Chapter 611: Can I Join the Sword Sect?

In comparison, those cultivators who had not yet reached Full Return to Void were also stunned by the phenomenon spanning the entire world, and thus developed a faint yearning for "Ascension."

But that was all.

Soon, lotuses radiating golden light arranged themselves in rows, forming a staircase extending upward until it reached the "Gate of Ascension."

Various wonders continued to shift, their Dao tones echoing.

Xi Li stood motionless on the Ascension Platform for a long time, then, under the gaze of the world, slowly ascended the celestial staircase rising into the nine heavens.

"The Immortal Path never ends; may later seekers strive hard."

This line had just been revised by Xu Xing.

After all, the Beast God Realm was a world with a level reaching True Void, so there was no need to specifically add the phrase "Return to Void Incomplete."

The Tai Ping Realm was different.

When the Ascension Platform was first integrated into the world, little thought had been given to it.

Later, You was occupied with the "Law of Karma Fire Punishing Evil," so details were overlooked.

Of course, the presence or absence of it made little difference.

The beings of the Earth Immortal Realm watched intently as Xi Li stepped steadily toward the Gate of Ascension, observing the myriad wonders continuously manifesting.

The sun and moon encircled her body; starry veils draped her form, as if the landscapes of ten thousand realms bowed in her defense.

Until she reached the Gate of Ascension, the shadows of countless sages from ancient and modern times appeared together.

A single ray of dawn light blazed brilliantly at the center!

Hum~!

Flame of the Day.

The dawn light pierced through twilight, parting the clouds and purging all demonic miasma!

The great sun rose, illuminating all eight directions, dispelling calamities and misfortunes from the mortal realm!

Its shadow was no taller than an ordinary human, yet it held aloft the great sun, and merely by its presence, overshadowed the thousands of ancestral shadows beside it.

No!

One should say that all the ancestral shadows of the Earth Immortal Realm bowed in heartfelt reverence, willingly serving as mere accompaniment!

Xi!

The "Xi" who once stood against the Beast God, whose single trace of Dao essence had protected the human race of the Earth Immortal Realm for a hundred thousand years, seemed to have crossed vast time and descended at this moment!

"Xi…"

Fu Mo's voice was dry.

She had cultivated under the protection of Xi's Dao essence, achieving what she had today; to witness this sight, how could her heart not be stirred?

Even Xi Li stood motionless before the Gate of Ascension for a long while, gazing at the peerless shadow, its height equal to hers, holding aloft the great sun.

The dawn light burned brilliantly, illuminating all directions.

Then, from behind her, a hazy, illusory shadow emerged, passing through her and advancing forward to stand alongside the other shadows.

Xi Li froze, but soon a flicker of understanding flashed in her eyes.

She turned to look back.

All scenes of the Earth Immortal Realm fell into her gaze at once.

Fu Mo and representatives of the major factions guarding the outer edge of the Ascension Rift, as well as the many disciples of the Cold Moon Jiangong standing on either side of the rift entrance.

Farther still, the Cold Moon Jiangong, resembling an ice kingdom, and the sacred ancestral grounds now reduced to ruins due to internal strife, and…

The battlefield where two races clashed, soaked in blood and fire, the earth drenched crimson, the smoke of war still lingering!

As if struck by sudden inspiration, Xi Li bowed deeply toward the distant sky, toward the ancestral shadows of the Earth Immortal Realm, toward all beings of heaven and earth!

Then!

She turned back to face forward!

The Gate of Ascension, entirely white as jade, crystal-clear, with divine dawn light swirling within, slowly opened amid the chanting of Dao tones, golden immortal light cascading down as if brimming with infinite Dao essence and spiritual vitality.

Beyond the gate, a boundlessly vast, incomprehensibly supreme world revealed but a tiny fraction of its grandeur.

Without the slightest hesitation, Xi Li stepped forward directly into it, vanishing into the endless immortal radiance.

No one knew how long passed…

The ancestral shadows of the Earth Immortal Realm dispersed; the Gate of Ascension, which had poured forth boundless Dao essence and spiritual vitality, began slowly closing, fading away.

