My Longevity Simulation

"To be honest with you, Senior Brother, I possess a wondrous treasure called the Myriad Beasts Revolving Wheel. It can restrain the foreign Nameless beings, but its power is limited. At best, it can suppress eight of them. As for the rest, I will have to trouble you, Senior Brother."

Li Fan spoke with remarkable frankness.

As he spoke, he also displayed the treasure bestowed upon him by Emperor Sanmo.

Inherit Dao examined the strange images of various lifeforms appearing within the wheel and nodded slightly. "Indeed, it carries the aura of Great Daos from beyond the heavens. Heh, Junior Brother, you can rest assured. With your Senior Brother here, these alien beings will not be able to stir up much trouble."

The confidence of Inherit Dao, a Nameless being, did not seem feigned. This instead made Li Fan curious.

"Senior Brother, although you are powerful, I fear that even you alone might not necessarily be a match for these foreign Nameless beings working together. Could it be..." Li Fan pointed upward, alluding to Lord Guardian Hill, who had already drifted away.

Inherit Dao laughed freely. "Such a trivial matter hardly warrants troubling Master. When dealing with fellow disciples, perhaps we should exercise some restraint. But when dealing with these foreign beings..."

"We can use any means necessary."

Li Fan's eyes lit up. He cupped his hands and said, "Please enlighten me, Senior Brother."

Inherit Dao did not answer directly. Instead, he inexplicably asked, "The person standing beside my true self, is that your clone?"

"Senior Brother truly has extraordinary insight. My clone is not connected to me through essence blood. It relies solely on an invisible connection between our souls and spirits, something others would find exceedingly difficult to detect."

"Then watch carefully."

The scene returned to the depths of the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net.

Li Buren was locked in an impasse with Inherit Dao's true self.

Chaos and Benevolent Transmuter wanted to step forward and help, but they were blocked by the countless Dao Strings surging out from Inherit Dao. It was as though another Dao Net was concealed within his withered body!

Even the power of Wuji required some time to disintegrate these Dao Strings. Chaos and Benevolent Transmuter could do little more than defend themselves.

"Who exactly is this man? How bizarre!"

"These Dao Strings appear to be projections of the Great Daos of heaven and earth, but in reality, most of them embody his own comprehension. I can even see my own Dao of Benevolent Transmutation among them! How is this possible?"

The two Nameless beings immediately discerned what was unusual about Inherit Dao, leaving them even more horrified.

What they had no idea of was that Li Buren and Inherit Dao, who had been fighting desperately moments earlier, had already made peace. Inherit Dao had even begun actively explaining and demonstrating his methods to Li Buren.

"Junior Brother, watch carefully."

Inherit Dao did not loosen his grip on the Wuji Celestial Pillar. Instead, he grasped it even more tightly.

Li Buren sensed that the aura of Wuji surging through Inherit Dao's body like boiling water was growing increasingly intense.

In an instant, a hundred or so Dao Strings attacked Li Buren simultaneously, moving as though they possessed their own intelligence.

"This is..."

"Wuji?!"

These hundred or so Dao Strings could actually ignore the defenses of the Myriad Aspects Dao Net. Even the Wuji Celestial Pillar was unable to stop them. If Li Buren had not promptly used the Dao Sword and Dao Saber to intercept the Dao Strings, his body would already have been pierced all over.

"The name Inherit Dao is not an empty boast. I embody the Dao through my very body and will, putting its principles into practice."

Billions upon billions of Dao Strings surrounded him and Li Buren in layer upon layer, cutting them off from the prying eyes of Benevolent Transmuter and Chaos outside.

"While constructing the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net in the outside world, I have also borne a Dao Net within my own body. Even if one day the Great Daos are annihilated and the Dao Net ceases to exist, I can still transform my body into the Dao Net and my body into the Great Dao itself!"

Inherit Dao's voice boomed like thunder.

In Li Buren's eyes, the withered old man seemed to have truly become the embodiment of the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net. He sat before him, bearing the weight of heaven and earth!

