The Lord of Elephants said, all sentient beings need the ancient and the present, the beginning and the end; this is the meaning of their own existence. They are not unfeeling beings evolved from within the Elephants. The Elephants and the old time are, of course, truly existing things, just as we are all born from the illusory thoughts before the Profound Elephants.
But that illusory thought is too far from us, so much so that it has no concept of time. Therefore, sentient beings have no beginning and no end!
With no end, the myriad phenomena will never stop their rotation, everything will continue, and all paths will continue to extend.
Ji Xiang flipped his palm and gently clenched it. The myriad phenomena, visible and invisible, around Taishang also began to rotate rapidly, unable to stop.
Thus, before Taishang's eyes, were the myriad phenomena extending infinitely.
He was wrapped by the myriad phenomena to which he was attached, unable to escape, and fell directly.
Countless scenes and countless sentient beings were born and died, died and were born again, galaxies perished and then brightened again, the deathly aura of time surged and then gradually retreated, and new time appeared again.
Even his own path began to extend, seemingly trying to revolve within the myriad phenomena and complete itself.
Taishang was greatly shocked.
If the myriad phenomena of the world are infinitely changing, without beginning or end, then it is not necessarily true that only one person becomes the Lord of Elephants in an era, and only one person can walk a path.
Even a flawed dharma, after millions of generations of passers-by and tens of thousands of generations of elephant transformations, might be able to complete itself.
"Taishang Invincible?"
"The highest does not fail, but there is no highest thing in the world, only the higher. The myriad phenomena are not only the myriad phenomena within the Elephants that are constantly advancing, but even the heavens above the heavens have never stopped."
"Still waters do not rot, and door pivots do not rust. So-called invincibility is merely not having failed yet. I am fortunate to have met the Demon Immortal first. If Taishang had emerged complete, he would have been born into the Elephant Realm."
Ji Xiang thought that the Demon Immortal had once said that Taishang was not a title, but originally an identity, and that Taishangs were also a fixed number.
If the name of Invincible had ever circulated, it was a path walked by a certain Taishang.
Then, within that so-called fixed number of Taishangs, were the other Taishangs, even those within the same Elephant Realm, truly inferior to him?
The battle turned, and Taishang fell into Ji Xiang's palm like a speck of dust, while that omnipresent figure could not keep up with the growth and expansion of the myriad phenomena.
Taishang tried to push the myriad phenomena to their end to escape this prison. His dharma rotated, and as soon as an elephant manifested, it was destroyed. But because of its beginninglessness and endlessness, new elephants manifested after destruction. Moreover, with his movements, with the rotation of his heart and thoughts, it was even faster than the birth and death of a single moment.
Always in the instant before his thoughts arose.
New elephants were ready to manifest.
Taishang Invincible,明明 is the most peerless dharma, his voice turned into reality as soon as it was uttered, and from the moment of reality's birth, it had already reached its end. But the myriad phenomena that Ji Xiang manifested for him were myriad phenomena that belonged only to Taishang, and this expanse of myriad phenomena was also invincible.
It also followed, attached to his power, growing with him, and constantly expanding.
Without boundaries.
Without end.
Taishang fell into the vastness of the myriad phenomena that were without beginning, without end, without ancient, and without present. He opened his mouth, within the infinitely growing myriad phenomena, his expression was extremely shocked, losing his previous indifferent posture and gradually turning to panic.
The Human Dao Dharma Realm was taken out of the vast myriad phenomena by Ji Xiang. Taishang reached out to grab it, but the speed of the myriad phenomena's growth was too fast. In just a moment, it had already exceeded the limit of his reflection.
As he reached out, things had already ended, just like the name of Invincible.
"Elephant Realm..."
Taishang stopped his actions, because no matter how hard he tried, he could not leave this infinitely growing elephant. He could only stop his actions. When his actions stopped, the myriad phenomena would also stop growing. This was an almost boundless prison, which seemed to have no time or years, yet within the myriad phenomena, there were shadows of time and years everywhere!
