Most people in the world were foolish. They only felt that the path to the heavens had reopened and that the opportunity for immortality had been restored. They believed that the ancestors had all become deities in the sky.
They thought they only needed to burn incense in their ancestral halls and shrines to receive the gaze of the immortals from above the heavens and have blessings bestowed upon their descendants...
Some were even more impatient, writing hundreds of lines in their clan registers and sect records with a flourish.
When summarized, it amounted to just eight words.
【Our clan has an immortal, ascended in broad daylight.】
Naturally, there were also those who saw through everything. Under this warm spring sun and beneath the vast, clear sky, they felt only the sorrow of the changing seasons and a sense of lonely desolation.
Chi Ji reluctantly withdrew her gaze, burying the last of her attachment deep in her heart before turning to leave. "Let’s go..."
Huang Xiao followed her, turning his head back every few steps. He looked like he wanted to say something, but in the end, nothing came out.
Just seeing him one last time was enough!
Ruan Hao took a deep drag of his dry tobacco. Amidst the clouds of smoke, his old eyes grew watery. He raised his hand, rubbed them, and muttered to himself, "I’m getting old. These eyes... they can’t take the wind anymore."
Having said that,
He stood up, patted the dust off his rear, and headed down the mountain.
On the small path deep in the mountains, this once-sturdy old man now walked with a hunched back, moving slowly and leisurely. His retreating figure projected a sense of vast emptiness, playing a melody of desolation in harmony with the wind.
His two close friends watched him leave and then looked at each other, their faces filled with helplessness.
What else could be said?
They were just three old men.
In the past, there was one who refused to admit his age, his words harder than his bones.
But today, he had personally spoken up, simply saying he was old.
"Let’s go."
"I’m heading back as well..."
Tu Kongkong turned and went down the mountain.
Xia Chu Yi played a bamboo flute against the wind.
Lin Qianqian flicked her sleeves and departed.
Zhang Yang followed her with large strides.
Wen Qingxue returned to the sect on her sword, her expression as cold and indifferent as ever.
Yao Xiaoxiao still stood in place, her eyes fixed on the sky, reluctant to leave.
Li Qingshan stood like a banished immortal, his eyes filled with sorrow. In a voice only he could hear, he whispered, "Little Junior Martial Uncle, have a safe journey..."
Among the thousands of peaks, not a sound was heard.
Everywhere across the Ancestral Peak,
Jiang Wanyin, Lei Yunche, Yao Xiqiao, Lin Fengmian, and Ye Xianyu each stood atop a mountain peak, gazing up into the spring breeze to catch a glimpse of the Heavens.
The looks in their eyes were complex,
Filled with worry,
Filled with anxiety,
And filled with prayers.
In the end, they had arrived a step too late. They had not seen the majestic Sky Gate, nor the vast Ascending Stairs, nor the youth who had stepped into the Heavens and looked back at the mortal realm.
But they knew,
That on this journey,
His path,
Would surely be fraught with all kinds of hardships.
They could not help him, and there was nothing they could do.
Old friends depart upon the wind; how many years until we meet again? If the day of our reunion ever comes, the blue seas will have turned into mulberry fields.
Would it be a hundred years?
A thousand years?
Or...
Ten thousand years!
...
Time flows backward, returning to the eve of the Sky Gate’s shattering in Fanzhou...
Cangming, Dark Realm.
The former site of the Ascension Platform in Jianzhou.
In the firmament,
The heavenly path, which had been silent for nearly ten thousand years, awakened from the gloom.
The Sky Gate hung high in the sky, connecting the immortal and mortal realms. Its golden portico reflected a brilliant golden glow.
It spilled across half the sky like a holy path of light, welcoming the immortals into this realm.
The brilliant golden glow gave birth to a divine light that dispelled the darkness and illuminated the desolation. No matter how the Breath of Darkness surged toward it, it shone alone, a brilliant galaxy unto itself.
From within the ancient high city, a deep call echoed.
"Awaken,"
"Wandering souls in the darkness,"
"By special permission today,"
"Drink to your heart’s content..."
"Hahaha!"
Arrogant laughter echoed through heaven and earth. As the voice faded and the golden glow intensified, the spirits within a ten-thousand-mile radius who were bowed in the darkness woke from their long slumber.
They broke through the desolate earth, crawling out one after another.
There were beasts as massive as mountains,
Demons as small as dogs,
Monsters with tiger heads and snake bodies,
And aberrations with eight eyes on their faces.
