The story of Lin Xi and Gu Yun continued on.
Many of the memories they had shared together were gone.
Many things had changed. For instance, Gu Yun had become more cheerful and optimistic than before, and under the nourishment of spiritual energy, the side effects of Lin Xi's Ice Heart Bloodline were no longer as severe.
But many things remained the same. For example, Gu Yun was still as skilled at playing the zither and composing music as in his previous memories.
He played a piece at the banquet.
The melody was winding and melodious.
Zhong Yi recognized it instantly—it was the piece he had once written for Lin Xi, "Remembering Lin Xi."
Back then, Lin Xi had commented that the name was too rustic.
When Lin Xi pushed open the door and entered, hearing this piece, her dim eyes suddenly lit up.
She couldn't help but ask the senior brother beside her.
"This piece is...?"
"Junior Brother Gu Yun wrote it. It's quite beautiful."
"What's it called?"
"To the Moon Realm."
"What a lovely name."
A smile curled at the corner of the young girl's lips. She narrowed her eyes slightly, her body swaying gently to the melody.
...
...
Time flowed on.
Lin Xi and Gu Yun became the most dazzling newcomers of the Nine Heavens Sect.
They ate together, cultivated together, and watched the moon under the starry sky together...
In the end, they fell in love together.
...
"What wonderful times..."
Zhong Yi sighed as he gazed at the scene before him.
Just then, a sudden "beeping" sound from around him pulled him out of the beautiful memories.
"Too bad we can't watch it all bit by bit..."
Qin Li'en sighed.
The "beeping" sound came from the Twin Life Gu, which symbolized Gu Yun's heartbeat.
It meant that Gu Yun's life was nearing its end.
Qin Li'en adjusted the time flow of the dream.
Time rushed forward, faster and faster.
Countless moments of happiness flickered by in an instant.
Promises under the starry sky, weddings at the lighthouse...
...
In the blink of an eye,
Time jumped to the day the Nine Heavens Sect launched its century-dormant Ascension Plan.
On this day, the Nine Heavens Sect was bustling with noise and excitement. The entire sect stood within the grand formation of the Nine Heavens Hall.
At the center of the formation, Gu Yun and Lin Xi stood hand in hand, their gazes fixed firmly on the sky.
"Activate the formation!"
The Sect Master of the Nine Heavens Sect and the elders made themselves the heart of the formation, exhausting every effort to power it.
Countless disciples in the sect formation gleefully poured spiritual energy into it.
Beams of light illuminated the entire starry sky, turning it bright as day.
"Raise the stairs!"
The Sect Master of the Nine Heavens Sect roared.
As the Nine Heavens Grand Formation revolved, a massive, moss-covered stone staircase suddenly rose before Gu Yun and Lin Xi.
Then, one stone step after another stretched endlessly toward the distant horizon.
Like a heavenly ladder.
"Oh, quite impressive?"
Zhong Yi, watching invisibly, couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
"Nonsense—that's the Nine Heavens Grand Formation passed down from ancient times. With the current spiritual energy conditions, it can only be activated once every hundred years," Qin Li'en explained in the tone of a local guide, rolling her eyes at Zhong Yi.
After all, this world was a low-martial realm, unable to tear open spatial cracks like the great powers in reality to travel to other realms.
The Nine Heavens Grand Formation was the only means for cultivators in this world to venture beyond the Azure Blue Realm.
By invoking vast amounts of spiritual energy to power the sect formation, the heavenly staircase would rise.
Climbing the staircase upward would lead to other realms.
This time, at Gu Yun and Lin Xi's request, the Nine Heavens Sect chose the Moon Realm.
Behind them came the shouts of countless disciples.
"Go for it! Senior Brother Gu! Senior Sister Lin!"
"Get married again on the moon, hahaha!"
"I want to hear Senior Brother Gu play 'To the Moon Realm' once more on the moon!"
"You'll definitely make it to the Moon Realm!"
...
Gu Yun and Lin Xi exchanged smiles, took a deep breath,
Then, holding each other's hands, they began to ascend the stairs.
One step, two steps, three steps...
As their height increased, their breathing grew heavier.
"Every step on the Nine Heavens Celestial Stairs bears an additional sliver of pressure. This is a true heavenly ladder," Qin Li'en explained with a hint of nervousness.
"But they'll make it for sure, right?"
Zhong Yi's eyes burned with unwavering certainty.
He firmly believed that the bond between the two could level mountains, cross seas, and overcome all obstacles.
Qin Li'en fixed her gaze on the pair and nodded slightly. "Yes, for sure."
