118: Chapter 118 The Mystery of Ascension: Upper Realm Demons Feed on Ascended Ones

The Continent of Desolation!

So their world actually has a specific name.

"Do you know that the Upper Realm we speak of—the legendary holy land of great freedom and leisure—has long since ceased to exist?"

Young Ancestor Xuan slowly closed his eyes as past events surged into his mind like a tide. His entire being radiated sorrow, and every word he spoke carried the heavy weight of blood and tears.

"Eons ago, my father, Ancestor Xuan, ascended to the Upper Realm and sent back information about it.

Our Continent of Desolation finally gained an understanding of that vast and powerful world.

From then on, subsequent cultivators all made ascending to the Upper Realm their goal."

The immortals present nodded slightly. Indeed, who among those who touched the path of cultivation did not yearn to become an immortal and ascend?

To cultivate to the level of a Heavenly Immortal, to undergo featherization and ascend in pursuit of a higher Dao—this was also their dream.

"However, after I reached the level of a Heavenly Immortal, I discovered that I could not undergo featherization and ascend like my father and other immortal predecessors!

I could not sense the existence of the Upper Realm, nor could I find the passage my father spoke of.

It was then that I realized I had long since lost contact with my father."

As he spoke, Young Ancestor Xuan's eyes filled with regret, and he beat his chest frantically. "I committed a grave error. I destroyed my father's life's work. I shouldn't have tried to be clever and reopen the ascension passage."

If he weren't just a soul spirit, it wouldn't be an exaggeration for Young Ancestor Xuan to beat himself to death in his current state.

"Calm down, Daoist friend," Lu Hu shouted, grabbing Young Ancestor Xuan's arm.

Honestly, even if he didn't care about his own body, he should consider others.

To wake him up, the people present had gone without sleep or rest for a full two months.

If he knocked himself unconscious again, it would be their exhaustion.

Being held by Lu Hu's brute strength, Young Ancestor Xuan gradually calmed down and steadied his emotions.

"My apologies, I lost my composure for a moment."

Young Ancestor Xuan looked apologetic and then continued.

"I reached the level of a Heavenly Immortal but could not ascend, so I remained on the Continent of Desolation until Ancestor Kun, Sparrow Immortal, and my junior brother also stepped into the realm of Heavenly Immortal.

At that time, I also noticed that the spiritual energy of the Continent of Desolation was decreasing, as if it were heading toward exhaustion. I theorized it was related to the severance of the ascension passage. Combined with the fact that there had been no word from my father, I eventually couldn't hold back and discussed the matter of ascension with Ancestor Kun, Sparrow Immortal, and my junior brother.

The four of us joined forces to build the pillar of heaven, forcibly carving out an ascension passage to the Immortal Realm.

We then took a hundred Earthly Immortals into the passage to ascend together.

But we never expected that this ascension passage was not a path to ascension, but... a path to the grave."

Young Ancestor Xuan's voice was hoarse and full of immense regret.

"The moment we stepped into the ascension passage, we were attacked by a fiend. It was a terrifying existence like nothing we had ever seen. The hundred Earthly Immortals didn't even have a chance to resist; they were swallowed whole by that demon in an instant.

It was also upon entering the Upper Realm that I received a message from my father, Ancestor Xuan.

The Upper Realm had been occupied by Extradimensional Demons. The Heavenly Court was destroyed, the Underworld had fallen, and the entire Immortal Realm had become a playground for fiends.

Before the Immortal Realm's destruction, great experts sealed it off and forcibly destroyed the ascension passages of the three thousand small worlds to cut off the possibility of fiends descending to slaughter all living beings.

The ascension passage of the Continent of Desolation was destroyed by my father, Ancestor Xuan.

But I... I forcibly opened a new ascension passage, reconnecting to the Immortal Realm and bringing the Continent of Desolation into danger."

"To make amends for my mistake, my junior brother and I fought the fiends to cover the retreat. Ancestor Que exhausted his lifelong cultivation to destroy the ascension passage we built with our own hands, ending the possibility of the fiends following the passage down to the Continent of Desolation. Ancestor Kun did not dare to flee, fearing that powerful fiends would use divination to find the Continent of Desolation's location and rebuild the passage. Thus, using the Kun Illusionary Way as a guide, he burned his own Dao Fruit to lay down an eternal illusory formation to hide the Continent of Desolation and deceive the fiends."

By this point, Young Ancestor Xuan was streaming with tears, and his soul spirit became increasingly weak.

"I should have died, but at the final moment, my junior brother took that fatal strike for me.

When I woke up, I had already returned to the Continent of Desolation. Only a single primordial spirit remained, which was taken in by the nation-guarding seal and transformed into an artifact spirit.

