Along with the sudden appearance of the five phantom faces came a voice that was exceedingly calm.

It seemed that these words were not spoken to Li Buren, who had rashly intruded here, but rather were a recording that had been made long ago.

“Shengde, the Immortal Hill Guardian, respectfully greets the worthy sage who comes after.”

“Having already attained the Nameless, one should originally have transcended. Yet the hidden Dao Annihilation remains, and we cannot abandon the weight upon our shoulders.”

“By chance, I obtained this wondrous method. Using phantom shadows in place of the true body, it can withstand the surging calamities.”

“I shall share it with you...”

The five phantom figures spoke in unison.

What followed was no longer an ordinary voice. Instead, it was as though a carving knife directly engraved the entire cultivation method into Li Buren’s body, which was surrounded by the five phantom figures.

He felt no pain, nor did he sense the slightest abnormality. It was as though something that had originally belonged to him, but had been sealed away and forgotten, had suddenly revealed itself again.

It was not being taught to him, but rather something he was “remembering” once more.

The entire process of comprehending, learning, and mastering the method was directly omitted.

Once one knows it, one is already at the Great Ascension stage!

However, Li Buren felt somewhat regretful that the reason the five phantom figures had taken the initiative to transmit the method was because all the Go pieces equivalent to an entire immortal domain had gathered together. In terms of level and status, they were almost equivalent to a single Nameless True Immortal.

Therefore, this Immortal Hill Guardian regarded all the Go pieces as a single whole.

The carving and imprinting had likewise been performed upon this entire whole.

What Li Buren obtained was merely a small portion of it.

Yet this secret method that could only be cultivated after reaching the realm of a Nameless True Immortal was already enough to broaden his horizons greatly.

“This method is called [Hill Guardian’s Miscellaneous Notes].”

“At the edge of the great ocean, there is a tiny hill without a name.”

“Shengde, the Hill Guardian, remained there for one hundred and twenty-three Epochs. He witnessed the rising and falling of the tides, the birth and disappearance of the waters. Whenever he felt something in his heart, he recorded it all in his notes. As the years passed, these wandering notes gradually became...”

Li Buren organized the 'memories' within his mind.

The simple words seemed to depict a solitary figure who had remained at the edge of the vast ocean for one hundred and twenty-three Epochs. Standing upon the nameless hill, he gazed out over the endless sea, spending his days alongside the tides.

“This Immortal Hill Guardian can use five phantom shadow figures to bear the Dao Annihilation Calamity upon his shoulders. His strength and realm are clearly far more profound than the humble manner in which he described himself in these wandering notes.”

Li Buren let out a long breath, seemingly trying to break free from the ancient and desolate years contained within those few short lines.

“In Sun Piaomiao’s previous transmission, there was also a description involving the Tianluo Epoch. Epochs should be a system of calendrical reckoning used in the Immortal Realm. I just do not know how many years in the Xuanhuang Realm correspond to one Epoch in the Immortal Realm.”

“But regardless, one hundred and twenty-three Epochs must surely represent an extraordinarily long passage of time.”

“And the sea and hill that required such a long period of guarding could certainly not be an ordinary sea and hill in the conventional sense.”

Li Buren suddenly recalled the allegory concerning the mountain and sea in that book that was suspected to have been left behind by Sun Piaomiao.

“If the sea represents the Infinite Ocean, then what exactly does the mountain represent...?”

The wandering notes left behind by this Immortal Hill Guardian, Shengde, did not merely impart the method of leaving behind shadows in place of the true body.

Instead, they recorded in extraordinary detail the entire process of thought through which the Immortal Hill Guardian had comprehended this method.

This method had not been created through a sudden epiphany one day.

Rather, it had been refined through the accumulation of countless days and years, distilled from endless contemplation.

Obtaining this method was almost like “traveling” back into the body of the Immortal Hill Guardian in the past, experiencing one hundred and twenty-three Epochs of vicissitudes through his body, soul, and thoughts all over again.

Even though the only things he faced day after day were the mountain and the sea.

The seemingly limitless amount of data was almost enough to completely drown Li Buren.

Fortunately, this time he was sharing the burden with the Go pieces from the other immortal domains. With his extraordinary constitution, formed from the projection of his divine will net and fragments of immortal domain laws within his body, he was barely able to endure it.

“No wonder the phantom of the Immortal Hill Guardian only appears when facing a Nameless True Immortal. It is not that he is stingy or unwilling to impart this method to other immortals. Rather, those beneath the Nameless realm simply cannot bear it!”

Carried along by the Immortal Hill Guardian’s vast torrent of thoughts, Li Buren seemed to have returned to the Infinite Ocean. Every drop of water around him contained the passage of hundreds of millions of years.

“According to the Immortal Hill Guardian, the sea’s invasion of the mountain has existed since the beginning of time. Yet just like the tides of the mortal world, its changes are unpredictable, sometimes strong and sometimes weak.”

“Since he began guarding the hill and gazing upon the sea, although its momentum has continuously fluctuated, its overall scale has remained in a period of growth. It has not even... reached the estimated [extreme point].”

“The Immortal Hill Guardian discovered this clue during the twentieth Epoch. The following hundred Epochs were enough to verify this conclusion.”

“He had already issued warnings to the world long ago. Unfortunately, his words carried little weight?”

“This...”

Li Buren was immediately filled with confusion upon hearing this.

However, the subsequent self-narration of the Immortal Hill Guardian, Shengde, provided the answer.

It turned out that at that time, the Immortal Hill Guardian was still an 'ordinary' True Immortal. He had not yet attained the Nameless realm. Naturally, his words were ignored.

