My Longevity Simulation

Chapter 1260: Sword Pointed at the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance

Sun Erlang did not reply to Qiao Gong’s words, because his limit was far beyond that.

One hundred, two hundred, five hundred…

Only when the number of black puppets surging forth in the testing ground exceeded one thousand did Sun Erlang stop his continued summoning, under Qiao Gong’s gaze of utter astonishment.

More than a thousand black puppets fought one another, each employing entirely different combat styles. It was impossible to tell that a single person controlled them all from behind.

Having reached this extent, Sun Erlang still had energy left to chat with Qiao Gong.

“Senior, you jest. I am the Holy Emperor’s senior disciple. In the future campaign against the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, I shall command as a general, not fight as a mere soldier. Besides, although these puppets are quite strong…”

“I am not weak either.”

Sun Erlang’s tone brimmed with confidence. “Controlling these puppets can be left to my subordinates. I refuse to believe that the Holy Army Puppets you crafted, Senior, could outnumber the warriors of our Holy Dynasty.”

Qiao Gong waved his hand with a look of disdain. “No, no, no. Young man, you have misunderstood. I was not referring to these ordinary Holy Army Puppets, but to this kind…”

As he spoke, streaks of black light flashed. The thousand puppets Sun Erlang had summoned vanished from the testing ground one after another.

In their place, a spatial rift opened, and a colossal golden puppet, its light as radiant as the Heroic Spirit Hall in the Holy Dynasty’s sky, descended upon the scene.

A mysterious and majestic aura swept across the entire testing ground.

The surrounding seals creaked under the immense pressure, as if they might shatter at any moment.

The golden puppet’s eyes fixed upon Sun Erlang, cold and emotionless, like a deity gazing down upon the mortal world.

Locked in its gaze, Sun Erlang suddenly felt as if he were facing his master.

“This is…”

Sun Erlang looked toward Qiao Gong in surprise.

Qiao Gong spoke with evident pride. “This is the true pinnacle of my craftsmanship, a powerful puppet worthy of representing my highest skill. The black Holy Army Puppets from earlier are merely common goods, consumables for war.”

“Think about it. How could I possibly let you test something truly high-end without any preparation?”

Sun Erlang felt a touch of embarrassment, but his attention quickly returned to the golden puppet standing silently before him.

“Senior, how strong is this puppet?”

Qiao Gong declared arrogantly, “I do not mean to discourage you, Sun boy. Although you are the Holy Emperor’s senior disciple, if you truly fought it, you might not be a match for this puppet.”

Sun Erlang narrowed his eyes but offered no rebuttal.

Qiao Gong continued, “This puppet is different from the mass-produced models. Each one is personally crafted by me and empowered by the Holy Emperor…”

Qiao Gong paused. “Heh heh. In any case, you only need to know that these golden puppets are extremely precious. Even if the entire Holy Dynasty poured all its resources into them, no more than ten could be produced.”

“Likewise, the requirements for controlling them are vastly higher. I was previously troubled about where to find suitable pilots. I never expected you to be hiding such a hand…”

“Since you can control over a thousand mass-produced puppets at once, manipulating five golden puppets should pose no problem.”

“The gap is that large?” Sun Erlang frowned.

“Heh heh. You will know once you try.” Qiao Gong pressed a golden sphere into Sun Erlang’s sea of consciousness.

Boom!

The scene before him shattered. In an instant he seemed to leave the testing ground and arrive in the endless dark star sea.

Two enormous crimson-gold spheres ahead radiated intense heat and brilliance.

Drawn in unconsciously, Sun Erlang drew closer and suddenly realized these were the two eyes of the golden puppet!

His consciousness was instantly absorbed. When Sun Erlang regained his senses, he stared blankly at his own hands.

He could no longer sense his original body.

His current form had become that golden puppet.

Moreover…

Sun Erlang could clearly feel the surging, unknown power flowing and circulating within his body.

“This is…”

While he remained dazed, Qiao Gong’s voice sounded beside his ear. “I will send you to the void outside the Holy Dynasty of Great Qi, a special hunting ground. There you may test this puppet body to your heart’s content.”

The surrounding space twisted. Sun Erlang instantly arrived in a dark void.

In the distance he could faintly see the Holy Dynasty encircled by many small worlds.

“Roar!”

A silver-scaled giant python tens of thousands of feet long suddenly emerged from nowhere, opening its massive bloody maw.

In the next moment it would swallow the golden puppet controlled by Sun Erlang whole.

Yet Sun Erlang made no defensive move. He simply allowed a faint glow to emanate from the puppet’s surface.

The silver-scaled giant python ignited as if set ablaze, turning to ash amid agonized howls and dying in torment.