Over these years, I have been in a daze, only occasionally waking for a brief moment. Looking at you juniors, I didn't even have the strength to speak before falling back into a deep sleep...

If the nation-guarding seal hadn't received a supplement of providence and evolved, I might still be sleeping."

As his voice fell, the entire place went silent as everyone processed what Ancestor Xuan had said.

The Immortal Realm was ruled by fiends, and ascension was nothing more than going to one's death.

Of the four Heavenly Immortals, three had perished and one had become an artifact spirit. The glorious legend of a hundred immortals building the heavenly ladder was actually a complete tragedy.

Furthermore, listening to Young Ancestor Xuan's tone, the fiends of the Upper Realm were still searching for the Continent of Desolation. Once they found it...

...

A heavy pressure to the extreme, like a ten-thousand-foot mountain, pressed down hard on everyone's hearts. Even the air seemed to have frozen.

Lu Hu stood in place, frowning.

He didn't want to be a doomsayer. Thousands of years had passed without any fiends coming down; could they really come down now?

He just wanted to live a good life. But as a Heavenly Immortal who could live for an unknown amount of time, Lu Hu felt that just by outlasting others, he would eventually see the fiends descend.

He was the one under the most pressure. Others could die of old age, but his lifespan was certainly so long that the end was nowhere in sight.

Ancestor Kun's illusory formation could hide them for a while, but could it hide them forever?

If the fiends broke the formation and opened a passage to the lower realm...

Destroying the Immortal Realm, slaughtering immortals and gods, feeding on ascenders...

And now they were still looking for other small worlds to commit more atrocities.

Dammit!

Lu Hu cursed inwardly!

I can't just sit and wait for death. This King must become stronger!

The immense pressure gave Lu Hu the motivation to cultivate hard. He didn't say anything more, bid farewell to everyone, and returned to Tianduan Mountain.

...

Tianduan Mountain, Tiger King Sinkhole.

Lu Hu waved his hand, dismissing Lu Qing who was holding the poisonous tea.

In the past, he was quite in the mood to drink tea, but now, facing the Extradimensional Demons that could descend at any time, Lu Hu was anxious. He had no heart for tea and was so worried that a few strands of tiger fur had even fallen out.

In the demon-transforming fruit field, Lu Hu sat beside a demon-transforming fruit that was absorbing all evil thoughts as nutrients. Before him was the system panel.

In the five main quests, the empty interfaces for the illusory immortal grass and the fire dragon tree were particularly eye-catching, as if they were asking him: are you weak?

If you want to get stronger, look at the quests!

Time passed bit by bit. The sun set, night fell, and starlight spilled over Tianduan Mountain and onto Lu Hu's body.

After an unknown amount of time, Lu Hu suddenly revealed a smile.

"The path to becoming stronger lies within!"

system bro's rewards had never disappointed him.

So what if they are Upper Realm fiends?

I don't believe system bro can't take you guys down!

Lu Hu reached out, and a black stream of light flowed from his fingertips, seeping into the soil where the demon-transforming fruit was. Pure demonic energy intertwined with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, nourishing the fruit that carried great power.

"I can't wait."

Lu Hu shook his head. He had received news about the fire dragon tree as early as three months ago, but he hadn't been in a hurry to go, mainly wanting to wait for the demon-transforming fruit to ripen to strengthen himself for more stability.

But now, the ripening of the demon-transforming fruit was nowhere in sight, and he couldn't wait any longer.

Lu Hu left the demon fruit field. A shell as huge as a moving iceberg was opening up to breathe in spiritual energy.

She was Da Bei. Because of the quest to collect deep sea pearls, Lu Hu had subdued Da Bei and brought her back from the Cold Sea.

Later, because he completed the deep sea pearl collection quest and received the cold sea embryonic pearl as a system reward, Lu Hu had Da Bei take the cold sea embryonic pearl back to the Cold Sea to nurture it using the extreme cold qi there.

After three years, the cold sea embryonic pearl had become a cold sea pearl. This was an immortal treasure containing a terrifying intent of extreme cold.

But that wasn't the point. The point was the news Da Bei had brought back.

Those two big fellows in the Cold Sea were going to fight again.

Back then, Lu Hu had brought back a strange bone from the Cold Sea that was impervious to water and fire and incredibly hard.

As his power reached the Heavenly Immortal level and he studied that bone in his spare time, Lu Hu discovered some clues—clues related to the fire dragon tree.

Now that Da Bei had brought back news that those two big fellows in the Cold Sea were going to fight, Lu Hu felt the time had come.

Go to the Cold Sea and look for clues about the fire dragon tree.

...