Chapter 298 Ascension

Chapter 298: Ascension

Among the living Divine Transformation cultivators, there was one who had witnessed an ascension.

Though what he had seen was Kong Yu's second failed attempt.

This was known to all demonic cultivators at the Divine Transformation stage, which was why even among peers, they respectfully called this eldest member of the White Tortoise Clan Old Ancestor.

Of everyone present, aside from Pei Jie, only he watched this seemingly absurd, dreamlike illusion with the utmost gravity.

As the sky in the illusion was ripped apart again and again, and more and more legendary clans departed through the passages, the silence inside the mirage deepened.

A mere Foundation Establishment brat couldn't have imagined such a scene. Only someone who'd been through an ascension could dream up something this real—even the old demonic cultivator of the White Tortoise Clan couldn't spot a single flaw.

If that was the case, the kid really hadn't been lying to them. This really was a secret only the Sea-Subduing Flag and Kong Yu could know.

But Kong Yu, stuck inside the Sea-Subduing Flag, had no clue about any of this—he'd never seen anything like it. Seeing this, he was even more rattled than the rest of them.

"You can pick where you go when you break through the boundary?! You can pick what the other world looks like?!"

Kong Yu shouted inside Shang Yunduo's head.

Shang Yunduo, coiled up outside the demonic aura, let out a huge sigh of relief and gave a half-hearted "Mm."

Honestly, if they really wanted out, he couldn't stop them.

Nobody had to burn their true essence to the bone—if they all worked together—ten or more picking the same direction, or fifteen or more picking different ones at once—his manifested body would be stretched out and ripped apart.

Luckily, even now, they still didn't take him seriously.

For most of them, getting out of the black mist mattered way less than snagging the Sea-Subduing Flag and the Kunze Lamp.

So of course, nobody was gonna go all out.

With this many people around, why rush when nobody else is? Whoever busted their ass would just be a sucker—wouldn't that only help the people behind them?

If they burned too much energy, how would they fight for the loot later?

To be fair, this choice made sense. It was classic strong-person logic—

Since the Sea-Subduing Flag and the Kunze Lamp were what had them trapped in the mist, grabbing the artifacts was the best way out.

If Pei Jie were in the same spot, he'd probably do the same thing.

But their problem was the information gap. No matter how hard they racked their brains, they could never guess he had the Mirage Dragon bloodline, or that something called the Mirage Art even existed. So they naturally pinned everything on Kong Yu and the Sea-Subduing Flag—even the ascension—

Sure, Kong Yu had failed his ascension, but Hui Shuang—the previous owner of the Sea-Subduing Flag and the Kunze Lamp—had succeeded! Maybe these ascension visions came from Hui Shuang.

If not that, then how else could you explain it? Was a Foundation Establishment brat supposed to have dreamed all this up? Then what was the point of them cultivating all the way to their current realms? It'd be the biggest joke in the world.

But these ascension scenes were nothing like what they'd pictured.

So this is what it means to ascend?

This is what immortals look like?

Even if they were, what about the ones who got taken along? Some weren't even the same species!

What kind of era was this? People were ascending left and right—was it really that easy? What happened to the legendary Three Calamities and Nine Tribulations, the Heavenly Thunder Tribulation?

Finally, someone couldn't help but ask: "Old Ancestor, is this the same as the ascension you saw back then?"

The old demonic cultivator stayed silent for a long time, not moving a muscle.

In truth, these legendary races—the ones they called the ancestors of the Sacred Clan—were ascending with even more spectacle than Kong Yu had back then.

The White Tortoise Clan was great at divination. In their sacred grounds lay an ancient tortoise shell, left by their ancestor who was said to have lived alongside the dragons.

That shell had been around for tens of thousands of years, and could only be used for divination on major occasions.

They'd missed Kong Yu's first ascension attempt.

But before his second try, rumors had already spread across both realms. The clan leader at the time performed a sacrificial divination, and before anyone else caught on, they'd already made it near Kong Yu's ascension site. That was exactly why he'd seen it with his own eyes—tagging along with his grandfather, who helped with the ritual—watching Kong Yu tear open the sky, vanish, and come back.

So that was what ascension looked like?

Both realms had heard that Kong Yu's second ascension failed.

But from that day on, the clan leader stayed in seclusion guarding the tortoise shell in the sacred grounds, never leaving until he died.

He knew the clan leader had divined about ascension, and it cost him so much of his lifespan that he died younger than any clan leader before him. Before he passed, he left a clan rule banning the use of the sacred tortoise shell for divining anything about ascension.

But who could resist being curious?

