Xu Ying looked at the young nobleman, dressed in white robes with darkened brows just as before. Though disguised as a young man, the fine hair stirred by the mountain wind drifted past her ears toward Xu Ying, graceful and elegant.
Just moments ago, Nuo Ancestor Nuo Lu had severed all connections between the Jade Pool cave-heavens and the Jade Void Palace, preventing Xu Ying and the others from sensing any Jade Pool cave-heaven or establishing a connection with the outside world.
However, Xu Ying had suddenly sensed a familiar cave-heaven—Yuan Weiyang's Jade Pool cave-heaven.
The two had previously cultivated the Yuan Dao Heavens Induction together. Their perceptive powers far exceeded ordinary people and resonated with each other, allowing Xu Ying to establish a link with that Jade Pool cave-heaven and lead everyone out of the Jade Void Palace.
It was also because of Yuan Weiyang that Xu Ying's divine sense had been magnified many times in that moment, allowing him to see that the Jade Void Palace was situated upon the other shore of the Jade Pool, formed naturally with Dao imagery.
A warm surge rose in Xu Ying's chest, rushing up to his throat and dissolving into a laugh. "How large a betrothal gift does one need to marry the head of the Yuan clan?"
Yuan Weiyang recalled the past, an unconscious smile gracing her lips. That had been the moment of their parting, when this youth had called out loudly to her, asking what betrothal gift was required to marry the head of the Yuan clan.
Once, they had believed the perils before them could never be crossed, the hardships before them never resolved.
She had thought the Yuan family was on the verge of ruin, facing a clan that could never be revived. Xu Ying had also thought the hurdles before him could never be surmounted, that he would be controlled forever by Beichenzi or Xu Fu.
Yet looking back today, only a few years later, all of it had passed.
Yuan Weiyang smiled and beckoned to him. "If there is love, nothing is needed at all."
Xu Ying stepped forward. Uncle Xiao moved across to block him from Yuan Weiyang, but Xu Ying swept him aside with a wave of his hand.
"Uncle Xiao, out of the way!"
"I bought a lot of rouge; Lord Qi is holding onto it," Xu Ying told Yuan Weiyang.
"We can try without rouge," Yuan Weiyang replied.
Qingluan spread her wings, shielding Feng Xian'er's eyes, and said with a solemn expression, "Little birds shouldn't watch."
"Are they feeding each other?" Feng Xian'er poked her head out from between the wings, asking curiously. "Eww, they're even sticking out their tongues!"
Qingluan shoved the little head right back in.
The Son of Heaven of Zhou gazed up at the sky, his expression grave as he murmured, "If our group entering the Jade Void Palace was a motley crowd, then what do these people count as?"
The immortal palaces and halls upon the six other shores had yielded fifty-four Immortal Ascension Pills. Counting Xu Fu, fifty-four ascending powerhouses were riding the multicolored rays of ascension light, ascending into another space-time!
Upon the divine mountains of Kunlun, countless eyes looked upward. Whether Qi Refiners, Nuo Masters, or Nuo Immortals, all were moved to tears, overcome with emotion.
This was ascension—the legendary ascension, the ascension they had dreamed of their entire lives!
Right before their eyes, fifty-four powerhouses were about to ascend to the Immortal Realm!
"The Heavenly Road is severed. How the hell can they ascend?" Qingluan scoffed.
Yet Xu Fu and the others were indeed being guided by immortal light. Above them, a legendary scene unfolded as the firmament split open to reveal the space-time of the Immortal Realm.
At this moment, everyone saw the splendid colors of the Immortal Realm. Immortal radiance draped down like ribbons, auspicious mist billowed, and the Dao sounds echoing from that world were so clear and penetrating that one's very soul felt as if it were ascending.
"Fifty-four True Immortals ascending amidst the radiant clouds—this sight shall be sung of for ages to come!"
A youth in yellow cried out in wild excitement, "The severance of the road to ascension will become history! From this day forth, Kunlun's grand tri-millennial ascension ceremony will be the most watched spectacle in the myriad realms!"
A girl in purple said, "Three thousand years from now, Kunlun will welcome experts from all heavens and myriad worlds! Everyone will wait here for the immortal pills to mature, waiting for the ascension that comes once every three thousand years!"
