Chapter 1731: 凡者独一物

Angry Squid

As Li Fan truly began to taste them, he discovered that the countless versions of himself he had seen in his sea of consciousness were not mere illusions, nor were they faces simply wearing a similar skin for intimidation.

Instead, they were all truly and genuinely Li Fan himself.

With each face he consumed, Li Fan could distinctly feel the fear, resentment, and despair of his other selves.

They even had their own unique life experiences.

All were similar to Li Fan, starting from humble beginnings in the Profound Yellow realm and cultivating diligently all the way to the onset of the Mountain Sea's divine separation.

Even though Li Fan was perfectly clear in his mind that such events had never truly occurred in the real Mountain Sea, after consuming himself bit by bit, memories belonging to his 'food' involuntarily surfaced in his mind.

It was as if these were all the experiences he had undergone in past reincarnations!

“The ability to blur the lines between real and fake…”

“But even if they were truly my past selves, what then?”

“I will still devour them without hesitation!”

“No matter your origin or background, you shall all be sustenance for my enlightenment.”

Li Fan's emotions remained undisturbed; he calmly and indifferently devoured and digested his countless selves without changing his expression.

He didn't even become confused by the sudden influx of countless memories.

He simply regarded them all as experiences that 'that' Li Fan had gone through in countless past reincarnations.

“What do his experiences and karma have to do with me?”

“I will only enjoy his gifts. Everything else can be ignored.”

Li Fan felt completely justified, as if this was how things in the world should naturally be.

He was completely unmoved by the curses of his countless selves.

His mind did not waver in the slightest due to the act of devouring his own divine consciousness.

The vortex in his sea of consciousness churned, slowly consuming all the faces.

Then he looked up again at the divine body above.

“The reason so many distracting thoughts arose is actually a side effect of devouring a deity.”

“But the murky cloud I'm absorbing now is merely a drop in the ocean…”

“Just eat and digest.”

As Li Fan finished digesting his first mouthful, the clamor from the Mountain Sea completely faded away from him. It was as if only he and the fallen divine body remained in the world.

Li Fan continued like this, eating in solitude and with unwavering persistence.

With each mouthful, he seemed to understand more principles. At first, Li Fan would carefully savor every taste.

But later, as the novelty gradually wore off, Li Fan chose to ignore it.

He simply gulped it down indiscriminately, caring only about the act of 'devouring' itself.

The power of a deity was, for any cultivator in the world, an absolutely ineffable delicacy. Even the Sages of the Mountain Sea would fight to the death for a chance to taste even a single mouthful.

But what about the second, third, or even countless mouthfuls?

The fallen divine body was immeasurable in scale.

Even the act of finishing the meal became an unbearable burden.

Li Fan felt uncomfortably full, yet the divine body before him had only diminished by a mere thousandth.

As more and more memories of his own reincarnations accumulated in his mind, Li Fan would occasionally become disoriented.

He forgot his name and why he was there.

Only a persistent obsession in his mind supported his continued act of devouring.

When Li Fan had consumed one-third of the entire divine body, he felt as if he had disappeared.

He was no longer Li Fan, but had instead become a part of the vast murky cloud.

That which once belonged to the fallen true deity was being revitalized through him, a new organ.

In the depths of his being, he sensed something was amiss.

But the inertia accumulated over countless years kept Li Fan mechanically continuing his act of devouring.

The dead, silent murky cloud seemed to become subtly different.

A certain extremely ancient consciousness was slowly reviving within it.

However, Li Fan was unaware of this.

Looking at the divine body, with less and less left to be consumed, he instinctively continued.

While completing the task, he also wished to be freed from this endless torment as soon as possible.

A mortal devouring a deity.

This journey was simply too long. So long that Li Fan had forgotten himself and why he had embarked on it in the first place.

Countless more years passed.

Because he had not thought for too long, Li Fan seemed to have completely lost his own will.

And of the vast murky cloud of the divine body, only a small final piece remained untransformed.

With Li Fan's current ability, just one last mouthful would complete his long path of devouring the deity.

The vortex slowly rotated, and the murky cloud gradually entered.

But at the last moment, Li Fan suddenly stopped.

“This feeling is…”

“Unease.”

Li Fan pondered for a long time before finally recalling what emotion was currently resonating within him.

“And fear, and anger.”

Having consumed most of the divine body, he was no longer a 'mortal' in the conventional sense.

Li Fan only felt that all the emotions within him were profoundly unfamiliar.

“How could I be like this?”

“Why is it like this?”

His thoughts, frozen and stagnant for a long time, naturally began to operate once more.

Only a sliver remained for the transformation to be complete.

Yet Li Fan chose to pause.

