Want to Ascend? Then Fall in Love

Chapter 1 – Lord Lianhua——Shen Qingxian

In the cultivation world, the name of Lord Lianhua was synonymous to a god. 

Not even mentioning his personal disciples who were regarded as the three sages, or his disciple’s disciples and disciple’s disciple’s disciples who now controlled the six sects of the cultivation world, even a little servant who swept the front of the courtyard had established a sect and become a person who stood head and shoulders above the rest.

All those who had touched Lord Lianhua, even small flowers and plants, would have extraordinary luck and enter into Taoism in the end. 

This was enough to show how supreme of an existence this Lord Lianhua was. 

And now, this Lord Lianhua, who only had to twitch his fingers for the three worlds to tremble, had fallen into distress. 

After a hundred years of seclusion, he had finally caught a glimpse of the path to heaven. He had thought that ascension was in sight, but a scene that he didn’t want to see had fallen into view instead…..

In the clouds, with sunlight shining all across the sky, the collapsed heavenly ladder had crumbled into stars, scattering in all directions. The remaining flickering glimmers of light were like fireflies in the forest, so weak that it chilled the heart. 

Looking carefully, the outline of the ladder could actually be seen. Unfortunately, without its base, there was no way to take even a step forward. 

For thousands of years, no one in the cultivation world had ascended.

Shen Qingxian had thought the Taoist writers were dishonest and upset over their natural gap in talent to him, but he hadn’t thought that the path to heaven had collapsed, breaking off the road to ascension.

Could he only get this far?

After his own shifu, could their generation only stop here?

It wasn’t just him; with the ladder to heaven collapsed, future generations could also only walk until here. 

He had cultivated hard, meticulously questioning the Dao, but in the end, had discovered that there was no path into the heavens. 

How could he reconcile himself to that?

Shen Qingxian closed his eyes and formed a seal with his hands. Suddenly, a dazzling light rose from the ground. This light was extremely bright and piercing, and even in this windless, silent, and intangible world, it still set off a magnificent surge, just like the sea!

The light expanded again, and the earthshattering power quickly surged away, as if the noon sun had descended upon the dark night, illuminating everything for only an instant.

Shen Qingxian had used this technique once before, six hundred years ago.

At that time, his two disciples were having a dispute, and the fierce battle had led to people being burned to ashes and turned several cities into charred ruins.

Shen Qingxian had cast this spell to save hundreds of thousands of lives and restore everything to its original appearance.

But when such a powerful restorative spell was used on the heavenly ladder, it didn’t cause even the tiniest ripple. 

Sure enough, was repairing the heavenly ladder… just wishful thinking?

Just as Shen Qingxian was thinking this, a dark red light suddenly shot up in the sky, followed by a sliver of jade that suspended itself on the outline of the collapsed heavenly ladder.

This was….

Shen Qingxian looked at it intently and identified the thing in the midst of the red light.

A scroll made of jade slips.

Shen Qingxian quickly drew closer and reached out a hand to touch it. A strange but extremely powerful spiritual force poured into his palm.

When the light dissipated, the jade scroll unfurled, and vigorous and powerful words appeared on it: “The way to heaven has fallen, and there is no way to ascend. If you want to repair it, you can act according to the jade scroll.”

“Repair?” Shen Qingxian whispered, “It can be repaired?”

As if in response to his words, a line filled with small characters appeared on the jade scroll: “First, meet Gu Jianshen.”

Gu Jianshen?

Shen Qingxian thought for a moment, and the image of that arrogant and unbending man in crimson robes appeared in his mind.

The Heart Domain’s Gu Jiuyuan?

A cold wind rustled, frost and snow covered the sky, and the Wanxiu Mountains that stretched for hundreds of li towered into the clouds, as if they could touch the sky.

Within the clouds, in a shrouded place, was a great hall, with green tiles and high walls. It was cold and secluded, like an island of immortals on the sea. 

The main hall, which no one had visited for hundreds of years, was very lively today; outside, countless disciples bowed down and stood up again. The incense burners inside the hall were lit, there was spiritual tea steeping in hot water, and in the midst of this ethereal fragrance sat several cultivators in fine clothing, side by side.

