"Ascend and become an Immortal?"

The Qingfeng Sword let out a mocking laugh.

She, just like Xu Qingfeng, had never believed in that crap.

Or rather, she didn't believe that some vague, illusory ascension could be achieved just by walking a road or eating a fruit.

If that was all it took to become an Immortal, then it was far too cheap.

Yes.

Cheap.

In the Qingfeng Sword's eyes, an Immortal would never do something like "for one person's transcendence, bury the entire Immortal Domain with them."

"Tell me, if we feed Xu Lai that fruit, will he come back to life?" Ruan Tang continued to ask.

"The dead can't be brought back to life… right?"

The Qingfeng Sword's tone was anything but firm.

After all, those old bastards in the Nine Kings' Palace who should've died ten thousand times over by now—did they count as having died and come back?

Clearly they only had a million years of lifespan, yet they'd forcibly dragged it out until now.

If they didn't count, then what about that Corpse Emperor Dongfang Youming, who'd lived out a second life and forgotten his past self—did that count?

So the Qingfeng Sword simply couldn't give Ruan Tang a definite answer; after pondering for a long time, she finally said:

"It's possible."

"How big is the chance?"

"Ten percent? Maybe only five."

"Mm, got it."

Ruan Tang gathered up her hair and asked, "Do you have any low-grade Spirit Stones on you? I'm a bit hungry."

"Yeah."

The Qingfeng Sword nodded. Most of the stones in her Emperor Artifact space were Immortal-grade Spirit Stones, all stuffed in there by Xu Lai.

But they were mostly three-colored and four-colored Immortal-grade; there weren't many five-colored and above.

She didn't have low-, mid-, or high-grade stones either, but she still had a few extreme-grade and supreme-grade ones.

She first went to a Spirit Stone firm in town and exchanged some low-grade stones, then came back to the breakfast stall.

"Two bowls of porridge, please." Ruan Tang said.

"Tsk."

The Qingfeng Sword curled her lip.

A single low-grade Spirit Stone could buy this breakfast stall outright, and she only ordered two bowls of porridge?

Ruan Tang laid a pair of chopsticks horizontally across the rim of one of the bowls.

From the other bowl she ate in small, careful sips, eyes curved in a smiling crescent.

The Qingfeng Sword felt suspicious.

Ruan Tang's current state was completely different from just now.

Earlier she'd been sunk in the sort of despair where the heart is dead; now she was smiling like when she and Xu Lai had lived together in Haitang Court.

"Something's off."

Turning over their earlier conversation in her mind, the Qingfeng Sword suddenly demanded, "Don't tell me you want to step onto the White Jade Stairway and pick that Immortal Fruit for Xu Lai to eat?"

"Mm."

Ruan Tang nodded. "You said it yourself, it might bring Xu Lai back."

"I also said there's less than a five percent chance, maybe even less than that!"

"Five percent is enough."

Ruan Tang said softly, "A one in twenty chance is worth risking once."

"You're truly insane!"

The Qingfeng Sword scolded, hating the iron for not becoming steel: "Right now even those in the Emperor Realm can't make it to the end. Quasi-Emperors can only walk a little over a hundred steps; Immortal Venerables at most ten."

"With you only at early Divinity Transformation, you'll probably turn into a pool of blood the moment you set foot on the White Jade Stairway!"

"If you wait until the White Jade Stairway has crumbled to only a few dozen steps or a hundred-odd, Tian Gui Yuan Yin and the other hidden Emperor Realm experts will definitely fight over it—you won't even get a chance!"

"Give it up. The Immortal Path and the Immortal Fruit are not things we can covet."

The Qingfeng Sword tried to dispel Ruan Tang's unrealistic idea.

It wasn't like she hadn't considered plucking the Immortal Fruit at the end of the White Jade Stairway to extend Xu Lai's life. She didn't know if it would work, but it was a road.

It was just that the price of that road was far too great—so great that the current Heavenly Court didn't dare gamble on it.

Leaving aside that staking everything on the Immortal Fruit reviving Xu Lai would, in all likelihood, end in total ruin.

Even if they won the gamble, what meaning would there be in reviving Xu Lai?

Because Xu Lai—

He died for the Immortal Domain!

To save Xu Lai would mean standing by and watching Tian Gui Yuan Yin destroy the entire Immortal Domain, staining the White Jade Stairway red with the blood of untold living beings.

In that case—

Wouldn't that be putting the cart before the horse!