"Senior Brother's undertaking of bearing the Dao is indeed admirable. However, I fear this alone is insufficient. After all, the immortals have departed, and the Great Daos of this world are already incomplete. The Daos you bear will suffer further diminishment... Meanwhile, each of the thirteen Primeval Dao Forms of the alien race embodies a complete Great Dao. A child with all four limbs is not necessarily stronger than a single, powerful arm."

Li Buren shook his head.

Inherit Dao did not directly refute Li Buren's words. Instead, he smiled and asked in return, "What if the Great Dao I bear is complete?"

"Just observe!"

The Dao Strings surging from Inherit Dao's body seemed endless, completely obscuring the surrounding heavens.

It turned out that the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net was merely an insignificant fragment of the vast network contained within him. Inherit Dao's body had completely disappeared, and Li Buren felt as though he had fallen into an infinite sea of stars. All around him, countless Great Daos shone brilliantly!

Although these Great Daos were much more indistinct than the real Great Daos themselves, carefully comprehending them would undoubtedly yield tremendous benefits.

As Li Buren gazed at this true Dao Net concealed within Inherit Dao's body, two terms suddenly surfaced in his mind.

The Inscription Dao Immortal, the Paramount Dao Scripture.

'What Inherit Dao is doing is, in essence, no different from Inscription Dao and the Dao Scripture.'

'The Inscription Dao Immortal manifests the formless Dao and then translates the Great Dao into a form that allows people to observe, understand, and comprehend it.'

'Perhaps Inherit Dao knows that his innate aptitude is limited and that he cannot imitate the achievements of the Inscription Dao Immortal. Instead, he willingly chooses to become a mirror that reflects all the Great Daos of the myriad heavens within itself.'

'Nevertheless, becoming a Mirror of the Dao is already an extraordinary achievement. Apart from requiring a certain level of comprehension of the Great Daos of the myriad heavens, the most crucial factor is...'

'The question of timing. Not to mention that the Immortal Realm suffered a calamity and its Great Daos were submerged in the Dao Annihilation Calamity. Even when the Immortal Realm was still intact, many Nameless True Immortals had already transcended and departed, leaving the Great Daos of heaven and earth incomplete. Where, then, did the Great Daos of the myriad heavens that he reflects originate?'

Li Buren's thoughts raced.

As though he had discerned Li Buren's doubts, Inherit Dao's distant voice echoed from all directions.

"I was originally a spirit stone beside the Mountains and Seas. I was nurtured in the Immortal Realm for countless ages, yet I still could not hatch. Even when Master was about to transcend and depart, I had yet to develop spiritual intelligence."

"Later, Master came to the lower-realm experimental grounds and discovered a certain star sea that might be able to give me a helping hand. Thus, he left me here."

A scene appeared before Li Buren's eyes.

It was a dark, chaotic starry sky, one of the countless cubic spaces within the Immortal Realm's experimental grounds. Li Fan had previously examined this region as well, but had discovered nothing unusual about it.

The scene shifted. Countless blue images emerged from the darkness. They depicted what this starry region had looked like an unknown number of years ago.

A boundless, azure ocean had once filled the entire region of space. Seawater spread in every direction, occupying the whole starry sky.

Yet its source was a mountain no larger than a human palm.

Streams trickled down the mountain endlessly, flowing without pause. This flowing water seemed to exist outside the cycle of reincarnation. Once it came into existence, it no longer participated in the cycle of heaven and earth and would never disappear.

As time passed, the accumulated water grew more and more abundant, gradually occupying the entire starry sky.

Only the mountain at the center of the star sea remained unaffected.

Lord Guardian Hill placed the spirit stone beside the spring at the mountain's summit. Bathed day and night by the flowing water, the stone eventually transformed into human form!

...

Li Buren sighed in admiration. "So Senior Brother actually has such an extraordinary origin!"

