My longevity simulation

“How did they still get away? What are you all even doing!”

“These cultivators are far too fast! Their movements are perfectly coordinated and highly disciplined. They are nothing like a mob of scattered rabble.”

“It is not that they are fast. They vanished into thin air right in front of us!”

An image spread through the Holy Dynasty Star Sea Net.

The attackers had clearly been on the verge of being caught by the Holy Dynasty soldiers, yet at the critical moment, they transformed into nothingness and dispersed into the air.

The Holy Dynasty soldiers initially assumed the enemy had used teleportation to escape and attempted to continue the pursuit.

But they could not detect even the slightest trace of spatial fluctuations.

“Requesting reinforcements. With the current number of troops in Luoyan Prefecture, maintaining control of the Heavenly City is already our limit. We do not have the strength to pursue and eliminate the remaining Immortal Alliance forces within the territory.”

“On our side in Shilin Prefecture, we have already wiped out all resistance. We can head over!”

“We are almost done as well! Hold on, brothers!”

…

Sun Erlang looked over the streams of battlefield communications from the eastern front, considering whether to dispatch additional forces to jointly encircle Luoyan Prefecture.

Suddenly, it was as if a bolt of lightning flashed through his mind, causing his heart to jolt violently.

Then suspicion surged within him.

He abruptly recalled something his master had once mentioned.

“No, no. Luoyan Prefecture should have already been destroyed once before. Although the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance later carried out reconstruction work there, it should be absolutely impossible for that place to have so many cultivators defending it…”

“How did I forget something so important?”

A sharp glint flashed in Sun Erlang’s eyes.

He had already sensed something was wrong and immediately issued orders to all Holy Dynasty forces.

“Temporarily halt all reinforcements to Luoyan Prefecture. I will personally send someone to deal with it.”

“The Thirty-Sixth Legion responsible for holding Luoyan Prefecture is also to withdraw immediately.”

Military orders were absolute.

No one questioned the command. They simply carried it out at once.

“I am Lan Xiangwen, commander of the Thirty-Sixth Legion of the First Army. I have already completed the withdrawal with my troops. According to orders, we have retreated to Lueying Prefecture.”

“But… I do not see any of our people here.”

“Lan Xiangwen, what nonsense are you talking about? We have been waiting at the agreed location the entire time, and there is not even a trace of you! Where exactly are you?!”

“Something is wrong. Lan Xiangwen, your location display shows you are still within Luoyan Prefecture! What is your Thirty-Sixth Legion doing?!”

…

A trace of chaos began appearing within the eastern battlefield communications.

Wang Xuanba, supreme commander of the eastern front, decisively isolated that group’s communications before beginning a detailed inquiry.

At this moment, Sun Erlang’s voice also arrived.

“Xuanba, there is something strange about this place. Based on my confirmation, after the entire Thirty-Sixth Legion entered Luoyan Prefecture, their positions never changed at all. It is as if they fell into a deep sleep.”

“So do not trust any information they report. It should all be hallucinations from within a dream.”

Wang Xuanba was slightly surprised.

“I already sent a exotic beast body into the area, but could not find them. I truly did not expect it to be an illusion.”

“We did indeed break through the rebuilt Luoyan Heavenly City earlier. The first batch of transferred soldiers truly left Luoyan Prefecture. This should be some method the Immortal Alliance activated afterward. Or perhaps… not the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance at all…” Sun Erlang voiced his conclusion.

“One of my puppet bodies has already entered Luoyan Prefecture…”

A scene from Luoyan Prefecture appeared before Sun Erlang.

At the location detected by the Star Sea Net where Wang Xuanba’s exotic beast body should have been, there was no one.

In fact, the entire Luoyan Prefecture showed no trace of battle whatsoever.

Everything was calm and peaceful.

“Even a puppet body can be dragged into the illusion?” Sun Erlang’s expression grew grave.

“But falsehood can never become truth!”

The black-gold patterned puppet extended an arm forward.

Energy surged through the puppet’s body, and a longbow made entirely of pure golden energy instantly appeared in its grasp.

The bow bent like a crescent moon, and a silver arrow manifested along with it.

Buzz!

After a brief charge, the silver radiance shot forth like a dragon, piercing through the heavens.

