Chapter 15

"How glorious Shushan was in the past; it shook all directions in heaven and earth, and was a holy land for cultivation that countless cultivators dreamed of."

"But..."

Jiang Yan pursed his lips, his expression somewhat lost.

"But what?"

The interest of Liuyun and the others was completely stirred up.

No matter what, the curiosity of intelligent life would not disappear.

Especially hearing such secrets about those high and mighty, true immortals and gods.

Zhongli was also sipping his tea, looking very eager.

So, Jiang Yan continued to compile his story.

"But everything... everything was destroyed."

Jiang Yan’s expression was somewhat melancholy, and he said slowly:

"Immersed in the Shushan with a Taiyi ancestor sitting in town, we forgot that in the myriad worlds, below the Great Luo, all are ants."

"About three immeasurable kalpas ago, the myriad worlds, or rather, the true supreme Immortal World of the Thirty-Three Heavens, broke out into a war that affected all worlds."

"That was a war of the supreme Great Luos."

"No one knows exactly why the war started. In the remaining information of Shushan, it only said..."

"The Haotian Golden Palace Supreme Jade Emperor God who rules over countless immortals and gods in the Heavenly Court; the Great Goddess Nuwa who created the world and humans; the Great Emperor Fuxi who opened the heavens with one stroke..."

"The Great Taoist Three Pure Ones who hold the beginning, process, and end; the Past Buddha, Present Buddha, and Future Buddha of Buddhism..."

"All the Great Luos participated in the war."

"The existence of non-Great Luos, in the face of that aftermath, whether it was the world, time and space, or even the cycle of cause and effect."

"Everything shattered."

"The ancestor only had time to leave some information, and used great divine power to break through the river of time, sending tens of thousands of Shushan disciples to different future time and space."

"Then he sat down and passed away."

"Heh... ridiculous, right?"

Jiang Yan looked up at the sky with some sadness.

"The ancestor who had cultivated for nearly a thousand kalpas, the Shushan that dominated one side in heaven and earth."

"Hundreds of billions of elite disciples, in an instant, all turned to ashes."

"The proud foundation of Shushan could not even withstand the aftermath of the collision of the Great Luos."

"The family property accumulated over countless immeasurable kalpas was gone in an instant."

"And those seeds sent away by the ancestor were also constantly worn away in the river of time."

"Tens of thousands of people, in the end, perhaps only I am left..."

"Cultivation... cultivation..."

"Even if you cultivate no matter how well, how can you compare to those innate sacred, born Great Luos?"

"Everything we are proud of is just an ant’s trick in the eyes of the Great Luo. If they are unhappy, a glance will turn us into dust."

"Cultivators fight with heaven, fight with people... their whole lives are spent in fighting."

"In the end, we cannot fight against fate."

Jiang Yan lowered his hands dejectedly, and the decadent aura he exuded made even this world sad for him.

Zhongli could clearly perceive that the entire Jueyun Karst, the entire Liyue, and even the entire Teyvat were sad for Jiang Yan.

This emotion even affected him.

Zhongli covered his chest in a daze.

At this moment, he seemed to feel unprecedented despair.

"The infinitely bright Shushan is now left with only me, only me, a mere cultivator at the Refining Spirit to Return to Emptiness stage."

"Shushan... it has finally perished by fate."

12. For the glory of Shushan!

Looking at Jiang Yan, who was calm but revealed bone-deep sadness.

Zhongli and the others didn't know how to comfort him for a while.

Ganyu looked at Jiang Yan with some heartache and whispered:

"Jiang Yan, don't be like this..."

Unfortunately, Jiang Yan was still immersed in his own performance emotions.

As a cultivator at the Refining Spirit to Return to Emptiness stage, every word and action is in harmony with heaven.

Controlling his own emotions was also very simple.

Subsequently influencing the world was also easy, especially in a fragile world like Teyvat that was already dying.

Zhongli was silent for a long time, looking at Jiang Yan with complicated feelings.

"Sorry, I didn't know about these..."

"It doesn't matter, things are already a foregone conclusion. I now claim to be the Sect Leader of Shushan, nothing more than not wanting this glorious sect to completely disappear."

Jiang Yan sighed and said slowly:

"My master once told me that there are three stages to the death of life."

"The first stage is when the heartbeat of life stops and death is declared."

"The second stage is when life passes away with the farewells of friends and family."

"The third stage is when the last person in the world who remembers this life passes away, and life is completely declared to have disappeared."

"I think Shushan is the same... as long as I still remember Shushan and still believe in my identity, then Shushan has not perished."

These words of Jiang Yan rang like a bell in the hearts of Zhongli and the others, bringing unprecedented shock.

"The three stages of life’s death..."

Zhongli picked up his teacup, but put it down before it reached his mouth, repeating this several times.

Zhongli sighed long and bowed his hands:

"I have been taught... your master is truly a person of great wisdom."

A smile suddenly appeared on Jiang Yan’s face, and he nodded slightly:

"Yes, my master is indeed a person of great wisdom and virtue, achieving the Refining Emptiness to Join the Dao stage in less than three hundred years."

"He especially loved to drink and have fun on weekdays, and when he drank too much, he would turn into a mortal to experience all kinds of life."

"His state of mind and aptitude were unique throughout the ages."

"Many ancestors in the upper world said that my master would be the genius most likely to reach the Golden Immortal stage in the last few hundred kalpas."

"But..."

A deep sadness welled up in Jiang Yan’s eyes.

"In the turbulence of the river of time, in order to protect me, my master was accidentally splashed by a drop of water from the river of time..."

"No matter how brilliant my master was, he was only at the peak of Refining Emptiness to Join the Dao."

"What could he do in the face of the river of time that even Golden Immortals have to be careful about?"

"I watched my master wave at me with a smile, and then, the lifespan of a cultivator at the Refining Emptiness to Join the Dao stage, which lasted for tens of thousands of years, dissipated in an instant."

"He passed away before my eyes, in a short moment, even his bones disappeared."

Jiang Yan clenched his fists tightly.

Now, he had successfully deceived even himself.

Zhongli and the others didn't know how to comfort Jiang Yan, and Ganyu reached out with some heartache, wanting to pat Jiang Yan on the shoulder.

But in the end, she didn't have the courage.

"You said it."

Zhongli suddenly said:

"The Great Dao is fifty, the heavens derive forty-nine, and the one that escapes is the one, and this one is a glimmer of life."

"You survived, which is not necessarily a victory of the Shushan ancestor’s struggle against fate."

"Therefore, you should pass on Shushan even more."

Jiang Yan was stunned for a moment. He really didn't expect Zhongli to master the secret of cultivation so quickly.

He even started using these words to comfort him.

It seemed that these words had indeed made Zhongli trust him a lot more. ===== CHAPTER 17 =====