Without hesitation, the Hunger Immortal immersed herself in the guidance offered. She knew from experience that such insights were fleeting, like sparks, quickly fading if not grasped immediately.
Not expecting another chance, she seized this opportunity, focusing on her cultivation. The Hunger Immortal's millennia of meditation had indeed yielded a profound understanding of the Dao of Hunger. Soon after resuming her meditation, profound fluctuations emanated from her, identical to the aura of the Unnamed True Immortal beneath her!
"It seems guiding her to the Unnamed realm is easier than I thought," Li Fan mused.
Although he had long been aware of the "Hunger" character on the Immortal Ruins, even with his experience from countless reincarnations, his understanding of the Dao of Hunger couldn't surpass the Hunger Immortal's. The reason he could offer such effective guidance with just a few words was because Li Buren, empowered by the Hill-Guarding Immortal, was relaying his observations of the Unnamed True Immortal's remnants beneath the Hunger Immortal.
This direct insight into the core principles was far superior to the Hunger Immortal's isolated contemplation. Li Buren's guidance was the final push she needed.
Being so close to a breakthrough, the Hunger Immortal didn't truly need any help. She could achieve it on her own, given enough time. Perhaps she would realize this later, but for now, she was completely immersed in her cultivation.
Li Buren retreated, observing from a distance. The Hunger Immortal's previously inflated body withered back to its skeletal form as she entered a deeper state of Hunger Dao cultivation, instinctively wanting to devour everything.
The immense pull, temporarily suppressed by Li Buren's arrival, returned with even greater force! Only the Immortal Ruins and Li Buren, standing upon them, remained unaffected. Everything else was drawn towards the Immortal Ruins, now a swirling vortex.
Within the Xuanhuang World, the newly revived life force flickered like a candle in the wind, threatened by the immense pull. Fortunately, Li Fan manifested his Dao Net projection, shielding the world and pulling it further away from the Immortal Ruins.
"This sudden surge in the pull is far stronger than before."
"So the Hunger Immortal was restraining it intentionally…" Li Fan frowned, looking towards the Immortal Ruins.
As if confirming his suspicion, a series of metallic clangs echoed through the silent starry sky. The golden chains binding the Hunger Immortal tightened, restraining her and seemingly suppressing her all-consuming hunger.
"Only by experiencing the most extreme hunger can one truly comprehend the Dao of Hunger."
"A self-mortifying, ascetic approach to cultivation…"
The golden chains dug deep into her withered flesh, grinding against her bones with a chilling sound. Yet, the Hunger Immortal remained motionless, silently enduring the pain and her own desires. The Dao of Hunger was like a ferocious beast trapped within a cage, roaring to break free, yet firmly bound within her body. This agonizing restraint somehow enhanced her cultivation!
Li Buren observed every change, trying to understand.
"The more one suffers from the Dao path, the deeper one's understanding."
"This method of cultivation…"
"Is similar to the reverse cultivation of the Xuanhuang Immortal Heart Mantra. Could it be a technique passed down from the Immortal Realm?"
Li Buren noticed the time dilation caused by the returning pull of the Immortal Ruins. Before he could react, three months had passed in the Xuanhuang World, and thirty years outside the wall! And the disparity was increasing!
Fortunately, nothing requiring the Hill-Guarding Immortal's power occurred during these thirty years. Qian Ruochang and the Nothingness Immortal visited a few times to report on their cooperation, but Li Fan simply acknowledged them with a "noted" and dismissed them. They didn't dare disturb him further.
…
Having experienced thirty years in an instant, the memories flooded Li Buren's mind. The immense temporal shift disoriented him, causing a slight, imperceptible distortion in his Dao Net body, like viewing the world through a warped bubble.
He first tried to counteract the time dilation caused by the pull, but this wasn't an aspect of the Dao of Hunger, but a fundamental law of the world. Even the Hill-Guarding Immortal's power couldn't completely negate it, only minimize its effect.
In Li Buren's eyes, the Immortal Ruins, now a massive vortex, was devouring everything. His task was to build a dam around it, preventing anything from entering, just like the wall separating the testing ground from the outside world!
"Stop!" Li Buren commanded inwardly.
His star-like Dao Net body brightened, like a massive boulder blocking a tidal wave. But strangely, there was no splash. Instead, just like within the Dark Star Sea, the blocked force converged at the foot of the "wall."
With this command, the pull that had plagued the Dark Star Sea for millennia was confined to a ninety-nine-meter radius around the Hunger Immortal. Li Buren felt he could compress it further, but that might disrupt the Hunger Immortal's cultivation. So he stopped.
The force, like surging waves, converged and swirled at the foot of the wall, and Li Buren saw a fleeting image of the Hill-Guarding Immortal gazing at the mountains and seas. He finally understood the reason for this phenomenon.
"Immortal power comes from the Infinite Sea."