The enormous force shattered all space ahead, about to expose the truth hidden beneath the illusion.

At that very moment, a somewhat pale hand suddenly emerged from the void without warning.

It lightly caught the Sky-Patrolling Arrow.

No matter how violently the silver radiance erupted from the arrow, it remained firmly gripped, utterly unable to move.

In the end, the light was completely extinguished, turning into an ordinary arrow within that hand.

The space that had previously been pierced by the Sky-Patrolling Arrow also restored itself.

That pale arm which had blocked the arrow, along with the puppet body controlled by Sun Erlang, gradually became dim and insubstantial.

Sun Erlang let out a cold snort.

Mysterious golden energy surged from the puppet body.

Pfft!

A pair of arms extended from behind the puppet.

Then another pair grew from the left side of its torso.

Only after eight pairs, sixteen arms in total, had emerged did the transformation stop. With so many additional structures, the puppet’s overall size nearly expanded by an entire circle.

Golden patterns flowed across its surface as if they had come alive.

Boom!

Like thunder descending into the world, eight longbows appeared one after another in the puppet’s hands.

The bowstrings were drawn to their fullest.

Eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows pointed in different directions, fully charged and ready to fire.

“Break for me!”

Sun Erlang roared in fury.

Eight silver dragons howled as they shot outward from the central puppet simultaneously.

Gold and silver brilliance competed for dominance, even briefly eclipsing the moonlight cast by Great Qi in the sky.

It was as though only this single creation of brute force remained between heaven and earth.

Wherever the eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows passed, space shattered like broken mirrors, exploding layer by layer.

But strangely, those fragments did not continue flying outward.

Instead, they froze motionless in midair.

The silver dragons continued racing forward at terrifying speed, completely destroying everything in their path. Yet the areas they had devastated seemed trapped in frozen time.

The true scene hidden beyond the illusion therefore never actually appeared.

What caused Sun Erlang’s pupils to constrict sharply was that the pale arm appeared once again.

Only this time, it did not move to block the eight Sky-Patrolling Arrows.

Rather than attacking directly, it moved at a measured yet astonishingly swift pace, picking up those frozen illusion fragments one by one and placing them back in their original positions.

If that pale arm were allowed to continue restoring everything, then the overwhelming Sky-Patrolling Arrows, powerful enough to heavily injure eight Dao Integration cultivators, would likely be like a punch landing on cotton, completely ineffective.

Sun Erlang naturally would not allow the other party to succeed.

“Even if this is only a puppet body, from beginning to end you will not even show your face…”

“Aren’t you looking down on me a little too much?”

The puppet’s eight pairs of arms moved across its body.

They wriggled and merged, transforming in the blink of an eye into a pair of incomparably thick arms, nearly as large as the puppet’s main body itself.

The puppet instantly flashed forward, arriving before the pale arm.

It grabbed down fiercely with all its strength.

Yet this seemingly slender arm actually contained an unimaginable amount of terrifying power.

Creak, creak…

Not only did the gigantic puppet arms fail to stop its movement, they were instead dragged along by it, forcibly continuing in the original direction of motion.

The dark gold patterns on the puppet’s body had already been pushed to their absolute limit.

Sun Erlang could even vaguely sense that amid this high intensity clash of strength, the puppet body had already reached the limit of what it could endure.

It was about to collapse in the very next moment.

A cold gleam flashed through Sun Erlang’s true body’s eyes.

Remote power support from the other dark gold puppets was instantly poured into it.

Bang!

Under the shroud of golden light, the puppet’s body instantly expanded several times over.

The suddenly increased immense force violently wrenched the pale arm’s movement back.

Refusing to give the enemy any chance to recover, the energy erupted to its utmost extreme, attempting to drag out the true culprit hiding behind the scenes.

The idea was beautiful, but just as Sun Erlang felt success was within reach, a sudden inexplicable chill surged through his heart.

Then he felt…

As though another pale, icy cold arm had been placed upon the puppet body’s shoulder.

With just a slight exertion of force, the puppet’s previous limit state was immediately broken.

Its body staggered and lost balance in a miserable display.

Before he could even adjust, Sun Erlang then felt one pale hand after another stretching out from the void.

They pressed down upon the puppet body.

