Xie Liufeng’s ascension process was actually not grand at all.

He merely chose a roughly suitable time and place and quietly passed through the tribulation of thunder and heart demons, then disappeared at the end of the Heavenly Ladder.

As he said himself, besides fishing, he had never failed at anything in his life.

In the half month before Xie Liufeng left, everything was calm and peaceful.

Ming Xiao brought his cane and still-healing leg and went every day to Qingjing Peak.

He rarely had experience comforting others, struggled to say words like “Don’t worry” and “Everything will be fine,” and was frightened himself.

Fortunately, the person being comforted didn’t mind his clumsy consolations or perhaps didn’t even notice what he said.

Chu Xinghui didn’t act hysterical, on the contrary, he remained very calm.

He sat for a long time in the courtyard, looking up at the clear blue sky.

It seemed he was waiting for an ending that was about to come.

On this day, Ming Xiao came as usual to visit his almost statue-like friend.

His leg had almost fully recovered, he could toss aside the cane and climb Qingjing Peak on his own two feet.

Chu Xinghui was still in the courtyard. Ming Xiao went to the kitchen to get a stool and teapot and diligently brought the items back to Chu Xinghui’s side.

He served himself simply and self-sufficiently, then muttered uneasily: “…It feels a bit cold.”

The temperature felt almost like winter.

He looked up at the sky and saw it was gloomy, like a rainy day.

Chu Xinghui probably wasn’t going back inside. Ming Xiao thought about setting up a rain protection formation around them first.

Chu Xinghui said: “It’s snowing.”

After Xie Liufeng left, Chu Xinghui hadn’t spoken for a long time, his voice now sounded a bit hoarse.

He suddenly spoke, making Ming Xiao jump, who then realized: “It’s this time of year? Shouldn’t be snowing…”

He stopped mid-argument because it really was snowing.

Feather-like snowflakes fluttered down from the dark sky, landing on the lush late spring grass and trees, quickly piling as a thin layer on the ground, then melting into cold water due to the temperature.

Chu Xinghui stretched out his hand and caught a snowflake.

The snowflake touched the warm palm and slowly melted into a small wet spot.

Within it, Chu Xinghui sensed a very faint, yet familiar aura.

Like himself, Xie Liufeng also had the Ice Spirit Root.

Chu Xinghui seemed to realize something and once again looked up at the sky.

He heard a long, lingering bird song.

In the next moment, a golden large bird suddenly appeared in the dark sky.

It pierced through the dark clouds and the swirling snow like a golden arrow, heading straight toward Qingjing Peak.

Chu Xinghui stood up and stretched out his hand.

The golden large bird transformed into a streak of light and landed in his hand.

That was his sword.

Xie Liufeng had fulfilled his promise and returned his spirit sword.

…A spirit sword with sufficient divine power, enough for all the plans Chu Xinghui needed to carry out.

Chu Xinghui pulled the golden black bird that had transformed inside the spirit sword out and calmly asked it: “Where is Xie Liufeng?”

The black bird shrank back to its usual size, stood on his hand looking around left and right, seeming completely unable to understand human speech and dare not respond at all.

Chu Xinghui stared at it for a moment, saw it was of no use, and intended to put it back into the spirit sword.

The black bird refused to go back in, instead, it grabbed his clothes and pulled him outward.

Chu Xinghui understood what it meant.

He directly rode his sword and left the place.

Xie Liufeng must have done something unexpected in the Upper Realm and needed him to ascend immediately.

Ming Xiao had not yet reacted and immediately stood up, taking a couple of steps forward to chase after him: “Chu Xinghui!”

But Chu Xinghui had already disappeared.

Ming Xiao was stunned for a moment, then took out a stack of communication talismans and informed others of the situation here.

*

Chu Xinghui soon arrived at the place where Xie Liufeng had ascended before.

Fang Yan knew Chu Xinghui would ascend sooner or later, so double the usual preparations had been made at this location, he no longer needed to wait long like Xie Liufeng.