The man in blue-green seated on the upper left hand corner slapped the table and said, “Talk with demonic cultivators? Old Four, you’ve gone crazy ba!”

The delicate and pretty man sitting beneath him said, “Don’t worry, shixiong. Let’s allow Ziliang to finish speaking.”

Although Zeng Ziliang was considered the shidi of these two men, he was obviously much older and looked more calm and steady. He said, “See this letter from Weixin Palace yourself.”

The man in blue-green was furious. “This kind of letter from a demonic palace should be directly thrown away and burnt!”

Zeng Ziliang looked at him and said meaningfully, “It’s pure red.”

The man in blue-green suddenly froze. 

The delicate and pretty man with inky-black hair took hold of the letter, and his pupils narrowed sharply after he read it. “The Demon Lord Jiuyuan wrote it himself?”

Zeng Ziliang sighed heavily.

Now, even the irritable man in blue-green had to calm down.

The hall was completely silent, so silent that even the drop of a needle could be heard. 

The six of them had studied with the three sages. Although they had each established their own sect, they were fellow heavenly dao cultivators and were all disciples of Lord Lianhua. Therefore, they had very close relations, and if there was a major event, they would gather on Wanxiu Mountain to discuss and decide things together.

Zeng Ziliang was the first to open his mouth. “Shizun travels everywhere, and we won’t see him even once in a hundred years, so we can’t ask for instructions. You have to take this red letter from Demon Lord Jiuyuan no matter what.”

The letter in front of them was like a hot potato, and seemed to burn with a hot flame as it lay fallen on the warm jade table.

The heavenly dao cultivators had Lord Lianhua, and the demonic cultivators had Demon Lord Jiuyuan.

Let alone the six of them, even if the three sages were here, they’d be wearing pained looks. 

Go? They were the dignified and proper heavenly dao cultivators; how could they go discuss things with demonic cultivators who went against the heavens?!

Don’t go? Then they were afraid that that Demon Lord Jiuyuan would take this opportunity to cause trouble and set off a bloody storm! 

Ye Zhan, the man in the blue-green clothes, said, “All of you are cowardly and fear death. If you want to go, then go. Anyway, I, Ye Zhan, will never take part in such a banquet!”

Zeng Ziliang cautioned, “Shixiong, don’t be impulsive. That demon lord’s temperament is treacherous, and this time, he personally invited us. If we don’t go…”

Ye Zhan shouted, “If you want to kill or maim, I, Ye Zhan, would never retreat, but if you want me to pander to that devil? Impossible!”

“Speaking of that…” Cheng Jing, the pretty and delicate man, muttered to himself, “… How did Gu Jiuyuan send this to us?”

“Let’s go bei…” a lazy voice sounded. The man sitting in the corner with two different colored eyes said, “The Heart Domain has grown strong in recent years. If we go for a bit, we’ll be getting to know our enemies.”

Ye Zhan sneered, “Go for a bit? I’m afraid that you want to take refuge with that devil ba!”

The man with different colored eyes smiled lazily and made no comment to this remark.

Zeng Ziliang said, “The same old rules, don’t try to convince each other.”

When everyone stopped talking, Zeng Ziliang took the lead and announced, “I’m going.”

The man with different colored eyes raised his pale arm and said, “I’m also going.”

A beautiful woman seated at the lower right agreed softly.

Ye Zhan looked at Cheng Jing next to him.

Cheng Jing’s eyelashes dropped slightly. After a long pause, he said, “I’m going.”

Just like this, four of them had all already agreed to go to the banquet. Ye Zhan, who insisted on not going, didn’t say anything else and left with a flick of his sleeves. 

The moment he went out, a glow rose into the sky, and Wanxiu Mountain filled with the sounds of dragons singing and phoenixes roaring. 

The other five people in the hall suddenly stood up and hurried to the door.

The scene outside was extremely beautiful and breathtaking!

The original ice and snow surroundings had rejuvenated into spring in an instant. Light surrounded the place and scattered the cold air, with warmth drifting down. The vegetation swayed in the wind, and tens of thousands of flowers bloomed. It seemed that the whole mountain had come back to life to welcome the return of its master, looking its most beautiful and graceful.

