and immediately followed Inherit Dao's guidance.

In an instant, his gaze seemed to pass through the thin line in the heavenly firmament, escaping the mortal world and arriving within the Mountains and Seas.

He could vaguely make out the indistinct figure of the Purple-Robed man standing there.

Before the Purple-Robed man was a flattened spherical object, from which countless thin threads extended outward from both its front and rear ends before converging again toward its center.

A power identical to that of the Path to Heaven enveloped both the Purple-Robed man and the flattened sphere. The countless threads seemed to be trying to scatter and flee from the sphere, but the Purple-Robed man had firmly sealed off every avenue of escape.

One could vaguely make out that the flattened sphere had once possessed a human form. However, it had now decayed and been broken down into countless individual threads.

"The remains of a powerful expert who once crossed the Mountains and Seas..."

What interested Li Fan was not the battle between these two.

Rather, it was what gradually emerged from within the remains as the Purple-Robed man suppressed and dismantled them.

Around where the head should originally have been, numerous fleeting images slowly became exposed.

What astonished Li Fan beyond belief was that the images hidden inside the brain of these powerful expert's remains were actually scenes of the Mountains and Seas!

Even though its physical body had decayed and its soul had completely dispersed, this image of the Mountains and Seas had nevertheless endured without fading.

"Perhaps this is the most fundamental reason why these remains can drift through the Mountains and Seas without being destroyed."

Li Fan felt as though he had grasped something.

However, what he glimpsed next within this miniature image of the Mountains and Seas caused his mind to tremble violently once again.

The Mountains and Seas within the mind of the powerful expert's remains seemed almost indistinguishable from the Mountains and Seas Li Fan was currently witnessing.

Yet upon closer inspection, one could see a solitary sailboat suspended within the Mountains and Seas, crossing their boundless expanse!

Even the immense vicissitudes and unfathomable vastness of the Mountains and Seas could only cause the solitary sail to fade slightly. They had not completely swallowed it.

Li Fan immediately understood.

"It was not the image of the Mountains and Seas that made these remains indestructible. It was this solitary sail within the Mountains and Seas!"

"This is..."

"The Transcendent Dao that this powerful expert pursued during his lifetime?!"

Li Fan stared intently at the solitary sail within the Mountains and Seas. For some inexplicable reason, a faint sense of familiarity actually emerged in his heart.

At the same time, [Truth], which had been dormant for a long time, finally transmitted another exceedingly faint ripple of thought.

This made Li Fan even more certain of his judgment.

"Eternal Remnant Will?!"

Li Fan's heart suddenly began pounding several times.

More precisely speaking, that solitary sail that had crossed the Mountains and Seas might have shared the same fundamental nature as the various forms of eternity Li Fan had encountered before.

However, there was no doubt that it was far more powerful than anything he had previously absorbed. Although it had ultimately failed to cross the Mountains and Seas, the fact that it had protected its owner's remains, allowing them to survive unharmed for tens of millions of years amid the great tide in which the Mountains and Seas merged, was already more than enough to demonstrate its extraordinary nature.

By comparison, the remnant will of Tianyang, Su Bai, and the others seemed rather insignificant.

"But their essence is the same."

"They are not merely projections of the Great Dao. They are also manifestations of one's own will. This is the most fundamental means of relying upon to cross the Mountains and Seas..."

"The Mountains and Seas are boundless, yet I alone shall serve as the vessel!"

The Purple-Robed man's earlier words resurfaced in Li Fan's mind at precisely the right moment. They were like a bolt of lightning splitting through the fog, illuminating the answer.

"If Tianyang were fortunate enough to reach the realm of Transcendence, then his method of crossing the Mountains and Seas would be to take [Never Inferior to Others] as his vessel. As for Su Bai, his path would be a bitter crossing guided by the Dao of [Compassionate True Love]."

"In short, these cultivators who can condense [Eternal Remnant Wills] after death have, in reality, already stepped halfway beyond the boundaries of their own Dao. They are already seeds of Transcendent powerhouses! This Dao has nothing to do with one's cultivation realm. It seems to be connected only to one's temperament and will."

"However, to achieve Transcendence, both one's own path and cultivation realm are indispensable!"

"Even with sufficient cultivation, if one cannot forge a vessel, all one can do is gaze helplessly at the vast ocean. Conversely, even if the vessel has been completed, without sufficient personal strength, recklessly venturing into the Mountains and Seas will only lead to certain death."

Li Fan's heart was deeply shaken.

It truly was an extraordinary opportunity.

Through the remains of powerful experts, the Purple-Robed man had practically pointed out the path to Transcendence for both Inherit Dao and Li Fan.

Perhaps Li Fan could have eventually unraveled this mystery through his own repeated attempts across countless reincarnations. However, the Purple-Robed man's guidance had undoubtedly saved him the time of several reincarnations!

"The Dao of crossing the Mountains and Seas. No wonder even [Truth] experiences an intense desire whenever it encounters such things."

"Could it be that [Truth] absorbs these things to use them as a basis for simulating and deducing methods of resisting the Mountains and Seas?"

A bold thought involuntarily surfaced in Li Fan's mind.

