Day of Ascension

Slightly flushed, Xu Ying said, “I-I’ll return it when I’m done. I haven’t finished reading it yet. Look at you panicking. It’s not like I’ll steal your scripture.”

This black bear was a demon from Mount Xiao and an old acquaintance of Xu Ying.

Children from poor families matured early and shared the family burden. Xu Ying worked as a snake catcher in Lingling County, so he spent his days roaming the mountains and wilds in search of strange snakes. On those wild paths, he often encountered demons.

Xu Ying was an honest child, but he had practiced the Grand-Unity Guiding Method from a young age and thus had robust vital energy. Ordinary demons were no match for him. So, Xu Ying ended up getting acquainted with many demons in the mountains of Lingling County through fights.

After years of practice, his cultivation hit a bottleneck with no clear path forward. Thus, he began to extort scriptures from demons to study and seek a breakthrough.

The bear demon, Xiong Qianli, was one of his many victims.

Yuanqi glanced at the black bear. Licking his lips, he whispered, “Are we really not eating him? I’m a little hungry.”

Xiong Qianli glared. “Xu guy, you were going to eat me!”

Xu Ying comforted him. “You know me, Qianli. I’m handsome and kind-hearted. I don’t eat demons. If I did, I would have eaten you years ago.”

As if in defiance, his stomach growled disobediently.

Xiong Qianli jumped in fright and shrank deeper into the corner.

Xu Ying searched around the cave. The great bell followed, clanging as it bumped into things. Fortunately, the heavy rain masked the noise; otherwise, it would have drawn pursuers.

He looked around for a while, but he only saw kitchen utensils and some old books in the cave, along with some sweet potatoes. There was no other food.

Xu Ying glanced at Xiong Qianli in the corner. The black bear shivered and cried out, “Don’t look at me, I don’t eat humans! Last time, you said not to harm people. I even quit eating chicken, duck, cats, and dogs. There is no meat here! Look at the fields outside. I planted all those sweet potatoes!”

Scratching his head, Xu Ying said, “You can eat some wild game. Forget it, it’s not like I can’t do without meat. I won’t die from eating some sweet potatoes.”

He gathered some sweet potatoes and placed them in the fire to roast. Soon, their aroma filled the cave.

The black bear was also hungry. He approached cautiously and asked for a few.

Yuanqi couldn’t help but get angry at his spineless behavior. “This is your cave. You planted those sweet potatoes. They don’t belong to him. Do you have to be such a wuss?”

The black bear wiped away his tears and said with a choke, “He has never beaten you...”

Yuanqi’s eyes reddened. “Brother... so you went through it too.”

Xu Ying put down the roasted sweet potatoes and said unhappily, “Qianli, I thought we were friends. I didn’t expect this!”

The black bear sat beside Yuanqi meekly and whispered, “He picked up a rock and squeezed the water out of it. Said he’d squeeze the juice out of my head and force-feed me if I didn’t hand over my scripture.”

Xu Ying heard all of this. His expression darkened, but he didn’t say a word. He kept his head down and ate the sweet potatoes.

You clearly said you were willing to be friends with me, but you’re badmouthing me behind my back! Hmph!

Yuanqi secretly glanced at Xu Ying and whispered, “He did the same thing to me! Stone, water, threats, the whole process. It was really terrifying!”

Xiong Qianli lowered his voice even more. “He acts like a thug. Demons like us are more civilized!”

Yuanqi nodded. “Brother, what kind of books do you usually read?”

Xiong Qianli was surprised and delighted. “You like reading too?”

The two demons felt they had found kindred spirits and quickly warmed to each other. Xu Ying’s presence, however, kept them from speaking freely.

After brewing the medicine, Xu Ying divided it into two parts: one for external use, one for consumption. He applied the medicine for Yuanqi. Meanwhile, the snake demon lifted the pot with his tail and gulped down the medicine.

Then, Xu Ying applied the medicine to himself. His internal injuries weren’t severe, but his physical wounds were serious enough to require attention.

After applying the medicine, Xu Ying looked outside. Although the sky was dark, the sun had not set.

“Yuanqi, the bell taught me the way to practice Inner Vision. It can heal the five viscera and six bowels and increase one’s cultivation by transforming qi from the five viscera into primordial qi. I’ll teach it to you.”

