My Longevity Simulation Chapter 1526: Painting Conceals the Reverse Flowing Boat

"Heaven and earth possess a Ruomu, which consumes the lifespan of all living beings day and night."

"Life and death have no cycle of reincarnation. Only eternal life remains..."

Li Fan slowly recited the lines that originally belonged to Ruomu while examining its memories. As for Ruomu itself, it was hiding in a corner, trembling in fear and allowing Li Fan to peer into its memories.

From the birth of the Xuanhuang Realm to the present day, an unimaginably long period of time had passed. Yet, from Li Fan's perspective as an observer, reviewing all of it took no more than a dozen breaths.

'This can also be called eternal life...' Li Fan shook his head slightly.

Perhaps because it had spent such a long time in a near-death state, Ruomu's memories were not particularly clear. There were even extensive gaps in certain crucial places. Nevertheless, they were already sufficient for Li Fan to gain a general understanding of the Xuanhuang Realm's history.

From Ruomu's perspective, the history of the Xuanhuang Realm could broadly be divided into three periods.

The first period extended from the initial creation of the Xuanhuang Realm to the rise of numerous cultivation sects. During this time, the Xuanhuang Realm was still under the control of the Immortal Realm. Ruomu even retained memories of True Immortals using it to balance and regulate the lifespans of all living beings beneath heaven and earth.

The second period began with the destruction of the Immortal Realm and ended with the sudden collapse of the Xuantian Sect. During this time, the Xuantian King replaced the True Immortals and became the one steering the Xuanhuang Realm. The various modifications he had made to Ruomu and the Xuanhuang Realm still left their marks upon Ruomu's body to this day.

The third period extended from the rise of the Ten Great Immortal Sects to the present.

This had also been Ruomu's freest period.

Although the Ten Great Immortal Sects, and later the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance and the Dharma-Transmitting Immortal Ancestor, claimed that they could similarly control Ruomu and divide its longevity fruits, there was actually a fundamental difference between them and the True Immortals and Xuantian King who had come before.

Their so-called control amounted to nothing more than harvesting the fruits once they ripened. If the circulation of vitality within the Xuanhuang Realm became unbalanced, leaving Ruomu unable to produce any fruits, they could do nothing about it.

The True Immortals and Xuantian King of old, however, could forcibly extract the vitality of every living being in the Xuanhuang Realm through Ruomu and condense it into longevity fruits.

In short, there was an enormous difference between Ruomu's true controllers and those who merely made use of it.

This was also why the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance had stood by and done nothing after Ruomu fell ill and its vitality withered.

Both the Heavenly Doctor and the Immortal Ancestor had once attempted to save Ruomu. Their efforts had failed because of the unique creation restrictions within Ruomu's body.

Something created by a True Immortal could naturally only be controlled by a True Immortal.

Moreover, neither Ruomu nor the entire Xuanhuang Realm was an ordinary creation of a True Immortal.

Yet now, after obtaining absolute control over Ruomu through the immense vitality contained within his own body, Li Fan, despite possessing nothing more than a mortal body, found the restrictions on Ruomu's body strangely familiar.

Even the theoretical gulf between immortals and mortals had failed to stop him.

It was as natural as water flowing downhill. Relying solely on instinct, within just a few breaths of detecting the restrictions, Li Fan had already deciphered and infiltrated them.

Before the abundant verdant vitality under Li Fan's control, these supposedly impregnable immortal restrictions were practically defenseless!

At this very moment, Li Fan had become not only [Ruomu], but also its master.

The ancient tree that supported the heavens had regained its vitality. At its core, countless intricate patterns covered its interior.

Although Li Fan seemed to be encountering them for the first time, after observing them for a short while, he could quickly understand the meanings represented by these patterns.

What particularly caught his attention were the modification marks left behind by the Xuantian King.

After carefully examining them, Li Fan gradually understood the Xuantian King's intentions behind modifying Ruomu all those years ago.

"Extract a portion of Ruomu's vitality and transform it into an independent resource that can be used separately."

"Perhaps this was also one of the important reasons why the circulation of vitality throughout the Xuanhuang Realm became unbalanced and Ruomu withered so rapidly. But where exactly did this transferred vitality go?"

Li Fan frowned slightly, then abruptly narrowed his field of vision and examined the surroundings of Ruomu.

At present, Li Fan could recall relatively little about the Xuantian King. However, whether judging from his vague instinctive impressions or what he had witnessed in Ruomu's memories, this Xuantian King was unquestionably among the strongest figures in the entire history of the Xuanhuang Realm.

Even though he had disappeared for countless years, Li Fan still dared not treat him carelessly.

Ruomu's roots and branches extended throughout the Xuanhuang Realm.

Following one of its branches, Li Fan quickly traced the location where the separated vitality had been transferred.

It was an apparently ordinary Daoist temple.

Inside the temple were an elderly man, a young Daoist child, and a seemingly ordinary pond.

