My Longevity Simulation Chapter 1186: Soul Destruction Without Form

“Indeed, the Celestial Pivot Court has long stood against studies related to world extinction power, brutally suppressing such efforts for ages. Innumerable cultivators have been reduced to nothing more than fertilizer for the Divine Tree. If they hadn’t reached their breaking point in these later years, I highly doubt they would have chosen to compromise.”

“Consider this: the Severed Immortal Tower managed such remarkable progress in just over five centuries. Meanwhile, the Celestial Pivot Court has held total control for nearly ten thousand years, yet has achieved absolutely nothing. The Immortal Ark is failing day by day because of them. They truly deserve to be wiped out.”

“The status quo of our Immortal Ark is on the verge of collapsing. We must plot our course early, brothers. Perhaps this represents a perfect chance for us to shed our criminal labels once and for all…”

A wary glance passed between the three, and in each other’s eyes, they found a reflection of their own burning ambition.

However, their hushed council dissolved as quickly as it had begun in the desolate, uninhabited void.

Upon returning to the familiar valley, they reverted to their usual demeanor—silent, taciturn, and seemingly filled with righteous indignation.

Following their routine check-in with Elder Gou, they retreated to their assigned wooden huts within the valley.

The settlement housed over a hundred cultivators in total.

Periodically, groups were dispatched from the Immortal Ark to scavenge for world extinction relics.

The inhabitants of the Ark lived in constant terror of the Darkest Star Sea waiting just outside. Before every grueling mission, faces grew pale and eyes wide with anxiety.

Retrieving these relics was, naturally, a task yielding a high mortality rate.

The danger wasn't merely from physical trauma sustained in the void outside. Rather, it seemed that every excursion acted as an accelerant, rapidly sapping the remaining lifespan of those from the Immortal Ark.

After just two trips into the star sea, the cultivator known as Zhao Tianjiang already bore significantly deeper wrinkles upon his face.

“It is no wonder there are no young faces here,” Li Fan realized suddenly. “They are exclusively middle-aged or elderly.”

The hundred residents of the valley lived lives devoid of actual Cultivation.

Beyond the mandatory labor of salvaging relics, they were left with nothing to occupy their time.

By lingering and eavesdropping, Li Fan gathered a wealth of intelligence concerning the Immortal Ark.

They referred to this place as Sin Suppression Valley—a site of exile for those who had run afoul of the Ark’s laws but had not committed crimes severe enough to warrant execution.

The collection of world extinction relics served as their penance.

Only after they had fully served their time and repaid their debts could they hope to reintegrate into normalcy.

From their whispers of longing, Li Fan peered into the grim reality of life within the Immortal Ark.

Every detail, both trivial and grand, remained under the iron grip of the Celestial Pivot Court.

The common folk here survived on fixed, annual rations issued by the Court, leaving them with just enough to stay alive—nothing more.

The Immortal Ark maintained draconian controls over its population and the number of active cultivators.

Births required explicit permission, while access to Cultivation was strictly limited to a predetermined quota.

One could only acquire the right to cultivate by winning a lottery or by rendering exceptional service to the Ark—such as trekking out to salvage world extinction relics.

Most of the residents in Sin Suppression Valley possessed no ability to cultivate at all.

That was the primary source of their paralyzing dread regarding the outside world.

As mere mortals, the only reason they could navigate the Darkest Star Sea without dying instantly was thanks to clandestine immortal armor fashioned by the Celestial Pivot Court, which they put on for their missions.

In addition to basic protection, the armor could identify which relics held enough value to be traded for merits.

As for the actual purpose behind the Celestial Pivot Court’s obsession with these world extinction relics, those at the bottom of the hierarchy remained entirely in the dark.

…

“It seems this Immortal Ark is even more fractured than the Xuanhuang Realm.”

“The intelligence I can glean from this position is finite. I must find an escape route.”

His current clone was simply too feeble and lacked the resilience to withstand any meaningful expenditure of power.

Attempting to cross the void of the Immortal Ark on his own was a path to certain death.

The green, formless paths within the void only manifested when authorized. Any attempt to traverse them without permission would result in being shattered into fragments, serving only as nourishment for the Ark itself.

Consequently, Li Fan’s clone remained in the shadows, biding his time.

What he did not foresee, however, was that a catastrophe would arrive to derail his patience before any opportunity did.

The catalyst was an sudden, mysterious illness that claimed Zhao Tianjiang and his two companions.

At first, Zhao Tianjiang simply complained of fatigue, spending several days bedridden.

Soon, his rest was replaced by sleepless, agonizing nights where his skin crawled with an unbearable itch and profound restlessness.

Recognition dawned on Zhao Tianjiang, and his eyes filled with a terror that knew no bounds.

He kept the secret to himself, however.

He masked his agony, forced himself to appear in public, and even volunteered for yet another recovery mission.

It wasn't until his coughing fits became uncontrollable and ominous black spots bloomed across his flesh that he retreated to his home and locked himself away.

He clutched a jade talisman-like artifact, his purpose unclear.

Only when blood began to seep from his seven orifices, staining the air with the metallic tang of decay, was the secret laid bare.

“Alas, his end is nigh. It is better to release him now so he may pass near his kin.”

“Such is the cruelty of fate. Old Zhao possessed the sturdiest physique among us, yet he still fell prey to the void strange disease.”

“He even masked his condition for so long, just to hoard a few extra merits for little Zhao before he finally expired…”

The others offered sighs and gestures of genuine grief.

Elder Gou, however, remained unmoved, his features as cold as stone as he processed the affair with clinical, bureaucratic detachment.

Before long, a replacement for Zhao Tianjiang was sent to the valley.

Following Zhao’s demise, the two other cultivators who had accompanied him started showing the same symptoms, perishing in equal misery.

The residents of Sin Suppression Valley simply lamented the group’s poor fortune.

Only Li Fan understood the grim reality. The string of deaths from the ‘void strange disease’ was almost certainly caused by his own clone, which had been lurking in their immediate vicinity for too long.

“The anatomy of these Immortal Ark inhabitants…”

“They are incredibly fragile. They couldn't even survive the lingering, minute traces of void aura shed by my clone. If my true form arrived, would I be nothing more than a lethal plague?”

Li Fan felt a sense of absurd irony. His role in their deaths was never intentional.

Having traversed more than half of the Darkest Star Sea, his presence had been tainted by the bizarre, persistent forces of the void.

While his own divine soul was tempered enough to resist such corruption, these fragile mortals were defenseless against it.

In Sin Suppression Valley, time felt suspended, like a decade passing in a heartbeat.

The Immortal Ark remained a stagnant pool, blissfully unaware of the currents beneath the surface.

The timing Li Fan’s clone required still refused to reveal itself.

Until this very day…

The perennially stoic Elder Gou suddenly displayed a shift in demeanor.

He commanded the entire population of Sin Suppression Valley to assemble.

He gathered them outside the valley perimeter, as if awaiting the approach of someone of immense significance.

While the residents trembled with unease, Li Fan’s clone sensed a formidable aura accelerating toward them.

“Dao Integration stage?”

“No, it is beyond that. And yet, it lacks the crushing weight of the Longevity Immortal realm.”

“What is this? The aura is laced with the faint, tell-tale fluctuations of something approximating a True Immortal Seal Script?”