Chapter 74 Tianyan, what are you talking about?
“Uh uh uh…Ahhh!!!”
The veins on the jade doll's neck were bulging, and his expression was ferocious, as if he was enduring unbearable pain!
The raging flames, like heavenly fire, enveloped her defenselessly in an instant. Just a light brush from Chu Sheng's fingertips caused them to burn to an astonishingly high temperature!
The unusual movement here was so obvious that it alarmed the existence in the magnificent city in the distance, so soon someone rushed towards this side.
"The city lord said there were guests today. It turns out that a strange person came to visit."
The man had a high nose, deep eyes, red skin and brown pupils. He was wearing fairy-like clothes, and his appearance seemed very different from that of an ordinary person.
He stretched out his hand easily and immediately controlled the fire on the jade doll, preventing it from spreading outwards.
"I am Brahma Palace, gentlemen."
The man who called himself Fan Gong was surrounded by a very powerful aura, and spoke to Chu Sheng and others.
"——My Lord invites you."
On the other side, Hong Jingtian.
Yuan Qi would rather be dreaming than looking at each other with Gui Xuan, at a loss.
"Why are you here?"
"Why can't I?" The first acquaintance she met was not Chu Sheng, but Yuan Qi, whom she didn't care about at all. Gui Xuan's face instantly turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.
"I haven't asked you yet, what good deeds have you done to make Zhongnan Dao Sect shamelessly coax so many people into exploring the ancient ruins?"
"I'm not... Never mind, there's no point in telling you." Yuan Qi twirled the feathers of his whisk with a rare hint of anxiety. "Besides you, who else came in with you?"
"Chu Sheng, Qi An, Ya Ge..." Every time Gui Xuan announced a name, Yuan Qi's face became darker, until finally, he could no longer bear it and shouted to stop.
"It's rare to find such a complete group of people on the Tianjiao Ranking, but now everyone is here. You really are..."
"Why? Where did this huge trap come from? Not only did they trap the Zhongnan Dao Sect's leader, but they also asked us to fill it?"
Gui Xuan was already in a bad mood after separating from Chu Sheng and the others, and after hearing Yuan Qi's subconscious answer, her expression became even more unfriendly.
"Everyone's already here. What's the point of you saying this now? Why don't you just tell me what's going on?"
Yuan Qi, who stepped into this ancient relic, originally planned to do something that would amaze everyone after breaking through the Spirit Transformation Stage.
Among a certain group of people, the fact that Yuan Qi and Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella shared their souls and cultivation was not a deeply hidden secret.
In the Tianjiao List, Yuan Qi urged the ancestor of the Yuan family to take action, successfully exchanging one for one and causing some of the souls in the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella to lose their memories, while he retained all his knowledge of the Tianjiao List.
The ancestor of the Yuan family and the supreme elder of the Zhongnan Taoist Sect were originally fellow disciples, but unlike the one who escaped to Penglai Fairy Island and achieved half-a-step ascension, the ancestor of the Yuan family was obsessed with the inheritance of his family, almost to the point of being obsessed.
The ancestor of the Yuan family always believed that the reason why he was different from his ancestors and failed to successfully ascend was not because there was any flaw in his Tao, but because he did not have as good original bloodline as the Supreme Elder and the Half-Step Ascension.
He was obsessed with obtaining a child with the most perfect bloodline, and finally successfully manipulated the younger generation of his family to obtain the perfect bloodline that could be said to be chosen by heaven, and named him Qi.
Qi means grand. This simple name contains the Yuan family ancestor's unspoken earnest expectations.
This is the most perfect heir, the one with the greatest hope of ascending to heaven in many years, the Qilin child of the Yuan family, the true heir of the Zhongnan Dao Sect...
In order for this young boy, who carries the dreams and aspirations of countless people, to achieve enlightenment, the ancestor of the Yuan family is willing to stake his life and everything to support him!
However, what the Yuan family ancestor did not know was that this was not Yuan Qi’s first life.
Yuan Qi didn't remember how many times he had been reincarnated, but he knew that he had ascended to the upper realm in the past.
The characteristics of the great Dao he practiced caused Yuan Qi to fall into endless reincarnation.
The long reincarnation goes on and on, over and over again, and from beginning to end, I can't see where the flag of the end is waiting. It's like a koi fish living in a small closed pond, which can never swim to the end of the world.
Yuan Qi was fed up with this kind of life. He felt that this life was a chosen one, and perhaps he could try for some different results.
For example, taking an unconventional approach and performing some extraordinary training, and then ascending to heaven at the fastest speed.
