My Husband’s Ascension C62
Chapter 62 Illusion
Elsewhere:
Within the Heavenward Watchtower where Wu-Shaman Xian resided.
The story must begin with Zhao Zhao’s infiltration.
This palace tower appeared to have been built specifically for Wu-Shaman Xian and the veiled Wu-Shaman. Its style differed entirely from the ghostly halls of the Ghost Clan, every detail imbued with the distinct character of Mount Ling.
In the darkness, a golden talisman flickered once.
Zhao Zhao glimpsed the wandering soul and silently followed.
The girl paused before a shrine deep within the tower. Her fingers trembled as she formed a hand seal. A mechanism behind the shrine clicked open. Hesitating for a long moment, Zhao Zhao watched as the talisman behind her gradually faded from view.
The girl stepped into a hidden passage.
Zhao Zhao followed, keeping close behind. This was already a dangerously short distance. She could not tell whether the girl had noticed her presence.
Or perhaps it did not matter; even if the girl had noticed, she would not react.
For that talisman had already taken control of her mind, compelling obedience to the commands it conveyed.
One after the other, they moved through the hidden passage, until they reached its deepest exit.
Emerging from the shadowed passage, Zhao Zhao’s eyes were met with sudden expansiveness.
“Greetings, esteemed Wu-Shaman Xian.”
Within the broad stone chamber, several Mount Ling wu-shamans stood silently as guardians. At the center, upon a golden sacrificial altar, Wu-Shaman Xian regarded them with a calm authority that needed no anger to command respect. Slowly, her eyes opened.
“Was it Mi Yao who sent you to coax the Dao Lord?”
The kneeling girl opened her mouth, yet her tongue could not speak the words she wished. She could not confess that her mission had failed.
“Yes.”
Wu-Shaman Xian, graceful and composed, let out a faint sigh with a smile. “You always resort to these little tricks that risk exposing yourself… Did Dao Lord believe it?”
“He did.”
“Oh?” The flickering candlelight cast shadows over her eyes, rendering them unfathomable. She murmured softly, “He believed it?”
“Yes. Dao Lord’s feelings for the Cloudculm Abode’s Miss Immortal run deep. Lord Tianxuan of Kunwu was slayed by Dao Lord for refusing to save her, and afterward, Dao Lord betrayed the Cultivation Realm to resurrect her. The esteemed veiled Wu-Shaman instructed me to feign complaint through her mouth. I fabricated the words of her supposed suffering, and Dao Lord’s heart softened; he agreed to spare Mount Ling.”
“Is that so…” Wu-Shaman Xian murmured the words enigmatically. “But if Mount Ling reconciles with the Dao Lord… then where will the fifth, metal-element bound human pillar come from?”
A pause fell, only the crackle of candle flames echoed through the expanse.
After a long moment, the tinkling of her jade pendants accompanying each step, Wu-Shaman Xian descended from the altar. She offered no answer to that question. Instead, she turned toward another direction and asked, “Mi Yao’s wedding banquet should be lively, yes?”
“Yes…”
“We have wronged Mi Yao. The Ghost King had long sought to consume Mount Ling. Were it not for Mi Yao risking herself to propose a marriage alliance, Mount Ling might not have survived to this day, already leveled by that mad Ghost King.” The hem of her robes brushed across the icy stone floor. She sighed, mournful yet tender, exposing the compassion of an elder sister for her younger sibling. “But fortunately, we have endured until today.”
Hidden around a corner, Zhao Zhao listened silently, sensing that her final words carried a hidden meaning.
Endured until today?
It was as though, in secret, something monumental had already been accomplished.
“Congratulations, esteemed Wu-Shaman Xian.”
Wu-Shaman Xian smiled faintly. “Congratulate me on what?”
“On… on Wu-Shaman Xian’s great undertaking… advancing yet another step.”