Seated by the fire, Xu Ying explained how to condense consciousness into a divine sense, use it to open the door, and enter the ethereal void.

“Once you unlock the ethereal void within you, you will see your five viscera and six bowels. Your heart and lungs will look like inverted mountains hanging from the sky. There are five qi in your viscera, radiating five different colored divine light. You will see it when combined with the Great-Sun Tempering technique.

“Gather the five qi, and you will achieve Five-Qi Origin Convergence and refine primordial qi. Once you reach this stage, your cultivation will improve by leaps and bounds. It won’t be difficult to become a Demon King.”

Yuanqi listened intently. Xiong Qianli also listened by the fire, dazed.

After he finished, Xu Ying left them to their cultivation while he practiced Inner Vision himself, sending his divine sense into his ethereal void.

Yuanqi was a strange snake whose strength rivaled Xu Ying. He had fought Xu Ying for three days and nights before being captured. His innate talent was remarkable. After hearing the explanation once, he grasped most of it. He focused on his nose and inner self, soon entering meditation.

The black bear, however, struggled to follow. He had no choice but to sit by the fire and slowly work through the teachings.

Sitting before the fire, Xu Ying focused his consciousness on the Grand Unity[1]. With his eyes half-closed, divine light pulsated under his eyelids like yellow sprouts.

The white jade door appeared before his eyes once more. He pushed through the door and entered the ethereal void.

His first visit here had been brief. This time, with the heavy downpour cutting off his pursuers, he had plenty of time to explore this world within him.

Even though it was his second time entering the ethereal void, the sense of awe remained unchanged.

Floating in the sky, Xu Ying surveyed the surroundings. The dazzling array of colors within the ethereal void, impossible in the real world, held him spellbound.

Primordial qi formed streams that arced across the sky like rainbows. His heart and lungs hung inverted from the sky like mountains. The five qi fell like waterfalls, converging into primordial qi.

Primordial qi vaporized, met thunder, turning to rain, or else condensing into a blazing sun that swept through the mountains, illuminating his five viscera and six bowels.

Xu Ying felt refreshed. His divine sense roamed the world alongside the stream of primordial qi, using it to heal his internal injuries.

Within the layer of clouds, bolts of lightning flashed with startling clarity. He could even see every detail of the lightning, filled with power and sharpness.

Xu Ying thought, The great bell said that I only cared about harvesting qi and ignored Inner Vision and Actualization. Now, I’ve learned Inner Vision, but what is Actualization?

The great bell had clashed with Xue Lingfu and Zhou Yihang to save him, using up the last of its powers. Now, it was in deep slumber, so Xu Ying had no way to learn about Actualization now.

While roaming the ethereal void, Xu Ying noticed, with the help of the light emitted from Thunderous-Rumble Tempering, that there were still many dark areas inside him that he had never noticed before.

“What are those places?”

The lightning would, at intervals, illuminate the towering mountain ranges in the darkness. They undulated like a massive dragon, their origins unknown. As he traced the peaks through the flashes, he saw that the mountain ranges seemed to descend from above, falling from the sky!

Xu Ying was stunned, his mind filled with doubts. Then, he saw water surging from the horizon, as if it were about to engulf the mountain ranges!

Beside the mountain ranges, a Heavenly River hung from the sky.

The lightning flashes vanished in an instant. The towering mountain ranges and river disappeared into the darkness again.

Xu Ying composed himself. Another flash split the sky as thunder roared right after. In that brief light, he glimpsed a colossal door standing between the mountain ranges and the river in the darkness. It stretched from heaven to earth, cutting them apart. The door shimmered with a black, iron-like luster.

After the lightning faded, the door also vanished, swallowed by the darkness.

That door... Xu Ying was deeply shaken. His divine sense soared, trying to fly closer to look. However, just as he arrived at the edge of the darkness, his “vision” blurred. His divine sense began to fracture.

He hesitated, then pushed forward. His divine sense wavered, then shattered and disintegrated.

Xu Ying woke up from his Inner Vision. Just as he was about to rise to his feet, the world around him spun, and he collapsed to the ground with a heavy thud, losing consciousness.

While unconscious, pain split his head apart. He was in a daze, and nightmares flooded in one after another, bizarre and terrifying, as if his inner demon had invaded his mind.

