Chapter 844: Road of Heavenly Ascension

“Wait up, little friend!”

Lord Zeng quickly stood up and asked in confusion, “You’re leaving just like that? How then are you two going to escape the Xuanzhen Continent?”

Xu Que stopped in his tracks, then turned to Lord Zeng. He laughed. “Lord Zeng, who said anything about escaping? I’m just going back for the time being to cultivate in secluded meditation. Within a couple of years, I will return to take the life of that dog of an Emperor!”

Lord Zeng did not know how to respond.

Yes, Xu Que was powerful, that he would admit. However, would he be strong enough to kill the Emperor after two or three years of secluded meditation? He did not think so. Who in their right mind would believe such absurd words?

Therefore, he paid it no mind and asked instead, “Little friend, even if you’re going into secluded meditation, do you believe that there would be a place for you in the Xuanzhen Continent?” He paused and smiled wistfully. He shook his head. “You have snatched away the God-realization Tree, which would anger the Emperor for sure. The Emperor that I knew would be in no rush to kill you; he’s highly confident that he could track you down and retrieve the God-realization tree. Once you take away his Imperial Palace, however, it would be akin to you announcing to the whole world that you had humiliated him. In that case, he would use all of his power to make the entire Xuanzhen Continent hunt you down!”

“That’s nothing. When worst comes to worst, I’ll leave the Xuanzhen Continent!” Xu Que shrugged. “Lord Zeng, let me tell you something. In fact, I…came from the Four Great Continents!”

“What?” Shock overcame Lord Zeng, and he asked disbelievingly, “You came from the Four Great Continents? That’s…that’s impossible! Weren’t the Four Great Continents locked away by the shackles for several thousand years? It was about to break but then was suddenly strengthened not too long ago. How did you manage to come here?”

“We came over via the Immortal Hall.” Jiang Hongyan answered in a soft tone. With a wave of her slender hands, a miniature Ancient Bronze Hall appeared atop her palm.

Back when she came over from the Four Great Continents, the Immortal Hall had disappeared together with them. It turned out that it had entered Jiang Hongyan’s body. She could now control the entirety of the Immortal Hall like a Soulbound Weapon.

“Right after I got killed all those years ago, I was transported to the Four Great Continents using this Ancient Bronze Hall. I was born and raised on that land. When I reached the Void Training Stage, I broke the restraints within this hall and inherited the knowledge about my past life.” Jiang Hongyan murmured with a complicated expression. She seemed to recall how she had gotten killed in her past life.

“I see,” Lord Zeng nodded. His eyelids had twitched the moment he saw the Immortal Hall. He then continued, “If this Hall brought you both back here, then that’ll explain it.”

“Yo, Lord Zeng. In that case, does it mean that you too knew about the origins of the Immortal Hall?” Xu Que asked as Lord Zeng’s words had piqued his interest.

Lord Zeng nodded at first, only to shake his head the next second. With a mellow voice, he started, “To be exact, I just knew half of the origins of the Immortal Hall, no, maybe even less. We would need to begin with the Road of Heavenly Ascension.…”

In the pagoda, the Lord began to recount the origins of the Immortal Hall.

It was about 2,000 years ago. At that time, Lord Zeng was just a monk, and the Emperor was only one of the princes of the Tong Tian Nation. The year that the Road of Heavenly Ascension opened, a total of 18 entrances appeared all over the Xuanzhen Continent. All races, be it humans, demons, demonic beasts, or Heaven Orcs, all fought to enter the Road of Heavenly Ascension.

According to legend, you could find the essence on how to attain immortality at the end of the Road of Heavenly Ascension. Naturally, Sovereigns such as the young Lord Zeng and the Emperor entered too. After making it past all sorts of danger, they had finally reached the end of the Road of Heavenly Ascension. However, what stood in front of them was a stone wall that blocked their way. They had exhausted all methods, but they could not break the stone wall. The wall would absorb all the Spiritual Energy, they realized. Therefore, no matter what sort of magic arts you used on it,they would be ineffective. The only way to break it was through brute strength.

