Chapter 583: To Seize A Nascent Grotto-Heaven

"World" might be a bit too grandiose a term.

Something a tier lower would be more fitting, like a "minor world," or a "grotto-heaven."

There was no doubt. The nascent Five Elements Grotto-Heavens were forming right here.

"The Gate of the Primal Mother—this is the root of heaven and earth." Li Fan murmured to himself.[1]

Similar phrases existed in the ancient texts of the Xuanhuang World.

Heaven and earth nurtured all living things. But from where had heaven and earth itself originated?

Among cultivators, there was no shortage of those with an inquisitive spirit.

Beyond those who ceaselessly sought to re-establish contact with cultivation worlds outside the Xuanhuang World, there existed another faction dedicated entirely to studying the birth of heaven and earth and the origin of living beings. Li Fan had read some of their works.

These scholars posited that heaven and earth, much like people, underwent constant growth and evolution.

The primordial Xuanhuang World, they believed, might once have been nothing more than a micro-grotto-heaven, and only after unimaginable eons had it evolved into its current form.

As for those micro-grotto-heavens, they could have been created from nothing by ancient powerhouses or True Immortals, or perhaps they had spontaneously emerged from the void itself.

The true, staggering vastness of the spacetime cultivators inhabited remained largely beyond their comprehension.

Yet it was undeniable: the Xuanhuang World was but an insignificant speck within the boundless river of infinite spacetime. Few cultivators truly concerned themselves with this fact, but that did nothing to alter its truth.

Within the endless expanse of spacetime, the nascent forms from which worlds evolved were what cultivators termed the Heaven-Earth Root.

The origin of worlds, the convergence of laws, the genesis of creation.

It had always been a purely theoretical concept, something no one had ever been fortunate enough to witness firsthand.

Until today.

Through intelligence gathered across simulation cycles, bolstered by his own indomitable will, Li Fan had finally arrived here.

Even though the myriad nascent laws contained within this place were far too profound for his current comprehension, he could not suppress the deep stirring in his heart—the feeling of one who, having heard the Dao in the morning, could die content by evening.

Multicolored particles collided horizontally and vertically, giving rise to shifting vistas. The crisscrossing lines filling the entire space resembled a colossal loom, weaving the very birth of a world.

Li Fan lost himself in the spectacle for a long time before reluctantly pulling his focus back.

For all its grandeur, deeper contemplation yielded no tangible insight, like drawing water with a bamboo basket. And yet his entire soul felt as though it had been steeped in warm water, not just soothed but refined in some mysterious, sublime way.

Despite his joy, Li Fan did not forget why he had come.

Seize the essence of heaven and earth to form a Nascent Soul.

His eyes gleamed.

For a moment, he genuinely entertained the thought of plundering the very Heaven-Earth Root and transforming it into a grotto-heaven for his own Nascent Soul.

If such a thing were possible, combined with the Dao Foundation built upon half of Return to Truth, he imagined he could reshape his grotto-heaven domain at will, just as he could arbitrarily alter his Foundation Establishment Curio.

A hidden dragon, a volcano, a law eye...

So long as he possessed the specific details, any of them could be manifested in an instant.

A pity my foundation is too shallow. A snake swallowing an elephant doesn't even begin to describe it. It's more like an ant trying to swallow an elephant.

Li Fan chuckled softly. After observing for only a few moments more, he dismissed that suicidal notion. An ant trying to swallow an elephant would only find death.

Perhaps far in the future, a Li Fan who had reached the Dao Unity realm and gained a profound understanding of the principles of heaven and earth could return here at the Golden Core realm. Only then might he have a real chance. But for now, it was better to be practical and focus on the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens first.

Having lingered here for some time, Li Fan had begun to discern a pattern. Perhaps stimulated by the forced relocation of the original Five Elements Grotto-Heaven, the Heaven-Earth Root was weaving a new one amidst its crisscrossing threads.

In that case, I just need to wait patiently. A newborn grotto-heaven is weak and easier to subdue. And I wouldn't have to worry about the grotto-heaven's strength affecting my actual combat power after advancement. The Five Elements Grotto-Heavens form a self-contained whole. Endlessly generative, continuously evolving.

Having settled on this plan, Li Fan felt a wave of relief. He paid no mind to whatever was happening outside, and immersed himself in observing the birth of the grotto-heavens.

He had initially assumed that if a human's birth required ten months of gestation, the birth of a grotto-heaven would be dozens of times more arduous.

But using the logic of man to fathom the workings of heaven and earth inevitably led to error. The formation of the new Five Elements Grotto-Heavens was far faster than he had imagined.

The frequency of collisions between the crisscrossing particles grew increasingly rapid, bursting before his eyes like cascading fireworks. Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth—Li Fan began to perceive the energy fluctuations of all five attributes within this space. Yet rather than scattering chaotically, they remained bound together.

He could not see the actual scene of the grotto-heavens’ birth directly. He could only sense it through the shifting energies of the Heaven-Earth Root.

As the nascent form of the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens drew close to emerging, a thrill of excitement rose within him.

But at that very moment, he noticed the lines composing his own body beginning to disperse into the surroundings.

Li Fan guessed that weaving the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens had cost the Heaven-Earth Root a portion of its energy, and now it was drawing in anything nearby to replenish itself. As an invasive foreign object, Li Fan had become the primary target.

Should he devour the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens here and now, advancing to the Nascent Soul realm? Or should he first withdraw from the Heaven-Earth Root, wait until the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens had fully formed and manifested within the void of Tianling Province, and then attempt to devour them?

He hesitated. But only briefly.

Staying here carried the risk of dissolution, yet at least there was no outside interference. Out in the void, cultivators of the Myriad Immortals Alliance were still patrolling near Tianling Province. No matter how lax they were, the disturbance of a Golden Core cultivator advancing to the Nascent Soul realm would not escape their notice. Even with silver-tongued eloquence, Li Fan doubted he could talk his way out of that.

It's worth a try. If I fail due to some accident, I can simply come back another time.

So Li Fan stopped resisting, and let the space draw upon the lines composing him.

Like a spool being steadily unwound, his body visibly shrank before his eyes. Yet he felt no fear. Instead, he turned the very force pulling him inward to his advantage, riding its current toward the location of the nascent Five Elements Grotto-Heavens.

At the summit of the Heaven-Earth Root, five distinct orbs of colored light were taking shape. Below them, nodes along the crisscrossing threads detonated one after another, each burst feeding the five orbs, making them clearer and more stable.

By the time he arrived before the glowing orbs, Li Fan had been reduced to half his body.

1.

From Dao De Jing, Chapter 6:

谷神不死，是谓玄牝。

玄牝之门，是谓天地根。

绵绵若存，用之不勤。

The valley spirit never dies;

It is the woman, primal mother.

Her gateway is the root of Heaven and Earth.

It is like a veil barely seen.

Use it; it will never fail.

Translation version: Gia-Fu Feng (馮家福 Feng Jia-fu, 1919–1985) and Jane English (1942–) ☜

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