Chapter 349: Shocking the World

The sect predecessors who ascended are slaves and servants in the Immortal World, exploited by the Celestials...

This news was like a thunderclap, instantly overshadowing the unprecedented feat of Lin Bai leading ten thousand people to ascend, leaving the heads of the cultivators from the Seven Righteous Sects and the Demonic Five Sects buzzing, unable to recover for a long time.

No one was willing to accept such a fact.

Ascension is the lifelong goal pursued by every Cultivator.

Now Lin Bai suddenly says that after they persisted and worked hard for a lifetime, surviving the Heavenly Tribulation with nine deaths and one life, the result of going up is to be a slave for others.

Such a cruel truth, who could bear it?

Even playing with people shouldn't be done like this!

Almost in an instant, everyone's Faith collapsed with a roar.

Especially those ancestors of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, as if their Qi-Spirit-God had been drained, the whole person was in a state of despair, devoid of any vitality.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible." The Frost Cold Sword Saint had a fiery temper, overturned the table on the spot, and said with red eyes, "It must be Lin Bai's trick. Seeing that we won't join the Justice Alliance, he used this evil method to cut off our future, making us serve him..."

No one responded to him, only the Frost Cold Sword Saint panting heavily.

After a long while.

Patriarch Yuan Qing sighed and said, "Brother Frost Cold, sit down. A Magpie Bridge runs through heaven and earth, anyone can ascend to the Immortal World; Lin Bai has no need to lie to us at all."

Yi Wuji said, "Lin Bai suppresses the world with his own strength and orders us to forcibly join the Justice Alliance; he has long had no need to play tricks and schemes."

Once these words were spoken.

Another silence followed.

"The Heavenly Descended are players from another world. Lin Bai of the Justice Gate has turned the Cultivation World upside down, and now the Celestials of the Immortal World have come. Heaven is going to destroy our Cultivation World!" Gu Shang said gloomily.

"Without Lin Bai, the Cultivation World has no future either." The Beast Taming Sect's Bafang had half his black hair turn white in this short time; he shook his head and said, "Working hard at cultivation for hundreds of years, just for one day of ascending to become an immortal, yet the result is being toyed with by others in the upper realm. What is the point of the Cultivation World's tens of thousands of years of cultivation? We are just a bunch of jokes!"

"It's been tens of thousands of years, and not a single ancestor has returned from the Immortal World; we should have realized something was wrong long ago." Qiushui Chen was distraught, "Without Lin Bai's Magpie Bridge, we would still be kept in the dark!"

"Cultivation is indeed a trap; no wonder Lin Bai said that the Laws are the true path." Patriarch Yuan Qing said desolately.

"Everyone, what should we do next?" Zen Master Huiguang asked blankly.

"First go to the Shengji Sect and pass through the Magpie Bridge to the Immortal World. We must understand what the situation is like over there; we cannot listen to Lin Bai's one-sided story." Patriarch Yuan Qing said, "Our cultivation has neared the Tribulation Transcendence Realm, and one day we will trigger the Heavenly Tribulation. We must go to the Immortal World to resolve the dilemma where the Tribulation Transcendence Realm cannot use magic power in the Mortal World..."

"Master, what if Lin Bai makes things difficult for us?" The Daoist of the Heavenly Dao Sect asked. Impacted by wave after wave of events, his sharpness had long been filed away, and he had no intention of being an enemy of Lin Bai.

"We are no longer his enemies, why would he make things difficult for us!" Jianxin said, "On the road to resisting the Celestials, doesn't he need us comrades? Furthermore, before ascending, he entrusted someone to bring a message asking us to join the Justice Alliance. Now that the Cultivation World is a joke, if we still stubbornly remain enemies with Lin Bai, wouldn't that just make people laugh even more?"

"This monk does not mind joining the Justice Alliance, but I have a question: the Celestials of the Immortal World treat us like ants, so what about the Heavenly Descended divine abilities from a few days ago?" Fozi said, "Surely that wasn't bestowed by people from the Immortal World too!"

"What divine abilities?" Sect Master Bafang of the Beast Taming Sect asked suddenly.

The Beast Taming Sect had no heaven-gifted geniuses.

To spare his feelings, everyone had never told him about the heaven-gifted geniuses receiving divine abilities from the start.

This time, suddenly encountering the impact from the Immortal World, Fozi, Daozi, and the others were in such chaos that they had long forgotten their previous agreement.

"Uncle-Master Bafang, I will explain the matter of the heaven-gifted divine abilities to you later." Jianxin of the Heavenly Sword Sect glanced at Bafang and continued the previous topic, "Do you think it's possible that it has something to do with the Game Company? The Heavenly Descended treat our world as a game, and Lin Bai has always been regarded by them as an existence that destroys the game. Are our divine abilities given by the Game Company just to make us fight Lin Bai to the death, and use our hands to get rid of Lin Bai?"

"That is exactly what I fear. If we go and join Lin Bai, will we anger the Game Company?" Fozi said.

"..." Everyone was silent.