The old man possessed Nascent Soul cultivation, while the young Daoist child did not seem to be human.

And finally...

"Hm?"

The moment Li Fan witnessed this scene, an instinctive sense of danger surged within him. However, the source of this danger was not the old man or the young Daoist child, but the pond?

An image of countless extraordinary treasures shining like stars within the pond suddenly appeared in Li Fan's mind.

The final scene showed a cat leaping into the air and swallowing all the extraordinary treasures of the heavens in a single gulp. It was a terrifying sight.

"Fishing Pond..."

"A cat?"

Li Fan could not help but halt his advance.

Even though his current body was merely a branch of Ruomu that he was controlling, he still dared not proceed recklessly.

Without entering the Daoist temple, he simply observed from a distance where the vitality drawn out of Ruomu was flowing.

Only after carefully distinguishing its destination did Li Fan realize that the vitality was not being directed toward the Daoist temple or the Fishing Pond. Instead, it was flowing into the nearby mountain forest.

The two were simply very close to each other, and the Fishing Pond was so conspicuous that Li Fan had mistaken its destination at first glance.

For the time being, he set the Fishing Pond aside and followed the trail of vitality drawn out of Ruomu to the place where it was gathering.

After entering the underground space, Li Fan could not help feeling surprised.

"This method of gathering vitality..."

"Although an enormous amount of vitality has accumulated here, not the slightest trace is leaking out. If I were not Ruomu itself at this moment, I am afraid that even standing directly above this place, I would be unable to detect the vitality gathered underground!"

"This is certainly worth learning from."

Li Fan's greatest problem at present was the uncontrollable leakage of vitality.

The amount of vitality contained within his body was simply too enormous. Even if only one ten-billionth of his surrounding aura leaked out, it would undoubtedly appear as an unparalleled treasure to anyone capable of sensing it.

This problem would only become increasingly severe as Li Fan continued awakening the potential of his vitality.

Now that he had unexpectedly discovered a solution here, he could not help examining it carefully.

It seemed that even with the knowledge he had retained from his previous memories, he could only vaguely understand the arrangements here.

This genuinely surprised Li Fan.

It was the first time he had encountered such a situation since beginning this new round of simulation.

"Although I cannot understand exactly how it works, I can at least determine what the vitality is being used for."

Li Fan swept his gaze across the surroundings.

Buried within this underground space was an entire village.

Apart from the buildings and various objects, there were no other living beings inside the village.

The vitality drawn here from Ruomu served two purposes.

On one hand, it maintained the village in its original condition.

On the other hand, all of it was being gathered inside a particular house within the village.

"From the time the Xuantian King modified Ruomu until now, the vitality extracted and transferred here has accumulated into an extraordinarily enormous quantity. Although it is still nowhere near one ten-thousandth of what I possess, it is far greater than what the current scale of this place would suggest."

Li Fan's heart tightened. After pondering for a moment, he finally approached slowly.

He stood outside the house for a while before ultimately pushing the door open.

Following the direction of the flowing vitality, he crossed the small courtyard and arrived at the central room in the rear section of the house.

Li Fan's footsteps suddenly came to a halt.

Because he could vaguely make out what seemed to be a figure standing inside through the doors and windows!

However, by gathering and observing the surrounding vitality through the Ruomu, Li Fan eventually determined that the figure was seemingly not a living being in the ordinary sense.

After hesitating for a moment, Li Fan still decided to investigate.

As it turned out, his guess had been correct.

The so-called "figure" inside the house was merely a portrait.

"Why does this portrait need to be nourished with vitality?" A trace of doubt flashed through Li Fan's mind.

The scene depicted in the painting showed several young children playing together in the mountains. Among them, a boy and a girl were holding hands as they played together.

The moment Li Fan laid eyes on them, he felt a faint sense of familiarity.

"This is the Xuantian King. And..."

It was as though another switch had been triggered. Images flashed through Li Fan's mind, telling him that the person beside the Xuantian King should be his childhood sweetheart.

Li Fan pressed his temples, restoring his brain after it had momentarily exploded from being unable to withstand the sudden influx of information. Only then did he continue examining the painting before him.

Under the nourishment of the abundant vitality, the children depicted in the painting seemed to have come alive.

The Xuantian King in particular was looking straight ahead. It was almost as though he were looking beyond the painting!

For an instant, Li Fan nearly thought he was hallucinating. The young Xuantian King seemed to have glanced directly at him!

However, upon examining the painting further, Li Fan discovered that the young Xuantian King was not even its most unusual feature.

In an inconspicuous corner of the painting, outside a house in the village, lay a long-haired man dressed in tattered clothes.

His face was obscured by his unkempt hair and beard, making his features impossible to discern.

Nevertheless, the man was staring from afar at the group of children playing outside the village, his expression rather peculiar.

A palm-sized wooden boat rested on the man's chest.

Looking closely, Li Fan could faintly make out the faces of the children outside the village through the windows of the wooden boat!

