Chapter 33: The moment you close your eyes, you ascend to immortality and become an ancestor

On the way back, Wang Xianmao's expression was calm, but Wang Yuan guessed that the clan head was definitely storing up energy for the ten consecutive blows once they returned.

Wang Yulou said nothing either, his expression even more solemn than Wang Xianmao's.

Wang Yuan followed behind the two of them, his heart in utter turmoil.

"Clan Head, we were just going to have a pot of spirit tea, we'd leave right after, never expected you to show up just then."

"Shut your mouth!"

Wang Yuan dared not speak again.

"Clan Head, how many years of lifespan does a Purple Mansion cultivator have?" Yulou asked.

"We'll talk when we get back!"

The clan head looked sternly at Yulou, that gaze even more severe than when he'd told Wang Yuan to shut up.

Child, watch your words!

At dawn tomorrow, every word and deed of all the cultivators in Qing Xi Fang will be within her ears and eyes!

Yulou had actually already understood the clan head's answer.

His face went pale as he followed the clan head out the great gates of Baibao Fang.

Clearly, the cultivators around him who had come to attend the Qing Xi Grand Gathering were all beaming with joy, looking utterly delighted.

The bright moon in the sky shed a gentle radiance, and even the gravel on the ground was lit up bright and clear.

But Yulou felt, amid this bustling fine night, a chill that pierced through bone and marrow, even through to the soul.

This was a Cultivation World where high-level cultivators could all easily achieve long life and enduring sight!

Great cultivators could join hands to alter the rules of heaven and earth, restricting the speed at which later generations of cultivators could practice.

Yulou didn't need to investigate to imagine how the powers, families, and organizations clustered around Purple Mansion great cultivators and Jin Dan True Persons monopolized every path of advancement in the Cultivation World.

In such a heaven and earth.

The Wang Shi, who possessed a so-called Foundation Establishment ancestor, were not an immortal clan, but slightly larger ants, slightly thicker leeks!

The conversation between the clan head and Danri replayed itself over and over in Yulou's heart—once, twice, three times... Yulou increasingly read the clan head's fear.

Returning to Fuyuan Residence, Wang Xianmao did not deliberately raise any barrier or detection formations.

Because he knew clearly that under the surveillance of Purple Mansion great cultivators, Foundation Establishment cultivators had few secrets.

He sat in his chair, watching the two young lads who had even dared to browse Baili Xuan turn paler by the minute, and felt somewhat like laughing.

"Alright, no need to be nervous, I won't hit you, Wang Yuan."

Wang Yuan was no longer nervous, but Yulou still wore a distracted, lost expression.

Wang Xianmao felt a touch of melancholy in his heart.

Too sharp a mind brings harm, too sharp a mind brings harm—Yulou was too clever, had seen too early the cruelest face of this Cultivation World.

It was only a fleeting glimpse, a horse's hoof flash, yet he had still seen the great elephant hidden within that room.

That elephant was immensely vast, yet terrifyingly powerful, and none dared look it straight in the eye.

It was Yulou's first time seeing that elephant, and his despair—Wang Xianmao believed he understood.

He deliberated for a long while, then said solemnly.

"A cultivator's failure is not in cowering before the powerful, nor in being flustered at a crossroads, nor in feeling ashamed with a fine person beside one. (Fine person does not only mean a woman; it can be understood as any good person.)

"The sayings that timidity leads to failure and panic makes accomplishment hard are nothing but empty words.

"Our Wang Shi has carried on its lineage to this day for some twelve hundred years, and our conduct has always hinged on the transformations of dragon and snake.

"What is the transformation of dragon and snake?

"It is nothing more than guarding oneself to await the moment—and here the moment is not heaven's moment, but our own.

"This heaven and earth has its rules, but the rules of heaven and earth can be changed by others.

"Amid change, the only thing we can rely on, the only thing we can be certain will not change, is ourselves.

"Yulou, do not overthink.

"Wang Yuan, cultivate well alongside your elder brother.

"You must reach Qi Refining soon, because our Wang Shi does not lack the boldness to charge straight ahead!

"Accumulated over twelve hundred years, the Wang Shi has prepared everything one needs at the start for every child who wishes to charge straight ahead!

"Before Foundation Establishment, the resources you receive will be no less than those of Purple Mansion aristocratic clans, no less than those of Shi Sect disciples, and not even inferior to those of Xian Alliance family scions!"

