[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-ascending-to-the-jade-palace":3,"chapter-ascending-to-the-jade-palace-ascending-to-the-jade-palace-chapter-33":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Ascending to the Jade Palace",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2320495,4538,"Chapter 33: When You Close Your Eyes, You Become an Immortal Ancestor","ascending-to-the-jade-palace-chapter-33",33,"\u003Cp>On the way back, Wang Xianmao’s expression was calm, but Yu’an guessed the clan chief was gathering strength for the ten consecutive trials after returning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yulou said nothing, his expression even more solemn than Wang Xianmao’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu’an followed behind the two, his heart in utter turmoil.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Clan Chief, we just came to drink a pot of spirit tea and were leaving right after—we didn’t expect you to show up.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Shut up!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu’an dared not speak again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Clan Chief, how long is the lifespan of a Purple Mansion cultivator?” Yulou asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We’ll discuss it when we return!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The clan chief glared at Yulou—his gaze more severe than when he had ordered Yu’an to be silent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Child, speak with caution!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On this very day, every word and action of every cultivator in Qingxi Alley lies within her sight and hearing!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yulou had already understood the clan chief’s answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His face turned pale as he followed the clan chief out of the Hundred Treasures Shop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around them, cultivators attending the Qingxi Gathering wore joyful expressions, clearly delighted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moon in the sky emitted a soft glow, illuminating every pebble on the ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet Yulou felt a bone-deep, soul-piercing chill amid this flourishing night.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This is a cultivation world where high-level cultivators can easily achieve immortality!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Great cultivators can join forces to alter the rules of heaven and earth, restricting the cultivation speed of later generations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yulou didn’t need to investigate—he could imagine the power networks, clans, and organizations surrounding Purple Mansion elders and Golden Core True Persons, controlling every upward path in the cultivation world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In such a world,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the Wang clan, with its so-called Foundation Establishment Ancestors, is not an immortal clan—it’s merely a slightly larger ant, a coarser blade of grass!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The dialogue between the clan chief and Dan Ri replayed over and over in Yulou’s mind—once, twice, three times... the more he thought, the more he understood the clan chief’s fear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Back at Fuyuan Residence, Wang Xianmao did not activate any defensive or surveillance arrays.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He knew that under the surveillance of a Purple Mansion elder, Foundation Establishment cultivators had no secrets.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sat on his chair, watching the two young lads—who had dared to visit Bai Li Xuan—each paler than the other, and almost laughed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough, don’t be nervous—I won’t beat you, Yu’an.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yu’an was no longer nervous, but Yulou remained lost in thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Xianmao felt a quiet sorrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Excessive wisdom harms; excessive wisdom harms. Yulou is too intelligent, too quick to see the harshest truth of this cultivation world.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was merely a fleeting glimpse, a white horse passing a crevice—but he still saw the elephant hidden in that room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The elephant was immense, yet its power was awe-inspiring, and no one dared to look directly at it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yulou had seen that elephant for the first time; his despair, Wang Xianmao believed he understood.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After long deliberation, he spoke solemnly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“A cultivator’s failure is not in shrinking before the powerful, nor in hesitating at critical choices, nor in feeling inferior beside a beauty.” (“Beauty” here does not mean only woman—it refers to anything beautiful.)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The notions that fear leads to failure and panic prevents success are mere empty words.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Our Wang clan has endured for over twelve hundred years, and our guiding principle has always been the transformation of dragon and snake.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What is the transformation of dragon and snake?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Merely preserving oneself and waiting for the right time—this time is not heaven’s timing, but our own timing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Heaven and earth have their rules, but those rules can be changed by others.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“In all change, the only thing we can rely on, the only thing we can be certain will not change, is ourselves.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yulou, don’t overthink.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yu’an, train hard with your elder brother.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Focus on Qi Refining early, because our Wang clan lacks no courage to charge forward!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Over twelve hundred years of accumulation, the Wang clan has prepared everything a son needs to begin his journey—should he wish to charge forward!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Before Foundation Establishment, the resources you receive are equal to those of Purple Mansion lineages, equal to those of the Ten Sects’ disciples, and even not inferior to those of the Immortal Alliance’s noble families!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the end, Yulou never asked what the clan chief had exchanged for in the Merit Hall branch—he knew his experience was certainly inferior to the clan chief’s.