Chapter 1259: One Man Becomes Ten Thousand Troops

Chapter 1259: One Man Becomes Ten Thousand Troops

My Longevity Simulation

On the heavenly curtain of the Hongze Realm, the anomalous phenomenon of the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance party perishing appeared in an instant.

“Nascent Soul cultivator Lin Bai, who had cultivated for one hundred and sixty-five years…”

“He perished in the Hongze Realm while contending for Voidbright Flow Crystals and was besieged by Qian Sheng, Qian Ming, and Qian Su, suffering fatal injuries.”

“His body died and his Dao dissipated, returning to the heavens!”

...

Clearly the advance team from the Holy Dynasty had killed them, yet the cause of death displayed on the heavenly curtain now showed a conflict with the Qian family.

This was Sun Erlang’s first use of the Heaven-Usurping Talisman, and the effect appeared quite good.

Sun Erlang carefully recorded the scene in the sky with a projection stone, a cold glint flashing in his eyes. He then followed the final message from Zhang Ming and located the Voidbright Flow Crystal vein in this place.

He cautiously uprooted the entire vein, deliberately scattered the small fragments that had broken off from the main vein across various parts of the Hongze Realm, and finally erased all traces of the battle.

Only after completing these steps did Sun Erlang quietly depart.

A long time later, the obscured and altered heavenly secrets of the Hongze Realm slowly returned to normal.

Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance, Yueyang Prefecture, Qian family.

The Qian family head, Qian Wanling, who was at the peak of Soul Transformation, wore a gloomy expression. Below him stood Qian Sheng, Qian Ming, Qian Su, and the others, who still looked somewhat confused.

“Tell me what fine deeds you have done.”

“What fine deeds?” Qian Sheng froze on the spot.

“Big Brother, you suddenly summoned us here with this kind of face. What exactly happened?” Qian Su asked, also puzzled.

Qian Wanling slammed the table hard. “You are still hiding it! The Lin family has already come knocking! Lin Bai was the successor the Lin family placed high hopes on. Now that you have killed him, how can they let it go? Voidbright Flow Crystals may be good, but you need to be alive to enjoy them!”

“Greed has clouded your judgment! Utterly foolish!”

The Qian family head glared at his brothers, flames nearly leaping from his eyes. If not for blood being thicker than water, he would have wanted to slap them all dead on the spot.

“Wait!” Qian Ming suddenly realized something. His expression changed as he asked in panic, “What Lin Bai? What Voidbright Flow Crystals? Big Brother, you must have made a mistake, right? We killed Lin Bai? What kind of joke is that?”

Seeing that they still refused to admit it, Qian Wanling felt disappointment reach its peak. “You are even hiding it from me for the sake of Voidbright Flow Crystals? Fine, fine, fine!”

In his rage, Qian Wanling immediately took out a recording stone and played the heavenly phenomenon of the fall in the Hongze Realm.

Watching the heavenly anomaly before them, the three Qian brothers were instantly dumbfounded.

“This is wrong, Big Brother! We really did not do this!”

“Someone is framing us! Big Brother, you must believe us!”

After a brief daze, the three brothers cried out together, protesting their innocence.

Qian Wanling stared at them fixedly but could not detect any flaw of pretense in their expressions.

“These three fools’ acting skills are not that good. Could it be…”

Even Qian Wanling now felt some hesitation.

“Then where were you three during the past few days?”

Upon hearing this, Qian Sheng and the others hesitated. But under their elder brother’s murderous gaze, they had no choice but to reveal the truth.

“That day we were cultivating by absorbing Sun qi at the small building beside Yueyang Lake when we suddenly sensed an anomaly in the earth veins not far away, as if some treasure was about to emerge. So we went to investigate. Unexpectedly, right after we arrived, the earth-vein power suddenly went berserk. We were swept into the earth veins, lost control, and could not free ourselves…”

“We only escaped recently.” Qian Sheng recounted everything in detail.

Seeing his elder brother Qian Wanling’s increasingly gloomy gaze, he hurriedly added, “It is true. If you do not believe me, look. Because we were immersed in the earth veins for so long, the spiritual energy in our bodies has unavoidably been tainted with a thick earth-vein aura.”

Qian Wanling swept his senses through the three and indeed found clear traces of earth-vein power contamination.

He then fell silent.

The three Qian brothers thought their elder brother still did not believe them and wanted to continue explaining.

Instead, Qian Wanling let out a long sigh. “Even if I believe you, will the Lin family believe you? Will the world believe you?”

“The image recorded in this projection stone has been verified and is not fabricated.”

“Moreover, it involves the treasure known as Voidbright Flow Crystals…”

“Our Qian family is in trouble.”

Qian Sheng gradually came to his senses, his eyes nearly splitting with rage. “Who is so scheming as to frame us like this!”

