Chapter 286 The Path to Ascension
Dan Chuxue was silent for a while. She raised her face and smiled gently at Mu Jianjian. The sunlight shone on her cheeks, and her fair skin was like the pure white snow falling in winter, but it had an unreal quality.
"My master... asked me to wish you peace, good fortune, and happiness, and also... he wanted me to apologize on his behalf."
It was just a short passage, but the woman spoke it extremely slowly, as if every word revealed an imperceptible sadness.
Mu Jianjian was confused. She muttered to herself, "Who apologizes and then has someone else apologize on their behalf..."
However, she really didn't want to see Baili Mochen, and after feeling the sincerity of his apology, she gladly accepted it.
Mu Jianjian is not someone who makes things difficult for herself. She tends to blame herself for the mistakes she has made and the loopholes that others have exploited.
"Until we meet again, Miss Mu."
After saying this, Shan Chuxue bent down slightly and turned to leave.
——
After spending a few days recuperating at the Xuan Shuang Sect, Mu Jianjian set off again to prepare for the Ascension Path.
Mu Yutian and the elders, including Uncle Guo, were naturally reluctant to let her go, but they also knew the reasons why they had to let her go. Before she left, they wished they could stuff all the space bags in her with herbs and talismans.
Sang Wanyue told her the approximate location of the Ascension Path that she had extracted from the sand eagle's mouth. Linghu Zhuoyu and Ye Wuluo then stuffed some magical artifacts and poisons into her hands, which Mu Jianjian accepted without hesitation.
"I want to go too..." Wan Xing looked at the two who were about to leave, her eyes filled with reluctance.
Her right pupil was replaced by a found spirit pearl. If you don't look closely, it is no different from an ordinary eye. Her right arm was transformed from a branch. Apart from looking strange, it was no different from her original arm. In fact, it was more agile and swift than her original arm.
She looked down at herself, now one with the branches, and sighed softly.
If they hadn't failed to reach the Nascent Soul stage, they would have gone to the Upper Realm as well.
“You will do it someday, it’s just a matter of time.” Mu Jianjian smiled and ruffled her hair, then looked at Sang Wanyue behind her. “Yueyue, just tell the outside world that I have entered seclusion, and don’t let the news leak out for now.”
“Okay.” Sang Wanyue nodded in agreement, her eyes deepening as she watched the girl walk further and further away with a boy wrapped in a coat beside her.
"From today onwards, I will work hard and strive to reach the Nascent Soul stage by tomorrow!" Wan Xing clenched his fist to encourage himself.
“You say that every day.” Sang Wanyue said this and left quickly. Ye Wuluo and Linghu Zhuoyu ignored her. However, the elders of Xuanshuang Sect encouraged Wan Xing, which gave him some comfort.
As the crowd who came to see Mu Jianjian off gradually left, only Wan Xing remained standing for a moment. She took one last look at the spot where the girl had disappeared, memorized it, and then also left.
——
"Sharp...where are we going?" Chunbai glanced at the endless, gray desert with its constant sandstorms and asked blankly.
The sand and gravel on the ground sank in with every step, and the collapsed soil made walking extremely difficult. Coupled with the obstruction of the wind and sand, the two walked for an hour without seeing the end of the desert.
Mu Jianjian looked down at the child beside her who was still clueless, and comforted him, "We're going to where you came from."
"Where did I come from?" Chunbai repeated her words, her eyes blank, and she raised her hand again to wrap her robe tighter. "Wasn't it right next to Jian?"
“No,” she denied softly, “it’s in the place we’re going next.”
He comes from the upper realm, and taking him back now would definitely involve a lot of risks. But it's impossible to let Chunbai stay here with them forever. Besides, Chunbai keeps clinging to her and refuses to leave. Maybe he can even help in the upper realm.
When Chunbai clung to her before, Linghu Zhuoyu scolded him for it, but the silly boy was too stupid and kept thinking that the other party was praising him.
Mu Jianjian lifted her feet, which were enveloped in true energy, and frowned when she saw that sand and stones were still sinking in.
She couldn't help but recall what Sang Wanyue had said.
"Inside the Yunyan Desert?"
"Yes, in Desert Eagle's memory, the Path to Ascension is located in the center of the Cloud Rock Desert. Perhaps because of its vast territory and the fact that the sand and stones have the characteristic of absorbing true energy, no cultivator discovered its mysteries for a time."