Chu Xinghui activated the surrounding arrays and began breaking through the barriers of ascension directly.

……

When Ming Xiao led people chasing after him, a large mass of black ascension tribulation clouds had already gathered in midair.

He saw his friend standing beneath the tribulation clouds and shouted: “Chu Xinghui!”

Hearing his own name, Chu Xinghui turned his head to glance at him and nodded in response.

Xue Heng, afraid that Ming Xiao’s loud cries would disturb Chu Xinghui’s mindset, dragged Ming Xiao aside.

He looked back once toward Chu Xinghui’s direction and sighed in his heart.

This was inevitable sooner or later… maybe it was better to get it over with.

The tribulation thunder began to fall.

The power of the ascension tribulation thunder was extraordinary, nobody who came to watch could approach closely and could only watch from afar as the person was completely engulfed by the thunder’s radiance.

Chu Xinghui had previously stayed cultivating within heavenly thunder, thus, the ascension thunder tribulation was not difficult for him.

He allowed the heavenly thunder to cut open his flesh, to refine his muscles and bones… this process lasted an unknown length of time until his bones, blood, and soul all took on a faint golden glow.

His divine bones were formed.

The thunder’s sound in Chu Xinghui’s ears gradually calmed, replaced by an indescribable feeling of lightness.

Endless power surged into him, he seemed to hear the voices of all things and to have become part of all things.

Chu Xinghui opened his eyes and saw that within the clouds appeared a golden, step-like structure.
It was the Heavenly Ladder.

He tightened his grip on his spirit sword and slowly walked upward.

Then, his vision suddenly flickered and he saw a corpse lying on the Heavenly Ladder ahead.

His hand gripping the sword trembled.

He blinked slowly, and his gaze drifted to the corpse’s face.

It was the face he knew best: Xie Liufeng’s face.

Chu Xinghui almost stepped forward.

But in the end, he did not move. Instead, he raised his spirit sword.

Sword wind lifted his hair, and in the next moment, the sword light directly tore the illusion apart.

…This was the last heart demon tribulation before his ascension.

The illusion had revealed what he feared most at the moment of ascension.

It was not that he was unafraid—because he was so afraid, he remained clear-headed, knowing he could not stop here.

As the illusion shattered layer by layer, the true Heavenly Ladder finally appeared before Chu Xinghui.

He walked step by step forward.

As he neared the end, he finally saw what was called the Exile Land and heard the never-ceasing heavenly thunder there.

He also saw, kneeling at the path’s end, Xie Liufeng.

Chu Xinghui stopped and almost thought the person before him was yet another illusion.

Even though he tried to tidy himself up, Xie Liufeng still looked very bad.

His body was covered with all kinds of wounds, his robes almost completely stained red with blood that continuously dripped, turning him almost into a bloodied man.

Some injuries came from recent battles with false gods, others came from the backlash of the Book of Fate.

Beside him floated a stone book—the very source of all this—the Book of Fate.

Cracks densely covered the book’s surface as if it was about to shatter completely.

Chu Xinghui wanted to rush over desperately, but Xie Liufeng shook his head at him.

He could not set foot in the Exile Land, or else the Heavenly Ladder would deem him “ascended” successfully and then disappear.

Chu Xinghui stopped and slowly walked to the closest spot near Xie Liufeng.
“Just now… it snowed.”

Xie Liufeng coughed twice, frowned as he swallowed the blood in his throat, then smiled: “It should be my spiritual power. When I accidentally scattered the sword just now when throwing it back, it caused it.”

His injuries were too severe. His body was full of holes, and he had begun to lose control over his spiritual power.

Yet facing Chu Xinghui, he still barely held out his hand to tidy his clothes, trying to cover the terrible wounds.

“Luck isn’t completely lost. This place replaced the core of this realm with this book to facilitate stealing our fortune. So… after this, this area of the Exile Land should disappear along with the Book of Fate.”

He tried to cover the wounds for a long time, but it was to no avail. He could only lower his hand and say to Chu Xinghui:

“Go ahead, begin. Meeting you once more before… is already very good.”