“You are mistaken. It is not my undertaking.” From beneath the layered, ornate sweep of her robes, a slender finger, pale as jade, extended, passing through the girl’s soul as though stirring mist and cloud. “It is Mount Ling’s undertaking. It is the undertaking of our lineage, from ten thousand years past until now, and onward through generation after generation so that we of Mount Ling need no longer bow to others, no longer live at their mercy, no longer depend upon their favor. Soon, we will stand openly upon the same starting ground as all others, and pursue dao and immortality with dignity.”
Unable to explain herself, the spirit of the girl trembled, prostrating herself in silence as Wu-Shaman Xian continued to preach.
“I recall you are a descendant of the Chu Clan of Mount Ling, one of our three great families. It was precisely because of that noble blood that, years ago, several wicked cultivators of the Cultivation Realm seized your family and refined their flesh and blood into pills. They bound their souls into slavery, condemned to serve as thralls forever, never to be reborn. And yet those cultivators of the Cultivation Realm who had the power to intervene… all swept the snow from their own doorsteps and turned away. Not one of them cared for us.”
“How many such things have happened over the millennia? Countless. All because the Mount Ling lineage cannot cultivate.” As she spoke, Wu-Shaman Xian’s fingertip suddenly pierced through the girl’s form. With a single motion, she struck the talisman Xie Lanshu had placed within her and forced it out of her body. “If we possessed no use at all, then in this Cultivation Realm, we could die and die again, and no one would ever demand justice for us.”
Freed at last from its control, the girl’s eyes filled with tears as she cried out, “Esteemed Wu-Shaman Xian!”
“To break free from such a fate, countless righteous souls of Mount Ling perished beneath the sword of Dao Lord Tianshu. Even my own younger sister, Mi Yao, was forced to offer herself to that mad Ghost King. And yet you, knowing full well that you were being controlled, did not disperse your soul of your own accord, and had the audacity to return carrying that talisman, attempting to deceive me.” Wu-Shaman Xian’s beauty and composure were undiminished as she let a faint smile cross her lips. Her eyes were deep, like a still, unfathomable pool. “You have truly disappointed me.”
As her words fell, the golden sacrificial altar trembled. Zhao Zhao watched in shock as the altar, once smooth and mirror-like, slowly opened. From beneath poured a blinding golden light, as scorching as molten rock.
With a gentle toss, the girl’s soul was cast into it, vanishing instantly, like a scrap of paper dropped into flames.
Zhao Zhao’s heart leapt.
It was a human pillar.
Unlike the untouchable human pillar Zhao Zhao had seen before, this one seemed to have had its outer seal lifted. It could devour souls.
Wu-Shaman Xian ascended the altar, her fingertip brushing the golden light. Zhao Zhao saw with her own eyes the golden spiritual energy surging toward her.
She was absorbing the spiritual power contained within the human pillar.
Once the girl’s matter was handled, the guardians around the altar turned their backs in unison. Wu-Shaman Xian returned to her original place, as if preparing to continue her cultivation.
…So that is how it is.
Perhaps Wu-Shaman Xian already knew that they would have to wait some time before the final human pillar could appear.
Thus, they were forced to abandon the original plan: to gather all five elemental human pillars and alter the constitution of Mount Ling’s descendants. Instead, Wu-Shaman Xian would first cultivate using a single human pillar.
When her cultivation reached completion, strong enough to protect Mount Ling, both Dao Lord Tianshu and the fifth human pillar would be within her grasp.
For fifty years, they had been buying time, carefully orchestrating this very outcome.
Or perhaps, this plan was already nearing success.
With the power of four near-ascension cultivators of the Cultivation Realm at her disposal, once Wu-Shaman Xian’s cultivation was complete, few could hope to stop her.
She could not linger here any longer.
This information had to be carried back, so that action could be taken swiftly.
Zhao Zhao turned to retrace her path, but suddenly felt a force binding her from behind.
Her first thought: she had been discovered by Wu-Shaman Xian.
Yet as golden light engulfed her and a violent spiritual current wrapped around her body, Zhao Zhao realized:
It was not Wu-Shaman Xian.