"Hahahaha! Daoist Qinghe, can you even live another three thousand years?"
"Hahaha! Feng Chaoyang, if you can live three thousand years, so can I! I'll certainly outlive you!"
Filled with boundless ambition, someone laughed aloud, "Three thousand years from now, atop Kunlun's summit, we shall meet again!"
"There is no share for me in today's ascension, but three thousand years from today, I will be the protagonist!"
"Aba aba aba aba!"
The resounding cry echoed across Kunlun. Without even looking, everyone knew it had to be Pavilion Master Lin of the Penglai Pavilion, that fellow with grass growing on his head—most likely rendered speechless by excitement, which was why he was babbling non-stop.
"Three thousand years from now, the world will belong to Lord Niu Qi!" Beside Pavilion Master Lin, a giant snake declared with inexpressible excitement.
"...And Lord Bell's world!" The giant snake glanced fearfully at the large bell beside him and added.
"...And Lord Grass's world!" Feeling something was still lacking, the snake added yet again.
The onlookers pulled back their gazes, sneering disdainfully. They were the sect masters and headmasters of various sects, holding high status and immortal legacies; in the future, they were destined to become the mightiest beings in the world. What damn background did this giant snake have to think it was worthy of competing with them for future ascension?
The Son of Heaven of Zhou looked at these high-spirited youths, thinking to himself, However excited they are now is likely how terrified they will be shortly.
He had already anticipated what Xu Fu would do.
Yan Kongcheng also looked up at the sky, his expression a mixture of excitement and dejection. He suddenly asked, "Patriarch Qingshuang, you had the strength to seize an Immortal Ascension Pill. Why didn't you make a move?"
Beside him, Patriarch Qingshuang, Qiao Zizhong, had a wooden expression. Looking up at the fifty-four ascending figures, he said softly, "Patience, Sect Master. Wait a little longer. Just wait a little longer."
Yan Kongcheng, frustrated by his lack of ambition, lamented bitterly, "It's all because you're too cautious! If you wait this time, you'll have to wait until Kunlun reopens three thousand years from now! One delay means waiting three thousand more years to ascend!"
Qiao Zizhong remained unperturbed. "Sect Master, I have already waited for over twenty thousand years; waiting another three thousand makes no difference to me. Besides, if we wait a little longer, you and Mount Emei can grow stronger. It won't be too late for me to ascend then."
Yan Kongcheng felt touched, yet still somewhat regretful.
Partway up the mountain, Zulong raised his head to look at the fifty-four ascending figures. He neither frowned nor lamented; instead, he continued pacing out and measuring Kunlun's Jade Void Peak.
"Why didn't you try to seize an immortal pill, Zulong?" Feng Yao asked, having suppressed her injuries. "With your strength, seizing a pill would have been effortless, and you could have ascended amidst the clouds as well."
Zulong did not look back, replying indifferently, "When We cross the tribulation, We will not rely on immortal pills. We will face the Heavenly Tribulation head-on, face the Heavenly Dao head-on, shatter the Heavenly Tribulation, and smash the Heavenly Dao before ascending! To ascend by relying on immortal pills makes one a weakling even upon reaching the Immortal Realm. What is more..."
He looked up toward the immortal mountain among the fifty-four figures, where Xu Fu stood, and sneered, "If Xu Fu is ascending, there is bound to be foul play."
With resolute strides, he vanished from Feng Yao's sight.
Feng Yao looked up, her gaze falling upon Xu Fu. When the Nuo ancestors' immortal pills were appearing, Xu Fu had approached her in the paddy fields and told her that he was certain he could drive out the six Nuo ancestors and return Kunlun to the Undying People.
That was why Feng Yao had brought Qingluan to help Xu Fu and escort them to the Jade Void Palace.
What had happened inside the Jade Void Palace, what Xu Ying and the others had discovered, and from where they had departed the Jade Void Palace—Feng Yao knew none of it.
For a single promise from Xu Fu, she had allowed her Jade Pool cave-heaven to be severed by Nuo Ancestor Nuo Lu, damaging her cultivation. The price she paid had been anything but small.
Now, seeing Xu Fu ascend, she could not help but feel conflicted and anxious.
