Volume 1, Chapter 3 – One Step to Immortal Ascension

Her cultivation was surging upward in a fashion so outrageous that it rendered every cultivation system, past and present, utterly meaningless.

Each major realm breakthrough was a heavenly chasm that, in the eyes of others, required centuries of bitter training or even a thousand years of accumulation.

For her, though, it tore apart as easily as paper.

And as that unimaginable power swelled within her, the transformation of her body became even more breathtaking.

This was not a return to youth, nor was it a reversion to the male body she once had.

It was a near-perfect remolding that had completely transcended the shackles of gender.

Her figure grew taller, and every inch of her body contained terrifying, boundless might.

Her full breasts and slender waist traced an alluring, flawless silhouette, yet there was not the slightest trace of frailty in her bearing.

In its place was a sacred majesty that stood above all living beings, inviolable and untouchable.

She seemed like a supreme deity stepped straight out of myth.

Her originally dry, lifeless black hair now stirred without wind, changing from brittle and dull to glossy, lustrous black.

And at the very instant she broke through into Immortal Ascension…

It turned into a pure silver-white, as pristine as snow, like a river of stars pouring down from the night sky, gleaming with a mysterious halo.

At the same time, the phenomenon in the outside world had already reached an earthshaking, terrifying scale.

With the Heavenly Maiden Temple at its center, the sky for thousands of miles in every direction was covered by dense seven-colored auspicious clouds.

Within the clouds, golden dragon phantoms churned and roared, while multicolored phoenixes stretched their necks and danced as they cried out.

Countless golden lotus thrones and profound Dao patterns flickered in and out of existence in the void, unfolding the deepest truths of heaven and earth.

At the exact moment the power inside Gu Han erupted like a volcano, rising all the way from Qi Refinement to Immortal Ascension…

Across the vast continent known as Canglan,

all those peerless experts who stood at the very top of the pyramid, figures who usually showed neither head nor tail like divine dragons, felt their minds shake violently almost at the same instant.

Central Continent, Longteng Dynasty, Starwatch Terrace of the Imperial Observatory.

An old man in a purple-gold Daoist robe, with hair and beard as white as snow, was using a star chart to divine the fate of the nation.

Suddenly, he jerked his head up. A piercing light capable of boring through the void burst from his cloudy eyes as he stared fixedly toward the southern horizon.

Crack.

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A fine but shocking fracture split across the star chart in his hand.

“A spiritual tide like the sea, Dao resonance ringing of its own accord… Has someone broken through to Immortal Ascension?”

His voice trembled, filled with endless horror and bewilderment.

“And the location… It’s actually in that barbaric land of the South Domain?”

Northern Domain icefields, the uttermost north.

Deep within a palace built from eternal ice, an incomparably beautiful woman in an ice-blue dress slowly opened her eyes.

On the smooth ice wall before her, clear as a mirror, there was a perfect reflection of the vast yet hidden spiritual tide in the southern sky.

“The Dao resonance of Immortal Ascension… and yet it doesn’t belong to any of those old fossils.”

Her red lips parted slightly. Her words fell like icy beads onto jade, cold enough to pierce the bone.

“A newly advanced Immortal Ascension cultivator? Interesting.”

Before her voice had even faded, her figure gradually paled, turning into a wisp of icy blue frost qi that vanished inside the hall.

Western Domain, Great Leiyin Temple.

An old monk in kasaya robes, his face withered and gaunt, was striking a wooden fish and chanting sutras.

The tapping of the wooden fish stopped abruptly.

He slowly lifted his head and looked toward the phenomenon in the sky. For the first time, emotion appeared on his usually still face.

“Amitabha…”

“Another fellow Daoist has attained the seat of Immortal Ascension. Yet the aura carries a heavy balefulness. Whether this will bring blessing or disaster to this world, I cannot say.”

He lowered his brows and eyes and softly recited the Buddha’s name.

“Wuxin, take my decree and go out for a trip. Act according to circumstances.”

“Yes, Buddha Lord.”

East Sea, Penglai Immortal Isle.

A scholar in green robes was seated beneath a peach blossom tree, playing a game of chess against himself.

The hand holding a chess piece paused slightly. He raised a brow and looked toward the western continent, surprise and keen interest flashing through his eyes.

“Wonderful, truly wonderful!”

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“Someone actually managed to avoid the ninety-nine heavenly tribulations and seize the Dao Fruit of Immortal Ascension directly?”

He casually tossed the piece back into the chess box and rose to his feet.

“I’ve been in seclusion for several thousand years. Today is a fine day to go out and meet this new fellow Daoist.”

His figure swayed once, and he vanished into the sky full of drifting peach blossoms.

Central Continent, Pavilion of Heavenly Secrets.

A man in black, as though fused with the shadows themselves, suddenly appeared outside a quiet chamber.

“Old Ancestor, something has changed in the south! The celestial signs are issuing a warning.”

“It seems… a new Immortal Ascension expert has appeared out of nowhere!”

