Peace had returned atop the dam.
On one side of the dam lay the Nirvana Black Sea, its waves still roaring.
Behind the dam lay a forbidden realm no one could touch, mysterious and unfathomable.
Two chairs had appeared.
A jug of wine sat on a stone table.
Li Fan lounged there at ease. The stone table and chairs had appeared at a thought, while the wine had been brought from Small Mountain Village.
He could take things from anywhere in the heavens, heedless of distance or space.
"Care for a drink?"
Li Fan raised his cup and looked at the Silent One.
The Silent One's hair had turned white, his Qi and Blood withered, and his Dao was on the verge of collapse. Yet now he smiled, calmly raised his cup, and drained it.
"What a fine deception."
After drinking, the Silent One could not help speaking.
"You painstakingly devised this deception just to climb the dam and enter the other side..."
By now, he understood.
From the very beginning, Li Fan had been putting on an act.
Li Fan had played along with him. He had set three trials for Li Fan, and Li Fan had followed those trials, step by step, until he became the Silent One.
And he had acted far too convincingly. He had fooled both the Silent One and those on the other side of the dam.
"Betrayal, death and separation, helplessness... They failed to destroy you. Instead, they blinded me—and blinded those beyond the dam."
He seemed desolate. He could not tell whether he felt relieved, was mocking himself, or both.
Li Fan said calmly,
"The countless trials of the heart you set for me couldn't destroy even one ten-thousandth of me. But they let me see you through completely."
He raised his