The strength of each hand did not seem particularly great.

Yet they were incomparably resolute. Joined together, they pressed upon the puppet like mountains and oceans.

In an instant, the puppet was submerged beneath a mass of white hands, unable to move.

Buzz!

A streak of blood ran from Sun Erlang’s eyes as he forcibly disengaged himself from controlling the puppet.

He had a premonition that if he continued controlling the puppet and was dragged by those pale arms into that unknown place, his true body would also suffer extremely severe damage.

“Longevity Immortal Realm…” Sun Erlang had now confirmed the other party’s strength.

This was no longer something he could handle. A trace of unwillingness flashed through his heart, but he did not force the issue.

“You withdraw. Leave this place to me.”

Fortunately, at this moment, Qiao Gong’s voice rang beside the puppet’s ears.

“This treasure took me a great deal of effort to finally forge successfully. I cannot just hand it over to you…” Qiao Gong muttered, his figure immediately appearing beside the dark gold puppet.

The rotating blade light in his hand casually swept in a circle across those pale arms that were tightly gripping the puppet.

Countless arms were like sheets of white paper being torn apart, snapping at the cut points.

“Go!”

Qiao Gong patted the dark gold puppet’s shoulder, and the puppet gradually shrank back to its normal size.

Then light flashed, and it teleported away from the area. At the final moment, Sun Erlang discovered that the severed halves of those pale arms cut down by Qiao Gong were actually merely sections of willow branches.

“A willow tree?”

Qiao Gong simultaneously arrived at the same question.

He tried to grab the severed willow branches, but his hand grasped only empty air. In the brief moment he was distracted, the previously dense mass of countless pale arms had already merged back into space and vanished once more.

“You will not even show your hands anymore? That is far too disrespectful to me, Qiao Gong.”

There was no anger on Qiao Gong’s face. He merely took out a circular bronze disc from his robes.

On top of the bronze disc were several little figures in ridiculous poses. The little figures had originally been playing around, but after Qiao Gong took them out, they immediately became tense and uneasy.

They pointed in different directions around them.

Without any visible action from Qiao Gong, a rope-like shadow flew out from beside him. As it rapidly sped away, it concealed itself and vanished into the air.

After some time, as though it had collided with something, the black rope began swaying. The little figures on the bronze disc kept pointing, and the black shadows beside Qiao Gong continued firing out endlessly.

Before long, a bizarre and sinister enormous black net had been constructed with Qiao Gong at its center.

The little figures in the bronze disc seemed to feel they had completed their mission, patting their chests in relief.

But Qiao Gong reached out and grabbed one of the little figures.

Though the little figure was highly unwilling, it had no choice. It blew a whistle, and one became two.

With a flip, two became four.

It did not take long for the single little figure to become an entire army of little figures.

Each little figure wore a miserable expression as they jumped onto the black ropes.

Then, amid faint but orderly chants, the little figures began pulling together on the black shadows before them.

The enormous black net instantly contracted.

The surrounding space trembled slightly, and the restored fragments exploded apart once again.

Something else seemed about to be dragged out from beneath the illusory surface.

Qiao Gong narrowed his eyes and watched with anticipation, muttering to himself: “If even Immortal Puppet Ancestor could be dragged, how could you possibly be any exception?”

A sigh suddenly rang out for no apparent reason.

A faint zither melody seemed to drift over from the horizon. The little workers, who had originally been full of energy, instantly became listless and began slacking off one after another.

Qiao Gong revealed a vigilant expression as he looked around.

“Why must there be war…”

The mournful, plaintive sound that seemed to weep and lament continuously echoed around Qiao Gong.

Qiao Gong’s eyes darted around once, then he smiled and said, “Well said. Why must we fight? I, Qiao Gong, am not good at fighting…”

“Since neither side wishes to make a move, why not sit down and have a proper talk?”

To prove his sincerity, Qiao Gong directly put away the circular disc.

The little workers cheered joyfully and stopped working, while Qiao Gong smiled as he looked around. “I am Qiao Gong of the Heavenly Mechanism Realm. May I ask for Fellow Daoist’s name?”

The other party was indeed a Longevity Immortal Realm expert.

