Day of Ascension

In Matoupo Village, Xu Ying sat quietly while Madam Lu pressed his head down and poured ladle after ladle of water over him, rinsing the blood from his hair. “I’ve washed his hair like this his whole life. It’s been seven years now. How could he not be my son?”

Tears streamed down her face.

The villagers gathered around with wooden pitchforks, hoes, and kitchen knives, refusing to let Yuanqi, Dazhong, and Zhu Chanchan take Xu Ying away. Frail as they were, and terrified of the great snake, they still found the courage to stand their ground.

After Madam Lu finished washing Xu Ying’s hair, she wiped away her tears and choked out, “How could he not be my son?”

Xu Ying sat up. “Mother, I may truly not be your son. I can vaguely remember some things. I remember this great snake’s surname is Niu, and he’s called Yuanqi. We faced life-and-death dangers together and went through countless trials. There’s also Master Zhong. I keep seeing flashes of him risking his life to protect me.”

Zhu Chanchan looked at him expectantly. “And what about me, this old ancestor?”

Xu Ying hesitated. “Are you my child bride?”

Zhu Chanchan flew into a rage and thumped him twice on the head. “In your dreams! What are you thinking?”

Xu Ying said, “No wonder I don’t remember you. If you were my child bride, I’d definitely remember. I do remember a girl who liked eating rouge.”

He struggled to recall her name, then said excitedly, “I remember now. Her name was Yuan Weiyang! I liked eating the rouge on her lips!”

Yuanqi glanced at Dazhong, concern etched across his face. Dazhong quietly transmitted its voice. “It’s a good thing he thinks Yuan Weiyang is a girl. At least he’s remembering something.”

Madam Lu wiped away another handful of tears and looked toward Xu Jin; he remained silent.

The village head shouted, “Ah Ying’s mother, just say the word. We’ll fight these monsters to the death. No matter what, we’ll keep him here!”

A deep bell suddenly rang through the air, long and resonant. Its lingering chimes shattered the seals on everyone’s memories.

The villagers were only mortals, so the frowning old man and the other two hadn’t left particularly strong memory seals on their minds. Dazhong could break them with ease.

The memories buried beneath layers of dust flooded back. Soon, some of them remembered that three months earlier, three strangely dressed people had brought Xu Ying to the village.

Back then, none of them had known who he was. Yet before long, every villager believed they had known him for years. They all remembered Xu Jin hauling Xu Ying from the river with a fishing net seven years ago.

From then on, everyone believed Xu Ying had lived in the village for seven years. They also remembered the great fire that had destroyed his hometown, Xujiaping Village.

Now that the seals were gone, however, an instinctive fear rose in every villager’s heart.

What exactly was this young man?

Why had all the villagers’ memories changed after he arrived?

Xu Jin and Madam Lu’s memories had also awakened. The couple held each other and looked at Xu Ying with fear in their eyes.

“So I’m really not your son, am I?” Xu Ying’s heart sank, but he smiled.

The couple shook their heads.

Xu Ying’s nostrils twitched. The water they had used to wash his hair today had been a little cold. He told himself he must have caught a chill, because his nose suddenly felt sore.

Madam Lu hesitated, but said nothing.

Xu Ying looked at them, the corners of his mouth twitching.

Madam Lu and Xu Jin’s memories had returned. They knew Xu Ying was not their son and that they had never shared seven years. Xu Ying’s memories, however, remained unchanged.

In his mind, he had spent seven years with them. To him, they were still his parents. He still felt a deep affection for the two of them.

Xu Ying flew into the air and landed lightly on the river. With a sweep of his sleeve, a giant fish burst from the water and dropped onto the surface, struggling helplessly. There were enough to feed the villagers of Matoupo Village for quite some time.

Zhu Chanchan took out a spirit pill and tossed it into the village well. She informed Madam Lu and Xu Jin, “Once the spirit pill dissolves, draw water from the well and drink it. Then you’ll be able to conceive a child of your own.”

Yuanqi swam into the Yuan River, while Dazhong flew up and darted into the back of Xu Ying’s head. Yuanqi dived beneath the water, then raised his head, lifting Xu Ying as he swam east.

Madam Lu and Xu Jin watched them leave, their hearts heavy with melancholy.

Life in Matoupo Village gradually returned to normal. The villagers often spoke of their encounter with monsters, but the story did not end there.

Early the next morning, Madam Lu cried out in alarm. Xu Jin hurried outside to find a new boat in their courtyard.

A few days later, the couple woke to find a giant fish two or three zhang long in their courtyard. They still had fish from the previous days, so the two of them took it to the market and sold it.

Several days later, another giant fish appeared in the courtyard without explanation.

From then on, a giant fish would mysteriously appear every few days. Some said it was that monster named Xu Ying returning to repay a kindness.

Xu Jin and Madam Lu’s lives gradually grew more comfortable. Before long, Madam Lu became pregnant.

As the villagers continued drinking water from the well, their health steadily improved, and sickness disappeared from the village.