It was the power within the human pillar that held her fast.
…
The palace, alight through the night, echoed with songs and laughter, masking the hail of swords and spears striking outside Heavenward Watchtower.
The plan of courtesy before combat had shifted.
The simple reconnaissance in Spectrahold had shifted.
Every carefully laid plan changed in an instant, thanks to the anomaly within the spirit-storing pouch.
Rong Yu, following closely behind Xie Lanshu, watched as he severed the heads of Ghost Soldiers as if cutting tofu, a chill crawling up his spine.
Then he turned his gaze and saw Yao Ling, Li Feng, and Fu Xue were no less fierce, each of them immersed utterly in the carnage.
It was not until Ghost General Zhu Shen appeared outside Heavenward Watchtower that the lopsided battle began to turn.
“This one has some skill. He is not easy to deal with,” Fu Xue noted, casting a glance at Xie Lanshu. Calmly, she suggested, “My brother and I will hold him here. You and Miss Immortal Tanzhao’s two disciples go in to rescue, how does that sound?”
Yao Ling glanced back, concern flickering across her face, as if wanting to stay behind with them.
“Don’t worry. Don’t let her appearance fool you, she’s the Yao Clan’s foremost general.” Li Feng reassured her. “Weren’t we supposed to reunite with your Master at Beaconlight Mountain as soon as possible? Go! If we wait any longer, next time I return there, it will only be to sweep her grave.”
“Don’t speak such inauspicious words!” Yao Ling shot him a sharp glare, about to call back for Xie Lanshu and Rong Yu, when she saw that Xie Lanshu had already weaved passed Ghost General Zhu Shen and barged into the tower with a single stroke.
Grumbling under her breath, she followed after him.
The spiritual tree within the spirit-storing pouch was deteriorating rapidly. Xie Lanshu had no time for idle chatter.
Breaking into the interior of the Heavenward Watchtower, they found countless arrays and mechanisms already laid out, identical in design to those he had encountered years ago at Mount Ling.
Back then, when his cultivation had fallen to its lowest ebb, fifty years had been enough for him to advance once more, to reclaim the fourth major realm, the Dark Oneness Dao.
Though still far from his peak, these arrays and traps could no longer hinder him.
Yao Ling and Rong Yu, a few steps behind, passed through to find nothing but a floor littered with corpses and shattered remnants of the mechanisms.
Rong Yu examined carefully. The arrays had been cleared with exceptional thoroughness.
If Xie Lanshu’s sole intention had been to pass through, there would have been no need to destroy all of them.
It was as if… he had also ensured their safety in this rescue.
Yao Ling noticed it too.
It seemed he understood what she had meant.
At that moment, Xie Lanshu had traced the last vestiges of spiritual energy left by the talisman, leading him to the shrine’s mechanism.
With a single, precise strike, he shattered the intricate array and pressed onward through the hidden passage, aiming straight for the heart of Mount Ling.
“Remarkable. Truly worthy of the title ‘Dao Lord Tianshu’, once the strongest of the Cultivation Realm.”
The familiar voice rang out and in an instant, the path before him vanished.
The world darkened; when Xie Lanshu turned, even the way he had come was blurred. Yao Ling and Rong Yu’s footsteps could no longer be heard.
It must be an illusion of the Ghost Realm.
Mount Ling, whenever collaborating with others, was skilled at using the strengths of their allies to shield themself: the troop formations of the Ghost Soldiers, the arrays of the Yin-Yang Sect, the mechanisms of the Moyan Sect…
But this…
Xie Lanshu raised his eyes and scanned his surroundings. This was no ordinary illusion.
In a typical illusion, a resolute mind could see through it; no matter how perfect the fabrication, there were always flaws. But this space was far more complex.
“Where is Xie Tanzhao?”