Try to grasp the highest power and explore what kind of irresistible force has caused him, who has ascended to become an immortal countless times, to still be trapped in this cycle again and again.
Perhaps, calling Yuan Qi a cultivator who has gone completely crazy is not an inappropriate description.
According to Yuan Qi's original prediction, after breaking through to the Spirit Transformation Stage, he should have merged with the other self in the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella.
The combined might of his two divine bodies, combined with the immense spiritual energy within the ancient ruins, was enough to allow him to break through the bottleneck from the divine stage to the Mahayana stage...
In every past life that Yuan Qi could remember, he did this without exception.
But he failed.
——Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella, no, another Yuan Qi.
The other Yuan Qi, after integrating the almost immortal-like power within this ancient relic, broke through to the point where he was only a thin sheet of paper away from reaching the Mahayana stage...
He flatly rejected his call to merge the two into one.
This brief fragment of humanity, which should have been the last to betray him and should have naturally welcomed the end when everything was about to come to an end, dealt Yuan Qi a heavy blow at the most critical moment.
Yuan Qi was not angry about it.
Rather, after regaining his past memories in the Tianjiao Ranking, he actually didn't care about failing to ascend once, twice, or even more times.
The Yuan family ancestor's obsession with ascending to heaven, which was almost engraved into his flesh and blood, was a destined path for Yuan Qi. It did not require much extra attention and he could easily achieve results.
What surprised Yuan Qi even more was that compared to the betrayal of the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella, there was actually another completely different and very unexpected thinking process summarized by this half-body.
The independent Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella was wondering if this frequent and uncontrolled cycle of reincarnation represented the original ascension process...
Or in other words, what is not normal about the process of attaining enlightenment?
The consciousness of the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella belongs to the branch split from Yuan Qi's soul. There is no possibility of it covering the origin in any way. Even if it resists separation for a while, it will eventually merge into one, so Yuan Qi is not worried.
Since they both came from the same origin and were connected in spirit, they knew each other's thoughts very well, so they had no intention of necessarily convincing each other.
Yuan Qi was not in a hurry to use the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella to verify his guess. He stayed in the ruins almost leisurely, treating it as a rare opportunity to relax, but Gui Xuan's appearance interrupted his originally slow progress.
"In the ancient ruins, the rich spiritual energy will awaken unwilling ghosts and images of powerful cultivators who once moved there.
Based on my clues, I can infer that this is the fragment that was closest to the sky in the past.
According to records in ancient books, this should be the place where the innate creatures called the God Lord once practiced and lived, and Hongjingtian is the name given to it by later generations.
In order to avoid triggering the images of the ancient innate beings, I have done my best not to disrupt the energy flow here."
Yuan Qi held his forehead with his hand, almost sighing.
"During this period of time, Tianyan and I have maintained a delicate balance in this ancient ruin.
As the main body, I am immortal, but Tian Yan will eventually wither. I originally wanted to wait patiently until the day he gave up, which would be the moment when my Dao body would be fully developed. But now..."
Guixuan understood.
The waiting progress bar is 100% complete, because the sudden intervention of Zhongnan Taoist Sect has pushed them to join the demon clan, magic cultivators and others in entering, which may cause new changes in the time that has been solidified in the ancient ruins.
Guixuan laughed angrily.
The medical practitioner, unable to bear it any longer, took out a terrifying pill that would make anyone want to retreat at the sight of it, and threw it fiercely at Yuan Qi's face.
"Then why don't you take me to find Chu Sheng and the others quickly! Be careful that she gives the Golden Lotus of Creation to the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella, and you will become the nutrients that the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella is about to absorb!"
Yuan Qi subconsciously dodged the pill thrown by Gui Xuan.
The leader of Zhongnan Taoist Sect was very shocked. Gui Xuan, as a weak medical practitioner, would actually do such an extreme thing. Even the tone of his questioning seemed a little hesitant.
"Guixuan, you..."
"Chu Sheng...I seemed to hear someone saying her name?"
A dragon that looked suspiciously familiar suddenly popped its head out from the sky.
Long Jiao had no idea that he had interrupted the conversation. His pair of animal eyes as big as lanterns looked at Yuan Qi and Gui Xuan very seriously.
"—Where on earth is that woman Chu Sheng?!"
Before Yuan Qi could remember who this familiar black dragon was, Gui Xuan had already narrowed her eyes dangerously.
"What do you want to do with Chu Sheng?"
Xuan Ming exhaled from the kiss, his tone firm. "Find her to have a baby! She will definitely give birth to the best bloodline—"
Gui Xuan didn't wait for the stupid dragon to finish speaking, and quickly threw another pill into the dragon's open mouth.
