Chapter 240: 240. Chapter 237: The Disappearance of the Ascension Ring

240. Chapter 237: The Disappearance of the Ascension Ring

Qingyu's eye-rims reddened once more:

"Elder Gu, why must you speak falsehoods? When did Ding Huan ever…"

Gu Youchang cut off Qingyu's words, his tone cold as he said:

"Even if Ding Huan saved my life, I wouldn't go so far as to speak against my conscience. Ding Huan is a mortal, true, but his character is loftier than mine.

You say he would take a fancy to you? Heh, I really don't believe it.

Ever since I gave him a jade slip on the basics of array dao, he had even less time to dally with you. Otherwise, do you think he'd have achieved what he has today?"

"Elder Gu, would I stake my own chastity to slander Ding Huan?"

Qingyu was so angry her face went pale, and her whole body was trembling.

Gu Youchang said flatly:

"I didn't want to expose this in the first place, but since you insist, let me ask you—when was the first time you gave yourself to Ding Huan?"

"It was in the Great Gorge Canyon. That night we split off from the others, and I never expected to actually make it to the main road.

Having narrowly escaped death, my emotions were in turmoil, and a few words from Ding Huan left me dizzy and confused, so I failed to hold my ground...

The more Qingyu spoke, the paler her face grew. Clearly, for a woman, such an intimate matter was something she ought not to be saying aloud.

Gu Youchang cupped his fist and said:

"I believe there are people here who can tell whether her words are true or false. Any further explanation from me would be useless, because I can't out-talk her."

After saying this, Gu Youchang sat down.

"You…" Tears welled up in Qingyu's eyes once more, threatening to fall.

A mocking voice rang out:

"You are indeed lying."

The speaker was a beautiful woman; the peach-blossom eyes and the allure between her brows gave one the impression she was a lover to all.

Yet in the Ascension World, there really weren't many who didn't know her.

She was Lou Fenyan, the Tower Lord of the Mandarin Duck Dual Cultivation Pavilion.

Don't be fooled by her stunning looks, by the way she looks like a ripe apple—in truth, in the Ascension World she is a ruthless and vicious sort.

The number of men who have died at her hands—if not ten thousand, then surely nine thousand.

"Tower Lord Lou, may I ask for your guidance." Liu Yinyu cupped her fist and posed a question.

Although Lou Fenyan was cynical and irreverent, she did not dare show discourtesy toward the Palace Lord of Luosheng Palace, Liu Yinyu.

Now that Liu Yinyu had asked, she hastened to answer:

"Because this maidservant first lost her maidenhead within the past year, and the one who took it was a man of no small age, whose vital essence had already begun to wane.

The other party's cultivation should have been at the peak of the Refining Essence into Qi stage, but that peak had just passed and was already on the decline.

In other words, this person, in this lifetime, can only cultivate up to Foundation Establishment at most."

At this point, Lou Fenyan deliberately paused to glance at Qingyu, whose eyes were filled with terror, before continuing disdainfully:

"And that Ding Huan, I hear, entered the Dao Cultivation World several years ago. When he was in the Great Gorge Canyon, it was at least three years ago.

Besides, Ding Huan was able to establish a new sect and kill two Yuanhun Sect masters—his strength absolutely cannot be at the Refining Essence into Qi stage; it must surpass that.

Most importantly, Ding Huan absolutely cannot be in a period of declining vital essence. Therefore I believe Elder Gu's words, while yours are false, ten parts out of ten."

Qingyu's face was truly pale now. She had never imagined anyone could understand the matters between men and women so thoroughly.

If she had known that at least a dozen or twenty people here saw through this point, and only Lou Fenyan spoke up, she wouldn't have been so confident.

"Get out." Liu Yinyu was disgusted with this Qingyu to the extreme.

How would Qingyu dare linger here even for half a breath? She hurriedly fled the Ceremonial Hall of Huangshen Sect.

