Volume 1, Chapter 52 – A Legend

At the same time, news that Xiao Ya had been assessed as possessing Nine-Star potential and was about to become a core disciple of Yaochi Immortal Palace spread back to the imperial capital of the Great Yan Dynasty.

It was as though the news had grown wings, traveling faster than any report before it.

Inside the Imperial Study, a Shadow Guard presented the confirmed intelligence.

Xiao Yunsheng was stunned at first. Then he abruptly rose from the dragon throne, his face filled with uncontrollable delight!

“Nine-Star… a core disciple! Good! Good! Ya’er truly did not disappoint me!”

He repeated the word “good” several times as he paced back and forth through the hall, his excitement plain for all to see.

This was not merely a matter of his daughter’s talent being recognized.

The status of a “core disciple” meant that Xiao Ya would hold an extraordinary position within Yaochi Immortal Palace in the future. Her Master would, at the very least, be an elder-level figure.

He thought of how, just one day earlier, a Mahayana demon king had personally visited the Flying Cloud Sect and Green Mountain Sect under the banner of Yaochi Immortal Palace…

Since his daughter was now a core disciple, what realm would her future Master be in?

Spirit Transformation? Body Integration? Mahayana? Or perhaps…

As thoughts raced through his mind, Xiao Yunsheng restrained his excitement and strode toward the quietest place deep within the imperial palace, the “Hidden Dragon Abyss.”

The Hidden Dragon Abyss lay several dozen feet underground. It was a secret chamber connected to the earth veins, where the spiritual qi was several times denser than in the outside world.

At that moment, its heavy stone door was tightly shut. Runes flowed across its surface, sealing off the interior from the outside.

Xiao Yunsheng arrived before the stone door, took out a specially made jade talisman, and pressed it against the door. He then stood respectfully to one side and transmitted his voice inside through a secret art.

“Father, Yunsheng has an important matter to report. It concerns the national fortune of Great Yan.”

The runes on the stone door lit up faintly before dimming again.

A moment later, the heavy stone door silently slid inward, revealing a secret chamber that was not spacious, but simply furnished.

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An elderly man in plain gray robes, with a thin and refined face, sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion at its center.

He was the previous emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty, now the Emperor Emeritus, and a great cultivator at the peak of Spirit Transformation: Xiao Minghai.

“What has happened to make you so anxious?”

Xiao Minghai’s voice was calm, yet it carried an invisible pressure.

Xiao Yunsheng entered the secret chamber and closed the stone door behind him, once again isolating the inside from the outside.

He then hurried forward, bowed deeply, and reported everything that had happened in Qingyang City over the past several days.

He also recounted, in complete and meticulous detail, how Xiao Ya had just been assessed as possessing Nine-Star potential and was about to become a core disciple of Yaochi Immortal Palace.

When Xiao Minghai heard the words “Immortal Palace,” his entire body seemed to freeze. For a long time, he said nothing.

His face, slightly pale from years of secluded cultivation and deeply lined by age, first displayed utter shock. Then that shock transformed into profound unease.

“Yaochi… Immortal Palace?”

He repeated the name in a low, hoarse voice, as though every word weighed a thousand pounds.

“Ya’er has actually become involved with a sect like that? And as a core disciple?”

“It is absolutely true, Father!”

Unable to hide his excitement, Xiao Yunsheng recounted everything that had happened in Qingyang City, especially what the Flying Cloud Sect and Green Mountain Sect had experienced.

“The Mountain-Covering Ape King is one of the three great demon kings of the Wanjue Mountain Range, a genuine Mahayana demon king! Yet Yaochi Immortal Palace subdued him.”

“Father, think about it. If they can subdue a demon king of that level, then what realms must the Palace Master, Deputy Palace Master, and the other elders of Yaochi Immortal Palace have reached?”

“Ya’er is a core disciple. She will surely be accepted under one of those elders. The heavens are truly blessing Great Yan!”

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However, Xiao Minghai did not seem to fully hear the latter part of his son’s words. His thoughts had already drifted back into the exceedingly distant past.

He remembered a legend his own father had told him when he was a child.

“Yunsheng…”

Xiao Minghai’s voice sounded distant and desolate.

“Today, I will tell you a story. This… is something my father told me when I was young.”

