The spell was a masterpiece of Illusion Dao!

It was specifically designed for defense against everything, and in Hao Gongming's opinion, it achieved perfect defense.

The spell was called "Simulation in Illusion," and it would turn a radius of 100 miles around the caster into a simulation. It was an illusion, but so masterfully crafted that it even deceived the rules of the real world, effectively blocking all external attacks.

While inside the illusion, the caster's cultivation base would regress to the 9th state, and anyone above the 10th step that the caster wished would be ejected.

This illusion could last for a long time until the rules of the real world reset and detect the illusion, causing it to dissipate.

At high cultivation levels like the 19th step, there is no "power," "qi," or "mana." It is all about utilizing the rules in one's favor.

It works in mysterious ways, and essentially, the real world is a set of rules and nothing else.

There are rules for illusion, luck, and every other dao, and mastery of these rules is recognized through titles like Grandmaster and Supreme Grandmaster.

However, there is one dao that cannot be mastered by anyone, and that is the Heavenly Dao. This dao serves as the judge for all other daos and resets every 100 years, making it impossible for anyone to fully understand its workings.

The Heavenly Dao is established by one of the rules in the real world and remains neutral. When it judges things, it must lower itself to the level of the things it judges. So when it judges the Supreme Grandmaster of Illusion Dao, it becomes the Supreme Grandmaster of Heavenly Dao that carries out the judgment.

That's why an illusion cast by a supreme grandmaster could deceive the world. It is, in fact, deceiving heavenly dao, which is tasked with enforcing some of the rules of the real world.

However, when the Heavenly Dao resets, it gains information about all the latest spells directly from the real world, instantly detecting the illusion simulation and dispelling it.

After that, the illusion simulation can no longer be used unless it undergoes significant updates.

When high-level individuals fight, it's not that they are spending mana or any other resource. They are exerting effort to craft spells that can evade the detection of the Heavenly Dao.

The Heavenly Dao of the real world is tasked with stopping anything that goes beyond the boundaries of normality. However, through the crafting of intricate and masterful spells, people can elude the detection of the Heavenly Dao.

Hao Gongming possessed reality points, giving her a significant advantage.

Reality Dao is difficult to detect in the real world, and it is relatively easy to create new spells using this dao.

Illusion Dao also has its advantages and is considered the second strongest in the real world, although its advantage is lesser compared to Reality Dao.

On the other hand, daos like Fire Dao, Plant Dao, and even Luck Dao are much easier to detect. Masters of these daos often find that their spells become ineffective after a while, forcing them to retreat, recalculate, and improve their spells for an extended period.

"It's fortunate that Homlan kept track of the Heavenly Dao reset. I can cast this spell right after the reset, and it will remain active for 100 years."

This spell is extremely passive and lacks any offensive capabilities, making it undetectable by the Heavenly Dao before a reset.

Had it been an active spell with offensive and defensive properties, it might have attracted the attention of the Heavenly Dao.

"These pieces of information are immensely helpful to me now. First, let's read all of Homlan's books." Hao Gongming embarked on a long reading journey, dedicating herself to absorbing the knowledge contained within the books.

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...

In the real world...

Hao Gongming was mistaken! When she approached other 19th steps and asked for their help in killing Homlan, they flat out refused, not even willing to provide an answer, let alone assist her.

It was clear that they harbored a strong dislike for her, to the point where the temptation of reaching the 20th step was insufficient to sway them.

Alone, she couldn't defeat Homlan without bending the rules, which would cost her the majority of the reality points she had accumulated over billions of years.

She was not willing, so thousands of years passed without making any progress.

For those at the 19th step, even millions of years is like the blink of an eye, so a few thousand years were but a fleeting moment.

Hao Gongming grew increasingly frustrated. She was investing a vast majority of her reality points into her secret project, which explained why she had so few reality points left after billions of years.

"But that's the right move! When that project is completed, I will be invincible in the truest sense, and all these bubble worlds, simulations, and the outside world will become irrelevant."