Her plan had completed its first half; the second half remained undone.

According to her plan, after someone overheard Ding Huan's secret, they would step in to save her, then take her out of Huangshen Sect.

Save her, someone had indeed saved her; but before anyone could take her away, she was exposed and slunk off in disgrace.

For her now, it was a matter of fleeing for her life. Whether she could escape with it depended on her fate.

Qiao Sha's expression was unsightly. Although this engagement ceremony of Huangshen Sect was merely a pretext for gathering sect masters from the various great sects, with matters handled this way, he, as the new sect master, had lost every shred of face.

A middle-aged long-haired man walked up to the platform. He cupped his fist to the many guests attending this wedding ceremony:

"Everyone, today, taking advantage of the Huangshen Sect disciples…"

At this point, he seemed to sense something was off.

The Huangshen Sect disciples' engagement ceremony had fallen apart; if he went on about borrowing the Huangshen Sect disciples' engagement ceremony, it would be a slap in the face of Huangshen Sect.

The previous sect master of Huangshen Sect, its strongest expert, Ji Xinting, had gone missing, but the foundation of Huangshen Sect remained. Even if it was no longer the number one sect in terms of strength, it was still a top-tier great sect of the Ascension World.

"Fellow Daoist Yi, no outsiders are present here—just speak directly." Shi Qiqiu, the head of Changyan Academy, offered him a way out.

In truth, no one would laugh at this long-haired man, for no other reason than that he was Yi Geng Qianxing, the Tower Immortal of the Ascension Tower.

For an ordinary sect's engagement ceremony, let alone inviting Yi Geng Qianxing, even obtaining a verbal blessing from him was no easy feat.

Not because Yi Geng Qianxing's status was high, but because Yi Geng Qianxing was the one who controlled the Ascension Tower.

In the Ascension World there is a tower known to everyone: the Ascension Tower.

Cultivators of the Ascension World cannot simply cultivate to the utmost and ascend; they must go to the Ascension Tower to ascend.

Likewise, it is not the case that once you have cultivated to the point of needing to ascend, you can simply go to the Ascension Tower and ascend.

After reaching the Ascension Tower, one must still wait.

Exactly how one waits depends on when the Ascension Tower has an Ascension Ring.

At the top of the Ascension Tower is an Ascension Altar, and at irregular intervals, an Ascension Ring will appear on the Ascension Altar.

A cultivator who needs to ascend need only stand within this Ascension Ring, and they will be swept away by the light of the Ascension Ring.

Each Ascension Ring can take at most one ascending cultivator; if two people choose to ascend, they have to queue and wait.

From this alone, one can see how lucrative Yi Geng Qianxing's post was, and how high his standing.

Yet in reality, Yi Geng Qianxing had not a drop of grease to his name, and his standing was only a tiny bit at that.

The reason was that too few cultivators on the Triple Heaven Star Land could ascend—sometimes many years would pass before a single one appeared. So most of the time, after the Ascension Ring vanished, no one ascended.

Yi Geng Qianxing nodded, his tone turning grave:

"The last time an Ascension Ring appeared on our Triple Heaven Star Land was one hundred and twenty-seven years ago.

One hundred and three years ago, Daoist Friend Cen Huan of the Changyuan Sword Dao reached Earth Immortal Perfection and came to the Ascension Tower seeking to ascend. Upon learning that the Ascension Tower had gone over twenty years without an Ascension Ring appearing, she left in disappointment.

Seventy years ago, Daoist Friend Cang Yongqian of the Datong Saber Sect came to the Ascension Tower seeking to ascend. Upon learning that the Ascension Tower had already gone over fifty years without an Ascension Ring appearing, he likewise left in disappointment.

Sixty years ago, Daoist Friend Cen Huan came to the Ascension Tower again. Learning that still no Ascension Ring had appeared since, she departed in dejection for the second time, and never came again afterward.