Their forms were varied and their appearances were strange. Some were things people had seen before, while others were entirely unknown...
If one had to find a similarity among them?
They were gaunt,
They were haggard,
And their skin was entirely grey...
They awakened at that call, turning stiffly to raise their heads. Their gazes converged on the brilliant golden glow in the very center.
This was a color that should never have existed on this continent.
They woke from their numbness and became excited amidst the deathly silence.
They were thrilled; they were hungry. It was because they smelled a long-lost vitality.
It was a fatal fragrance, the most tempting food in the world.
They were hungry,
Very, very hungry,
And they only wanted to drink to their hearts' content.
Bloodlight gradually flickered in their grey, desolate pupils. They greedily sucked in the wind and then went mad, becoming like the wind themselves as they sprinted frantically toward that light...
One,
A hundred,
A thousand,
Ten thousand,
Millions,
Like a wave,
Like a tide,
They surged forward.
The earth shook and the mountains trembled, the sound of their movement like a roaring torrent.
...
Within the golden glow of the high-hanging Sky Gate, four auroras first emerged, plummeting toward a corner of Jianzhou.
They crashed into the ground, creating four deep pits and kicking up massive clouds of dust.
Then,
Hundreds of figures were seen bathed in the golden glow, landing one after another with a series of whooshes.
North Sea demon immortals,
Saints of the Three Sects,
Ninth-stage tribulation transcendents,
Ninth-grade beast gods,
Ninth-rank demon gods,
They gathered together beneath the golden glow.
The first thing the hundreds of experts from Fanzhou felt upon entering the Upper Realm was the change in the laws of heaven and earth.
The power of space was incredibly thick. Even when they mobilized their true essence, it was difficult to manifest divine abilities.
It was as if,
In an instant, heaven and earth had placed more than one set of shackles upon them.
Their abilities were restricted.
Even when transforming into their true forms,
It was difficult to reach a thousand feet.
Even with a full-power punch,
It was hard to shatter a mountain.
They did not find this strange, for this was the Upper Realm.
The second thing they felt,
Was the cold!
An extreme cold. The air was as chilly as a thin blade, ignoring external objects and constantly slicing at their physical bodies.
This kind of cold,
They had only felt when they were young and had not yet begun cultivating.
Furthermore...
There was the visual impact. Everything their eyes could see...
Looking up,
The golden glow was indeed very bright, but compared to the entire firmament, that patch of light was ultimately just a grain of sand in the ocean. Aside from that area, as far as their eyes could see and their divine sense could reach, everything was a greyish-black.
There was no great sun, let alone stars.
Looking down,
Beneath their feet was parched frozen earth, hard as iron yet cracked everywhere.
Looking around,
They saw only desolation. There was nothing at all.
Not a single blade of grass,
Not a single tree,
Not a single drop of dew.
Nothing?
They had originally been curious why there was no snow or ice despite the cold.
It turned out there was no water.
Is this the Upper Realm?
The excitement of stepping through the immortal gate had not yet faded. Before they even had time to feel fortunate about reaching the Upper Realm unharmed, they were stunned into silence by the scenes before them.
When did the immortal world become a deathly ruin?
If this was the Upper Realm?
Then this immortality was not worth achieving!
"Fuck, what is this?"
"How can it be like this?"
"No wonder, no wonder..."
"I knew that kid was up to no good."
"I’ve seen a ghost..."
They were bewildered and confused, which led to complaints and cursing. Countless guesses and imaginings flooded their minds.
But they were not given time to adapt, let alone gather their thoughts.
They already sensed the earth beneath their feet beginning to shake.
Amidst the trembling of the mountains, they heard countless roars coming from all directions.
Following the sound,
They saw a massive, dark cloud of thick dust closing in on them.
As it drew closer,
Bloody points of light appeared, dense and numerous.
Looking closely,
It was filled with countless living beings.
Running,
Flying,
Jumping,
They were too many to count,
Like a heaven-toppling wave, like an apocalyptic tide.
The expressions of the various experts changed abruptly as they prepared for a major foe.
"What kind of monsters are those?"
"Is it a beast tide?"
"You call those beasts? Then what am I?"
"Are we surrounded?"
Their ominous premonition reached its peak; the saints' perception caught the scent of death.
Without time to sort out the causes and effects, they only knew that this was a dangerous place and they could not stay long.
To stay was certain death.
They had to take the initiative to find a way to survive.
"Let’s go!"
"Break through!"
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