In the end, Yulou never asked the clan head what exactly he had exchanged at the Merit Hall branch, because he knew his own experience must surely fall short of the clan head's.

But lying in bed, Yulou could not fall asleep no matter what.

Transmigrating to a world where one could cultivate immortality, at first he had been thrilled, fantasizing that he could become the most powerful immortal under heaven, fantasizing about that legendary freedom of leaping beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements.

Later, as he gradually grew up, he found his original dream was as laughable as choosing between Tsinghua and Peking University.

Now, at the Qing Xi Grand Gathering, he had seen how vast the world was, and also seen how terrifying Purple Mansion True Persons were.

That unassuming girl in golden robes was a cultivator of at least a thousand years.

Why at least a thousand years?

The Wang Shi ancestor Wang Yinghua, fourth son of the progenitor Xuanying, the very first generation of Wang Shi children after the clan was founded!

And Wang Yinghua was Danri's senior brother!

If Danri was a thousand years old, how old was Master Mangxiang?

And how old were the Jin Dan True Persons between heaven and earth?

Danri looked like a young girl—did that mean she had reached Foundation Establishment at the age of thirteen or fourteen, a thousand years ago?

Yulou dared not think about these things.

Ancestral Master Mangxiang, with over a thousand years of Purple Mansion cultivation, had attempted to prove the Dao of Jin Dan, and for this had drawn upon all the resources of Red Lantern Shine, forcing the sect master to be replaced, replaced with a scion of the great merchant Huang clan who was specially placed to squeeze provisions for him.

From the loose cultivators on the streets of Qing Xi Fang, to Red Brow in Huafeng Residence, to the Wang Shi who had been vassals of Red Lantern Shine for over a dozen generations—every person, family, and vassal was regarded by Ancestral Master Mangxiang as part of the price.

Legend says that great cultivators altered the laws of heaven and earth, making it impossible for Qi Gathering cultivators to advance through pill consumption anymore.

This matter was too distant; Yulou had long grown accustomed to it, and he felt no real sense of its weight.

But Mangxiang and his disciple Danri gave Yulou an overwhelming sense of reality.

Wang Xianmao, before Danri, was like a toy!

So cold. Yulou pulled the blanket tighter.

He felt the warmth of the blanket, yet his heart remained cold.

The path ahead is hard. The path ahead is hard.

He had thought that with the Wang Shi's support, he had already outpaced many others.

But now he saw clearly—there was no starting line at all.

Without forming a Purple Mansion, you remain a mere ant!

Solitary cultivators are squeezed dry by the Gao Jian; disciples of great sects are squeezed until even their future possibilities are sold off.

Solitary cultivators cannot escape the Gao Jian's oppression; disciples within great sects cannot escape the oppression of Purple Mansion family members within their own sect.

Yet even disciples of great sects and pupils of Purple Mansions cannot escape the Xian Alliance's conscription.

In this cultivation world, meticulously designed, flawlessly sealed, with nearly all upward paths blocked, where can I possibly reach?

Will I become an immortal?

Forget it—will I become a Purple Mansion?

Will I?

Yulou was uncertain. His Dao heart, at this moment, after grasping Danri's terror, wavered.

When alone, one must always face oneself, face the squalor and fears reality imposes.

Fortunately, Yulou shared a double room; beside him lay his idiot brother, Yuan.

"Brother, Purple Mansion True Persons can live a thousand years—we'll become Purple Mansion Great Cultivators too!"

Yuan tossed and turned for a long time, unable to sleep, and began chatting with his elder brother.

"How do you know Danri True Person has lived a thousand years?"

"She said so herself. You didn't hear her? She said after a thousand years, Wang Shi is still the same."

"Yes, but Master Mangxiang, as Danri True Person's master, is now attempting to form a Golden Core—this means Purple Mansion lifespan exceeds a thousand years."

"Huh? That's true. Then why hasn't the clan chief told us the exact lifespan of a Purple Mansion?"

"That question is too disrespectful."

"Disrespectful to whom?"

"Don't ask. Go to sleep."

"Brother, if I become an immortal and you don't, I'll resurrect you."

"Alright, alright, you're just making empty promises, right?"

"What's an empty promise?"

"Forget it. Just remember—if you do, don't forget to resurrect the clan chief, Rongyuan Uncle, your father and mother… you've got to bring them all back, got it?"

"My parents will definitely become immortals—maybe even before me!"

"Sleep. In dreams, you've got everything. Who knows? Maybe you'll close your eyes and wake up as an immortal ancestor."