Three months later, autumn arrived. Xu Jin said to Madam Lu, “That monster son of ours hasn’t brought any fish these past few days.”

Madam Lu said, “We raised him for three months, and he repaid our kindness. Now our debt to each other is settled. We also have a child of our own now. It’s time for him to move on.”

Xu Jin nodded and went out fishing as usual. Strangely enough, the boat the monster child had given him was remarkably steady. No matter how fierce the wind and waves were on the river, the little boat remained as stable as Mount Tai.

Ah Ying isn’t the monster they say he is. He’s human. He has a human heart, he thought.

***

On Mount Wuwang, Xu Ying toiled day and night, hurrying back from Wuling. These days, he had always slipped away using sword kinesis in the middle of the night, racing several thousand li through the darkness to Wuling, then returning to Mount Wuwang before dawn.

“Ah Ying, you’ve already repaid your debt of gratitude. You don’t need to go anymore.”

Dazhong was waiting for him on the mountain. Seeing him return weary from his journey, he said, “You are a Qi Cultivator, and they are mortals. A minor disturbance to a Qi Cultivator would be a catastrophe for them. Don’t drag them into it.”

Xu Ying’s heart trembled. “Master Zhong, you’re right. I won’t go again.”

Yuanqi slithered over. “Ah Ying, your cultivation is even stronger than before. Have you remembered anything from the past?”

During these three months on Mount Wuwang, Xu Ying had fully recovered his cultivation and advanced another step, drawing ever closer to the fourth heaven of the Gate-Knocking Stage.

Fragments of memory surfaced from time to time: his life in Jiangjiatian, the days he fled alongside Yuanqi and Dazhong, Yuan Weiyang’s face, and Zhou Qiyun enduring his heavenly tribulation. But he still could not string these images together, nor could he fully remember the events of his past.

Zhu Chanchan was now a half-grown girl. Her aura was ethereal, almost immortal, and her cultivation was deep and vigorous. She wore Guo Xiaodie’s clothes; just as she had said before, Guo Xiaodie’s clothes were a bit small for her.

“It must be because, the last time the seal on his memories was broken, he secretly preserved a portion of his power to use against the talisman seal. That left a flaw in it.”

The young girl brimmed with vitality despite her old and decrepit mannerisms. She adjusted her clothing around her chest before bending down and leaning close to Xu Ying, examining the space between his brows.

There was indeed a faint, lightning-shaped mark there, so subtle that it was nearly impossible to notice without close inspection. She leaned in so close that their faces were nearly touching as she stared at the mark.

Simultaneously, she used Visualization to transform the shape of the lightning mark into a Dao avatar and record it. “This lightning-shaped mark should be the clue he left for himself before losing his memories. I suspect he had already prepared a way to break the seal the moment it was triggered.”

Xu Ying sat there obediently. Her breath brushed against his face, and his cheeks flushed slightly. He shifted his gaze away. “Chanchan, how much of the immortal herbs inside you have you refined?”

“Only a little—”

Zhu Chanchan stopped mid-sentence as realization struck her. She stared at him in disbelief and cried out, “You remember me?”

Xu Ying nodded. “When I came back from Wuling, I recovered a few more memories. Why has your cultivation stopped progressing? You should have refined the immortal herbs inside you by now.”

“I have to suppress my cultivation, cultivate exorcism techniques, and then unify them with qi cultivation methods.”

Zhu Chanchan sighed. “I discovered that the immortal herbs I stole from Tushita Palace aren’t enough to make me immortal. The qi cultivation methods of my era never uncovered the six Secret Troves of the human body.

“Those immortal herbs can only elevate heart energy to the level of an immortal. Even if I refine them completely, I still won’t survive the heavenly tribulation.”

She straightened her posture, eyes flashing. “During the time you disappeared, I spent a long time reflecting on my mistakes. I decided to open the Secret Troves and cultivate both Exorcist arts and qi. But after reaching the Pagoda Stage, I discovered a problem.”

Her expression grew grave. “I can’t open the Secret Troves.”

Xu Ying smiled. “You don’t have the Dragon Tracking technique, so naturally you can’t open the Secret Troves of the human body.”

Zhu Chanchan shook her head. “You left several scrolls of the Dragon Tracking technique inside the giant snake’s belly. I can go into his belly whenever I want, so naturally I’ve read them. I’m talented enough that locating the Secret Troves wasn’t difficult. But after I found them, I still couldn’t open them.”

Xu Ying was deeply puzzled.

Zhu Chanchan sat in the lotus position. A fully grown young woman flew out from behind her. It was her Primordial Spirit, suffused with radiant Divine Light, majestic and inviolable. It reached out and took Xu Ying’s hand.

Xu Ying felt his body lurch, and before he knew it, he was flying after her.

He looked down and saw another Xu Ying still sitting where he had been. That other self shone with dazzling brilliance.

”Huh? I grabbed the wrong one. How did I pull out your fleshly body?”