But during the eighty-eighth Epoch, after accumulating his strength for a long time, the Immortal Hill Guardian finally entered the Nameless realm.

Yet he did not make it known. Instead, he continued silently guarding the hill and gazing upon the sea.

At that time, the Immortal Realm seemed to have encountered some sort of upheaval, and the various immortals of the Immortal Realm had no attention to spare for this guardian of a distant hill by the sea.

It seemed that the entire Immortal Realm had forgotten him.

Until one day, waves surged into the heavens, crossing over the hill and rushing toward him.

...

Breaking away from the seemingly uneventful yet actually magnificent life of Immortal Hill Guardian, Li Buren began to focus on the method of [Phantom Shadow Bearing the Dao].

“According to Immortal Hill Guardian, he sat upon a hill, gazing at the sea. As the waves rose and fell, it was as if he were directly facing the countless Great Daos of the world.”

“The waves came one after another, moving in rhythm with the Great Dao. In truth, they were two sides of the same whole.”

“A person stands atop a mountain like a massive stone. Every day, he is struck by the waves and gradually worn away by them. Yet at the same time, between the mountain and the sea, he leaves behind traces that belong solely to himself.”

“...”

Immortal Hill Guardian's miscellaneous writings were extremely obscure and difficult to understand. Even with Li Fan's hundred reincarnations and countless experiences, he still found it difficult to comprehend them in such a short time.

“If I did not possess [Truth], and had never personally entered the Infinite Ocean, then even if I obtained this method, I would probably be completely lost in a cloud of mist, utterly unable to understand its principles. I might even have regarded it as a joke!”

“This is because this method is fundamentally different from the cultivation systems of the world.”

Li Fan gradually came to an understanding.

Yet the marvelous aspect of Immortal Hill Guardian's miscellaneous writings lay precisely here. Even if the person being taught could not understand its profound mysteries, because the five phantom shadows had actively engraved the inheritance, the recipient could nevertheless wield the wondrous art of [Phantom Shadow Bearing the Dao] as easily as moving one's own arm, without any obstruction.

“It does not require any expenditure from oneself at all. It merely extracts the traces left behind in history and within the Great Dao, transforming them into phantom shadows to bear the weight of the Dao Annihilation...”

“This divine ability is truly beyond imagination!”

Moreover, Li Fan sensed that the wondrous art of [Phantom Shadow Bearing the Dao] was not limited to resisting the Dao Annihilation Calamity.

Or rather, bearing the Dao was merely one of the many functions possessed by this divine ability.

“Immune to countless calamities, repelling all laws, attaining immortality and eternal life...”

“Beyond all these, the most crucial thing is [Transcendence]!”

“It is the fundamental method of leaping out of the Great Dao of this world.”

While extracting all the traces one had left behind in the mountains and seas of the past, one was also severing all connections with everything in the world.

At that time, with only oneself remaining, one would no longer be bound by the net of the Great Dao...

Li Fan's heart trembled, and yearning arose within him.

Just then, Immortal Hill Guardian's journey of transmitting the Dao had already reached its conclusion.

The entirety of [Immortal Hill Guardian's Miscellaneous Notes] had been completely engraved.

The five phantom shadows left behind by Immortal Hill Guardian, Shengde, actually bowed slightly toward Li Buren at the center and performed a formal salute.

Then their bodies fluctuated and slowly dissipated.

They once again returned to their previous state of silently bearing the Dao.

Li Buren's expression was solemn as he respectfully returned the salute.

He knew that this was Immortal Hill Guardian's hope for the sages of later generations, that they too would leave behind phantom shadows to bear and transmit the Dao.

That was why he had received this salute.

“The phantom shadow left behind by Immortal Hill Guardian may not be limited to this one place within the High Wall.”

“After leaving behind these phantom shadows to bear the Dao, where is he now? Has he already left the current possibility?”

Thinking of the lower realm star sea, which had suffered the ravages of Dao Annihilation Calamity yet still retained signs of life, Li Buren suddenly came to a realization.

As for this Immortal Hill Guardian who gazed upon the sea, Li Buren had no doubt that he possessed the strength to cross between possibilities.

“In any case, he was able to leave behind some phantom shadows to bear and transmit the Dao, and even left a profound and miraculous method for saving the world for those who came after him. Immortal Hill Guardian can certainly be said to have lived up to the responsibility he shouldered.”

“He truly deserves the name [Shengde - (Abundant Virtue)].”

After pondering for a long while, Li Buren finally came back to his senses and looked toward the surrounding Immortal Domain Go pieces.

After being engraved by Immortal Hill Guardian, these Go pieces seemed to have become somewhat different from before.

Originally, these fragments of the Immortal Domain merely floated silently while emitting an aura that made one's heart tremble. But now, they had returned to simplicity, becoming completely inconspicuous. An outsider who was not paying attention might overlook them without even realizing it.

“Or perhaps, it would be more accurate to describe it as ‘gradually becoming detached from this world.’”

A sense of vigilance suddenly arose within Li Buren's heart.

He had not forgotten that previously, during the [Truth] state, the Nameless True Immortal leg bone within the Immortal Domain had seemed to sense something and followed him as it flew over.

“The Nameless realm can no longer be measured simply by life and death.”

“Although it is merely a leg bone and remains in a fragmented state, who knows what changes might occur after receiving [Immortal Hill Guardian's Miscellaneous Notes]?”

Li Buren cautiously drew one of the white Go pieces toward himself.

Without bothering with anything else, he shed his status as a Go piece within the Dao Net, materialising his true physical form.

A force of repulsion slammed into him. Causing Li Buren, together with the Medicine King True Cauldron, to fall from the highest spatial point of the circular hall.

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