Chu Xinghui immediately refused and said urgently: “No, you come back first!”

Xie Liufeng shook his head and smiled very gently, repeating again: “Begin. Don’t wait for me. I can’t come back. Soon this realm will be destroyed, which will affect the connected Lower Realms. The black bird told you to come immediately for this very reason… I was worried before that you might not arrive in time.”

Although it turned out his worry was unnecessary, his Dao companion was so powerful, ascended so quickly, and still had some time left to say their goodbyes.

Chu Xinghui felt the blood chill throughout his body and softly murmured: “Can’t return…”

Xie Liufeng replied with a soft “Hmm.”

Chu Xinghui asked him: “Can’t return… what do you mean?”

Xie Liufeng looked at him and gently comforted him: “Little Star, don’t cry, okay? If you cry like this, I will leave with unrest.”

He wanted to comfort his Dao companion like before, but at this moment, they were separated by some distance and couldn’t even touch.

Chu Xinghui stared at him expressionlessly, stubbornly saying: “I’m not crying. You tell me… why can’t you return?”

Wasn’t the Heavenly Ladder supposed to have a loophole?

In the end, his voice trembled uncontrollably.

He reached to touch his uncomfortable eyes and felt a handful of tears.

Xie Liufeng could not refuse him and sighed, then explained: “As I said before, the Book of Fate is the core of this world. During its destruction, it absorbs all the power of this world to try to repair itself. So now, this world allows entry but no exit.”

Moreover… the Book of Fate is an artifact related to the Heavenly Dao. Although destroying it wasn’t as mystical as Master Guan Feng said, forcibly attacking it would cause Xie Liufeng to suffer backlash as well.

As he spoke, his face paled two shades further.

Chu Xinghui fixed his eyes on Xie Liufeng, finally raising his sword.

The power stored within the sword began to mobilize, a dense golden light soon appeared on the blade.

Since he began practicing the Dao, Chu Xinghui was a swordsman—holding a sword was second nature to him.

But at this moment, he felt like a child just learning swordsmanship, his hands trembling, unable to exert even a bit of strength, barely able to hold the spirit sword.

…He could not do it.

His Dao companion stood right before him, and he could not do it.

Xie Liufeng still gazed at him tenderly and even teased him: “What, do you want Master to teach you how to swing your sword?”

Unconsciously, tears streamed down Chu Xinghui’s face.

He closed his eyes and finally swung the sword out.

He used all his spiritual power, mixing it with all the golden light stored inside the black bird within him—concentrating all his strength onto the Heavenly Ladder beneath his feet.

The illusory Heavenly Ladder wavered slightly and suddenly broke cleanly in the middle.

The aftershock of the ladder’s break reached the Exile Land, the heavily cracked Book of Fate finally could no longer hold and shattered into dust.

As the Book of Fate broke, the whole Exile Land exploded silently and without sound.

Countless streams of spiritual light flew out from the dissipating world, heading straight to the Lower Realm.

These were the fortunes that the false gods of the Exile Land stole from the Lower Realm through the Book of Fate.

After many years, they finally returned to their rightful owners.

The earlier snow had already disappeared, the spiritual light fell into the Lower Realm, transforming into a continuous spring rain.

Countless people looked up at the gloomy sky and this silently nourishing rain.

Everyone vaguely sensed that something very important had returned, gradually filling the entire world.

*

East Sea.

Cultivator Baiyun stood alone on the long-deserted Bihai Taohua Island, looking up at the sky like everyone else.

She saw the Heavenly Ladder break in the middle and heard the sound of the Book of Fate shattering.

Bihai Taohua Island was deeply connected to the Book of Fate. Almost at the moment the Book shattered, the island beneath her began to slowly sink.

Previously, Yue Yao had shaped a “spirit” for her, but it was not enough to sustain her all these years. So before leaving, Yue Yao turned her into a bound spirit of the island.

She could only remain on Bihai Taohua Island and could go nowhere else.

The island continued sinking slowly.