Muttering to herself, she shoved Xu Ying back down, reached out again, seized his soul, and soared upward. Both of them disappeared into the back of her fleshly body’s head.

Xu Ying’s fleshly body settled back into a seated position, perfectly still.

The two of them arrived first at the sea of chaos. Xu Ying’s soul was powerful and Zhu Chanchan’s Primordial Spirit was far from weak, but the surging sea of chaos still shook them. It was countless times larger than Xu Ying’s, and her chaotic Mud Pill was like a massive celestial sphere presiding over the entire expanse.

The instant they looked at it, space seemed to twist. Heaven and earth warped around them as though they were plunging endlessly toward that chaotic celestial sphere. The sensation was profoundly unsettling.

Zhu Chanchan’s Primordial Spirit clasped Xu Ying’s hand as they flew across the boundless sea of chaos, her robes snapping in the wind. Below them, towering waves crashed without end, their chaotic roar drowning out all thought.

She shouted, “Even my strongest divine ability can’t open this chaotic Mud Pill! As my cultivation has grown, so has my Mud Pill! When I recultivated my Primordial Spirit and had only just formed it, this Mud Pill was already so enormous that it pressed the sea of chaos into a vast depression. Now it’s dozens of times larger than it was then!”

Xu Ying followed her, moving away from the Mud Pill and flying over the sea of chaos with his heart pounding. They passed through the Twelve-Story Pagoda, arrived at Heart Peak Immortal Mountain, entered the heart chamber within the mountain, and found the Crimson-Palace Secret Trove.

Inside the Crimson Palace, Tushita Immortal Fire blazed fiercely. Any divine ability would struggle to retain its power here, and Dao avatars would be burned to ash. Compared to the Gate-Knocking Stage, opening it now was more than ten thousand times harder.

They then made their way to the Yellow-Court Secret Trove and the Jade-Pool Secret Trove. The difficulty of opening these two Secret Troves had likewise increased by an unimaginable margin.

The cosmic qi was incomparably dense, suppressing countless heavenly worlds, while the Jade Void azure qi had solidified into jade itself, making it almost impossible to open.

The two stopped outside the Jade-Pool Secret Trove. Zhu Chanchan let out a sigh. “The great evil has sealed off the path to ascension. If one wishes to ascend, the immortal herbs from Tushita Palace alone won’t suffice. One also needs the immortal herbs from the other five immortal palaces.

“I can’t spend thirty thousand years going to the other immortal palaces to steal immortal herbs, so the simplest solution is to open the six Secret Troves of the human body. It’s just that the higher one’s cultivation, the harder it is to open them.”

Xu Ying stared blankly, then suddenly thought of a terrifying possibility. “If someone cultivates to the Ascension Stage, can they still open the six Secret Troves?”

Zhu Chanchan shook her head. “Once I reached the Pagoda Stage, even my strongest divine ability couldn’t open a single Secret Trove. I had to recover the artifact I left behind back then before I could force one open. If someone reached the Ascension Stage, even the artifact I forged for the Emperor of Zhou wouldn’t be enough.”

Xu Ying’s eyes lit up. “I know why the master of the Mud-Pill Palace devised a scheme to devour people! He’s a Qi Cultivator at the Ascension Stage. He’s an Ascension Stage Qi Cultivator. He knew he lacked the strength to ascend, yet he couldn’t open his own Secret Troves either.

“His cultivation and strength reached a dead end. That’s why he spread the exorcism arts and had others cultivate the Secret Troves for him!”

Zhu Chanchan said, “But he only spread the cultivation method for the Mud-Pill Secret Trove...”

Realization dawned on her. “You mean he passed down all six Secret Troves of the human body! He wasn’t just harvesting Mud Pills. The Crimson Palace, the Yellow Court, the Jade Pool, the Jade Capital, the Gushing Spring... every single Secret Trove!”

Zhu Chanchan sucked in a sharp breath and murmured, “That brat is actually this ruthless... If my little junior brother is still alive, does that mean he’s become this ruthless as well?”

She found it impossible to believe.

Xu Ying pondered for a moment. ”There’s something very strange. Six months ago, when I opened the Yellow-Court Secret Trove and fished out the divine sense immortal herb, I never sensed anyone watching me. That can only mean one thing: the master of the Yellow Court was one of the three Secret Trove masters who had already set their sights on me.”

He paused before continuing, “That person had already marked me, so there was no need to mark me a second time. I wonder if Yuan Weiyang has already completed the Primordial Dao Heavenly Domain Resonance. If she hasn’t, her ancestor Yuan Wuji is in danger.”

Whenever Xu Ying thought of Yuan Weiyang, Yuan Rushi’s face inevitably came to mind. Because of that, he remained convinced that Yuan Weiyang was the little girl who had fed him rouge.

Just then, a young man came up the mountain and bowed. “Are you Old Ancestor Xu Ying? My master ordered me to come deliver an invitation.”

Puzzled, Xu Ying asked, “And your master is?”

The young man said, “Xu Fu.”