But during the brief exchange, Qiao Gong had not sensed any traces of the Xuanhuang Realm’s heaven and earth principles being reversed.

Thus, he judged that the other party, like himself, was a survivor from another destroyed cultivation world.

After a moment of silence, that graceful yet solemn voice sounded once again.

“I do not remember.”

“I simply do not wish to see conflict. I bear no ill intent.”

Following the other party’s words, Qiao Gong saw that throughout the entire Luoyan Heavenly City, both the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance and Holy Dynasty Great Qi cultivators had all peacefully fallen asleep with satisfied expressions. Their lives, however, were not in danger.

Qiao Gong inwardly let out a sigh of relief. Although he was unafraid, it was still best not to make an enemy of a Longevity Immortal Realm expert if possible.

“Actually, we also bear no ill intent…”

Qiao Gong smiled as he began chatting with the other party.

On Sun Erlang’s side, after receiving Qiao Gong’s message, he inwardly sighed.

“As expected, the gap between Longevity Immortal Realm and Dao Integration is as vast as the heavens and the abyss.”

“However, if all the dark-gold puppets had been present at the time…”

“It might not have been impossible to fight.”

…

If the Holy Dynasty army’s setback in Luoyan Prefecture could be considered merely an accident.

Then what happened in Tianling Prefecture was undeniable proof that the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance truly possessed some real foundations.

After expending considerable effort to capture Tianling City, the Holy Dynasty army discovered that it was actually an empty city.

The important cultivators within had already completed their evacuation.

Only some cultivators without backing remained, relying on mechanisms and artifacts to resist.

The Holy Dynasty soldiers quickly realized this might be a trap, but before they could retreat, the entire Tianling City exploded with a thunderous blast.

The gigantic floating city, together with nearly ten thousand cultivators from both sides, was instantly reduced to ashes.

In the sky, death phenomena erupted all at once.

Numerous strange visions mixed and twisted together.

Making them impossible to distinguish clearly.

Tianling Prefecture, within a hidden mountain valley.

“Thanks to Brother Sun’s warning, our Tianling Prefecture was able to turn disaster into fortune.” Tianling City Lord Song Mansheng stroked his beard and said with a smile.

Sun Liancheng’s gaze remained fixed on the massive fireball in the distant sky. “It was still thanks to the City Lord’s wisdom. If not for your decisiveness, even if I had made the suggestion, the effect in killing the enemy would never have been this great.”

The other cultivators in the valley all chimed in.

“Exactly. Based on the visual recordings we left in the city, at least over ten thousand bandits perished in that explosion.”

“Haha, Fellow Daoist saw wrongly. Clearly it was twenty thousand!”

“…Ah, yes, yes. I am getting old and confused. Twenty thousand, it really was twenty thousand. We have visual evidence to prove it!”

Everyone spoke with mutual understanding.

“Speaking of which, where exactly did this group come from? They attacked without any warning, and most importantly, they were even able to interfere with the teleportation formations and Tianxuan Mirror.” Sun Liancheng interrupted the celebration.

“They should not be from the Five Elders Association. I have fought cultivators from the Five Elders Association before. The aura I sensed from them was completely different.”

“Who cares where they came from? Once the Immortal Alliance central headquarters takes action, they will all die. They are only acting arrogantly for now!”

“Lord Song, should we take advantage of the chaos and go out to earn more merit?”

Someone among the valley cultivators suggested.

Song Mansheng pondered for a moment, did not make a decision, and instead looked toward Sun Liancheng beside him.

Sun Liancheng narrowed his eyes and remained silent for a long time.

After everyone had waited for quite a while, Sun Liancheng finally shook his head. “The situation is unclear. This subordinate cannot make a judgment.”

Song Mansheng nodded upon hearing this. “In that case, let us wait a little longer. With the situation unclear, it is unwise to act rashly.”

Naturally, everyone in the valley agreed.

But Song Mansheng and Sun Liancheng avoided the others and held a private conversation.

“Brother Sun, you were not telling the truth just now.” Song Mansheng said in a deep voice.

Sun Liancheng smiled bitterly. “I truly did not dare say it in front of everyone. Otherwise, I feared it would shake morale.”

Song Mansheng’s expression turned grave. “That serious?”