As he gradually regained consciousness, he couldn’t remember a single dream.

Xu Ying slowly opened his eyes. Excruciating still throbbed in his head, as if an ax were embedded in the left side.

His vision gradually cleared. Yuanqi and Xiong Qianli’s faces came into view. The two demons looked at him with concern. Seeing him awake, the two finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Yuanqi cried out, “You suddenly fell unconscious and scared the hell out of us brothers!”

Noticing the confusion on Xu Ying’s face, he hurriedly explained, “While you were unconscious, Qianli and I hit it off well, and we have become sworn brothers. I am the big brother.”

“And I am the little brother!” Xiong Qianli chimed in excitedly, “We realized we have so much in common. If we didn’t become brothers, we’d have to get married!”

That night, the bear demon and the snake demon talked about Xu Ying. Their chatter was endless.

Xu Ying shook his head, then patted it hard. The headache persisted, however. The two demons looked at him with concern, yet their gazes held a hint of apprehension, as if afraid he might smash his own head open.

After a while, Xu Ying felt a little better. He sat in a daze, then said hoarsely, “While I was exploring the ethereal void, I seem to have caught a glimpse of the mystic gateway to the realm beyond the Qi-Gathering Stage.”

Yuanqi froze for a moment. A shock ran through Xiong Qianli.

The two demons exchanged glances. Then, Yuanqi asked, his voice trembling, “Ah Ying, what did you say?”

Xu Ying thought it through, confirming his memory. “I practiced the Grand-Unity Guiding Method and have long since felt that I have reached the peak. My vital energy was ready to break through a barrier, yet there was no barrier to breach, and no path forward.

“However, when I practiced Inner Vision earlier, I saw that mystic gateway. It’s a pitch-black door, hidden in the darkness! I have a feeling that... once I break through that mystic gateway, a new world lies beyond.”

Yuanqi was overwhelmed with excitement. His voice still trembling, he asked, “You really saw that mystic gateway? There really is a path beyond it?”

Xiong Qianli also couldn’t suppress his excitement. He looked at Xu Ying wide-eyed, waiting for his answer.

Xu Ying nodded heavily. “There’s definitely a path!”

Yuanqi stood frozen like a statue. Tears suddenly fell as he murmured, “There’s really a path. There’s really a path... Hahaha! This is great, there really is a path! Ah Ying, you’re a great hero to us demons!”

He was overjoyed, overwhelmed with excitement, and cheered nonstop.

Hot tears welled up in Xiong Qianli’s eyes in excitement. He hugged Yuanqi and jumped up and down, laughing continuously.

For demons, the Qi-Gathering Stage was the limit. At best, they could become Demon King, yet no further. Countless Great Demons had reached the peak, their vital energy ready to break through, yet with no barrier to breach and no path ahead.

If Xu Ying really found the gateway to the next realm, then it was definitely an earth-shattering, joyous event for the demon race!

Xiong Qianli clenched his paws tightly and raised them high, bellowing, “Demons, rise!”

Yuanqi cried out, nearly losing his mind from excitement, “Overthrow the tyranny of humans!”

The two demons exchanged glances, then cried out in unison, “The Divine Land belongs to humans now, but it will eventually belong to us demons!”

Xu Ying sat up, not joining in their wild celebration, and muttered, “But don’t you find it strange? Until now, neither of you has mastered Inner Vision, nor entered the ethereal void. Yet, a human like me has mastered it first. Doesn’t that suggest demonic cultivation techniques may not belong to demons?”

He recalled that the great bell had once said that demonic arts were cultivation techniques of Qi Cultivators.

He said, “I think that demonic arts might not belong to demons, after all. Perhaps they are human cultivation techniques, practiced by human Qi Cultivators, but for some unknown reason, they were lost to time...”

Xiong Qianli threw an arm over Xu Ying’s shoulders and said excitedly, “Why assume they belonged to humans and not demons? Brother Qi and I discussed this. We reached a solid conclusion. You’re a demon who looks human. A rare humanoid variant.”

Yuanqi slithered over from the other side and leaned in close. He chuckled. “Ah Ying, you will reveal your true form sooner or later!”

1. A Daoist concept that represents the primordial source of the universe, the state of absolute oneness before the creation of heaven, earth, and the yin-yang dualities. ☜