Gu Yun and Lin Xi's determination to reach the Moon Realm was terrifyingly strong.
In this memory, in just over a decade, they had already cultivated the Nine Heavens Sect's "Heaven-Stepping Art" to its peak. Otherwise, the task of ascending wouldn't have fallen to them.
The stone steps they crossed grew more and more.
The scenery around them constantly changed.
The disciples' cheers and blessings faded farther and farther into the distance.
Suddenly, Lin Xi tapped Gu Yun's shoulder.
She still wasn't much for words, but delight was unmistakable in her eyes.
Following the direction Lin Xi pointed, Gu Yun saw a lighthouse.
It was the lighthouse where they had gotten married.
In his other memories, it was also his most precious one.
Under the blue-violet night sky, the long-neglected lighthouse suddenly lit up with a beam of light.
It shot straight toward the bright moon in the sky.
Then,
A second lighthouse in the distance, a third, a fourth...
One after another, the lighthouses flared to life, as if paving a path of radiance to light their way to the Moon Realm.
"Did you do this too?"
Zhong Yi looked at Qin Li'en in surprise.
"No," Qin Li'en shook her head, visibly moved.
"But I think Old Master Gu would have wanted this..."
They looked toward the lighthouse.
The close friends and family of Gu Yun and Lin Xi were all standing inside that lighthouse, waving their arms at them.
"Old Gu, your buddy has booked every lighthouse within a hundred miles!"
Gu Yun's childhood friend, Zhang Peng, laughed heartily.
In this life, he hadn't gone bankrupt from business like in the previous memory—he had struck it rich.
"Yun... you are your mother's pride!"
A white-haired, elderly mother, supported by Gu Feng, began to tear up.
In this life, she hadn't become that stubborn, overbearing parent.
"Little brother!!"
Gu Feng, whose face was identical to Gu Yun's save for an extra touch of scholarly refinement, stood with one foot on the railing, shouting toward the heavenly staircase.
"People have their sorrows and joys, partings and reunions; the moon has its waxings and wanings, its phases of brightness and shadow. Nothing is ever perfect since ancient times."
In this life, he had survived, and had become a poet, just as he had wished.
"May we all live long! Though a thousand miles apart, we still share the beauty of the moon."
...
Both Lin Xi and Gu Yun had tears in their eyes.
They wiped each other's tears and waved toward the lighthouse.
Their resolve grew stronger, and their spiritual energy seemed more abundant.
They continued climbing, step by step.
One thousand steps, two thousand steps...
...
No one knew how many stone steps they had crossed.
They had now reached the boundary of the Azure Blue Realm.
Everything around them was pitch black.
Only the distant full moon grew larger and brighter.
The end of the stone staircase was clearly in sight.
Still...
Ten steps to go.
Just then, a sudden chime rang through the entire dream world.
[Beep.]
Gu Yun suddenly looked up, nervously gazing around.
Lin Xi took the lead, walking ahead while wiping the sweat from her forehead.
Gu Yun followed uneasily behind her.
[Drip...]
The strange chirping sound appeared once more.
Zhong Yi and Qin Li'en both furrowed their brows together.
This was the sound of the Twin Gu Worm.
It was connected to the Heart-Strengthening Gu inside the real-world Old Master Gu, and the chirping signified the old master's heartbeat.
Normally, Gu Yun in his dream should not have been able to hear sounds from the outside world.
But now, he seemed to be able to hear them.
This could only mean...
Old Master Gu was on the verge of death.
"Hang in there..."
Zhong Yi's eyes reddened as he clenched his fists.
"Hang in there!!"
[Drip...]
Gu Yun followed Lin Xi, advancing toward the Moon Realm.
At the same time, his heart raced with panic as he looked around at the empty surroundings, trying to find the source of the sound.
Fifth step.
[Drip... drip... drip...]
The sound grew clearer, and Gu Yun became even more flustered.
Third step.
[Drip....]
This time, the sound dragged on, as if it could hardly rise again.
Gu Yun's face turned pale. He clutched his chest and looked at the last two stone steps.
Second step.
[Drip.....]
The chirping this time was heavy, slow, and feeble.
Gu Yun anxiously scanned his surroundings, when suddenly he felt a chill in his palm.
Lin Xi grasped his hand and smiled gently at him.
In that instant, all the anxiety and confusion on Gu Yun's face vanished.
In their place was a radiant, joyful smile.
His entire body seemed to brim with renewed strength.
Together with Lin Xi, he crossed the last two stone steps and passed through the edge of the Moon Realm.
[Drip......]
The final chirping of the Gu worm sounded.
The entire dream world was plunged into eternal darkness.
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