Xiao Yunsheng was briefly taken aback. He restrained his excitement and replied respectfully,

“Please enlighten me, Father.”

“Legend has it that eight hundred thousand years ago, cultivators on this continent could ascend directly after reaching the ninth layer of Tribulation Transcendence and undergoing the baptism of Heavenly Tribulation!”

A complicated light flickered in Xiao Minghai’s eyes. There was yearning, reverence, and profound doubt.

“Ascend? Ascend to where?”

Xiao Yunsheng asked instinctively.

The notion of ascension had long since become myth. Most people believed it was merely the ancients’ fanciful imagining of a higher realm.

“The Immortal Realm! Or rather, a world on a higher level.”

Xiao Minghai spoke with certainty.

“The laws of heaven and earth seemed more complete in those days, and the road ahead had not yet been severed.”

“After successfully passing Tribulation Transcendence, guiding immortal light would descend, helping cultivators shed their mortal bodies, condense true Immortal Spirit Bodies, and ascend to a world governed by more complete laws.”

“And that place was the sacred land every cultivator dreamed of reaching.”

“Then why… did it become what it is today?”

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Xiao Yunsheng’s breathing quickened slightly. He felt as though he had touched the edge of a heaven-shaking secret.

Xiao Minghai fell silent for a moment, seemingly piecing together the fragmented memories in his mind.

“It is said that several hundred thousand years ago, a great upheaval swept across the entire Canglan Continent.”

“Some say that supreme experts fought, and the aftershocks of their battle severed the ‘immortal path’ leading to the upper realm.”

“Others say that an unknowable calamity struck the upper realm, causing it to close the passage of ascension itself.”

“There is also an even more secretive account…”

Xiao Minghai lowered his voice further, an indescribable chill within it.

“It claims that the so-called ‘Immortal Realm’ may never have… existed at all.”

“The so-called ascension may have merely been an entrance leading to a dangerous ‘world.'”

“And the ‘immortal path’ may have been deliberately ‘severed’ or ‘sealed’ by some unimaginable existence for a certain purpose.”

A chill ran down Xiao Yunsheng’s spine as he listened.

The Immortal Realm did not exist?

The immortal path had been deliberately severed?

This information overturned everything he had previously believed.

“After the immortal path was severed,” Xiao Minghai continued, “the cultivators of this world became trapped at the peak of Tribulation Transcendence, with no road ahead. Although they could live for tens of thousands of years, their lifespans would eventually run out.”

“Countless peerless geniuses refused to accept such a fate. They began trying to forcibly open a new path within this ‘sealed’ world.”

“They studied the surviving traces of the Immortal Dao and analyzed the deepest mysteries of the laws of heaven and earth. Countless generations accumulated knowledge, made attempts, and even sacrificed their lives…”

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“Finally, long, long after the immortal path had been severed, an entirely new supreme realm was ‘created,’ or perhaps ‘defined.'”

He turned and fixed Xiao Yunsheng with a blazing gaze.

“That realm was Immortal Ascension!”

“Immortal Ascension… does not mean ascending and becoming an immortal. Instead, it means pushing one’s cultivation, divine soul, and comprehension of Dao laws to a level infinitely close to the legendary ‘immortals’ while remaining within this world.”

“Cultivators in the Immortal Ascension realm can live for a hundred thousand years. With a mere gesture, they possess the power to transform heaven and earth. Their words become law, and they are nearly embodiments of the rules of this world.”

“They are the ‘immortals of the mortal realm’ nurtured by the Canglan Continent itself after the immortal path was severed!”

Xiao Yunsheng was utterly shaken.

He finally understood why cultivators in the Immortal Ascension realm were so rare and transcendent.

It was not merely a difference in power. It represented a supreme achievement born from carving out a new road in a hopeless situation and defying the heavens themselves!

“But Father, what… what does this have to do with Yaochi Immortal Palace?”

Xiao Yunsheng asked the most crucial question.

“Yunsheng.”

Xiao Minghai looked at him with a complicated expression.

“Do you know what the words ‘Immortal Palace’ signify?”

Xiao Yunsheng froze, then shook his head in confusion.

A bitter curve appeared at the corner of Xiao Minghai’s lips. It contained boundless reverence and… worry.

“It is a… taboo.”