"There are Celestials above and players below; everyone treats the people of our world as playthings, so who cares about that much? Has the Game Company not treated us as playthings?" The Frost Cold Sword Saint said angrily, "If we join Lin Bai early, perhaps we can still fight for a glimmer of survival."

"Brother Frost Cold, Lin Bai also treats us as playthings." Yi Wuji said leisurely, "So far, we have suffered the most at his hands..."

Everyone looked at each other, feeling increasingly sorrowful.

They could not understand how they, who were once at the very top of the world, had become the most pitiful group of people in the world in just a few short months?

"Forget it, of the three evils, choose the lesser. We know very little about the Game Company, but they can mobilize the people of one world to invade another; such divine abilities are not something we can rival. The Celestials are in the Immortal World; if we don't ascend, they probably won't come down." Patriarch Yuan Qing's voice was hoarse as he said, "Only Lin Bai is close at hand. Let us go and join him, and let him be at the front, charging into battle for us to resist the other two evils! Perhaps in the end, we will be the ones who benefit."

"Brother Yuan Qing is right. Lin Bai likes to show off; he will definitely be on the front line against the Celestials, so we will just follow him." Gu Shang of the Danling Sect said, "This is a strategy of driving the tiger to swallow the wolf."

"Exactly, exactly, driving the tiger to swallow the wolf, it is indeed a good strategy." Everyone echoed, looking for reasons to excuse their behavior.

Patriarch Yuan Qing looked around at everyone and sighed, shaking his head: "Before, the sect masters of the Demonic Five Sects said they wanted to unite with us to resist Lin Bai and the players, so we might as well unite with them and go to the Shengji Sect together. Who could have imagined that after fighting to the death for so many years, it would be an external enemy that united us..."

"... After ascension is enslavement, and the genderless Celestials are born from the Mother Body. What do you all think?" 【Eagle of Foresight】 asked.

"Analyzing purely from a gaming perspective, everything is very normal. Ascension is equivalent to changing maps, and it is perfectly normal for the monsters to be high-level after changing maps. If everything were peaceful after ascension, that would be abnormal." 【Chengfeng】 said.

"So Boss Feng thinks the Immortal World is also being manipulated by the Game Company?" 【Sun at its Zenith】 said.

"Nine times out of ten." 【Chengfeng】 said, "Without Lin Bai invading reality, players would think it's normal to encounter Celestials when ascending to the Heavenly World, and then continue playing the game with great interest. Perhaps there would even be a few more quests to save sect predecessors, ending with overthrowing the rule of the Celestials and defeating the Nine Great Heavenly Kings, drawing a perfect period for the game. Don't you think the Celestials' realm division is a bit like child's play? Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum... all the way to Heavenly King, doesn't it look like game settings?"

【Black Sheep】 said: "In the end, the Game Company is the mastermind behind the scenes!"

【Radium Lightning】 said: "If you don't treat this as a real world and keep playing it as a game, the plot is actually quite interesting."

【Sunset】 said: "It's a pity that there's an extra troublemaker like Lin Bai, who forcibly ruined our gaming experience and forced us to deal with the problems of the Three Realms at the same time. He turned a perfectly good game into a doomsday crisis for three worlds."

【Tiger Guarding the Mountain】 said: "Is Boss Sunset so optimistic about Lin Bai? Do you think he can bring a crisis to the Immortal World too?!"

【Sunset】 said calmly: "A man who has had no defeats since his debut is naturally worth being optimistic about. The Celestials are so powerful, didn't they still kneel when they met Lin Bai? Rather than saying I'm optimistic about Lin Bai, it's better to say I'm optimistic about the Justice Gate behind Lin Bai. All the high-level officials have long equated the Justice Gate with the Game Company."

【Eagle of Foresight】 said: "The meaning from above is for us to use the players' Undying Body to assist Lin Bai in resisting the Celestials, and take the opportunity to strengthen our influence in the other world. What do you all think?"

【Chengfeng】 said: "What else can we think? After Lin Bai invaded reality, we have no decision-making power left. Whatever he orders, we just do it..."

【Cunning Fox】 said: "Everyone is being led by the nose by Lin Bai! What Game Company, what Celestials, I just feel like Lin Bai is the final BOSS!"

【... Establish a territory of your own (Completed); Reward: Marking (Issued)】

【Protect your base and make a name for yourself in the Immortal World; Reward: Positioning (You can know the exact location of the marked target)】

Lin Bai set the Reception Pool as his territory, the Great Heavenly Venerable System's initial task prompt was completed, and at the same time, a new task was given.

Lin Bai set the mark on his Disciples.

Then, more than twenty moving small dots appeared in his mind, and that was all; it had no other function.

However, combined with the rewards from the second task, marking plus Positioning, it is somewhat like the global map plus teammate location markers in a game.

Marking the enemies as well is actually suitable for team battles...

Thinking about it, it makes sense; the Great Heavenly Venerable wants to dominate the Three Realms.

Naturally, one must open up the entire map to be able to meticulously control the Three Realms.

Through marking, one can have the movements of all realms at one's fingertips.