Above, the golden clouds also gradually receded; all wonders settled into stillness, as if nothing had ever happened.

…

…

Outside the Ascension Rift.

Fu Mo still stared blankly in the direction where Xi Li had vanished, unable to return to herself for a long time.

She had felt it!

When the Gate of Ascension opened, she truly felt it!

On the "other side" of the gate lay a further possibility!

In that instant, a surge of impulse arose within her.

An impulse to abandon all, follow the Ascension, and seek further advancement!

This was the instinct of every cultivator!

After a long while, Fu Mo finally drew her gaze back, and her agitated emotions slowly calmed.

No rush…

Her cultivation was sufficient; she could Ascend whenever she wished, no need to hurry now.

Thinking of this, she said nothing more.

He turned and transformed into a streak of flowing fire that shot up into the sky, vanishing beyond the horizon in the blink of an eye.

……

……

The vast, boundless Sea of Chaos.

A beam of guiding light descended from the highest reaches, appearing extremely abrupt within this eternally lonely Sea of Chaos.

Strands of immortal-net silk coiled around the guiding light, their target being Xili, who was ascending this time.

Xili now also noticed that some strange changes were occurring within herself.

She could feel that her perception was undergoing a metamorphosis bit by bit, and the piercing radiance that had once filled everything was gradually softening during this process.

Gradually, the full panorama of the Earth Immortal Realm truly appeared within her perception, though somewhat hazy and illusory…

But by all reason, a Return-to-Void cultivator's peering into the full panorama of a Cave-True-grade Earth Immortal Realm was something utterly impossible!

Setting everything else aside, every breath of chaos inhaled and exhaled by a Cave-True-grade great world contained a measureless amount of information that a Return-to-Void cultivator could never bear.

Forcibly peering was no different from trying to fit the entire vault of heaven into a single drop of water!

Yet at this moment, with the aid of the Grand Mystic Immortal Net, activating the 'Perception Sublimation' state had turned this impossibility into possibility.

Xili stared blankly, lost in thought.

Was this magnificent world before her eyes—stretching across the Sea of Chaos like an eternal dam, making everything else seem tiny in comparison—truly the Earth Immortal Realm she herself had come from…

A wave of dizziness washed over her heart, and for a moment she felt an aimless, lost sense of desolation.

Especially upon realizing she was rapidly moving away from the Earth Immortal Realm, the desolation in her heart grew ever thicker.

She recalled the Radiant Light gathering place of days past.

Back then, she and her brother had only just obtained a cultivation method, their realm barely at Qi Refining, and it had taken great effort to get the Radiant Light gathering place on the right track and give themselves a place to call home.

Later, due to an accident, they had been forced to leave…

At that time, the emotions welling up in her heart had been just like now.

Leaving.

This time, however, she was about to leave a world where she had lived for over a thousand years and left countless memories behind.

Watching the Earth Immortal Realm grow farther and farther away, until at last it was beyond sight, she could not help but heave a soft sigh.

For no particular reason, she thought of the one person over all these years who could truly be called a close friend…

Fumu's attachment to the Earth Immortal Realm far surpassed her own; she wondered what Fumu would feel when the time came for her to ascend?

Until the boundless Sea of Chaos unfolded bit by bit within her perception, and she witnessed with her own eyes worlds endlessly rising and sinking within the measureless chaos.

World after world returned to ruin and perished in silence, world after world was created and gave birth to new life—every detail laid out clearly before her eyes—and only then did the desolation in her heart begin to ease.

Xili had never been a sentimental person to begin with.

Immediately, she took advantage of her current peculiar state and began observing this sight she had never seen before.

This was also an arrangement made after discussion by Xu Xing and the others.

Now that the Grand Mystic Immortal Net's functions were gradually being perfected, future ascenders, when they ascended, could be allowed to experience this 'Perception Sublimation' state.

Perhaps it might grant them some insight, making it more advantageous for merging with the Dao?

Once Daoist Xuanling later entered the domain covered by the Grand Mystic Immortal Net, this state would also be activated for him.

As for the first two ascenders…

There was no helping it; at the time, even the initial concept of the Immortal Net didn't yet exist—truly, the conditions weren't there?

……

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