The python’s death was like a stone dropped into a pond, stirring ripples.

Hundreds of unknown ferocious beasts surged from the darkness, seemingly without any reason, and charged toward Sun Erlang.

Sun Erlang could clearly sense that each of these specially cultivated beasts of the Holy Dynasty possessed strength no less than that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Yet facing their encirclement…

Sun Erlang extended his left hand and gently stroked the air as if plucking a string.

A ripple spread through space.

The ferocious beasts, still wearing their savage expressions from life, had their bodies instantly dismembered into countless fragments that rained down like a shower.

“Power of laws.”

“Spatial laws.”

Sun Erlang quietly gazed at his left hand as a flash of enlightenment surged through his mind.

In the midst of this sudden insight, he seemed to glimpse a figure hidden within his own body.

“Spirit of Heaven and Earth?”

Even after unleashing such a lethal strike, Sun Erlang felt no fatigue while controlling the golden puppet.

The energy contained within the puppet seemed inexhaustible.

“A puppet stronger than Dao Integration?”

Sun Erlang was certain that the seemingly effortless move he had just made could heavily wound a Dao Integration cultivator of the Xuanhuang Realm.

And this was still far from the golden puppet’s limit.

“No wonder Senior Qiao Gong said I am not its match.”

While his heart filled with indescribable shock, a trace of dejection also arose within Sun Erlang.

As the Holy Emperor’s senior disciple, he enjoyed countless resources and had even gained opportunities from the Taiyan Sect…

Yet in the end he was still inferior to a casually crafted puppet?

Then what meaning did his own cultivation hold?

While he was lost in these wild thoughts, the golden puppet flashed and returned to the testing ground.

Sun Erlang separated from the puppet body and returned to himself.

Feeble.

An extreme sense of contrast instantly welled up in Sun Erlang’s heart.

“Heh heh. You feel discouraged, young man? There is really no need.”

“The resources we poured into these golden puppets could have produced ordinary cultivators all the way to Dao Integration through sheer accumulation.”

Qiao Gong patted Sun Erlang’s shoulder: “You must have felt it too. Every puppet contains the power of a Spirit of Heaven and Earth as its core. With such a Spirit of Heaven and Earth as the foundation, these puppets gain an almost one-third boost in combat strength when fighting in the Xuanhuang Realm’s environment, like fish in water.”

“And if the same person controls multiple puppets…”

Qiao Gong’s tone suddenly grew excited: “The puppets can borrow one another’s Spirit of Heaven and Earth law powers!”

“In a short burst, their combat strength can multiply several times over!”

Sun Erlang stared silently at the golden, majestic puppets standing like gods in the testing space.

“In the future war between the Holy Dynasty and the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, it is the high-end combat power that will truly decide the outcome. How many Dao Integration cultivators does the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance have? At least close to a thousand. And how many disciples does the Holy Emperor have?”

“Besides, you are all still too young. Compared with the veteran Dao Integration cultivators of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, you may not gain any advantage. It cannot be that the Holy Emperor himself must personally step in against them, right?” Qiao Gong spoke in a quiet, drawn-out tone.

“At the highest realms, whoever shows themselves first reveals a flaw. Kid, you had better prepare yourself mentally. In the coming war, the Holy Emperor may not act lightly.”

Sun Erlang nodded, “I naturally understand this principle.”

“With these golden puppets, we can greatly reverse the disparity in power between us. Sun boy, do you want to try?” Qiao Gong asked.

“As long as you can control three at once, surrounding and killing a Dao Integration cultivator of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance will be easy.” Qiao Gong assured him.

Sun Erlang nodded slowly.

...

Inside the Holy Emperor’s hall.

The conversation between the senior disciple and Qiao Gong naturally could not escape the Holy Emperor’s ears and eyes.

The golden puppets, with source power essence and the Xuanhuang Spirit of Heaven and Earth as their core, turned decay into wonder. Using pure resources, they had created puppets capable of crushing Dao Integration combat strength.

The inspiration naturally came from Tianyang.

In fact, Tianyang itself, after being remodeled by golden source power and Qiao Gong, had already surpassed Dao Integration and reached the Longevity Immortal realm. Moreover…

It was not far from the mortal limit.

But unfortunately, some invisible shackle seemed to exist. The advancement experience of Tianyang itself did not apply to the other puppets.

Even with identical crafting methods, the later puppets were weaker than Tianyang by an entire major realm.

Besides the special factors of Tianyang’s transformation into a puppet, Li Ping guessed there were deeper principles hidden within.

“The one who steps first exhausts the path. Just as with proving the Dao to become a nameless True Immortal, the path allows no one else to encroach upon it. The same applies to these puppets.”

“Only the restrictions seem even harsher.”