Following this deduction, the Great Heavenly Venerable System might develop abilities in the future such as teleporting based on markers or viewing the environment around a marked target, just like Xiaobai's Positioning Ring!

However.

If it really is like that, without a brain like a supercomputer, I'm afraid one really wouldn't be able to handle the Venerable's Skills.

After all.

Lin Bai currently has three extra perspectives from his split souls; activating Xiaobai's Positioning Ring makes it four perspectives, and adding his main perspective, if he gets more of those marking perspectives in the future, he will surely suffer a mental breakdown...

At this moment, Lin Bai suddenly understood why there was no upper limit to him consuming Spirit Fruit; only a massive Spirit could support such high-intensity labor!

Damn the System!

Thinking of the divine abilities of those big shots in myths who could survey the Three Realms and know five hundred years into the past and five hundred years into the future, Lin Bai felt tired just for them...

People came and went at the Reception Pool, and Cultivators and players were constantly coming up to the Immortal World to visit.

These people asked about this and that, so Lin Bai simply stripped the Celestials he had turned into Puppets, tied them up with Rope Binding, and hung them up for people to visit to increase persuasiveness.

Of course, the one who could increase persuasiveness the most was Bai Feng, who had been fed an Enlightenment Pill by Lin Bai and subjected to a truth spell.

After being given the order to guard, this guy could not perform any attacks on the outside, but he could speak.

Celestials are arrogant and proud; how could he endure being turned into a Puppet and also being hung up for a group of ants to visit?

Ever since he regained his consciousness, Bai Feng had been in a state of extreme rage, constantly hurling his most heartfelt curses at the people who came to visit, touch, and question him...

Whether they were natives or players, they were all full of curiosity about the Immortal World.

The Celestials were powerful, and they dared not rush out to explore secrets, so they had no choice but to torment the immobile Bai Feng.

Because of the truth spell, Bai Feng's curses would always reveal a lot of useful information.

This was exactly what everyone wanted, and information about the Immortal World was pieced together bit by bit in this way.

Then.

Under Lin Bai's instruction, the players published it in a timely manner through the two publications, "Justice Weekly" and "Heavenly Dao Review".

Lin Bai had to ensure his influence in the media world at all times...

The Magpie Bridges had long been built by various countries, and through the Magpie Bridges, it was very convenient for everyone to travel back and forth.

Players, as well as Cultivators from the Seven Righteous Sects and the Demonic Five Sects, arrived at the Shengji Sect one after another, and then ran to the Immortal World through the Magpie Bridges.

More and more people were going up to the heavens.

In order to increase visitor traffic, Lin Bai opened a few more Magpie Bridges; the Justice Alliance was never short of couples.

Moreover, Lin Bai also had to take precautions.

If the couple in charge of a Magpie Bridge died, the Magpie Bridge would break, and once the base could not be held.

Without the Magpie Bridge, it would be difficult to go up to the Immortal World again.

Qingyu and Huaxi were his card Puppets and would be of great use in the future; he could not let them suffer casualties...

All members who had survived the Heavenly Tribulation had ascended, and the Light of Reception still existed. Lin Bai, Tuohai, and the others studied it for a long time but could not find where to control the Heavenly Tribulation.

As for closing the Light of Reception, it was actually very simple; one didn't even need Bai Feng, one could understand it at a glance.

In the center of the Reception Pool, there was a disc that looked like a ship's wheel; when the Light of Reception was on, it would rotate slowly, and there were scales on it showing "one person," "two people," "three people"...

Each notch was further than the last; once someone survived the Heavenly Tribulation and the Light of Reception turned on, the disc would automatically turn to the corresponding position and then move back bit by bit until it returned to its original position, and the Light of Reception would disappear.

This disc could be reset manually.

Usually.

After Tribulation Transcendence and ascension, the Light of Reception would exist for half an hour.

But this time, more than ten thousand people survived the Heavenly Tribulation at the same time, pushing the disc to the very end, and it was crawling back bit by bit.

According to the usual duration of the Light of Reception, it would take at least four hundred days for the Reception disc to reset; no wonder it attracted Bai Feng's attention.

He came this time just to manually close the disc and stop this mass ascension of ten thousand people...

"Master, more and more people are going up to the heavens through the Magpie Bridges. The commotion is too big; will it attract the attention of those Celestials outside?" Xu Longyun looked at the bustling Reception Pool and asked worriedly.

"That's right, Master. Although Bai Feng was hit by the truth spell and we got a lot of words out of him, he would keep his mouth shut when encountering key questions. We still know nothing about the situation in the Immortal World. Should we send people out to scout for information? After all, one must know oneself and the enemy to be invincible in a hundred battles." Ye Song had obtained Law Power and his heart was extremely inflated; he only thought about going out to spar with the Celestials and test his Law Power.

"No rush, I still have some preparatory work to do." Lin Bai looked at the bustling Reception Pool, thinking about several unfinished tasks in his heart, "At the very least, I must unite the lower realm into one heart before I can truly explore the Immortal World. Otherwise, if trouble breaks out in the rear, it will only hold us back..."

(End of this chapter)