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lying in bed, Yulou could not sleep at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When he first crossed over into a world where cultivation was possible, he had been thrilled—he imagined himself becoming the greatest immortal, dreaming of the freedom beyond the Three Realms and outside the Five Elements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Later, as he grew older, he realized his childhood dreams were as absurd as choosing between Tsinghua and Peking University.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now, at the Qingxi Gathering, he saw the vastness of the world—and the terror of the Purple Mansion True Persons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That plain-looking girl in golden robes was a cultivator of at least a thousand years.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Why at least a thousand years?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yinghua, the Wang clan’s founding ancestor and fourth son of the primogenitor Xuan Ying, was the first-generation Wang clan disciple after the clan’s establishment!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Wang Yinghua was Dan Ri’s senior brother!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dan Ri is a thousand years old—how old is Mang Xiang?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How old are the Golden Core True Persons of this world?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Dan Ri looks like a girl—does that mean she achieved Foundation Establishment at thirteen or fourteen, a thousand years ago?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yulou dared not think of these things.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Master Mang Xiang, with over a thousand years of Purple Mansion cultivation, sought to prove the Dao and attain Golden Core—he drained all resources of the Red Lantern Illumination, forcing the Sect Master to be replaced by a wealthy scion of the Huang clan, specially chosen to exploit resources for him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From street cultivators in Qingxi Alley, to Hongmei in Huafeng Residence, to the Wang clan, which had served the Red Lantern Illumination for over a dozen generations—all people, families, and vassals were seen by Master Mang Xiang as part of the cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Legend says great cultivators altered heaven’s rules, making it impossible for Qi Refining cultivators to advance through pills.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This event was too distant; Yulou had grown accustomed to it and felt no real sense of its weight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But Mang Xiang and his disciple Dan Ri gave Yulou boundless, crushing reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before Dan Ri, Wang Xianmao was like a toy!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So cold. Yulou pulled the blanket tighter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He felt the warmth of the blanket, yet his heart remained icy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The path ahead is hard. The path ahead is hard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had thought that with the Wang clan’s support, he was already ahead of many.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now he saw—the starting line didn’t exist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Unless you become a Purple Mansion cultivator, you are forever an ant!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Street cultivators are squeezed dry by the powerful; vassals of great sects have their future possibilities sold off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Street cultivators cannot escape the oppression of the powerful; disciples within great sects cannot escape the oppression of Purple Mansion lineage heirs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet even disciples of great sects and pupils of Purple Mansion lineages cannot escape the Immortal Alliance’s conscription.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this carefully designed, perfectly sealed cultivation world where upward paths are nearly blocked—where can I go?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Will I become an immortal?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Forget it—will I become a Purple Mansion cultivator?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Maybe?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yulou was uncertain. His Dao heart, at this moment, after grasping Dan Ri’s terror, trembled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When alone, one must face oneself—the grim realities and fears one confronts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fortunately, Yulou shared a double room—he had a fool of a brother, Yu’an, lying beside him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother, Purple Mansion True Persons can live a thousand years—we’ll become Purple Mansion elders too!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After tossing and turning for a long while, Yu’an still couldn’t sleep, so he started talking to his elder brother.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“How do you know Dan Ri True Person is a thousand years old?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“She said it herself—didn’t you hear? She said after a thousand years, our Wang clan is still the same.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, but Master Mang Xiang, Dan Ri’s master, is now trying to attain Golden Core—so Purple Mansion lifespan must be longer than a thousand years.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Huh? That’s true. Then why didn’t the clan chief tell us the exact lifespan of Purple Mansion cultivators?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“That question is too disrespectful.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Disrespectful to whom?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t ask. Sleep.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Brother, if I become an immortal and you don’t, I’ll resurrect you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Alright, alright—just feeding me dreams, right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s a ‘dream feed’?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Forget it. Just remember—if you do, don’t forget the clan chief, Rongyuan Uncle, your father and mother... you have to resurrect them all, got it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“My parents will definitely become immortals—maybe even before me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Sleep. In dreams, you’ve got everything—maybe if you close your eyes, you’ll become an immortal ancestor right there.”\u003C\u002Fp>",1460,"2026-06-20T15:48:26.995Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a3845b27b518c7ce0dccdfbf90ea044d17136fde5209c5f5f7b7aa7b7e1343a4","ascending-to-the-jade-palace-chapter-34","ascending-to-the-jade-palace-chapter-32",243,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fascending-to-the-jade-palace-cover.jpg"]