Until finally… the salty seawater submerged her mouth and nose.

The disciples of Bihai Taohua Island mostly lived near the sea and all were water-proof or carried water-repellent talismans, even non-swimmers.

So she had long wondered why, when the island sank, she had no resistance and drowned without a struggle.

It was because… she had become a bound spirit of this place.

And she became a bound spirit precisely because she peered into fate and tried to defy Heaven’s decree.

Bihai Taohua Island made a living from divination, countless such warnings existed… yet when it truly came to herself, she realized belatedly how absurd it was.

This was the ending her disciple had chosen for her, it was the ending she chose herself.

The prophecy she tried hard to avoid arrived in an extremely ironic way, binding her so tightly she had no chance to turn over.

She finally closed her eyes completely beneath the deep sea.

*

Chu Xinghui stood on the broken Heavenly Ladder, striving to find a familiar figure among the various spiritual lights.

It was not just that the light was too dazzling, his eyes were too blurred… he saw nothing at all.

The golden light replaced his soul as the price for breaking the Heavenly Ladder, but the backlash still heavily injured him.

His current condition was not much better than Xie Liufeng’s had been before.

But he still stood, stubbornly refusing to close his eyes.

Until all the spiritual lights dissipated and the whole world fell silent.

Chu Xinghui finally could no longer bear it and knelt down. He suddenly felt that he had nowhere to go.

Xie Liufeng was gone, and with him, so was his home.

Chu Xinghui looked around in confusion, finally fixing his gaze on the half of the Heavenly Ladder at his feet.

Suddenly, he recalled the plan that Old Zheng and Cultivator Baiyun had mentioned.

Old Zheng had said… that a god’s bones and the soul of a Heavenly Dao child could be used as materials for the Heavenly Ladder.

Xie Liufeng had helped him obtain a spirit sword filled with golden light, he had not sacrificed his own soul.

Moreover, he had undergone the refinement of the ascension thunder tribulation and possessed divine bones.

So… now he had another piece of material that could be used to build a new Heavenly Ladder — perhaps one that could lead to the true Upper Realm.

He had said that no matter if Xie Liufeng lived or died, he would find him. So now, he would go to find him.

This thought finally gave Chu Xinghui some strength. He stood up again and began to carve his own divine bones.

Blood dripped like rain onto the broken Heavenly Ladder.

Looking at the bones he had dug out, he felt they seemed somewhat familiar.

Then he remembered the bones that Xie Liufeng had collected back when they first met.

Those bones… were the divine bones from Xie Liufeng’s first ascension.

So, many years ago, when Xie Liufeng had cut away his own divine bones… did it hurt this much as well?

He closed his eyes and threw his bones out to serve as the framework for building the new Heavenly Ladder.

Then, Chu Xinghui also forced out his soul.

The black bird, which had been motionless until now, suddenly flew out from the spirit sword, preceding Chu Xinghui’s soul and merging itself into the new “Heavenly Ladder.”

Chu Xinghui was stunned for a moment.

He did not hesitate further, and he too fused his soul into it.

The power of the Heavenly Dao within him detected his intent, and almost instantly, he lost consciousness.

The Heavenly Ladder that was constructed by divine bones and the soul of a Heavenly Dao child was simple and crude, but the moment it was completed, it burst forth with astonishing golden light.

This was a sign of recognition by the Heavenly Dao.

The new Heavenly Ladder extended forward, disappearing into the depths of the clouds.

No one knew where it led, but everyone who saw it realized that the place hidden at the other end had to be the true Divine Realm.

A Heavenly Dao acknowledged Heavenly Ladder — the Heavenly Dao would gradually complete all its functions. This was a very long process, possibly years, possibly decades, but one day, people of this world could ascend again.

After the new Heavenly Ladder was completed, it automatically absorbed the residual energy of the old ladder.

The old Heavenly Ladder, broken in two, completely disappeared. Chu Xinghui’s unconscious body lost its support and fell down from the sky.

…but this time, no one was below to catch him.

 

Support translation: