My Longevity Simulation

"Moreover, he was likely not just an ordinary True Immortal."

"He may very well have once been an Nameless True Immortal!"

Li Fan lowered his head, concealing the thoughts in his eyes. He quickened his pace and headed toward his residence.

"Honored Guest, come and have some fun!"

"Brother Ma, long time no see. Come over and have a drink!"

"You brat, I finally caught you again! Don't run!"

...

As he strolled through Blissful City, different cries continuously reached his ears. Along with these sounds came fragments of memories associated with their voices.

The owners of these voices were either old acquaintances he had befriended while spending his days listening to songs in pleasure quarters, sworn brothers with whom he had once shared life and death, or enemies who had brought trouble upon him.

Scene after scene rapidly surfaced, so vivid that they seemed to be experiences he had personally lived through.

Yet Li Fan merely ignored them, lowering his head and proceeding toward his destination at an unhurried pace.

It had not been long since he had possessed Ma Tiande. Li Fan was certain that none of these memories had existed within Ma Tiande's previous memories. They had simply been imprinted into his mind along with the voices he heard.

"This is not merely some simple illusion technique."

"It is more as if these events had actually happened within Blissful City."

Even as Li Fan moved farther away and the voices gradually faded, the memories that had already been engraved into his mind did not disappear. Instead, they became increasingly vivid.

After walking this entire distance, Ma Tiande had been forcibly endowed with countless experiences.

Each experience represented many years.

Wrinkles quietly crept onto the corners of his eyes. Ma Tiande's face gradually took on a weathered appearance.

Naturally, Li Fan did not overlook these changes in his body. Deliberately controlling himself, he slowed his steps, making it seem as though every step had become extremely difficult.

After crossing an entire district of Blissful City, Ma Tiande finally returned to his residence.

The instant the black gate closed, all the noisy sounds from outside abruptly vanished, disappearing into the darkness.

Following Ma Tiande's habits from the past, he dealt with various affairs.

Afterward, he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and meditated, seemingly beginning to study the [Dao Net Patterns].

In reality, Li Fan was still pondering the changes that had occurred in this body along the way.

"Allowing a false past to influence the true present."

"Is this the Scripture Chanting Demonic Sound of the Xuantian King?"

The supreme-grade Dao Deviation Stone within his divine sense began to operate, assisting Li Fan in his analysis.

"If Ma Tiande had been unable to resist the temptation and had been drawn into any one of those voices, participating in what was happening..."

"Then the 'past events' mentioned during their conversations would all be realized upon his body."

Within the scenes deduced by Li Fan, he vaguely saw Ma Tiande at a banquet aging at an incredibly terrifying speed. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a withered skeleton, yet continued laughing and conversing with those around him.

Only when the revelry finally ended did the decayed bones turn to ashes. Ma Tiande's consciousness, meanwhile, remained forever within this Blissful City, exactly like the countless other consciousnesses within the city.

"Brat, once you go to Blissful City, aside from what Scholar Zhu instructed you to do, do not do anything else. Stay there honestly for three full years. You may still have a chance to return."

The scene of a senior from the Shuo Star Sea Administration Council earnestly giving Ma Tiande this advice before he came to Blissful City suddenly surfaced in Li Fan's mind.

"The Shuo Star Sea's ability to hunt immortals with mortals cannot do without the assistance of existences like Scholar Zhu, who have transformed from immortals into mortals."

"Although they have fallen into the mortal realm, the strength these former True Immortals possess is still not to be underestimated."

"Whether to appease them or to give vent to their twisted minds, the Administration Council prepared special 'playgrounds' for them. This Blissful City is the one specifically belonging to Scholar Zhu."

"The countless living beings seen within the city have all been dead for a long time. It is a genuine ghost city. They can still retain physical forms only because some strange energy is sustaining them. Even after three years of alternating day and night, and endless mutual slaughter, no one truly dies. They merely wait for the next cycle to begin before being reborn."

"However, the ultimate victor of the slaughter..."

Li Fan smacked his lips, savoring the taste of the bowl of red soup he had just drunk.

They were all ghostly remnants of consciousness, so naturally there was no real taste of flesh and blood.

What Li Fan had consumed at Scholar Zhu's residence was the taste of the consciousnesses of countless living beings, tempered through countless refinements and carefully cooked!

"It is just like an Eternal Remnant Will!"

"No wonder it is so delicious."

After swallowing one bowl of red soup, there was no need to experience everything the beings within the bowl had experienced. He could directly obtain the gains produced by those experiences.

And the entire Blissful City could be regarded as a much larger bowl of red soup.

The only difference was that the method used to cook the beings within Blissful City was even more exquisite.

Li Fan's thoughts raced as the computational power of the supreme-grade Dao Deviation Stone operated at full capacity.

He peered through the prosperous yet horrifying scenes he had witnessed and sought to uncover the truth beneath them.

"Under the influence of the omnipresent Scripture Chanting Demonic Sound, the experiences of the remnants of consciousness within the city are increasing almost every moment. The life experiences of any single resident of the city are probably hundreds or even thousands of times richer than those of ordinary living beings!"