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However, none of the Physical Cultivators had made it to the end of the road. They decided to retreat and look for an adequate number of Physical Cultivators, before returning to break the stone wall. However, when they returned, the stone wall had disappeared.

“It disappeared?” Xu Que asked incredulously. Don’t tell him that it was an upgrade version of entering nowhere? That even the walls could appear and disappear at will!

“That’s right. We were sure that we had followed the same road, but for some reason, the stone wall was gone. In its place, stood an enormous palace built out of white jade.”

The Lord landed a meaningful glance on Xu Que. He chuckled. “Little friend, that would be the Imperial Palace that you snatched from the Emperor. The Imperial Palace was the white jade palace that we saw on the Road of Heavenly Ascension that day!”

“Crap! No wonder….” Xu Que finally understood. It made sense now that a palace could become a Celestial Artifact. What an incredible origin; to think that it had come from a road that led to immortality!

Suddenly, Lord Zeng turned to Jiang Hongyan and smiled. “At that time, we returned to the road with over 100 Physical Cultivators that the Emperor had brought. Since the wall was no longer there, he ordered them to move the whole palace directly. Thanks to that, we found another ancient palace suppressed underneath the white jade palace. It was the Immortal Hall with a stone coffin within it. Inside the stone coffin, laid a woman!”

“What?” Xu Que was shocked by that information and immediately looked at Jiang Hongyan. She, too, had laid within the Immortal Hall! Jiang Hongyan was also surprised and confused.

Lord Zeng did not leave them hanging and told them the truth right away. “That woman was your mother, the Empress. The Emperor had brought with him both the Imperial Palace and the Immortal Hall from the road. Not long after, a mysterious incident happened. The previous Emperor and all other princes died tragically from it, all except for the current Emperor, who became the only heir to ascend the throne. The day he took the throne, your mother woke from the stone coffin and forgot about everything. The Emperor then made her his Empress.”

The room fell silent at his words.

Xu Que needed some time to digest, while Jiang Hongyan looked dejected. She had never heard anything about the past, not even that her Mother had come from such a mysterious background. A long pause later, she asked Lord Zeng, “Why did she die after I was born?”

“Looks like you were kept in the dark all along!” Lord Zeng let out a short laugh, before shaking his head. “I’m not surprised. With Old Man Ji’s character, he would not mention these. Your mother, the Empress, isn’t dead. She simply left without a word for the Road of Heavenly Ascension, and we lost all contact with her ever since. Old Man Ji announced that she was dead for fear of losing face!”

“The few of us old men were the only ones left who knew of these truths. We just don’t talk about it, since there’s not much merit in digging up each other’s shameful pasts.”

When Lord Zeng shared about his past, he shared it calmly, like he was talking about someone else’s gossip and scandal. However, not the same could be said for Jiang Hongyan. She had just heard of an astonishing truth, that her mother from her previous life had not died. Instead, she had disappeared on the Road of Heavenly Ascension, and no one had seen her ever again.

“Hongyan, if you want to find her, I’ll go with you!” Xu Que comforted her upon seeing her expression. He took her hand into his own.

Jiang Hongyan, however, merely shook her head in disagreement. “Matters of my past life, in the end, have got little to do with the present me. Even in my past life, I had not seen her once except for when I was born. Just small, little memory remnants only tied us. She had chosen to step onto the Road of Heavenly Ascension alone, and that meant that she had put down all of her longings. Even if I went to look for her, it would be meaningless, and nothing would change.”

With these words, Jiang Hongyan looked into Xu Que’s eyes. She made a cute, light smile. “She walks on her way, and I will walk on mine. On the road that I wish to take, I only wished for you by my side!”

Xu Que beamed widely. He nodded. “Okay, I’ll listen to you. We won’t look for her on the Road of Heavenly Ascension. Let’s return to the Four Great Continents then!”

“You can’t!” Suddenly, Lord Zeng interrupted them. “Little friend, I’m afraid that both of you have no choice but to go to the Road of Heavenly Ascension!”