This is hardly what you call a vast area...
This is clearly boundless.
It's absurd that two Nascent Soul cultivators walked for an hour and still hadn't reached the end.
As Mu Jianjian looked down, she caught a glimpse of redness on her fair arm out of the corner of her eye. She immediately squatted down and asked, "Does it hurt? Why didn't you say you were injured by the sun?"
"If I hadn't told you, Jian wouldn't have sent me back to where I was before," the boy said, his voice filled with grievance.
She reached out to touch the light blue cloak covering her pure white body, and could feel the gradually weakening surface of this sun protection artifact and the dissipating true energy.
"I told you to change into a better cloak, but you didn't..." Mu Jianjian muttered under her breath, then hugged the boy tightly, supporting him with one hand and holding his back with the other, turning their backs to the sun to minimize the amount of sunlight they were exposed to.
“We’re still together, it’s not like I’m abandoning you.” She forcefully pulled down the hood of her cloak, completely obscuring his face.
A blush suddenly rose on the boy's face.
Although this made Chunbai feel a little better, it couldn't completely relieve the pain on his skin. Mu Jianjian knew that they didn't have much time left.
After an hour of rapid trekking, they couldn't even see the top of their heads. Were they trapped in an illusion, going around in circles?
However, with pine and cypress roots in his mouth, his Dao heart did not waver. His divine sense, which spread over a hundred miles, also told Mu Jianjian and the others that they were not going around in circles. So what was wrong? They could not see even a trace of the Ascension Path.
"The Path to Ascension..."
Mu Jianjian looked up at the crimson sun in the sky, and countless illusory butterflies flew up from all around her.
As she gazed at the butterfly's wings shimmering with iridescent colors in the sunlight, her dark eyes deepened slightly.
Previously influenced by the stone platform, she had always thought that the passage to the upper realm would be something like a teleportation array, but she never thought it would be above.
The path to heaven must have a "path," and this "path" probably leads upwards.
Mu Jianjian narrowed her eyes and, sure enough, saw a phantom butterfly seemingly flapping against a wall high in the sky, changing its flight path as it fluttered its body.
"Pure white, it might hurt a little now. If it hurts, hold on tight and tell me, okay?"
"Hmm." He nodded.
Upon hearing the other party's response, the phantom butterfly conjured up a series of steps leading upwards, and Mu Jianjian also leaped towards the direction where the transparent wall had been. The phantom butterfly, pink and purple, enveloped the girl, making her appear like a fairy descending to earth.
"Thump—"
A moment later, Mu Jianjian finally stepped onto the transparent steps and could clearly feel the boy in her arms begin to tremble.
Fortunately, with the illusory butterfly leading the way, these transparent stone steps, even though they were moving, did not take them too long. Before long, they arrived at the end of a gate that was radiating white light.
Mu Jianjian took a deep breath, lifted her foot and stepped inside. She disappeared into the milky white door, appearing from a distance as if she had vanished into a gray-yellow desert, as if she had never existed.
She had never imagined what it would be like to complete the path to ascension, so after regaining her vision, she quickly focused her divine sense and brought her attention to the highest level.
As the stinging sensation on Chunbai's body disappeared, he slowly opened his eyes, but his lips were pale, clearly indicating that he had not yet recovered.
"Ding ding ding—"
The echo of a giant bell resounded from afar, and a cacophony of voices filled the air. All the sounds and images entered the eyes and ears of the two.
"Yesterday I was still eating the new pills from the medicine pavilion, who knew that I would break through to the Nascent Soul stage today, and I actually bumped into you on the same day."
"Don't compare me to you. I don't have any pills. If I had the pills they made, I would be seventy or eighty streets ahead of you, okay?"
"Why are there so many people registering today? There were hardly any before."
"It is said that the city lord of Niyu City was happy and scattered a lot of pills in the city. As more people picked them up, more people naturally advanced in rank."
"..."
The pristine white hall was devoid of any other colors. Floating silks of various colors adorned the ceiling decorations, and all sorts of spirit birds chirped and flew in the air. From the front to the back of the hall, a long line of cultivators stood, dressed in different robes, each with a different expression as they discussed something.
Mu Jianjian stood on a platform in the corner of the hall, holding the hand of a pure white child who had just stepped out of her arms.
Because of her appearance, the cultivators at the back of the group all looked at her with surprise, but did not pay her much attention.
