Chapter 870: Individual Choices
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Moon Shadow Sect, Ascension Platform.
The auspicious clouds dispersed, revealing the true visage.
Below the Ascension Platform, a deathly silence persisted for three breaths.
Then, it erupted into a mountain-shaking, tsunami-like wave of astonishnt.
"It's Real Person Jade Compassion!!"
"It's really her! The first to ascend in three thousand years!!"
No one did not recognize that face.
When Jade Compassion ascended back then, she did not keep it private. Instead, she widely invited fellow cultivators from across the world to witness the ceremony.
On that day, celestial flowers rained down, and golden lotuses surged from the earth.
So used that opportunity to break through their life-and-death barrier. So comprehended a Divine Ability and advanced further. There were even old cultivators plagued by chronic ailnts for years who regained a new lease on life during that baptism of the Great Dao.
For the cultivators of the Cangyun Realm,
Real Person Jade Compassion was not only the pioneer of ascension in the last three thousand years, she was also half a master!
"Real Person!!"
A white-haired, wizened old monster at the Unity stage trembled as he knelt on the ground, tears streaming down his aged face.
"You've finally returned... Have you seen my sect's Patriarch?
My Patriarch's na was Li Yuntian.
If his spirit watches from heaven, please have him send a ssage to his disciples and grand-disciples...
The sect can barely hold on any longer!"
This wail seed to flip a switch.
Countless cultivators knelt down one after another, hurling urgent questions towards the High Platform.
"Real Person, what exactly is the Immortal Realm like?"
"Why has my family's Patriarch, who ascended thousands of years ago, never sent back a single word?"
"Is it... that the Immortal Realm simply doesn't exist?"
Facing these faces filled with yearning, fear, and confusion,
Real Person Jade Compassion's hand holding the horsetail whisk tightened slightly.
Could she tell the truth?
Tell them that these cultivators' Patriarchs—those brilliant, heroic geniuses—had long since beco souls slain beneath White Sword's blade? That the so-called Immortal Realm was nothing but a slaughterhouse ruled by White Sword?
She looked at these cultivators.
She could not say it.
If she did, their Dao Hearts would shatter. The Cangyun Realm's last backbone would break.
"Silence."
Real Person Jade Compassion's voice was not loud, yet it flowed like a clear spring through a mountain stream, smoothing over all the clamor.
Her gaze swept over the crowd, her eyes carrying a solemn compassion.
"Your Patriarchs did not abandon you."
"Nor did they abandon your sects."
She lied.
"They... all died in battle."
Whoosh—
The entire place erupted in uproar.
"How is that possible?! The Patriarchs possessed vast Divine Abilities, had long since beco Immortals, how could they die?!"
"The Immortal Realm... does it have conflict too?"
"Yes." Real Person Jade Compassion nodded, her voice low. "It was a great war concerning the survival of the Cangyun Realm.
The Immortal Realm was once invaded by external enemies, reduced to scorched earth.
Your Patriarchs, in order to guard the entrance to this world, to prevent the flas of war from reaching the Lower Realm, all... died in battle outside the Gate of Heaven."
"Now, the Immortal Realm is being rebuilt."
"My descent to the Lower Realm this ti is precisely to guide you all, to inherit the will of the martyrs, to... rebuild the Immortal Realm, to seek vengeance!
The reason ascension has been so difficult these past three thousand years is also because the Immortal Realm had not yet caught its breath, insufficient to guide cultivators in their ascension.
Now, after three thousand years of recuperation, the Immortal Realm has recovered.
The Immortal Gate is open. You all have the opportunity to ascend!"
The wind blew across the Ascension Platform, carrying with it a sound of sobbing.
"Patriarch!!"
The Unity stage old monster from earlier, upon hearing these words, actually went limp and collapsed to the ground, wailing loudly.
"So... so you were protecting your disciples and grand-disciples..."
"I hate this! I hate my own lowly cultivation, that I couldn't share your burden!!"
This lie was too perfect, and too tragic.
It gave death the most dignified reason.
Within the crowd, so had their Dao Hearts collapse, because their final reliance—that imagined backer living in bliss in the heavens—had fallen.
But there were also so with strange expressions.
A gaunt, withered-looking old cultivator, upon hearing that his enemy's Patriarch had died, was first stunned, then threw his head back and laughed maniacally.
"Died well! Died well indeed!!"
"You old thief! You stole my Opportunity, killed my wife and children, and even after ascending you still threw your weight around! Now you're dead too? Hahahaha!"
"This calls for a great drink!!"
Laughter and weeping intertwined.
This was the myriad faces of living beings.
Real Person Jade Compassion watched quietly, sighing inwardly.
Fine.
With hatred, with reverence, with this grief and indignation...
Then perhaps they could last a little longer inside that painting.
"Do you wish to ascend?"
Real Person Jade Compassion suddenly spoke.
She flicked her wrist.
Whoosh—
That faintly shimring silver [Cangyun Mountains and Rivers Scroll] slowly unfurled in the air.
It did not display any beautiful mountains and rivers.
Instead, it resembled a bottomless vortex, exuding a heart-palpitating aura of the passage of ti.
"This scroll is nad the Cangyun Mountains and Rivers Scroll."
"It contains a self-contained world within."
"One instant in the outside world equals three thousand years inside the scroll."
As these words fell, the previously clamorous crowd instantly fell silent.
Everyone's breathing grew heavy.
Three thousand years in an instant?
Wasn't that... reaching the sky in a single step?!
"Don't rejoice too soon."
Real Person Jade Compassion's voice turned icy.
"These three thousand years are years 'deadened' by ti."
"There is no mortal world inside, no seven emotions and six desires, not even the feeling of 'being alive.'
Only endless, monotonous, day-after-day cultivation."
"Those who enter may go mad, unable to withstand the erosion of ti."
"Or, they may completely forget who they are, sever all desires, and beco walking corpses that only know how to cultivate."
"This is a shortcut."
"It is also a dead end."
"To enter, or not to enter. The choice is yours."
Looking at the stunned crowd of cultivators,
Real Person Jade Compassion sighed inwardly.
Stating the pros and cons was the limit of what she could do.
Normally, regarding White Sword's orders, she would exploit any loophole she could, and White Sword never pursued it, always maintaining a turn-a-blind-eye attitude.
She didn't know if he didn't care about her little maneuvers, or simply disdained them.
Everything now depended on these cultivators' own choices.
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