Qian Ming’s eyes turned red. “Big Brother, rest assured. We will not drag the family down with us.”

With that, he turned to leave.

“You fools! If you go out now, are you seeking death?!”

Reprimanded by Qian Wanling, they stopped.

Looking at his three brothers’ aggrieved and furious expressions, Qian Wanling sighed again.

In the end, he made the decisive call as family head. “At this point, being misunderstood is unavoidable.”

“The only option is to report this matter to Lord Fan Li first…”

Fan Li was the Dao Integration cultivator stationed in Yueyang Prefecture. He usually disliked staying in Yueyang Sky City and had built a small building by Yueyang Lake for his residence.

“I will go personally. You three must stay home and not go out.”

Qian Wanling gave serious instructions, then altered his appearance and left through a secret passage in the house.

He left behind the three panicked and helpless Qian brothers.

Not long after, Fan Li, who was resting in the Yueyang small building, frowned upon hearing Qian Wanling’s account.

At that moment, the Lin family head, Lin Yufei, also arrived.

“Lord Fan, you must uphold justice for our Lin family!”

The Lin family’s spies stationed outside the Yueyang small building had seen Qian Wanling appear and immediately notified Lin Yufei.

Lin Yufei hurried over. He looked at Qian Wanling, who sat upright in the building, and did not conceal the killing intent in his eyes.

“Your Qian family has gone too far! You simply treat the Immortal Alliance’s laws as nothing!”

“Brother Lin, calm down. Someone is framing us.” Qian Wanling gave a bitter smile and apologized.

“Framing?! Is the heavenly phenomenon false? Is the image recorded in the projection stone false?!”

Saying nothing would have been better. Qian Wanling’s words sounded to Lin Yufei like excuses and evasion, and he flew into a rage.

He was about to attack on the spot.

“Quiet.”

Fan Li snorted coldly and forcefully suppressed the two men’s tense standoff.

He then examined the image in the projection stone carefully, his brows tightly furrowed.

The image was not fabricated.

But he had indeed sensed the earth-vein anomaly some time ago.

The Qian family would not dare use such a ridiculous excuse to fool him.

What exactly was going on?

For a moment, Fan Li felt a headache coming on.

He knew that if this matter was not handled properly, it could easily become public knowledge.

“You two, follow me to the Hongze Realm.”

Fan Li spoke in a deep voice.

...

However, even with Fan Li’s personal arrival, he ultimately could not determine the truth from the remaining clues in the Hongze Realm.

There were indeed large amounts of residual Kongming Flow Crystal aura there.

“Old thief Qian, Lord Fan personally cast the spell to recreate the heavenly phenomenon of the fall in the Hongze Realm. You saw it with your own eyes. What else do you have to say?”

“Brother Lin, is it possible that this heavenly phenomenon is fake…”

“Shut your filthy mouth! From today onward, our Lin family and your Qian family are locked in a fight to the death!”

Watching the two families whose hatred had not only failed to resolve but had deepened once more, Fan Li felt another headache.

He looked up at the sky of the Hongze Realm.

“The Heavenly Dao… has changed again?”

After returning to Yueyang Prefecture, Fan Li conducted several tests and multiple verifications. He confirmed that the heavenly phenomenon of a cultivator’s fall remained effective.

Yet he still harbored some doubts. Qian Wanling continued to insist firmly that his three sons had been wronged.

After Fan Li personally interrogated the three with soul-searching, he also became convinced they were not the killers.

With no other choice, Fan Li could only report the matter to the Immortal Alliance headquarters.

What he did not know was that this was already the second similar report the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance had received.

However, due to the inherent workings of the Immortal Alliance system, such matters had not yet drawn the attention of the alliance’s true upper echelons.

In silence, the seeds of chaos had already been planted.

Great Qi.

Sun Erlang reviewed the intelligence gathered by the Holy Dynasty’s spies from various sources and felt very satisfied with the Heaven-Usurping Talisman’s effect.

Because for the past several thousand years, the accuracy of the heavenly phenomenon of a cultivator’s fall had been precisely verified. The Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance cultivators, who had formed a fixed mindset, would naturally not suddenly doubt it.

“However, it can only be used as a surprise move. If used too often, it will lose its effectiveness.”

“It must be saved for critical moments.”

Sun Erlang shook his head.

He had already truthfully reported the heroic sacrifice of Zhang Ming’s squad to the Holy Emperor.

The Holy Emperor, in a very rare move, announced the matter to the world and used great power to create a floating divine hall above the Holy Capital.

The divine hall shone with golden light and hung high in the ninth heaven.

In any corner of Great Qi, one could see the divine hall’s brilliant radiance like the great sun in the sky.

The Holy Emperor had declared that all soldiers who sacrificed themselves for the Holy Dynasty would have their statues formed in the divine hall after death.

Although they lost their physical bodies, they could exist eternally in the state of heroic spirits.