“That girl?” Wu-Shaman Xian laughed faintly. “Truly dangerous… she almost discovered my secret. Fortunately, Heaven lent me aid and dealt with her. You arriving so swiftly, surely it is because you sensed her true form was nearly reduced to ash?”
The spiritual tree within the spirit-storing pouch had withered and dehydrated. No matter how much blood Xie Lanshu poured into it, it was beyond saving.
The knuckles of his hand gripping the Single Intent Sword were pale, and his eyes glimmered with a terrifying cold. “Before she turns to ash, your Mount Ling will.”
Wu-Shaman Xian let out a soft, almost amused laugh. “Still the same as always… You cultivators, ever reliant on power to bully others, threaten Mount Ling in the same way for ten thousand years. Yet you are not as strong as you imagine, and we are not as weak as you presume.”
Xie Lanshu attempted to find a way out of this space, only to discover there was not a single flaw to exploit.
This was no illusory realm. This dimension truly existed.
“That version of her in this world is beyond saving. However, it's not impossible for you and her to get back together."
Xie Lanshu scoffed. “It seems I’ve overestimated you; do you really believe you could trap me with a false illusion?”
Illusions, such as ones conjured up by the Soul-Binding Willows, could fool only lower cultivators with unstable minds. Anyone who had reached his level had passed countless trials of the heart to arrive here.
“What if it is not a false illusion, but reality?”
Xie Lanshu’s brow furrowed slightly at her words but remained silent.
“You, too, have been but a step from ascension. That final step between mortal and immortal, merely touching it allows one to glimpse the unimaginable: the past, the future, and countless possibilities across the Three Thousand Million World.”
The dark space suddenly collapsed.
Blinding light flooded his vision. Xie Lanshu closed his eyes against it.
Snow fell softly in his ears. When he opened his eyes again, before him unfolded scenes more vivid and real than anything he had seen.
At Yunmeng Pier, snow swept the land. A girl, cloaked in jade-green, bent to pick up a fallen plum blossom. She held it, contemplating for a moment, then spoke to her attendant beside her, “I wish to gather a few of these blossoms to take with me. A’Ying, let us go and enjoy plum blossoms.”
At the crossroads of fate, Zhao Zhao chose another path.
On this path, there were no immortals from Kunwu, no Xie Lanshu to wed her.
The girl, clutching her plum blossom branches, joyfully descended the mountain. Half a year later, her family selected several households; she visited each in turn, finally choosing the most handsome scholar.
She wed amid lavish bridal splendor, shared a courteous and harmonious marriage, bore a pair of dragon-and-phoenix twins, and lived a simple and prosperous life.
(TLN: dragon-and-phoenix twins (龙凤胎): nice way of saying fraternal twins, specifically one boy and one girl.)
It was a life without Dao Lord Tianshu, without Xie Lanshu.
Xie Lanshu understood. This was indeed not an illusion.
It was one of the countless possibilities among the Three Thousand Million World, a life in which he and Xie Tanzhao would never meet.
TL Note: The ‘Three Thousand Million World (三千世界, short for 三千大千世界)’ refers to a precise Buddhist cosmological framework composed of three nested tiers: the Small World (小千世界), the Middle World (中千世界), and the Great World (大千世界). If you’ve read other xianxia novels, I’m sure you’ve seen the term ‘three thousand worlds’ being loosely thrown around, this is a mistranslation. 三千 does not denote the literal number 3,000; rather, it indicates three successive multiplications by a thousand.
According to ancient Indian cosmology as preserved in the Abhidharma, innumerable worlds exist. Each world is centered upon Mount Meru and surrounded by seven oceans and seven concentric rings of golden mountains.
A thousand such (small) worlds constitute a Small World system, a thousand Small World systems constitute a Middle World system, and a thousand Middle World systems constitute a Great World system. That Great World system is what is called the ‘trichiliocosm’, aka ‘a universe of a billion worlds’ (Skt. trisāhasra mahāssāhasralokadhātu; Tib. སྟོང་གསུམ་གྱི་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཁམས་).