Fifteen years ago, the rogue cultivator Daoist Friend Shan Beishu came to the Ascension Tower. By then, the Ascension Tower had already gone one hundred and twelve years without an Ascension Ring appearing.

After Shan Beishu left, right up to today, the Ascension Tower's Ascension Ring still had not appeared."

Apart from a handful of people in the know, the many cultivators present all listened in a daze.

They had only ever known that once one cultivated to Earth Immortal Perfection, one simply went to the Ascension Tower to ascend to the Immortal World.

The Ascension Realm was called the Ascension Realm precisely because of the Ascension Tower that ascended to the Immortal World.

Now they suddenly heard that even if one cultivated to Earth Immortal Perfection, one could not enter the Immortal World through the Ascension Tower—they were a bit dumbfounded.

Even though nine out of ten people here might never in their lives cultivate to Earth Immortal, let alone Earth Immortal Perfection, whether one could ascend to the Immortal World was a matter of principle.

So long as there was a way out, it didn't matter when one walked that path. Even if one never walked it in a lifetime, it was enough that the path existed.

Once the way out was gone, how could one not panic?

Hu Wuxin and the other Void God realm cultivators who had come from the Dao Cultivation Realm were also somewhat at a loss.

That it was hard to come from the Dao Cultivation Realm to the Ascension Realm meant it was hard for ordinary cultivators to come over; it did not mean it was hard for them to come here.

Everyone who could sit here, apart from a very few, mostly believed that reaching Earth Immortal in the future would be no problem at all.

Liu Yinyu suddenly spoke up and asked:

"Daoist Friend Yi, do you know where Daoist Friends Shan Beishu, Cen Huan, and Cang Yongqian all went?"

The Ascension Realm had many strong cultivators, but at present there were not many Earth Immortal-level experts in the Ascension Realm—in fact, they could be counted on one hand.

The few people Yi Geng Qianxing had just mentioned, Liu Yinyu had also heard of.

Yet she had never imagined they had all reached the Earth Immortal level.

One could see how many experts the vast Star Land had hidden away.

It's just that they weren't much like Ji Xinting, who liked to show off and flaunt himself everywhere, which was why Ji Xinting had earned himself the title of the number one expert of the Triple Heaven Star Land.

Yi Geng Qianxing's tone dropped low:

"This is precisely one of my main purposes for coming here today. The Ascension Tower's Ascension Ring has vanished—that only means we cannot ascend for now; perhaps we will eventually think of a way.

But if the Earth Immortal experts of our Star Land keep disappearing one by one like this, I fear our Triple Heaven Star Land will one day run into trouble."

"What exactly is going on? Please, Daoist Friend Yi, tell us in detail." Liu Yinyu's tone grew even more grave.

She was still some distance from Earth Immortal now. Like all cultivators' own assumptions, Liu Yinyu believed she would step into the Earth Immortal realm within a hundred years.

"If I am not mistaken, these three Daoist Friends all went to the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield…"

Yi Geng Qianxing only said this one sentence before falling silent once more.

It wasn't only Yi Geng Qianxing who fell silent—everyone present fell silent.

In the Triple Heaven Star Land's Ascension Realm, there was no one who did not know of the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield.

Many cultivators had picked up heaps of treasures on the outer perimeter of the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield.

The current number one sect of the Triple Heaven Star Land, the Huangshen Sect's sect-defining technique, the Great Wasteland Divine Jade Art, was rumored to have been picked up from the outer perimeter of the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield.

That was only the outer perimeter. As for the inside of the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield, to date, no one had ever come out.

Of course, plenty of people had gone in. As for those who came out—not a single one.

In the end, it was Yi Geng Qianxing who broke the silence:

"Fellow cultivators, I believe we must do something. Otherwise, as our Triple Heaven Star Land's experts are swallowed up one by one by the Ancient Heaven-Opening Battlefield, what our Triple Heaven Star Land will face is an enormous crisis."