My Husband’s Ascension C76
Chapter 76 Extra 4
Great events had stirred the Cultivation Realm of late.
In the Western Region’s Buddhist Kingdom, a hidden blessed land within the snowfields had been discovered, said to be a sacred ground brimming with water spirit essence.
Buddhist practitioners have always possessed broad hearts and the resolve to deliver all beings. Thus, whenever a new grotto-heaven and blessed land is uncovered, they announce it to all corners of the Cultivation Realm. Whether itinerant cultivators or disciples of great sects, all are permitted to enter and explore.
The first to arrive were disciples of Polaris Confucian Sect.
Among practitioners of the Confucian Dao, most souls incline toward the water element. No sect had greater need of heavenly treasures aligned with water.
“These snow wraiths are truly troublesome.”
Snowflakes as large as goose feathers swirled through the air, carrying shards of hard ice. They whirled around the intruders who had ventured into the snowfield like countless knife blades.
Though they too possessed water-aligned spirits, the practitioners of the Confucian Dao held no advantage here. Each step was arduous, and most had already suffered their share of wounds. Meanwhile, the snow wraiths concealed within the blizzard moved as if in their natural element, slick as loaches, impossible to seize.
“Miss Immortal Lanyan! Are we to press forward?” A disciple behind them had already begun to falter.
Shi Lanyan clenched her teeth.
Under normal circumstances, she might have withdrawn. But this time was different. Polaris Confucian Sect was selecting its successor. Aside from her, there were three other candidates, one of whom was even her Dao companion.
Shi Lanyan did not harbor an unyielding ambition to inherit the sect, yet neither did she wish to concede so easily.
Just as she hesitated, a torrent of blazing fire surged from the side. The flames spiraled upward, and in an instant the snow wraiths causing havoc were trapped at the center of a blazing fire formation.
A fire formation technique?
Shi Lanyan’s brows relaxed. Following the direction from which the flames had surged, she looked through the blizzard and saw a pale azure figure standing amid the storm, upright as bamboo, bearing an otherworldly grace.
Yet the person wore a silver mask that concealed the upper half of his face, making it impossible to discern his features.
Shi Lanyan fixed her gaze upon that figure, serene as an orchid, as though she meant to bore a hole through him with her eyes.
“Miss Immortal Lanyan, earlier Senior Brother Zi Qian sent a message reminding us that there’s an especially formidable itinerant cultivator in this blessed land. Even he couldn’t gain the upper hand against him. He said that if we happen to encounter the man, it would be best not to confront him head-on.”
Shi Lanyan continued studying the figure in the wind and snow, replying coolly, “Do I need him to remind me? Tell him to get one thing straight. Even if he and I are Dao companions, we’re still rivals right now. I won’t show him the slightest mercy.”
The disciple wisely fell silent.
“…What else did Zi Qian say?” Shi Lanyan asked at last, somewhat hesitantly.
The disciple answered with a smile. “Senior Brother also said he encountered Miss Immortal Tanzhao of Cloudculm Abode. If you truly wish to win, you might consider joining forces with her. From what he observed of Miss Immortal Tanzhao’s cultivation, it seems she has already reached the fourth major realm.”
Shi Lanyan clicked her tongue inwardly.
The cultivation speed of a wood-spirit immortal embryo truly was astonishing. Since her rebirth, it had only been…less than a hundred years, no?
And she had already reached the fourth major realm?
The snowfield blessed land was vast; the chances of them encountering one another were uncertain. Shi Lanyan watched the pale azure figure vanish into a valley between the snowy peaks. After a moment’s deliberation, she quietly cast a minor spell known as the Spirit-Binding Cage (缚灵牢).
As expected, the other party reacted swiftly. In the blink of an eye he formed a seal and shattered her ambush.
What he had not anticipated was that the Spirit-Binding Cage was merely a feint. Shi Lanyan condensed her brush into a keen edge and flung the ritual implement in her hand. It skimmed past the edge of his mask.
Crack.
The pale azure figure turned aside to evade the strike, but the silver mask upon his face shattered abruptly, revealing the countenance hidden beneath.
Shi Lanyan’s breath halted. “…Tianshu?”
The wind and snow roared about them. Those features—when unsmiling, colder than the storm sweeping these mountains, yet when smiling, gentle as a spring breeze—were unmistakably those of Dao Lord Tianshu, who should have perished beneath Mount Ling a hundred years ago.
Shi Lanyan had known him since childhood. Though this face could not be said to match Dao Lord Tianshu perfectly, it was at least eighty percent alike. Coupled with that austere, jade-like bearing—
There was no possibility she could be mistaken. This was Tianshu.
