Immortality Simulator

Chapter 672: The Heart's Desire To Ascend To Immortality

Everything flowed naturally, without obstruction.

When Li Fan awoke from his seclusion, he had successfully broken through to the mid-stage Nascent Soul realm.

Already Anchor Year 17?

I suppose relying solely on the Dao Comprehension Pill for assistance, without the Tianxuan Mirror's epiphanic state boost, makes things far slower.

He examined his own condition. The scale of his Five Elements Grotto-Heavens had expanded threefold compared to when he was at the early-stage Nascent Soul realm. Each grotto-heaven had grown more vibrant with life, no longer bearing that deathly, stagnant stillness as before.

Genesis of any creations still lay far off. But the Five Elements power now circulated far faster, as if something was brewing within the grotto-heaven worlds.

Li Fan now held complete control over both his Five Elements Grotto-Heavens and this Beastkin minor world. He was an existence akin to the Heavenly Dao itself.

Comparing the two carefully, though, Li Fan found numerous differences.

He had stolen the Five Elements Grotto-Heavens from the Xuanhuang World. Though he had reinforced them and incorporated them into himself through his new methodology, he didn’t have full control over them, just like how mortals couldn't fully command their own bodies. The grotto-heavens mostly operated and evolved on their own, the result of natural laws unfolding of their own accord.

He could sense every change occurring within them, but he could not yet comprehend those changes, much less alter or create them at will.

The Beastkin World was different. Wind and rain, thunder and lightning, ice, snow, flowing fire—all the tangible manifestations of its laws existed at his whim. If he wished, he could fix the Beastkin World in a single state and hold it there forever. He could just as easily reshape it however he pleased. Raising mountains, leveling rivers with a thought—these were mundane matters to him.

Under normal circumstances, even someone who usurped all the heavenly providence of a minor world wouldn't reach this level of effortless command, not at first. It would still take years of contemplation, years of resonating with the world's essence. But Little Hei already did that work for me. I simply inherited his mantle and reaped the benefits.

Li Fan looked at the familiar images within the Xuan Bird Feather inside him, and understanding settled in his heart.

His attention returned to the Beastkin World. Two years had passed, and the world had changed beyond recognition. The concentration of spiritual qi had soared to a level only slightly below the Xuanhuang World's, and the once barren land now teemed with vitality.

Various spirit plants and medicinal herbs grew in neat, categorized plots. Beastkin toiled diligently in the spiritual fields. Yet none of them wore the Beast Taming Rings Fang Zaiji had mentioned before around their necks.

Li Fan swept his divine sense across the world and found that only the most powerful exotic beasts were forcibly controlled.

Control the top, and the bottom follows. Handling these beastkin takes little effort at all.

Liu San and Fang Zaiji were not in the Beastkin World. Li Fan passed through the spatial passageway to Longevity Valley and found the two of them deep in discussion.

Sensing his aura, joy flickered across both their faces.

"Sect Leader, you have emerged from seclusion!"

"What's happened? Why do you two look so grave?" Li Fan asked, stepping before them.

"Congratulations, Young Master. Your cultivation has advanced again," Liu San said, looking him over with a smile.

Fang Zaiji got straight to explaining what had put the grave look on their faces.

About half a year ago, a group of cultivators from the Myriad Immortals Alliance had sailed into the White Mist on a Samantabhadra True Boat. At first, Liu San had braced for an assault, certain their target was Longevity Valley. He'd mobilized the entire Medicine King Sect and readied plans for immediate flight.

But soon he realized it was a false alarm. The cultivators hadn't even paused at the entrance to Longevity Valley. Their destination lay deeper within the White Mist.

That brought Liu San some relief. He assumed the Alliance cultivators were simply passing through by chance.

What happened next proved him wrong. Over the following six months, dozens of Samantabhadra True Boats, crammed with cultivators, sailed deep into the White Mist at regular intervals. They moved like they were executing some mission, a faint, chilling aura of lethality radiating from them. Occasionally cultivators emerged from the Mist's depths, their faces clouded with gloom and despair.

The cultivators' overall strength wasn't especially high, but caution kept Liu San from scrutinizing them closely. He only watched from a distance.

These Alliance cultivators weren't targeting the Medicine King Sect, but they passed through far too often. No one could guarantee whether Longevity Valley's location would be revealed through some twist of fate, or if conflict would follow.

So for months now, Liu San and Fang Zaiji had been living on a knife's edge.

"Is this a secret operation by the Myriad Immortals Alliance, or a large-scale mobilization? Do the Alliance's ordinary cultivators know about it?" A glint flashed in Li Fan's eyes as he asked.

"Common cultivators don't know, as far as our intelligence suggests," Fang Zaiji replied.

Li Fan fell silent for a moment. "This is peculiar. Best to stay put and wait for developments. Let me look into the truth of it first, then we'll decide what to do."

Trusting Li Fan's abilities completely, the two men agreed at once.

Then Liu San produced twelve jade bottles and handed them over. "These are the pills I've refined. Nine bottles of Longevity Pills, eighty-one in all. Two bottles of Supreme Detachment Pills with twenty pills in total. And one more bottle..."

He paused, his expression turning strange. "This one is the Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill."

"You've worked hard, Old Liu." Li Fan stored away the other pills, but held onto the jade bottle containing the Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill, about to open it for inspection.

Liu San stopped him quickly.

"Something wrong with this pill?" Li Fan asked, frowning.

Liu San laughed bitterly. "It's not poison, but the harm it does is no less than any poison under heaven."

Fang Zaiji explained further. "The Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill is a strange pill, one with a small chance of forming during the refinement of the Supreme Detachment Pill. Any cultivator who swallows it experiences the delusion of having comprehended the Great Dao, of standing on the verge of Ascension to Immortality.

"The more one consumes, the stronger the delusion grows. In the end, those who grow addicted will stop at nothing to taste that feeling of becoming an Immortal again."

Li Fan's grip on the jade bottle tightened.

He understood now what this so-called Immortal Ascension Heart's-Desire Pill truly was.

“In the past, this pill caused enormous trouble, so the Ten Immortal Dao Sects banned it outright. But after some digging, the disciples and I found that the Myriad Immortals Alliance has issued no such ban.

"I thought it might prove useful to you, Young Master, so I didn't destroy it," Liu San said.