"What is this supposed to mean?"

The painting seemed to possess some peculiar mystical power. Before he realized it, Li Fan's mind had become completely captivated by it.

Regardless of what he was thinking about, his gaze would ultimately return to that wooden boat.

The wooden boat seemed to have endured the ravages of countless years. It was covered in scars and had become extremely dilapidated, as though it might completely fall apart in the very next instant.

However, perhaps due to the nourishment of the boundless vitality, it was still barely able to maintain its original shape.

As Li Fan continued staring, he suddenly seemed to catch sight of his own reflection through the wooden boat's window.

Just as he could not resist reaching out to touch the boat, his eyes met those of his reflection.

Some of his memories that had once disappeared suddenly resurfaced, causing Li Fan to withdraw his hand as though he had been electrocuted.

"The Xuantian King seems to have been the person with the greatest fortune in the entire history of the Xuanhuang Realm. Time and again, he managed to turn misfortune into fortune and escape calamities. Even during the great tribulation in which the Immortal Realm was destroyed and countless immortals perished, he managed to emerge unscathed..."

Li Fan's gaze focused on the wooden boat in the painting.

"Could this be the legendary [Reverse Flowing Boat]?"

"The Three Treasures of Avoiding Calamity..."

Li Fan forcibly channeled his vitality to repair his severely injured body, hoping to recall more of his memories.

"However, this treasure was clearly created only after the destruction of the Immortal Realm. How could it have appeared in the hands of the Xuantian King before the great calamity even descended?"

"Reverse... Could it be that he actually succeeded?"

Li Fan could not help turning his gaze toward the disheveled man holding the wooden boat.

Ultimately, his current body was simply not strong enough to support the recovery of all his memories.

Li Fan temporarily withdrew from his recollections.

Looking at the painting before him, he revealed an extremely rare expression of hesitation.

This painting had been nourished by the vitality of the Ruomu for ten thousand years.

Now that Li Fan had become the new Ruomu, theoretically speaking, he was entirely capable of using his vitality to envelop the painting and take it away.

However, what awaited him afterward was the unknown danger concealed within the painting.

For the time being, Li Fan refrained from acting and instead pondered the matter of the Xuantian King's disappearance.

"I seem to have investigated this matter before. The Xuantian King should have disappeared in the Fishing Pond."

"As for whether he disappeared voluntarily or was forced to..."

"Then this painting must have been something he deliberately left behind. Was it meant for his childhood sweetheart? Yet he never mentioned anything about it in his message. Clearly, he did not want her to know."

"If the painting truly conceals the legendary Reverse Flowing Boat, why would the Xuantian King abandon such a treasure, one capable of defying heaven and changing one's fate?"

...

Clearly, merely thinking about these questions would not provide any answers.

Within the Great Xuan Small World, at the Grand Preceptor's Estate in Xuanjing City.

Li Fan's true self made several attempts to ensure that he could return to the very beginning of the simulation at any moment. Feeling the immense vitality within his body, a sharp glint flashed through his eyes as he finally made up his mind.

"Being timid and hesitant will never accomplish anything great. This is merely a simulation, after all. Even if I suffer another severe injury, at worst I will lose my memories again and be forced to drink a few more bowls of talisman water."

"Rather than leaving this mystery unresolved and allowing it to become a hidden danger, I might as well uncover its true nature right now!"

"Since vitality works on it, then I shall give it vitality!"

...

Within the Xuanhuang Realm, Li Fan also took action.

The suspicion and uncertainty in his eyes disappeared. He slowly exhaled a breath of Longevity Qi, directing it toward the painting before him.

This strand of Longevity Qi had been condensed through his own cultivation throughout this life.

Compared with the vitality he had bestowed upon Kou Hong and Dao Xuanzi, or even the vitality he had used to possess the Ruomu, its potency surpassed theirs by several orders of magnitude.

Even Li Fan himself turned somewhat pale after releasing this condensed Qi.

However, the results were immediate.

Li Fan stared intently at the changes taking place before him.

Faced with the sudden influx of vitality, the painting accepted it without the slightest resistance. No matter how much vitality poured into it, it absorbed everything without reservation.

Faint strands of green appeared throughout the painting.

The scene within the painting also began to undergo corresponding changes as the vitality poured in.

Green grass and blooming flowers rapidly spread across the earth. In the sky, seven-colored auspicious clouds rolled down from above.

Meanwhile, the wooden boat, which had nearly decayed and fallen apart, rapidly regained its former appearance at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The transformation of the wooden boat caught the attention of the disheveled man holding it.

His hair and beard fluttered, revealing the face that had previously been concealed.

The man suddenly raised his head and looked beyond the painting.

His eyes met Li Fan's.

In the next instant, Li Fan felt the world spinning around him. His consciousness was abruptly sucked into the painting!

Before he could even struggle, he felt a hand press down upon his shoulder.

"The Great Dao of Longevity?"

The disheveled man opposite him spoke in utter astonishment.