Still, with Tianyang and the current golden puppets to assist him, Li Ping was already very satisfied.

War, when all was said and done, was a contest of who had more trump cards.

The Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance was indeed unfathomably deep, but the cards he could play were by no means few.

Moreover, Qiao Gong had guessed one thing wrong.

“The truly strong are not without weaknesses.”

“They simply do not fear others targeting their weaknesses.”

In this war against the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, he would not remain hidden in the rear forever.

Otherwise, how could he live up to the name of Holy Emperor?

“Immortal Ancestor.”

Li Ping sat quietly, yet his gaze pierced through the firmament to the space beyond the Xuanhuang Realm. In his hand he toyed with a crystal that shone with seven-colored brilliance.

Voidbright Flow Crystal.

Through the sensing records of the Xuanhuang Heavenly Dao, Li Ping had already grasped the basics of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance’s rainbow-light escape technique.

He decided that before the war began, he would borrow a puppet body and make a trip into the depths of the Star Sea. Not to start the fight with the Immortal Ancestor in advance, but to seek enlightenment in the Star Sea.

“This battle, I must win it.”

The conviction in the Holy Emperor’s heart had never wavered.

...

Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance.

Inside the Derivation Law Jade space.

Sensing the faint belief transmitted from his clone, Li Fan nodded slightly.

Although the Holy Emperor’s strength had grown ever more profound and his own response toward him had become increasingly weak.

The direction of the Holy Emperor’s actions still advanced steadily along the predetermined path.

With the backup measures he had left behind, Li Fan was not worried about any mishaps.

Besides, as long as he forced out the Immortal Ancestor’s true purpose, that would suffice.

As for everything else…

A single thought of return to [Truth], and all is illusory.

After sitting in meditation within the Derivation Jade space for so long, Li Fan himself had gained enormous benefits from the continuous insights of the Holy Emperor and the Holy Embryo.

Especially after touching the higher laws beyond the Xuanhuang limit at the far end of the Star Sea, Li Fan had begun to reflect deeply on the road ahead.

“Although constrained by the New Method shackles, another path can still be opened.”

“The Immortal Ancestor system relies on the Xuanhuang Realm itself. If a new furnace is built in the starry sky, it will not be bound by it.”

“Yet doing so means forgoing the Xuanhuang Realm’s assistance. There are both advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, resources in the Star Sea are scarce. To truly achieve something, it may depend on the Xuan-Immortal Ark side.”

“And that invisible High Wall.”

“It seems to be a power system completely different from the Darkest Star Sea system. Yet its ability to restrain True Immortal power shows how formidable it must be. If it can be studied and referenced, it may serve as a surprise move in future battles against the Immortal Ancestor.”

“The only concern is…”

Li Fan frowned slightly: “The Immortal Ancestor and the Heavenly Doctor left the Xuanhuang Realm far earlier than I did. Their talent also surpasses mine.”

“Everything I have discovered so far, they must have discovered long ago.”

“So the so-called advantages… are not advantages at all.”

“…”

“It seems only after a real fight will we know the true depths.”

It had to be said that as the number of reincarnations increased, the mysterious veil over the Immortal Ancestor and the Heavenly Doctor was gradually being lifted. From initially avoiding them at all costs to now increasingly wanting to test them.

The day he truly defeated them might not be far off.

Li Fan’s thoughts then turned to the Cat Treasure that the Holy Emperor’s clone had found.

If there was anything in this life that he cared about especially, it was this treasure from beyond the High Wall that had not been fished out before.

“The angler is also being angled…”

A strange light flashed in Li Fan’s eyes.

The special reaction of the entire Du'e Sect toward Cat Treasure had made Li Fan think of many things.

But for now it was only speculation.

The Holy Emperor’s clone had also noticed this anomaly.

The reason for going to the First Origin Sect to collect the Wind Obliterating Calamity and the Great Mage’s remains was precisely because of this consideration.

...

Just as Li Fan was pondering, the long-quiet Derivation Law Jade space was suddenly disturbed.

Someone had come to visit.

It was Sun Luyuan of the Sun family.

“Lu’er, good news, good news!”

After greeting the other two Dao Integration guards, Sun Luyuan said to Li Fan.

“I already know.”

Li Fan’s reaction caused Sun Luyuan to pause in slight surprise.

“Bloodline connection, how could I not know.”

“How is Ninglu?” Li Fan asked, the corners of his mouth seemingly suppressing a smile.

Sun Luyuan sighed softly: “Ninglu has unfortunately perished. But fortunately the fetus is safe. This is also why I came to find you so late. I was afraid you might not be able to accept it.”

Sun Luyuan changed the subject: “Do you know how extraordinary that little child is? Born as Dao Integration…”