"First, consciousnesses that can continue to exist even after being forcibly stuffed with such complicated experiences have already undergone a transformation in quality. They are no longer comparable to ordinary consciousnesses."

"Second, even when boiling medicinal herbs, there is naturally a tremendous difference between using a hundred-year-old ginseng and a ten-thousand-year-old ginseng."

"Under the mysterious sounds that enshroud it, the efficiency with which Blissful City cooks them has increased by an unknown amount."

Although he did not know whether what the Lord of Blissful City ultimately sought was truly an Eternal Remnant Will, what Li Fan had witnessed within Blissful City made him, who had once entertained the same idea, deeply aware of the crudity of his own methods.

"I originally thought that cultivating Eternal Remnants Wills within an artificially created dream paradise was already the pinnacle of perfection."

"Yet this former True Immortal has still taught me a lesson."

"Truly worthy of someone who survived the great catastrophe that destroyed the Immortal Realm. His methods of tormenting people are truly unheard of. They are worth learning from."

"Three years to blossom, three years to bear fruit. Repeating this cycle again and again..."

"The so-called [Grand Ceremony] is naturally the moment when these fruits are enjoyed."

These living beings indulged themselves without restraint within Blissful City, enjoying themselves for three years. Their desires continuously surged and climbed higher.

Until the moment they reached the peak, when, like oil boiling beneath raging flames, everything suddenly exploded.

"The slaughter during the daytime certainly is not as simple as it appears on the surface."

"If the demonic sounds still enshroud Blissful City, then what the survivors have to endure may be far greater than imagined. And under such circumstances, those who can survive until the very end..."

Even Li Fan found himself somewhat tempted by the vitality of these "fruits" for a moment.

"In thirty days, perhaps I will be able to witness it with my own eyes."

"It can be imagined that these fruits of Remnant Wills must be enormously beneficial to cultivators. Yet Scholar Zhu invited only the [Saber Island] faction to the banquet?"

Although Ma Tiande had only just arrived, he had previously heard about Blissful City hosting banquets for cultivators from all directions.

“This time, I wonder what happened.”

Within the Shuo Star Sea, Saber Island and the Sword Domain were two enormous forces that served as the pillars of the region. The Sword Domain was centered around the former Heavenly Sword Sect of the Xuanhuang Realm and had gathered countless sword cultivators. Its influence was immense, with a million members.

As for Saber Island, from beginning to end, it had only ever had eighteen cultivators. Anyone who wished to ascend the island had to first challenge the cultivators residing there. The loser died, while the victor joined Saber Island. It was said that this was the rule established by the cultivator who founded Saber Island and was also the first person to set foot upon it. The number eighteen was actually an increase from the original. In the beginning, only five peerless saber cultivators lived on Saber Island.

In the past, when the Shuo Star Sea was teeming with life and saber cultivators could be found everywhere, cultivators who went to Saber Island to issue challenges came one after another. Although none of them ever returned, those who came afterward continued to arrive without end.

The reason was that the [Saber Dao] stood upon Saber Island.

It was not some wondrous phenomenon. It was truly the [Saber Dao] itself, manifested between heaven and earth.

To glimpse it was to directly face the Great Dao. If one attained enlightenment in a single moment, one could die without regret.

The Great Dao was formless, yet it had manifested upon Saber Island. There was naturally a reason for this.

However, there had never been a definitive explanation. Countless theories circulated, and even the Shuo Star Sea Council had never given a direct response.

Of all the related rumors, the most convincing was that the leader of Saber Island had once been an Nameless True Immortal. Moreover, the Great Dao he had integrated with was precisely the [Saber Dao].

After he transformed from mortal to immortal, the Great Dao returned to heaven and earth. Yet somehow, he had managed to solidify and manifest it, allowing the formless and profound Great Dao to be seen by mortal eyes.

“The one on Saber Island may perhaps have been an old acquaintance of Scholar Zhu from Blissful City.”

In the past, Nameless True Immortals had existed only in ancient legends within the Darkest Star Sea. Yet upon arriving in the Shuo Star Sea, Li Fan had immediately encountered two individuals who might have been Nameless True Immortals.

“Rather than calling this a matter of luck, it would be more accurate to say that as the Immortal Realm catastrophic destruction has developed to this point, even the immortals of the past can only struggle to survive beneath the same starry sky as mortals.”

Li Fan sneered inwardly.

He had no interest in the mentality of these True Immortals who had transformed back into mortals.

What truly interested him was exactly how an Nameless True Immortal could transform into a mortal while still preserving their life.

Li Fan had already witnessed True Immortals transforming into mortals in the Xuanhuang Realm, so there was nothing particularly strange about it.

But those in the Nameless realm were united with the Dao in body and being.

They had transformed into one of the Great Daos and returned to heaven and earth. How could they possibly escape so easily?