“Pulse… gurgle gurgle… drink, drink!… Damn human, what did you feed me?!”
Xuan Ming was caught off guard and a pill was stuffed into his mouth.
It wanted to open its mouth and spit out the pill, but Gui Xuan was a highly accomplished medical practitioner, so the pills he made naturally melted in the mouth.
So in just a moment, the elixir turned into a warm current and flowed into Long Jiao's dantian. Before Long Jiao was about to get angry, Gui Xuan spoke.
"I am Chu Sheng's friend. What I gave you was naturally a nourishing medicine. You are receiving such a benefit, but you don't keep your mouth shut. Do you think it is glorious?" The medical cultivator rolled his eyes in a very unhappy manner.
When Xuan Ming heard this, he felt an unbearable heat all over his body. He looked left and right and happened to see the dark ice sea not far away.
The place that others avoid is the best happy home for a water-type dragon like him.
Relying on his half-step divine cultivation, he could almost sweep away everyone who stepped into the ancient ruins, so Xuanming threw himself into the sea in the form of a dragon without hesitation.
Cool!
Xuan Ming exhaled a breath of relief. The dark, icy sea was vast and encompassing. The ice fragments that people avoided were just the right amount of tickling for him. Floating in it was like swimming freely in a mother's warm amniotic fluid...
This overly comfortable feeling made Long Jiao Xuan Ming's brain go blank. He completely forgot that Long Jiao was an egg-laying snake and there was no such thing as giving birth to live young or in amniotic fluid.
In this atmosphere that made Jiao drowsy, Xuan Ming even forgot what he had originally planned to do and just relaxed completely in the dark ice sea.
"Ah, this is from the Dharma Cultivation Competition..."
Yuan Qi finally remembered where he had seen this dragon, but it was no use remembering it now.
Gui Xuan, who had solved the problem of the demon king with a pill containing a little poison, had already put her hands in her sleeves and was looking at him in a speechless manner.
"Okay, stop talking nonsense. Are we going to leave or not?"
He did not lie to the demon king. For a dragon with water-attribute toxins, a pill with a slight poison was not only a great tonic, but also allowed him to completely immerse himself in the ecstatic hallucinogenic feeling brought by the toxin.
As for making Long Jiao forget what he originally planned to do...
To put it bluntly, it was the dragon himself who had no brains. What did it have to do with a weak, pitiful, helpless, yet kind-hearted medical practitioner like him? He was just considerate and gave the other party a pill!
Yuan Qi has broken through to the Spirit Transformation Stage and can fight dragons and Jiao head-on without fear.
However, because he couldn't remember who the other party was for a moment, Gui Xuan, a Nascent Soul stage medical cultivator, took the initiative. The Zhongnan Dao Sect's leader fell silent subtly: "..."
It seems that he has once again been openly despised by the Young Master of Liangyi Valley. Not sure, let's wait and see.
Yuan Qi made a straightforward decision: "Let's go."
Since the plan has been disrupted, it doesn't matter whether it is balanced or not.
Yuan Qi quickly calmed down and decided to take Gui Xuan with him to find the location of the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella, as well as Chu Sheng and others who might have been taken away by the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella.
He was not worried about the situation of Chu Sheng and others.
The consciousness within the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella carries all of Yuan Qi's desires and aspirations in his life.
Even if it has no memory of the list of geniuses, it recognizes the identities of this group of people and will not do anything too outrageous to them.
Yuan Qi was only worried about one thing.
Considering how the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella unexpectedly got close to Junior Sister Chu Sheng before... it shouldn't do anything to Junior Sister Chu Sheng, right?
On the other side, the city lord, who had the same face as Yuan Qi, was furious without any demeanor of an immortal.
"——A bunch of guys who are more likely to cause trouble than to accomplish anything!"
"Your Majesty, please calm down!"
Everyone bowed their heads. Brahma happened to step in at this moment. Seeing that everyone was afraid to breathe, he was in a dilemma for a moment.
"Brahma?" The city lord had already discovered Brahma's whereabouts. He raised his eyes and asked in a cold voice.
"What happened?"
"Your Majesty..." Brahma hesitated, "The person you ordered has been brought back."
The city lord's face turned from anger to joy, as if the sky had cleared up after the rain.
"Is this true? Why don't you bring her here quickly——"
Before he finished speaking, he belatedly remembered that there was a large group of people kneeling in front of him, and frowned slightly.
Brahma, observing his expression and deducing his thoughts, immediately shouted to the crowd, "You all heard it, right? Why don't you retreat? Are you trying to stop the City Lord from reminiscing with an old friend?"
