My Longevity Simulation Chapter 1116: Strategic Retreat
Previously on My Longevity Simulation...
Though labeled a pyrrhic victory, the Spiritwood Realm actually endured no significant harm in those three battles. Just a bit of stored energy got used up.
Should the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance pull back at this point, or get intimidated by the power shown by the Spiritwood Realm and pause their assault for a while, the small world could easily restore that depleted energy. Yet it was obvious the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance wouldn't scare off that simply.
After missing its strike objective, the Oblivion Beast drifted without purpose right there for an instant. Then, detecting the alluring scent from the Xuanhuang Realm through the space tunnel, it suddenly turned its attention elsewhere.
The space crack got pried open even broader once more, and that aura stirring Li Fan's heart disappeared right away. Before the Spiritwood Realm's inhabitants could rejoice, the whole small world started trembling fiercely out of nowhere.
"This is..." Being the ruler of the Spiritwood Realm, Li Fan inside the Nether Prison noticed the oddity right away. "The Spiritwood Realm's anchor in the Xuanhuang Great World is moving! They're pulling the rug out from under us, dodging straight fights and aiming to wipe out the small realm directly?"
Back then, the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance had dragged the Five Elements Great Cave-Heaven in Tianling Prefecture straight to the core territories by force. The Spiritwood Realm's current size wasn't even comparable to the Five Elements Cave-Heaven. Despite Li Fan strengthening it with arrays, it probably couldn't hold up against the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's raw relocation power.
Plus, with his real body distant from the fight, Li Fan still picked up on the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's world-shifting technique via feelings from the Holy Embryo and his duplicate.
"Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation!" Li Fan's eyes sparked with a flash. He'd desired this epic array for ages, crafted by the Xuantian King and employed by the Xuanhuang Realm to seize other cultivation realms.
Even as his Final Dissociation Disc neared elevation to immortal artifact status, it proved useless against this starry sky array and couldn't force a breakthrough in deducing it. Apparently, besides the array core, hidden elements were at play too.
When Li Fan once queried the Tianxuan Mirror on this array's secrets, it dodged time and again, switching to details on other arrays instead. Thus, Li Fan never caught sight of its real essence. He hadn't foreseen facing it now, amid the assault on the Spiritwood Realm.
In the sea of consciousness of his true body, the Dissociation Disc let out a soft thrilled white light and pulsed fast. "A peek through the tube reveals the full picture. Yet the Dissociation Disc can reconstruct the entire array from this fragment. Truly, clashing against the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance exposes more of their secret weapons."
Li Fan felt pleased with this scouting outcome. With the Spiritwood Realm's anchor slowly relocating, early calculations from Li Fan's Dissociation Disc had borne fruit. "The Tianxuan Mirror spoke true; the grand formation is badly broken indeed."
"Right now, the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance calls upon the Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation's function to cross the starry sea, target, and haul in worlds. From how swiftly the Spiritwood Realm gets yanked along now, the array's strength is under one ten-thousandth of its prime. Still, sucking in the full Spiritwood Realm proves no challenge. Wait, no... There's something lacking still."
This marked an unprecedented snag. The Final Dissociation Disc's inference stopped abruptly by itself. Given the Disc's deep grasp of arrays, no amount of computation could build one matching the ancient Floating Starry Sky Grand Formation's role.
This solidified Li Fan's earlier theory once more. This truly isn't just a basic array. "No surprise, even with Immortal Ancestor credentials, it took ages without fixing this array fully. He had to laboriously hunt void fragments for world bits on his own," Li Fan pondered deeply.
Though he couldn't see the full array's reach, the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance wielded only its damaged might too. Following Li Fan's orders, the frantic and lost folk of the Spiritwood Realm jumped to work fast.
As an array rose across the Spiritwood Realm's terrain, an unseen wave covered the whole minor world. The Spiritwood Realm, pulled along at breakneck pace, suddenly broke its link. The quakes eased off bit by bit, until it stopped dead in some mysterious spot.
Li Fan checked the Spiritwood Realm's new spot without delay. It had jumped from the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's eastern zone to the southern one. Now it sat eerily near that massive Great Rift Vortex.
"They aim to tap the rift's innate force to smash the world outright? The Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance cooked up a sharp plan."
The Spiritwood Realm's block on the Floating Starry Sky pull stunned the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance beyond belief. Inside their ranks, rifts appeared, holding back more strikes. But Li Fan vaguely felt immortal alliance experts popping up nonstop in the nearby void, boxing in the Spiritwood Realm tight.
Daoist Hundred Flowers, the Medicine King Sect, and the rest also grasped the dire setup; their faces darkened. "This is the desperation of a trapped beast. Looks like my planning this lifetime fell short. Next round, when reforging the Spiritwood Realm hub, maybe add instant teleport for the whole small realm."
"Prior to this day, pulling that off would've been tough. But thanks to the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's show, heh..." Li Fan smirked inside. Any edge aimed at Li Fan would boomerang back a thousand times over.
"Emissary, we can't just wait anymore," Liu Ruchen said solemnly then. "The Spiritwood Realm's defenses are flawless in every way, but they won't hold forever against the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's grinding attacks. Maybe we break free and battle till the end for a faint shot at life."
"The Medicine King True Cauldron, refined over years, has grown its inner space manyfold; it ought to ferry most folks away," Fang Zaiji chimed in.
Liu Ruchen's idea won nods from nearly everyone. They all eyed the Holy Embryo Li Fan. "Save the lives and forfeit the ground: lives and ground both last; save the ground and forfeit the lives: lives and ground both gone."
"Alright, then all set for pulling out," Li Fan agreed with the team's scheme, nodding. The group boomed their assent right away and scattered.
One squad oversaw the space tunnel's mouth to fend off any Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance ambushes. The other rushed to shift the Federation of All Worlds' assets and dwellers.
Truth be told, had the Spiritwood Realm's anchor stayed put, Li Fan readied a backup of lopping off the tail for survival. Meaning, shifting to linked minor realms like the empire or Great Li. Then blasting the space tunnels.
It wouldn't fully shake the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's chase, but it'd buy a few days' delay at least. Sadly, the latest forced haul warped the Spiritwood Realm's spot. This cut all ties to affiliated minor realms.
Now, for retreat, the sole path lay in hacking through the Ten Thousand Immortal Alliance's siege with blood and fury.