Recalling Scholar Zhu's neither human nor ghostly appearance, Li Fan was certain that for an Nameless True Immortal to transform into a mortal, they must pay an extremely tragic price.

“To become Nameless, one must surely be an unparalleled genius throughout the ages. Yet even such beings have to abandon their own paths one after another…”

“Was it an unwilling act of desperation to preserve their lives during the Dao Annihilation Calamity, or was it a lofty ideal of returning the Dao to heaven and saving the world?”

Li Fan revealed an expression of considerable interest.

It was much like the Xuanhuang Realm after the birth of the Immortal Ancestor's New Law Method.

Cultivators devoured the Great Dao of heaven and earth to cultivate. After a cultivator died, everything within their body returned to heaven and earth. The Nameless were united with the Dao in body and being.

If an Nameless being died while the Great Dao itself did not perish, then naturally, the Dao would return to heaven and earth.

However, a contradiction naturally arose.

Since an Nameless True Immortal had already become one with the Dao in body and being, how could a situation arise in which the Nameless being perished while the Great Dao remained?

“Perhaps this can likewise be compared to the situation in the Xuanhuang Realm.”

“Those Dao Integration cultivators, although they are united with the Spirit of Heaven and Earth, can still be forcibly separated from it using my current methods and my understanding of the Heavenly Dao of the Xuanhuang Realm after I capture them…”

“It is not difficult!”

“Although the strength of an Nameless True Immortal is far beyond that of a Dao Integration cultivator in the Xuanhuang Realm, the underlying principle should be the same.”

“Perhaps the answer lies within the [Dao Net].”

Li Fan's eyes flickered.

As the ultimate means by which the Shuo Star Sea resisted and hunted True Immortals, the Dao Net naturally had to extend to the vicinity of former True Immortals like Scholar Zhu.

And Ma Tiande was one of the people responsible for maintaining and connecting to the Dao Net.

In truth, whether Ma Tiande lived or died was not important.

Even if he angered Scholar Zhu and was transformed into an eternal, fallen remnant within Blissful City's Infinite Reincarnation Purgatory, the Council would simply dispatch new personnel the following day.

In Ma Tiande's eyes, he was a high-end combat asset of the Shuo Star Sea. Running errands for a True Immortal who had transformed into a mortal like Scholar Zhu was an insult to his abilities, a complete waste of talent.

But as an outsider, Li Fan saw the situation clearly.

He was nothing more than expendable material.

And expendable material could never be exhausted.

Unperturbed by honor or disgrace, Li Fan began studying the information related to the Dao Net within Ma Tiande's mind.

“Just as I expected. The key to utilizing the Dao Net is precisely the Dao Primal Symbols!”

“I have already mastered the earliest Dao Primal Symbols. Using Ma Tiande's body to connect to the Dao Net should not be a problem…”

But Li Fan soon realized that he had been completely mistaken.

Compared with the time of Qin Zhuang, the complexity of the Dao Primal had increased by more than tens of thousands of times!

Every command required the coordinated operation of hundreds of thousands of Dao Primal Symbols. The slightest mistake would be recorded and transmitted to the Council.

“Everyone who passes the examination has already become thoroughly proficient in utilizing the Primal Origin.”

“The Council allows one or two mistakes, but if there are too many, they will inevitably arouse suspicion.”

The Dao Pill's possession technique could only observe and inherit memories. As for the application of Dao Primal Symbols, such complex and intricate operations were much more difficult to perfectly reproduce.

Especially since Li Fan had not come here with his complete consciousness as his true self, but only with a split consciousness. His ability was further limited.

“If the Azure Firmament Pearl were here right now, that would be perfect.”

“It can inherit Ma Tiande's cognition without any loss.”

Li Fan shook his head slightly and suppressed this unrealistic fantasy.

Now that he had infiltrated the Shuo Star Sea alone, it was impossible for him to obtain the assistance of the Azure Firmament Pearl.

“In thirty days, the grand ceremony will be held, and it will require the cooperation of the Dao Net.”

“Looks like learning it myself is the best course of action.”

“Fortunately, I have the supreme-grade Dao Deviation Stone to assist me. Whatever Ma Tiande can accomplish, reproducing it should be as easy as turning over my hand.”

Li Fan began studying the knowledge of Dao Primal Symbols within Ma Tiande's mind from the very beginning.

The [Thirty Lectures on the Fundamentals of Dao Primal] that he had previously learned from Qin Zhuang's memories had already become completely outdated. The meanings of quite a few symbols had even changed entirely.

Li Fan had no choice but to abandon his original understanding and start over from the beginning.

However, mastering Dao Primal Symbols was not as easy as Li Fan had imagined.

The greatest problem was that the process through which Ma Tiande had learned Dao Primal Symbols had already disappeared from his memories.

Ma Tiande had absolutely no recollection of how he had mastered the Dao Primal. He only knew that after going through an arduous period of study, he had ultimately mastered this skill.

There was only the result, but no cause.

Li Fan could only work backward from the result.

Without the Dao Deviation Stone, he would not even be able to take this first step.