Everyone left in a timid manner, and Brahma also bowed and took his leave. Then a moment later, Chu Sheng stepped into the hall.
To be honest, this is a very familiar place. In Chu Sheng's memory, there seemed to be such a magnificent palace at the end of the sky guarded by the gods in ancient times.
She raised her eyes, looked at the city lord in front of her who had the same face as Yuan Qi, and called out without stopping.
"Tian Yan?"
The city lord's originally unfathomable expression froze.
Chu Sheng blinked, and the familiar rune rules rotated in her eyes.
Although she couldn't quite understand why the Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella, as an umbrella, couldn't be retracted into its original form by Yuan Qi at this moment...
After all, from Chu Sheng's perspective, Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella's current cultivation level has far surpassed that of ordinary people in the Spirit Transformation Stage.
But even a guess can be made with one's toes that this must be related to the leader of Zhongnan Taoist Sect.
After Chu Sheng revealed the other party's true identity, he looked around naturally and then gave his evaluation calmly.
"Are you studying how to communicate with the Heavenly Dao?"
“…You do know.”
Tian Yan's originally icy expression brightened visibly. "Junior Sister Chu Sheng, what else do you know?"
Chu Sheng looked at Tian Yan's expression and blinked.
"Something seems a little off about you. Senior Brother Yuan Qi isn't the one considering this sort of thing, but you're the one putting it into practice?"
"What difference does it make whether it's me or him?" Tian Yan spoke in an exceptionally cold tone when mentioning Yuan Qi.
"In the end, whether my consciousness prevails or his consciousness commands the subject, it is ultimately the same person...especially when it comes to matters of mutual concern."
Chu Sheng seemed to be lost in thought.
"Shouldn't the question you all care about be how to ascend?"
Tianyan Demon-Suppressing Umbrella had an unexpectedly high degree of recognition for Chu Sheng, and told her without hesitation about his speculations about ascension.
"I am a person of innate wisdom, possessing memories of countless reincarnations. Unlike Qi An, I have successfully ascended to the sky after every reincarnation..."
Chu Sheng really wanted to ask why Senior Brother Qi An also sounded like a cultivator who had reincarnated for many lifetimes, but this was obviously not the important thing at the moment.
Therefore, she swallowed the question that was already on the tip of her tongue and chose to continue listening to Tian Yan.
“I have used many methods to ascend, but I didn’t fully grasp these memories until I was on the Tianjiao Ranking.
The commonly used methods include taking some rare treasures to break through the bottleneck directly, or taking elixirs to ascend directly, which are all the paths I have taken to ascend.
Among countless choices, I also tried to enter the demonic path and ascend to become one of the many demons of the previous generation.
He had even tried several times to reach the orthodox Emperor Stage, and had read the Mysterious Stone beside the Heavenly Stage many times, trying to overcome the thunder tribulation of ascension...
I tried everything I could think of, but I couldn't help but end up in a new cycle."
"I thought about it for a long time, but I couldn't figure it out. I couldn't understand why I ended up like this. Until I met you, Chu Sheng."
Tian Yan walked closer to Chu Sheng step by step.
"You made me feel familiar the first time we met. Even though this part of my consciousness should only be close to my current life, I still chose to help you...
At first, I couldn't figure out why, but now I have a guess."
He held Chu Sheng's shoulders, looked into those dark eyes that seemed to hide whirlpools, and asked in a complicated tone.
"Chu Sheng, are you really just a ruthless cultivator, rather than the incarnation of some higher being, who is invisibly encouraging countless people to approach you, and even help you achieve certain goals?"
Chu Sheng's face was stunned.
"Tianyan, what are you talking about?"
She stared at him, her expression showing pure doubt that didn't seem fake, and a bright red flower bloomed between her eyebrows.
"It's true that I'm a cultivator of the Wuqing Dao, but I'm also a core disciple of the Hehuan Sect. Is it a problem that I have close relationships with many fellow Taoists?"
Tian Yan was dazzled by the red flowers, and then he slowly released his hand that was pressing on Chu Sheng's shoulder.
"...Perhaps I'm wrong, but besides that, there's one thing I can guarantee is 90% true."
He looked up at the sky, just like Chu Sheng, Yuan Qi and Gui Xuan who were rushing here from afar.
"So, what's your guess?"
Guixuan asked.
"Ascension may be a scam." Yuan Qi and Tian Yan spoke at the same time and said to Gui Xuan and Chu Sheng.
"Or perhaps, the ascension we speak of... is not the real ascension!"
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