Exploring the Path to Immortality, Care to Learn More

At this moment, standing on the Immortal Ascension Path, Shen Qingshan looked down from above, having already merged with Shen Yang once again.

Shen Yang’s voice echoed in Shen Qingshan’s mind.

“Don’t rush. You can spend more time with your family.”

Shen Qingshan wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and spoke calmly.

“Ancestor, please let me fall into slumber.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m afraid I’ll regret it.”

“Sigh… What is love, after all…”

Shen Qingshan willingly surrendered his will, allowing Shen Yang to sink his soul into deep slumber within his body. It wasn’t just that he feared he would change his mind—it was that he couldn’t bear the excruciating pain of this farewell, a pain that had etched itself into his very bones.

A person heading to the Real World could not be understood as merely embarking on a long journey; rather, it should be viewed as a permanent parting of life and death. A long journey always holds the promise of return, but a separation of life and death means never seeing each other again.

The Immortal Ascension Path was not easy for Shen Yang either.

But he had plenty of tricks and tools at his disposal.

To put it bluntly, he was playing a bit unfairly.

During the days Shen Yang spent storming the Immortal Ascension Path, Chen Yun and Shen Jia watched from the island.

Seven-year-old Shen Jia cheered for her father every day.

“Dad! Keep it up! Dad, don’t give up! Dad, go for it!”

Chen Yun grew quieter.

Perhaps she felt a twinge of regret in her heart.

“Third Sister, you and brother-in-law will meet again for sure.”

“Can Shen Ancestor find a way back from the Real World?”

“Not necessarily, but I can bring him back.”

“Fourth Brother, don’t spout nonsense to console me.”

“Not now, but I will in the future.”

Carrying his love and longing for his wife and daughter, Shen Qingshan, now one with Shen Yang in heart and soul, completed the section of the Immortal Ascension Path in the mortal realm, entered the latter half, and set off in pursuit of the Sword Master and the Great Demon.

[Simulation Task Progress: 3/4.]

Over the following year, Chen Yi grew quite busy.

He needed to find another person to send up the Immortal Ascension Path.

Otherwise, he would have to wait two more years for Li Wentian to be awakened again.

“Li Liushui, Dragon Guard Lord! You can do it! Believe in yourself—you’re the best! Have some confidence!”

Li Liushui lay on the city wall of the imperial palace, drinking wine, and sighed as he looked down at Chen Yi, who was rambling endlessly below.

“Lord Chen Wu, you really are an oddball. You busted your ass to take us all the way up the Immortal Ascension Path, and now you don’t use it yourself. Instead, you spend your days peddling it to us Martial Saints. Don’t you know a Martial Saint can’t make it through?”

“The Sword Master succeeded!”

“A Martial Saint is a Martial Saint, and the Sword Master is the Sword Master. Besides, if I’m being blunt, the part of the Immortal Ascension Path we saw is only half of it in the mortal realm. Who knows what’s going on with the other half? The Sword Master might not even finish that stretch.”

“You don’t even have the courage to try? I despise you!”

Li Liushui threw his head back and roared with laughter.

“Hahaha! What’s so great about the Real World? How could it compare to me living it up as the Dragon Guard in this Great Qian Empire? I’ve got status, I’ve got rank, and I can drink whatever wine I want!”

Chen Yi put on a regretful face.

“A guy with as little ambition as you somehow made it to Martial Saint. If you tried just a little harder, even a Martial God couldn’t stop you!”

“Cultivating is way too exhausting. As long as my cultivation is good enough, that’s fine.”

After getting to know Li Liushui better, Chen Yi had to admit the man was a natural prodigy.

Born into the Li royal clan, a hundred and seven years old, and already a Martial Saint!

His cultivation speed rivaled Li Lingyue’s use of the Incense Path!

But being born with a silver spoon and living a life of ease meant he lacked grand ambitions and unwavering pursuits.

So his realm had stagnated at Martial Saint. To go further, raw talent alone wouldn’t cut it.