A long silence filled the chamber before an aged and incomparably grave voice finally sounded from within.

“Investigate this person’s identity and background.”

“If nothing can be found, then leave it at that. Presumably, that Sovereign will send people to watch the South Domain.”

“I only hope… he will not become the next Tianqiong.”

For a time, the entire Canglan Continent stirred with gathering winds and clouds.

One terrifyingly powerful wave of divine sense after another shot into the sky from secret realms, blessed lands, and ancient forbidden zones across the continent, some open and blatant, others furtive and concealed.

Crossing mountains and rivers, they all converged on the South Domain.

The owners of those divine senses were, without exception, Tribulation Transcendence magnates, beings who could shake the continent three times with a single stomp of the foot.

Among them were even several auras that clearly belonged to old monsters of the Immortal Ascension realm who had been famous for tens of thousands of years.

However, just as their divine senses were about to touch the area within ten thousand miles of the Heavenly Maiden Temple…

Buzz!

It was as if every strand of divine sense had slammed into an indestructible wall of heaven. All of them were shut out, unable to probe inside in the slightest.

“What?!”

“Our divine senses are being blocked?!”

“What kind of being possesses such heaven-defying means?”

“Could it be a grand formation? But what kind of formation could cover such a vast region?”

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Shock. Horror. Disbelief.

Enormous waves rose in the hearts of all the great powers.

This method had already gone beyond the limits of their understanding.

That, in turn, only confirmed from the side that the being causing this phenomenon was most likely truly breaking through to Immortal Ascension.

And at the center of this storm, inside the Heavenly Maiden Temple, Gu Han remained completely unaware of the uproar shaking the outside world.

Her cultivation finally reached its peak.

When the last barrier between realms was crushed like dry twigs before a landslide, her aura climbed to a level beyond imagination.

The vast spiritual power within her was wholly transformed into a higher form of energy, one even purer and more condensed.

It seemed thin, almost sparse, yet its quality was so exalted that it could crush any known power in this world.

Gu Han slowly opened her eyes.

Her eyes were like stars, deep and boundless, as though they contained within them the rise and fall, birth and destruction of suns, moons, and constellations.

The numbness and dust worn into her by ten years of drudgery had long since been completely washed away from the depths of her gaze.

In their place was an absolute calm, as if she could see through all things and hold everything in her grasp.

She lowered her head and looked at her own hands.

They were still long and slender, their skin shining white like jade.

A faint glimmer of law flickered around her fingertips, as though a casual clench of her hand would be enough to crush mountains and rivers and shatter the stars.

Unconsciously, she brushed a hand across her chest. The touch still felt just like before. This body was still undeniably female.

Yet the terrifying power surging within her, along with that transcendently lofty majesty, gave her a strange sense of contradiction.

The memories and will that had once belonged to “him” were still there.

But this body, and the heaven-reaching power she now possessed, were proclaiming with absolute clarity:

She was now Gu Han of the Canglan Continent, a woman who had broken through to the Immortal Ascension realm without passing through ninety-nine lightning tribulations.

“So this is the Immortal Ascension realm?”

Her red lips parted slightly. Her voice was still clear and bright, yet now carried an authority that allowed no dissent, echoing through the tiny courtyard.

[Ding! Cultivation fusion complete.]

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[Host: Gu Han (Gu Tianyi)]

[Appearance: heavenly beauty, jade-like features (South Domain’s Number One Beauty)]

[Age: 25]

[Realm: Immortal Ascension (Late Stage)]

[Physique: Immaculate Immortal Body (automatically fused)]

[Techniques: None]

[Divine Abilities: None]

[Sect: (Not Activated)]

[Congratulations, Host. You have successfully advanced from low-level drudge to the ceiling of this world. Battle power assessment: Ninth Level of Tribulation Transcendence.]

[Target scan: the South Domain currently has fifteen Ninth Level Tribulation Transcendence experts. Host survival index: below 60%!]

[Recommendation: Please establish your own immortal foundation as soon as possible in order to face the overwhelming storm that is about to sweep in.]

The system’s prompt sounded at just the right moment, carrying a trace of teasing while ruthlessly pinpointing Gu Han’s current predicament.

Gu Han instantly calmed down from the shock of having just obtained such strength.

The system was right on every point.

At the moment, she had levels and nothing else.

It was like a beggar suddenly being handed a publicly listed company. She had no idea how to operate it.

And the real combat power she could bring out was limited. For now, she still needed to keep a low profile and plan things out slowly.

Besides, the disturbance caused by her breakthrough had been so huge that avoiding attention would be difficult.

“Trouble… are you referring to those waves of divine sense outside that just tried to spy on this place?”

With a thought, information about an invisible, intangible barrier that could block all prying attempts surfaced in her mind.

This was a protective mechanism that came with the system. Before she fully possessed the ability to protect herself, it would automatically isolate outside probing.

“The Sacred Land Construction Card…”

Gu Han’s consciousness sank into the system space and landed on that card, which radiated a profound, chaotic light.