“How could you—”
“Miss Immortal has mistaken me for someone else. I am not Tianshu.” He interrupted Shi Lanyan calmly, as though he had already abandoned any intention of entering the valley alongside her, and turned to leave.
…Not Tianshu? How could that be? If he truly were not Tianshu, how could he react with such composure?
“I grew up with you since childhood. Even if half your face were covered, I would still recognize you. Even if only your eyes were showing, I would never mistake them. How could you not be Tianshu? How did you come back to life? Who else knows about your return? Xie Tanzhao, does she—”
Shi Lanyan tried to press him further, but a tongue of flame licked past the hem of her robe. The sudden heat forced her to draw back the step she had just taken.
The fire formation that had trapped the snow wraiths had already been withdrawn. Those troublesome creatures were about to swarm the entrance to the valley once more.
“Miss Immortal Lanyan!”
The disciple beside her urged her on. If they did not enter the valley now, forcing their way in later would require far greater effort.
Since the matter concerned the succession, Shi Lanyan hesitated for quite some time before reluctantly withdrawing her gaze from that pale azure figure’s retreating back.
He would surely remain within the blessed land for some time yet. Once she had completed this task, it would not be too late to pursue him and demand an explanation.
After sensing that the female cultivator and the disciples she led had entered the valley, Xie Zhu took out another mask.
This face of his truly did resemble that person.
As for when he first learned that he bore a striking resemblance to the legendary Dao Lord Tianshu—it dated back a hundred years, when he had first stepped into the Cultivation Realm.
At that time, Xie Zhu was fifteen. Having finally saved enough travel money to journey to the Cultivation Realm, he crossed countless mountains and rivers along the way.
Because he did not know the realm’s exact location, he spent half a year searching, taking many detours before he finally found it. After that, it took him another three months to reach the place where Cloudculm Abode stood.
Yet he did not pass Cloudculm Abode’s entrance examination.
“Your soul is incomplete, and your attribute is indeterminate. I’m sorry, but according to the admission standards, one must possess a wood or metal soul attribute to enter the sect. Our Cloudculm Abode may not be suitable for you, fellow daoist.”
The words were phrased politely, but the truth was that no sect would accept someone with an indeterminate attribute as a disciple. Most such people possessed mixed or flawed souls and found cultivation nearly impossible.
However, one female cultivator who had been overseeing the examination studied him for quite some time. Out of kindness, she pointed out several small blessed lands suited for itinerant cultivators to practice on their own. If he still refused to give up, he could try seeking opportunities there.
Xie Zhu thanked her and was about to depart when she suddenly asked, “Forgive my boldness, but do you happen to have an elder brother? Or perhaps your father? Sorry, but you look very much like a man who once saved my life when I was little. Everyone says he died, yet our sect master has been searching for him all this time…”
At the mention of Cloudculm Abode’s sect master, Xie Zhu halted.
Through this female cultivator named Xiao Xiao, Xie Zhu came to learn many things concerning Xie Tanzhao.
So it turned out that she does not have a husband. The Xie Lanshu who had once returned with her to Yunmeng Pier was not the real Xie Lanshu at all.
The real one was known throughout the Cultivation Realm as Dao Lord Tianshu. He had once been the sect master of Immortal Realm of Kunwu, and the Dao Lord who held authority over the entire Cultivation Realm.
Everyone in the Cultivation Realm knew that he and the sect master of Cloudculm Abode had once been a pair bound in bitterness.
For the sake of his own Dao path, he had abandoned his wife. Later, after a sudden awakening, he fell into demonic corruption and exhausted every possible means to bring her back to life. In the end, to protect the disciples of her sect, he perished amid the sect’s great calamity.
Xiao Xiao was the little girl whom Xie Lanshu had saved during that catastrophe.
After finishing her story, Xiao Xiao stared at his face for a long, long while.
“You really don’t have an elder brother? You look a little younger, but you truly resemble him far too much…”
“No.” Xie Zhu’s throat felt dry. He licked his lips and replied indifferently, “I have nothing to do with him.”
From then until now, a hundred years had passed without his noticing.
Xie Zhu gazed at the mask in his hand, momentarily lost in thought.
He had also tried his luck at other sects. Yet each time he was turned away at the gate for the same reason: his soul was incomplete, and its attribute could not be determined.
So he had no choice but to wander the realms as an itinerant cultivator. By chance and effort, he managed to learn the basics of cultivation, and after decades of trials and hardships within blessed lands, he gradually mastered the Daoist arts of talismans, seals, and other techniques.
Yet swordsmanship remained an exception. Though he could comprehend the sword manuals, he had never been able to find a suitable spiritual sword.
It was said that Dao Lord Tianshu had once been the foremost sword cultivator of the age.