Sun Liancheng replied, “Yes. Lord, you also know that my ability to predict this bandit assault relied entirely on the sensing of our Sun family’s fortune. That day, while I was chatting with my nephew, I suddenly felt our family fortune like a candle in the wind, trembling on the verge of extinction…”

“In extreme panic, I spent considerable effort before finally determining that the cause did not come from the Immortal Alliance, but from outside. I originally thought it would be a Five Elders Association surprise attack, but I never expected it to be an unknown group of bandits.”

“During this period, our family’s future fortune has been constantly wavering. One moment it shows overwhelming wealth and prosperity, the next it becomes an ominous sign of total bloodline extinction. It is truly terrifying…” Sun Liancheng sighed.

Song Mansheng’s brows furrowed even tighter upon hearing this.

Sun Liancheng advised, “No matter what, with the merit from blowing up the city, when rewards are distributed in the future, your contribution certainly will not be overlooked. The merit is already completely sufficient, so why take further risks? I imagine reinforcements for the other side will arrive soon. Those bandits’ combat strength is not weak. Rather than taking risks, it is better to remain hidden in this valley.”

“With the natural grand formation concealing us, they should not be able to detect us…”

Song Mansheng was ultimately persuaded and suppressed the restless thoughts in his heart.

Sun Liancheng’s judgment seemed extremely accurate.

Only less than half a day later, Song Mansheng saw a large number of bandits swarming in.

Their faces were filled with fury as they carefully searched every corner of Tianling Prefecture.

When they all flew overhead above the valley, everyone inside nearly had their hearts stop.

Fortunately, fortune ultimately remained on their side, and they were not exposed.

“How many have arrived? Did we stab a hornet’s nest?”

“Why do we only see the enemy’s reinforcements? Where are our Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance people?”

Inside the valley, everyone was extremely nervous, frequently looking up at the sky and whispering among themselves.

None retained their previous relaxed composure.

Sun Qi of the Sun family quietly came to Sun Liancheng’s side.

“Uncle, something is wrong.”

Sun Liancheng’s expression froze, then he cautiously glanced around. Only after making sure no one was paying attention did he communicate with Sun Qi through voice transmission.

“The family fortune, which has been wavering, is beginning to stabilize toward one side. If we continue staying here, I am afraid there will only be a dead end.”

Sun Liancheng’s heart trembled.

He still trusted his nephew’s words greatly.

It was precisely because of his almost miraculous premonitions that they had been able to set up the ambush, detonate the Heavenly City, and wipe out a large wave of bandits.

Within heaven and earth, as branches spread and descendants multiply, the family scatters and its fortune declines.

The Reversed Evolution of Heaven and Earth Record cultivated by Sun Qi could reverse this trend, causing the family fortune to become increasingly concentrated.

The price, however, was that the more prosperous the family became, the more all kinds of accumulated forces of decline would be concentrated upon the cultivator of this technique.

Breaking through each realm was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

Only a heaven-defying genius could break through.

Sun Qi was precisely such a genius.

“We move immediately.” Sun Liancheng made the decision without hesitation.

“Everyone is watching right now. How do we leave? And there are so many members of our Sun family.” Sun Qi said somewhat uneasily.

“I prepared for this long ago.” Sun Liancheng said confidently.

Within the valley, the members of the Sun family quietly gathered. However, in the eyes of everyone else, they had not left at all. They still appeared to remain in place, conversing with them.

“This secret treasure, [Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell], is a treasure I obtained during an expedition in my younger years. I was always reluctant to use it, but now the time has come when I have no choice.” Sun Liancheng sighed.

Without anyone in the valley noticing, the Sun family had already quietly left through a secret passage within the valley known only to Sun Liancheng.

“Quick. The secret treasure’s concealment of our aura will not last much longer. We need to find another place to hide.” Sun Liancheng urged.

Just as they were retreating, several streaks of white light tore across the sky, arriving from afar.

Their target was the very valley where they had been hiding not long ago.

Boom, boom, boom!

The white light struck the target directly, and unimaginable terrifying energy erupted from the valley.

As the earth roared, the shockwave immediately swept outward.

It sent the fleeing Sun family tumbling chaotically.

Fortunately, the secret treasure’s concealment function was still effective, so they were not exposed.