"When I was still a spirit stone, I reflected all the scenes of the world. Everything that had passed away or disappeared remains within my past. Except for those who have truly transcended the mortal world and attained Sagehood, I can reproduce their images through my consciousness."

The billions upon billions of Dao Strings displayed to Li Fan disappeared, and Inherit Dao once again assumed the appearance of a withered old man.

"It merely requires time."

"Unfortunately, time waits for no one." Inherit Dao let out a long sigh.

"As you have seen, constructing the Shuo Star Sea's Dao Net alone took me tens of thousands of years. If I were to reconstruct the myriad heavens, I estimate it would take tens of millions of years..."

Li Buren pondered for a moment before beginning to understand.

"If not for the pressure of the Dao Annihilation Calamity, Senior Brother, you probably would not need nearly so much time, would you?"

"That is precisely the case. In the end, I merely inherit the shadow of the Dao, rather than being the Great Dao itself. Without a Dao-Transforming True Immortal as its pillar, even if I could reproduce the complete Great Dao, it would be nothing more than a castle in the air. It would collapse at the slightest push, utterly fragile!"

"Senior Brother, there is no need to be so modest. Reflecting the complete Great Dao is a feat and a realm of attainment far beyond what an ordinary Nameless expert could achieve. I am simply curious about what you meant earlier when you said you would stop at nothing..." Li Buren asked with great curiosity.

"Replace the shadow with the Dao, and transform the shadow into the Dao." The emaciated old man, who remained seated cross-legged, slowly uttered these eight words.

Li Buren carefully pondered his statement.

"The Dao paths of different possibilities may differ slightly from one another. However, as long as they exist within the mundane world, they cannot transcend the bounds of the Mountains and Seas. As a spirit stone born on the edge of the Mountains and Seas, I should be able to devour and absorb them. Afterward, I can transform them into shadows of the Great Dao within my memories." Inherit Dao explained unhurriedly.

"Perhaps because I have been influenced by the Mountains and Seas, absorbing them is not particularly difficult for me. To a certain extent, I can even disregard the will of the other party."

As if to verify his words, Inherit Dao tightened his grip on the Wuji Celestial Pillar once more. In an instant, the surging aura of Wuji around his body became five times as intense.

Li Buren, meanwhile, noticed that the Wuji Celestial Pillar itself had been weakened slightly.

Although [Wuji] remained [Wuji], its upper limit had diminished somewhat.

"The one sealed within this pillar should be a subordinate of the Sage Lord from ancient times. The Wuji Venerable..."

Inherit Dao shook his head and poured the forcibly seized power of Wuji back into the pillar.

The portion of power the Wuji Celestial Pillar had lost was replenished, restoring it to its original state.

"Once I seize someone's Great Dao, I can complete its transformation within my own body. If those thirteen Dao manifestations of the foreign race dare to come..."

"Then they can forget about leaving. They will all remain here and become Celestial Pillars." With just a few words, Inherit Dao had already decided the fate of those foreign Nameless experts.

However, Inherit Dao's earlier action of reducing the upper limit of the Great Dao of [Wuji] gave Li Fan considerable food for thought.

In certain respects, this ability seemed somewhat similar to his own [Truth and Falsehood], which could reduce the upper limit of an entity's spirituality.

'The difference is that [Truth and Falsehood] affects existence itself, removing something from it out of nothing. Inherit Dao's innate divine ability merely transforms the nature of something and cannot directly erase it. However, perhaps both abilities are related to the Mountains and Seas...'

'Fortunately, Lord Hill Guardian picked up this spirit stone long ago and awakened its intelligence through enlightenment. Given Inherit Dao's current moral principles, as long as I do not openly do anything that violates his understanding of right and wrong, he will not cause me trouble. Otherwise, even without invoking Lord Hill Guardian's imprint, he would be an exceedingly difficult opponent to deal with once he unleashed his innate divine ability.' Li Fan was secretly alarmed.

The power of the Mountains and Seas transcended the mundane world. None of the powers originating within the mundane world could stand against it. Only the Transformation Between Truth and Falsehood could contend with it.

