Don't cry, look forward

【Baiyun County.】

【Outside the county town stood a well-maintained cemetery. A circle of tall snow maple trees had been planted around its perimeter. Their emerald leaves and snow-white blossoms gave the place a beauty all its own.】

【The Chen Family Cemetery.】

【This was a cemetery reserved exclusively for your Chen family, where your relatives were buried.】

【There were not many tombstones here, and you recognized almost none of the people buried beneath them. Only the grave in the center was familiar to you.】

【Chen Yun.】

【Chen Six had lived an exceptionally comfortable life in the human realm over the past several decades.】

【He had married eight wives and fathered dozens of children, turning the Chen family into a large and prosperous clan. In Baiyun County, he was practically an emperor.】

【The Chen family motto was “Strive diligently and grow rich through labor.” Not a single person in the entire family was lazy. No matter how wealthy they were, everyone used their own hands to create even more wealth.】

【The descendants of Chen Six and Chen Yun had transformed Baiyun County into Baiyun City through sheer effort.】

【You came before your third sister’s grave and lit an incense stick.】

【“Was it painful when she passed?”】

【“She died last year, at the age of ninety. She fell ill—it was probably cancer. I used magic to make sure she didn’t feel any pain.”】

【“Only a year ago… Why didn’t you refine some pills to extend her life? Then I might have been able to see her one more time.”】

【“I did. They just weren’t very effective. She was a mortal, and her body couldn’t absorb much of the medicine’s power.”】

【You believed that Chen Six had done everything in his power to save Chen Yun.】

【After all, he had spent far more time living with your third sister than you had.】

【Although feelings could not truly be measured, the bond between Chen Six and Chen Yun was indeed deeper than yours.】

【And so, what had begun as paying respects at the grave ended with you comforting Chen Six instead.】

【“All right, stop crying. Look ahead. Everyone is born, grows old, falls ill, and dies. We have to learn to accept it…”】

【“She was my own sister! The person in this world who treated me best!】

My wives married me for all sorts of reasons—some for my fame, some for my wealth, and some because I’m handsome! They all claim it’s true love, but who knows what they’re really thinking? I can’t read minds!

Only my sister truly loved me!!

My sister!!

Ah!! My sister!!”】

【Chen Six wailed inside your mind, making your head ache. In the end, you had no choice but to release him and let him cry to his heart’s content here.】

【“You should remain in the human realm.”】

【“Oh? I thought you were planning to take me with you. I feel like I’m not much use here.”】

【“If you stay here, the Black Hand seems reluctant to make a move. That way, the human realm can remain safe. You can also remind those who enter the Ascension Road to take the nine hundred and ninety-nine deadly paths, ensuring that the road continues to send talented people my way.”】

【After taking the nine hundred and ninety-nine deadly paths on the Ascension Road, one could reach Fortune Star.】

【From Fortune Star, one could take a direct shuttle to Lingwei Star.】

【If they wanted to temper themselves through experience, they could go to Firelight Star. Using Firelight Star as a stepping stone, they could travel to other planets filled with powerful experts.】

【This entire route lay within your sphere of influence, making the human race completely safe.】

【You had already paved the road ahead for every human who ascended from the human realm.】

【As long as they grew strong enough, you—the Humanity’s Dao Protector and Martial God Chen—would surely have their support with a single call to arms.】

【So although Chen Six appeared to be living an ordinary life of cooking, rice, oil, and salt in the human realm, he was actually quite important.】

【Afterward, you went to visit Da Chun.】

【“Brother Yi? You’re the real Brother Yi!”】

【Da Chun recognized at a glance that you were the true body.】

【However, when he tried to embrace you, he discovered that you were only a transparent shadow.】

【You gave a bitter smile.】

【“Da Chun, the one crying at the grave over there is also the real Brother Yi.”】

【“Da Chun knows. He’s been very good to me and to the entire Chen family. And the family rules are strict. They absolutely do not allow any scoundrels to appear among the clan. Anyone caught is punished by executing their entire family.”】