Ruan Tang held the little spoon, gently swirling the small amount of white porridge left in the bowl. Only after a long time did she smile and say:

"But I want to try."

Those simple five words—

Made the Qingfeng Sword Spirit's expression go distant. Xu Lai had said that sentence more than once.

Yet that man who refused to admit defeat, who wouldn't bow his head to fate, still fell in the era of the Emperor's Demise, which had been plotted across a whole reincarnation by more than a dozen Emperor Realm cultivators.

Xu Lai was clearly already dead.

Why was Ruan Tang still unwilling to give up, still trying to throw in her own life as well?

The Human Race really was a lifeform she couldn't comprehend.

The Qingfeng Sword Spirit didn't try to dissuade her any further, because Ruan Tang clearly wasn't planning to let the Heavenly Court gamble—she wanted to stake her own life.

"Forget it. When Ruan Tang is about to make a move, I'll just knock her out." the Qingfeng Sword thought silently.

After breakfast—

Ruan Tang returned to the Heavenly Court's sect gate and poured a bowl of Millennium Green wine before Xu Lai's grave.

She didn't know what Millennium Green tasted like, but Shopkeeper Liu at the restaurant treated that jar like a priceless treasure, so it probably wasn't bad.

"I want to try picking the Immortal Fruit. If you're against it, shake your head." Ruan Tang said.

"…" The Qingfeng Sword.

What the hell does she mean, "shake your head"? If Xu Lai could shake his head, would they still need to go pick the Immortal Fruit?

"Since you're not refusing, I'll take that as your consent."

As soon as Ruan Tang finished, a clear wind swept past, and the plum trees covering the mountain swayed and rustled.

Ruan Tang looked up at them for a while, but still felt they weren't as beautiful as that mountain of Haitang blossoms at Haitang Court.

Because there, there was Xu Lai, there was Yiyi, and there was Ping'an.

There—

Was home.

Ruan Tang gave Xu Lai's tombstone one last look, then got up and returned to her room to continue cultivating.

She had to try to break through to a higher boundary as quickly as possible—at the very least to the Immortal Venerable Realm.

...

...

In recent days, the Immortal Domain had been so calm it felt eerie.

Then the Heavenly Court suddenly issued a public decree, throwing the Immortal Domain into an uproar.

Because of the ten Emperor's Demise signs that had appeared from Heaven Beyond Heaven, one of them belonged to Great Emperor Qingfeng.

The other nine, however, did not include Emperor Bahuang, Great Emperor Jin Shi, or Great Emperor Jiu Feng; all of the dead were Emperor Realm cultivators from the First Era.

"The Forbidden Nine Kings Palace has been flattened."

"Dozens of Quasi-Emperors and countless Immortal Venerables became cannon fodder in the battle among the Emperor Realm."

"The Domain Master of the Eastern Immortal Domain, Fairy Qing Yuan, together with an Emperor Artifact, and an old Quasi-Emperor of the Taotie Clan, entered the Heavenly Court and jointly issued a kill-on-sight order for Great Emperor Tiangui. Whoever provides clues… will be rewarded with a Dragon Vein and one hundred thousand Immortal-grade Spirit Stones!"

"Tian Gui Yuan Yin once kept a Blue Giant Jellyfish, and for the sake of becoming an Immortal he doesn't hesitate to destroy the entire Immortal Domain. Such a Demon Emperor deserves to be slain by everyone!"

"Why did the Supreme Emperor, in the prime of his life, die? He died for all living beings of the Immortal Domain!"

"..."

In the past—

Many small and mid-level forces in the Immortal Domain, as well as loose cultivators, had held quite a bit of resentment toward the Heavenly Court for wiping out one Holy Land after another, secretly cursing the Heavenly Court's domineering ways.

But now—

As the decree personally written by Baize spread throughout the Four Immortal Domains, beings of different boundaries and different races finally understood what all of the Supreme Emperor's domineering actions in recent years had been for.

It turned out that Great Emperor Qingfeng had silently borne the life and death of the entire Immortal Domain all along, yet had never so much as mentioned a single word of it to the outside world.

"Enter the Heavenly Court, kill Yuan Ying!"

"Enter the Heavenly Court, kill Yuan Ying!"

"Enter the Heavenly Court, kill Yuan Ying!"

"..."

No one knew from which star it first began, but in a single night this six-character slogan resounded across the entire Immortal Domain.