Taishang's thoughts were bound in his heart, not spreading outwards, not inciting the rotation of the myriad phenomena. However, at this moment, he gradually heard some past voices from within the dharma within his body.
That ethereal sound, seemingly present yet not, in the depths of these vast, boundless, ancientless, and presentless myriad phenomena, seemed to be everywhere.
[All things under heaven are born from existence, and existence is born from nothingness.]
"Who is it, who?"
Taishang could not remember, nor had he ever had such a memory. This voice came from nowhere, started from nowhere, and drifted to nowhere within the myriad phenomena.
His thoughts spread outwards, and the Taishang body he represented also emitted magnificent light, which made the evolution of the myriad phenomena even faster. And that incomplete path was gradually being completed, and faster and faster.
However, it was always being completed, and never stopped.
Infinite, endless.
He discovered that to truly complete the Taishang dharma, he needed to get out of this prison of myriad phenomena. Only after leaving would it happen.
No matter what he did within the prison, once a thought arose, it would never fall, and even that thought, he did not know when it arose.
Without ancient, without present, without beginning, without end, as long as he remained within the prison, he would never be able to complete the Taishang dharma.
But perhaps, if he continued to exist within it, would his Taishang dharma derive more new paths?
Perhaps that incompleteness was not incompleteness after all.
Taishang fell into deep contemplation. At this moment, he laughed, releasing more thoughts.
The Heavenly Venerable of Beginninglessness and Endless made a wrong decision.
This would cause his path to be infinitely strengthened within this prison of myriad phenomena, waiting indefinitely. Even if there was no end, the rotation of the Dao, the completion of the dharma, infinite paths, infinite evolutions, he would truly reach a realm that even the Dao could not reach.
Taishang continuously released his thoughts, accelerating the rotation of the myriad phenomena. After an unknown amount of time, Taishang felt that his thoughts had filled the myriad phenomena, expanding to a point where he could no longer control them.
Countless thoughts were like countless selves. In the rotation of the myriad phenomena, they began to become countless avatars. Their thoughts intertwined, gradually developing self-awareness. Each sub-thought believed that its own existence was the true "Taishang."
They used dharma to verify each other, to attack each other, and the myriad phenomena evolved to be even larger and more numerous, reaching an immeasurable, unnamable, indescribable, and unknowable profound state.
Then, after another unknown amount of time, these thoughts began to collapse, and Taishang had already lost himself, because the infinitely growing thoughts had completely crushed his own thoughts, causing them to disappear.
Although the dharma was being supplemented very quickly, it could not keep up with the growth rate of the myriad phenomena and thoughts.
Endless desires were endless hopes, and also endless hearts and spirituality. Even at Taishang's level, he could not bear it. He was crushed by his own thoughts and fell into a long, blank dream, where all thoughts stopped rotating, and he even forgot his own existence.
The myriad phenomena then became silent.
Afterward, under the manipulation of a pair of large hands, these myriad phenomena disappeared within the deepest profundity, as if... returning to the Profound Elephants.
After an unknown amount of time, it was an endless path. When a large hand descended and pulled him out of the myriad phenomena, returning him to the original old time, Taishang finally came back to his senses, gathering all his heart and thoughts.
The path of Taishang was completed.
Taishang looked at Ji Xiang, and also at the Heavenly Venerable of Beginninglessness and Endless, filled with bewilderment:
"How long has it been?"
He had forgotten who he was before, and how much time had passed. Although those thoughts were gradually recovering, they still left Taishang bewildered.
He did not even understand some of the things he had done in the distant past, even though his so-called "distant past" was only a few moments ago for Ji Xiang.
Ji Xiang replied, "One thought is about to perish, and one thought is about to be born."
"The two thoughts have not yet changed; they are merely between birth and death, in the 'interval'."
Taishang was silent for a long time and asked with confusion:
"Why, at the very end, did you not dissolve me, but instead helped me?"
Ji Xiang could have dissolved himself within the myriad phenomena, because he had just gone astray, creating infinite thoughts to the point of destroying his original thought. At that time, he had already achieved the myriad phenomena, scattered among the myriad phenomena and thoughts.