Ye Zhan, Zeng Ziliang, Cheng Jing… These six great powers of the contemporary world bowed together in the most formal greeting of their sect.

The disciples standing outside had still not yet recovered from the shock. They stared blankly in front of them, their gazes all drawn to a daub of white. 

In the midst of this brightest light, that pale white had become the most dazzling existence.

He was dressed in the most ordinary white clothes and had his hair up in the most common knot. He didn’t wear any superfluous pendants, but that clear and rippling qi put pressure on everything.

Their hearts thumped.

When they came back to their senses, everyone had knelt on the ground.

——Their bodies were out of their control; this action had come completely from the heart. 

In an instant, the only thing remaining in their minds was piety and admiration, as well as an indescribable emotion that filled their whole chest.

The first under the heavens, Lord Lianhua, the supreme “god” in the hearts of all cultivators.

“All of you, rise.” Spoken with a moon-like clear voice, a gentle wind curled in, and all the kneeling people stood up. At the same time, they felt that their bodies had been purified; in that instant, all the places where they had been pent up were cleared, and their cultivation had also improved a lot!

The disciples all beamed with delight and bowed down to thank him.

Ye Zhan stepped forward. This sect leader, who the disciples all viewed as serious and inflexible, was now excited; his thin lips trembled, and his voice was very light and soft as he exclaimed, “Lord!”

Shen Qingxian raised his hand to them. “Let’s go inside.”

He walked in front, and the other six followed behind him. They were all meek and submissive, as obedient as disciples who had just formally entered the sect. 

The younger generation outside didn’t even dare to take a breath anymore. They didn’t even dare to look at the sect grandmaster’s face, in fear of offending this great person!

When they entered Qianting Hall, Zeng Ziliang remembered the invitation from that demon lord. His heart leaped, and beads of sweat poured out of his forehead immediately.

It wasn’t just him; Cheng Jing, the careless man with different colored eyes, and the young woman became so nervous that they were tightly clenching their fists at this moment. 

The heavenly dao and the Heart Domain had been at odds for thousands of years, and they had fought each other numerous times. Thousands of years ago, Lord Lianhua had destroyed a clan of evil-doing jiangshi, which had badly weakened the Heart Domain. 

Lord Lianhua represented the heavenly dao. There was no doubt that he must be extremely disgusted with the Heart Domain. 

But that pure red invitation that had been sent to them was still on the table…

Zeng Ziliang now regretted things to the point that his intestines turned green. If he had known that His Lordship would come out of seclusion today, he wouldn’t have taken this invitation even if he was beaten to death!

Shen Qingxian sat in the hall, massaged his hands, and asked, “Why are all of you gathered here? Is there something you have to discuss?”

He hadn’t been part of the world for hundreds of years, but he was still very clear on the current established practices.

His several disciples had set up their own sects, and they would not gather here unless something big had happened.

Although he didn’t cover up the news of him coming out of seclusion, he also didn’t inform them in advance. For all six people to be here in such a short amount of time, they must have planned this in advance. 

The black bristles on the letter flickered, and the word “heart” written in beautiful calligraphy leaped to his eyes.

Afraid of Ye Zhan blaming him, Zeng Ziliang knelt down and said, “Lord, this disciple is guilty!”

As soon as he knelt, the other four who had previously raised their hands in an agreement to go to the banquet also knelt down. 

Shen Qingxian picked up the letter, opened it, and glanced at it. “This is to discuss things with the Heart clan on the Astral Sea?”

Zeng Ziliang was so nervous that his entire back was drenched in sweat, but he had to honestly admit, “Yes.”

They were done for, they were done for… His Lordship absolutely abhorred demonic cultivators and would be furious to know that they were going to take part in a banquet with them!

Before he could utter his words of apology, Shen Qingxian asked again, “Is Gu Jianshen going?”

—

The author has something to say:

Zeng Ziliang: I’m doomed, I’m doomed, I’m going to get killed by the big boss!

Ye Zhan: You little cowards, die!

Shen Qingxian: En….seeing Gu Jianshen as soon as I come out, that saves some trouble. 

Happy New Year!