He'd been curious too.

He'd divined when he first entered the Divine Transformation stage, and many times after that.

The truth of ancient times would be revealed to later generations.

Those cryptic shell markings had been pointing to today all along.

In that instant, his mental defenses crumbled.

Shang Yunduo finally broke into his Mind Sea and could see the fragments of his consciousness.

But a Divine Transformation stage Mind Sea was so vast that a Nascent Soul stage one couldn't even compare. The consciousness fragments inside an old demonic cultivator who'd lived for nearly four thousand years threatened to drown Shang Yunduo completely.

What surprised him even more was that the old demonic cultivator's consciousness fragments were all jumbled up.

It seemed like they'd been deliberately scrambled and hidden to keep Spiritual Sense from prying—burying what really mattered.

His defenses were way too strong.

But at this point, Shang Yunduo could only grit his teeth and keep digging.

If he failed, the moment they got out, it'd be his turn to get his soul searched.

Who'd let a Mirage Dragon that could soul-travel go free?

Killing him would be a mercy. They'd probably lock him up and use him as a tool instead.

His fate might be even worse than the Spirit Rhinoceros Clan locked in the Ninefold Palace, getting bled dry to brew wine.

He couldn't fail.

The aftereffects of soul-traveling through the mirage to find Hui Shuang's remnants flared up again, the headache worse than ever.

His soul felt like it was splitting into countless pieces, just like his body had when it turned into mist.

He knew he should have rested long ago—from the moment he overexerted himself during his divine travel, he should have rested and properly nurtured his divine soul, otherwise his future divine travels would be affected. But whether it was Kong Yu, the Nascent Soul Stage cultivators besieging Wenting City, or these Deity Transformation stage cultivators, none of them gave him a chance to rest at all.

Now he had to split his Spiritual Sense into over twenty strands, carefully continuing to invade the Mind Seas of the Deity Transformation stage cultivators.

Fortunately, with the Old Demon Cultivator going silent, many of their Mind Seas began to loosen up.

No matter how calm they appeared on the surface, the reactions within their Mind Seas couldn't be hidden—the Anger, in all sorts of colors, was so thick it was astonishing.

As he "tasted" this Anger, Shang Yunduo even felt a subtle sense of smugness.

Smug, and petty in his triumph.

Look! Even these big shots were rattled by his little tricks, weren't they?

Shang Yunduo could already picture Kong Yu laughing heartily, but it was only then that he suddenly realized Kong Yu had been quiet for a long time.

Shang Yunduo instinctively figured Kong Yu was secretly siphoning off the Anger again while he wasn't looking.

After all, since entering the Sea-Subduing Flag, Kong Yu probably hadn't "fed" on Deity Transformation stage demonic energy, so it was only natural he'd be tempted.

But no.

Kong Yu hadn't done anything.

"Senior Kong Yu? Senior?" Shang Yunduo called out to him with his Spiritual Sense, "...You haven't been affected too, have you?!"

Could demonic energy give rise to a Heart Demon again?!

But Kong Yu stayed silent, as if he'd vanished.

Shang Yunduo was momentarily dazed.

At times like this, he actually wished Kong Yu were there—even if he always mocked him, sometimes tricked him, or schemed against him—it was still better than being alone, walking on thin ice.

But he didn't dwell on whether Kong Yu had vanished or not. He only paused for a moment before continuing on his own.

Doing his best, searching as fast as he could for anything useful, then analyzing it himself.

Besides Ascension, what could possibly be useful to all these people?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

He couldn't find anything.

Every Deity Transformation stage cultivator had gone through Heart Demons; the things they cared about or couldn't let go of were no longer enough to trigger another one.

Only Ascension.

That was the only thing that rattled all of them.

So then...

They must want to see what the other world looked like after breaking through and ascending, right?

Shang Yunduo had no time to think it over.

Strong as they were, these Deity Transformation stage cultivators had already started learning Spells from those Ascension scenes.

If he didn't "switch the channel" soon, they'd start digesting the shock.

Without even a greeting, Shang Yunduo directly switched them to a new "camera angle," choosing an ancient demon clan member who had successfully "Ascended," letting the "camera" follow him to another world.

Kong Yu, who had been quiet for so long, suddenly let out a low laugh. "Boy, you really are a natural-born demon cultivator."

Hearing his voice, Shang Yunduo was a bit surprised and asked, amid his busy work: "Why?"

Kong Yu: "Heh, you've conjured so many Ascension scenes, but you deliberately chose one who relied on strength rather than clan bloodline to show them—aren't you mocking them?"

Shang Yunduo: "???"