Perhaps sensing the Purple-Robed man's presence nearby, [Truth] emitted several faint fluctuations before quickly sinking into silence once more. It offered no response whatsoever to Li Fan's speculation.

Beyond the mortal world, the Purple-Robed man had already extracted all the lines surrounding the solitary sail that crossed the Mountains and Seas. However, he did not absorb them himself. Instead, he cast them into the Mountains and Seas.

Without the support of the remnant will of crossing the Mountains and Seas, those lines were like ice entering water. They failed to create even the slightest ripple before being swallowed by the Mountains and Seas.

Ever since his appearance, the Purple-Robed man had maintained the bearing of a Transcendent powerhouse. Yet when facing the solitary sail before him, he displayed an exceptionally rare expression of solemnity. There was even a trace of genuine admiration in his eyes.

The somewhat yellowed solitary sail seemed to sense the Purple-Robed man's intentions and responded with waves of mysterious seven-colored radiance.

Once again, The Purple-Robed man displayed his heaven-piercing Great Dao technique between the Mountains and Seas.

A slender line took shape in an instant, spanning the Mountains and Seas and extending toward an unknowable destination on the other side.

Enveloped in seven-colored radiance, the solitary sail that crossed the Mountains and Seas followed this passage and sailed away.

The Purple-Robed man watched the solitary sail depart. Only after it had completely disappeared from sight did he withdraw his extraordinary Great Dao.

Maintaining the existence of a passage through the Mountains and Seas was clearly a considerable burden even for the Purple-Robed man. His luxurious robes fluttered as though blown by a powerful wind. Only when the blood-red mole between his eyebrows, resembling a brilliant pearl, emitted waves of crimson light did his condition gradually stabilize.

After retrieving the solitary sail, the Purple-Robed man did not return from the Mountains and Seas.

Before the slender passage connecting the heavens closed, he transmitted his voice from afar.

"My business here is finished. I shall help you maintain the path across the Mountains and Seas for three days. Make the best use of your time."

Then, just as abruptly as he had arrived, he suddenly vanished without a trace.

As for the countless True Immortal purple talismans still drifting throughout the Guangwu Star Sea, he did not care in the slightest about what became of them.

Only Li Fan and Inherit Dao remained standing silently in the starry sky, still unable to recover from what had just happened.

A long time passed.

Only when the slender line beyond the celestial firmament gradually faded and the scenery of the Mountains and Seas disappeared along with it did Inherit Dao reluctantly withdraw his gaze.

With the disappearance of his fluctuations of Dao comprehension, Li Fan's improvised method of reflecting himself through Inherit Dao also ceased to function.

"Senior Brother, where do you think that solitary sail ultimately went..."

"Could it have been the Other Shore?"

Li Fan reviewed everything that had just happened and asked in a low voice.

Inherit Dao's expression was solemn. He remained silent for a long time.

In the end, however, he nodded.

"It should be."

"That solitary sail seemed to embody the true intent of crossing the Mountains and Seas, condensed by its owner's remains before death. I simply do not know what that Senior Purple-Robed ultimately intended to accomplish by expending such tremendous effort to guide the solitary sail across to the Other Shore."

Li Fan could only sigh.

"Who would have thought that something as trivial as casually subduing the Dao Sword and Dao Saber back then would eventually set off such a long chain of events?"

"Junior Brother, there is no need to blame yourself. This is simply fate. Without your seemingly casual actions, how could the two of us have obtained such an enormous fortune?"

The fortune Inherit Dao referred to was not limited to the path of Transcendence that the Purple-Robed man had pointed out.

It also included the Guangwu Star Sea, which the Purple-Robed man had thoroughly swept clean.

Inherit Dao surveyed the enormous expanse of ruins.

"That Purple Celestial Pillar should not be touched recklessly. As for the other True Immortal purple talismans, feel free to collect them."

"However, we must act quickly. The three days mentioned by Senior Purple-Robed may not be the same three days as we understand them."

It had to be said that Inherit Dao's intuition was remarkably accurate.

After only a single day had passed, the passage connecting the Shuo Star Sea and the Guangwu Star Sea had already begun to fade and disappear.

Fortunately, Li Fan and the others had already finished most of their looting. Having little reason to linger, they had returned to the Shuo Star Sea ahead of time.

Watching the passage disappear and the dark starry sky, where Dao Annihilation had once again emerged, the two felt as though they had just awakened from a dream.

"We owe our survival entirely to Master's protection. Otherwise, I fear our fate would have been no better than that of these True Immortals reduced to characters."

Inherit Dao spoke in a subdued voice.

Li Fan deeply agreed and silently nodded.

Next, the two laid out all their spoils in a row across the starry sky.

Thirteen fused bodies of foreign Dao Forms, along with the characters transformed from the True Immortals of the Guangwu Star Sea. Three hundred and seventy-five in total.

Treasures: One Dao Epoch Projection.

As for the several scattered Immortal Treasures, they were hardly worth mentioning.

"With so many materials in our possession, the starry sky where we reside should remain secure for the foreseeable future," Li Fan said first.

However, his gaze remained fixed on the Dao Epoch Projection Pearl.

Ever since the Purple-Robed man had departed, this supreme treasure, which had originally been compressed into a single infinitesimal point of light, had unexpectedly begun showing signs of expanding outward once again.