【“Is… is that so…”】

【The Chen family of today had already become very unfamiliar to you.】

【The family owned countless residences, and its businesses extended across the Five Domains.】

【The Chen family compound where you had once lived—the one where six unlucky members of the winged race had served as guards—was no longer inhabited. It had become a family attraction. The older members of the clan often brought the younger generation there to take pictures, conduct on-site lessons, and remember the hardships of the past.】

【“Da Chun, I don’t have much time left. There are still things I need to do. Stay here and be careful.”】

【“Don’t worry, Brother Yi. No one has tried to harm me all these years.”】

【“That’s because the one crying at the grave has always kept you by his side. The Black Hand doesn’t dare make a move.”】

【You said farewell to Da Chun and left Baiyun City, preparing to head to the Divine Weapon Pavilion in Divine Weapon Prefecture.】

【You did not use the authority of a Dao Protector to teleport directly, nor did you fly at full speed. Instead, you crossed the continent’s skies at an ordinary pace.】

【You released your divine sense and scanned every inch of land.】

【You made no attempt to conceal your aura, allowing your powerful presence to radiate in every direction.】

【You wondered whether this might lure out the Black Hand and expose some clue.】

【The Black Hand did not appear. Instead, Hua Wuyan came.】

【“I was wondering why such a powerful aura had appeared in the human realm again. So it was Martial God Chen. What brings you out to inspect the human realm today?”】

【Hua Wuyan thought you were Chen Six.】

【You had not told anyone that you were going to the real realm this time, so Hua Wuyan did not know that you had projected yourself back from there.】

【“I’m just out for a stroll, taking in the scenery.”】

【A trace of suspicion appeared on Hua Wuyan’s face. She felt that something about you was not quite right.】

【You changed the subject.】

【“Senior Hua, so many people from the human realm have already gone to the real realm. Are you truly not considering it? You could go there and take a look. Perhaps you might break through further, or even extend your lifespan.”】

【Hua Wuyan smiled and shook her head.】

【“You’re trying to persuade me again. I’m different from my master. I have no interest in immortality or eternal life. Life is complete precisely because it ends. To calmly accept death is also a path of the heart.”】

【The Great Demon regarded becoming an immortal and attaining eternal life as an obsession. He would never stop until he achieved his goal. Even after death, he would use unorthodox methods to force his existence to continue.】

【Hua Wuyan, on the other hand, was completely willing to accept the arrival of death.】

【In their views on life and death, this master and disciple stood at opposite extremes.】

【In fact, even if Hua Wuyan went to the real realm, extending her lifespan would be difficult.】

【For the human race, the lifespan of someone at the pinnacle of Qi Transformation—the Martial God realm—was one thousand years, regardless of whether they were in the real realm or the void realm.】

【To further increase the theoretical limit of one’s lifespan, one could only comprehend a relevant divine ability.】

【But comprehending divine abilities required reaching the Absolute Realm.】

【Between the two lay the Core Formation realm.】

【Even if Hua Wuyan went to the real realm, she likely would not have enough time to cultivate to the Absolute Realm.】

【So her decision was actually quite sensible.】

【You wandered through the human realm for a while but detected nothing unusual.】

【With no other choice, you gave up and prepared to head to the Divine Weapon Pavilion to complete the Astral Apes’ mission.】

【When you passed through the skies above the Xiaoyao Sacred Land, you discovered that God Xiaoyao was giving a lecture within the sacred land.】

【“God Xiaoyao is also a Martial God. Why hasn’t he gone to the real realm? Could it be that he still doesn’t know the Ascension Road has appeared?”】

【God Xiaoyao often stays in the Time House to extend his lifespan, so he tends to be rather behind on news from the outside world.】

【Remembering that he died fighting the Dragonkin during the Fifth Trial, and figuring he was a man of loyalty and feeling, you decided to give him a friendly heads-up.】