Like a mighty river flowing eastward, suddenly blocked.

A certain emotion was gradually accumulating and brewing.

Once it accumulated to a certain extent, it instinctively generated an urging momentum. Originally, the fallen divine body would not have undergone this change.

But at this moment, the deity's revival was only a hair's breadth away.

The immense consciousness within the murky cloud was on the verge of awakening.

As if in a dream, it instinctively reached out.

“Hmm?” Sensing the urge from 'another,' Li Fan couldn't help but frown.

During countless years of solitary consumption of the divine body, he had long become accustomed to his sole existence.

Now, suddenly realizing that there seemed to be other presences within the murky cloud, it was like a bolt from the blue.

His frozen thoughts shattered layer by layer.

Li Fan's consciousness rapidly recovered.

“Am I devouring the deity? Or is the deity devouring me?”

“That was close.”

Surveying his entire being, Li Fan instantly understood his current predicament.

“Precisely like the moment before a true deity's descent.”

“Except, a true deity's descent signifies the return of all things to the divine, a resurrection from death.”

“But now, it's a possession!”

Ignoring the increasing urging power accumulating in the murky cloud, Li Fan calmly pondered.

“How could devouring a deity be an ordinary matter? Any strand of this murky cloud can blur reality and create authentic past experiences.”

“With such a crude, direct method of devouring as mine, even if I manage to consume it all, there can only be one outcome.”

“The fallen true deity will return, using my body.”

“Being only one step away from becoming a deity, all subsequent events will revert to a time before they occurred.”

“The fading away of the Mountain Sea and everything in the world is not an illusion. It's because they genuinely cease to exist.”

A faint realization dawned upon Li Fan.

The place of the Mountain Sea's divine separation was not spacetime in the ordinary sense.

Rather, it used the true deity's state as its axis of evolution.

The moment the true deity fell, when it was most complete, was the beginning of the Mountain Sea's divine separation.

When the Mountain Sea's divine separation ended and the divine body completely vanished, that was the end of the Mountain Sea's divine separation.

As Li Fan devoured the divine body step by step, he drew closer to the true deity's complete state.

And thus, he arrived at the very beginning of this place.

Thinking of the Mountain Sea, Li Fan instantly understood a long-standing doubt in his mind.

Such a tempting act as devouring a deity, why would the Mountain Sea accept its 'division'?

Everyone possesses the desire to monopolize.

Even for worldly cultivation treasures, one instinctively desires to monopolize them. How much more so for the power of a true deity?

“It's not that they were unwilling; rather, they were unable.”

“If either the Mountain or the Sea attempted to fully devour the deity, their fate would be exactly as mine is now.”

“Instead, they would become material for the true deity's revival.”

“Only by compromise between the two, with the Mountain and Sea interdependent, could they jointly resist the divine might.”

Li Fan understood clearly.

The Mountain and Sea still had each other as companions, yet Li Fan, having come this far, was destined to be alone.

Fortunately, his initial goal was never to devour the deity.

But to observe the mystery of the deity's fall!

“Although I still haven't seen the deity's complete body in this situation, it's barely enough.”

The urging from the vast murky cloud, like water in a dammed lake, accumulated more and more.

Gradually, it transformed from an urge into a compulsion.

Li Fan knew he had little time left, so he calmed his mind, concentrated, and began to observe.

“I hope this relatively complete corpse can retain some clues.”

Among all the divine bodies Li Fan had consumed, there were no clues whatsoever about how the deity had fallen.

There weren't even any memories.

All were pure principles of the Dao and fundamental laws.

The cornerstones of all creation, the fundamental truths of existence.

Li Fan, regaining his composure, also admired himself for being able to forcefully swallow such a massive 'stone'.

Such hard work was naturally not in vain.

The murky cloud of the divine body was vast and boundless.

Yet now, with a single thought, Li Fan could sweep through it all. He was only a hair's breadth away from transforming into a deity. Li Fan's observation could be likened to a departed soul observing its own corpse after death, attempting to find clues about his own demise.

He observed it for the first time.

“All the Ways, all the Laws, are perfectly flawless, without any damage or abnormality.”

Li Fan pondered, and his divine sense swept over it a second time.

The conclusion remained the same.

“Whatever caused the deity's fall must have been world-shattering. I wouldn't be surprised to see a massive scar. Why is it so normal now?”

Li Fan found it somewhat difficult to understand.

“Could it be that only by truly becoming a deity can one know the cause of a deity's fall?”

But it was clear that if Li Fan truly took that step, even 'Revert to True' wouldn't be able to save him.

“The Grand Dao of True and False, as long as the deity has not truly appeared, can be reversed and restarted again and again.”