Sun Liancheng and Sun Qi stared in horror at the valley, which had already turned into a massive circular pit of void. Their bodies became rigid, and their minds went completely blank.

“A Dao Integration offensive! That explosion just now absolutely carried the might of a full-powered strike from a Dao Integration expert!”

“That was… an arrow?”

Just as Sun Liancheng stood there dumbfounded, he discovered in horror that several more white arrow lights whistled across the sky.

His head instinctively shrank down. After realizing the arrow lights were not aimed at him, he hurriedly led the Sun family toward the next planned hiding place.

“No, the entire Tianling Prefecture is no longer safe. We cannot stay here long. We need to seek refuge somewhere else.”

While trembling as they traveled halfway, inspiration suddenly struck Sun Liancheng, and he temporarily changed their route.

They fled at top speed toward Shanteng Prefecture, which bordered Tianling Prefecture.

Just as they were about to reach the white mist barrier at the border, the land of Tianling Prefecture suddenly began to shake violently.

Then, a horrifying scene that the Sun family would never forget for the rest of their lives unfolded.

In the sky, five circular rings interlocked with one another, transforming from illusion into reality as they descended upon the world.

From the five rings, countless tentacles extended downward toward Tianling Prefecture below.

And one of them was flying directly toward the Sun family.

“Not good!” Sun Qi’s expression changed drastically as he hurriedly shouted.

Sun Liancheng had already acted a step ahead.

He no longer cared about the family at all.

Alone, he transformed into a streak of blood-red light and rapidly flew toward the white mist barrier not far away.

But this escape technique, powered by burning his soul, unexpectedly grew slower and slower at a speed visible to the naked eye. It was as if countless tiny tendrils existed in the air around him, dragging and obstructing him.

The blood-red light dispersed, and Sun Liancheng revealed his true form. It was as if he had even lost the ability to fly, as he heavily plummeted from the sky.

The black writhing tendrils in the sky quickly locked onto him. They violently pierced into Sun Liancheng’s body.

Sun Liancheng panicked and tried to cast spells to resist, but the surrounding spiritual energy seemed to have frozen solid and would not obey his control at all.

Unable to resist in the slightest, the black tendrils quickly pierced straight through Sun Liancheng.

Amid the screams of the Sun family members, they too were each seized by the tendrils branching down from the sky.

The wailing lasted only for a short while before Sun Liancheng’s body was assimilated into the same kind of black tendril.

There was not even any phenomenon of a cultivator’s fall appearing in the sky.

It was as if Sun Liancheng had not died, but had merely transformed into that black tendril.

The Sun family members were captured one after another, while only Sun Qi felt an icy chill in his heart.

He did not dare move.

Yes, in the entire Sun family, only he, Sun Qi, escaped disaster. Because at the very instant those horrifying tendrils locked onto him, Sun Qi had vaguely sensed something in his heart.

Amid ten thousand paths to death, he found the one and only faintly shining chance of survival.

So he did not hesitate in the slightest and directly used the cultivation dispersal chapter of the Supreme Primordial True Scripture, dispersing all of his cultivation.

He also expelled every bit of spiritual qi stored within his body.

Without holding anything back, he thoroughly became an ordinary mortal.

A black tendril as thick as an arm slowly drifted past in front of Sun Qi.

As if it possessed intelligence, it circled around him once.

Only from such close proximity did Sun Qi finally see clearly that these black tendrils were actually formed from countless densely packed black insects.

He did not even dare breathe, his entire body rigid with tension.

Fortunately, after determining that Sun Qi was nothing more than an ordinary mortal with no cultivation, the black tendril spared him.

Carrying away the entire Sun family, who had already transformed into the same black flying insects, it howled away into the distance.

Sun Qi still maintained his original stiff posture, not daring to move.

Only after nearly half a day had passed did his whole body go limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

“What exactly are these things…”

Countless thoughts surged through his mind, and only after a long while did he recover some spirit.

Looking at the white mist barrier not far away, as well as the five circular rings in the sky that were gradually fading away.

Sun Qi gritted his teeth and began cultivating once more.

Not long after closing his eyes to cultivate, Sun Qi suddenly opened them again.

He sharply noticed that the spiritual energy between heaven and earth…

Was different from before.