The golden-light-filled phantoms of Zhang Ming and the others flying out from the floating divine hall confirmed the Holy Emperor’s words.

The people of Great Qi cheered the Holy Emperor’s divine grace. Their fear of death gradually transformed into fanaticism to enter the floating divine hall and become immortal heroic spirits.

Sun Erlang knew that these so-called heroic spirits were likely remnants of consciousness preserved by Master using divine power and given form.

Although there was still a great gap from true immortality and eternity. But it was still a way to salvage something after death.

Rather than the soul scattering and completely annihilating, leaving the last trace in the world was good.

But for Sun Erlang, minimizing the sacrifices of soldiers was the proper path.

He arrived at the secret location where the Holy Dynasty forged its instruments of conquest. The Army-Destroying Arrows and Heaven-Usurping Talismans all came from here.

“I greet Senior Qiao Gong.”

Sun Erlang said to the busy Qiao Gong.

Qiao Gong did not respond, focusing intently on the black puppets continuously flashing rapidly in the space ahead.

Sun Erlang did not mind and also looked toward the puppets.

“Such fast speed.”

The black puppets kept teleporting, their figures floating, even evading Sun Erlang’s divine sense lock.

“Slow! Still too slow!”

“The supply of source power is limited. It is still somewhat difficult to bring the mass-produced models’ capabilities to the imagined level.”

Qiao Gong said with full regret.

“Sun boy, go up and spar with it.”

Qiao Gong suddenly said.

Sun Erlang nodded and instantly arrived in the testing area.

The black puppet stopped its rapid movement and instead launched a full-force assault on Sun Erlang.

The main attack methods were two: one was black death rays sprayed out with annihilating aura.

The other was detonating formation modules to trap and injure enemies with standard formations.

It could almost fight an ordinary peak Nascent Soul cultivator, but clearly it could not injure Sun Erlang at all. While easily dodging the black puppet’s attacks, Sun Erlang flicked his fingers to shoot out several blue light spheres.

The light spheres traced different curves, accurately locking onto and striking the black puppet.

A faint glow flashed across the puppet’s body, and it unexpectedly absorbed Sun Erlang’s moves.

“Boy, you didn’t see this last time, did you?”

“This move is called returning the favor with the same method.”

As Qiao Gong said this, faint blue light lit up on the black puppet’s body.

Those blue light spheres were actually reflected back.

“This is only one puppet. The advantage of the mass-produced type lies in numbers.”

With Qiao Gong’s words, dozens more puppets appeared in the testing space in the blink of an eye.

In the fight against them, Sun Erlang discovered that these puppets seemed to act as one whole.

Not only did they coordinate perfectly, they vaguely formed a formation.

Moreover, any one of the puppets could concentrate and reflect back the attacks absorbed by the whole.

Even with Sun Erlang’s considerable strength, without using killing moves, facing over thirty puppets left him somewhat overwhelmed.

He called a stop to the test and returned to Qiao Gong’s side.

“Senior Qiao Gong, how many of these mass-produced puppets can be deployed at once?”

Qiao Gong shrugged: “Boy, this is a Holy Dynasty secret. Even though you are the Holy Emperor’s direct disciple, I cannot tell you too much.”

Sun Erlang could not help but be speechless.

Qiao Gong laughed heartily: “Just kidding with you.”

“[Holy Army Puppet], fifty per group. They require control by special cultivators to display maximum combat power.”

“Surrounding and killing a Soul Transformation cultivator should not be a problem.”

Upon hearing this, a gleam flashed in Sun Erlang’s eyes.

“Is there an upper limit to the number of Holy Army Puppets one can control?”

“Upper limit?” Qiao Gong was slightly stunned, then understood.

“You want to try?”

Sun Erlang nodded.

Qiao Gong pondered for a moment and handed over a black jade disk.

“Do not force it.”

Sun Erlang took the disk. In his sea of consciousness, the scene of over a thousand black puppets standing neatly and straight instantly appeared.

His thoughts seemed like threads connecting all the puppets.

Each puppet seemed to have its own consciousness.

After connecting, Sun Erlang’s own divine soul felt as if weighted down by something heavy and became somewhat burdened.

However, this also allowed him to control the puppets as easily as moving his own arms.

Sun Erlang got used to the puppet’s body. With a thought, one of the puppets flew into the testing area.

It began flying and attack experiments.

After a period of adaptation, Sun Erlang felt the burden on his divine soul had become negligible. He then began connecting additional puppets.

Next came the third, the tenth, the fiftieth…

Under Qiao Gong’s gradually shocked gaze, the total number of puppets controlled by Sun Erlang had clearly exceeded one hundred.

And from his expression, he still seemed completely at ease.

“You kid…”

“You can do it!”

Qiao Gong suddenly had a whimsical thought: “If you controlled the Holy Army Puppets alone, would the effect be even better?”