Qingluan, Xu Ying, where are you right now? she murmured in her heart.
Xu Ying held Yuan Weiyang's hand as they walked across a stretch of ruins. These ruins were Xujiaping; the fire had left its scars, reducing it to scorched earth and rubble.
Xujiaping had been built on Jade Void Peak, not far from the summit. It had once been a stronghold of the Undying People, but its former appearance was now completely vanished.
Walking upon this ancestral soil, Xu Ying recalled what he had seen at the Wangxiang Platform. His memories were clear at times and hazy at others—the work of the seal on his memories, preventing him from remembering his homeland and ancestral ground.
All memories of his first life were sealed extraordinarily tightly, only occasionally allowing him glimpses of fleeting fragments from the past.
They came to the entrance of the ruins. Xu Ying saw signs of excavation; the gateway that once stood outside Xujiaping had been broken into dozens of pieces and buried by time.
Now, the gateway had been dug up from the ruins and pieced together in its entirety. Carved upon it were the words "Xujiaping."
Evidently, Yuan Weiyang and Uncle Xiao had cleared this gateway bit by bit from the ruins.
Xu Ying turned around, looking at the ruins behind him. "Back then, I ran from right here... I ran and ran."
Xu Ying looked down the stone road leading out of the settlement, a road that headed down the mountain. All around had been raging fire and towering giants swinging butcher blades. He had fled through the sea of flames, the roar of fire whistling in his ears alongside crumbling walls.
Massive corpses had continually collapsed, severed heads piled like mountains. It was a nightmarish scene—the vision he had witnessed on the Wangxiang Platform. Yet as he recalled it, that vision also began to blur.
A bizarre force crept in, carrying the scent of incense, causing his recollections of the past to grow increasingly faint.
Where were his parents?
Where were father and mother?
Had they escaped Kunlun, or had they fallen in battle here?
"Yuan Tiangang said that my parents possessed immense magical power and had calculated that I would look for them from the Wangxiang Platform in the future, so they pointed out the path to life on the Wangxiang Platform for me. Yuan Tiangang thought that happened only a few years ago, not knowing..."
Xu Ying's face darkened with melancholy. The flight of the Undying People from Mount Kunlun had taken place forty-eight thousand years ago. That guidance shown on the Wangxiang Platform was perhaps an act of pointing the way forty-eight thousand years ago.
If his parents possessed such magical power that they could see into the future, were they still alive?
Xu Ying pursed his lips. Perhaps not, because Feng Yao had told him that the lifespan of the Undying People was thirty-six thousand years. Even if his parents had escaped Mount Kunlun alive, it was impossible for them to have survived until today.
He looked out over this scorched earth, his mind adrift in confusion. Why had Xujiaping suffered this attack? Why had there been such a catastrophe?
"Weiyang, how did you find this place?" Xu Ying cast aside the turbulent thoughts in his heart and asked.
Yuan Weiyang stood beside him at his shoulder, looking up toward the summit of Jade Void Peak. "Someone told me that the summit of Jade Void Peak is where the Yellow Emperor rode a dragon to ascend. After the Yellow Emperor's ascension, a group of people was ordered to remain in Kunlun to guard this ancestral land. Whenever successive Great Emperors ascended the throne, they would journey to Kunlun to offer sacrifices to their ancestors. The people stationed here were known as the Undying People, and they received the successive Great Emperors. These Undying People worshipped Mount Kunlun as a deity, Jade Bead Peak in the west as the Queen Mother of the West, the mountain of nine heads as Kaiming, and the mountain of nine tails as Lu Wu."
Xu Ying felt a stir in his heart. Perhaps he was a descendant of those who had stayed behind to guard Kunlun's ancestral land; perhaps they were a group of people surnamed Xu who had settled on Mount Kunlun.
"That person told me he encountered the six Nuo ancestors on Mount Kunlun, and they didn't look like good people. He also once excavated the words 'Xujiaping' from the ruins."
Yuan Weiyang gazed up at the mountaintop with a look of reverence and said, "The person who told me this came to Kunlun alone three thousand years ago, during that era of great upheaval. He survived the Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth and the Great Purge, but fell into an ambush and pursuit by heavenly gods here. He carved his way out of the encirclement and reached the summit, where the Yellow Emperor ascended."