"And the wall, the power of the Hill-Guarding Immortal's projections, partially comes from the 'mountain' that coexists with the Infinite Sea."
"The mountain and the sea share the same origin. They are not completely opposed, hence the mutual attraction."
"So, in a sense, the phenomenon at the edge of the Dark Star Sea is a projection of what the Hill-Guarding Immortal witnessed."
Standing at the edge of this second wall, Li Buren felt a surge of insight. With the pull of the Immortal Ruins contained, time within the Dark Star Sea returned to normal. The beings within, however, remained oblivious to this dramatic shift.
Only Li Fan, looking towards the center of the Dark Star Sea, sensed the jubilation of the Star Sea's origin consciousness. It wasn't just the removal of the Immortal Ruins' threat, but also the synchronization with the outside Star Sea.
Li Fan ignored it for now, turning his attention to his True Return interface. The moment the time flow within and outside the wall synchronized, the number representing the mortal world's lifespan changed slightly, decreasing from 7,360,000 years to 7,230,000.
"This isn't due to the second wall, but the change in the time flow of my surroundings."
"This means the time difference between the inside and outside of the wall is insignificant to the mortal world's lifespan."
"But how does True Return calculate this lifespan?" Li Fan was puzzled.
Dwelling on this wouldn't yield any answers, so he decided to ask True Return directly. Having received guidance before, True Return didn't respond with silence this time.
A flood of data surged into Li Fan's mind, causing a sharp pain in his forehead. He instinctively filtered the information. As if aware of Li Fan's current limitations, the data was already simplified. He couldn't see the details, only the general trend.
"This is…"
"A simulation of the maximum possible lifespan, assuming my current strength remains constant and I don't die."
It was a bit convoluted, but Li Fan understood. He watched the rapidly changing images, over seven million years passing like a fleeting dream, lasting only thirty-three breaths before vanishing completely from his mind. He could barely remember that True Return had shown him a simulation.
"The annihilation of the mortal world."
"The so-called lifespan limit is calculated from my perspective, the vessel of True Return."
"The future holds infinite possibilities, but this simulation is based on my current strength."
"In this simulation, although I don't die, my strength doesn't increase either. I can only observe the changes in the mortal world…"
Li Fan narrowed his eyes, recalling the change in the lifespan display when the Black Heaven Healer broke through the wall. The number had rapidly increased, seemingly towards infinity.
"In that simulation, although I didn't die, I still fell into the Black Heaven Healer's hands."
"Even the bone of an Unnamed True Immortal could hitch a ride with True Return. The Black Heaven Healer could definitely do the same. So my fate probably wasn't pleasant. Perhaps I became something like the Law Derivation Jade…"
"And the Black Heaven Healer, with True Return's help, almost saved the mortal world."
Understanding this, Li Fan snorted inwardly. His conviction remained unchanged. Sacrificing himself to save the world was out of the question.
"The mortal world only has meaning because of my existence. If I perish, even if the world endures for eons, what does it have to do with me?"
"Moreover, even in True Return's calculations, even if the Black Heaven Healer obtained its power, the mortal world's lifespan still had a limit."
"It wasn't infinite!"
"Even if that number is unimaginably large, annihilation will eventually come."
"If the outcome is the same, seven million years or seventy billion years…"
"Makes no difference."
Perhaps influenced by True Return's simulation, Li Fan felt his ambition surge, even becoming indifferent to the vast number representing the mortal world's potential lifespan. It was as if he had truly lived through those eons, only to witness the inevitable end.
A firm conviction arose within him: only in his hands could True Return change the mortal world's destined destruction, escaping the fate of Dao Obliteration.
This confidence was unfounded and gradually faded. Li Fan, having fully recovered, felt his previous thought was overly arrogant. But upon reflection, he suspected he had seen something in that seven-million-year simulation that sparked that thought.
Reassured, he tried to confirm his suspicion with True Return, but it had fallen silent again. Li Fan wasn't bothered.
"Silence, not denial."
Having spent so long with True Return, he could interpret its subtle cues. Silence was sometimes an answer.
Certain that he was the true inheritor of True Return, Li Fan felt elated. He turned his attention back to the Immortal Ruins. Li Buren, his body transformed into a wall blocking the Immortal Ruins' pull, was carefully sensing the changes in the Hunger Immortal's cultivation.
"Due to the time dilation caused by this power, her previous cultivation breakthrough lasted ten thousand years in Xuanhuang World time."
"This time, it won't take so long."
"And…" Li Buren noticed that the "second wall" he had created, and the accumulated force beneath it, partially offset the Hunger Immortal's influence on the outside world, significantly reducing the time difference.
While waiting for the Hunger Immortal to emerge, Li Buren looked at the Immortal Ruins below. Besides the rubble, the massive "Hunger" character was most prominent.
"The source of this character…"
"Is the remnants of the previous Unnamed True Immortal who achieved the Dao through Hunger."
(End of chapter)