Her secret project involves using reality points to create a genuine, true world. This world is shaped by her reality points, governed by her laws, and completely separate from the nonsensical realms beyond.

In her world, there is no Illusion Dao, Luck Dao, or any other Dao except for Reality Dao.

According to her research, it is these other daos that contribute to instability and the creation of bubble worlds. If only Reality Dao existed, then all bubble worlds would be real.

Hao Gongming harbored a particular disdain for Illusion Dao. She believed it to be incredibly destabilizing and responsible for much of the nonsensical nature of bubble worlds.

The real world she was constructing resided in a separate dimension and was completely undetectable. To ensure its undetectability, she invested a significant number of reality points.

Now, her world remained hidden from everyone except herself, unreachable by anything, even illusion.

Once she completed her own world, she planned to leave this nonsensical place and never return.

In fact, she had already finished creating her real world and was in the process of fine-tuning and ensuring everything was done correctly. The final step would involve breaking one of the rules of real world and exiting this world without a space crack.

Space cracks appeared once every trillion years and persisted for 1 million years.

They were one-sided, allowing nothing from the outside to enter or affect the real world through them.

Homlan had briefly poked her head outside and wasn't protected by this rule.

It wasn't that Hao Gongming lacked patience; rather, she feared the unknown circumstances outside. She was unwilling to spend even a moment there.

In the real world, despite its problems, she felt completely safe. The outside world was different and unrestricted, so encountering beings at the 100th step wouldn't be strange at all.

"After all, these steps are nothing but nonsense and distractions. In reality, the steps are endless. You could reach the 10,000,000,000th step and there would still be more, because it's all fake."

Hao Gongming possessed extensive knowledge about the nature of everything, thanks to an inheritance left by the creator that she obtained early on.

The knowledge contained in that inheritance was priceless and opened her eyes to the truth of the world. She knew who the creator was and why this world was created. She understood that all these steps lead to nowhere. She knew about space cracks and why they appear. She held knowledge that nobody else possessed. This was the reason she didn't pay much attention to increasing her strength in the real world and instead spent almost all her reality points on creating her own world.

"I hope everything remains stagnant for another billion years so that I can escape from this place and all its nonsense," she expressed, gazing at her luck with deep concern.

"Why is my luck so dark and black? Who poses such a threat to me?" Her luck was incredibly negative, even bearing the danger of death.

She sighed and expended a significant portion of her reality points to calculate the source of this danger. Luck Dao alone couldn't provide an accurate assessment as the danger level reached the realm of the supreme grandmaster.

After a while, she closed her eyes and reopened them with disbelief. "That rebellious clone!"

...

1000 years later, in the Soil World

"Finally, it's finished!" Hao Gongming exclaimed.

After reading all of Homlan's memories, she learned so much about everything, acquiring numerous spells from various daos.

Homlan was a peak supreme grandmaster in Earth, Illusion, and Soul Dao.

However, she was also quasi supreme grandmaster in Reality Dao, Luck Dao, Pill Dao, Worn Dao, Fire Dao, Water Dao, Egg Dao, Reproduction Dao, Plant Dao, Rock Dao, Metal Dao, Space Dao, and Time Dao.

As for Great Grandmaster and lower levels, there were too many to count.

However, anything below the supreme grandmaster level is essentially useless in fights within the 19th realm, so their usefulness is limited despite their appearances.

Nonetheless, Hao Gongming had acquired numerous spells across various subjects, giving her a real chance at fighting her real body, or so she believed.

However, she still had no idea about the strength of her real body, so she hadn't yet made plans to go to the real world.

Her first step was to contact all the other 19th steps and form alliances with them.

According to Homlan's memories, her real body had strained relationships with almost everyone outside her harem. This meant it might be possible to convince other 19th steps to assist her in killing her real body.

After all, she too was human, and eliminating her real body wouldn't pose a problem, as she could assume the role of the 19th step among the human race.

"Okay, let's begin sending emissaries," Hao Gongming smiled