My Longevity Simulation Chapter 1085: The Mysterious Trail of the Ancient Immortal Artifact

Like a crossbow drained of its power at the string's end, unable to slice through delicate silk. Facing the overwhelming force of the Longevity Immortal level, Li Fan's blade likely wouldn't even scratch a common person. Much less harm Mr. Bai.

Yet, despite failing to leave the faintest trace, this strike had ultimately connected with Mr. Bai's form.

This came because Li Fan cast aside his own life without hesitation. Because Mr. Bai valued promising talents and showed mercy. As the old saying puts it, an honest man can be outwitted by sincerity!

That very strike served as the solution Li Fan had mulled over for years during the second volume of the Fallen Immortal Realm. The opening part challenged kindness. The middle one probed intelligence. Now, this third segment demanded a trial of battle skill!

Mr. Bai had dominated the Heavenly Sword Sect through his swordsmanship alone. To overcome him or earn his approval in combat would surely clear the third trial's hurdle. And Li Fan had just managed that feat.

"I concede."

Even with Mr. Bai reversing the life-burning backlash, executing the [Sword of Life] had still inflicted severe wounds on Li Fan. Right now, his complexion drained to a ghostly white, seeming ready to collapse at any instant.

He hacked up coughs without end and saluted Mr. Bai with clasped hands.

Mr. Bai gazed upon Li Fan, his face revealing a mix of emotions. "Why?" he inquired.

The surrounding views of the Heavenly Sword Sect began to dissolve away. Only Mr. Bai's silhouette stayed sharply in focus.

Li Fan pressed on: "Therefore, what you manage, I might fail at. But what eludes you, I could possibly grasp."

The words twisted like a puzzle, yet Mr. Bai fully comprehended Li Fan's intent.

"At times, survival demands a heart of steel."

With those final words, Li Fan's figure turned gradually sheer. In the end, it faded out entirely.

Solitary in this pocket of time and space stood Mr. Bai. His forehead creased in deep thought, wrestling with a grueling dilemma. After what seemed an eternity, his features eased, and a grin spread across his lips.

"Exactly. My worries bind me too tightly. Following his path might just snag that elusive spark of opportunity..."

Mr. Bai's shape, together with his echoing words, dimmed steadily into quiet.

...

Within the enveloping void, Li Fan lost all sense of passing moments. A well-known whirl of vertigo swept through him, and abruptly, light flooded his sight once more.

He glanced about, realizing he hadn't returned to the actual realm. Rather, a fresh surrounding had enveloped him.

"My theory held true after all. The victory felt a bit shady, but I overcame Mr. Bai and conquered the combat challenge. The method stays unquestioned; only the outcome counts."

A flicker of elation rose within Li Fan's core. "Next, reveal to me the nature of this fourth volume's ordeal."

No sooner had the notion crossed his mind than a torrent of details flooded his thoughts. His countenance hardened in shock.

"What in the world?"

Despite Li Fan's profound calm, a brief stupor gripped him. He swiftly invoked the Water Mirror Technique and peered into the reflective surface at his own image.

A pristine, unrivaled visage emerged, one that evoked the gentle caress of spring winds and stirred involuntary awe. This appearance rang all too familiar to Li Fan. He'd clashed with its possessor mere moments before.

It belonged to Mr. Bai!

"For this fourth volume, have I outright seized control of Mr. Bai's body?"

Li Fan's pulse surged with intensity. A blend of thrill and caution churned inside.

The thrill stemmed from inhabiting Mr. Bai's form to preview the Xuanhuang Celestial Venerable's existence early. Regardless of the cultivation facets it touched, immense future advantages awaited. The caution arose from the risk that Mr. Bai's body-usurping revival scheme could repeat itself.

In short order, Li Fan composed himself and set about organizing the influx of mental data.

Regrettably, since this remained only a trial, the recollections of Mr. Bai embedded in his mind proved patchy. Mere shards lingered, accompanied by the "primary mission" tied to the challenge.

"Right now, the Heavenly Dao's approval has crowned me the true Xuanhuang Great Celestial Venerable. The core task involves... locating the immortal artifacts dispersed across the Xuanhuang Realm and breaking free from its bounds?"

Li Fan's features twisted into an expression of sheer oddity. This flew in the face of Mr. Bai's documented history, prompting Li Fan to verify it repeatedly.

"Wait. No, this isn't the Fallen Immortal Realm's trial. Actually... this marks the very burden Mr. Bai bore at that juncture!"

It took some moments, but enlightenment dawned on Li Fan.

Upon attaining the rank of Xuanhuang Great Celestial Venerable, a subtle nudge from the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao essence subtly arose within Mr. Bai's spirit. Catastrophe approached, unstoppable. Far wiser to shed the realm's husk and slip away beforehand.

"The Xuanhuang Realm offers no sanctuary anymore, plagued by inner fiends and monsters while the Immortal Ruins lurks beyond its borders. Superior to pierce the Immortal Wall and forge anew in the vast expanse outside."

...

Li Fan's brow furrowed as he meticulously assembled the scattered memory fragments.

"Breaching the Immortal Wall demands immense effort. Even the Xuanhuang Great Celestial Venerable stands helpless before it. However, in the era before the Immortal Passage sealed shut, the higher realm sporadically granted immortal artifacts. Certain ones remain tucked away in sect vaults, others entombed far beneath the soil, their existence forgotten. Still, the Xuanhuang Realm's Heavenly Dao governs every single piece."

"Collecting these immortal artifacts and offering them up, even sans total annihilation, suffices to summon the might needed to shatter the Immortal Wall."

A look wildly mismatched to the vessel's inherent poise surfaced on Li Fan's features.

"Immortal artifacts? A minimum of ten, perhaps even more?"

Per the insights relayed by the Xuantian Heavenly Dao essence, every such immortal artifact wielded might equaling or surpassing the Tianxuan Mirror. Should he amass them and bend them to his will...

Wild notions swirled chaotically through Li Fan's thoughts.

One had to realize that, over innumerable rebirth cycles, beyond the Tianxuan Mirror and the Fishing Pond, no other immortal artifacts had ever surfaced for him. To confront what resembled an enormous windfall, unveiling the hiding spots of over a dozen at once—how could it fail to ignite his fervor!

"Hold up, in the genuine chronicles, didn't every one of these immortal artifacts simply evaporate into mystery?"

Yet in a flash, Li Fan snapped to awareness. He promptly summoned a long-gathered snippet of ancient lore.

As the monumental disaster unfolded, clashing cultivation methods had already plunged the sects into disarray. The baffling disappearance of safeguarded immortal artifacts merely hastened the immortal sects' utter ruin.

"Does that mean, during those chaotic days, Mr. Bai covertly claimed all the immortal artifacts that mysteriously went missing?"

Li Fan's visage took on a strange cast. He revisited the mental details concerning these immortal artifacts.

All such immortal artifacts had descended from the upper realm in the days prior to the Immortal Passage's complete rupture. During that period, the Xuanhuang Realm's prominent sects differed from the eventual Ten Great Immortal Sects, consisting instead of long-extinct powers swallowed by the tides of time. Examples included the Samsara Sect, the Desolate God Sect, and others like them.

The immortal artifacts once held by those groups had subsequently been apportioned among the Ten Great Immortal Sects.

That said, immortal artifacts harbor their own essences and respond solely to rightful lineage successors. Consequently, despite the Ten Great Immortal Sects claiming the bulk of them, true utilization remained beyond their grasp.