“But if I return to the deity…”

“The Grand Dao of True and False would also enter the deity. Naturally, it would be impossible to repeat things again.”

Li Fan was very clear about this, so the moment the thought of becoming a deity arose, he fiercely suppressed it.

He would rather live forever in cycles of world destruction, maintaining his independent will, and he would absolutely never become a so-called deity and lose himself.

Li Fan, unwilling to give up, continued to observe the divine body again and again.

Meanwhile, the deity's instinct for revival was becoming increasingly unstoppable.

The vast murky cloud gradually spiraled out of control.

Li Fan felt that as he remained inactive for a long time, the divine body was gradually developing a sense of rejection.

Or, more accurately, it was the reservoir formed by that instinctive drive, about to break through the stone blockade and self-revive.

And Li Fan, standing in the path of this overwhelming tide, would be pulverized by this majestic divine power.

“Before the true deity revives, I must 'revert to true.' Otherwise, I'll be lost forever…”

Li Fan finally made his decision.

Although this time he failed to glimpse the mystery of the true deity's fall, by devouring the body, he had come to know all laws and all things in the world. If he fully digested what he had gained, Li Fan's comprehension of the Grand Dao of True and False might surpass his former self, reaching an inconceivable realm.

At that time, except for the deity itself, which could not be recreated, all creation and destruction between the Mountain and Sea would be subject to Li Fan's single thought.

“Such gains are already enough.”

“I'll digest for a while, then come back to investigate!”

As he thought of this, Li Fan was about to 'revert to true'.

But in an instant, as he witnessed the increasingly restless murky cloud of the true deity, his heart suddenly stirred.

“Only a true deity can witness the mystery of a deity's fall.”

“If that's the case, then do not obstruct the deity's revival.”

“The changes between true and false are in my hands, a deity is not truly a deity. There's a fleeting chance…”

Li Fan's eyes flickered, and he finally made his decision.

His consciousness soared, no longer obstructing. The will of revival, like a rushing flood, instantly spread throughout the murky cloud.

A moment later…

Li Fan felt that the boundless murky cloud had vanished from his sight.

Stunned for a moment, he quickly reacted and looked up.

In the boundless darkness and void, a star seemed to light up.

Like the sole eye of a deity, descending upon the world.

Starlight scattered everywhere, spreading faster than the return of all things to the divine at the end of the Mountain Sea.

Everything Li Fan saw and felt was consumed by the starlight.

And indeed, subsequently, he felt a power of return from above his head.

The Grand Dao of True and False, which originally came from the deity, should now return to the deity's place.

Having already experienced similar scenes, Li Fan, though startled, remained composed.

Relying on his consciousness, he struggled to hold on.

His gaze fixed, the deity's true form and appearance were finally revealed.

At the same time, he compared it with the fallen divine body he had seen earlier. Time seemed to freeze at this moment.

Li Fan disregarded his own safety, only seeking an answer.

The starlight became increasingly dazzling.

Filling everything.

But at this instant, the starlight that filled his vision suddenly receded completely.

The world plunged back into darkness and dead silence.

Li Fan almost thought this was an illusion caused by the starlight reaching its peak intensity.

But soon, he realized something was wrong.

In the darkness, a massive, invisible entity seemed to stand quietly before him.

If Li Fan were in the state he was in when he first arrived at the divine separation in this world, he would certainly be unable to clearly see the deity's true face.

But after countless years of devouring the deity and accumulating power, it was enough for him to witness the scene before him.

The true deity sat on the ground.

Its perfect body became imperfect due to a small void between its brows.

A true deity is formless and shapeless, so there are naturally no 'brows' or 'sitting'.

It was merely Li Fan applying his own understanding to the deity, attempting to perceive and explain everything that had happened to the fallen true deity.

Thus, he saw that the deity, who should have been high above, looking down on all beings, for some unknown reason, could only sit on the ground.

Thus, he saw that the divine body, which should have been flawless, had a void appear between its brows.

It sat on the ground because it was heavily wounded.

And the reason it was heavily wounded and near death was because of that point between its brows.

“This is it—the mystery of the deity's fall that I have so painstakingly sought.”

Li Fan stared intently at that point, as if entranced.

For some reason, he felt a faint sense of familiarity from that point.

Boom, boom, boom…

A tremendous sound reverberated.

The true deity, seated on the ground, seemed to be attempting to rise again.

Like a gust of strong wind sweeping past, the changes between true and false became precarious.

It was irresistibly drawn towards the sky, where the true deity resided.

“Re…vert to True!”

Li Fan took one last look, intending to deeply engrave that inexplicable point into his mind.