After learning this, Xie Zhu no longer sought a spiritual sword. His aptitude for other Daoist arts was considerable; even without wielding a sword, a century of cultivation had brought him to the twelfth stage of the Grand Primordium Dao, one step shy of breaking through to the next realm.
For his age in cultivation, he could rightfully be called a prodigy.
Yet it was still not enough.
Miss Immortal Tanzhao had now reached the fourth major realm. He would need to push himself further if he hoped to stand beside her as an equal.
Gliding on the wind over a snow-capped mountain, the sunrise caught the peak in golden light. From the canyon below drifted a scattering of pale pink petals.
Peach blossoms.
In a place as frigid as this snowbound peak, where could peach blossoms possibly come from?
Xie Zhu probed carefully and sensed an unusual surge of spirit energy emanating from above.
At the same time, Zhao Zhao, moving through the canyon below, also noticed something strange about the peach blossoms on this snowbound peak.
She had been ascending from the depths of the snowfield, intending to locate the legendary Water-Wood Azure Lotus, which thrived in areas rich with water spirit essence. Last time, Yao Ling had ventured into a blessed land and been bitten by a nine-headed serpent; the lingering poison had yet to be purged, and the lotus was needed for medicine.
Yet before she could find the Water-Wood Azure Lotus, she found herself ensnared by the peach blossom yao of the mountain.
“Peach trees in full bloom… brilliant in their glory… the child returns… a fitting match for the household…”
From amidst the overlapping shadows of the trees drifted a girl’s clear, sweet singing.
The pale pink petals hung heavy on the branches, bending them under their weight. A gust of wind scattered the blossoms across the snow, blanketing the ground in pink and white.
“Do you think my flowers are beautiful?”
Zhao Zhao made several attempts to leave, but every attempt brought her back to her starting point. She settled among the scattered petals and looked up at the flowering tree overhead. “Do you know where the Water-Wood Azure Lotus is?”
The peach blossom yao replied, “You must think my flowers are lovely, don’t you?”
“I am here to find the Water-Wood Azure Lotus. Tell me where it is, and I will take it and leave. I will not harm you,” Zhao Zhao said.
The peach blossom yao, utterly lost in its own world, answered without addressing her question, “You are beautiful as well, human wood-spirit cultivator. Surely you understand—the more beautiful a flower, the more precious the fertilizer it requires… and you are perfectly suited to be that precious fertilizer.”
Zhao Zhao let out a sigh. It seemed a fight was inevitable before the yao would heed her words.
Sensing Zhao Zhao’s killing intent, the soft-voiced peach blossom yao reacted with astonishing speed.
A sudden gale tore up from the ground, swirling petals into the air. Once delicate, the blossoms had become sharp as blades, countless in number, surging toward Zhao Zhao.
She condensed her spiritual energy, deflecting most of the petals.
Yet there were simply too many. Some slipped past her defenses, severing the strap of her Single Intent Sword at her waist. Zhao Zhao’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Clang—!
She had only intended to retrieve her Single Intent Sword, nearly stolen by the peach blossom yao, yet to her surprise, the long-slumbering sword suddenly sprang free from its sheath.
Before she could even register her shock, Zhao Zhao swung her arm back, deflecting another wave of falling petals that descended from behind.
She did not wield a sword often, but she was by no means unskilled.
Against these peach blossoms, a weapon like the Single Intent Sword proved far more effective.
Zhao Zhao cut through several branches of the peach tree, and through the chaotic shower of petals, she caught sight of a figure. Without hesitation, she assumed it was the peach blossom yao itself and thrust her sword toward the figure’s forehead.
The figure was forced back a few steps by the weight of her spiritual pressure, stumbling to the ground. The branch of peach blossoms he held deflected the sword’s edge just slightly.
The sword plunged into the flower-laden snow, brushing against a few strands of his black hair.
Almost simultaneously, several vines erupted from the ground, wrapping around Zhao Zhao and pinning her to the figure beneath. Even her neck was slightly constricted, causing the young man under her to furrow his brow. A faint flush of struggle colored his cold, pale face beneath the mask.
“Who are you?” Zhao Zhao’s gaze did not waver. She stared at the face beneath the mask in stunned silence.
The image etched deep within her memory could be recognized at a glance, even if only a pair of eyes or the contour of a jaw were visible in a crowd.
The person pinned beneath her was slender, still bearing the physique of a youth.
But Zhao Zhao would not be mistaken.
Though tightly bound and his breathing growing labored, he felt a subtle, almost intricate pleasure ripple through him, wrapping snugly around his heart.
“I am Xie Zhu.”
“The one who followed you across everything to pursue you.”