Xu Ying suddenly remembered that divine martial arts figure from the Taichu World who had founded the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. "Could it be the Martial Dao Great Emperor?"
Yuan Weiyang said, "He established himself in Kunlun, yearning to ascend. He attempted to break through the limits of the martial dao and strike into the void, opening an ultimate pure land beyond the six other shores, known as the Other Shore of the Martial Dao."
Xu Ying asked, "Then did he succeed?"
Yuan Weiyang shook her head. "He did not fully succeed."
Xu Ying did not understand. "If he didn't succeed, then how did you meet him?"
Yuan Weiyang said, "I sensed all heavens and myriad worlds, and within the void, I sensed an other shore. A Dao was blended within it, brimming with lofty fighting spirit, unyielding and haughty, vast and profound. When I touched that other shore, I encountered that senior's will and established an induction with him. He said that only by ascending to become an immortal could he completely forge that other shore. Unfortunately, he failed his tribulation and lacked the strength to continue opening it."
Xu Ying was startled, blurting out, "He failed the tribulation, yet he's still alive?"
Yuan Weiyang nodded gently. "He crossed the tribulation on the Other Shore of the Martial Dao, yet he still failed, though he did not die. He struck into the void from the site of the Yellow Emperor's ascension to try to open the Other Shore of the Martial Dao. My purpose in coming here was to proceed to the temporary palace left behind after the Yellow Emperor's ascension, sense the Other Shore of the Martial Dao from there, and guide the path for his return."
Xu Ying steadied his mind. That this Martial Dao Great Emperor had survived crossing the tribulation and needed Yuan Weiyang to guide him back meant his injuries were likely extraordinarily severe.
A being who survived the Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth and the Great Purge three thousand years ago, who withstood the pursuit of the Heavenly Dao and clashed against the six Nuo ancestors—a Martial Dao Great Emperor who could remain alive even after taking the Heavenly Tribulation head-on! In terms of martial prowess, he could truly be called the number one in the world! Xu Ying felt a surge of emotion.
Yuan Weiyang walked toward the mountaintop. "Ahead lies the site of the Yellow Emperor's ascension. When I arrived here and remembered Xujiaping, Uncle Xiao and I dug downward, and sure enough, we found that gateway."
Suddenly, waves of clamor drifted up from the foot of the mountain, and someone shouted aloud, "They've become immortals! They've become immortals!"
Xu Ying looked up to see fifty-four beams of radiant ascension light trailing down from the sky. At the far end of the radiance, the Immortal Realm was slowly closing, and the fifty-four figures, including Xu Fu, had already vanished into it.
Yuan Weiyang lifted her head. "There's something wrong with this ascension. I noticed something was amiss just now. Ah Ying, do you remember our attempt at Heaven-Human Induction in the grand tomb of Mount Li?"
Xu Ying felt a stir. "You mean..."
"The aura is very similar," Yuan Weiyang said.
Partway up the mountain, Zulong, who was pacing out Kunlun, also halted his steps. Raising his head to look up, he murmured in surprise, "This aura..."
In the sky, the Immortal Realm vanished completely, and the fifty-four beams of ascension light began to tremble violently. Suddenly, the sky tore open with a resounding boom—a tearing shriek accompanied by the trembling of the divine mountains of Kunlun. The firmament ripped apart, laying bare a floating abyss of unfathomable depth!
The fifty-four immortals who had just ascended floated silently within the abyss.
The Immortal Realm that the gathered crowds had seen moments ago did not exist at all. Behind the fifty-four immortals was an immense eye—a grotesque, colossal eye that filled the entire abyss.
Upon Mount Kunlun, the people who had been cheering an instant ago froze in shock.
Six Nuo ancestors flew out from that grotesque eye; as if oblivious to the scene, they walked toward the fifty-four immortals. Nuo Ancestor Nuo Yang chuckled, "Quite a few took the bait this time, all of them big fish. Once we harvest the immortal medicine from their bodies, we should be able to ascend, shouldn't we?"
Their voices drifted clearly from within the abyss, resounding across the entire mountain.
Chapter 251