My Simulated Road to Immortality Chapter 2378: 1768: Cicada Veil_2
As though it had never been there at all.
The original uttered in a chilling tone: “Is this what you're relying on? Do you truly intend to subvert the True and False Dao and usurp my position...”
Yet before he could finish speaking, a drastic shift overtook the original's face.
For next to Zhang Fan, indistinct silhouettes began to materialize.
Zhen Shi Yin, Fake Yu Cun, the old fisherman, Xuan Yuanhong, Master of Slaying Destiny, Po Zhenzi...
These figures appeared as separate entities, but they also seemed born from Zhang Fan himself.
“Haven't you always desired my submission?”
“Throughout this lifetime, I've grasped countless Mountain Sea Paths and profoundly delved into the essences of various God creation Guests. My insight into the True and False Dao now eclipses yours!”
“Still, I'm ready to surrender it all to you, so we can unite as one!”
A hint of frenzy gleamed in Zhang Fan's gaze, and with the true and false flames fading away, his form smashed into the original.
Just like two water drops blending together, they fused in an instant.
However...
The silhouettes of the God creation Guests lingered like persistent specters, manifesting inside.
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
The starlight overhead intensified further.
The vessel of the True and False Dao floated erratically toward that lone eye suspended above.
A malevolent voice echoed, shrieking Hai Zhen over and over.
Yet due to these spectral presences, activating the True and False Changes proved exceedingly hard.
Each time Hai Zhen neared completion, a subtle whisper would disrupt it.
“Hai Zhen!”
“No return.”
“Hai Zhen!”
“No return.”
…
These apparitions of the God creation Guests weren't the actual deceased ones.
Instead, they served as Zhang Fan's tethers, setting him apart from the original.
Only the God creation Guests from Mountain Sea could hold onto faint recollections amid the endless cycles of Mountain Sea resets.
In this incarnation, by engaging with these God creation Guests, Zhang Fan verified that the original had never crossed paths with them in previous lives.
All potential paths in Mountain Sea, the journeys taken, and bygone encounters—the original might have traversed them entirely.
Save for the unique affairs involving the God creation Guests, which stood as anomalies.
Therefore, they offered a means to distinguish Zhang Fan from the original.
Looking more closely, even as the two water drops united,
the one that merged afterward carried distinct traits, enabling it to persist separately for a short while.
Undoubtedly, given the original's dominion over its avatar, this anomaly wouldn't endure for long.
An avatar remains merely an avatar, after all.
From its inception, it was destined for inevitable defiance.
In normal situations, these God creation Guest phantoms could at best extend Zhang Fan's existence by mere instants.
They couldn't alter the core outcome.
But at this juncture...
Amid the climax of Returning to God, this brief window proved sufficient to upend it all.
The proximity to devolving into the True God drew nearer and nearer, but Zhang Fan showed no signs of surrender.
His intent was clear: to pull the original down into mutual destruction.
At last, the original's calm shattered.
“You seek death!”
“If death is your wish, don't pull me down too!”
“Should Hai Zhen return, endless opportunities await. But falling to the True God means no reversal, no way back!”
Rage and alarm surged forth.
Zhang Fan witnessed every ignoble reaction from the original.
He simply observed with icy detachment: “It's exactly because I refuse to perish that I'm staking everything in this final struggle!”
Starlight flooded the expanse.
As if plunging fully into that realm.
The lofty star now blazed like a colossal sun, solitary and majestic.
Both Zhang Fan and the original sensed acutely that the True and False Changes enveloping them were thinning out.
Poised to slip away entirely at any second.
“Insane fool! Insane fool! This path leads to our mutual doom!” the original bellowed, his barriers crumbling.
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
Zhang Fan's eyes burned with resolve, his mind steadying amid the peril of oblivion.
Grasping the moment he'd anticipated, Zhang Fan released the anchors tied to the God creation Guests.
Ceasing all resistance to their total integration.
Ecstasy washed over the original.
Eagerly striving to absorb Zhang Fan completely and reclaim the primary anchor.
Yet...
In the instant that followed, it was like gulping down a rock—the original couldn't assimilate Zhang Fan and instead suffered a violent backlash of blood.
“Impossible! How could you...”
Zhang Fan smirked: “Deprived of the True and False Changes' boost, how superior is your so-called original self to mine, really?”
“Let's settle this fairly.”
“To determine who prevails, who lives, who dies!”
With those words, Zhang Fan lunged at the original.
No spells of the Dao, no sacred arts.
Just the brutal confrontation of raw determination.
Two souls so alike, or maybe indistinguishable, clashed in a desperate battle for existence.
Without pause or mercy.
In that instant, the encroaching end of Returning to God and the doom of no return faded from their awareness.
Locked solely on one another, vowing to claim victory.
No matter the price.
Its savagery defied description for onlookers.
To observers beyond, it passed in a flash.
But for those locked in combat, it spanned endless ages.
“Cursed be you, cursed, you wretched...”
The original clung to survival, spewing curses without end.
Met only by Zhang Fan's unrestrained, triumphant laughter.
The droplets realigned yet again.
The pair merged utterly into one.
“Ultimately, victory is mine.”
As the triumphant force, Zhang Fan lay utterly spent, yet his triumph rang hollower than anticipated.
Through the avatar, he engulfed the original, claiming all its legacies.
But introspection would have to wait.
The lingering True and False Changes within him had dwindled to a mere filament.
With reversion to the True God on the verge.
“Thank the heavens for not abandoning me!”
“Even a sliver of the True and False Changes endures, enough to trigger it.”
“Hai Zhen! Hai Zhen!”
Zhang Fan at last voiced the pair of syllables the original had wailed innumerable times.
Unhindered now by any intrusive notions.
After a momentary hesitation, the True and False Dao manifested here.
The starlit heavens abruptly darkened.
As though an unseen colossal hand seized the blazing sun overhead.
Then, with irresistible force, hauled it downward inch by inch.
Before Zhang Fan's very eyes, a wondrous spectacle unfolded.
Time seemed to reverse, as myriad gleaming starlights flowed back into the star.
Shadow and void resurfaced.
That chilling, mortal hush—far more comforting than celestial splendor.
This ordeal had been perilously close.
The True God's descent hovered just a heartbeat away.
Dispelling the looming True God, this Hai Zhen reset stretched longer than all prior ones combined.
Yet in the end, triumph prevailed.
Within Zhang Fan's psyche, the strained tension at last eased.
He exhaled profoundly.
For one final time, he beheld the dissipating form of the True God, declaring boldly: “I defy destiny, I seize the original. From now on, I shall shatter stars and vanquish gods!”
“Just wait and see!”
As if attuned to Zhang Fan's declaration, in its final flicker, the waning starlight flared once more.
Then dissolved into nothingness.
Enveloping darkness surged, engulfing Zhang Fan's awareness.