'Perhaps Lord Hill Guardian left behind that imprint partly to keep him under surveillance. Otherwise, if Inherit Dao ever went mad and lost control, the destruction he could wreak upon the mundane world would be far too great.'

As Li Fan contemplated the matter, he had already decided that Inherit Dao was an ally rather than an enemy.

"Senior Brother, rest assured. Since you trust me so much, I will never reveal your origins to anyone else," Li Fan declared solemnly.

"With abilities like yours, Senior Brother, I can truly set my mind at ease. However, it would be unwise to release the True Immortals sealed within those Celestial Pillars just yet. I fear we do not have enough pillars to sustain them, and the Dao Annihilation is drawing ever closer..." Li Fan explained with a troubled expression.

"I naturally understand that reasoning." Inherit Dao was by no means an inflexible man. "We can release them once we have obtained Celestial Pillars from the foreign race to replenish our supply. Tell me, when will those foreign Nameless experts arrive?"

"In as little as fifty years, or as long as a hundred."

Inherit Dao nodded. "That is good. It will not be too long. The grievances they have suffered should not be too severe, then."

Li Fan chimed in with a smile. "Heh, Senior Brother, you truly have a compassionate heart."

The billions of Dao Strings that had obscured the entire firmament were withdrawn.

Benevolent Transmuter and Chaos, who had remained on high alert as though facing a formidable enemy, stared at Li Buren and Inherit Dao standing together like close brothers. Both were utterly bewildered.

"Senior, what is going on?" Chaos asked through a voice transmission.

"It was merely a misunderstanding. This is the [Great Net], and he is also my Senior Brother."

Li Buren's words left the two Nameless True Immortals greatly astonished.

They scrutinized the frail old man before them, yet they simply could not reconcile his appearance with those enormous blue hands.

Inherit Dao, meanwhile, could not be bothered to explain anything to them.

He merely said indifferently, "Although you have repeatedly ruined my plans, I will let the matter go since we belong to the same lineage."

His words left Benevolent Transmuter and the other Nameless True Immortal thoroughly bewildered. They had absolutely no idea where this supposed shared lineage came from.

Nevertheless, neither dared to ask.

Thus, this entire disturbance, or perhaps farce, finally came to an end.

Although several True Immortals had died in the course of the affair, there had been no casualties among those at the Nameless realm.

They had merely been temporarily sealed within the Celestial Pillars and could be released at any time.

As for the Immortal Hunters and mortals of the Shuo Star Sea...

They had never been within the scope of Inherit Dao's consideration.

Li Fan had gained a somewhat better understanding of his Senior Brother. Even among those he considered fellow disciples, Inherit Dao made distinctions based on their status.

Those who had received Lord Hill Guardian's true transmission were naturally the closest to him.

As for the immortals of the Immortal Realm, he judged their importance according to their cultivation.

The mortals of the lower realms, meanwhile, were nothing more than ants who carried out tasks for him.

'As expected of a spirit stone born on the edge of the Mountains and Seas. Although Lord Hill Guardian enlightened him, awakening his intelligence and instilling him with a sense of morality, deep down, he remains cold-blooded and merciless.' Li Fan could not help making this silent judgment.

Yet he revealed not the slightest trace of his thoughts. Instead, he continued addressing Inherit Dao as Senior Brother with the utmost warmth.

Perhaps because no one had ever genuinely addressed him that way since his birth, Inherit Dao seemed thoroughly satisfied. His attitude toward Li Fan grew increasingly friendly.

During their casual conversation, Li Fan also learned why a powerful Nameless True Immortal like Inherit Dao would rely on mortals to maintain the Dao Net.

"Mere mortals can actually contend with you, Senior Brother?" Li Fan asked in astonishment, his disbelief evident.

"If I were to fight them with the intention of killing them, they would naturally be no match for me. However, even if they were defeated, that would not change the fact that they were capable of injuring me. That is why I gradually developed an interest in them."