He didn't even have time to figure out what Kong Yu was getting at.

The reason he chose this person was that he was the only one who Ascended alone. The others almost all brought their entire clans—which of the current Deity Transformation stage cultivators could bring their whole clan along?!

Would choosing those who dragged along their families even be useful?

And most importantly, he had seen this person during his divine travels.

He knew very well that this person wasn't particularly sharp. If he relied on his own flawed fabrications, even though he had seen many worlds during his divine travels, he couldn't fool these Deity Transformation stage cultivators whose minds were more porous than frozen tofu.

Rather than that, it was better to just copy reality directly.

The best Mirage Art was to pass off truth as falsehood, then use falsehood to confuse truth.

He wouldn't guide them—they didn't care anyway.

He tried to make them see the ancestors who struggled to survive in the chaos of battle, to see that while someone tore open the sky to Ascend, the ground was littered with others' corpses. But they didn't care at all, each one diving into the spells for breaking through realms.

Their Mind Seas were recording like crazy.

Since that was the case, he wouldn't guide them anymore. They could just follow the "protagonist" and play the "protagonist" themselves. After all, when he had traveled there, he had only attached himself to the person's artifact for a few years.

To be honest, Shang Yunduo didn't think the reference subject he chose was all that successful.

In his view, this person wasn't miserable at all. Although he went to a place with almost no spiritual energy, there was still a little bit, and he was the only cultivator there, with powerful spells, worshipped like a god.

If that guy was depressed, what did they have to be depressed about?

Didn't they all want to be gods?

Going to a place with no cultivators, carrying a full Cultivation—what was that if not a god?

The people of that world believed in this "god" without question, carving steles and statues for him, writing long poems and singing them everywhere.

Shang Yunduo evaluated quite objectively: "What's wrong with that? Even being a god doesn't guarantee such treatment, right?"

If it were up to him to arrange, he wouldn't arrange such a nice place. He'd make them all lose their Cultivation, or have their current Cultivation be so low in another world that anyone could trample on them.

But Kong Yu kept laughing.

The Ascender Shang Yunduo chose, upon closer inspection, bore some resemblance to many wolf clans among the demon race.

It was hard to say if he was an ancestor of some of them.

How others felt was hard to tell, but that wolf-clan Deity Transformation stage cultivator was probably about to explode in rage.

"Ascension" was going to a place like that to play house?!

If they wanted to pick a place to pass themselves off as immortals and have a crowd worship them, which of them couldn't do that? Every one of them is a big shot in their own domain—so what's the point of Ascension? Did they spend their whole lives cultivating and fighting tooth and nail to leave this world, just to end up in some godforsaken backwater like that?!

"Enough!"

As Kong Yu had guessed, the first to snap was the wolf clan's Deity Transformation stage cultivator. He swiped a claw at the crowd in the illusion bowing and praying before a statue, shredding the illusion to pieces. "What kind of Ascension is this?! This isn't Ascension at all!"

Kong Yu chuckled. "Hey kid, want to try cracking his Dao heart? Just use your Illusion to make him swap places with that ascender."

Anyone who's made it to the Deity Transformation stage in today's cultivation world—none of them are scared of starting from the bottom again. They sure as hell aren't scared of life-and-death crises or getting trampled on. What they're used to is fighting and clawing; as long as there are endless rungs above them, they can rely on their willpower and experience to grow stronger and keep climbing.

Emptiness?

That's what Shang Yunduo thinks it is.

But if they can't even get through that emptiness, how could they possibly advance to the Deity Transformation stage?

What they truly fear isn't what Shang Yunduo assumes—it's going to a completely hopeless world, spending their time on meaningless nothing, and then just dragging out their days until they die.

That's the real despair.

Now he was feeling that same despair all over again.

Why did he have to end up in such hopeless places twice?

"Kid, do the passages that were opened when the realms were broken through close up afterward?"

Shang Yunduo went blank. "...I don't know."

Kong Yu: "Let me put it another way—can those passages be closed?"

Shang Yunduo still had no idea.

But if something can be opened, it should be able to shut, right?

Kong Yu smiled.

People who can't open them wouldn't know that, and wouldn't even think about it.

Only people who've opened them are in a position to think about it and decide whether to close them.

"Ah..." Kong Yu took a deep breath. "As for the rest of them, find a way to make them believe that after the Ascension passages are opened, the ascenders will slam the doors shut behind them—that they'll never be able to use a passage someone else has already used."

Shang Yunduo: "That's not necessarily the case, is it?"

Kong Yu: "That doesn't matter. I just need them to believe it."