Mu Jianjian resisted the urge to check the fit of the human skin masks on their faces. The moment she landed, she was subconsciously shocked by the surging true energy around her. The essence of heaven and earth seemed to flow tirelessly into her body, filling her dantian to its fullest.
Without exception, all the cultivators in this hall were at the Nascent Soul stage, the pinnacle of cultivation in their world, but in the Upper Realm they were merely novice players who had completed the beginner village quests.
"Don't absorb too much; learn to control and reduce it." A gentle female voice fell in my ear. Looking in the direction of the voice, I saw a long-haired woman with a gentle expression.
The woman held a jade slip in one hand and a writing brush in the other, her smiling eyes filled with encouragement.
"Thank you." Mu Jianjian slowly withdrew from the surging true energy, first carefully mobilizing and integrating the absorbed portion. Looking down, she saw that Chunbai's eyes were pure and kind and she hadn't absorbed too much true energy, so she felt relieved and developed a greater liking for the woman in front of her, but also a greater sense of vigilance.
"I am Wen, the registrar here. You may follow me." Wen smiled and greeted the two of them before heading straight through another line of the queue to the front of the main hall.
"Excuse me... where is this place?" Mu Jianjian slowed down and began to look around, her face showing curiosity about things she had never seen before.
“Our Immortal Palace is responsible for registering every cultivator in the realm who advances to the Nascent Soul stage. This is the registration point in Niyu City, and I am responsible for introducing Nascent Soul cultivators from outside the realm.” Awen’s voice was crystal clear, just like her dignified yet not weak temperament.
Mu Jianjian sounded the alarm.
"Celestial Palace! So you must be a Celestial Official?" She rubbed her hands together. "Then, during the registration process, would you like me to demonstrate my secret techniques? Celestial Official Awen, my secret techniques are absolutely unique. If there's a chance, I'll definitely show you something amazing!"
The girl's excited yet naive demeanor drew disdain from the monks queuing in the "separate passage."
"I thought the cultivator coming down from below would be some important figure, but it turns out to be just a worldly-wise young girl."
"Don't underestimate her. Maybe this girl really has some skills. After all, we haven't seen anyone come down here for a long time. She must have some ability to come out like this."
"What kind of ability can someone with such a cultivation level be? I don't know why the Immortal Palace pays so much attention to people coming from below."
"..."
Awen was unaffected by the surrounding cultivators' conversations. She patiently explained to the girl what needed to be registered, "We only need to register your name, age, cultivation level, and purpose for coming to this realm. There's no need to demonstrate any personal secret techniques."
"Do we need everyone?" Mu Jianjian gasped, her eyes widening.
Seemingly amused by the girl's startled expression, Awen covered her mouth and smiled, "Yes, these registrations started a hundred years ago because the Nascent Soul stage is the dividing point in a cultivator's journey, making it particularly important."
A hundred years ago?
Then it wasn't intentionally targeting them.
Mu Jianjian's heart, which had been pounding, slowly calmed down. She smiled sweetly and said, "Thank you, Immortal Official Wen! My master always used to complain about me and my junior brother, saying that making us feel pain was for our own good. She has never spoken to us like this before."
Upon hearing this, not only did Awen look at the two with pity, but the monks waiting around also expressed their sympathy.
It turns out he was constantly being beaten up until he reached the Nascent Soul stage.
"Don't be nervous, you can ask me anything," Wen comforted her.
Mu Jianjian nodded, and she took the pure white hand and walked towards the front of the hall. After entering the inner hall, the three of them finally stopped in front of a room after Awen turned left and right.
“Aren’t we registering in the same place as them?” she asked softly.
“No, everyone from outside registers separately.” Awen slowly shook her head, took the jade slip and walked into the room, waking up a fat man who was sleeping on a recliner in the center of the room.
"Huh?" The fat man struggled to lift his ball-like body. The fat on his face made his eyes look particularly small. He was even angrier than when he was woken up. "I told you not to wake me unless it's important!"
"Someone's here." Awen's gentle face gradually turned cold. She walked behind the fat man's seat and nodded to the two people at the door.
"Excuse me... what is this?" Mu Jianjian asked calmly, raising her hand and slowly pointing to the floating stone on the table in front of the fat man.
"This is the 'Probing Stone.' If you lie, this stone will change color. Haven't you ever seen one?" The fat man was now fully awake. He yawned, and his entire body of fat jiggled. "So I advise you to honestly confess everything."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