From Li Liushui’s example, Chen Yi became more certain of one thing:

“Better let Eldest Brother suffer more up in the Northern Wastelands, so he doesn’t end up like Li Liushui, pampered under my shadow.”

Chen Yi was determined to see his brother rise to the top.

Chen Yi visited every Martial Saint in the Li royal clan.

But unfortunately, they were either as unmotivated as Li Liushui or too high-ranking and swamped to break away.

So Chen Yi went to visit the various major sects.

…

“Sect Leader Wan, I see you have a remarkable bone structure—you look like you’re destined to be an Grand Emperor! How about giving the Immortal Ascension Path a try?”

“Are there braised pork ribs in the Real World?”

“Still thinking about food! Look how skinny you are!”

…

“Amitabha, Abbot. Do you believe that the Buddha you worship—he’s actually in the Real World?”

“Good sir, the Buddha has no form; He is in my heart. If I met a living Buddha, what meaning would my faith have?”

…

“Valley Master, I heard the Real World can brew elixirs of immortality! With your talent for alchemy, you’d definitely be a wanted man there!”

“Lord Chen Wu, you jest. I can barely leave my own valley. Making me walk the Immortal Ascension Path? Are you that eager to see me dead?”

…

Chen Yi scoured all the major powers, even traveling far to the Holy Lands. But every single Martial Saint lacked the courage to try.

Just as the next New Year approached and the Immortal Ascension Path was about to appear once more, a flash of inspiration struck Chen Yi.

“Right! I forgot about those two!”

Chen Yi shot straight for the Divine Weapons Bureau in Divine Weapons Prefecture.

“Lord Zhuge, the Bureau Chief!”

Chen Yi swept in like a gust of wind.

Zhuge Zhujin greeted him with a beaming smile.

“Lord Chen Wu honors my humble bureau! I knew there was a reason the magpie was chirping on the branch this morning and the well water was so clear…”

“Cut the flattery! I’m here to ask for someone—no, something—a monkey!”

“Monkey? Ah, you mean the two spirit monkeys I’ve been raising?”

“Yeah! A Four-Eyed one and a Golden-Furred one.”

“Lord Chen Wu, are you planning to take them as disciples?”

“Disciples? No, I’m sending them to the Real World!”

Chen Yi explained the origins of the Four-Eyed Spirit Monkey and the Fiery-Eyed Golden Monkey to Zhuge Zhujin, who listened in stunned amazement.

He never imagined that the two celestial meteorites he had casually picked up had actually fallen from the Real World. And those two monkeys, so extraordinary—neither demon, monster, nor mutated beast—turned out to be beings from the Real World.

“They say traveling from the Real World to the Void World is harder than ascending to heaven, almost impossible for a living person. How did these two monkeys manage to come down?”

“Look, what did you say? You called it hard for a living person to descend. But weren’t they just stones when they first came?”

“The world is vast with endless wonders—there are exceptions to everything…”

Chen Yi’s divine sense easily covered the entire Divine Weapons City. He already knew where the monkeys were.

Since they were now Zhuge Zhujin’s monkeys, Chen Yi couldn’t just snatch them away rudely. So he came to ask for his consent first.

“Since they’re from the Real World, they ought to go back. It’s just a shame to waste this year’s slot on the Immortal Ascension Path.”

“What waste? For the next hundred years, there’ll be more slots than takers. Use them as you please.”

Chen Yi found the two divine monkeys in the disciples’ courtyard of the Divine Weapons Bureau.

They still looked a bit immature at the moment.

But they were growing at lightning speed.

In previous simulations, Zhuge Zhujin had said these monkeys barely trained, yet their cultivation and realms skyrocketed—only slowing down after reaching the Martial King rank.

Chen Yi probed their current strength: both were only at the Spirit Sea Realm.

With such weak cultivation, could they even tread the Immortal Ascension Path?

“Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Maybe creatures from the Real World have some special edge to them!”